Project Alexandria: a history of spaceflight done in Real Solar System

[Sampa]

Ranger 7 I think is also up next.

I thought felbourn said,he was only,going to do certain missions and not all of the mission series.

[Felbourn]

This is the last teaser for Alexandria 1964. It looked so good that I just had to make it a stand-alone launch video.

[davidy12]

OMG!!! CAN'T WAIT TO GET MY HANDS ON IT!!!

This is why Saturn is my favorite rocket family.

*Why didn't we use them for a Mars Mission *

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Though Felbourn, why did you wait so long to ignite the second stage?

Yeah I know that the Ullage motors force the propellants into the engines, but I always thought they ignited instantaneously like in the Saturn V.

PS: Don't you use RO in your install?

Edit: Also, when 1967 comes around, here's a useful flight plan of a Saturn V

http://www.braeunig.us/apollo/saturnV.htm

Edited October 31, 2015 by davidy12

[Felbourn]

I waited because I wanted to show the separation of the stage separately from the ignition of the stage, for cinematic purposes.

I make my own version of RO, so no. It's all in my git repo. I get all the data from web sites like the one you linked. You can see my favorite links in the original post of this thread, such as baeunig's.

[davidy12]

Oh, okay. Though one more question.

How do you get RVE to work in space? I know they're graphical issues on the ground that I can deal with, but when I'm in space, the clouds just disappear.

I installed everything except sharedassets9.

Edited October 31, 2015 by davidy12

[Felbourn]

I don't know. It "just works" for me. Pingopete is the one to ask.

[davidy12]

Felbourn, thanks for your tips BTW. Got RVE working.

Though one last thing, you don't think you can give us a tutorial on how to get into orbit with RSS on just one rocket burn. IE: On an Atlas.

[Felbourn]

For my Atlas launches, I start my gravity turn almost immediately. Once I'm going 250 m/s I make sure my nose is in the middle of my velocity vector, no matter what, and I keep it there until 500 m/s. After that I go back to pitching down until maybe 15 degrees. When the vehicle is down to roughly 45 tons, I drop the extra engines and continue to apogee on the sustainer. Assuming you're using an Agena upper stage, the rest is easy... just decouple stage 1 and burn until you like your apogee, then cut engines, restart at apogee as normal and circularize. Is there a particular point that things fail for you?

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In other news... 1965 is going to be hard to decide what to launch. I have at least 8 things I want to launch, and at least 4 other things I should mention or show pictures.

[davidy12]

Maybe split them up into two parts?

Because almost all Gemini flights were important. I'd say cover Gemini 3, 5-8. Then cover Gemini 11 because that was the first flight into Van Allen belt (I THINK, with Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon had their Agena Target Vehicle boost them up). Because 9, 10, 12 were pretty much the same. Voshkod 2 I'd say cover that as well. Even though Ed White's space walk was significant, Alexi Leonov's was the first. For probes, I can't really say. Though I'd say cover the AS-105 launch. I'd love to see your version of a Pegasus Satellite.

Edited November 1, 2015 by davidy12

[Felbourn]

The long awaited 1964...

[Sampa]

Yay!!!

[MK3424]

Nice video Bob Fitch!

[Dman979]

I'm really liking this series. One thing, though- do you try and match the actual orbits? And what mods are you using? Sorry if you've already answered these questions.

[Felbourn]

I take a crack at all orbits, and sometimes it comes really close.

mods are: http://i.imgur.com/CJprFHk.png

[Sampa]

I take a crack at all orbits, and sometimes it comes really close.

mods are: http://i.imgur.com/CJprFHk.png

You seem to be asked about what mods you use all the time. Might want to post a link to it on the op if it's not there already.

[MK3424]

I'm really liking this series. One thing, though- do you try and match the actual orbits? And what mods are you using? Sorry if you've already answered these questions.

Don't forget that he modifies most of the mods to suit the mission.

[Felbourn]

You seem to be asked about what mods you use all the time. Might want to post a link to it on the op if it's not there already.

There already is one.

[Dman979]

I take a crack at all orbits, and sometimes it comes really close.

Really close, as in same Inclination, Longitude of ascending node, Argument of Pe, Semi-major Axis, and Mean anomaly at Epoch? Or just same Pe and Ap? I only try to match the Pe and Ap to the orbit.

[Sampa]

There already is one.

Wow, then i guess people,just don't know how to,read...

[Motokid600]

That was my favorite episode so far. Thanks for doing this Bob you got something for the books here.

Skip to 25:22.

A superb piece of footage. I dare say the best footage of all the Saturns next to the S5. And give that whole documentary a go if you haven't already its a great watch.

Question. Why did the 1B/C's have so many large aero fins? Most large rockets excluding the Saturn5 are without larger fins. The Titans for instance had none. Most larger rockets today don't use them as well. Surely the 1B's could've performed better without the extra weight, but im not a rocket engineer Infact now that I think about it and if I can recall correctly no rocket ever used fins so large as the Saturn's.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Motokid600

[Felbourn]

I have seen that one, yes. It's great, thanks!

Fins...

Short answer: the rocket shape is very different from most other rockets.

Long answer: If you determine the integral of the pressure times the unit normal, times the area, times the distance from a reference line and then divide by the integral of the pressure times the unit normal, times the area, you'll find the Saturn would have flipped over shortly after gaining some initial speed. The fins prevent that by changing the aerodynamic forces applied to the rocket, and the fin size is determined by how much it needed to be changed.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Wow as always, watching this right now and had to pause and ask, how did you get the water droplets/wavy screen from the hull cams?

[Felbourn]

Wow as always, watching this right now and had to pause and ask, how did you get the water droplets/wavy screen from the hull cams?

Both are special effects I added during the video editing step. They don't exist in the game itself.

[Brainpop14]

How close is the next episode to being ready? I have a few tips. Maybe you should divide 1965 into two parts. There were a lot of significant missions in that year. Way more than five. I think that in the first half you should cover Gemini 3 and 4, Voskhod 2, and talk about the Venera Program. In the second half you should cover Gemini 5 and 7 and 6A, and then catch up on Mariner 4.

[Felbourn]

It's barely started, but it will be one episode for the year. We'll just need to pick the best missions and gloss over the others.