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TimothyC

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Posts posted by TimothyC

  1. 6 minutes ago, Battledamaged10 said:

    Hello! I really love this mod, but I have 1 problem, the OMS engines. Just using the monoprop in the lifting body, nose RCS ports, OMS pods, and Mk3 cockpit, I don't have enough Delta-V to make orbit. Do I have to add my own monopropellant tanks?

    What you need to do is fly a trajectory that is dramatically flatter than most people do in KSP. You want to have Main Engine Cut Off (MECO) with your PE already above the ground. This will reduce the deltaV needed for the circularization burn. Remember, the OMS on the real shuttle only had a deltaV of about 300m/s - and that was also needed for reentry.

  2. 5 hours ago, Thraeorn said:

    The other one went down when a small jet taking photography got a bit too close and ended up clipping the aircraft. It was a deadly accident.

    For the record, the F-104, piloted by Joe Walker (NASA Test Pilot, and 7th American Astronaut - by virtue of his X-15 flights above the Karmen line), was not the aircraft taking pictures. The photoshoot was of five different aircraft powered by GE engines.

    As a side note, both Joe Walker and the Pilot of the XB-70 (Alvin White), had been a part of the Man In Space Soonest program along with Armstrong and six others.

  3. 11 hours ago, HoveringKiller said:

    How do you guys counter the angled thrusters on the OMS pods for docking and not rolling when trying to rotate your craft?

    I place a probe core at a 15 degree incline on the tail when I fly the orbiter. This lines up with the OMS engines, and I use "Control from here". This also place the control axis near the thruster axis, which improves control. For terminal docking, I control from the docking port, and make slow, methodical adjustments. MechJeb likes to eat the RCS on docking if you let it. The key here is to make sure that you are aligned while some distance away, and that your docking port is close to your CoM, which is determined by how much stuff you have in the cargo bay, and strapped to the back of the orbiter.

  4. 7 minutes ago, VenomousRequiem said:

    What is that?

    That is the centaur derived high energy kick stage for NASA payloads post 1970. There were several options evaluated, but this one used a single RL-10 engine fed by a hydrogen tank made out of a standard centaur LOX tank. The tanks around the bottom of the structure are the LOX and GHe pressurant tanks for the stage. stacking it atop an Atlas-Centaur resulted in an increase of about half a ton of delivered payload on a lunar mission. Here is the NTRS link describing the stage, and the storable-fuel competitor that was also evaluated. Further development would have been switching to LF2 instead of LOX while retaining the RL-10, and replacing the RL-10 with a new design LH2-LF2 engine. The kick stage would also be able to be used atop an Atlas without a centaur for ligher payloads.

  5. Thoughts: S-IV has a lot of deltaV with light payloads. I could have likely done that mission without a transtage (the forward tank on the S-IV was completely full when I had SECO2, and I had enough left outside of that tank to do a de-orbit burn from the 250km*250km orbit (not the aggressive one shown, but one that would have placed the stage in a decaying orbit). I used the Atlas Booster engines on that demo, and will soon be trying it with the S3Ds from a Juno. As well, given the low TWR on the S-IV, I found myself flying a highly lofted first stage trajectory to buy plenty of time for the second stage burn. S-IB + S-IV + S-V tests will be done soon.

    Also, @CobaltWolf the control fins on the S-IB stage can not be re-selected in the editor to remove them from a rocket, or from the ghosted/unattached status.


  6. Saturn I - Gemini on the pad:
    Screenshot2.jpg

    Screenshot3.jpg

    We have lift-off:
    Screenshot4.jpg

    Screenshot7.jpg

    S-IV ignition:
    Screenshot10.jpg

    Fairing sep above the sensible atmosphere:
    Screenshot11.jpg

    Pushing to orbit:
    Screenshot13.jpg

    S-IV de-orbit burn:
    Screenshot16.jpg

    De-orbit burn is successful (taking advantage of the RL-10s restart capabilities):
    Screenshot17.jpg

    Transtage burn for the Mun:
    Screenshot18.jpg

    Getting close now:
    Screenshot20.jpg

    Sliding into darkness:
    Screenshot21.jpg

    And out again:
    Screenshot24.jpg

    Kerbinrise:
    Screenshot26.jpg

    Orbital adjustment burn:
    Screenshot28.jpg

    Downhill run:
    Screenshot30.jpg

    Entry Interface:
    Screenshot34.jpg

    The 'chute is good!
    Screenshot37.jpg

  7. @Foxxonius Augustus & @CobaltWolf I got actually reading the summary I linked to earlier and on page 19 of the PDF, there is this line about the uncrewed Gemini supply vehicles "Solid Cargo is manually transfered through the pressurized nose section."

    Not sure if that is the direction you want to go in, but they do show a version with the nose RCS removed and a forward docking hatch.

  8. 2 hours ago, trooperMNG said:

    Guys does anyone have a proper shuttle? I mean with stock and maybe the DIRECT or something for the ET and boosters

    Yes. My recommendation is to not only have the ET fuel drain from back to front (via an external fuel line isolated with clipped panels, but do use KS-25 powered LRBs that are similarly fed. I also like to isolate the aft-most part of my ET and have it feed the LRBs before the LRBs use their own fuel. The other trick I find is that you want to fly very shallow trajectories so that your limited monoprop supplies can be used judiciously.

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