Kerbal Space Program

16781012

Comments

  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited July 2013
    I don't know what I'm going to use this for yet but it seemed nice to have.image
    @d3k0y: have used joystick and spaceplanes are marginally controllable in air. It's very difficult to fly them manually since there is no trim. The typical solution is to put an advanced SAS on them for hands-off flying or a spaceplane SAS if you really want to go manual. A normal computer joystick does not lend itself well to flying spacecraft in space though a 3D mouse with decoupled axes would be ok.
  • RyanFodderRyanFodder Detroit, MI Icrontian
    Alpha Centauri? Could at least exit the Kerbin system and find the space monster (bug).
  • IlriyasIlriyas The Syrupy Canadian Toronto, Ontario Icrontian
    All of my current rocket designs are awful, my lander and command module I know are solid but I can't make orbit.

    Did they change the thrust ratios on some of the smaller rockets because I've found three of them on a heavy stage lander/command module just don't have the force to establish an orbit before I run out of fuel and have to abort.
  • RyanFodderRyanFodder Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2013
    It takes a LOT of fuel to get to orbit.

    "If you can get your ship into orbit, you're halfway to anywhere." - Robert Heinleins from A Step Farther Out by Jerry Pournelle.

    If you're trying to launch both a lander and a command module, its likely that they are heavy. For me to get a similar mass into space + low orbit (and admittedly I could get to the moon on the main stage), I used a total of 22 of the 1440 size fuel tanks on my main lift stage. I also used asparagus style (thanks @Drasnor) for the atmospheric stage to stay near terminal velocity on the way up.

    My asparagus testing showed something like 150% performance of the "drop as you go" style staging.

    image

    By comparison, my lander / return module is relatively small:

    image

    In other words, I'm using the mainsails to quickly / easily / wastefully get me to orbit. What do you mean by smaller? If you wanted to just propel your lander command module, I think you'd need at least a LV-T30 / LV-T45.


    (edit: broken link)
  • IlriyasIlriyas The Syrupy Canadian Toronto, Ontario Icrontian
    So I threw in some more fuel tanks which allowed me to keep my mid stage booster long enough to establish orbit. After a botched orbital docking procedure I managed to attach my command and lander modules at the nose.

    Unfortunately my munar trajectory didn't allow for me to establish an orbit resulting in both the command module and lander module colliding into the surface despite 5 minutes of solid fuel burn trying to decrease speed.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    The modular vehicle I made while inebriated a few posts back is launched on a common booster.
    image
    Each booster core has 9 engines, 8 of the non-vectoring standard small engine and one in the central position with vectoring. Not shown is the standard-size docking collar on the top of the medium-size fuel tank at the same height as the stack separator.
    image
    Detail view of the lander and orbiter. I launch to Kerbin orbit in this configuration with the lander's nuclear engines boosting the rest of the way to orbit. Once in orbit, I blow the aft stack separator and rotate the orbiter/lander assembly 180 degrees to align the lander top docking collar with the docking collar on the medium fuel tank and dock. The resulting vehicle looks like what I had in the earlier post. I added the drogue chutes on the lander more recently since my original inebriated attempt disintegrated on parachute deploy during the Duna entry-descent-landing.
  • trooster89trooster89 Are you from London? Icrontian
    image
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    image
  • RyanFodderRyanFodder Detroit, MI Icrontian
    The feels.

    I have never cursed so much as having dead satellites.

    the worst is including them, but forgetting to open them until you're on the dark side of the planet.
  • BobbyDigiBobbyDigi ? R U #Hats ! TX Icrontian
    Kerbal is 40% off ($13.79) on Steam for the next 2 days

    http://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/?20130914

    -Digi
    ErrorNullTurniptrooster89
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    Patch 0.22 hit a few days ago, career mode is active! Exploring nets you science points for unlocking parts... for more science!
    image
  • RyanFodderRyanFodder Detroit, MI Icrontian
    @drasnor where is that? Nice flag, btw.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian

    @drasnor where is that? Nice flag, btw.

