Centaur G/G Prime High Energy Upper Stage

[Urwumpe]

I did a "fast read" of that, and at the time it was written they were still searching for the tapes. According to this reliable website :lol:, in 2009 they determined that they were overwritten. :facepalm:

Oh ok... that's sad, but well, standard procedures are standard procedures... maybe we should rescue as much about the Space Shuttle as possible.

 

[DaveS]

GLS do you think you could add the rest of the CISS animations? Currently on the items attached to the DA is animated making things become disconnected during the rotation to the Deploy position.

The data for the rest of the components are in this post: http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=498209&postcount=352

 

[GLS]

GLS do you think you could add the rest of the CISS animations? Currently on the items attached to the DA is animated making things become disconnected during the rotation to the Deploy position.

The data for the rest of the components are in this post: http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=498209&postcount=352

I tried both the pipes and what apparently is called a 4 bar linkage mechanism crank rocker (the thing that drives the DA) and couldn't make it look good. It was close on the pipes as the bellows allow the pipes to misalign without looking bad, but still wasn't good. I think both things need non-linear animation speed, and I have no clue how to do that. Sorry.

 

[DaveS]

Another photo of SC-1 (assigned to STS-61F, the Ulysses mission) has been found. This is a close-up of the +Y side of the integrated CISS/Centaur in the Vertical Payload Facility (VPF).

What I have noticed so far is that everything except for the wiring is covered by the radiation shield foil, even the F/D/D and vent lines. Also the bellows on the CISS F/D/D and vent lines are very obvious. Also the the spaces between the stringers on the CISS Deployment Adapter is covered by gold mylar foil.

 

[GLS]

:jawdrops: HOLY COW!!! Awesome picture!
In other news, I think I just woke up the neighbors with all my excitement :lol:

 

[DaveS]

The only problem I can see is how to properly animate the bellows. I'm thinking through some form scaling possibly tied into a rotation. In the current version which has the bellows covered, a simple rotational animation is enough. But that won't do it for the correct uncovered ones.

 

[Urwumpe]

The only problem I can see is how to properly animate the bellows. I'm thinking through some form scaling possibly tied into a rotation. In the current version which has the bellows covered, a simple rotational animation is enough. But that won't do it for the correct uncovered ones.

Scaling does not work there. What I could suggest would be a mesh manipulation. We create a simple cylinder with open ends, texture it (normal map it to give it more depth), fit it between the flanges. When we animate it, we tilt the vertices of the cylinder ends to correctly deform. The texture coordinates of each vertex stays constant.

A cylinder with 2x12 = 24 vertices should be more than enough there.

Since the rotation axis is parallel to the X axis, we could even reduce the calculations to the Y and Z coordinates and use simpler math.

What we need then is a class that defines such a kind of mesh manipulation.

 

[GLS]

The way the pipes are now, a "simple" rotation of the groups doesn't work well enough as they don't always meet during the rotation (even with the bellows giving some margin). The rotation speed of the groups would have to change during the animation.
On the tilt table rotation, it probably will also be non-linear speed because of all the linkages that move it.
How do these 2 things interact? I don't know, but we probably should start by getting the tilt table linkage working, and then see what is needed for the piping.

 

[GLS]

I was browsing the web when I found this:
http://www.capcomespace.net/dossiers/espace_US/shuttle/annexes/5_etages_superieur_part2.htm
It has several new photos (at least for me) of the Centaur, including some of a relatively assembled G stage.

 

[DaveS]

I was browsing the web when I found this:
http://www.capcomespace.net/dossiers/espace_US/shuttle/annexes/5_etages_superieur_part2.htm
It has several new photos (at least for me) of the Centaur, including some of a relatively assembled G stage.

