V8 Release Work Thread

[indy91]

This thread is the "What needs done?" thread for NASSP 8.0. The V8 release branch is Orbiter2016. All development talk goes here.

 

[indy91]

Overview of development for the NASSP 8.0 release

Here a quick overview of the current state of development for the next release of NASSP. Find a general development road map here.

Mission Control support:

-Apollo 7 and 8 essentially untouched from the 7.0 release. Needs just a bit of overhaul.
-Apollo 9-11 essentially complete for the 8.0 release.

Systems implementation:

-Lunar Module systems implementation essentially complete.
-CSM and LM ECS still need some tweaks for stability.
-CSM VHF Ranging System for Apollo 10 and 11 is implemented.

Orbiter 2016 support:

Fully functional with a few workarounds. Only the current Orbiter Beta is fully supported.


Once most of these items have been solved, NASSP 8.0 can transition from the Alpha to the Beta stage. During the Beta these items will be the focus:

-Improve general NASSP documentation. Checklist MFD, manuals, wiki articles etc.
-Provide documention to fly Apollo 7-11. As close to the actual flight data file as possible.
-Overall systems improvements and tweaks.
-Overall visual and performance improvements (especially the CSM main panel).

 

[indy91]

A few updates to the post above.

Mission Control support:

Apollo 9 and 11 now done. Apollo 7 and 8 will get some smaller updates soon.

Systems implementation:

VHF Ranging system is implemented.

I have focused on researching possible performance improvements in the last time and also implemented CSM and LM telemetry stuff. For that I am currently going through the CSM SCS and am fixing some smaller and bigger issues. The Electronic Display Assembly (EDA) was updated a lot, to use the SCS logic buses and to generate the right instrumentation signals for telemetry. The more obvious changes (so not just behind the scenes) were done to the Gyro Display Coupler (GDC) which were just commited and pushed on Github. Main differences:

-GDC Align doesn't happen instantly anymore, but needs to be pressed for a bit.
-During reentry the SCS driven FDAI only gets updated in roll.
-GDC attitude is now calculated from BMAG rates and works as mechanized in analog form in the real hardware. Previously the GDC kept a cheaty attitude reference, which was always perfect with no drift. It will still not really drift (the real thing must have been pretty with this), but it might not be as accurate as before anymore, especially with large attitude rates. The GDC equivalent of gimbal lock has also been implemented. There is an amplifier in the GDC which gets used to "calculate" a secant (inverse of cosine) of the current yaw angle, which will stop working accurately beyond +/- 80° yaw. This will need some more research to get exactly right though.

 

[joe1956]

Thank you for the incredible hard work you guys are doing, really appreciate it.

 

[Sverige]

Yes, a fantastic job that has given me so much fun and challenges. Thanks!

 

[jalexb88]

LM visuals update:

The NASSP Lunar Module has been completely remade from scratch with Blender:

-Accurate dimensions based on diagrams from LM systems handbook and other NASA documents, and (only for reference purposes) the great LM mesh of AAPO

-The LM is now completely animated including: rendez-vous radar antenna, S-Band steerable antenna, DPS engine bell thrust vectoring, forward/overhead hatches and finally animated gear extension. Very fun to start P20 in the LGC and watch the RR do its thing!

-Preliminary VC included with the new mesh, note that there are no panels in the VC yet, this will come at a later time.

See this post for screenshots of the new LM: https://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=586012&postcount=7459

 

[indy91]

CM and SM RCS are now functional before CSM/LV separation. Previously these only started working after CSM sep. There are some backup techniques to steer the S-IVB with the SM RCS and Apollo 7 actually did a static firing of the SM RCS prior to launch, so it only made sense to implement this.

The main issue is that old scenarios before CSM/LV separation are kind of broken. The ones that get released with NASSP are already fixed. If you want to manually fix a scenario, find the line PRPLEVEL. What you need to add is the 6 (4x SM and 2x CM RCS) propellant tanks in the CSM. So if this line says e.g.

