Hi guys (and girls, if any)
My name is Duus, I am quite old (>50) and quite new to Orbiter. I did a few trips to the moon and back with the old Delta Glider a few years ago, but then my old computer selfdestructed and I lost all my software
, and somehow I forgot all about Orbiter.
But some weeks ago I rediscovered this magnificent piece of software, and thought I would give it another go. And then I found the Delta Glider IV, and the Arrow Freighter, and now I am totally addicted.
My ambition is to be able to plan and execute a round trip to all planets/moons/asteroids/sattelites/space junk etc., all in one go. To be able to do so I have planned an incremental educational schedule for myself, with the following preliminary milestones:
I must be able to:
1. Take-off from Earth (any space port) and dock with any and all existing space stations in LEO.
2. Undock from any space port and land on Earth (on any and all space ports (well, at least those I have found hi res tiles for
))
3. Transfer and land on the Moon (any spaceport)
4. Transfer to the Moon and dock to the Wheel.
5. Take off from the Moon (from any space port, and from the Wheel), transfer to Earth, and land (on any and all space ports).
6. Fly from the Earth to the Moon, land there, then fly back and land on Earth
6. Transfer from LEO to Mars
7. Transfer from Mars to LEO.
8. to ??. Fly to the rest of the planets and back to Earth, visiting their moons, trying to land on some of them for low gravity practice, utilizing sling shots etc.
Finally: Visit all planets in one big round trip, if possible (Space tankers allowed)
So far I have advanced to stage 5; as I am writing this my DGIV is on its way from Brighton Beach to Wideawake.
I am still not very good at re-entry and landing, not even with DGIVs autopilot on, so I am giving myself extra lessons in this crucial discipline. (I am progressing, now I can get the DGIV down in one piece and with surviving crew almost every time, by crash landing in some ocean or desert or somewhere, or I can get get it down on any runway of my choosing, but unfortunately never in one piece, then).
I am mostly using the standard tools for now, as I believe that advanced tools like TransX and IMFD is of no value to me before I can visualize what they are actually doing. And I don't really need them, the Orbit, Align, Sync and Transfer MFDs seems to do the job for me. So far.
I would like here to thank dr. Martin Schweiger :hail:who has made all this possible, and DanSteph :hail:for his fantastic DeltaGliderIV etc. Also a big thanks to Tex :tiphat:, whose docking tutorial not only taught me how to dock, but also gave my self-confidence quite a boost when I needed it most (it is very soothing for a newbie to realize that veterans also sometimes forget to open the nose cone :thumbup
. And thanks a lot to all you add-on artists out there, you have made the Orbiter experience richer.
Okay, I guess this must do as an introduction to myself. I have some questions though, so I shall now transfer to the 'questions from newbies' page. Engine burn!
cheers von Duus