ORT 3.

1 Tutorial 1

bitwave

March 25, 2012

Contents

Contents I

List of Figures II

1 Tutorial 1: Model the "Blue Streak" 1

1.1 Documenting the Vehicle Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.2 Plumbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3 Guidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.4 Nosecone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

I
List of Figures

1.1 The empty ORT Modeller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 Blue Streak: The first element of the Blue Streak . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Blue Streak: The rearranged label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 Blue Streak: View zoomed and panned for detail work . . . . . . . 3
1.5 Blue Streak: Moving a connector node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.6 Blue Streak: The rearranged and renamed structure . . . . . . . . 4
1.7 Blue Streak: Meat on the bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.8 Blue Streak: Rearranged internals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.9 Blue Streak: Prepared attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.10 Blue Streak: Documented attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.11 Blue Streak: Engine parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.12 Blue Streak: Twin engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.13 Blue Streak: Launch 1! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.14 Blue Streak: Fixed stage dry mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.15 Blue Streak: Launch 2! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.16 Blue Streak: Altitude plot of 2nd launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.17 Blue Streak: GNC component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.18 Blue Streak: Ignition command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.19 Blue Streak: Command placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.20 Blue Streak: Attitude control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.21 Blue Streak: Launch 3! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.22 Blue Streak: Launch 3 drag plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.23 Blue Streak: Drag parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.24 Blue Streak: Launch 4 drag curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.25 Blue Streak: Launch 4 velocity curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

II
1 Tutorial 1: Model the "Blue
Streak"

In this tutorial we will create and launch a model of the British “Blue Streak”
IRBM. The following links shall provide us with the data we need for our
model:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Streak_missile

2. http://astronautix.com/lvs/blutreak.htm

Figure 1.1: The empty ORT Modeller

1
2 CHAPTER 1. TUTORIAL 1: MODEL THE "BLUE STREAK"

Figure 1.2: Blue Streak: The first element of the Blue Streak

Figure 1.3: Blue Streak: The rearranged label

 3

Figure 1.4: Blue Streak: View zoomed and panned for detail work

Figure 1.5: Blue Streak: Moving a connector node

4 CHAPTER 1. TUTORIAL 1: MODEL THE "BLUE STREAK"

Figure 1.6: Blue Streak: The rearranged and renamed structure

First, open the modeller. The workspace should look as shown in figure
1.1. For our Blue Streak, we need a single stage called "Europa 1"1 .
To create the stage, drag a "New Structure" from the browser into the logical
view. To do this, left-click the "New Structure" item in the brower, hold and
drag over into the logical view and zoom out with the mouse-wheel until the
entire structure is in view. The workspace should now look similar to figure
1.2.
Structures are represented as large rectangles that are supposed to encom-
pass all the detail components belonging to the structure. ORT, however, does
not enforce detail features to remain within the bounds of their parent struc-
ture, so the arrangement of components is left entirely to the user. The relative
placement of a logical component does in no way affect its behavior.
Each component featured in a diagram has its own label, which is connected
to the component by a dotted line, called the "connector". You are free to move
the label independently from its component and arrange the connector between
the label any way you like. Let’s move the label to the top left corner of the
structure to make room for detail components within the structure. To do so,

1 See http://www.astronautix.com/stages/europa1.htm
 5

click the label so that it will be lit in orange, then left-click and drag it to the
top left corner until you achieve something similar to figure 1.3.
The selected feature is always lit in orange to offset it from other features.
Also, its bounding rectangle is drawn to facilitate clicking within the feature
to manipulate it. The bounding rectangle of a feature is always active, even if
it is not shown, and a click into this region will select the feature, unless there
is an even smaller feature covering the same point on the canvas.
You may already have noticed that the connector now passes right through
the label, so let’s clean that up as well. Zoom in a bit to get a better picture.
Then hold the Shift key and left-drag the mouse to the top-left to pan the
label back into view. Your workspace should now look like figure 1.4. Click
on the top-left endpoint of the connector to select the node, then left-drag the
endpoint to the bottom right, to yield something like figure 1.5. In exactly
the same way, move the other endpoint away from the center of the structure
to make room for additional components. I have zoomed out again by mouse-
wheeling towards myself to bring a larger part of the structure back into view.
Now all that’s left to do with the structure is giving it a proper name.
Replace the “New Structure (2)” in the name field with “Blue Streak” and tab
out of the edit to force an update of the view.
Figure 1.6 shows the foundation of our cancelled European IRBM.
The root structure of a vehicle always shows the GLOW2 of the stack3 ,
along with the stage gross mass and dry mass. ORT will always calculate these
values for you on the fly. Now let’s add some meat to the bone by placing a
nose-cone, tankage for the propellants and the engine. In exactly the same way
as with the structure, drag the following components from the browser onto
the structure.

