IFP Project: Interplanetary Flight Planner

[Arrowstar]

Me too. Looks great!

 

[tblaxland]

Since GMAT is open source, it makes me wonder if there is a possibility of interfacing it with Orbiter in some fashion.

 

[jarmonik]

I just checked out the program you mentioned the GMAT and the first impression was not very good. At least the graphical plots of sample missions did not work very well.

 

[jarmonik]

Since GMAT is open source, it makes me wonder if there is a possibility of interfacing it with Orbiter in some fashion.

Being an open source application doesn't make a difference in either direction. But I suppose it's possible but is there a need to do that ?

But anyway I still need to figure out what GMAT is all about ? Maybe reading a manual at first might help.

 

[tblaxland]

Being an open source application doesn't make a difference in either direction. But I suppose it's possible but is there a need to do that ?

But anyway I still need to figure out what GMAT is all about ? Maybe reading a manual at first might help.

Yeah, I haven't looked at it in any detail myself but it just seems that GMAT and IFP/cflight are trying to acheive similar goals. Perhaps there is no real need to use GMAT given we know from IMFD what you are capable of. Equally, maybe there is something to be used and/or learned from GMAT (even if it is mistakes you learn from!) rather using it outright. Your call because its your addon. All that said, I like the direction your project is heading (IMFD on steroids!) so don't let me sidetrack you

 

[Zachstar]

Im not talking about some kind of GMAT integration into your program. I just think that some of its ideas and features could be "Useful" for your tool.

For instance the ability to find lunar L2 transfers is EXTREMELY useful in my view. As it allows you to find your own stuff rather than relying on stuff you get from NASA which is often meant more for PR purposes than actually being used. Or so insanely complicated that you have no idea how to plug it in.

 

[jarmonik]

Progress

I have made some progress with CFlight/IFP binding but there is still a lot to do. Most of the features of CFlight is still off-line and haven't even debugged them yet. The first few tests looks good so far.

Currently CFlight seems to run 160'000 - 50'000 legs, steps or frames per a second witch ever you prefer. I still need to implement some kind of mean orbital elements solution for all objects those are controlled by ephemerides in order to allow a better management of multible level of precision. It doesn't need to have high accuracy but the deviation to ephemerides must remain with-in a certain limits during a long period of time say 50 years.

A computation of typical free-return trajectory requires about 100-200 steps. So, it allows to compute about 700 lunar transfer trajectories per a second. It seems that cflight can do that it is designed to do.

 

[tblaxland]

I have made some progress with CFlight/IFP binding but there is still a lot to do. Most of the features of CFlight is still off-line and haven't even debugged them yet. The first few tests looks good so far.

Currently CFlight seems to run 160'000 - 50'000 legs, steps or frames per a second witch ever you prefer. I still need to implement some kind of mean orbital elements solution for all objects those are controlled by ephemerides in order to allow a better management of multible level of precision. It doesn't need to have high accuracy but the deviation to ephemerides must remain with-in a certain limits during a long period of time say 50 years.

A computation of typical free-return trajectory requires about 100-200 steps. So, it allows to compute about 700 lunar transfer trajectories per a second. It seems that cflight can do that it is designed to do.

Great work Jarmo.

The numbers for CFlight would seem to be a huge improvement in speed over IMFD. Presumably this means more accuracy for any given period (real time) of integration?

 

[Zachstar]

Looks like it is coming together really nicely!

I highly doubt I could go back to using a MFD after getting my hands on this!

 

[jedidia]

I don't want to be a nuisance by asking the same thing twice, but this would be a really valuable information for me:

Will this enable to plan flights at constant thrust?
please say yes!

 

[jarmonik]

I don't want to be a nuisance by asking the same thing twice, but this would be a really valuable information for me:

Will this enable to plan flights at constant thrust?
please say yes!

Yes, I suppose it will be possible. Right now you can't design any flight since IFP is badly unfinished.

There will be add-on interface so users can design own flight planning addons.

I have been thinking about adding a support for solar-sailing. In that case user would need to setup the vessel attitude control points. The vessel would linearry change the attitude from one control point to an other. At least this technique could be used with low-and-constant thrust vehicles.

But if you think something like IFP would automatically compute and optimize a trajectory in order to navigate a low thrust vehicle from one planet to an other. I can't imagine anything like that right now.

 

[jedidia]

There will be add-on interface so users can design own flight planning addons.

:blink:

Ok, no more questions... this is going to be better than I thought!

Right now you can't design any flight since IFP is badly unfinished.

Yes, I figured that much. I asked mostly because I was trying to get my brain around the maths for doing a nav-tool for constant thrust and noticed that I was hopelessly "outguned". So knowing that someone more competent will take care of it I can relax and work on stuff I have more chance of success.

But if you think something like IFP would automatically compute and optimize a trajectory in order to navigate a low thrust vehicle from one planet to an other. I can't imagine anything like that right now.

Ah, no. There wouldn't be much fun in that anyways. Unless it could be used as an AI to control npc-vessels of course... but that's getting faaar ahead of my plans. Having a possibility to acurately plan constant thrust flights will be perfectly enough for the time being. Jupiter in 6 Months, here I come!

 

[jarmonik]

Does anyone know any sources for mean orbit elements ? So far, I have used the information form this site http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?sat_elem but there seems to be huge errors and lot of different reference frames and epochs. That's not so much a problem but there are not much documentation about how to use that data. For an example in order to compute the mean longitude of Europa you must add the deviations of AgP and LAN into the mean longitude.

MnL = MnL_at_epoch + MnM*T + dAgP*T + dLAN*T

and sometimes dAgP and dLAN are allready included in MnM and nothing in indicating when this is done. Also there are no sign wheter the precessions dAgP, dLAN are positive or negative. Well, at least in some cases that can be determined from inclination.

Of couse, an other possibility is that I'll try to derive the mean elements from the ephemerides but I would rather use that time doing something else.

 

[Zachstar]

That sounds like something these guys would know about.

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/

 

[J_Aerospace]

hi there how is the project going, can't wait to give it a go.

 

[James.Denholm]

Damn, this... looks... really, really awesome! The fact that the XR2 is currently in development, and this as well... This is a time of anticipation for Orbinaughts everywhere!

 

[J_Aerospace]

Hows the project going.

High there again sorry for bumping this but it looks to good to be forgotten about.

 

[Andy44]

I hadn't noticed this thread before. Looks really good.

 

[GregBurch]

I hadn't noticed this thread before. Looks really good.

I have very high hopes for this, as well. If it will provide a more intuitive and graphically-oriented interplanetary navigation tool, I'm all for it, since I'm mathematically retarded, and get overwhelmed by the existing tools.

 

[jedidia]

Hows the project going.

High there again sorry for bumping this but it looks to good to be forgotten about.

Don't worry, Jarmonik's not known for dropping things. more for tinkering them unto utmost perfection.

The project status is allways updated in the very first post of the thread, that's why he doesn't post his progress too much