Project Discovery II

[Hispa]

From a post of T. Neo in the thread Long Duration Deep space Vessel, I took the idea of build the ship shown in NASA document. This is the state of the art in this moment:

Forward view of the ship. Still no textures, but the mesh is almost finished. I've to model the bow docking port with is hatch to be later animated.

Rear view.

Virtual cockpit. I simulated it with spacecraft3 to test the MFD screens, but I pretend to code a custom dll. It was hard to learn how to make these damned screens and HUD. Cockpit textures are also in progress.

 

[mc_]

Maybe, MFD's should be larger and/or closer to each other?

 

[Moach]

wow! awesome!

nice to have an interplanetary vessel with a VC, specially a custom one :thumbup: -- may i suggest at least 4 of them? (it really helps)


another thing i'd advise, perhaps make the main windows a bit smaller - it'll look more reallistic that way :hmm: - but just a thought, she's looking awesome, anyways!

keep it up, and may the be with you!

 

[Hispa]

Closer MFD's, smaller cockpit windows, some dummy provisional decoration.

 

[Urwumpe]

Closer MFD's, smaller cockpit windows, some dummy provisional decoration.

Looks pretty good, but I would make the two MFDs at the sides even larger - there is a lot of space. The lower MFD on the space between the windows looks not very ergonomic, I would remove it, tilt the surface up a bit, and put an old-school C&W matrix there. The display on top should be better be turned into some panels with less critical push buttons - in normal zero-G neutral posture, the normal astronauts line of sight would be 25° downward compared to what you have at 1 G, so this part of the cockpit would be pretty tiring to use.

Since this spacecraft will be in deep-space without any visual references, I recommend using colors at the walls for pretending a normal Earth horizon, making the "floor" brown or khaki, and making the ceiling sky blue.

Seats wouldn't be needed, but lots and lots of Velcro... and of course, you need a big menacing red light in the center of the panel.

 

[Wishbone]

Considering how large it is, does it need a stick? Also, is there any need in a translational hand controller, Shuttle-style?

EDIT: if I remember correctly, vicinities of Jupiter and Saturn are saturated with radiation. Does polyethylene layer have to be outside or inside the pressurised shell?

 

[T.Neo]

I think outside is better, so it is able to stop radiation before it hits heavier elements upon which it can spall and create dangerous secondary radiation.

Jupiter is pretty nasty in terms of radiation but Saturn is far better, due to the clearing properties of the rings and moons.

 

[Hispa]

I think (based in the document) that this ship is a kind of "ultralight" spacecraft, made with all kind of light materials to save weight. The astronauts of this ship must spend a third of their time in their specially shelded restrooms, in the artificial gravity modules.

 

[Hispa]

One of our spy satellites passed close to the new Discovery II ship that is being builded in low Earth orbit. This is a low-quality video it tooks before it was destroyed:

Seems they already activated the artificial gravity modules and finished to paint the hull and radiators.

 

[Aeadar]

Looks real nice, Hispa.:thumbup:

Is it going to be UMMU compatable like Longshot?





:hail:

 

[Hispa]

Looks real nice, Hispa.:thumbup:

Is it going to be UMMU compatable like Longshot?





:hail:

Of course! And UCGO too.

 

[Aeadar]

Of course! And UCGO too.

YES!! Can't wait.

Just a thought: While I appreciate a good VC, there are times when a good 2D panel, like that of the ShuttleA, or the DGEX, can be indispensable. I, for example, prefer to throttle up & down when doing burns rather than the instant, full on or off control using the Numberpad + key. Unfortunately, without a 'detented' throttle as on the mentioned panels, I too often find myself having to fiddle around trying to null all pro and retrograde thrust. That, and I really do like the look of those two panels, especially the ShuttleA one, that one is wickedly cool. I like the idea of a 'green-lit' cockpit, or red-lit like the Dragonfly cockpit.

Anyway, thank you Hispa, for Longshot, for Discovery II(can't wait), and my other favorite DSV, the Cosmos(any chance of upgrading that to UMMU?).




