This group covers deep space navigation, stellar cartography and vessel helm operations. It's for anyone interested in how we get where we need to go and how we get around once we're there.
The helm has been updated with latest data from engine simulations, with some significant changes to vessel handling.
It turns out the helm was significantly under-reporting EM output from helm maneuvers in cruise mode. The changes mean that achieving the maximum bearing for a given speed will require100% thrust - and 100% EM output. So to reduce EM output during a helm maneuver in cruise mode, best to select a smaller bearing (for example a bearing that is 60% of the maximum available bearing will only require 60% thrust to achieve).
Here's an interesting article: a guide to executing held bearing meaneuvers, such as the radial traversal (partial planetary "orbit") seen in the recently post evolution video.
Submitted by Chief_Sonya on February 12, 2020 - 10:38
Impulse deceleration charts have been posted here. These provide a useful guide for when you have to stop at a particular spot.
You should always bear in mind that there's no such thing as pinpoint accuracy with impulse nav, so these charts aren't accurate to the GU. For starters, your actual deceleration distance will depend on when in the maneuvering cycle you push the engage button. But they should be good for +/-50GU.
Submitted by Chief_Sonya on January 9, 2019 - 22:43
Our first navigation evolution (training and evaluation exercise) was recently posted. It's still pretty bare-bones at the moment but it gives a great idea of what's required to pilot a ship like Endeavour around.
Submitted by Chief_Sonya on December 7, 2017 - 14:48
Reference material for navigation has been posted in LIAIS, which has been written to support training and operations. The current material covers impulse (sublight) navigation, which is the mode where most combat will happen (for example).
Details of the vessel's navigation systems and the technical framework they use will be published soon. One issue that has arisen is around the orientation of the 3D Cartesian grid used for navigation, which seems less suited to describing movement when you're inside a vessel rather than looking at it from some external viewpoint.
Propulsion and navigation prototype systems are being delivered and before we got too far with the associated documentations I thought this would be a good time for a debate on the terminology we’re going to use for navigation.
There are two possible sources of tradition on this: navy and airforce. Space efforts were traditionally run by the airforces of the world and so that was the source of a lot of the terminology used in space. The vessels were small and maneuvers were tight, making them more like aircraft to fly (quite literally in the case of the Shuttle).