1. New NoseCone

2. New Tankage

3. New Tankage

4. New BipropEngine

Make sure to drag the new components onto the existing structure to make
them details of the structure. If the rectangle of the structure is lit orange
while you drag the new component over the view you’re ready to release the
mouse button. After adding all the components, your workspace should look
like figure 1.7. Don’t worry about the exact placement of the components, yet.
If something goes wrong, don’t hesitate to select bad components and delete
them via the "Edit | Delete" menu entry. Note how the "Vehicle" tab will show
the components of the vehicle you are currently working on.
2 Gross Liftoff Weight, which is actually a misnomer as it represents a mass, not a weight
3 Multiple rocket stages on top of each other.
6 CHAPTER 1. TUTORIAL 1: MODEL THE "BLUE STREAK"

Figure 1.7: Blue Streak: Meat on the bone

Figure 1.8: Blue Streak: Rearranged internals

 7

Figure 1.9: Blue Streak: Prepared attributes

Figure 1.10: Blue Streak: Documented attributes

8 CHAPTER 1. TUTORIAL 1: MODEL THE "BLUE STREAK"

Figure 1.11: Blue Streak: Engine parameters

Figure 1.12: Blue Streak: Twin engines

1.1. DOCUMENTING THE VEHICLE SPECIFICATION 9

1.1 Documenting the Vehicle Specification

Have a look at the Encyclopedia Astronautica4 to learn more about the prop-
erties of the rocket stage we are modelling.
So we know that our stage is propelled by LOX and kerosene. Let’s reflect
that in our model by renaming our new tanks. For this purpose let’s switch to
the Details tab, which will always show the properties of the currently selected
component. Using this tool, rename the two tanks and the engine so that you
end up with figure 1.8.
I cleaned up the placement of components, labels and connectors in exactly
the same way as we did before with the structure. Did you notice that features
snap to an invisible grid when dragging them? You can disable snapping during
a drag operation by holding the Ctrl key, but this usually is only required when
working on curve elements (more about those later).
It’s time to save your work. Select "File | Save" from the menu and confirm
the dialog. It’s a good thing to save your work in regular intervals because
ORT does not yet provide any undo functionality.
A strength of ORT is that it distinguishes between documentation of a
vehicle and its effective physical properties. The reason for this is that there are
often multiple sources providing different values for a particular property of a
vehicle. So usually you will spend some time browsing sources and documenting
features of a vehicle, and the physical properties will only be determined after
all the sources have been considered and weighed against each other, most likely
including some experimentation. So let’s document everything Astronautix
knows about the Blue Streak. ORT does not restrict the attributes you want
to document in any way. Unfortunately, it also does not encourage consistency
in naming, nor interpret the attributes in any way. Here is how I would map
the information provided by Astronautix to the model attributes:
Component Attribute Name Attribute Value Unit
Blue Streak gross mass 197106 lbs
Blue Streak dry mass 15425 lbs
Blue Streak length 61.51 ft
Blue Streak diameter 10 ft
Blue Streak span 12.4 ft
RZ.2 thrust (vac) 188008 lbf
RZ.2 burn time 156 s
RZ.2 dry mass 1650 lbs
Let’s use the Details panel to document the attributes on our model. First,
select the Blue Streak structure and click the “New Attribute” button 5 times,
each time entering the name of the next attribute. Then, select the RZ.2 and
add the remaining three attributes. Your model should now look like figure
1.9.
I don’t usually capitalize attribute names. Note how the structure label
is updated to reflect the attributes now present on the structure. Next, let’s
4 http://astronautix.com/lvs/blutreak.htm, http://astronautix.com/stages/europa1.htm,

