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SpaceX Dragon Docking Simulator Speedrun


Ultimate Steve

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https://iss-sim.spacex.com/

Earlier today, SpaceX released a simulator for a simplified version of their Crew Dragon docking procedure. This is an offshoot from the SpaceX Discussion Thread where we will keep track of forum user's attempts to dock as fast as possible.

Timer starts from your first control input. Settings should be left to default. We'll use the honor system for proof as this is more casual than uber competitive and uploading videos would take a while.

Docking Leaderboard:

  1. @OrbitalPotato 0:27
  2. @Ultimate Steve 0:46
  3. @RCgothic 1:46
  4. @sevenperforce 3:58

Fly-Around and then Docking Leaderboard:

  1. No entries yet.

@sevenperforce suggested this category, I would like to ask him how to define a fly-around. Is there a certain waypoint we should pass?

 

Happy dockings!

 

Edited by Ultimate Steve
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Is there a timer, or do I have to set a stopwatch?

Wasn't trying too hard guestimate time was between 2 and 3 min.

Probably didn't need to drop to "safe" speed inside 5m.

Sim/game really needs to count RCS prop use, then you could do time, plus most residuals left.

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8 minutes ago, tater said:

Is there a timer, or do I have to set a stopwatch?

Wasn't trying too hard guestimate time was between 2 and 3 min.

Probably didn't need to drop to "safe" speed inside 5m.

Sim/game really needs to count RCS prop use, then you could do time, plus most residuals left.

Yes, a stopwatch is good. Unfortunately there is not an internal timer in the simulation.

Edited by Ultimate Steve
Game -> simulation
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25 minutes ago, tater said:

Sim/game really needs to count RCS prop use, then you could do time, plus most residuals left.

Yep, I was expecting to get a message that says "Congratulations! You've successfully docked. You used 44 lbs of maneuvering propellant. Automated docking takes between 11 and 18 lbs."

34 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

@sevenperforce suggested this category, I would like to ask him how to define a fly-around. Is there a certain waypoint we should pass?

In a proper fly-around you adjust pointing to a consistent view of the ISS. So my suggestion is that a fly-around takes either pitch or yaw through 360 degrees without losing view of the Harmony module.

I went about 2/3 of the way around before I got bored so I know it is possible.

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23 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

what the actual how on earth

Are those minutes or seconds

Seconds!

My route:

As the time starts, switch translation into low precision (but not rotation), spam forwards while at the same time rolling to more or less the correct roll angle. Reduce roll rate to 0. Should be going forward a few meters per second at this time. As quickly as possible, alter pitch and yaw to +-0.1 degrees. Now translate left and right to get centered on the docking port while simultaneously correcting roll (it will have gone out of whack) to +-0.1 at 0 rate. Get and keep the port centered, speeding up and slowing down as necessary. Brake at the last moment (I usually am going 4-5m/s a few tens of meters from the station) and when within a few meters travelling less than 0.4-0.5m/s, switch translation to fine controls and keep the docking port centered. Within the last meter or half meter reduce forward speed to just under 0.2m/s.

I have not been able to replicate that low of a time, I got really lucky with my rotation corrections. I have gotten under a minute a few times though.

 

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1 minute ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Seconds!

My route:

As the time starts, switch translation into low precision (but not rotation), spam forwards while at the same time rolling to more or less the correct roll angle. Reduce roll rate to 0. Should be going forward a few meters per second at this time. As quickly as possible, alter pitch and yaw to +-0.1 degrees. Now translate left and right to get centered on the docking port while simultaneously correcting roll (it will have gone out of whack) to +-0.1 at 0 rate. Get and keep the port centered, speeding up and slowing down as necessary. Brake at the last moment (I usually am going 4-5m/s a few tens of meters from the station) and when within a few meters travelling less than 0.4-0.5m/s, switch translation to fine controls and keep the docking port centered. Within the last meter or half meter reduce forward speed to just under 0.2m/s.

I have not been able to replicate that low of a time, I got really lucky with my rotation corrections. I have gotten under a minute a few times though.

 

Hot damn.

I just got down to 3:58 and thought I was doing good.

What is your failure rate tho?

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23 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Hot damn.

I just got down to 3:58 and thought I was doing good.

What is your failure rate tho?

Fairly high but I haven't done enough sub 1 minute runs for a good analysis. I'd estimate currently a 25 percent success rate maybe? Many hundreds of billions of dollars worth of station has been destroyed.

I'll update the leaderboard in a moment.

23 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

 

What is your failure rate tho?

Additional recent info: Just managed two sub 1:30 runs in a row successfully. My main issue seems to be getting orientation spot on early on.

Edit: Third successful run in a row, 0:54. Hmm. I seem to be a lot more consistent now.

Edit: And a 0:55

Edit: And a run where I somehow managed to crash into the Russian segment...

Edited by Ultimate Steve
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10 hours ago, tater said:

Sim/game really needs to count RCS prop use, then you could do time, plus most residuals left.

8 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I got an 0:46, and I recorded this one !

Science Principal Investigator disliked, too much RCS clouds around station

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5 hours ago, YNM said:

Are there keyboard key shortcuts for the roll control ?

Took me a while to figure it out. Comma rolls left; period rolls right.

6 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I mean, at least we didn't fire the superdracos to really speedrun it.

Let's see here. Dragon 2 has four forward Dracos with a total thrust of 1.6 kN. You cannot fire a single SuperDraco but you can fire two pairwise, downthrottled to 20%. There are some cosine losses but there is also increased thrust because they are underexpanded in vacuum, so we'll pretend they cancel. Minimum SuperDraco thrust is therefore 28.4 kN. So you need to fire your forward Dracos for 17.8 seconds for every one second you fired your SuperDracos.

Actually not as bad as I thought.

I got it down to 3:26 with keyboard controls. Still in awe of you magnificent SOBs who can pull off anything under two minutes.

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11 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Has anyone else noticed that the rates are sped up? Like a roll rate of 0.1 degrees per second is obviously more than that.

I figured it was a limited field of view thing..

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