Orbiter addon by Andrew Thielmann (igel)
atil@pin-plus.ca
Luna-3 is probably the most admired space probe of all times. Launched on 4 October 1959, only two years (exactly day to day) after the first satellite, it had achieved what many people dreamed for millenia - ventured far behind the Moon, took the photos of its Far Side and sent them back to Earth. This achievement required many technological breakthroughs and yielded many smaller technical "firsts".
Bloodest - imaging code.
astronavt (Dmitry Pritykin) - base R-7 addon.
Big thanks to all beta testes for tons of valuable feedback!
This addon requires R-7 project by astronavt. In other words, it is specifically designed for and tested with this addon. Many of its "out of the box" scenarios reference this addon and will crash without it, unless modified.
However, addon may [happen to be] compatible with other R-7 addons (and maybe even with other rockets!)
Of course, all operations can also be done in Manual Control mode.
Moon's gravity turned the trajectory back to "northbound". At about 63 Mm away from the Moon, Luna-3 found itself perfectly aligned for the photo session of the century. Almost over the middle of the Far Side, with Sun perfectly behind and Earth way to the side (so it did not had a chance to be confused as a target).
Luna-3 activated its cold-gas RCS (first designed by a group of very young people in the dormitory rooms), found the target with the optical sensors (initially tested with the plain light bulbs) and snapped the full film roll.
The continued northbound travel put the probe back on return leg of the journey. Completing the first "slingshot" gravity maneuver, Luna-3 returned back to Earth from the Northern Hemisphere, most convenient for the photo transmission.
In autopilot mode flight, you don't have to bother: target lock will be activated automatically as the probe enters the photo window. But you can use it in the manual override as well. Understandably, it its use is limited to the photo window (which extends from 63 to 67 Mm over the Far Side). And watch for your gas supply - there is not much of it!
To activate photo system, simply open the photo camera covers and start shooting. Earth and discarded 3-rd stage provide good-looking candidate targets. So does the Moon at a close flyby range.
The last taken image can always be viewed in the photo panel, opened with the Orbiter's regular F8 key.
Remember: the camera is designed to take images from a very large distance - so it has a very powerful zoom!
Photos taken by the camera (up to ten per flight) are saved on your hard drive in the Orbiter's Photo\Luna3\Acquired directory. File names are reused every flight - so if you obtained any especially good images that you want to save, copy them elsewhere.
So, when Luna-3 returns back to Earth and enters the transfer window, it has to wait for the sufficient signal level - which is a function of distance and probe's elevation in Eupatoria sky.
In autopilot mode, transmission triggers when the signal strength reaches 0.1. This results in very noisy and non-contrast on-the-ground images (stored in the Photo\Luna3\Received directory - but they look surprisingly similar to the real Luna-3 photos! In manual control mode, you can watch the signal level indicator on the photo panel and wait for better radio reception condition - and receive better-quality images.
In autopilot mode, only one "success" photo will be transmitted to the ground station, preceded by the "zero frame" (a TV calibration chart stored onboard). In Manual mode, you can freely browse through all taken images and transmit them at your will. Photo system is still active in transmission window (if any frames are left) - so you can continue snapping pictures.
C | open photo camera covers; |
M | toggle between manual and autopilot control mode; |
K | activate Moon search navigation mode; |
P | take photo; |
G | open transmission panel; |
F8 | open/close photo panel or transmission panel (depending on the flight phase); |
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