:hail:

 

[Izack]

YES!! Can't wait.

Just a thought: While I appreciate a good VC, there are times when a good 2D panel, like that of the ShuttleA, or the DGEX, can be indispensable. I, for example, prefer to throttle up & down when doing burns rather than the instant, full on or off control using the Numberpad + key. Unfortunately, without a 'detented' throttle as on the mentioned panels, I too often find myself having to fiddle around trying to null all pro and retrograde thrust. That, and I really do like the look of those two panels, especially the ShuttleA one, that one is wickedly cool. I like the idea of a 'green-lit' cockpit, or red-lit like the Dragonfly cockpit.

Anyway, thank you Hispa, for Longshot, for Discovery II(can't wait), and my other favorite DSV, the Cosmos(any chance of upgrading that to UMMU?).




:hail:

Seconded. As much as I like a good VC, the best method for controlling a ship (especially a large one) is through a control panel. Have you used the Exploreur? That was an excellent system.

 

[Aeadar]

I think I tried Exploreur a couple years back, but had no luck with it (CTDs probably, I don't remember), so I went back to Cosmos & James Cook. I'll have to give Exploreur another try and see how it does with 2010P1. Thanks Izack.





:hail:

 

[Mindblast]

I, for example, prefer to throttle up & down when doing burns rather than the instant, full on or off control using the Numberpad + key. Unfortunately, without a 'detented' throttle as on the mentioned panels, I too often find myself having to fiddle around trying to null all pro and retrograde thrust.

You can use CTRL - NUMPAD+/- to finetune thrust and NUMPAD* to cut the engines. I often use that for circularizing orbits or when i want to raise/lower apoapsis/periapsis to an exact value.
I guess this won't be needed for this ship though, from the paper it should have a max acceleration of 1.68 mG with full propellant tanks.

 

[Aeadar]

You can use CTRL - NUMPAD+/- to finetune thrust and NUMPAD* to cut the engines.

Well, that's kinda what I meant. Using CTRL- NUMPAD +/_ to throttle down at the end of a burn, because there's no 'detent' at the 'zero' thrust position, I invariably go into retro thrust and have to bring it back up. And some ships are very hard to zero thrust using that method. I much prefer the 'detented' throttle on most 2D panels.

edit: Ooo, I just noticed the NUMPAD * to cut engines. Four years I've been playing Orbiter. Think I woulda figured that one out by now!


:hail:

 

[Graham2001]

Looks very good,

If you are looking for more information. I posted a request thread about this one last year. It links to some documents on the NTRS that might be helpful

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=11392

 

[Hispa]

Hi again, guys! Here's the actual status of Discovery II building:

Finished antennas sections (upper and lower, prepared to be animated).

Forward docking port exterior fairing, also to be animated...

Something like this. It's not finished yet.

See you soon...

 

[Hispa]

Some work on the front hatch:

Complete airlock set.

Detail of animated section (hatch).

Rotation movement closing the hatch...

Extension movement to finally close the hatch.

Integration on the ship.

---------- Post added 29-09-10 at 12:54 ---------- Previous post was 28-09-10 at 19:52 ----------

Look the idea I had when taking my breakfast this morning: I'm going to change the camera view point when the airlock animation is active (opening or closing), to see the animation from inside the airlock, and when finished, I'm going to restore the camera back to control deck.

Mu-ahahahaha! XD

---------- Post added at 17:03 ---------- Previous post was at 12:54 ----------

A preliminary in-game demonstration of airlock camera. Sorry, still no textures except for the hatch.

---------- Post added at 22:21 ---------- Previous post was at 17:03 ----------

I simulated today the animation for airlock hatch with spacecraft3, and it works fine. It woth to see the space from inside the airlock (no images yet, I'm sorry, but it's late and I'm tired). Texturing is becoming a nightmare for me, but I'll do what I can. I hope to show you a video with the animation in the next days.

 

[Hispa]

As I promised, here's a demonstration video of airlock hatch animation. It's running over spacecraft3 module, just to test it before coding its own module.