Scenario Trading Post

[harmsway]

AphelionHellion wrote:
Gene: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh....
Thanks for the enlightenment
I'd heard of hydrazine being used aboard the shuttle - I figured it was part of the RCS. Loojs like I had it confused
with
MMH.
Do you have any idea why they use hydrazine for the HPU on the shuttle, though? Seems like quite a toxic substance
to be using for power when you've got a bunch of H2 and O2 on board.

As for the DGIII, would I be correct in saying that a more accurate switchboard arrangement would have an APU
button that spins up the generators (then is turned off), along with a HPU switch that powers the hydraulics?


Doc: Really? Maybe it's the hydrazine. Perhaps you can only cycle the DGIII APU a few times before you need to refill it
(on landing, automatically perhaps?)

MMH is Monomethylhydrazine and N2O4 is Nitrogen Tetroxide used in the Orbital Maneuvering System/Reaction
Control System (OMS/RCS). The APU's use anhydrous hydrazine. The H2 and O2 is not on board, it is stored in the
external tank. Hydrogen is the smallest of elements therefore quite difficult to contain. Hydrogen leaks have always
been a problem. Pure O2 presents it's own danger.

All that said I have worked on several replacement technologies for the APU's. I would hope one of these
technologies will be used on the CEV.

Gene

[DanSteph]

Simonpro wrote:
Heh, it is used for venting sequences sometimes, though.

DGIII have three venting smoke also but the smoke was only available since the 031217
(+1 one big smoke for crash + 2 when you dump fuel (two tiny smoke comming from wings)

-Calculate the total number of thruster that have the DGIII

Dan



Post Edited ( 06-17-04 15:21 )

[DanSteph]

DocHoliday wrote:
Soooo... if I were to chaaaaange the position of the thursters I could mooooove the strooooobes? riiiiiigh? Make
MORE of them??? *doc is thinking Xmas edition DG3* hehe

I was requested many time to add nav light (red green)
but I must say that fixed light look really less appealing. (+perf concern)

Dan

[DocHoliday]

Nah, strobes are better. So is it possible to change the position of the strobes?

But how do you add a fixed light? Like the ones on TTM? Do you do it through skin or mesh file?

[freespace2dotcom]

I was requested many time to add nav light (red green)
but I must say that fixed light look really less appealing

I agree with that.

[DanSteph]

DocHoliday wrote:
Nah, strobes are better. So is it possible to change the position of the strobes?

No, only in the DLL.

about fixed nav light they would be just thruster that don't goes on/off

Dan

[harmsway]

Yikes! Too many conversations and not much scenario trading. All good stuff though

[DocHoliday]

Damn, I need to learn programming too now

[freespace2dotcom]

I've been needing to learn programming since I turned on my first computer.



Post Edited ( 06-17-04 15:29 )

[Shmi]

Hah you are lucky! when I first learned Fortran programming at school we had to write our programs on paper and
send them away to get turned into punched cards! Which were then fed into one of those huge computers yu see in
films.

 And we had to use slide rules, until wonder of wonders I got a calculator the size of a brick!

Now my 2 year old can log onto the computer, click on internet explorer got to her favourite web site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/  and print out colouring in pages, all without any help.

What will her children be able to do?

[DanSteph]

freespace2dotcom wrote:
I've been needing to learn programming since I turned on my first computer.

I started learning programming five minute after I turned on my first computer
was the vic20, a computer that entertained even adam and eve (but they get bored
so they goes finally under the apple tree)

Dan

[DanSteph]

Reading you Shmi it recall me that I was wrong:
I first learned programming at shool on a -*big mainframe*-
that was as powerful as .. EDIT: don't know in fact but it sucked

my first proggy was a "moon landing" game
you had to print the result on "zebra" paper (the one with hole)
every five loop you had a prompt to enter new thrust parameter

so on the printer it gave something like that:

(ground)          (your vessel)

Code: [Select]


>                        >o
>                     >o
>                >o
>           >o
thrust ? : 25
>        >o
>      >o
>   >o
> >o
> KABOOM


Amazing my first prog was a space simulator and it was exactly in 1983

Dan

EDIT: my 2 1/2 years daughter power on the computer, open the game folder on the desk,
launch her favorite game and I must say that I'm 8o when I see her playing.



Post Edited ( 06-17-04 15:57 )

[Simonpro]

Lol, first attempt at programming i ever made was on a BBC in about 1994. I also made a moon landing game, but it
had lots of pretty moving blocks and stuff :p

[freespace2dotcom]

My first attempt at programming was a dinky little DOS program that emulated a virus and shut down the computer it
ran on. ah... my grandfather was surprised when I told the computer to run it every time it booted into windows.

