How to size the heat shield of martian rover using Orbiter ?

[argargreg]

Hi,

I posted on Futura-sciences to have some clues on my school project (which is to size a heat shield of a martian rover using composites), and they redirected me here, obviously for the simulation part. Even though Orbiter seems extremely powerful, nonetheless are we able in Orbiter to create our own composite material, and to test it (that is, with the results, not only the visual simulation) live ?

I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Argargreg

[Bibi Uncle]

For the visulisation, you can modify de DDS file of the standard reentry texture. It is "Reentry.dds" I think, in the Textures folder.

If you want the results (like tempeture and everything ?), you must do your own DLL using C++ programming.

[argargreg]

Thank you for your answer. I have several years of practice in C++ but absolutely none using Orbiter... So how should I build my DLL to plot the constraints, temperatures and so forth, of the heat shield ? Is there any tutorials on the subject ?

[argargreg]

OR : I saw that a tool called "reentry MFD" could compute the required deceleration in order to land. Could it compute the stress and temperature in the heatshield, so I can size it with my own materials ?

[BrianJ]

Hi argargreg,
I'm not entirely clear about what you want to test but...
Orbiter simulates orbital dynamics and aerodynamics (not material physical properties as such).

Orbiter's model of Mars atmosphere is pretty good I think, but I can't see any documentation about it in the Orbiter docs.

You could, for example, specify properties of your "Rover EDL Capsule" such as mass, cross section area, lift and drag coeffiecients. Orbiter will then be able to return such data as airspeed, altitude, atmospheric pressure/density, dynamic pressure, etc. You could calculate heating,stress,etc. on the basis of this I think.

However, you would need to program your own "Vessel" or "MFD" .dll to record and output the values.

Take a look at the Orbiter/OrbiterSDK/Doc/API_Guide.pdf to get an idea of how it works.

If English is your native language, you may like to inquire about this on the Anglophone forum
www.orbiter-forum.com

Regards,
Brian

[Bibi Uncle]

BrianJ a écrit:
Take a look at the Orbiter/OrbiterSDK/Doc/API_Guide.pdf to get an idea of how it works.

And API_Reference which is a very complete document with every functions Orbiter has.

Orbiter's API

[SolarLiner]

There are add-on DGIV-2 that these functions (calculation of stresses, temperature of heat shield, total destruction if overheating). In passing it is a very nice add-on, which immerses on a beginner in the world Orbiter.

[argargreg]

Thanks all of you, for your excellent answers. I'll take a look at these (in particular at DGIV-2) and obviously will keep you informed.