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CommanderSpork

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    Buran Master Race

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  1. That's the only body it can't take off from. I tried putting on expendable boosters, but at the best it can do it's still at least 2 km/s shy of an Eve launch. I'm pretty certain it just has too much dry mass for the purple rocket eating planet.
  2. In the quest to build the ultimate all-purpose vehicle, 96 kerbalnaughts boarded the Duna Colonial Transporter and set out to make Kerbals a multiplanetary species. Full mission album Last year, after SpaceX announced the Interplanetary Transport System, I decided to build something like it that was as close to stock as I could get, and ended up making this. It's a fairly complex design that's taken a long, long time to tweak to perfection. Imgur isn't great for long explanations, so I'll go into detail here about the technical aspects and what I've learned from the mission. I started out with the following parameters in mind: A separate set of vacuum and atmospheric engines Around 100 Kerbal capacity Tail landing Mining/refueling capability Larger than normal diameter The first four are obviously taken straight from the design of SpaceX's ITS, but the last one was a challenge. I've done fuel tank clipping before to get vehicles that exceed the largest stock tank size, but I had never attempted to create one that was larger across multiple stages because it's really hard to do right. I designed the upper stage/spaceship first with all the capabilities I wanted before moving onto the booster because its interstage would depend on how the ship turned out. Since the editor only allows for a single connection between two parts, the whole stack is only connected a single 1.25m decoupler that attaches to the docking port on the aft of the ship. From there, adapters widen it out and connect to the booster. Fairings wouldn't work to cover up the interstage area, so I built up radiators and it worked surprisingly well. Compared to the spaceship, the booster is pretty simple and my only parameter was to use only Vector engines, since the ITS will use bunches of Raptor engines. I put in as many as could physically fit on the booster. All of the serious business is crammed into the end of the spaceship. The most notable pieces are the engines, and they were definitely the easiest to install, but there's also a probe core, batteries, monoprop tanks, drills, lights, and a docking port. Since it's designed the way it is, pretty much nothing can be attached to the sides, which means that real estate on the bottom of the ship is in high demand for all the miscellaneous components that it needs. There's also an ISRU converter and ore tanks jammed up somewhere inside it, but those don't need to be exposed. I put the docking port in with no specific purpose in mind, but as with most ships in KSP, you end up needing one at some point. And indeed, it actually saved the first mission to Duna. I had forgotten to put an antenna of any kind on the ship before launching it to Duna unmanned, and only realized as it was on an escape trajectory. So I had two options: Abort and launch a new one with an antenna or... fire off another rocket to catch up and deliver one. Yep, I went with the second option. A satellite dish was sent after the ship and successfully attached via docking port. It was a little ridiculous to have this awkward antenna between the engines that almost scraped the ground when it landed, but it worked. Afterwards, I immediately put in the antennae it has now. Those of you with good eyes may notice that the exit hatches are right above the solar panels. I did not catch this until I was already on Duna and had to unload 96 kerbals without breaking the panels. Sometimes you just don't figure things out until you're doing it for real. Another thing I learned is that the ore drills suck up a lot of electricity. I added more batteries after the first mission, but I still needed more. In fact, the one limiting factor to how far out in the solar system the ship can go may be its capacity to generate power. I also have trouble with landing it because it has a tendency to bounce after touching down. When I returned from this mission, I actually went and did tests with different settings for the spring/damper to try to minimize this. It's a little stupid to plop this big ol' multi-ton spaceship down and have it bounce. The best part about this ship is that it is definitely capable of going pretty much anywhere since it has around 5000 m/s of dV and can top that off any time it is on the ground. I got to experience the math of dV firsthand when I noticed that the first half of the ship's fuel only supplies about 1 km/s since it starts out very heavy (it's over 1 kiloton fully fueled). Aside from maneuvering issues (there's just no way to get something that heavy to turn fast), it's very easy to use and low-risk since it has the dV budget to not need aerocapture. Even when coming in to reenter Kerbin from an 80x80 orbit, I didn't need a heatshield and just slowed my velocity propulsively as I hit the thicker part of the atmosphere. It's easily the most complex and complete ship I've made, and it can stay in space indefinitely. I really look forward to sending it wherever it can go. Next stop: Jool! Craft download (only 1 mod part from Kerbal Reusability Expansion): https://kerbalx.com/CommanderSpork/Duna-Colonial-Transporter
  3. I think that's just because it's not particularly good at accounting for Kerbin's rotational speed (if it does at all).
