Scenario Let's play in space inconsitancies.

Zaphod

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I'm on chapter 4 of lets play in space 2010.pdf.
The part where you do your first Earth to Luna flight. The pdf doesn't say witch scenario I'm supposed to be running.
Any help?
 
I'm guessing you could use the tutorials/earth to moon scenario and just turn the playback off. Or calculate a launch window. There are several scenarios and tutorials on how to do this on O-H.

Happy Orbiting,

SE
 
IIRC hitting the spacebar turns off the playback, or you can use [F4], then bring up the record/playback control box.
 
Ok im using the replay one and just turned off the replay. But there are still a few inconsistencies. No one knows where I can find the proper scenario file for this part?
 
What inconsistencies? You have to wait for the launch window, so all the "parameters" will match the right data. Like the playback does. You are not supposed to launch immediately. Cannot think of anything else, there cannot be inconsistencies, because stopping the playback you just take the control of the vessel: you do not modify anything.
 
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What inconsistencies? You have to wait for the launch window, so all the "parameters" will match the right data. Like the playback does. You are not supposed to launch immediately. Cannot think of anything else, there cannot be inconsistencies, because stopping the playback you just take the control of the vessel: you do not modify anything.

The play back uses a day launch. The walk through says its supposed to be a night launch. I'm still new, I doubt the beginning of the new users guide would expect me to know how to calculate launch windows with no real instructions.
 
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It all depends on what time the moon intercepts your launch window, it doesn't amtter if it is day. Maybe you need to fast-forward to the correct time which might be at night.
 
The play back uses a day launch. The walk through says its supposed to be a night launch. I'm still new, I doubt the beginning of the new users guide would expect me to know how to calculate launch windows with no real instructions.
Open up the playback scenario and look at when the launch happens. Cross-check this with the Align-Planes MFD (with the moon set a tgt). Think your way through it a bit, and you'll probably figure out when a launch can happen

If you want some good reading on why you launch the direction you do, then head here.
 
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I'm not at home, I have Go Play In Space, but not Orbiter. I suspect there is a simple explanation for the minor discrepancies you describe.

Go Play In Space was written for Orbiter 2005, then updated for Orbiter 2006P1. In Orbiter 2010, Martin corrected a long standing error in the placement of the runway at KSC. I suspect he then re-recorded the KSC - Moon flight, so the times and dates may be different. Those differences are NOT important.

Page 4-4 shows pictures of MapMFD (the old one, a bit different from the current one) and AlignPlanesMFD. In MapMFD you'll probably need to change the diplay from "Groundtrack" to "Orbital Plane" - se the Orbiter Manual for instructions on that. Put simply, wait until the RInc shown in AlignPlanesMFD gets to it's lowest - and if it starts to climb again take off. This is how you find a "window" for a Earth - Moon trip, and it IS covered in Go Play In Space. Just don't get hung up on minor discrepancies and focus on the techniques the tutorial is trying to show.
 
Thanks, I started using a different guide that was helpful to but not as well done as this. I was worried about the small details because (remember I'm still new to orbiter) I was worried that launching on different dates and times than shown in the guide would alter alot of things in relation to the position of the earth and moon. Thinking more about it as long as I have a clear window it shouldn't matter to much.
I'm going to use the play in space guide again.
 
One of the keys to Orbiter is to know what is important and what is not - and that only comes with experience and understanding. This becomes worse with some tutorials - the ones which tell you exactly what numbers to use, for instance.

I find it's helpful to view more than one tutorial on a particular problem. By seeing what they have in common helps me to isolate the important information and ignore the irrelevant stuff. It also helps me to understand the mechanics involved a bit better, and find a "process" that I can apply to the particular flight I am making.

For a KSC to BB flight, I need to know how to launch into the correct plane (or as close to it as possible) which means knowing when to launch - and in what direction. So, I launch when RInc is lowest, and since the Moon is almost always at a lower inclination than KSC's latitude I launch due East.

Then, I need to know when to eject from LEO, and how much Dv I'll need. TransferMFD helps figure that out - I want the dotted line to meet the Moons orbit - but not pass it by much (for efficiency). The big "trick" here is to know how accurate you need to be at this point. You don't need absolute pin-point accuracy when leaving LEO - but you need to be reasonably close. The MFD's have limits to their accuracy, so trying to be "perfect" at the start is kind of a waste of time and effort. Later, I need to know when to make MCC's, and how accurate they need to be. In general, the closer you get to the target, the more accurate you CAN be, and the more accurate you SHOULD be.

With practice, you'll gain an understanding of the limitations of the MFD's, so you'll know how accurate you should try to be at any given step.

When first starting out with Orbiter, you don't really know what matters, and what doesn't. The tutorials won't always make that clear, so you've done the right thing by asking us here at the forum!
 
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