    It is from the minty green surface of Minmus (not edible). Glad you like it!
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    I did the Laythe Spaceplane Challenge in career mode.
    image
    image
    So much science! Atmospheric scans on Laythe are worth a lot of points.
    ErrorNullTurnip
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    Wheels stop! Check out the MET; hope these guys had the cryostasis feature from the Pyro GX featured in Descent 2 & 3.
    image
    I had real problems getting out of Jool space. I ended up in a really, really high heliocentric orbit and it took a couple of days of real time to get phased right for minimum fuel return. I'm actually kind of surprised I was able to pull it off; having a good departure stage and carrying a nuclear engine right on the docking coupler helped a lot. I netted ~5k science on this mission.
    primesuspectRyanFodderErrorNullTurnip
  • RyanFodderRyanFodder Detroit, MI Icrontian
    That is quite an impressive mission. Are there any other stages to that thing for initial launch?
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    The Peregrine Mk3 (pictured above) is an SSTO spaceplane. Once on-orbit, it rendezvoused and docked with my space station to refuel and then rendezvoused and docked with my deep space booster module:
    image
    The deep space booster consists of the departure stage (the grey part above the center core) with a nuclear engine and docking collar on top. Once the departure stage is spent, all orbital operations are performed with just the NERVA on the deep space booster stage drawing fuel from the spaceplane tanks.
    image
    I left the deep space booster stage in low Kerbin orbit with a full fuel and oxidizer load but basically no monopropellant. I did a lot of orbital maneuvers on the RCS to save propellant. And yeah, that's a command chair on the side.
    RyanFodderErrorNullTurnip
  • RyanFodderRyanFodder Detroit, MI Icrontian
    That is an amazing mission. Looks like you had a lot of fun with it!
    drasnor
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    I did the Laythe Spaceplane again in 0.23 vanilla. The new RAPIER engine really makes flying the spaceplane easier and the new science module makes the mission much, much more lucrative.
    image
    image
    Full album
    6500 science :vimp:
    ErrorNullTurnip
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    I was in the mood for The Right Stuff tonight and afterwards I was inspired. Here we go NF-104A spaceplane SSTO with stock KSP parts:
    image
    Album link: imgur.com/a/12xGt
    ErrorNullTurnip
  • RyanFodderRyanFodder Detroit, MI Icrontian
    That thing is sleek. I would be interested in a video showing how you got to orbit. For some reason, the skill eludes me.

    I understand the idea is to get as high as air engines will allow and then as horizontally fast as you can before using rockets, but the actual execution is failing me.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    I made a thing.

    ErrorNullTurnipRyanFodder
  • ErrorNullTurnipErrorNullTurnip Illinois Icrontian
    Holy part clipping! 8 intakes per side?

    Also, you are aware that you can pull up the nav ball in map mode to set throttle, yes? Should save a bit of switching back and forth. Otherwise, nice SSTO!
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian

    Also, you are aware that you can pull up the nav ball in map mode to set throttle, yes? Should save a bit of switching back and forth. Otherwise, nice SSTO!

    I am now. I knew you could pull up the nav ball but I didn't know that unlocked the throttle control. Thanks!

  • RyanFodderRyanFodder Detroit, MI Icrontian
    Thank you! Good videos :) My problem is apparently not enough thrust, not enough lift.
  • RyanFodderRyanFodder Detroit, MI Icrontian
    I did it! I only was able to get 2 intakes per engine. More wing was definitely what I needed.

    image
    ErrorNullTurnipdrasnor
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian

    Holy part clipping! 8 intakes per side?

    It's eight ram intakes total; four on each side with a circular intake on each side as well. All told it's 10 intakes on the vehicle. I explored an eight-per side configuration but I didn't like the way it looked and the four-per side configuration gets the job done. The circular intakes fill out the base of the inlet clusters and prevent flameouts during the takeoff roll.

    @CannonFodder Nice! I used to do fewer; it just makes it harder :D .
Sign In or Register to comment.