Orbiter addon by Andrew Thielmann (igel)
atil@pin-plus.ca
Block E is a third stage of the Russian Vostok rocket, from the famous family of the R-7 -derived rockets.
Vostok rocket is most known for its orbital missions, especially the first-ever human space flight of Yuri Gagarin on 12 April, 1961. However, by the time of this most famous flight, it had already carried a number of the unique lunar "firsts". This addon is specifically concentrated on these early lunar shots.
Block E flown on the lunar missions was very different from its orbital cousin. Other than a shorter body (housing an understandably smaller payload), it carried a reasonable set of scientific instruments and additional antennas, making it the space probe of its own. Two first flights also had a most unique piece of hardware on board: an artificial comet generator. On the way to the Moon, this instrument created a huge cloud of sodium vapours, visible from the Earth even to the naked eye! The goal of this experiment was to calibrate the still-unreliable radio navigation with the ever-robust astronomical means.
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!)
You can substitute historical payloads with your custom payloads. Block E addon supports fully automated launch into the direct non-ecliptic translunar trajectory.
Vostok rocket with the block E was using Direct Accent Trajectory to fly to the Moon. No interim orbits, no timed burns, no midcourse corrections. The fastest way to get to the Moon, but unfortunately the least accurate. Luna-1 can tell the story...
Because of the high latitude of the Baikonur space port, all lunar trajectories flown by Vostok rocket were highly inclined, almost perpendicular to the ecliptic plane.
At the end of the block E burn, you'll almost certainly will see some pitch occilations. This is normal. Historical block E did not have them - but it did not have to fly the flexible trajectory that requires constant adjustments. And lacking the movable steering thrusters or gimballed engine, the only way to steer for block E is to turn the whole thing into the proper attitude.
By default, block E will try to hit the Moon square on! If you are launching Luna-3, or trying to recreate a flight of Luna-1, this might not be what you want. In this case, switch trajectory over to the FLYBY mode by overriding the corresponding scenario variable.
If you take block E off autopilot, be aware that, like with any realistic addon, its fuels supply is very limited and tightly set to make it "just right". If you deviate too far away from the optimum flight path, and then return back to autopilot, it may be too late to fix the trajectory...
Block E does not have normal jet attitude control thrusters, only those that are part of the main propulsion system. So, manual attitude control is unavailable when the main engine is not running. And when it is running, the only preprogrammed navigation mode available is KILLROT.
PAYLOAD xxx APOINT 0 0 -Z PDIR 0 0 -1 PROT 1 0 0
Trajectory type. Skip this parameter for the default direct impact trajectory. To intentionally miss the Moon by a narrow margin, set the following scenario variable:
FLYBY 1
Artificial comet. To set the comet to be automatically activated en route to the Moon, set the following scenario variable:
COMET 1
C | cycle through rocketcams in the cockpit view; |
M | toggle between manual and autopilot mode; |
J | separate payload; |
Ctrl+J | toggle focus switching for the oncoming payload separation; |
+ | start main engine; |
- | stop main engine. |
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