Orbiter Spaceport

Here are some interesting videos that show NASA's big plans during the 1980s and early 1990s. The first big project was a large space station, called Space Station Freedom. This is one of the early configurations (the "dual-keel") shown as a miniature model. The footage manages to give some sense of scale of the completed station with the Shuttle docked. Another large project was crewed Moon and Mars missions. These 1990 animations show some nice early computer animations. The overall hardware design is not much different from present day proposals. As normal, the videos were assembled by joining sequences presented on diferent NASA documentaries. This allows to reconstruct the original resource reel and also to present a more complete view of the mission steps and hardware.

I've uploaded some videos dealing with spaceflight theory. You can find them on this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ4LzWgVGYi2sc-KyCITzbTsFUfzFkOMf Or you can view them here: Fly me to the Moon - and back "Fly me to the Moon - and back" is a 1966 NASA documentary that explains the complexity of planning a lunar mission trajectory. Includes mission analysis, mathematical techniques, computers, mission plan, calculations and real-time support for the NASA Mission Control. Launch windows for lunar landing "Launch windows for lunar landing" is a 1967 NASA documentary, and describes, with animation, the planning of a lunar mission with trajectories and physical capabilities that define these trajectories. Emphasizes launch windows and Earth reentry. Space Navigation "Space Navigation" was made in 1968 and is very informative, showing techniques and equipment used in lunar missions. The Apollo spacecraft...

Clearing a large backlog of released realistic add-ons over the last two years. I'll start with the cancelled moon missions based on the Apollo AMSO add-on for Orbiter. Flowing the general outline of the available NASA planning documents I did Apollo 18, 19 and 20, complete with terrain, patches and EVAs. Vallis Schroteri & Apollo 18 This add-on features realistic terrain for the Vallis Schröteri area near the Aristarchus crater on the Moon. It is presented in a way that you have a relatively large flat area (Orbiter limitation) where you can land and drive.  The area covered by terrain mesh is about 30x30km. Some surface features were placed to provide interesting destinations for EVAs, based on the actual geology of the region. The provided scenarios use AMSO to recreate the proposed Apollo 18 mission. They are generic and the orbital trajectories are not optimized regarding fuel or mission duration. Anyhow, I think I've remained within realistic paramete...

I'm modeling a simple retro styled cockpit for the Lunar Excursion Module. It's based on Gemini technology, with some allowances for Orbiter's MFDs. It's not historical or based on any actual proposal. The pilot will have the two MFD screens in the panel immediately in front of him, and some (I hope) working indicators on the middle panel (fuel, thrust, altitude, speed, ADI ball, etc). On the right side I'll simply put some switches and generic indicators, just for show.