Problem NASSP CSM RCS Helium Pressure

[Zane]

Hello all. I've got a little problem here. I was flying the Apollo 7 mission, and at about 24 hours MET, I started getting a bunch of SM RCS lights, due to the fact that the RCS pressurant's pressure was dropping below nominal. After a little bit, I completely lost the ability to maneuver with RCS engines. I decided I'd wait until the spacecraft "tumbled" somewhere toward the proper orientation for retrofire and fired the SPS to reenter. However, when I went to separate the CM from the SM, nothing happened. No matter how much I pressed the switches, the spacecraft just wouldn't separate...

So that's why I'm posting here, in search of some insight.

Oh, by the way, in case it's important, I'm using the latest NASSP release, from September 19.

 

[pattersoncr]

Are you flying "Quickstart" or Virtual AGC?
what procedure did you follow to activate the RCS? How about for separation? Did you have the pyros armed?

 

[Shadow Addict]

Do you have a scenario from before retrofire?

 

[Quick_Nick]

I don't know why you lost RCS pressure, but be sure you have the pyros armed when doing something like a seperation.

 

[Tschachim]

I was flying the Apollo 7 mission, and at about 24 hours MET, I started getting a bunch of SM RCS lights, due to the fact that the RCS pressurant's pressure was dropping below nominal.

Probably this: Each SM RCS quad has 2 tanks, a primary and a secondary tank and the secondary tank isn't pressurized at launch. When about half of the propellant of a quad has been used, the primary tank is empty and you need to pressurize the secondary tank by switching the SM RCS SEC FUEL PRESS A/B/C/D switches to OPEN.

Cheers
Tschachim

 

[n72.75]

Can you post the scenario?

It would help.

 

[movieman]

However, when I went to separate the CM from the SM, nothing happened. No matter how much I pressed the switches, the spacecraft just wouldn't separate...

NASA tried very, very hard to ensure that you couldn't separate the CM from the SM unless you had about a dozen switches and circuit breakers in the correct position . I suspect you have a misconfigured SECS.

Also, you need to hold them for a split second to ensure the pyros fire.

 

[Zane]

Sorry for the late reply, everyone.

Anyway, I was flying Quickstart, and I did in fact go through all of the separation checklists. I did not, however hit the switches that Tschachim said. So that's one thing down.

However, with respect to the separation problem, I have a little bit of information that I probably should have posted before- I had quit Orbiter right after launch, and as usual, Orbiter saved the scenario in (Current State).scn.

After a little bit of non-Orbiter related stuff, I checked the NASSP wiki and realized that my version of NASSP was out of date, so I downloaded the release that I said I had in my first post, and then continued "orbiting." Maybe that created some weird problem.

 

[Tschachim]

... I checked the NASSP wiki and realized that my version of NASSP was out of date, so I downloaded the release that I said I had in my first post, and then continued "orbiting." Maybe that created some weird problem.

Yes, you really should start over with a scenario in the "Project Apollo - NASSP" folder after an update.

Cheers
Tschachim

 

[rockettony101]

yeah ive been haveing the same issue but im doing apollo 11 and my rcs a and c is not working well i got a sm rcs a and c warning light and i cant figure out what to do

 

[sw34669]

I've just had this same issue today - Looking at Orbiter 2016 prop tanks 2-3-4-5 they are all just about empty 69 hours in and showing as 50kg tanks. is 50kg the correct ammount for He+Prop ? I think they should be 150kg