Orbiter 2010 - Learn With Me #2 (Part 2) - Phobos Landing

Channel:

David Courtney

Subscribers:

3,450

Published on October 11, 2012 9:19:00 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Te3NtudHY

Game:

Orbiter (2000)

Duration: 37:06

1,156 views

13

In this video, I am just a couple kilometers above the surface of Phobos and my relative velocity is zero. I need to find the LOX and fuel modules located on the surface so I can load up and head out to Saturn.

Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPu_SHPaJzs6btFofXYSS_Hh73RIJzcAG

If you want to follow along, you can download the scenario here:
http://db.tt/o9Qe4pcg

A couple of things I learned from this experience:

1. You can't grapple payload until you have "Wheel Stop"
2. You can't get the wheels to come to a complete stop on Phobos until you have your forward/aft movement and your side to side (lateral) movement at almost 0.00. Notice in Attitude MFD, my lateral movement was about 2 m/s. On a body with a reasonable amount of gravity, friction would slow the vessel down and you'd get wheel stop. But on Phobos, since there is almost no gravity, even 1 m/s of movement is too much to get "Wheel Stop"

After recording this series of videos, I started a thread on Orbiter-Forum to find out how I could add a landing pad on Phobos. You can see that thread here:

http://orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=29129

After a bit of discussion, "dgatsoulis" created an amazing base which has 3 landing pads and a loading area on top of an elevated platform. The landing pads make it quite a bit easier to find your target and land on Phobos because you can use the VOR/VTOL MFD. And the elevated platform makes landings look a lot nicer because you don't have half of your vessel disappearing into the mesh.

It's a great add-on. If you plan to visit Phobos, I highly recommend checking it out:
http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=5867


Add-on MFD's that I tend to use the most:

AeroBrakeMFD: http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2139
BaseSyncMFD: http://koti.mbnet.fi/jarmonik/Orbiter.html (scroll to the bottom of the page)
Burn Time Calculator: http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4530
Launch MFD: http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2802
Glideslope MFD: http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2763

Other Add-on MFD's that I don't use often, but I like them for their specific purpose:

Attitude MFD: http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3165
Interplanetary MFD 5.5: http://koti.mbnet.fi/jarmonik/Orbiter.html
Rendezvous MFD: http://orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=1199
LunarTransferMFD: http://koti.mbnet.fi/jarmonik/Orbiter.html

Note, the version of TransX that comes bundled with Orbiter 2010 has a known bug that causes it to draw the graphics improperly. You can read about the problem here:

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/project.php?issueid=564

To work around this bug, I am using TransX 3.13.1.2, which I downloaded from here:

http://orbiter.quorg.org/releases

Orbiter is a free space simulator by Martin Schweiger. Visit the main Orbiter website here:

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk

Download Orbiter here:

http://orbitersimulator.com/orbiter-2010-downloads/

XR2 Ravenstar by Doug Beachy

http://www.alteaaerospace.com

Be sure to visit the Orbiter online community:

http://www.Orbiter-Forum.com

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