Tutorial From ground, reach ISS and dock in 1h30: a 1G Tutorial... and a challenge!

Boxx

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Hi, there! Please find a commented flight from Kourou (French Guyana) to ISS, and docking, in 1h30.

The fun part is a 50-mn phase at 1G strictly, meaning a normal weight feeling for the crew! It demonstrates a new way at piloting and it is also a tutorial, with many comments (and no needs extra tools), for anyone who wants to explore this "art" of piloting! Feedback welcome, of course, and if you want to try, ask your questions and post your playback.

Installation:
  1. unzip the subfolder "toISS@1G" into Orbiter's folder Flights
  2. unzip the file "[email protected]" into Orbiter's folder Scenarios
  3. in Orbiter Launchpad > Parameters, uncheck the box "Limited fuel" (*)

Also ready for a challenge? I can merge a collective scenario: up to 4 spacecrafts taking off from various spaceports and joining to ISS (docks 1 to 4) on the same day. Requirements:
  • depart and arrive on the same day, i.e. 13-JAN-2027
  • use my own ISS files (in the playback) as propagations may differ by a few meters and we could miss the docking port when agregating the playbacks!
  • don't kill the crew with crazy accelerations, keep 1G most of the time. Don't make the crew sick, neither, with constant burns and stops. I am preparing a post-flight analysis to monitor these aspects :) for discussions here...

Hopefully you'll have fun.

(*) Too unrealistic for you? The topic is discussed here in the forum. Indeed, 1G-Piloting assumes a new kind of engines but let's test the concept first (with you, I hope).
 

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Boxx

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Here is a DeltaGlider BX02 taking off from Edwards and joining the first Glider at the ISS, in ~2h30 with 1G-flying techniques. Both flights are recorded together, along with an extended tutorial:
  • Both ships BOXX and BX02 take off at ~09:45.
  • Ship BOXX ends her 1G-thrust at 10:38 for final approach. She docks at 11:04.
  • Ship BX02 ends her 1G-thrust at 12:15 and docks at 12:33.
Screenshot shows BX02 in ISS' docking channel #2, with BOXX already docked there at dock #1.
 

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Boxx

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And here is the analysis of the "felt" accelerations for both ships on the same time scale:
CoM_Accelerations.png

That's the norm of the acceleration (10^0 = 1g) of the center of mass of the ships. "Felt" acceleration means that all gravitational contributions have been removed, i.e. that's the acceleration that the structure and the crew experience actually. The analysis on each axis and depending on the rotations is still to be done.
 
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Boxx

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Still worrying about the pilot's feeling, here is a thorough analysis of the accelerations felt on each axis by the crew in the above scenario.

First with BOXX vessel, soon after take off, the peak at 5.3G along up/down axis is due to the rotation to climb at high altitude. Then, at 09:50, the 2.2G along back/front axis corresponds to the full thrust while flying out of the atmosphere and before decreasing engine throttle down to 1G for the rest of the flight. Then, to be noted at 10:40, the multiple negative -0.5G back/front are the retro-thrust, alternated with small forward burst, that I applied to adjust my velocity with ISS while approaching. The final approach and docking was performed at ~0G (weightless).
BOXX.png

5.3G is already something, even if it lasts only a few seconds (just to rotate and transfer the weight to back/front axis)!!! My pilot should be a well-trained pilot...

Now let's have a look at the chaotic try by the BX02 vessel:

BX02.png

We've got a 4G bump up/down at the initial rotation, again. Then, soon after 10:00, there was an incident: I did not care of a sudden re-entry in the atmosphere while I thought I was still circularizing my orbit. It resulted in a heavy shock on the top of the atmosphere and, worst, I was not flying horizontally but partially on the side. Fatal consequencies: 11.5G shock on my shoulders, 4G on the left side and a push forward (negative back/front). In one word: the crew is dead, most likely with the heart detached from the aorta after the famous black veil! The rest of the fly is, then, fully misleading..............

This is an example where it is so important to monitor the felt acceleration in Orbiter! By the way, if you want an analysis of your own recorded flight, just PM the .pos and .att files, I will process them with my tools. Cheers!
 
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