HG Wells War of Worlds add-on

[Urwumpe]

Based on the discussion here: http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=22957#post22957

I think the idea is too good for letting it simply die like that... so here is my request.

I think firing a projectile from Mars surface to Earth is indeed possible, but you need accurate timing and knowledge how drag affects the trajectory. When you don't use one gun, but a line of guns, you could fire multiple projectiles in one sequence.

You could cheat by giving the projectile some fuel capacity for course corrections - this way, you could correct our not perfect knowledge of the gravity fields.

When using a very high velocity, you could also use an accelerated transfer, so very short travel is possible, but not easy. Landing will be pretty hard for human standards - but soft compared to the launch by a cannon.

 

[Andy44]

Althought the novel is pretty short on believable physics, it is theoretically possible to launch a projectile from Mars to Earth. One has to use a fair amount of handwavium to imagine the Martians have a means of suspending the occupants and their equipment so that they can withstand the accelerations, fortunately Orbiter doesn't have to care about this, either, it's the perfect platform for simulating this mission.

The problem of firing the vehicles from a gun and using propulsive systems to do course correction has been discussed, but we also have to think about giving the re-entry vehicles some form of aerodynamic lift so they can control their entry and landing. At the enormous velocities involved in such a fast transfer, it may be necessary for such a vehicle to use significant negative lift just to hang on to the planet and avoid arcing back into space.

The projectile/vehicle could be done with sc3, and the triad of war machines could also be sc3 payloads, although if you want a cool-looking heat ray you'd need a custom dll. The hover machines from the 1950's film would be cool, I think I will jump on Anim8or and give the mesh a shot, it seems to me to be the most sinister and terrifying version:

 

[Woo482]

LOL!! the top of that hover thing Looks Like a lamp post

 

[spcefrk]

Could you fire a projectile with a low enough dV difference between that of Mars that it takes a couple of centuries to degrade the orbit to earth's? In that case couldn't you live with a lot less aerobraking?

 

[Urwumpe]

Could you fire a projectile with a low enough dV difference between that of Mars that it takes a couple of centuries to degrade the orbit to earth's? In that case couldn't you live with a lot less aerobraking?

You would need at least to reach the Weak stability boundary at the mars L1. And lower your orbit from the Earth-Moon-WSB to Earth. Just a shot at Earth is really simple.

 

[legios]

LOL!! the top of that hover thing Looks Like a lamp post

Thank you for making me realize how old I am. The hover thing is one of the martians from the classic War of the Worlds movie. It came out before I was born, but I've must of seen it like 100 times on saturday morning tv.

 

[Andy44]

Okay, just did a little experiment. Using a PB launched from Olympus base in the heliocentric direction with unlimited, fuel, it appears you need about 6.7 to 7 km/s just to reach Mars escape and then inject into a Hohmann transfer to Earth, for faster transfers you have to pile on more muzzle velocity. Olympus isn't exactly at the Martian equator, so the launch was at an angle other than vertical, too. Should be an interesting problem.

 

[Andy44]

That "lamp post" thing scared the ever living daylights out of me when I was little; for a long time I was suspicious of every streetlamp I saw.

 

[Ghostrider]

Althought the novel is pretty short on believable physics

WHAT???
Darn, that's why my Heat-Ray doesn't work, then!

 

[Urwumpe]

Okay, just did a little experiment. Using a PB launched from Olympus base in the heliocentric direction with unlimited, fuel, it appears you need about 6.7 to 7 km/s just to reach Mars escape and then inject into a Hohmann transfer to Earth, for faster transfers you have to pile on more muzzle velocity. Olympus isn't exactly at the Martian equator, so the launch was at an angle other than vertical, too. Should be an interesting problem.

Well, according to the theory, all possible trajectories from mars surface to earth should form a "locus"... or, with better words: in a pretty large region of mars, there should be a launch window time for each position, with the same dV requirements.

 

[Andy44]

Yes, but I was trying to keep it simple by setting my HUD to "orbit" mode with the Sun as reference, and waiting for the planet to turn until the heliocentric retro-grade marker was almost directly overhead, and then just launching straight up. You take a big hit from gravity losses doing it this way, but I think it's easier to do seat-of-the-pants.

 

[Andy44]

Well, this is starting off well, but it's a complex-curved shape and it may take some doing to get it to look smooth enough. According the source materials on the web, the models in the film were made from copper sheet. The model-makers certainly did a fine job with the sculpted design.

 

[Andy44]

Finally getting somewhere:

After I built the heat ray head and looked at it from head-on I got creeped out. Every scene in the movie shows it from that angle right before somebody gets fried. What a great creepy machine they built for this.

Does anyone know why some faces in Anim8or have that discoloration?

 

[Urwumpe]

Does anyone know why some faces in Anim8or have that discoloration?

Possibly problems with the normals, coming from not correctly merged vertices. I would mass select each point of the polygon (and the closest region around it) and make merge point, to fix it.

 

[Andy44]

The stuff of nightmares continues to be constructed:

I think it looks pretty good, but I still have that discoloration problem with some faces. I'm hoping the mesh conversion will iron it out, but I think it will probably remain a problem:

 

[dougkeenan]

Ahhhh! Run for your lives!!!!

 

[Hartmann]

I want a tripod for mars exploration... better than a mars rover.

 

[Andy44]

The vehicle technically is a tripod; but uses three "antigrav legs" emitted from the 3 green circles on the belly instead of 3 mechanical legs. Technically, it's more like a hovercraft. Once I'm ready I will probably use spacecraft3 to get it running, but if anyone wants to join the Conquer All Humans Project and build a custom dll, feel free! With sc3 I won't be able to have a working heat ray or wingtip blasters, and there won't be anything to keep the hover jets from flying higher than the antigravs would allow. I'm not sure, but I think you can change sound effects with sc3, if so it will have the cool 1950's sci fi sounds when moving.

I know the 1953 special effects seem cheesy, now, but they scared the daylights out of me when I was little, and even now this version of the Martian war machine is the most creepy, the most alien. Imagine if the 2005 film had had these things in it with modern effects. The second half of this video is when the Martians really cut loose. Look at them tearing apart the city near the end of the clip, these things rock!

 

[n0mad23]

Andy44,

It's obvious that you're having a lot of fun with this one! I'm delighted you followed the impulse, and I can imagine the reactions I'm going to have when playing with it.

Deep levels of buried childhood fear bubbling to the surface again.

Like you, the heat ray head (designed to look serpent like?) scared the hell out of me.

You've really recaptured it here!

Shudder.....

 

[tblaxland]

[2 cents]
On aerodynamics, if this thing has anti-gravity, perhaps it would have the technology to generate a nice sleek Sears-Haack shaped force field around itself for supersonic flight? It could help with your launch drag.
[/2 cents]