Topic: A Teacher's Request

[Pharaoh]

Anti, those are excellent! They look much like what I had in mind, very nice! I don't suppose you have any with the solar panels extended? Might look very cool  Lots of great detail.

2 questions:

1. Have you ever considered putting an aerobrake on the bow? Not that its vital in any way, just an interesting concept.

2. Do you have any plans to skin and render that model? 

Thanks!

[Tus-XC]

for something as big as that, i would think aerobreak would be rather ineffective, and probably a hinderance, unless of course your goal was to take the whole ship in.  as i see it i would want avoid it as much as possible.  Once that thing enters LEO, it will have more than enough of a planets atmosphere to deal with. retros would be your best bet

[Pharaoh]

There are 2 reasons I was thinking about the aerobrake.

1st, it makes a good tie in to talk about atmospheric density and discussing the development of space technology (different means of reentry, etc).

2nd, fuel considerations. You'd burn more having to retro-fire into orbit. An aerobrake would lower fuel use, and thus fuel mass to be carried (offset by the mass of the aerobrake itself, of course, but that could be jettisoned after perhaps).

Its nothing vital, just an interesting idea.

[Tus-XC]

There are 2 reasons I was thinking about the aerobrake.

1st, it makes a good tie in to talk about atmospheric density and discussing the development of space technology (different means of reentry, etc).

2nd, fuel considerations. You'd burn more having to retro-fire into orbit. An aerobrake would lower fuel use, and thus fuel mass to be carried (offset by the mass of the aerobrake itself, of course, but that could be jettisoned after perhaps).

Its nothing vital, just an interesting idea.

Aye aero breaking does save you fuel, however were talking about a research vessel (ie something bigger than a normal satelite, bigger than a shuttle, etc) dropping into LEO, and then having to break back out again, which won't be easy by any regards, i would almost say that you would be better off retroing at a higher orbit (geostationary or higher, roughly 42,000 km) to conserve fuel for breaking away than using aerobreaking at LEO (Low earth orbit btw, but essetially 200km above the surface of an earth like planet)  and using up (possibly) more fuel for the break away, i could be wrong, but i would have to check the delta Vs to see which one would conserve more. 

just my 2 cents worth of astronautical engineering knowledge

[Antivyrus]

update on the Santa Maria
texture WIP

[E_Look]

Hey... that IS nice work!

[Riskyllama]

the only thing i dont quite get is the twisty region. It doesnt look that secure through there.

[Antivyrus]

the only thing i dont quite get is the twisty region. It doesnt look that secure through there.

I agree and I'm planning on straightening that out for the final product , it looked good in side view but otherwise looks like an accident waiting to happen

[Pharaoh]

 

Nice work, Antivyrus! Looks better every time I see it

[Antivyrus]

Pharoah
 have you heard of the program called Celestia? if not  here a link to it http://www.shatters.net/celestia/
its a free application but one i believe would be a great teaching tool
heres screen shot of Io with Jupiter as a backdrop taken from within Celestia

[Pharaoh]

Anti,

No, hadn't hear of Celestia. However, we do use something similar, called Starry Night. Excellent program, really grabs the students's interest.

[Starforce2]

ahh...astronomy geeks!