Lift.md
Progress : 3/5
Lift-off, Reach the chosent altitude with precision and creates the final Node to creates a prefect Orbit.
The main pilot page is quite complex because of the profile Options.
Those options are not in the settings because it is really useful to change them during the ascent.
- The main thrust slider is used to limit the main power. it can be useful for very powerful ships.
- The Start/Stop : button will start the pilot. It won't start the Staging phase by design !
- The Live Infos : gives information on the current pilot phase.
The profile is a curve that will adapt the direction of the vessel depending on altitude.
- Ap Altitude : is the wanted Apoapsis altitude.
([TODO] : add a button to fit with atm altitude + 10km)
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5° Altitude slider : gives the altitude for wanted inclinaison is 5° (high altitude)
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45° Altitude slider : gives the altitude for wanted inclinaison is 45° (mid altitude)
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90° Altitude slider : dives the end altitude for a 90° inclinaison. This is the first phase when the vessel should point to full vertical direction.
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Heading direction of the orbit.
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Profile Curve : The curve do a very simple simulation assuming that the speed is aligned to the vessel direction... This won't be reality and I'll try to make a better approach usign propagation in atm.
I use to change those options (not the heading) live during the lift-off. If the current vessel inclination is too high or low just adjust the 45° and 5° slider.
The Ascent phase is the main phase.
The Pilot will follow the direction of the ascent profile. The thrust can be freely adjusted.
the Ap altitude is watched and at the end of the phase the burn power is adjusted to be sligly under the wanted altitude.
- Heading Correction : adjust the direction in order to fit a perfect heading direction.
The vessel direction will try to point to the mirror direction of Speed, according the the Heading Line.
In this example the chosen heading is East (90°).
If the direction of speed is fine on the heading line, it won't do a correction
- Ap Alt. error : accepted error of altitude at the end of this Phase.
It is not needed to be fully precise during this phase because the speed can be lowered by the atmosphere during the Curse Phase
Time warp until the ship is out of atmosphere.
This is optionnal is settings.
After the costing a final adjust phase is done. You can be very precise There
Pause at the end of the Lift Pilot and let you add a final Node to Circularize using Flight Plan
Node : this can be tricky sometime, especially with very vertical curve orbit. Don't execute the Node without checking it in the map view. If the node is invalid or miscomputed. Unpause de game for 2-3 seconds and retry. If the node is still invalid modify it in pause mode using MNC (Maneuver.Node.Controller)
- Limit the thrust using a TWR value.
- compute the curve using a real propagation. It could use the wanted TWR value as Force factor, speed could be computed second after seconds and position too.