  4. It sounds good in theory. If there was a particular section just for politics, it would stay there and keep it out of the rest of the forums, right? Well, yeah, but it would do more harm than good. First off, I don't think Squad wants to have raging political arguments on their forums. Not only does it have nothing to do with KSP, it does not look good for them or for the forums to have that mess going on. It makes the whole board look less controlled and less appealing. A politics section also creates unnecessary rifts between everyone involved. People, especially internet people, are quite enthusiastic about their candidate of choice and can become very bitter that someone else has a different favorite. In real life most people will look past this and agree to disagree because they're talking to a physical person standing in front of them. Once you remove the physical aspect though, as with basically any comment section, internet folks will actually resent each other over political opinions. And this will carry outside of the seemingly contained section - even if it's not full on resentment, there will definitely be more dislike going around.
  5. This is my updated recreation of the soviet Energia launcher and the Buran shuttle. Download: https://kerbalx.com/CommanderSpork/Kenergia-20
  6. The Rockets of Kerbin is a lineup of all my viable launchers. In my original version from a few months ago, I only had the best ones, but I've decided to expand to all of my currently active rockets. RRR: Rambunctious Redneck Rocketry, LLC AAA: Atrociously Ambiguous Aeronautics, LLC QQQ: Quantitatively Quirky Quarks, LLC From left to right: Top Noiro I (QQQ) Noiro II (QQQ) Lares I (QQQ) Lares II (QQQ) Hipporocketus (QQQ) Kenergia/Burannott (AAA) Kerbin Launch System Block 1 (RRR) Kerbin Launch System Block 2 (RRR) Varek Crewed System - KLS Block 2b (RRR) Kerbin Launch System Block 3 Sea Kraken (RRR) Gigantus II (RRR) Bottom Pigeon 1 (AAA) Pigeon 2 (AAA) Pigeon 6 (AAA) Pigeon 7 (AAA) Pigeon 8 (AAA) Pigeon 9 (AAA) Spork I (RRR) Spork II (RRR) Spork III (RRR) Spork IV (RRR) Spork V (RRR) Spork VI (RRR) Spork VII (RRR) Spork VIII (RRR) Spork IX (RRR) Spork series rockets are the most powerful, the biggest and meanest heavy lifters developed by RRR, LLC for huge payloads. Pigeon is a unique recoverable product line by AAA, LLC. Every rocket's first stage is capable of boostback to launch site, or remote landing in the ocean. Kenergia carries the Burannott shuttle on LKO flights with multiple crew members, or carries unmanned payloads up to KSO. KLS 1, 2, 3 were made for ferrying cargo around the Kerbin system, or out to an interplanetary mission. Sea Kraken is an SSTO rocket with lots of engines. There is no promise that the first stage can be recovered after orbital injection. Lares I and II are medium-cargo rockets for LKO. Noiro was specially designed as a way to quickly and simply land Kerbals or cargo on the Mun. Hipporocketus is a sad, uninspired attempt by QQQ, LLC to compete with the Spork rockets. When we figure out the purpose of Gigantus II, we'll let you know.
  7. My Jeb is safely chilling out at the KSC. He only tests new craft (which is still a majority of what I do) or goes on important missions (first crew to Duna/Dres).
  8. I was watching it launch/land live at Jetty Park, looking across the water. Incredible! Though that sonic boom couldn't have been better (worse) timed...
  9. Created entirely by hand in Photoshop. You can see it here on reddit, and also vote for it here in the 'best of r/ksp 2015' thread. It was based on a poster I got from the real KSC, linked in the image's description: http://imgur.com/30QKGj1
  10. The other two Kerbin Launch System versions are up. As I suspected, it takes about a full hour for me to prepare one craft for release on KerbalX, so I won't get to doing the others until tomorrow. KLS 1: [URL]http://kerbalx.com/CommanderSpork/KLS-Block-1[/URL] KLS 3: [URL]http://kerbalx.com/CommanderSpork/KLS-Block-3[/URL] Update! Sea Kraken: [url]http://kerbalx.com/CommanderSpork/Sea-Kraken[/url]
  11. Kenergia: [URL]http://kerbalx.com/CommanderSpork/Kenergia[/URL] KLS Block 2: [URL="http://kerbalx.com/CommanderSpork/KLS"]http://kerbalx.com/CommanderSpork/KLS-Block-2[/URL] The rest will probably be up on KerbalX later today.
  12. Kenergia: http://kerbalx.com/CommanderSpork/Kenergia Kerbin Launch System: http://kerbalx.com/CommanderSpork/KLS A little bird informed me that people were downloading the KLS just to rip off the SRB's, so I made a separate download: http://kerbalx.com/CommanderSpork/Advanced-Solid-Rocket-Booster
  13. You might know me from /r/kerbalspaceprogram, because I post there often but I haven't used the official forum before. I bought the game two weeks before 1.0 without realizing that was coming, and since then I've racked up close to 500 hours of playing. I've built more rockets than payloads, my two favorite so far being replicas of the Soviet Energia/Buran and NASA's SLS Block 2. And that's pretty much all there is to say (for now).
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