Saturday, June 24, 2006

SimRoskosmos #2

Please fill out this survey

survey has ended

Info on

Energia's Kliper
Krunichev's PTK

Thursday, June 22, 2006

SimRoskosmos

Over the last couple of weeks I have been pondering about starting a virtual space agency similar to Simnasa, but based on the Russian Federal Space Agency instead of NASA, calling it SimRoskosmos or SimRKA.(I know ripoff of SimNASA) I have been collecting info on future Roskosmos programs and concepts, from these I have a basic idea of what SimRoskosmos would be doing

Manned flights:
1.Station building, resupply, crew transfers
2.Free-flyer visits
3.Moon, Mars and Venus programs

Unmanned flights
1.Comsats, to support manned ops
2.Free-flyers
3.Interplanetary missions

I am hoping to keep everything modular to allow for quick development of the add-ons needed to fulfill the above missions

basic current thinking is...
Energia Klipper or Krunichiev PTK, for manned op's

Parom or PTK service module for tugs/free-flyers/station modules

Angara would be the LV of choice for all missions

Roskosmos current interplanetary missions will be simulated, Phobos-Grunt, Luna-Glob, Venera-D, all three missions would launch on soyuz-2. but
current testing has reveled that angara with one strap on booster can lift soyuz-2 class payloads

I have started modeling some the add-ons needed
Luna-Glob
Venera-D
Venera-D Lander
nothing is set in stone at the moment, so SimRoskosmos, may or may not happen, I think it would be best to have the basic parts defined and complete, before starting SimRoskosmos, so that it doesn't end up dead in the water. we shall see,

ITS ALIVE, ITS ALIVE....

So I had the new furnace installed today, works great. The guys that installed it say it has "92% annual fuel utilization efficiency" compared to 45% for my old furnace, it will cut my fuel bills in half they say, I remain skeptical on that point however, I have to wonder if it is like hybrid cars, you may save money on fuel, but it costs 3-5 time more to fix them over a regular car.
Time will tell...

one problem has come up though, the door to change the filter is on the opposite side, compared to the old furnace, which means the wall that I carefully took down to get the old furnace out, can't be put back up as is. Have to think of something...

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Missing in Action

Orbiter add-on development has slowed to a snails pace at the moment. I've been busy lately, a couple of weeks ago the furnace came on, when the temperature dropped at night, the heat exchanger crapped out, and started making carbon monoxide(thank god for carbon monoxide detectors). Long story short I now need a new furnace. But my main problem is that years ago I finished the basement off and never thought, I would have to replace the furnace. Ha I wish thought of that at the time. To make matters worse I have central air conditioning, which needs the furnace to run, and I hate hot, humid days, So I am in a rush to get this done. Live and learn

My site is one year old now....
still can't believe it, my blogger site was only supposed to be temporary, until I had learned how to use Mambo, for my permanent site. But I ended up liking blogger better. I think I made the right choice, especially since more orbinauts are using blogger now as well.

once things get sorted out for me, I'll pick up my orbiter projects again

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Nothing new

I haven't had much free time lately, so no progress with my orbiter add-on projects.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Kim Jong-il and the DPRK will.....





Be craping in their pant's when South Korea's KSLV has its first launch =). Textures and configs are done, it goes like a scared cat, but performance is right on the numbers. I started making the STsat-2 for the KSLV to launch. I think I'm going to make the Angara Launch site next, and then chop it up and convert it into the KSLV launch site

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Bigelow the Space Gigolo

If you haven't noticed yet Bigelow aerospace has updated their site

Bigelow aerospace

The info on his inflatable modules is still almost non existant, and quite vague. But there is some interesting info there, On the upcoming Genesis module(lauch June 16) there will be 1,000 photocards and small personal objects contributed by Bigelow employes, that will freefloat around Genesis after it is inflated. Six onboard, and seven external cameras will stream video to Bigelow's new website. On the next Genesis launch, you can buy space for your photo or personal item.

It would make an interesting add-on for orbiter, especially if you could simulate the stuff floating around inside. just have to wait and see :)

KSLV



I hammered out the model and put on some textures(still more to do) last night, I was eager to try it out in orbiter. With throttleing(to 65%) the first stage pushes about 14G's at burn out, which is very high, but should have no problems putting 100kg into a 1500km orbit.