Project Project ε0: The Japanese rocket with artifical intelligence

[Cosmic Penguin]

Well I was originally focusing on stage 1 of my Dragons of the Middle Kingdom project (updating the CZ-2F launch vehicle and its launch site at Jiuquan) for deployment just in time to offer it to Don for his Shenzhou/Tiangong project. Unfortunately I hit a snag on how to do textures and UV mapping: for some reason the textures either just disappears or got its position/scale all wrong. This, combined with problems with doing complex meshes, led me to find something not been produced for Orbiter that I can do with a short development schedule with just modifying meshes/textures and matching different components, so that I can gain experience in texture making and UV mapping, mesh modification, training for using anim8or and Blender, as well as methods to improve rocket guidance for orbital injection.

And I found this:

The Epsilon rocket is JAXA's answer for a cheaper replacement for the very-long running Mu-series of small all-solid rockets that powered quite a few interesting and amazingly capable small probes (the most famous of which is the amazingly tough Hayabusa). The price of it was so high (I believe that by the mid-2000s, the last of the series, the M-V rocket, has a price comparable to the much larger Delta II 7900 series, for a Vega-class launch capability!), and the troublesome launch preparation process (stacking multi-segment solids on a rail launch track!), that JAXA gave up it in 2006. But that leaves the Japanese without a small satellite launcher (currently the H-IIA is as small as they have), so they decided to build one that re-uses other components from the rockets they have, and tries to slim down the processing needed for the new rocket. The result is the Epsilon LV, now scheduled for its first launch in August 2013.

The first stage of the rocket re-uses the solid rocket booster used on the H-IIA/B, while the two upper stages are improved versions of the 3rd and 4th stages of the M-V rocket. The payload capability is 1.2 tonnes to a low-inclination 200 x 500 km orbit. With the use of a small liquid trim stage, it can launch satellites up to 450 kg to a 500 km circular sun-synchronous polar orbit. This put its capability roughly between Orbital's Taurus and Minotaur IV rockets(or ESA's Vega).

What makes it different is the claimed extremely light launch operations processing: firstly the rocket has AI(!), err actually that means flight software will automatically inspect the conditions of the different portions of the rocket before launch, without the actual need for human interference; and that means the launch control can be put outside of the launch site - in fact it could be done anywhere from the world with a few laptops (!) connected to the data network! The launch processing is also rather short - the typical pad flow from rocket arrival at launch site to launch is just two weeks, comparable with the Minotaurs and Taurus and much shorter than the others. This should save quite a bit of money from keeping the pads flowing, and might even attract commercial customers for the rockets (never seen before in Japanese spaceflight!).

With that in mind, here are the early development screen-shots: (notice that I am using a modified H-IIB SRB from Donamy's HTV add-on for the first stage, and the fairing/upper stages are from BrianJ's excellent MV missions add-on; hopefully I can grant permission to "license build" them soon)

Unfortunately I still have serious problems with UV mapping and texture wrapping on meshes, but that is a question for another day, after I got enough sleep for tonight.... :goodnight:

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_(rocket)

http://www.b14643.de/Spacerockets_1/Japan/ASR-Epsilon/Description/Frame.htm

http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/rockets/epsilon/index_e.html

http://www.jaxa.jp/pr/brochure/pdf/01/rocket07.pdf

http://www.jaxa.jp/article/interview/vol58/index_e.html

http://archive.ists.or.jp/upload_pdf/2009-g-18.pdf

http://archive.ists.or.jp/upload_pdf/2009-g-21.pdf

http://archive.ists.or.jp/upload_pdf/2008-g-01.pdf

 

[Pipcard]

Awesome! We need more Japanese launchers.

 

[Pipcard]

You also might want to look at this.

 

[IronRain]

Nice project! I hope to see it released in a few weeks/months or so! I'm designing some small sattelites that still needs a LV

About the uv maps, are you trying to create new maps or are you using the maps already created?

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Nice project! I hope to see it released in a few weeks/months or so! I'm designing some small sattelites that still needs a LV

About the uv maps, are you trying to create new maps or are you using the maps already created?

