Problem Payload Calculation Problem

[joertexas]

I have two spacecraft, an orbiter and a lunar lander, that launch as a stacked payload on a single booster. During launch, the stack is defined in the booster's ini file as a single mesh. When the payload is jettisoned from the second stage, the meshes change to two separate spacecraft, and the ini files change to ones located in the Config/Spacecraft directory in Orbiter. The orbiter is listed as the lander's payload in the lander's ini file.

The problem is, the lander's mass will still reflect the orbiter's mass, even after the two spacecraft have undocked. (I've checked this with the editor) This, or course, makes it impossible to land the lander, since it's way overweight. I've checked and rechecked the mass numbers in both ini files.

I'm using the latest versions or Orbiter and LOLA MFD.

Update: The problem crops up when I save and exit the scenario, and then restart Orbiter. Every time I restart, the lander's total mass goes back to the value in the original payload ini file, not the value in the lander's config/spacecraft file. The orbiter's mass is still correct. I've tried saving before and after undocking the orbiter, and nothing seems to help.

Any ideas?


JR

 

[Jason_25]

I have had a similar problem with Velcro rockets that was driving me crazy after an Orbiter restart. Sometimes the rockets will fill back up with fuel instead of using the prplevel as defined in the scn file.

What I ended up doing was copying the config file, editing, renaming, and referencing it in the scenario file. In my case, for example I copied and edited the Agena.cfg for zero kg fuel (or 1 kg to prevent bugs) and renamed the edited file to Agena_CLEAN.cfg. Finally I had to change the classname of the object in the scenario file to my new file name.

I am thinking you could do the same or similar for your ini file.

 

[joertexas]

I have had a similar problem with Velcro rockets that was driving me crazy after an Orbiter restart. Sometimes the rockets will fill back up with fuel instead of using the prplevel as defined in the scn file.

What I ended up doing was copying the config file, editing, renaming, and referencing it in the scenario file. In my case, for example I copied and edited the Agena.cfg for zero kg fuel (or 1 kg to prevent bugs) and renamed the edited file to Agena_CLEAN.cfg. Finally I had to change the classname of the object in the scenario file to my new file name.

I am thinking you could do the same or similar for your ini file.

I found out (after an couple of hours) that I could actually jettison the orbiter (the payload spacecraft) again after the restart, thus making two of them visible. The interesting part was that Orbiter only recognized one of them, although I could delete the second one with the scenario editor if I chose.

For my purposes, I think this will work. If not, I will have to do what you've said.

JR