http://astronautix.com/engines/rz2.htm
10 CHAPTER 1. TUTORIAL 1: MODEL THE "BLUE STREAK"

document the source of our attribute values by copying the Astronautix page
URL into the URL fields of all our attributes. This way we will always know
where a particular value originated from and can check its credibility or re-
read additional details associated with it. In the future, URLs specified for an
attribute source may manifest themselves in the logical view as a hyperlink on
the attribute value, which will make reading up on those values very easy.
Let’s complete the documentation by filling in the attribute values, making
sure to adjust the units. This is important because ORT will convert any non-
SI units to SI and print the corresponding value along with the documented
value. This completes documentation of the stage itself.
Now let’s turn our attention to the engine. The Blue Streak is actually
powered by two RZ.2s, so the thrust value specified on the Blue Streak stage
actually represents the vacuum thrust of the entire stage, not that of a single
engine. Likewise, if we calculate propellant burn rate from tank volume and
burn time per engine, we have to account for both engines. For modelling
engines, I usually open the specification of the engine itself5 and then just
perform sanity checks between engine spec and stage spec. Knowing that, let’s
finish modelling our RZ.2. Make sure to select the engine before adding the
attributes. Your model should now resemble figure 1.10.
Eventually we’ll want to have two identical RZ.2 engines in the Blue Streak.
Although ORT supports linking the same component into multiple views, it
currently does not support multiple usages of the same component within the
same vehicle. This means that for now we have to finalize the model of a
component we want to reuse to avoid repeating ourselves. So let’s decide for
the physical properties of the RZ.2, then add it to the browser by ticking the
"filed" checkbox, and drag it into the structure to create a second instance of
the engine.

1.2 Plumbing

For the physical properties of the engine we have to know the vacuum and sea-
level thrust, which is provided by Astronautix, and the burn rate of fuel and
oxidizer, which is not. Fortunately, we know the fuels used by the Blue Streak,
the gross and dry mass of the vehicle and the burn time of the engine. By
means of a simple spreadsheet we can derive the burn rates per engine (there
are still supposed to be two of those!). Astronautix is so kind as to tell us the
fuel ratio for the propellants used by the Blue Streak6 .

5 http://astronautix.com/engines/rz2.htm for the RZ.2

6 http://www.astronautix.com/props/loxosene.htm
1.2. PLUMBING 11

Gross mass (input) 89 407.28 kg

Dry Mass (input) 6996.78 kg
Propellant Mass (=gross-dry) 82 410.5 kg
Fuel ratio (input) 2.56
Burn time (input) 156 s
Fuel 23 149.016 85 kg
Oxidizer 59 261.483 15 kg
Burn rate fuel (per engine) 74.195 566 85 kg s−1
Brun rate ox (per engine) 189.694 065 11 kg s−1
All values in this table are in SI units, and the input values for gross mass
and dry mass were read out from the logical view, thanks to the on-the-fly
SI conversion provided by ORT. Now we know the capacity of the fuel and
oxidizer tanks, and the rate at which two RZ.2 engines burn the propellants.
Let’s use these values to configure the physical properties of the single RZ.2.
Document the sea-level thrust also provided by Astronautix to obtain a
value in Newtons for use in the engine properties. Also, connect the engine to
the fuel tanks via the combo boxes labeled with "fuel tank" and "ox tank". If an
engine is not properly connected to tanks it will shut down immediately after
ignition and the vehicle will stay put, so always double-check on these settings.
Also, tick the “filed" checkbox to add the RZ.2 to the element browser for later
reuse. This completes the engine specification as shown in figure 1.11.
Next, transfer the fuel and oxidizer quantities from the above spreadsheet
over to the physical properties of the tanks. Enter the same number in both
“net” and “capacity” to top off the tanks. Try to lower the value in the net field
and see how the view reflects the partially filled tank. If the tank parameters
are not configured, the engines will shut down immediately after ignition and
the vehicle will crash. We do not document attributes for these values because
they are not backed by sources. That way we know that the physical properties
are derivatives subject to change as the effective attributes of the vehicle are
refined.
Let’s add the second RZ.2 to our Blue Streak by selecting it in the Browser
(it appears there only if "filed" is checked) and dragging it into the structure.
Arrange the components as in figure 1.12 and hook the new engine up to the
fuel tanks as you did with the first one. Now is a good time to save your work
again.
Let’s see what happens if we try to launch the blue streak. Switch to the
"Launch" tab and hit the F 5 key. Figure 1.13 shows liftoff!
ORT automatically fires the engines of a first stage that does not contain
a GNC component. A first stage with a GNC component, however, is entirely
responsible for firing its engines. Tab through the curve panels (Velocity, Ac-
celeration, Altitude etc) and try panning/zooming the graphs in the same way
as the logical view. The same panning and zooming also works in the Launch
view. ORT displays events of interest like engine ignition and cutoff, stage
separations and crashes in the Launch view, along with the time of the event
and the current velocity of the mass point. But wait, an almost-but-not-quite
escape trajectory for the single-stage Blue Streak is slightly suspicious. What
12 CHAPTER 1. TUTORIAL 1: MODEL THE "BLUE STREAK"

