General Question How to Move ISS in Orbit MOON?

[GeraldoNathanael]

Hello Everyone,
I was a newbie in the Orbiter Forum here and I tried to ask something less I understand.
My question is very simple, I think recently when the International Space Station in orbit moon or other planets orbit. and my question is how to make the International Space Station is in orbit of the moon or other planets? I hope anyone help me thank you.

 

[kamaz]

Using Scenario Editor. Read section 20.1 in the manual.

 

[SanderBuruma]

do you mean to ask how to do it in Orbiter or how it is possible to do so IRL?

The ISS weighs about 450t, to get it to the moon you need about 4,5km/s delta v (give or take a few km/s')

to achieve that we need a total mass of about 450t*2.7182818^(4.5/3.9) -> 1425 tons, or 1000 additional mass that is purely fuel, so probably more like 1100 additional mass with an engine with enough thrust to eject itself from the earth to the moon and inject in moon orbit.

In real life terms, the ISS would need major refurbishing because the amount of thrust required to put the ISS through these maneuvers would quickly pull it apart as the different points and joints on the ISS can not take the stress of the kind of thrust that would be required to reach the moon with a reasonable dV budget.

Additionally we do not have the capability to put a one piece vehicle of 1100t into orbit in a single launch or the ability to assemble it in orbit not to mention that it'd be darned expensive.

Additionally, the ISS is in an extremely inclined orbit. An inclination change would be necessary and the amount of inclination change required is about 55° and this would be a very expensive undertaking on its own.

Maintaining a moon orbiting ISS would be a lot more expensive too because ferrying payloads (for life support, etc) to the moon is more expensive by a few orders of magnitude.

If you want to do it in Orbiter, you just need a ship that can dock with the ISS with its thrust vector aligned to with the ISS center of mass, and do a translunar injection to intersect with the moon. The highly inclined orbit that the ISS has gives about two times per month during which you can extend the orbit of the ISS enough to intersect with the moon's orbit. If this method is used, you have to expend a lot of additional dV to inject into lunar orbit because your translunar orbit is not parallel with the moon's orbit. You'll also have to deal with attitude control, which the translunar support vessel will have to have incorporated in it because you won't be able to effectively put the ISS in the proper directions for the maneuvers which you are thinking of otherwise.

I'm sure there are other challenges I haven't thought of yet and I may have made a couple mistakes.

 

[Urwumpe]

Its much simpler with ion engines - while you need much more DV for moving up the gravity well and down again (about twice as much as for a two impulse trajectory), you have a much higher specific impulse and could use the solar arrays of the ISS for powering such thrusters.

It is just pretty hard to install enough thrusters (since you can't make them infinitely powerful) on the ISS to also compensate drag for the first weeks of travel.

And of course, spending a few weeks in the Van Allen Belts is no option for a manned spacecraft.

 

[Donamy]

Get Robonaut to do it. :lol:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Its much simpler with ion engines - while you need much more DV for moving up the gravity well and down again (about twice as much as for a two impulse trajectory), you have a much higher specific impulse and could use the solar arrays of the ISS for powering such thrusters.

It is just pretty hard to install enough thrusters (since you can't make them infinitely powerful) on the ISS to also compensate drag for the first weeks of travel.

Hrm... weren't they planning on putting a pair of prototype VASIMR engines on the ISS? Perhaps that would work from the standpoint of specific impulse...

And of course, spending a few weeks in the Van Allen Belts is no option for a manned spacecraft.

Get Robonaut to do it. :lol:

:hmm: You've got a point... but we need at least two or three, to repair each other in case one fails.

 

[Cairan]

Don't forget the inclination of the ISS, which is a good thing in regards of the Van Allen belts, but a bad thing for a coplanar transfer to the moon ....

First raise the apoapsis to be about 200 000 km, then change the inclination with thrusting only near the apoapsis passes, then raise the periapsis to be captured by the moon.

It would take months, if not years, in my opinion to achieve this, not to mention debris and spacecraft collision avoidance is going to be a nightmare to plan when ISS crosses the GEO belt...

 

[Donamy]

But alas, what's the point ?

 

[Cairan]

But alas, what's the point ?

Indeed. I'd say this discussion is more rhetorical and hypothetical than practical...

 

[MaverickSawyer]

But alas, what's the point ?

Because we can. It's Orbiter, after all!

 

[GeraldoNathanael]

Thank's you for your answer SandraBuruma and the other to my question and the response will be. but, I see you don't understand about my question, and its my false. I mean, how do I move the ISS to orbit the Moon, I do not think the Burn from the earth to the moon, but the scenario editing with notepad manually.

 

[sorindafabico]

Thank's you for your answer SandraBuruma and the other to my question and the response will be. but, I see you don't understand about my question, and its my false. I mean, how do I move the ISS to orbit the Moon, I do not think the Burn from the earth to the moon, but the scenario editing with notepad manually.

Editing the .scn file in notepad: look for the configuration lines of the ISS, then look for "Orbiting Earth". Change "Earth" to "Moon". Then you can change state vectors (from state vectors already written in the .scn file) or insert orbital elements to give ISS the lunar orbit you want.

PS: I don't remember how to insert keplerian elements in the .scn file, but the documentation has some tips about it.

 

[Castor]

I mean, how do I move the ISS to orbit the Moon, I do not think the Burn from the earth to the moon, but the scenario editing with notepad manually.

If that is what you want, then the scenario editor is your best bet. There is a complete documentation on how to use it, in your Orbiter\Doc\ScenarioEditor.pdf

 

[Aeadar]

I think I would do this by spawning a deltaglider, say, at Brighton Beach, launching it to the lunar orbit you wish the ISS to be in, then using the Scenario editor to dock the ISS to the deltaglider.

Make sure you have the deltagliders nose-cone open first!