Spacecraft Advise on heavy exo-atm cargo shuttle?

[PeterRoss]

I need some exo-atmospheric cargo shuttle capable of lifting a few hundred (thousand will be good) tons of cargo from moon surface to moon orbit in a single run. Can you guys recommend me something?

Of course I can use XR5, but I think it's quite senseless to burn additional fuel for dragging useless wings, scrams, heat shield and so on.

 

[clickypens]

Shuttle-A? How much can it lift?

 

[PeterRoss]

I thought about Shuttle-A, but it's too powerful for my taste. If I could lower its ISP ten times and thrust four times it would be great (though 120 tons of cargo capacity is not what I need exactly). Is there any way to modify its parameters?

 

[TSPenguin]

The sources are provided in the SDK, you can simply change them there.
The values should be found in the ShuttleA.h file.

OrbiterWiki has a good article on how to setup a free compiler.
I think the Windows SDK part can be skipped when using a newer version of Visual Studio. Not really sure about that though.

Happy Orbiting

 

[Sar]

Windows sdk can be skipped atleast in Visual C++ 2008 Express ed.

 

[PeterRoss]

Thanks. Looks like I have to get familiar with C++ after all. I knew knowledge of Quick Basic won't be enough at some moment.

 

[T.Neo]

Make it like the apollo lunar module; spindly structure with landing legs and attitude thrusters. Expose the fuel tanks, extra panels only add weight.

Hover engines are really all you need, but flying with only hovers can be tricky. Add mains/retros if you wish.

Cover it in foil, perhaps add some solar panels or radiators.

Lunar vehicles would probably be manufactured and fueled in-situ. Make it look heavy and "dumb", like a piece of construction equipment.

 

[Urwumpe]

Shuttle-A? How much can it lift?

6 modules at 20 tons. But practically it could haul much more from the moon.

 

[T.Neo]

6 modules at 20 tons. But practically it could haul much more from the moon.

Should be easy enough by simply making heavier payloads for the Shuttle-A, since they use normal attachment points.

 

[PeterRoss]

Well, maybe I'll manage to attach come Greg Burch's Station Building Blocks to Shuttle-A.

Lunar vehicles would probably be manufactured and fueled in-situ. Make it look heavy and "dumb", like a piece of construction equipment.

That's what I have in mind. I've build a base on Moon, now I want to construct and refuel vessels on its orbit. I mean, really big vessels like Descartes, which needs thousands of tons of fuel. And most of the construction materials and fuel must be produced on Moon. That's why I need heavy lifter/shuttle.

 

[Urwumpe]

Should be easy enough by simply making heavier payloads for the Shuttle-A, since they use normal attachment points.

AFAIR, the Shuttle-A calculates internally with 20 tons per payload, regardless what you really use.

 

[PeterRoss]

AFAIR, the Shuttle-A calculates internally with 20 tons per payload, regardless what you really use.

That's bad. Can it be changed in sources and recompiled the same way TSPenguin recommended to change ISP and thrust?

 

[garyw]

I'm building a fuel Depot in lunar orbit and will be using a fuel tanker variant of the shuttle-a to bring the fuel up to orbit and it will take some 6.5 trips to fully fuel up the depot which I think is a fair number of flights

 

[PeterRoss]

I'm building a fuel Depot in lunar orbit and will be using a fuel tanker variant of the shuttle-a to bring the fuel up to orbit and it will take some 6.5 trips to fully fuel up the depot which I think is a fair number of flights

What's the fuel tanker variant of Shuttle-A and where can I get it?

 

[garyw]

[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=631"]Shuttle A2 v1.01[/ame]

 

[PeterRoss]

I'm sorry for my obtrusiveness, but what's that shuttle's ISP and thrust and is it possible to change it in some way?

 

[Flightoffancy]

I like the Lunar Mass Driver for this purpose. You could use pretty much any cargo carrying vessel with an engine to stabilize the orbit once the desired altitude is reached. You could even send the cargo all the way home on Earth with the driver at 0 lat, 180 long heading 270. You'll have to play with the output speed as it varies with the moon's position throughout the month (2686.750 works with Date MJD 53221.0690891355)

Just a thought, maybe not exactly what you are looking for but fun nonetheless.

 

[PeterRoss]

The sources are provided in the SDK, you can simply change them there.
The values should be found in the ShuttleA.h file.

OrbiterWiki has a good article on how to setup a free compiler.
I think the Windows SDK part can be skipped when using a newer version of Visual Studio. Not really sure about that though.

Happy Orbiting

After all I've installed Visual C++ 2008 Express and made it all as it said in OrbiterWiki article. After some syntax incompatibility issues which I believe I solved I'm stuck at 'ShuttleA.rc(10) : fatal error RC1015: cannot open include file 'afxres.h'' message. There was no such file in the whole VC++ installed SDK package. I've downloaded Windows SDK and here it is this file, in some samples folders only. Setting additional include path to these folders aren't helping at all, and I guess it doesn't have to work this way anyway. I don't understand a thing in VC++, so can you guys explain to me what the problem is with, please?

I'm building a fuel Depot in lunar orbit and will be using a fuel tanker variant of the shuttle-a to bring the fuel up to orbit and it will take some 6.5 trips to fully fuel up the depot which I think is a fair number of flights

I don't know what's the problem with this shuttle but it just don't responding to any of my commands. Just a dead piece of junk. Isn't it too old for Orbiter2006P1?

 

[garyw]

I don't know what's the problem with this shuttle but it just don't responding to any of my commands. Just a dead piece of junk. Isn't it too old for Orbiter2006P1?

Nope. I've been using it quite successfully in Orbiter2006P1.

 

[cinder1992]

*snip* I knew knowledge of Quick Basic won't be enough at some moment.

wait, hold on, Quick basic? isn't that older than me? Trust me, C++ is NOTHING like Quick basic, having worked with both.

take my advice, try and avoid any programming language with quick, easy, or something amounting to them. it rots your brain so you cant use more complex ones (except for ASM, that language is freaking awesome).