The USS Sydney read me now.
A few words from the designers:
Jon, Visual designer.
The Sydney is inspired by the pre-warp drive cargo freighter "Botany Bay"
shown in the "Star Trek" TV episode "Space Seed" and is my interpretation
of the evolution of the ship "class" from conventional drive thrusters to
warp drive.
Shawn, Flight Model designer.
Imagine being the Captain of the first Warp-3-capable starship... this
doesn't exactly make it a piece of cake traveling to other star systems,
but for now, at least, the Solar System is your playground! Warp Factor
3 is 27 times the speed of light, which makes going to Jupiter from Earth
a matter of minutes, whilst Alpha Centauri would take you slightly more
than 58 days, if you could carry the fuel needed.
No, this early warp drive technology was first and best suited to colonize
our own backyard. And what better way to accomplish this than by ships such
as the Sydney? She can carry Cargo Pods with Impulse Engine technology,
which in turn can carry skids of valuable cargo, from fuel to food to
flying saucer parts. And make no mistake: getting to the immediate
vicinity of Mars in a few minutes is easy enough but matching velocities,
debarking in a slow-boat cargo-pod, and landing at the base that needs
your supplies is no elevator ride.
Warp Drive
Max warp speed appears to be a little under 27 times the speed of light
but that is misleading because you never exceed the speed of light during
warp travel. This is both good and bad. The good is that you don't have to
deal with the relativistic effects predicted by Einstein and the bad is
that you will have to match velocities with your destination using
old-fashioned-Newtonian physics.
A word about the Warp Drive:
Firstly
There are two factors that determine your warp speed; the main engine
thrust setting and the warp factor. The main engine is your conventional
drive thruster and is used in the same manner as any other main thruster.
The warp "factor" can be adjusted between 1 thru 10 and determines how far
you travel in sub-space. Both the main thrust and warp factor can be
adjusted in real time during warp flight, which in turn gives you very
precise control over your warp travel.
Warp factor.
How can a max warp 3 ship go warp factor ten? Warp speed and warp factor are
not the same thing. Simply put you cannot go warp factor 10 or any other warp
factor because a warp factor is not a velocity. In effect it would be the same
as saying you could go second gear fast in your car. The ratio between main
thrust and warp factor determines your warp speed. With your main engines set
to max and your warp factor set to ten you will be traveling at the maximum
warp speed your ship is capable of and in the case of the Sydney that is about
warp 3. The easiest way to look at warp factor is that at max thrust warp
factor 2 is twice the speed of warp factor 1, warp factor 5 is 5 times the
speed of 1 and on up to warp factor 10.
Basically, the display of your current "Warp Factor" is not to be confused with
the convention of "Warp Factors" used in the Star Trek lexicon. In our case,
the "Warp Factor" is simply a multiple of the maximum relative velocity that can
be achieved with the Sydney at "Warp Factor 1" ~ a little under 2.7 times the speed of light.
In addition, you'll find that going faster may shorten travel times, but will
also burn more fuel. Judiscious use of the varying multiples (or Factors), combined
with thrust values, can save you quite a bit of gas. Racing like hell to Neptune
and back can take a good part of a full tank, but planning and patience can get
you to multiple stops in the Solar System to drop off cargo, passengers, or just
show off your ride.
Warp drive HUD information
The "numbers", or "additional HUD display information gives you info on warp factor,
"planned" velocity, in km/sec and fuel usage rate while in warp.
The warp factor is what your current warp factor is set to and can be looked at as
a multiplier of your main thrust setting.
The "Planned" km/sec is how fast you'll go if you set the thrust to a certain amount
to raise or lower that "planned" velocity, and then actually activate the Warp Drive.
The (Percent C) is just that: how fast you are going relative to C expressed as a
percentage of the value of C (roughly 300,000 km/sec), and will give you an idea of
how soon you'll get to where you are going, bearing in mind that at (Percent C):
100, you're going 100% of the speed of light, and can traverse a distance of 1 A.U.
(149,000,000 km) in about 8-1/2 minutes.
Warp travel hint.
It's cool knowing you could go nearly 27 times the speed of light to get to Neptune
in minutes but don't clap yourself on the back after you've gotten there because you still have to match velocities with your target the old-fashioned-Newtonian way. If you're clever, you'll drop out of warp at a point near your target so that your relative velocity vector is right toward it then all you have to do is thrust retrograde to it. Done right you can come to a full stop mere meters from your target.
