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Laika Lunar Lander - Version 1.0

by Andrew Thielmann (igel)
atil@pin-plus.ca
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Introduction
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Don't be confused - this IS NOT a simple satellite that had flown the first living creature into space. This IS NOT a model of the Soviet lunar landing probe of the mid-60-es. This is an original concept of a simple and inexpensive lunar lander - the way it could be built with today's technology and knowledge. As for the name - it is a kind tribute to the cute little doggie that went to space before any human but did not come back.


Description
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The new probe uses the same old proven Molniya M booster that carried all E-6 probes (including Luna-9 that made the first ever soft non-destructive landing on the lunar surface). At the time, Molniya was far from being reliable - and many of the probes perished even before making it to the Moon. Bad things can still happen today, but naturally modern Molniya is a reliable and reputable player.

Molniya's job is to put the probe into the translunar trajectory. The automated launch sequence starts at Baikonur at a strictly predefined time with an "O" key. Once in LEO (Low Earth Orbit), Laika is still attached to the Block L orbital stage, and the automatic sequence continues with a coast to a point of TLI (Trans-Lunar Injection) burn on the other side of the globe. There, Block L tunes itself into a proper orientation, performs the burn and separates. Laika is on its way!

Because of high inclination of Baikonur-originated orbit, in-plane flight to the Moon is out of question. Laika's orbit crosses Moon's orbit at very high angle, so the launch timing should be precise, for both of them to appear at a meeting place at the same time. 

Molniya's autopilot is pretty good, and usually brings Laika in the vicinity of the Moon. At 100 Mm from the Moon, Laika automatically performs mid-course correction.
 
Eventually, Laika approaches the Moon. Landing is direct, without entering celenocentric orbit. Laika activates the lunar landing autopilot at the altitude of 200 km above the surface and does the rest. At some custom-calculated altitude, Laika drops the now-unneeded cruise-stage avionics boxes and fires its engine. The descent follows a tight velocity-altitude corridor, and involves several engine firings and shutdowns. If you want some hands-on experience, autopilot can be deactivated at any moment by "O" key. 

At 20 meters above the ground, the lander is separated from the probe, its airbags inflated. If landing goes OK (and autopilot is active), the airbags are automatically deflated after a short time, and pallets are opened. If autopilot is not active, these operations can be done manually.


Extra features
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All those are things one would expect from an automated lunar spacecraft. Now, a few words about bonuses. Laika (not Molniya yet) carries an experimental version of TRAL telemetry system that outputs flight milestones to a log file (if it is specified in the scenario file). If you have a second monitor, you can use mtail program to see telemetry log in real time. 

Another new experimental feature of Laika is collision detection - you can't fly through other spacecrafts anymore. And, if you try too hard, one more added feature - structural strength limitation - will remind you, that Laika is a very delicate piece of space hardware... Same limitations apply to contacts with planet surface, and even to atmospheric interfaces. 


Operator Manual
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Laika Operator Manual.doc file in the Doc\ folder contains step-by-step flight instructions, Laika technical specifications, commands and other reference information.


Credits
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I would like to say very special thanks to all people who made the birth of Laika possible:
- Martin Scweiger - for the greatest spaceflight simulator on this planet;
- Manuel Amorim (McDope) - for Molniya M booster model, that became a starting point for the whole project;
- Rob Conley, Vinka, Richard Croy (rjcroy) - for initial Molniya autopilot, which is used to put Laika into proper initial orbit;
- Alexander Blass (Mindblast) - for great GMax conversion tools, which allowed me to put all design pieces together;
- GMax creators, who made the great product;
- To Orbiter forum community - for being a great support resource and a cool place to hang around.


Version history
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1.0 – late November 2006 – Laika is fully ready for a demo addon! 
Recompiled, modified, fixed and tested with the new Orbiter (some things have changed during that long break). Midcourse correction autopilot finally implemented, closing the guidance loop to full one-key out-of-plane flight from Baikonur launch pad to soft landing on the Moon.

0.7.0b - mid-February 2004 - Further beta development. 
Lunar landing autopilot, structural/procedural/physics improvements, keyboard/scenario interface changes, proximity mechanism improvements, other improvements and fixes.

0.6.0b - late December 2003 - Initial beta release. 
Molniya translunar insertion autopilot, Laika vessel/planet/atmosphere proximity detection, structural strength limitations, TRAL log file telemetry function, full source code. 
