Celestia Forums

China has launched a space station. Inspired by Linuxm@n's ISS models, I have begun work on a fairly detailed project to chronicle the progress of construction of this space station. This thread, like the extrasolar planets catalogue thread, will be a repository for updates to this addon. Unlike the extrasolar planets addon, I am not keeping myself under any time pressures here. Extrasolar planets remain my priority, and you can expect this project to be chronically behind schedule.

Right now, I'm expecting to release several updates to this roughly following the schedule of construction outlined in this diagram. Each step in the process is designed to fully replace all previous steps, thus like the extrasolar planet catalogue, old versions become obsolete as new ones come out. This allows me to avoid committing to a misunderstanding I invariably have had or will have regarding the functionality of some component of the space station, as well as improve its appearance as newer imagery becomes available.

This addon makes use of .ssc features that require Celestia 1.5.0 or later.

Construction of the Tiangong Space Station
Stage 1 - Tianhe Core Module (Complete 12 Jun 2021)
Stage 2 - Tianzhou 2 (Complete 02 Aug 2021)
Stage 3 - Shenzhou 12 (Complete 28 Aug 2021)
Stage 4 - Tianzhou 3 (Complete 28 Mar 2022)
Stage 5 - Shenzhou 13
Stage 6 - Tianzhou 4
Stage 7 - Shenzhou 14
Stage 8 - Wentian Module
Stage 9 - Mengtian Module
Stage 10 - Tianzhou 5
Stage 11 - Shenzhou 15

Event List - all times UTC in Celestia, and should be thought of only as an approximation of actual reality.
2021 Apr 29 03:22:00 - Solar array deployment
2021 Apr 29 04:46:50 - HGA deployment
2021 Apr 29 05:29:12 - Aft antenna deployment
2021 May 17 23:13:51 - RMS Deployment
2021 May 29 20:39:00 - Tianzhou 2 approach starts
2021 May 29 20:59:48 - Tianzhou 2 docking
2021 Jun 17 07:30:28 - Shenzhou 12 approach starts
2021 Jun 17 07:56:19 - Shenzhou 12 docking
2021 Sep 16 00:56:50 - Shenzhou 12 undocking, flyaround (New!)
2021 Sep 16 03:33:54 - Shenzhou 12 rendezvous test with Tianhe nadir port (New!)
2021 Sep 16 05:38:50 - Shenzhou 12 departure (New!)
2021 Sep 18 02:23:50 - Tianzhou 2 undocking, flyaround (New!)
2021 Sep 18 04:33:48 - Tianzhou 2 redocking (New!)
2021 Sep 20 13:46:54 - Tianzhou 3 approach starts (New!)
2021 Sep 20 14:06:49 - Tianzhou 3 docking (New!)

Stage 1 - Tianhe Core Module



Here is the first stage of the construction of the Tiangong Space Station, the Tianhe core module. This addon shows the deployment of Tianhe in orbit - solar arrays, high-gain antenna and aft antennas.

Video preview:
https://youtu.be/kBGW4Ca1f6k

(Edit: Fixed a missing texture)

was this the Tianhe thing you were showing me in discord DMs(i need to talk to you abotu that in PMS not here btw)?

Added after 4 minutes 53 seconds:
downloading right now

trappistplanets wrote:was this the Tianhe thing you were showing me in DMs before you blocked me (i need to talk to you abotu that in PMS not here btw)?

There is no need to bring this up in the addon thread.

Anthony_B_Russo10 wrote:There is no need to bring this up in the addon thread.

i'll give it an edit
and chop the part your talking about out of the message

Added after 4 minutes 11 seconds:
there chopped a part of it out,
anyways to bring this back on topic, here is an image i snapped of the core module

Tiangong's orbit based on TLE data below:

...converted into SSC (for Tianhe):

...the data below is for the Tiangong Space Station reference point:

Stage 2 - Tianzhou 2



This is the next content release for the Tiangong Space Station. A number of files have been re-named, so you should delete the original add-on (all of it) and replace it with this. Do not overwrite the existing add-on, just throw the old one away, or you will get duplicated objects. This add-on extends the coverage of events from right after launch and deployment, through the deployment of the robotic arm and the arrival of the Tianzhou 2 cargo ship.

Some of the solar array segments and truss segments were given the same name originally. This created a large number of "duplicate" errors in the console. I have given them unique names to help clean that up.

Finally, my apologies about the long time in between releases. The robotic arm thing was not easy to figure out.

Video preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gri4nGjMm-E

Stage 3 - Shenzhou 12



This is the next content release for the Tiangong Space Station. As before, you should delete or replace any previous version with this one. This add-on extends the coverage of events from the arrival of the Tianzhou 2 cargo ship through to the docking of the first crew aboard Shenzhou 12. Not a whole lot happens as far as visible space station operations - nothing interesting with the arm, etc. So I've taken some time to improve some features of the other meshes. In addition to a new Shenzhou mesh, a number of visual improvements have been made:



- Improved Tianhe's docking port "blade" things(?) to match those of visiting vehicles, adding the interior stringers.
- Replaced hand rails with improved, more accurate models.
- Replaced Power/Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF) with improved, more accurate model.
- Improved decals (CMS, Flag logos) - they no longer obnoxiously stick out.
- Improved appearance of Tianhe's underside.
- Improved panoramic cameras.

DaveBowman2001 pointed out a problem with the most recent release that, quite frankly, I forgot to fix before posting it. The docking ring for Shenzhou 12 starts out ahead of the main craft. The problem seems to have been caused because the command used to create the spacecraft creates the state vector for the main craft, but not the docking ring, whose state vectors are created during flight. So the docking ring is missing the first position in the xyz file. I've fixed this issue, as well as created a separate control mode for station-keeping so that drift in three dimensions only occurs at that time rather than in the approach and docking phases. This makes the final approach look a lot better.



Simply unzip this file and move the contents to the /data/ subfolder of the addon, replacing the files in there of the same name.


My sincere gratitude to DaveBowman2001!

Stage 4 - Tianzhou 3



A lot of time has passed since I've given this addon a lot of attention. Real-life got rather complicated. But I have a bit more free time for the moment, so I've bundled together some of the progress I've made on this project into a new release. This doesn't have everything in it that I wanted to, but I can catch up for the next release.

This is the next content release for the Tiangong Space Station. As before, you should delete or replace any previous version with this one. This addon extends coverage of events through the following:
1 - Departure of Shenzhou 12 and testing of the rendezvous with the nadir-facing docking port.
2 - The undocking, fly-around and re-docking of Tianzhou 2.
3 - The arrival of Tianzhou 3.



The robotic arm has been lengthened to make it more accurate, and the solar arrays have been split into two separate objects. This was supposed to be for content in this very release, but that just isn't happening. In any event, splitting the solar arrays in two will be necessary for future work. I re-wrote the programme I use to control the robotic arm as well as trajectories for spacecraft, making them easier (for me) to use.