There is a trick to it, and having an electronic calulator and the Burn Time Calculator
MFD is helpful to executing a reliable approach to a planet or other target. Upon
arrival at your destination (and you'll need the HUD set to "Orbit", with the Target
planet or body selected), you will notice that your velocity vector (the circle in
your HUD with a cross in the center of it) is NOT pointed at your target. This is
because your relative velocities have not changed at all since leaving your point of
departure. If you're leaving Earth to go to Mars, for example, your relative velocity
can be 40 km/sec or more! Getting to the immediate vicinity of Mars in a few minutes
is easy enough, but once you're there you still have to "cancel out" your relative
velocity the old-fashioned way: the grunt-and-push of your conventional engines.
But you don't have to match speeds while you're ridiculously still far out from Mars
(or wherever you're headed), thus taking forever to get there conventionally. You
can use the Warp Drive to "slide" into a better approach vector by
1) pointing yourself to Mars, then orientating your ship by rolling to that attitude
which makes the Orbit HUD straight across - that is, the velocity vector w.r.t. to Mars will either be exactly to your right, or exactly to your left. If it's to your right, point your ship to the left of Mars, or vice-versa.... then by
2) tapping CTRL-Numpad+ , you will obtain a tiny bit of forward thrust. Activating
the Warp Drive (set to the lowest "factor", 1) at this point will give you a good velocity (say, 800-1600 km/sec) towards that side of Mars. With your Orbit MFD open, and with Mars selected as target, you'll see the vector line converge to the center of the planet. When it does, zero-out your thrust (Numpad*) and disengage warp drive....
and congratulations! You are now heading pell-mell right towards Mars, so you'd better
turn retrograde pronto, and fire up your Impulse (conventional) Engines to slow your
approach pronto! If you're far enough away, you'll stop before hitting atmosphere or
solid ground ~ and if you're not, use minimal thrust combined with Warp Drive again
to zoom out a bit to give you a second chance and a better margin for error.
And this is where the Burn Time Calculator MFD can come in handy when you're all
through with warping, and are just using your Impulse Engines: from this wonderful
MFD, you can obtain what your maximum acceleration in m/sec^2 is ~ and if you know
this, plus what your velocity w.r.t. to the target is (on the Orbit MFD), you can
figure out when you can start thrusting at maximum so that you come to within a
reasonable orbital distance.
The formula to use is right from Newton's own right brain:
d = 1/2Gt^2
where G is your acceleration in m/sec^2 (found at the bottom of the BTC MFD), and
t is the time to thrust. Using simple algebra, you can solve for any variable you
need if you have the other two.
For example, say you know from the BTC MFD that your maximum conventional thrust
is 200 m/second squared (not unrealistic in the case of the Sydney ~ these are kick-ass
Impulse Engines, after all, and even the earliest inertial dampers could handle accelerations
of 25 gees or more). And you know from the Orbit MFD that you're approaching Mars pretty
damned fast at 40 km/sec. AND you know from the Orbit MFD that you're 25,000 km above
the surface of Mars (NOT the center of the planet ~ switch your reference to PeA, not PeD).
So 40 divided by .200 (200 meters/second squared equals .2 km/sec squared - you've
got to use similar units of measurement when calculating this) equals 200. This
means it will take 200 seconds to get from a velocity of 40 km/sec down to zero km/sec.
200 squared = 40,000. And 40,000 times .2 (that's your G) equals 8000. And 8000 times 1/2 = 4000.
Answer: start blasting away retrograde when you are at least 4000 kilometers above
the surface, probably a bit more to make sure you don't hit air. The Sydney is not built to enter any atmosphere.
Then it's just a matter of circularizing your orbit, and voila! You're ready to jump
into a Cargo Pod and make some money.
The ships
Included with this add on is the Sydney, cargo pods and cargo skids.
Every one of them is a self-contained spaceship with specific features determined by their use.
The Sydney is a space only ship and is not designed to enter atmosphere. It can travel
at warp speeds and carry up to eight cargo pods. It also has a hangar that can house a
small shuttlecraft (note that the vessel used as a shuttle must have an attachment
point, easily added by editing the vessel's .cfg file).
The Cargo Pod is designed to transport cargo from between the surface and a cargo
carrier like the Sydney. It is fully capable of atmospheric flight as well as short
trips like from the Earth to the Moon. The mass of loaded cargo is automatically
added to the total mass of the cargo pod and is the only way to add mass other than fuel mass.
The Cargo Skid is used to transport cargo around the surface or in space between stations.
It is not intended to reenter or fly around planet surfaces or between planetary bodies.
