Real time interplanetary missions

[TMac3000]

I came up with a technique for flying interplanetary missions in real time without tying up anyone's computer for months or even years: simply save the mission, and update every few days by setting the date to "Now" in the scenario editor. This "interrupted" real time approach has met with quite a bit of success in the Iron Hill Project, and I am considering it for future missions. My question is: just how much potential does it have?

It seems to me that with a very patient crew, it could open up the Solar System as far as Saturn (clearly Uranus and Neptune are out). It seems to me that the technique's feasibility limit is either Jupiter or Saturn. What do you guys think?

 

[Codz]

I hope you're using nuclear engines...

 

[TMac3000]

You mean like for a really fast orbit? No, I'm talking Hohmann orbit--2.5 years to Jupiter, 5.5 years to Saturn. Depending on the tenacity of the crew, Jupiter should be doable in real time, though Saturn is debatable.

 

[Felipi1205]

A trip to Saturn isn't so long, but with the time it may became boring! Stay SO many years just to fly this tipe of mission isn't very funny or interesting...

 

[astrosammy]

I prefer to update realtime missions with time acceleration,
it's more accurate, and there's even a nice little tool do do that: [ame="http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4331"]Real Time Update[/ame] (Make sure that you set ACCEL to true in realtime.cfg)

Another problem with just using the "Now" button in the scenario editor is that some add-ons might not like it
(for example no oxygen is consumed and similar things).

 

[Zachstar]

While I do like the idea of 1x missions.

I have to point out that this isn't as interesting as it could be in my opinion.

One of the most interesting things I have seen for orbiter was back in the day where a member ran a live lunar mission with his own page with automatic screenshots and a signature that used data from a plugin.

Today we have orbiter NG. The issue is in my opinion is that without the graphics client limiting it. It eats CPU to make FAR too many frames in a second. If there is a way to limit that and a plugin written again to provide the signature lines and pages. My idea of live missions is a volunteer to have his computer run many clients at low FPS writing data to a server for broadcast.

From there we can go into interesting things like the server rendering the orbit or the closest approach to the next target.

Just my thoughts anyway.

 

[Codz]

You mean like for a really fast orbit? No, I'm talking Hohmann orbit--2.5 years to Jupiter, 5.5 years to Saturn. Depending on the tenacity of the crew, Jupiter should be doable in real time, though Saturn is debatable.

Yeah, I know. I don't know anyone who'd sink two entire years into a single scenario even if it wasn't always running. It seems like the "novelty" aspect of it would wear off quickly.

 

[TMac3000]

So you believe this method at best restricts us to the inner Solar System?

 

[Codz]

Probably the Moon, Mars, Venus, and maybe Mercury in my opinion.

 

[Ark]

It just seems too boring to be worth doing. 5 years to do something I've done a hundred times in Orbiter already?

 

[Zachstar]

It just seems too boring to be worth doing. 5 years to do something I've done a hundred times in Orbiter already?

This.

Just skipping ahead after RL time has passed is boring. Why should anyone care?

As what I said earlier what is needed is something that gets noted in realtime in a way that is interesting to take the bit of time to see.

For instance for my sig I would have three missions going.

#0 Short term shuttle mission fictional STS-64 Endeavour carrying #1 and #2 unless mechanics makes this impossible.

#1 A lunar orbiter that doubles as a lander after some time. (Repeated for multiple sites to keep the program going)

#2 A mars orbiter and Phobos lander combo that will use lunar gravity assist.

#3 Centaur-G launched mission to explore an asteroid and use an advanced heat shield system to recapture into Earth orbit for NEO exploration.

Maybe impossible but keep it interesting. Once you have ideas that are not just "5 Years later something interesting will happen.

 

[DaveS]

#3 Centaur-G launched mission to explore an asteroid and use an advanced heat shield system to recapture into Earth orbit for NEO exploration.

You'd want a Centaur G Prime for this mission. The Centaur G was a shorter, less capable version that carried 16793.55 kg of propellant vs 22621.5 kg of propellant in the G Prime. The G version was intended for GSO missions rather than interplanetary missions.

See this post: http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=360215&postcount=123

 

[Messierhunter]

I've done this for a round trip to mars. I updated it once a week for about a 2 year trip. It was interesting to me just to experience how long such a trip is. In general though I find NASSP missions much more enjoyable as realtime experiences simply because there's so much more to do in terms of routine housekeeping chores.

 

[Zachstar]

Thanks Dave. I had a feeling you would end up correcting me on something on my plan. :thumbup:

While you are here dave have you or anyone else on the SSU team tried to run it at 1x for mission duration and/or used Orbiter_NG on it?

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

So, setting the date to now in the scenario editor causes it to run all of the n-body calculations from the previous date to the current at once? Otherwise It wouldnt ever update the changes in position would it?

 

[TMac3000]

So, setting the date to now in the scenario editor causes it to run all of the n-body calculations from the previous date to the current at once?

Exactly:yes:
It takes a huge amount of patience, especially if you plan on taking a team beyond Mars, which is one of my long term goals. As a poster above said, it's really cool to viscerally feel how long it takes But I think you'll find that the challenge of doing it is it's own reward

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Ive tried to make it a point of not rushing my explorations too much. I could probably do a mission to anywhere I want, but I enjoy getting more of a feel for Earth-local space (moon, leo, heo, lagrange points, before I visit too many other planets and ruin the surprise.

 

[TMac3000]

I'm going to ask you a question over in Iron Hill thread (instead of here where it might get me in trouble:lol Head over there right quick...

 

[Keatah]

One can always cruise the dumpsters for cheap computers for running real-time simulations.