Project Space Shuttle Vessel

[GLS]

As promised, early images of the SPDS:


Still have to finish the base and the parts on the aft side (left side of the last 2 images), plus adding some wiring (can't make all of it, as it would be super-hard to animate).
Also, decided there is no point in trying to guess the mechanics connecting the pedestal to the damper, as there just isn't enough info on what goes on in the zone that I'm calling "the pit", so that simplifies things a bit. Other than that, everything else moves as it should.
Not shown in the images is the payload side of the attachment, that users will be able to take from the demo payload and put in their own payloads.
I'm also writing a checklist with the maybe 10 ways to operate this thing... still need to figure out which ones are the main ones vs the backups.

 

[EstebanDF]

Hello GLS, I've tried the docking scenario under STS-126, both with the standard and the "Better ISS" stations and noticed the shuttle goes stright into hard capture, even though the soft caputre ring is extended, is that part missing on the SSV logic ?

Thanks a lot for all the work done with the SSV.

 

[GLS]

Hello GLS, I've tried the docking scenario under STS-126, both with the standard and the "Better ISS" stations and noticed the shuttle goes stright into hard capture, even though the soft caputre ring is extended, is that part missing on the SSV logic ?

Thanks a lot for all the work done with the SSV.

Hi there!
The STS-126 docking scenario should work as is. On the Better ISS (I think it was there), the IDS/NDS/whatever makes the docking port be rotated 180º from the PMA orientation, so to dock to those you have to yaw the Orbiter 180º.

 

[EstebanDF]

Sorry, maybe I didn't explain myself correctly, I can dock with both stations, but the docking system ignores the docking ring which is meant to provide a soft dock for about 30 seconds, and then retract the ring to complete the hard dock, secure the latches, etc. Instead of that, it goes stright to the hard dock. There is a short video of the system at work here:

NASA Docking System - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I don't mind this at all, to be honest, it's just a question I got after successfuly docking the SSV for the first time

 

[GLS]

maybe I didn't explain myself correctly

No you didn't, I was still sleeping when I read the post... sorry.

So, currently the docking is "single stage" due to the way it works in Orbiter (moving the docking port isn't yet supported), so the ports will connect already in the final position.

 

[Max-Q]

By the way, I fixed the rotation bug in the latest Better ISS version.

 

[diogom]

No you didn't, I was still sleeping when I read the post... sorry.

So, currently the docking is "single stage" due to the way it works in Orbiter (moving the docking port isn't yet supported), so the ports will connect already in the final position.

You can kinda skirt around it. Dragon 2 has a soft dock - hard dock implementation which I adapted to Soyuz as well, basically undocking, reconfiguring the vessel's docking port to the current position according to the animation as the ring retracts, then redocking right after. You do need to know which docking port on the parent vessel you're docked to, I guess that's where it might be a bit inefficient if it's something like the ISS with many.

 

[DaveS]

You can kinda skirt around it. Dragon 2 has a soft dock - hard dock implementation which I adapted to Soyuz as well, basically undocking, reconfiguring the vessel's docking port to the current position according to the animation as the ring retracts, then redocking right after. You do need to know which docking port on the parent vessel you're docked to, I guess that's where it might be a bit inefficient if it's something like the ISS with many.

For shuttle, it's pretty much only two docking ports, PMA-2 as the primary docking port and PMA-3 which was delivered and installed on STS-92 in October 2000. It was then used on STS-97 in December of that same year to provide the proper alignments between the orbiter and the station for the installation of the P6 truss in its temporary spot atop the Z1 truss. Then it was used again on STS-98 in February 2001 to allow for the demating of PMA-2 from its first home at the forward end of Node 1 to the Manual Berthing Mechanism on the forward side of the Z1 truss and subsequent installation of the US Lab at PMA-1's former home.

Once that was accomplished PMA-2 was relocated and installed on the forward Common Berthing Mechanism of the US Lab during the same mission where it lived until STS-120 delivered and installed Node 2 temporarily at Node 1 Port CBM until the orbiter left and PMA-2 was freed up to be permanently installed on Node 2 forward CBM after which Node 2/PMA-2 was relocated to their final and permanent homes at the Lab forward CBM.

 

[Max-Q]

I did it in DarkEnergy as well with a retractable docking ring.
I'd be happy to share the code if it would help, there's not all that much to it.

 

[GLS]

I'm under the impression that docking is a "violent" event for the vessels, and thus repeated docking and undocking was not going to look good, but maybe not. I'll look into this after v1.7 is out, as it might be a good mini-project to bridge the gap between v1.7 and v2.

 

[STS]

I did it in DarkEnergy as well with a retractable docking ring.
I'd be happy to share the code if it would help, there's not all that much to it.

IIRC and if I am correct, NASSP does something similar right? I know that you can actually retract the proble after soft dock.

 

[n72.75]

IIRC and if I am correct, NASSP does something similar right? I know that you can actually retract the proble after soft dock.

Correct. I was looking at this yesterday.

I thought I had a good understanding of how it worked, and the more I looked the more I thought I needed to poke around with the debug string to actually understand what's going on.

NASSP/Orbitersdk/samples/ProjectApollo/src_csm/dockingprobe.cpp at Orbiter2016 · orbiternassp/NASSP

Project Apollo - NASSP. Contribute to orbiternassp/NASSP development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[EstebanDF]

Another issue I've noticed that the docking ports are missaligned on the view from the cokpit.
External Camera, and docking camera shows the docking correctly, but viewing from the window there is an error, let's see if I can attach screenshots...

 

[EstebanDF]

Also, @Max-Q the standard NDS port is not aligned correctly, as you can see on the third screenshot

 

[GLS]

There doesn't seem to be any misalignment. The last 2 images look like so, but in fact it looks more like the mesh normals are reversed in the PMAs, making the inside visible instead of the outside. The handrails look ok, so it doesn't seem view clipping.
I've only played with the default ISS 3D model and... let's say it is a delicate model with transparencies, flags and group orders, but I still don't know how it could look like that when viewed from the virtual cockpit.

Does it look like that before docking, or only after? How about reloading the scenario, does it make a difference?

 

[DaveS]

I did it in DarkEnergy as well with a retractable docking ring.
I'd be happy to share the code if it would help, there's not all that much to it.

You could try it out with the default Atlantis and ISS. Just one note though: The default Atlantis doesn't have a correct Orbiter Docking System (ODS) so there's no docking ring to animate. I could fix this easily enough since I still have the SSU ODS and External Airlock which could be the replacements if required.

 

[Max-Q]

I think @gattispilot is going to look at this with his STS addon.
I don’t really have a desire to mess with the default shuttle at this time, I start school in August and have a lot of loose ends and projects to wrap up before then.
I’d be happy to share the code though.

 

[gattispilot]

@DaveS if u could share the ods and airlock. I remade the ods and airlock but yours maybe better

 

[EstebanDF]

Hello @GLS I've made a short video that I think shows better than the screenshots

Thanks, and sorry for my bad english

 

[GLS]

Hello @GLS I've made a short video that I think shows better than the screenshots

Thanks, and sorry for my bad english

I think I know what happened (I messed up... ). I'll comeback later today with more info.

BTW: you can, and should, zoom in the centerline camera, as it helps with the fine alignment.