Project SpaceReactor

[francisdrake]

SpaceReactor is a proposed interplanetary transport vehicle.
It uses nuclear-electric propulsion, powered by a 20 kW(e) reactor at the front end of the boom.
It carries an AeroShell lander, with an Ingenuity-class helicopter on board.

Note: The launch and TMI scenarios require BrianJ’s FalconHeavy rocket.

Key Commands:
SpaceReactor
[E] Set camera direction (front, wing)
[G] Go active, extend solar panels and activate the reactor
(Note: Main engines work only when reactor is activated)
[J] Jettison AeroShell before Mars entry

AeroShell
[E] Set camera direction (front, back)
[C] Deploy chute
[J] Jettison heat shield (after chute deployment)
[J] Jettison helicopter

Note: The AeroShell has build-in aeordynamic lift for a softer entry.
Fly heads down (!) when entering the atmosphere.

Ginny Helicopter
[E] Set camera direction (front, down)
[M] Switch on landing lights
[Del], [Ins] Use trim up [Del] while gliding during the first phase of descent
Trim back to neutral when in powered flgiht
[Num 0], [Num .] Use hover engines to fly
[A] Hold Altitude (Orbiter autopilot)
[L] Horizon Level (Orbiter autopilot)

Flight tips for Ginny:
The Ginny helicopter propellers are now animated. It uses hover thrust and simple aerodynamics to fly.
After releasing, the helicopter will go into nose-down dive.
Trim up with [Del] and glide to your destination.
At about 300 m gradually increase hover thrust [Num 0] and trim down.
At 50 m cancel the vertical speed with [A], then reduce power and sink to a soft landing.

Download 'SpaceReactor-. . .zip' below.

 

[francisdrake]

Left-hand side: The helicopter hanging under the aeroshell, ready to drop. After changing the cross-section and air resistance to more realistic values, avoiding re-contact after the drop becomes an issue.
Right-hand side: Ginny flying over the half-burried chute of the aeroshell. Yes, the helicopter now has landing lights.

 

[francisdrake]

Small update to Version-01, download from the first post.

Sugest to fully remove the previous version, before installing the new one.
Or at least empty the Scenario/SpaceReactor folder.

• New config files
• Better fitting aerodynamics of the AeroShell. It sinks now faster through the atmosphere.
• Mars bases added for Gale Crater, Jezero, Victoria (only locations on the map)
• Changes in the scenarios of the Mars landing. The Aeroshell now drops into the Gale Crater.

When flying the 'Entry' scenario the AeroShell can be steered a bit by banking left or right. The lift vector then pulls it in the desired direction.

 

[francisdrake]

SpaceReactor stowed on a FaclonHeavy upper stage.


Ginny helicopter with landing lights on, picking up some ground dust.

Update 03 available as download in the first post of this thread.
Some improvements on the Aeroshell mesh and aerodynamic handling.

Tried to make the Ginny helicopter blades rotate, but no success.
Did all what should be necessary (DefineAnimations, SetAnimations in the time loop), but no joy.

Have included the Ginny.cpp source code in the Orbitersdk\samples\SpaceReactor folder,
in case someone would like to have a look into it. I have to confess, I ran out of ideas, what could be wrong.

 

[BrianJ]

Hi,
I had a quick look at ginny.cpp and I have a hunch its the ClearMeshes(false) that is the culprit.
If it gets called after DefineAnimations( ) it will delete the animations.
Great add-on!
Cheers,
BrianJ

 

[francisdrake]

That's much better! Thanks a lot!
Will switch to a 'blurred prop disc' animation for the high speed rotation.

 

[francisdrake]

Update 03 can be downloaded from the first post.

The Ginny helicopter has been improved. It has now whirly blades and a drone-like XR-sound .
Flight behavior needs still some improvement, but is sufficient for basic flying around.

When landed the battery (=fuel gauge) is replenished automatically.

 

[francisdrake]

New version 04 can be downloaded from the first post of this thread.

What's new:
Costum fairing for the FalconHeavy, with a mission logo (thx to Google Gemini ).
Changed the reactor activation key to [G] - Go active.
The SpaceReactor has now external inspection lights, turn on with [M].

Tweaked the aerodynamics of the Ginny helicopter.
It behaves now moderately reponsive and can be flown at 10 x time acceleration for cross-country flights.

New scenarios:
7 Jezero crater; the marker is in the blue-shaded crater to the East.
8 The SpaceReactor on its secondary mission exploring Vesta;
______

Don't know if somebody would try a better Trans Mars Injection scenario (TMI).
I put the date at Dec 1, 2028, in the 2028-Mars-launch window.
But for the actual burn start and dV I did not get good solutions.
The FalconHeavy has enough power to perform a Hohmann TLI.
The ion thrusters can later be used for course corrections.

 

[gattispilot]

Great. I did not know you could change the FH fairing

 

[francisdrake]

I did not know you could change the FH fairing.

This is a nice feature, though a bit hidden.
First you make a copy of the "f9h_large_fairing.cfg" for your mission, here "f9h_large_fairing_SR.cfg"
In this new cfg-file, you change the path to the fairing texture, like
FairingTex = FalconHeavy/f9_fair_logo_large_SR.dds

You can copy the generic fairing texture, name it as above, and put your logo on it, using a paint program.
Then you just have to refer to your new cfg-file in the scenario file and you are done.

BEGIN_SHIPS
FalconHeavy:FalconHeavy\f9h_large_fairing_SR
...