Figure 1.13: Blue Streak: Launch 1!

Figure 1.14: Blue Streak: Fixed stage dry mass

1.2. PLUMBING 13

Figure 1.15: Blue Streak: Launch 2!

Figure 1.16: Blue Streak: Altitude plot of 2nd launch

14 CHAPTER 1. TUTORIAL 1: MODEL THE "BLUE STREAK"

might be wrong? Let’s go back to the logical view to analyze the issue (or refer
to figure 1.12 again). Whenever a stage misbehaves, the first thing to look at
should be the structure label, as it details the gross and dry mass of the stage.
If we compare the actual values of gross and dry mass of the stage with
the documented attribute values we transferred over from Astronautix, it be-
comes apparent that our model does not match the specification. That’s not
really a surprise because so far we only specified the dry weight of each engine,
neglecting the rest of the dry mass of the vehicle. ORT does not care over
which components the dry mass is distributed, so you are free to either dump
the entire dry mass into the structure or split it across multiple components.
Often you will want to use specified masses on components that are accurately
modeled, and sink the remainder of the dry mass into the structure. This is
the path we will take here.
Specified dry mass is 6996.78 kg of which 1496.88 kg are accounted for by
the engines. Leaves us with

6996.78 − 1496.88 = 5499.90 kg (1.1)

left to distribute. After allocating the remaining dry mass, the summary per-
fectly matches the specification, as shown by figure 1.14. Launching again
with the adjusted model (see figure 1.15) shows that the stage now returns to
earth after a flight of 2710 s.
Telling by the orbit guides of 100 km and 1000 km, our Blue Streak appears
to reach an apogee of 3500 km. Switch to the altitude curve (figure 1.16) to
read out the exact apogee.
The launch view is initially centered on the launch position of the vehicle
and looks from the north pole down onto the equatorial plane, which means
that a prograde equatorial launch will head towards the left of the screen.
Due to the rotation of the earth, every launch will start out with a horizontal
velocity of −464.58 m s−1 , which is simply the surface velocity of the earth at
the equator resulting from the angular velocity of the earth. So even though our
Blue Streak appears to fly an arc, it actually just launches straight up. This
is not usually the intended ascent path of a launch vehicle. Let’s configure
the GNC of our Blue Streak to impart a significant horizontal velocity on the
vehicle. In order to do so, let’s extend our model with a programmed GNC
component that allows us to specify what commands to execute at which point
in time.