0:0.723308 3:0.799237 4:0.785823

then you need to add 6 full tanks in front of the existing 3:

0:1.000000 1:1.000000 2:1.000000 3:1.000000 4:1.000000 5:1.000000 6:0.723308 9:0.799237 10:0.785823

like this.

---------- Post added 31st Jan 2019 at 12:15 ---------- Previous post was 30th Jan 2019 at 16:09 ----------

I have added a whole bunch of Apollo 9 and 11 scenarios to the Mission Scenarios folder. These are temporary and not guaranteed to work (although they at least shouldn't cause a CTD or so). Closer to the NASSP 8.0 release these will be replaced by scenarios that are up-to-date in every aspect.

 

[Cougar]

Would it be possible to release a newer NASSP v8 version for Orbiter 2010?

The latest version released for Orbiter 2010 was NASSP v8-788 from 2017-10-21.

I´m sure there are still a lot of guys out there using Orbiter 2010 who wish to use the LM, too. For performance reasons of my oldish PC i´m one of those guys.

Thanks a lot for your super superb most excellent best of all times addon!

Best regards
Rick

 

[indy91]

Yep, it's possible. There is one Orbiter physics change that is needed to make some things work properly (that isn't even in Orbiter 2016, but only the Orbiter Beta), which means Apollo 9 won't be possible to fly completely. But general Moon landing missions should work fine. It's a bit of work to differentiate between the updates that should be included and the ones that are Orbiter 2016 (and Beta) specific, but I can get a Orbiter 2010 compatible version ready some time in the next few weeks.

 

[Cougar]

@indy91: That would be absolutely fantastic! Great, great, great!
Thanks a lot, Indie!

Best regards
Rick

 

[Cougar]

@Indy: If you get the latest NASSP v8 version running with Orbiter 2010, will it be posted for download on sourceforge.net, too?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/nassp/?source=navbar

Thank you very much!

Best regards
Rick

 

[indy91]

Probably? We have mostly abandoned Sourceforge, but builds are posted there automatically, which should also apply to builds of the Orbiter2010 branch.

 

[Cougar]

@Indy: But if you have abandonned Sourceforge, where have you been moved to.
I always got my NASSP-Updates at Sourceforge but there hasn´t been a lot of activity since 2019-02-08 /NASSP-V8.0-Alpha-Orbiter2016-1393.

So where can i download the latest versions of NASSP v8 now?

Thank you very much!

Best regards
Rick

 

[indy91]

@Indy: But if you have abandonned Sourceforge, where have you been moved to.
I always got my NASSP-Updates at Sourceforge but there hasn´t been a lot of activity since 2019-02-08 /NASSP-V8.0-Alpha-Orbiter2016-1393.

So where can i download the latest versions of NASSP v8 now?

Thank you very much!

Best regards
Rick

The development is happening on Github for a few years now: https://github.com/dseagrav/NASSP

But you have the latest development build, they are all posted on Sourceforge automatically. There hasn't been a lot of activity in the last 2 weeks, because I was busy with developing an MFD for Shuttle rendezvous stuff. :lol:

 

[Cougar]

@Indy: Ah, i see! 2-weeks of no activity on the download-site seemed to me almost like a year or so.

:hail: A big thank you for you and the whole team for this most excellent, fantastic, superb, extraordinary, super, super, super good addon!!! :thumbup:

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Best regards
Rick

 

[jalexb88]

The SIVB module now has the capability of spawning a payload vessel at CSM/LV separation!

The significance of this is that the entire LM is now created at CSM separation instead of at LM extraction from the SLA. The way it was handled before is that the LM only existed as a mesh that was part of the SIVB project and once the CSM docked with it and hit the SIVB/LM sep switch a new vessel was created which was the actual LM and all of its systems. The disadvantage was that no interaction of the LM systems from the CSM was possible before LM extraction.

