Operations Manual Mk1
The Mk1 Operations Manual provides an introduction to the Mk1 MAS-enabled Command Pod. In addition, it introduces a number of concepts common to MAS-enabled IVAs.
The Mark 1 Command Pod is a basic sub-orbital or briefly-orbital command pod used early in a space program. As such, it has minimal instrumentation.
The left control panel consists of a 3 x 5 array of Flag Indicators, a few switches, and a rheostat.
A Flag Indicator is used to indicate when a particular status indicator is active, similar to a Lamp Indicator. Often, the Flag Indicator (FI) will display a colored rectangle (often, green with black stripes for nominal status, or yellow or red with black stripes for out-of-spec status). In the screen shot above, all FI are 'off', reporting that none of the indicators are active. A FI is a status indicator only - it can not be clicked to change status.
In the Mk1 CP, the left two columns of FIs indicate which Action Groups are active. Each is labeled with the caption corresponding to the Action Group (eg, 'AG1' for Action Group 1). AG0 applies to Action Group 10. The right columns reports which other stock groups are active - Brake, Gear, Light, RCS, and SAS.
Below the FI is a row of three Toggle Switches. The left two, BRAKES and GEAR, are probably not useful for a suborbital Mk1 command pod. The last switch, EXT. LIGHTS, toggles the Lights action group (which will toggle the command pod window lights in external views, by default).
Below these toggle switches is one more toggle switch and a rheostat knob.
The toggle switch is used to arm the pods parachute. As long as defaults have not been changed, once it is armed, the parachute will deploy automatically once it is safe to do so.
The rheostat is a knob that can be adjusted to vary inputs. In this case, the knob controls instrument lights. Pressing and holding on the right side of the knob will increase backlight brightness. Pressing and holding on the left side will decrease it. As one of the first steps for pre-flight activity, adjust backlight brightness to an acceptable level.