I don't think it will take more than a week or two - it's just a multistage2 rocket with most meshes from other add-ons (will have to ask Donamy and BrianJ for permission to "license build" them though), but I am thinking of trying to build a new satellite from scratch to test my ability of using anim8or and Blender. It is mostly a side project to train myself for larger projects (my Chinese rockets and bases project has stalled due to my limited ability).

About the texturing problem: I have been trying to add a texture to the first stage. This looks like this:

...and I tried to add them as a material on anim8or using the steps in this tutorial: [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2730"]http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2730[/ame]
.... but the words were stretched too much as seen in anim8or (see my .3ds file here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/102519027/Stage1.3ds), and when I transform them into meshes the textures simply disappears! (see my finished mesh here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/102519027/EpsilonStage1.msh) Can anyone tell me why, and how can I add textures to different faces of the same mesh in Blender? (I still can't figure out how to add a texture in Blender!) Thanks! :tiphat:

 

[IronRain]

Try UV mapper. If you download the demo of the Pro version (not time restricted, you just miss some functionality) you can view how to texture will look on your mesh.

You have different UV maps. So if there is already a UV map on the mesh, you should create a texture for that map.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

It looks like that there's a problem with the texture disappearing while using 3ds2msh for converting the 3ds file into a mesh file (this should be checked with the files I posted above though). Can anyone here suggest another method of exporting meshes?

 

[Urwumpe]

It looks like that there's a problem with the texture disappearing while using 3ds2msh for converting the 3ds file into a mesh file (this should be checked with the files I posted above though). Can anyone here suggest another method of exporting meshes?

Did you manually convert the texture to dds format and copy it into Orbiters texture folder?

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Did you manually convert the texture to dds format and copy it into Orbiters texture folder?

So if my mesh file is in Orbiter_2010/Meshes/Beta/EpsilonStage1.msh, should the texture file be in Orbiter_2010/Textures/Beta/EpsilonStage1.dds?

 

[Urwumpe]

So if my mesh file is in Orbiter_2010/Meshes/Beta/EpsilonStage1.msh, should the texture file be in Orbiter_2010/Textures/Beta/EpsilonStage1.dds?

no. The path to the texture depends on what stands in your converted mesh file. The textures are at the end of the msh. It the line for one texture reads "alpha/beta" then the file is beta.dds in "Textures/alpha"

 

[IronRain]

So if my mesh file is in Orbiter_2010/Meshes/Beta/EpsilonStage1.msh, should the texture file be in Orbiter_2010/Textures/Beta/EpsilonStage1.dds?

That depends on the location that is configured in the mesh. If you open the mesh file with Notepad and scroll down, you can set folder paths to the textures. I'm at my internship right now, so I don't have an example for you but it should be something like:

TEXTURES
goldfoil.dds

This means that the textures must be located in %orbiterpath%\textures

TEXTURES
Beta\goldfoil.dds

This means that the texture is located in %orbiterpath%\textures\Beta

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Ah thanks! It now works! :thumbup:

Still needs to clean up the UV wrapping, but at least that's a major milestone crossed.

 

[IronRain]

Glad to hear

 

[Donamy]

I seriously suggest AC3D, for modeling and texturing. Mostly, for it's ease of use and texture mapping capabilities, but also it's 3ds conversions among others.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

While I'm waiting for the next available time slot to continue with working on it, here's a news report from Spaceflight Now about the rocket itself: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1211/05epsilon/

 

[orb]

Parabolic Arc: Meet Japan’s New Epsilon Rocket

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Reminds me that I need to continue to work on the textures...... (time, time, time......) :uhh:

 

[Pipcard]

"Using the SRBs of JAXA's heaviest launcher with the upper stages of previously existing solid-fueled light launchers" wasn't a new idea.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

The maiden flight is now only half a month away (now planned at 04:45 UTC on August 27), and unfortunately I have decided to abandon the project due to other work engagements and problems with making good meshes and textures that cannot be solved in a short time.

Therefore I am now offering this project for someone else to chirp in - I may still be able to deal with documentation, background information search and MS2 guidance file editing and testing, but the meshes and textures would need outside assistance. It might be possible to do the payload for the first flight - the SPRINT-A UV telescope too.

PM me if you are interested in this little project. :tiphat:

GPS

 

[Donamy]

Did this in about an hour if anyone wants it.