With this update, the procedures for CSM to LM power and pressurization can now be completed at the correct times ie. before LM extraction. The checklist MFD still reflects the old method and will soon be updated.

 

[jalexb88]

Update to rotational switch functionality:

Rotaries in NASSP have been changed so that you can no longer go directly to any position on the rotary but instead have to cycle through all positions leading to the new desired position.

Mouse-click handling has also changed: Before you would left click on a the desired position, now its right-click for clockwise rotation and left-click for counter-clockwise rotation.

Some changes had to be made in code regarding the registering of certain rotaries. This means that a few very minor issues will be present in old scenarios. The affected rotaries are, CSM: RCS indicators, ECS indicators, FC indicators, THC handle and O2 demand regulator. LM: Prim/Sec CO2 canister selectors.

Here is a checklist to run in scenarios saved before this update:

CSM:

THC Handle - neutral
O2 demand regulator - BOTH

LM:

Prim CO2 canister - CLOSE
Sec CO2 canister - CLOSE

 

[indy91]

A significant change was made to the optics panel in the CSM (panel 122). So far NASSP used the layout that was (probably) used for Apollo 7, in any case an early Block II design. But Apollo 8 and later all used a different configuration from that and NASSP is simulating now many more missions than Apollo 7, so we decided to change it. Most notably the optics mode switch is now a separate mode and zero switch. And some of the other switches have switched places. The Checklist MFD has been updated for all missions for this change, so there shouldn't be any issue with that.

 

[jalexb88]

1. The LM now has the "Crew State" implemented like it is on the CSM. The crew will die if:

- Pressure lower than 2.8 psi for 10 minutes
- Pressure higher than 22 psi for 1 hour
- Temperature above about 45°C or below about 0°C for 12 hours
- CO2 above 10 mmHg for 30 minutes
- Acceleration exceeds 12 g for 10 seconds
- Touchdown speed exceeds 15 m/s (= about 50 ft/s)

O̶n̶e̶ ̶e̶x̶c̶e̶p̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶e̶m̶p̶e̶r̶a̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶c̶r̶i̶t̶e̶r̶i̶a̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶a̶b̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶n̶o̶w̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶L̶M̶ ̶t̶e̶m̶p̶e̶r̶a̶t̶u̶r̶e̶s̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶n̶e̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶e̶w̶ ̶t̶w̶e̶a̶k̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶s̶t̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶.̶
Update: The suit temperature criteria has been enabled, but the cabin temperatures remain high with crew in cabin so that is still disabled for now.
See here: https://github.com/dseagrav/NASSP/issues/496

2. The CDR/LMP status on the ECS page of PAMFD in the LM now has a PLSS mode (portable life support system). You can put both CDR/LMP in their PLSS at the appropriate time in the checklist. The PLSS itself is still not simulated, this mode simply ensures that the astronaut is independent of both cabin and suit circuit for the EVA. The CDR must be in his PLSS for EVA to begin.

 

[indy91]

Project Apollo - NASSP 8.0 goes Beta!

After about two and a half years in alpha NASSP 8.0 has now reached the beta stage! For a while now we were thinking that most major features we wanted to have implemented in 8.0 are basically done, so we could think of no better date to make the change than today!

What does this mean? Well it doesn't really change anything but the name of the automatic builds on Github. Development will go on as before and there will still be many months of adding more minor or desirable features, bug fixes, performance improvements (hopefully) and adding documentation that assists in flying the supported missions of Apollo 7 to 11. And I don't think there will be a full 8.0 release before the next Orbiter milestone release, be it Orbiter 2016P1 or 2020 or whatever. Right now NASSP 8.0 still requires the Orbiter Beta.

So yeah, that's about it. Happy Apollo 11 launch day!



EDIT: Link to the first Beta release: https://github.com/dseagrav/NASSP/releases/tag/NASSP-V8.0-Beta-Orbiter2016-1464