Included are 7 different types of cargo that you can carry on a skid. In reality they are
only visual representations that are used for visual appeal and are not needed to have the
skids function.
Cargo type is set via the CARGO parameter in the scenario file.
Types 1 thru 5 are bulk cargo.
Types 6 and 7 are fuel cargo.
The important difference between cargo and fuel is that the docking port of a fuel skid is
in the back while the docking port of the cargo skid is in the front.
Cargo or fuel mass can be adjusted via the scenario file parameter MASS or in real time
using keyboard commands. The auto refuel function that refuels your ship while landed
or docked has been disabled for the fuel skids.
An important thing to remember is that a skid and a cargo pod can be overloaded.
You may be able to load two fuel skids with max fuel load into a cargo pod but you
may not be able to fly. To prevent damage to your cargo skid, cargo pod or crew the
engines and thrusters will be disabled during an overload condition.
Auto attach.
There is an auto attach feature that makes attaching the skids to the pods or the pods
to the Sydney pretty easy. All you have to do is "arm" the attach point and then move a
skid or pod to within range and it will automatically attach. Example: To attach a pod
to Cargo 7 on the Sydney just focus the Sydney and select cargo point 7, then press the
G key to grab the pod or arm the attach point. Switch focus to the chosen pod and fly
it to the Sydney and approach the cargo point in the same manner you would a dock.
When the pod gets within range and is going slow enough it will attach.
Keyboard Commands
Sydney keyboard commands
Warp commands
Key 1: Decrease Warp factor.
Key 2: Increase Warp factor.
Key Ctrl F12: Activate/Deactivate Warp Drive
View commands
Key 3: Normal view
Key 4: Captain's chair.
Key 5: Captain's Ready Room.
Key 6: Docking port.
Other Commands
Key G: Grab cargo
Key J: Jettison cargo.
Key K: Open/Close hangar doors
Key S: Select Cargo attach point. The selected point will have a white strobe light turned on.
Cargo Pod keyboard commands
View commands
Key 1: Normal view
Key 2: Attach Point is on bottom and faces down.
Key 3: Docking port.
Key 4: Lounge
Other Commands
Key G: Grab cargo
Key J: Jettison cargo.
Key K: Open/Close cargo doors
Key S: Select Cargo attach point. The selected point will have a white strobe light turned on.
Key Ctrl B: Deploy/Retract airbrake.
Skid keyboard commands
View commands
Key 1: Normal view
Key 2: Attach Point
Key 3: Docking port. The port faces backwards for fuel skids.
Other Commands
Key Ctrl 1: Decrease cargo/fuel mass.
Key Ctrl 2: Increase cargo/fuel mass.
Key Ctrl B: Deploy/Retract airbrake.
Install information.
The Orbiter folder is maintained so you can unzip directly into orbiter or into a
temp folder and then move the files manually.
Uninstall information.
Remove the QJ210 folder from the Textures\JTM\ folder. You can also remove the JTM
folder if you are not using any of my other add-ons.
Remove the following from the Config folder.
QJ210Dummy.cfg
Remove the following from the Config\Vessels folder.
QJ210.cfg
QJSKID.cfg
QJPOD.CFG
Remove the following folder from the Scenarios - Rag Tag Fleet folder
Sydney docked to ISS.scn
Sydney Cargo Pod on the ground.scn
Remove the following from the Meshes folder
QJ210.msh
QJPOD.msh
QJSKID.msh
QJC1.msh
QJC2.msh
QJC3.msh
QJC4.msh
QJC5.msh
QJC6.msh
QJC7.msh
Remove the following files from the Modules folder.
QJ210.dll
QJPOD.dll
QJSKID.dll
Disclaimer.
This add-on is presented as is and you use or install it at your own risk. Although
it is doubtful it could cause your system harm I do not discount that possibility.
If you have doubts about it or are unfamiliar with Orbiter add-on installs than DON'T
attempt to install it. It is as simple as that.
Credits.
First and foremost Martin Schweiger for Orbiter.
All the Trek people for Trek concepts.
Dennis Krenz for his most excellent Anim8or to Orbiter exporter.
Shawn Beard flight model engineer.
Jon Marcure 3d artist.
This is a fictional fan work derived from the "Star Trek" universe and any resemblance
to works, persons living, dead or fictional is purely coincidental and not meant to
infringe on any rights. The work is copyright Jon Marcure 2007 all right reserved.
If you believe I have infringed on your rights then contact me via email and you can explain how.
Contact me
PM Raptor1 in this forum or email
jtmarcure@gmail.comHave fun with the Sydney.
Jon Marcure
