[0.17] [Erkle+ORDA] Orbital Propellant Depot Olympus

[pwnedbyscope]

Any recommended graphics settings that we should use for this? I have a pretty high end PC and this ship killed my framerate.

aye, i think, havent done any testing, but I think that it dosent have multicore support

[mcirish3]

No it does not have Multicore support. I wonder if it supports SLI since it seems slow even with folder switch for very large ships(250 + parts)

[Bigred2989]

aye, i think, havent done any testing, but I think that it dosent have multicore support

That would explain it. So it's basically forces my PC to run on 1 cylinder. I guess I'll have to wait for that update before I can use this ship. Oh well. I don't understand most of the forulas people use for space navigation so I have issues getting to places like Minmus anyway, lol.

[dennybop]

how do you mod it with plugins?

[jhz3]

This looks amazing and I'm planning on trying it as soon as I get home from class. I need something to keep my mind off all my failed interplanetary missions anyways

EDIT: Watched the launch slideshow... I mean, launched it. I haven't docked to it yet but it looks bada$$ sitting in orbit. I used the full version btw.

Edited October 10, 2012 by jhz3

[dnleek]

Bigger! BIGGER! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Capacity of 33600L of fuel and 11000L RCS propellant, man was getting it into orbit terrible.

Side note: do you need the ORDA autopilot part for RCS transfer, or just the fuel transfer part? Because if you need the autopilot, I gotta put another one up into orbit...

edit: just for size comparison, the tanker I use to run resupply missions has the same fuel capacity as the whole Olympus.

Edited October 13, 2012 by dnleek

[sanity]

Nice,

this is my ride

[Temstar]

Bigger! BIGGER! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Capacity of 33600L of fuel and 11000L RCS propellant, man was getting it into orbit terrible.

Side note: do you need the ORDA autopilot part for RCS transfer, or just the fuel transfer part? Because if you need the autopilot, I gotta put another one up into orbit...

edit: just for size comparison, the tanker I use to run resupply missions has the same fuel capacity as the whole Olympus.

Jebus, what kind of mission need that kind of fuel requirement?

As for RCS transfer, no you just need the fuel transfer but, you don't need the computer. As a matter of fact from what I can see the placement of the fuel transfer thing on your propellant depot doesn't actually matter, what type of fuel gets transferred depends on the type of the target tank not the source tank.

How do you fly a 6400L tanker and get it to dock? I find that big spaceship is pretty unwieldy when it comes to be the active partner in docking so I tend to use small tankers. For example, here's one of my light tanker refuelling my Duna/Ike mission stack.

[potatobabe]

Thanks for the inspiration I'll upload my take on this when I can post attachments (any idea at what post count uploads are allowed?)

[dnleek]

How do you fly a 6400L tanker and get it to dock? I find that big spaceship is pretty unwieldy when it comes to be the active partner in docking so I tend to use small tankers. For example, here's one of my light tanker refuelling my Duna/Ike mission stack.

My tanker is a 3200L fuel tank surrounded by 8 800L fuel tanks, so it's length is actually manageable to the point where even the command pod gyros are sufficient to turn the thing at a reasonable rate. It looks like your light tanker but surrounded by 8 of the 800L tanks. And then I put unreasonable amounts of RCS blocks for translation. I actually dock entirely manually, I've not used ORDA for anything other than the fuel transfer modules. Although at this point I'm really just bragging

And as for what mission could need that much fuel, well... I haven't actually thought of anything... but maybe I can transfer to Moho. WITH THE MAINSAIL ENGINES

[Volt]

I love this station, and I love a good use of docking. I have two questions about the mods you can probably clarify for me.

1. Is the Erkle docking clamp totally safe and not going to break my station into 3 while in a stable orbit at 100x? I haven't played KSP since my last big station non-explosively exploded into three separate ships using ORDA.

2. The ORDA fuel transfer modules... do they drain fuel from your entire station or just the tank they're attached to? And can one mounted on a fuel tank refuel RCS if it is available? Sorry, I know this was already discussed, but I didn't think it was quite what I was asking.

[Temstar]

I love this station, and I love a good use of docking. I have two questions about the mods you can probably clarify for me.

1. Is the Erkle docking clamp totally safe and not going to break my station into 3 while in a stable orbit at 100x? I haven't played KSP since my last big station non-explosively exploded into three separate ships using ORDA.

2. The ORDA fuel transfer modules... do they drain fuel from your entire station or just the tank they're attached to? And can one mounted on a fuel tank refuel RCS if it is available? Sorry, I know this was already discussed, but I didn't think it was quite what I was asking.

Erkle docking clamps are much stronger than ORDA docking system but they're not entirely warp proof. Once you're on rail there's no physics calculation so the claws can't exert force to keep the two ships together. Over time they ships will drift apart ever so slightly. However upon return to real time Erkle will try to reset the two ships back to docked position if they are close enough. The drift and reset are pretty reliable hence why I managed to fly that two ship combination to the mun. However I'm told when doing interplanety transfer you need to stay away from the highest level of warp and drop back down to real time about once a week for the system to fix itself.

The ORDA fuel transfer module drain fuel from a specific tank but it's not necessarily the tank they attach to. Engines drain fuel from the tank furthest away to them, so for example with Olympus when you fire it's four radial engines you notice instead of draining fuel from the tank they are attached to they drain from the rear fuel tank first. ORDA fuel transfer modules draw down fuel using the same logic. For example see below:

I have the fuel connection done so it's connected from the forward most tank to the target ship yet it's draining the rear tank.

Test shows that you can indeed refuel RCS tank using a fuel transfer module mounted on a fuel tank (and vice visa). The type of fuel transferred doesn't depend on the type of tank that the transfer system is stuck on but instead depends on the type of tank that the transfer line is connected to on the target ship.

