Controls: 1 2 3 - turn on/off corresponding Raptor engines W/S - throttle A/D - gimbal Q/E - RCS thrusters Arrow keys - flaps (coupled for more intuitive control) L - liftoff (release from launchpad) P - switch between main and header propellant tanks T - Flight Termination System Scroll - zoom Spacebar - pause/play #game #simulator #starship #spacex #space #spaceflight #sn15 #prototype #starbase #raptor
How To Fly a Starship - a Complete Step by Step Instruction™ (first read this, and only then you are allowed to complain... or just try to find out everything by trial and error;) Look at all the instruments on screen, try to get a sense which one is where, so you don't need to think too much about it in flight. On the bottom, from the left: >> Throttle - min 40%, max 100%. >> Raptor engines - white - inactive, yellow - ignition, green - running, red - shutdown. >> Thrust to weight ratio (TWR) - on the left side there's the actual TWR, on the right side there are 3 gauges - for 1, 2 and 3 engines running at current throttle. The line at the center is 1, it's the TWR needed to exactly counteract gravity and hover. >> Propellant gauge - it shows you how much propellant you have onboard. "Max" is the highest amount of propellant you can carry to lift off on just 3 Raptor engines. The line on the left end is where the main tank ends and the header tank begins. There are two indicators - one for the main tank, and one for the header tank. white - inactive, green - currently used, orange - low propellant, red - no propellant, engines automatically shut down You can do a few static fires to see how that works. >> Acceleration gauge - it shows you the magnitude and direction of acceleration. Not very useful, but it can help with staying vertical on less than 3 engines, and overall with judging where you are going when velocity changes too slowly to see. In the upper left corner, there's the timer, it simply shows you time since liftoff. And lastly, on the edges of the screen, there are position and velocity gauges. Vey useful and pretty straightforward, they just show your current position and velocity. >> LIFTOFF To launch, you have to ignite all 3 Raptor engines. Then look at your TWR, and adjust the throttle so TWR is slightly above 1. Check if all systems are working and if you know how to control them. Click L to release from lauchpad and lift off. >> ASCEND Look at TWR, switch to only 2 engines when the TWR indicator for 2 engines goes slightly above one. Same with switching off the next engine. When you switch off engines, the thrust is off-center. I've made it so the engines gimbal autonomously to point at the center of mass to prevent unwanted rotation, but it rotates slightly anyway because of atmospheric drag. That means you have to gimbal the engines yourself to straighten up and prevent drifting sideways. >> APOGEE When you are at the apogee - about 10 kilometers, you don't have enough propellant to go much higher anyway - gimbal the last one engine or use RCS thrusters to rotate, transition to "belly flop" and switch to header tanks. Remember that angular velocity decreases only because of atmospheric drag, so the higher you go, the longer you are going to rotate, unless you stop it with the opposite thruster. >> BELLY FLOP While in the "belly flop", use arrow keys to control the flaps - try and learn, falling from 10 km takes quite a long time;) left and right arrows - rotation, up and down arrows - increasing/decreasing overall air resistance Try to stay at about -200 m downrange - landing pad is at -100 m and you need some additional space for the flip. And now the absolutely hardest part: flip and landing. >> FLIP Look at TWR for 2 engines. Adjust the throttle so it's about or slightly above 1. Be very careful, you don't have enough propellant to save an overcorrected manoeuver. At about 1000 m, click down arrow to increase resistance and slow down. Start rotating to vertical using only flaps (left arrow). Ignite engines 2 and 3 (they have more lever arm) and use gimbal to complete the rotation to vertical. Pay attention not to overcorrect too much and to eliminate your horizontal velocity. >> LANDING When vertical and stable, watch your TWR and vertical speed. Try to slowly descend. Pay attention to the propellant gauge, don't waste propellant to hover. Touch down at a speed below 10 m/s. Yeah, easier said than done; just repeat until you get this all;)