I've since regressed and can't remember a thing of how I did it.

(it was a funky programming language in DOS called batcom, I think.)



Post Edited ( 06-17-04 16:07 )

[DocHoliday]

(it was a funky programming language in DOS called batcom, I think.)[/quote]
Hehe I used that too! Setup menus that would prompt you which program you wish to run and stuff My father is
even lazier than you when it came to writing dos commands

Anyway, my first programming was at computer classes back in 85 I think, where we used LOGO, Basic and some
assembler, but not much of anything stuck with me, the first personal project was a little "ecyclopaedia" I made on
my C-64. Just to store stuff I wanted to read about later on

I first got involved with space travel, playing AMS (Apollo Mission Simulator). I will put it online when I find it, so you
can see what amazing simulator you CAN do with just ASCII graphics. That's where I acquired my wish to "calculate"
and "plan" stuff before actually doing it. With a refresh rate of once per second, you can't make too many mistakes,
especially when easing the LEM down to the Moon surface after Low Gate ah.... *memories*

Fortunatelly I missed the punch card and "Eniac" era

[AphelionHellion]

Harmsway:

The H2 and O2 is not on board, it is stored in the
external tank...

Ah...I thought the OMS engines used Hyd/Ox too (from a small onboard tank). I guess that wouldn't make much sense,
though, come to think of it. Like you said, those substances can be dangerous and hard to control in their own way.

All that said I have worked on several replacement technologies for the APU's. I would hope one of these
technologies will be used on the CEV.

Cool. I wish you luck with that work

[freespace2dotcom]

DocHoliday wrote:
so you can see what amazing simulator you CAN do with just ASCII graphics.

No, you can make more than an amazing simulation with just ASCII. you can do anything with ascii.

http://blake.prohosting.com/~tjpete/anacreon.html

http://www.network-science.de/ascii/

[AphelionHellion]

Whee LOGO and basic! I remember those!!
You could do an amazing amount of stuff with LOGO if you were patient enough (and had nothing else to do).
Believe it or not, a classmate of mine actually created a graphical(!) RPG game using LOGO (using it to vector-draw all
the swords and passages and stuff). Well, I guess it was more of a "choose your own adventure" illustrated story, but
it was still darn pretty cool considering
My favorite thing to do with logo was just make weird fractal designs. Oh, and make the screen flash epilepsy-inducing
colors at inconvenient times  

//misses his C-64 and Frogger

[freespace2dotcom]

I didnt' really have a computer until like 4 years ago. I probably look at video game systems like many of you gus
would a C64. I myself am too young to even remember the original atari, but I'll never forget that 8 bit NES, in fact,
I'm gonna start to collect those old popular games. ah... nostalgia...

[DocHoliday]

Hehe , AH remember Decathlon? How many joysticks did you wreck playing that one?

Well, honeslty I was like 8 (too young!)or so when I took those computer classes and guys that were up to 15 were
way ahead of me, so I was just looking like this 8o and pretty much didn't get to do anything useful with myself. The
only thing that stuck was the logical way of reasoning, quite compatible with computers

Cheers,

[freespace2dotcom]

Of course, they only deal in 1's and 0's, so they don't like uncertainty.

[Shmi]

When I was 18 (in 1978!8o) I had a student placement at the Culham laboratories and my supervisor let me beta
test a RPG he was writing in his spare time on the mainframe.  It was quite nifty - different "rooms" in the dungeon
could be linked together in a random way so he could play it himself and still be taken by surprise.

I bet this means I have been playing computer games (as opposed to arcade ones) longer than anyone else
on this forum! ? or have I?????  Any takers?

[harmsway]

You were 18 in 1978, well so was I. 8o Oh that means we are the same age.

OK then I'll take you on your bet then; read this post....

http://orbiter.dansteph.com/forum/index.php?topic=9869.msg156197#msg156197

( Sorry, the link needs to be cut and pasted in the address bar )

I think I was 17 at the time.

Gene

[Shmi]

OK you win Harmsway  I looked at the age statistics when I made my bet , but I guess I didn't factor in
how it would change the odds that I lived in a backward olde worlde country and others lived in the great forward
thinking U S of A.


BTW we didn't  mention any money on this bet did we

[Atom]

Hmm, I like this backwards little rock. It's homely.