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Gryphorim

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    Sr. Spacecraft Engineer

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  1. I'm looking at coding up a test engine that uses a heatloop to define max thrust and propellant flow to define maximum cooling rate. My intention is an engine that uses heat from either a fission or fusion source to heat propellant like an NTR, and can run on either intakeatm or on board propellant. Is this going to be a possibility? I can foresee some issues with unrealistic performance, or with engines becoming starved of heat by having excess propellant flow to heat ratio.
  2. Can they just be set to a manual full throttle, and use TCA to pulse the RCS-controlled thrusters? or would that just waste fuel?
  3. For the really big builds that FFT sorta encourages, the NFProp RCS thrusters don't really have enough power. Is there a way to coerce the electric propulsion engines to respond to RCS commands? Also, the toroidal aerospike fusion engine is really cool, but feels like it's screaming for an atmosphere-breathing mode, or variant, for efficient spaceplane operation. As in: just about everything in FFT is about cutting-edge physics to get from one celestial body's orbit, to another. The TAF, however, is compact and has an aero boattail, making it more of a booster for SSTO vehicles, in particular, VTVL types. NF Aero brings a ton of goodies for making spaceplane SSTO designs, and Kerbal Atomics bring some great fission based air-breathing engines, so it occurs to me that FFT might have something adaptable to the same role. The TAF seems like the right tool for the job, if it were given an air-breathing mode.
  4. Posting to show support and anticipation for both Stirling and Impulse parts. I hope to someday try these parts out.
  5. @Nertea, would this new tease, or any of the new centrifugal habs be well suited to making closely stacked, counter-rotating designs? In the live release, anything 3.75m or bigger mounting size is so tall, that they don't stack nicely. I guess this is sort of a request for a flatter centrifuge design that stacks nicely.
  6. Have you seen the "Apple" concept for what looks like a flat panel RTG? https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2021_Phase_I/Atomic_Planar_Power_for_Lightweight_Exploration/ Maybe you could loosely base an RTG on it, giving it the form factor of a solar panel or radiator, but functioning as any other RTG?
  7. I was just coming back to ask if this was still being developed. Good to see that progress continues. I am seriously looking forward to trying this pack out when it releases. I am hoping that it compliments the works produced be Nertea, for making a range of near and far future spaceplanes.
  8. Anyone have screenshots of the model reworks in last patch?
  9. Could that "Ouroboros" Fusion Aerospike be configured to use IntakeAir or IntakeAtm as re-mass? It could potentially be the core of a hybrid jet/rocket.
  10. I'm sorta hoping for a far future aeronautics. Not likely to happen though.
  11. That looks really cool. Would it be possible to set up a cluster of pulsed engines to fire sequentially?
  12. That is awesome! An inline ducted fan and or a foldable prop would potentially be great for an Eve ascent vehicle with minimal radial size, so it can be delivered to Eve without a mushroom fairing assembly. Edit: Assuming it were electric or could run on internal oxidiser, like a fuel cell does.
  13. If you're looking into doing prop engines, there is one I'd like to request. A (preferrably) stackable prop engine with folding props, so that in it's retracted state, has minimal protrusion from the size of the mounting points. This could make for an ideal Eve engine, or could be incorporated into spaceplane designs, to allow for a powered final approach on landing.
  14. For the first point: Whichever allows you the flexibility for what you want to achieve. I've been researching RDEs ever since they were brought up in my uni this year (Aerospace propulsion.) They seem to inherently have a toroidal or annular shape, so either could work. You could describe both the ramjet ring and the core engine as RDEs. As an aside, I see no reason why, with sufficient tech, an RDE couldn't be stretched into a near linear form, with detonation travelling like the belt of a conveyor. Mk2 fuselage possibilities for the future? As for the second point, I'm mostly referring to this: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a32405613/microwave-air-plasma-thrusters-compete-jet-engines/ promising research. Probably an absolute power hog, as it's still very much experimental, but it looks high thrust, potentially. I saw another article about a NTR that boosts exhaust using an Arcjet, to give near nuclear lightbulb isp. in theory at least. I think it was called the scorpion engine. Basically, I figured that based on the concepts above, it should be possible to electrically heat exhaust from any jet or rocket, and accelerate it well past the chemical limits, if there were enough power available. Having some alternate thrust generation options for the ring engine and core engine, to allow players to mix and match would be pretty cool. Imagine electric ring around high-thrust core, or vice-versa. Or optional nuclear versions, for those so radiologically inclined, or having the ring or core being set up as RCS controlled and the other as main engine control. Or going way off the deep end, a long aerospike sci-fi drive and ion ring drive for Star Wars prequel fans.
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