1.3 Guidance
Return to the logical view and drag a "New ProgrammedGNC" onto the "Blue
Streak" structure. Make sure that the structure rectangle is lit, not one of the
components already present within the structure. Rearrange and rename the
components until your model looks like figure 1.17.
A GNC by accomplishes nothing, though. On the contrary, having a GNC
means that ORT will no longer auto-fire our engines. So we must at least add
1.3. GUIDANCE 15

Figure 1.17: Blue Streak: GNC component

Figure 1.18: Blue Streak: Ignition command

16 CHAPTER 1. TUTORIAL 1: MODEL THE "BLUE STREAK"

Figure 1.19: Blue Streak: Command placement

Figure 1.20: Blue Streak: Attitude control

an ignition command. Select the "New IgnitionCommand" item in the browser

and drag it onto the GNC component. It is very important to drag commands
onto the GNC they are executed in (figure 1.18).
Then, rename the command via the GNC panel and move it away from the
GNC to make room for more commands. To rename a command, you have to
switch to the "GNC" panel, which details all commands of all GNC components
present in the currently selected vehicle. I developed the habit of arranging
GNC commands below the label of the GNC. Next, add a pitch command, so
that we can instruct the Blue Streak to tilt over and build up some horizontal
velocity. Proceed in perfect analogy to the ignition command to end up with
something along the lines of figure 1.19.
Note the values for “t begin”, “t end” and “target pitch. This command
instructs the Blue Streak to execute a pitch maneuver, beginning 30 s after
T 0 and ending 90 s after T 0. The final pitch angle is 60◦ from the vertical,
resulting in a pitch rate of

60◦ /(90 s − 30 s) = 1 ◦ s−1 (1.2)

. If you launch again at this point you will notice that nothing has changed.
The Blue Streak still heads straight up and crashes in the same place as before.
1.3. GUIDANCE 17

Figure 1.21: Blue Streak: Launch 3!

Have a look at the details of the GNC component. It has a “control author-
ity” property which is still unconfigured. In order to control the attitude of a
vehicle, a GNC component must be able to exert control over a component ca-
pable of affecting the attitude of the vehicle. This may be the gimbal to which
an engine is mounted, air vanes reaching into the air flow surrounding the ve-
hicle, jet vanes diverting the exhaust of an engine or even dedicated attitude
control thrusters or a 3-axis gyroscope assembly. Our Blue Streak currently
features none of those, so the GNC is incapable of piloting the vehicle during
its ascent.
Wikipedia tells us that the Blue Streak could vector its engines by seven
degrees, which indicates a gimballed engine. ORT does not feature a gimbal
component as of yet, so we have to substitute a primitive exhaust diverter. Go
ahead and drag a "New ExhaustDiverter" into the Blue Streak and rename and
configure the component, you know the drill by now (figure 1.20). Although
we have two engines, it is currently irrelevant to which engine the diverter is
hooked up because the the link to the engine is only used to disable the diverter
in case the engine is no longer firing. Don’t forget to tie the GNC to the new
diverter. A launch at this point should produce the trajectory with an with an
apogee of approx. 2000 km, as seen in figure 1.21. Ignition and ECO events
appear twice due to the twin engines of the Blue Streak.
18 CHAPTER 1. TUTORIAL 1: MODEL THE "BLUE STREAK"

Figure 1.22: Blue Streak: Launch 3 drag plot

Figure 1.23: Blue Streak: Drag parameters

Figure 1.24: Blue Streak: Launch 4 drag curve

Figure 1.25: Blue Streak: Launch 4 velocity curve

1.4. NOSECONE 19

1.4 Nosecone
If we look at the drag curve of our last flight (figure 1.22), there is something
that is not quite right: The very right of the graph shows the drag at time of
impact. Assuming that the earth has an atmosphere and that the Blue Streak
was clearly above most of it for a large part of the flight, shouldn’t we see
a steep increase in drag towards the end as the vehicle smashes back into the
denser regions of the atmosphere? Similarly, the velocity curve should plummet
during the phase of reentry, which it currently does not. ORT supports pressure
drag acting on a nose cone, but we did not model that aspect of our vehicle.
In the logical view, select the nose-cone and enter the data shown in figure
1.23. The Cd was picked rather randomly but the area was derived from the
documented stage diameter7 . Repeating the launch with this change shows a
drop in flight time from 2444 s down to 2259 s, and produces the expected drag
and velocity curves (figures 1.24, 1.25).
This concludes the Blue Streak tutorial. Usually this effort would be fol-
lowed by comparing vehicle performance with values provided by the sources,
and further adjustments to the model.

A = πr2 (1.3)