Edited October 14, 2012 by Temstar

[AveXx]

Witch combination i do need for ORDA ?? Docking target to Docking System or what ?? pls help :|

Edited October 14, 2012 by AveXx

[Temstar]

Witch combination i do need for ORDA ?? Docking target to Docking System or what ?? pls help :|

If you want to rely on ORDA's docking computer's DOCKING function (auto and att):

The ship that's the active partner in the docking process (the one you're controlling) should have exactly one docking system and no docking target or docking decoupler, it also need exactly one ORDA computer

The ship that's the passive partner in the docking process (the one that ORDA is keep still for you) should have one or more docking target and/or docking decoupler (which also act as target). It needs exactly one ORDA computer and must not have any docking system.

That said, by using the hybrid system you can ignore the ORDA limitation by just docking manually while keeping the target ship stationary using the HOLD menu. You can even dock an Erkle claw only ship to Olympus by doing a fully manual dock.

[cheez]

I've been playing around all day, but when i go to select which port to set as target nothing comes up. Just a button with a dash. Also can someone please give me a little hand with this? I have olympus orbiting, i even opened the docks but still nothing comes up on other ships ORDA.

[Temstar]

I've been playing around all day, but when i go to select which port to set as target nothing comes up. Just a button with a dash. Also can someone please give me a little hand with this? I have olympus orbiting, i even opened the docks but still nothing comes up on other ships ORDA.

You have to be within about 2km of your target ship for its docking port list to show up in your docking target list. Before that you have to fly manual.

[bigpapabearxx]

Is the ORDA .17 because the teleport to target is broken and when i press DOCK the game crashes.

[Temstar]

ORDA's teleport function didn't work that well for 0.16 and doesn't work at all for 0.17. I believe it's due to space cthulhu rather than the mod though.

[JebThrillMaster]

Looks great, ill be trying this later.

[Mun Man]

hey i tried docking with the ORDA computor and it was on "orient" and i got NaN or something like that for everything and both ships were on an escape trajectory out of the sun...please tell me what just happened?

[Temstar]

hey i tried docking with the ORDA computor and it was on "orient" and i got NaN or something like that for everything and both ships were on an escape trajectory out of the sun...please tell me what just happened?

Space Cthulhu strikes again!

http://kspwiki.nexisonline.net/wiki/Deep_Space_Kraken

[Mun Man]

Space Cthulhu strikes again!

http://kspwiki.nexisonline.net/wiki/Deep_Space_Kraken

Darn...well time to ADD ALL THE QUICKSAVES!

[cheez]

How do you guys even make the tanker e.g go in the EXACT SAME orbit as the station and eventually make them close enough to dock??? I always miss the station and I have no clue which button to press on the ORDA panel.

[Crater]

Lots and lots of orbital maneuvering, and lots of practice.

If you are ahead of the station in its orbit, raise your AP by a few km. if you're behind it, lower your PE by a few. Warp for a while, and watch the gap close.

Re-circularize, and hopefully manage to be very close - I can usually get to about 500-1500 metres, by this method. At this point, I use the rendezvous module from Mechjeb, which doesn't do it for you, but does have controls that will align you along your relative velocity vector, or point you at the target vessel, so you can kill the relative velocity, then aim at the target and burn up to, say, 5ms-1. within a few minutes, you should be able to nudge the other ship, and let the erkle clamp target you in the last little bit.

It is certainly fun

[Temstar]

There isn't really any tool to help you get close enough to get visual on target in KSP, it's going to be all manual flying. But don't worry it's not too hard, just takes practice and some patience. First time is always the hardest but eventually you get so good you can do it with your eyes closed.

Okay so the steps I follow are:

1. Make sure the target vehicle is in a circular orbit, that is it's Ap and Pe needs to be about the same. I usually aim for no more than 30m difference. This is important as otherwise you'll have to deal with orbital phase and semi-major axis and all sorts of complicated stuff. Even NASA wouldn't touch that with a 10ft clown pole and used circular orbit for Gemini 6.

2. Okay so your target is in circular orbit and you've launched the docking vehicle into the same circular orbit. First thing you notice is that the two circles are not exactly on top of each other - that is their inclination are slightly different. If you were in your docking vehicle and target is close you will see it drift left and right. To fix this wait till you're at one of the two points where the two orbits cross (an orbital node) and thrust towards the direction of the drift. So if your target's orbit is drifting right (if the two of you are flying Kerbin prograde, that's means target craft orbit is south of yours after the orbital node) then burn towards right/south/anti-normal and watch the orbit. Once the two obits are aligned in inclination cut engine.

3. So now you and target are in the same circular orbit at same altitude and same inclination, except you're on opposite side of Kerbin. There are two ways to get to your target: catch up or slow down. Which you use will depend on which direction is smaller.

To catch up, perform a small retroburn to dip your orbit on the otherside of Kerbin lower. Remember objects travel on lower orbit do so at a higher velocity, in addition to the fact that you travel less distance for one revolution.

To slow down and let the other craft catch up, perform a small prograde burn to raise your orbit on the other side of Kerbin.

4. Once you've done this burn watch carefully how much the two crafts close in per orbit, ORDA is very useful because it tells you this information under the orbital tab when you select a target. Don't circularise your orbit when you reach the other side, keep one point at your target orbit's altitude and continue to adjust your orbit at this point. If you need the approach to be greater per orbit then make the difference in altitude at the othside bigger and vice visa. As you close in on your target you'll want to reduce the altitude difference at the furtherest point to avoid overshooting your target. Your last orbit before visual contact should have the altitude difference very small on the order of 500m, which at LKO will close in by about 5km per orbit. Once you are within 2km of your target you have achieved orbital rendezvous. All that's left is to fly in on pure visual reference and then dock.