Hello,
I am practising docking maneuver of the Canadarm with Dragon lately for my school's Science and Maths fair. However, I find it difficult to dock the Arm with Dragon as seen in videos.
In most videos, like those released from SpaceX and NASA, Dragon approaches the Arm and stops at a fixed distance from it. Then, the Arm simply extends in one plane/dimension. that is forward (no rotation, I suppose.) And Capture Is Confirmed. That sounds easy.
But when I try out several times, I find it hard to maintain Dragon at that fixed distance and allow Canadarm to capture it. Any trick or autopilot functions/add-ons that I miss out?
Also, typical Dragon launches from BrianJ's CRS missions that are included in his Falcon9R 1.2 add-on sets the ISS to an orbiting altitude of over 410 km whereas the Falcon 9 autopilot launch altitude target is only some 330 km. (Or maybe it is my computer problem, not BrianJ's fault.) In order to dock with the ISS, I need to raise my orbit by some 60-70 km, which consumes a lot of fuel. I don't think ISS orbits Earth at some 410 km in real world. Then, why my scenario always place ISS at some 410 km? how to rectify it?
I am using the original ISS add-on that comes with the standard Orbiter distribution, not add-ons like ISS 3.2 or ISS AtoZ.
The third problem concerns with the missing Mobile Base System and Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator on my ISS. This means one end of my Canadarm will be fixed and I can only move the other end freely to capture Dragon. I cannot find any modules or .dll files with the names mentioned above. Am I missing them?
Thanks for your concern over a young inexperienced orbinaut like me.
Regards,
Nicholas.
I am practising docking maneuver of the Canadarm with Dragon lately for my school's Science and Maths fair. However, I find it difficult to dock the Arm with Dragon as seen in videos.
In most videos, like those released from SpaceX and NASA, Dragon approaches the Arm and stops at a fixed distance from it. Then, the Arm simply extends in one plane/dimension. that is forward (no rotation, I suppose.) And Capture Is Confirmed. That sounds easy.
But when I try out several times, I find it hard to maintain Dragon at that fixed distance and allow Canadarm to capture it. Any trick or autopilot functions/add-ons that I miss out?
Also, typical Dragon launches from BrianJ's CRS missions that are included in his Falcon9R 1.2 add-on sets the ISS to an orbiting altitude of over 410 km whereas the Falcon 9 autopilot launch altitude target is only some 330 km. (Or maybe it is my computer problem, not BrianJ's fault.) In order to dock with the ISS, I need to raise my orbit by some 60-70 km, which consumes a lot of fuel. I don't think ISS orbits Earth at some 410 km in real world. Then, why my scenario always place ISS at some 410 km? how to rectify it?
I am using the original ISS add-on that comes with the standard Orbiter distribution, not add-ons like ISS 3.2 or ISS AtoZ.
The third problem concerns with the missing Mobile Base System and Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator on my ISS. This means one end of my Canadarm will be fixed and I can only move the other end freely to capture Dragon. I cannot find any modules or .dll files with the names mentioned above. Am I missing them?
Thanks for your concern over a young inexperienced orbinaut like me.
Regards,
Nicholas.