Yes. The source is the Sand Diego Air&Space Museum's Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/page26

 

[liquidhype]

Is there a download link for the Centaur stages? I'm new to the forum here, so please do excuse my inability to navigate. Thank you

 

[DaveS]

Could we add the GOX venting from the Centaur LOX dump port during the countdown? Centaur pressurization for flight would have occurred between T-1:35 and T-1:05 according to the STS-51L/33 GLSDD (page 157). Also the propellant settling maneuver (4S) needs to be added prior to each Main Engine Start (MES).

 

[Urwumpe]

Could we add the GOX venting from the Centaur LOX dump port during the countdown? Centaur pressurization for flight would have occurred between T-1:35 and T-1:05 according to the STS-51L/33 GLSDD (page 157). Also the propellant settling maneuver (4S) needs to be added prior to each Main Engine Start (MES).

Could be done now in the trunk, GLS is doing the dirty hard work of merging the branches back into it.

Can you make a ticket for each requirement and describe them as complete as you can - eg, how to control everything, how it should look like, how to test that it properly works, how it should not work, etc.

Is the centaur GOX venting controlled by LPS? if yes, I would suggest moving it over there. Since we need control over the Centaur dump, I suspect that there is also a PASS and a BFC component of the requirement, which would be its own ticket.

................

Maybe it would be better I do the requirement analysis with you this week and write the tickets for everything, what do you think?

 

[GLS]

Could we add the GOX venting from the Centaur LOX dump port during the countdown? Centaur pressurization for flight would have occurred between T-1:35 and T-1:05 according to the STS-51L/33 GLSDD (page 157). Also the propellant settling maneuver (4S) needs to be added prior to each Main Engine Start (MES).

Would it really be venting from there? I'll have to look at the piping to be sure, as the continuous venting would probably form ice.
For the ignition, I could remove the direct control of the engines and just allow a start/stop command, thus enabling us to do things like prop settling before ignition.
I'll look at this after I finish the scenario and manual updates.

 

[DaveS]

Would it really be venting from there? I'll have to look at the piping to be sure, as the continuous venting would probably form ice.

Yes. There were heaters installed to prevent ice build-up. According to STS-51L GLSDD (page 77), deadfacing/deactivation of the Centaur GOX vent heaters would have occurred at T-2:55.

 

[Urwumpe]

Do we have the "STS-51L GLSDD" available for the whole project team or is it restricted? If so, we need a version we can distribute to the whole project.

 

[GLS]

Do we have the "STS-51L GLSDD" available for the whole project team or is it restricted? If so, we need a version we can distribute to the whole project.

I think it's in the doc section on SF.

 

[DaveS]

I think it's in the doc section on SF.

Yes, in the reference documents section on the SSU SF project. So anyone can obtain it. https://sourceforge.net/projects/sh...es/S9005 - Rev L - STS-33 GLS DD.pdf/download

 

[Urwumpe]

I think it's in the doc section on SF.

Had not seen it before there, but forget my question, I just found it when finally being on my home computer. Was just the old age.

 

[DaveS]

Is anyone going to try to tackle the CISS animations? And speaking of the CISS and orbiter integration: We need to hid the Bay 13 TCS covers when we're flying the Centaur Mission Kit.

---------- Post added at 02:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:09 PM ----------

Could be done now in the trunk, GLS is doing the dirty hard work of merging the branches back into it.

Can you make a ticket for each requirement and describe them as complete as you can - eg, how to control everything, how it should look like, how to test that it properly works, how it should not work, etc.

Is the centaur GOX venting controlled by LPS? if yes, I would suggest moving it over there. Since we need control over the Centaur dump, I suspect that there is also a PASS and a BFC component of the requirement, which would be its own ticket.

According to the same document, the commands would have been issued by the Centaur MPS engineer's console under the commands from the Centaur Computer Controlled Launch Set (CCLS). The CCLS as far as I can ascertain would have functioned as the Centaur GLS and would have lived inside a Master Integration console like the Shuttle GLS.

This is the pages on the Eastern Range Centaur Command & Control systems: