IonStorm
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KSP2 Release Notes
Posts posted by IonStorm
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1 minute ago, insert_name said:
so @IonStorm how is it going to collect the samples, is it going to land or just brush against it?
The spacecraft touches the surface of Bennu with what looks like an old car air filter on the end of a 3-m long pogo stick. This is called the Touch And Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM). The spacecraft slowly falls under Bennu's tiny gravity and touches the surface with the TAGSAM head. Upon contact a jet of nitrogen gas is released to rocks and dust from the top couple centimeters into the TAGSAM head and trapped between a filter and mylar check valve. At the same time steel Velcro pads will collect surface dust. The pogo springs back and the thrusters fire the spacecraft a safe distance from Bennu. The contact takes less than 5 seconds.
After sampling the spacecraft measures the mass of the sample by spinning with the arm extended to determine the change in inertia since before sapling. If there was a problem with collection, there are an additional two bottles of nitrogen for two more sampling attempts. If everything checks out the head is stowed in the sample return canister (SRC) and then severed from the arm.
More at https://dslauretta.com/2015/04/20/development-of-the-osiris-rex-sampling-system-tagsam-and-the-src/
and
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On May 21, 2016 at 6:27 PM, archenemy_6 said:
I was thinking earlier how I wished I could come up with all these cool acronyms like NASA does. I really like the name OSIRIS-REx
I'm glad you like the name. OSIRIS-REx was based on the mission objectives:
- Origins: Return and analyze a sample of pristine carbonaceous asteroid regolith
- Spectral Interpretation: Provide ground truth for telescopic data of the entire asteroid population
- Resource Identification: Map the chemistry and mineralogy of a primitive carbonaceous asteroid
- Security: Measure the Yarkovsky effect on a potentially hazardous asteroid
Plus Egyptology is cool. We proposed OSIRIS twice in the NASA Discovery mission line, but the Agency selected nobody for our first cycle then Grail for our second. The biggest problem was we couldn't fit in the cost box for Discovery. We proposed for New Frontiers, with about double the budget and as a joke someone added REX to the end to signify it was bigger. The joke stuck, so we decided that REx must mean:
- Regolith Explorer: Document the regolith at the sampling site at scales down to the sub-cm
NASA does love their acronyms. I'm fond of this passage
QuoteThe first thing we had to learn was the crazy acronyms that NASA uses all over the place: “SRMs” are the solid rocket motors, which make up most of the “SRBs,” the solid rocket boosters. The “SSMEs” are the space shuttle main engines; they burn “LH” (liquid hydrogen) and “LOX” (liquid oxygen), which are stored in the “ET,” the external tank.
Everything's got letters. And not just the big things: practically every valve has an acronym, so they said, “We'll give you a dictionary for the acronyms—it's really very simple.” Simple, sure, but the dictionary is a great, big, fat book that you've gotta keep looking through for things like “HPFTP” (high-pressure fuel turbopump) and “HPOTP” (high-pressure oxygen turbopump).
“What Do You Care What Other People Think?” Further Adventures of a Curious Character Richard P. Feynman 1989
Anyway, the spacecraft (or s/c) shipped to NASA KSC Friday and final preparations for launch September 8, 2016 at 7:05 EDT are underway.
I am very much looking forward to your OSIRIS-REx model in KSP.
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2 hours ago, MarkoeZ said:
is it already confirmed that it is POSSIBLE with the physics/rails/gravity/rendering/whatever system of the game to get an approach with real mass?
Obviously it is possible in real life, with two deep space maneuvers and an Earth gravity assist. I have not had time to play since the Bennu model was released--sorry. However, I have done the stock missions where you dock with space junk in Kerbolcentric orbit. It shouldn't be much different from that.
You will not be captured by Bennu's gravity, you will need to approach it as if trying to dock. I'm not sure if KSP allows you to actually orbit once engaged in prox-ops, but that's not a big deal if you can't. We both sit in a two different semi-stable orbits and move from station to station to observe at different lighting conditions. Since KSP doesn't incorporate solar pressure your orbit won't precess properly so it won't be a perfect recreation.
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If you are looking for more spacecraft images for your models or other information, yesterday there was the social media event I mentioned last month. This meant that photography was allowed in the cleanroom viewing windows e.g.
- https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/osirisrex/
- https://twitter.com/hashtag/ToBennuAndBack?src=hash
- https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bennu?src=hash
The night before I watched the TAGSAM sampler head was stowed for the last time before it is opened near Bennu! It will not see light until it reaches Bennu and no artificial light until it is opened at NASA Johnson Space Center, September 25, 2023.
The giant balloon in the background was used to offset gravity on the arm while it is being actuated (an effective but Kerbal sort of solution). This work was done second shift to reduce other activities in the cleanroom which could be sources of contamination.
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1 hour ago, MarkoeZ said:
Tried this with real mass. Failed hard.. Spent years in-game and hours RL trying to get an intercept but alas...
Might give it a go with Gilly mass
As we often say, "if it was easy it would have already been done." Sure practice with the Gilly mass, then when you are ready do it for real!
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7 minutes ago, Matuchkin said:
If I ever get to talk to Stephen Hawking...
Not to go off topic, but if you are serious do some research on professionals in your area, but not necessarily on TV. See who is presenting at meetings, e.g. https://aas.org, http://spie.org/, etc. or publishing e.g. ADS, google scholar, etc. in your area. But only if you are serious. Be well prepared and polite when you contact someone.
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3 hours ago, Matuchkin said:
Holy god. And yet I still think grade 10-11 will be a big deal.
That was my "internship" at UH. My 10th grade science fair project with Prof. Joan Oró at UH lead to an invitation to stay and assist his graduate students. Introduce yourself to professionals who share your passion and demonstrate and eagerness to learn and you may be able to do the same.
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1 hour ago, adsii1970 said:
Thanks for tagging @IonStorm, and if he/she submits their information, I will be more than happy to put it where it goes!
Sure,
- Intern: University of Houston: Houston, TX, USA (Biochemistry), 1987
- A.B.: Occidental College: Los Angeles, CA, USA (Biochemistry), 1991
- Fellow: NASA Specialized Center for Research and Training in Exobiology: San Diego, CA, USA, 1992-1996
- Ph.D.: University of California, San Diego: San Diego, CA, USA (Biochemistry), 1997
- Post-doctoral: SETI Institute/NASA Ames: Mountain View, CA, USA (Astrophysics, astrobiology), 2002
I can give you more on current work, awards, missions, and publications if you want.
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8 minutes ago, KillAshley said:
its better to just leave it as Gilly's mass
If you want to cheat. The real OSIRIS-REx will orbit the real Bennu.
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39 minutes ago, KillAshley said:
Simply install Kopernicus and then download the .zip file below and extract it into your GameData folder. It will run by itself from then.
You rock!
40 minutes ago, KillAshley said:the mass caused more issues, being so small an intercept was almost impossible.
Sounds about right then. Pity there is no way to add the solar pressure to make it a real challenge.
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4 minutes ago, Jetski said:
Wow! Can I just say that the CAD drawings from the OP are fantastic!
Joy!
Don't forget to look at the photos and videos of the real spacecraft to get the colors when modding.
19 minutes ago, Matuchkin said:Hold on. STK- just how accurate is it?
Professional grade
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1 minute ago, Kandjk said:
Still need to buy a license
You still need to register, but "STK is a free 2D and 3D modeling environment to model complex systems and evaluate their performance in real or simulated time"
It is still limited in what you can do for free. This is also drifting off topic, so 'nuff said.
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24 minutes ago, Kandjk said:
where is the free viewer?
http://www.agi.com/products/default.aspx
We'll also have j-asteroid for planning and modeling, but not quite yet.
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5 minutes ago, Kandjk said:
I need a license for it
And it ain't cheap. But some universities have site licenses, perhaps you have access. There is also a free viewer or something, but I'm on a Mac so I can't use it. It is also overkill unless you want to launch it for real anyway.
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52 minutes ago, Kandjk said:
@IonStorm If you know how to can you setup some code for a General Mission Analysis Tool ( a.k.a. GMAT ) If you want to and/or know how too thanks!
Or any other Open Source windows compatible software would be great. I don't know how to use GMAT
Nope. We did our analysis with STK, and by "we" I mean a team of skilled navigators for years from NASA Goddard*, KinetX, and Lockheed Martin not including me. Besides a Project Scientist specializes in "why" Engineers specialize in "how."
*Steven Hughes is a creator of GMAT but did not work directly on OSIRIS-REx.
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4 minutes ago, KillAshley said:
still gonna be a little tricky to get the exact features onto a spherical heightmap for use in game, however i SHOULd be able to get a pretty close approximation of the shape itself and procedurally generate the surface closer up
20 hours ago, Matuchkin said:You should get Realism Overhaul, with its planet expansion pack (featuring a lot of asteroids and comets, including Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Halley, etc). Seriously, it is completely amazing. It even has Sedna. Friggin' SEDNA.
Actually, if 67/P is there Bennu should be easy.
4 hours ago, Jetski said:Not particularly accurate in really any way, but hey, it's a first try!
Way better than my first attempt (bonus: guess the version of KSP).
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I talked to Mike Nolan (whom you've cited) about getting data to help with the Bennu model. I'll post the higher resolution (but fictional) version when Mike gets it to me.
They can probably use the .obj: it’s pretty common in 3-d land. If not, they should say what they want and we can make it.
http://www.naic.edu/~pradar/Bennu/Bennu.published.obj
They may want the 49000-facet version from Bob Gaskell, as it’s prettier. We can get that too, but I don’t have it lying around.
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9 minutes ago, Jetski said:
Would be cool to have an accurate RSS planet, and also the possibility of a stock config.
Let me see if I can get you the synthetic asteroid model we use.
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2 hours ago, Spheniscine said:
I wonder why they're doing that? I guess it compensates with gimbals or vernier thrusters or something, but what advantages does it have?
The RD180 engines on the first stage gimbal to compensate for the solid rocket booster. The advantage is cost. KSP is far more generous with funds than reality.
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13 minutes ago, Matuchkin said:
You should get Realism Overhaul, with its planet expansion pack (featuring a lot of asteroids and comets, including Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Halley, etc). Seriously, it is completely amazing. It even has Sedna. Friggin' SEDNA.
That is awesome, and sounds way beyond my abilities (and available time).
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11 minutes ago, Jetski said:
That's actually where I started, I'll try to make sure the numbers are coming from there
Here's the first draft. I strongly suspect the inclination is off possibly because RSS has the entire ecliptic at a slant. Unless that orbit looks right to you... But working on it. And then I'm going to fly there Very cool!! The inclination does look steep by eye, but you'd need to measure it.
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24 minutes ago, NathanKell said:
You can get the actual ephemeris from JPL's HORIZONS. RSS uses 1 Jan 1951 minus a few minutes as the epoch (it's in the top of the general RSS settings file, IIRC) and we use Earth-equator-centric coords.
The JPL database is a good summary, but http://arxiv.org/pdf/1409.4704v1.pdf has the state of the art on Bennu.
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12 minutes ago, NathanKell said:
Afraid my time is taken up by RealJob (i.e. KSP itself) at the moment. Should not be hard at all however.
@IonStorm awesome challenge, and awesome mission! Per some of the posts above, you might want to add a category for RSS/RO recreations. Because that will be rather different. :]
Super idea, and I'm delighted at how excited the community is over this.
Get engaged at:
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10 minutes ago, IonStorm said:
it is exactly a touch and go. Our sampler is even called TAGSAM (Touch And Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism).
Here is TAGSAM in action https://videopress.com/v/rEhJ3Ugt and here is the nominal TAG sequence
Taken from http://dslauretta.com/2014/02/14/sampling-an-asteroid-a-game-of-laser-tag/ and http://dslauretta.com/2015/04/20/development-of-the-osiris-rex-sampling-system-tagsam-and-the-src/
NASA's OSIRIS-REx
in Science & Spaceflight
Posted
Like on Stardust, the SRC is spin-stabalized and ejected from the spacecraft. The SRC lands at the Utah Test and Training Range (Utah, USA) 8:53 am MDT September 24, 2023, while the spacecraft is diverted into heliocentric orbit. After that the spacecraft is available to be used as NASA sees fit--though at that point the warranty would have expired
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