Darthan
Modder
Deja Vu
Hot Stuff
Space Glider
Swingin' on a Star
ET phone home
Atlas
Voyager Quest
Floater
Added support for aiming to land at a specified marker, which may be a landmark or a landed rocket.
Download v0.7.1
All releases
Assist Selects the type of assistance
Throttle The target throttle to be used. This is used to estimate the velocity needed. Not used for ANAIS orbit changes.
**Marker** Enable the landing marker. When enabled will show the position of the current marker.
The blue line is the marker position. The yellow line is the position where de-orbiting is to start assuming the correct orientation (usually retrograde) and the selected throttle with the current rocket mass and switched on engines. The red line is the position where deorbiting must start assuming 100% throttle i.e the last position that you can de-orbit at to reach the target.
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It can be used to land more efficiently. It will set the throttle to reduce the vertical velocity so the spacecraft comes to a stop at the specified altitude. This allows me to land faster and so spend less fuel.
If surface assistance is selected and the target altitude is set to the minimum value it will aim to reach the target altitude at the specified vertical velocity i.e land at that velocity. It does not control direction so the spacecraft needs to be pointed up to land. If, when hovering at a specified altitude, you rotate the spacecraft (do not point if down!) it will increase the throttle to maintain altitude as you start to move sideways. While moving sideways it will try to maintain the same altitude above the terrain - following the contours. This is to allow you to pick a landing site. It works best when used with SAS to maintain the desired direction.
The following example is for a Lunar landing in Normal starting from a 100km orbit with plenty of thrust (earth TWR around 1 - local TWR nearly 6) the details will vary in other situations. To land with it from orbit:
Download v0.7.1
All releases
Assist Selects the type of assistance
- 'Off' Switch assistance off (manual control)
- 'Surf' Assist with landing on the surface (i.e vertical velocity with respect to the planet)
- 'Mark' Assist with de-orbiting to land at the selected marker (i.e horizontal velocity with respect to the planet). Visible when the marker is enabled.
- 'ANAIS' Assist with orbit changes or final approach when using the ANAIS mod.
If surface assistance is selected, taking the orientation of the rocket into account, this mod will set the thrust to attempt to reach 0 m/s vertical velocity at the specified altitude. If the altitude is set to surface (the minimum altitude) it will attempt to land at the specified velocity.
If marker assistance is selected, taking the orientation of the rocket into account, this mod will set the thrust to attempt to reach 0 m/s horizontal velocity at the specified mark.
If ANAIS assistance is selected, the action taken depends on whether the current velocity arrow is for an orbit change or a final approach. Note - the ANAIS button will only appear if an ANAIS velocity arrow would appear in the spacecraft view.
- For an orbit change, this mod will set the thrust to 100% until the target velocity would be reached within 3 seconds. Then it will adjust the throttle to maintain the 3 seconds to target until the rocket is within 0.05 m/s of the target velocity. This results in the throttle steadily decreasing until the target is reached allowing for precision.
- For final approach, this mod will set the thrust to attempt to reach 0 m/s velocity at the specified distance. Note that the distance used takes into account the 'radius' of both spacecraft so that closest approach of any part of either spacecraft will be this value. This may result in stopping a bit short depending on the current orientation of the spacecraft.
- In both cases the ignition will only be turned on if at least 95% of the thrust is in the correct direction (i.e. within about 13 deg). This allows for small adjustments on final approach to reduce the closest approach distance.
- <<< set minimum value (i.e. attempt to land (surface ) or close as possible (ANAIS ))
- << reduce value (*0.5)
- < reduce value by 0.5 m
- > increase vakue by 0.5 m
- >> increase value (*2)
- >>> set maximum value (1024 m)
- << set minimum value
- < reduce value
- > increase value
- >> set maximum value
Throttle The target throttle to be used. This is used to estimate the velocity needed. Not used for ANAIS orbit changes.
(controls as for Land At)
**Marker** Enable the landing marker. When enabled will show the position of the current marker.
- <<< move marker anti-clockwise to the next landmark or landed rocket
- << move marker anti-clockwise 1km
- < move marker anti-clockwise 30m
- > move marker clockwise 30m
- >> move marker clockwise 1km
- >>> move marker clockwise to the next landmark or landed rocket
The blue line is the marker position. The yellow line is the position where de-orbiting is to start assuming the correct orientation (usually retrograde) and the selected throttle with the current rocket mass and switched on engines. The red line is the position where deorbiting must start assuming 100% throttle i.e the last position that you can de-orbit at to reach the target.
---------------------------------------------------------
It can be used to land more efficiently. It will set the throttle to reduce the vertical velocity so the spacecraft comes to a stop at the specified altitude. This allows me to land faster and so spend less fuel.
If surface assistance is selected and the target altitude is set to the minimum value it will aim to reach the target altitude at the specified vertical velocity i.e land at that velocity. It does not control direction so the spacecraft needs to be pointed up to land. If, when hovering at a specified altitude, you rotate the spacecraft (do not point if down!) it will increase the throttle to maintain altitude as you start to move sideways. While moving sideways it will try to maintain the same altitude above the terrain - following the contours. This is to allow you to pick a landing site. It works best when used with SAS to maintain the desired direction.
The following example is for a Lunar landing in Normal starting from a 100km orbit with plenty of thrust (earth TWR around 1 - local TWR nearly 6) the details will vary in other situations. To land with it from orbit:
- First enable the marker and select the position you want the land at.
- Next, timewarp to a little short of the yellow dotted line on the map, point retrograde and select _marker_ and (optionally _surface_) assistance. When the yellow dotted line is reached the engines will start.
- Once you are close, select _surface_ assistance (if not alorady on) also ('Both' will be displayed) aiming for the default target altitude of 32m.
- When the marker is reached switch off _marker_ assistance.
- Once at the target altitude, switch 'prograde' off in SAS and manually set the direction to reduce the remaining sideways velocity to zero. Alternately, to move sidewise, tilt a little in the direction to start moving in and tilt back once the desired position is reached. **Important** Ensure _marker_ assist is off (and _surface_ on) when hovering. The thrust may sometimes go too high if _marker_ assist is left on. By design, the engines will cut off if _surface_ assist is switched off while hovering.
- Finally set SAS to Surface 0 degrees and change the target altitude to the minimum. The spacecraft will land at the specified velocity.
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