Zapo147

I'll try to clarify. Aerobreaking saves crazy amounts of dV, so I want to use it for capture, particularly when arriving in the Joolian system. The problem is to design a ship to be able to enter the atmosphere at very high speeds and not break apart. The way that's done is by placing the center of drag well behind the center of mass while only exposing heat shields, which is not normally the case for a large upper stage. There are many creative ways to accomplish this, some in the VAB, some in situ. My favorite method, after a lot of struggle, is to break the ship into two halves and each half is aerodynamically stable and protected from reentry heat. I'm wondering how other people accomplish stability while aerobreaking.

CKAN update please?

First off, it's not my first rodeo in KSP. However, I found that one of my greatest challenges for interplanetary missions is designing a ship that is aerodynamically stable while performing an aerocapture maneuver. The primary reason for this is that rockets are naturally bottom-heavy, especially when launched from KSC. So while one can easily place an inflatable heat shield between the launch abort system and the command module, the center of mass will be so far back that the ship will tend to flip unless you add a ton of drag to the back end, in the form of literally tons of fins or more creative means. That was my first instinct, and I ended up with various semi-successful designs including turbine-like fins and infernal robotics deployed drag-inducers (heat shields). This solution isn't consistent, so I started designing ships to aerobrake engine-side first. Designs, using KIS/KAS, included using winches to haul a massive heat shield in front of the engines, assembling a heat shield in situ, or robotic arms moving radial shields into a heat shield snow plow design. Then came my most successful design concept - separation. I started designing ships to separate into two equally massive halves and aerocapture separately. Then would then rendezvous and rejoin after they left the atmosphere. The two halves were always much more stable than attempting to aero break with my typical burj khalifa looking design. My question is: what have been your successful solutions? I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a more elegant one out there.

First off, it's not my first rodeo in KSP. However, I found that one of my greatest challenges for interplanetary missions is designing a ship that is aerodynamically stable while performing an aerocapture maneuver. The primary reason for this is that rockets are naturally bottom-heavy, especially when launched from KSC. So while one can easily place an inflatable heat shield between the launch abort system and the command module, the center of mass will be so far back that the ship will tend to flip unless you add a ton of drag to the back end, in the form of literally tons of fins or more creative means. That was my first instinct, and I ended up with various semi-successful designs including turbine-like fins and infernal robotics deployed drag-inducers (heat shields). This solution isn't consistent, so I started designing ships to aerobrake engine-side first. Designs, using KIS/KAS, included using winches to haul a massive heat shield in front of the engines, assembling a heat shield in situ, or robotic arms moving radial shields into a heat shield snow plow design. Then came my most successful design concept - separation. I started designing ships to separate into two equally massive halves and aerocapture separately. Then would then rendezvous and rejoin after they left the atmosphere. The two halves were always much more stable than attempting to aero break with my typical burj khalifa looking design. My question is: what have been your successful solutions? I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a more elegant one out there.

I learned how to use them with an X-Plane tutorial on an online forum. Although I was flying in X-Plane while doing it, I think you could still figure it out just by reading it. http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/forum/247-x-ifr-ifr-flight-school/

Might want to take a look at ALCOR and the ASET lander can replacement as quality benchmarks. The ALCOR is a god-tier mod, the IVA experience is outstanding.

Either it was listed 1.2.1 last night when I made that or I was really tired and saw 1.2.1.

It worked, and thank you for responding and explaining!

I seriously can't believe I missed this mod...this is a god-tier improvement, now in the top 5 mods in my list of about 75!

Work for 1.2.2?

Holy crap, how'd I miss this one, it looks good!

I used hyperedit, so exactly.

Just a thought, but it would be amazing if Kerbal Engineering Redux could display the fight engineer data to RPM in these pods, but I'm guessing that would be a job for the RPM guy?

Haha stoned that's pretty sick man. didn't expect such an out of the box answer. I play with life support installed though so sending rescuers isn't possible, if they have to be rescued they are dead.

I put a sat in orbit at precisely 750km around a body and started a SAR scan and yet it still says my altitude is sub-optimal, despite being at the exact altitude listed as 'best' in the help menu...what gives? It's scanning like a dream though, so it's bugging me more than it should.

I was looking for a solution to having a tumble-resistant interplanetary ship during aerobreaking, thought I needed IR for it....but I figured it out before I could even install it. BUT... What are some of the best problems that IR can solve? Besides making VTOLs and robots.

Quick question, does this still work in 1.2.2?

Using VV in RPM is extremely costly in FPS. I will launch just the ALCOR pod with no other parts and open VV and lose 10 fps. CPU and memory usage in the 70% range. Are there any settings I can tweak to help with this?

I've suspected this for awhile, but I just confirmed it with a test. The longer the pod is in game, the lower the fps. I just put the ALCOR pod on the launch pad and went to sleep. 45 fps in IVA when I spawned it in (lower than I would like or expect for just a single part!!). When I woke up? Stuck at 11 fps! Nothing I do in game changes it either, going third person, having a kerbal get in and out, nothing. Task manager shows KSP is using 40% of my overclocked 6600k and 2GB of memory. Something's most definitely up. Might do a control test with another pod later. Only going back and forth from the space center fixes it. Strangely, after being fixed, it uses 60% CPU and 3GB of memory....more. 50 more fps but it's struggling less. Yea, odd!

Love you alex

It's amazing! My favorite mod! Thank you so much, seriously. One bug I have is that the Staging Lock switch on the upper left corner of the main panel toggles when I tab out of my KSP window. It's only mildly annoying and almost never interferes with play, but I thought you should know.

Can't wait! The one nukeboyt used, right?

Sorry I'm such a noob to this mod but even after watching people playing it I am a bit confused how this is going to work. I want to play a science mode with 1 other friend. I want us to share science and build and fly rockets together... is this even possible?

I'm just wondering if anyone knows when the new pod that nukeboyt used will be available....roughly. Sorry for being impatient.

Well my Kerbals can't put it into their inventory, so that giant container has to be on the very front or the very back of the ship so that they can attach pieces without taking them out. The only way I thought to do it reasonably is to store a winch as well and tow the pieces to the front of the ship via cable. Then I realized I that I could just store the inflatable heat shield and save a ton of trouble.