Anyone tried this before? I'd heard of it, and seen some videos of it, and it looked pretty pro so till now I'd had no reason to try it.
I was looking for a simulator for orbits of satalites and such, and bumped into this. It isn't what I wanted, but I've got free time so thought "why not? give this thing a go" Its really fantastic.
Takes a while to understand what the hell to do. I found an option that allows you to watch a mission undertaken and learn from the process, which was a spaceflight taking off in a theoretical single stage to orbit spaceplane (which there are plenty of real life designs for, just they never get finished sadly) and then a transfer orbit to the moon. Its really interesting watching the process, as you get all the displays and such to show you whats going on, and you see all the maneuvers described in relatively good detail, except the landing, (but then the landing takes place on a theoretical moonbase, so it'd make sense they make this part up..) Takes about 1 hour in total, but learnt a fair bit.
Then comes the fun bit - it tells me now we've landed, I'm in control and can try to get back to earth after refueling. So here comes the games problem again - its very complicated. I have no idea how to refuel. So sod it - bit under half a tank left. I'll go with that. Accidently fire the rockets while parked and take off from the moon rather far from where expected (they havent simulated the surface so you can just roll far as you like) I've also not set up the instruments like they should be, I think I've got the target about right to get to earth, probably.
After repeated mistakes on the orbit and corrections though, I ran out of fuel in a rather wide orbit of the earth. in a last ditch effort, I set a program to put me in line with a reverse course and fired the forward RCS until the fuel ran out, it did affect the orbit, but not enough... sadly, I am doomed to be space garbage orbiting the earth forever.
But we will learn from our mistakes, we will keep pushing forward, and never forget those who gave their lives for the expansion of human race into the stars!
