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Commander Zoom

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Everything posted by Commander Zoom

  1. So is someone going to make a damn thread in KSP Development about this, or do I have to?
  2. I think all parts, upscaled or not, should use the same numbers (or best approximation possible). If the original numbers are IYO wrong, then IMO you should petition the program creator to fix them, officially. Rather than making up your own and declaring them not only more to your preference, but objectively superior. In practical terms, we\'ve got how many code/performance forks now? There\'s stock, and then there\'s NS\' version, and now... If we\'re no longer all playing the same game, then what\'s the point? I might as well make a 'lander' that\'s a single stage, as light as thistledown, with infinite fuel and enough thrust to put me in Kerbol orbit before Jeb can finish saying 'let\'s light this candle.' We need some sort of reasonable baseline, and if the baseline is currently IYO not reasonable, then it needs to be fixed, not ignored.
  3. But until he changes it, that is the number we should be shooting for. IMO. Otherwise, we\'re all just pulling numbers out of... thin air. :/ Personally, I use modded SRBs not because they\'re overpowered, but because I want fewer, taller ones that burn longer. I\'m all about fewer, nicer looking parts instead of massive Jenga-stacks, which I find unaesthetic. When it comes to the numbers we should be basing those on, however, I think we should go with the ones used by the guy who wrote this program. (Imagine that.)
  4. One is official. The others are mods. What you\'re saying is that all the mods are overpowered by the standards of the official, stock SRB. (That\'s unfortunate, IMO.)
  5. Probably true, but until HarvesteR changes \'em, that\'s the standard against which all others should be measured and balanced.
  6. Wow, I\'m surprised at how young the responses skew. I expected more like myself, children of the Space Age - born a month before Apollo 13, grew up with the Shuttle and the Voyagers and a lot of disappointment that we stopped going to the Moon about the time I started walking (and no sign of going on to Mars, either).
  7. The thing is, it sounds like in this latest attempt, Tiberion decided it should be harder and more 'realistic', and cranked the handicap way up over even the stock parts... and found out, oops, that was too far and the fun little rocket game no longer is. IMO, this project - which started as nothing more than an attempt to collect and keep current two widely-used, but no longer supported, early parts packs - is beginning to suffer from a bad case of feature and/or mission creep. If the original goal has been met, then stick a fork in it and start a new project.
  8. IMO, the first set of modified numbers - normalized to match the ratios of the stock parts better than SP\'s original approximations - were just fine. If there\'s a problem with the capabilities of parts with those numbers, it\'s up to HarvesteR to rebalance the stock parts, again IMO.
  9. A bit, yes, which suggests it\'s a relatively recent capture from somewhere in the outer system.
  10. Very nice, but that last one looks FAR too refined to be Kerbal. Thanks for the 'shorty' fuel tank. I\'ll definitely consider that for my lander(s).
  11. But then it wouldn\'t be (just) (rebalanced) SIDR + Wobbly parts, would it?
  12. Seconded! What matters is not when you got there, but that you did. (And even I haven\'t dared it with all stock parts.)
  13. As posted in the 'Share your rockets' thread under the Spacecraft Exchange: Munatic 1 was a further development of the very successful Orbiter 2 design. The first stage was expanded from 2 to 3 meters, with a corresponding increase in the size of the six attached SRBs. A mid-stage was added, retaining the upper 2 meter tank and adding a Doubledown 'Twin Bertha' engine. The upper stage was retooled again, replacing the custom extended tank and Kerbaldyne KX-2 orbital engine with a standard FL-T500 tank and LV-T30 engine along with the newly-invented RCS quad thrusters and tankage for them; the overall size of the stage remained more or less the same. As no lander was yet available - even the design was still being settled on, with various contractors submitting their own proposals - it was decided to send the rocket to the Mun and back in this configuration, a 'practice run' or 'dress rehearsal' for the real thing. Bill Kerman came down sick a week before the launch, and so the backup crew of kerbonauts were at the controls when Munatic 1 lifted off the pad. The flight was surprisingly smooth and uneventful, considering the mission; from parking orbit to trans-munar injection to decelerating into munar orbit, the crew did it all by the numbers. Observations and photographs were made of the munar surface to help determine landing sites for future missions. After three orbits, Munatic 1 fired its upper stage engine again and headed for home. Disaster struck at the very end of the mission, when a misheard instruction caused the premature jettisoning of the service module, stranding the crew in orbit. Fortunately, Jeb Kerman was on hand at KSC and led a round-the-clock rescue effort. A partially-assembled Orbiter 2 stack was completed with any parts they could find, hastily fueled, and moved to the pad for an accelerated launch. Jeb was alone in the capsule for this mission; the plan was to match orbits and transfer the Munatic 1 crew over in suits, followed by a cramped but survivable re-entry. Once he was actually in orbit, however, Jeb decided to hold this option in reserve as a 'Plan B.' His first, and ultimately successful, solution was to make hard contact with the other capsule (with a brief EVA to secure them with a tether) and use his retros to gently deorbit both spacecraft. The two pods splashed down within kilometers of each other, and both crews received a hero\'s welcome at KSC. [The stranding-in-space thing actually happened - my goof, and par for the course in KSP, but I figured Jeb wouldn\'t just let them sit up there until their air ran out. And this is just the sort of Crazy Awesome thing he\'d try, if the game engine let him.] The second Munatic mission was ambitious, to say the least. With the lander design still stuck in development hell, the 'bigger is better' faction in the program had come up with a design that could send any conceivable payload to the Mun with fuel to spare. This was accomplished by adding a second mid-stage to the stack, which now exceeded the height of the gantry. The first and only flight of Munatic 2 called to mind the many failed attempts to come up with a viable Orbiter 2: the overloaded rocket lurched off the pad, struggled to gain speed and altitude, and finally broke apart at its weakest point, the coupling between the first and second mid-stages. The crew was able to eject and parachute to safety, while a train of rocket stages (still carrying most of their fuel) plunged into the ocean behind them. Munatic 2 on the pad Another round of yelling and finger-pointing, again calling to mind the Orbiter 2 trials, followed. It didn\'t help that this embarrassment came on the heels of the 'successful failure' of Munatic 1. It was eventually decided to go back to that earlier design, at least for now. Even Jeb acknowledged, 'There\'s nothin\' wrong with that rocket. It got those boys to the Mun and back just fine. That\'s what we need, not ways to kill a lotta fish.' As a result, Munatic 3 was almost identical to Munatic 1. The only modifications were to the upper stage: some of the engineers, tired of waiting for the committee, took the 'back to basics' order of the day to heart and went down to their local hardware store. There they bought a ladder and the parts to make four sturdy legs, which they proceeded to weld to the side and base. The rest of the weekend was spent swapping out the LV-T30 for a hand-built engine which was smaller and less powerful, but much lighter and more efficient. (One of the engineers had been working on it as a hobby, there being little demand or interest in the KSP for such things.) On Munday they presented the ad-hoc lander to their superiors, who mostly stared and mumbled to each other... until Jeb stepped forward, praised them for their initiative, and gave them all a raise. Five days later, Munatic 3 thundered off the pad into a clear blue sky... and history. Even though this was his first time flying an actual Munatic, not a simulator, Jeb handled the launch and orbital insertion like the pro he was. His TMI was so smooth that he was able to retain the mid-stage all the way to the Mun and use its remaining fuel to enter a stable munar orbit, where it was left as a comm relay. (Engineers had imagined this possibility only a few days before the mission, just enough time to weld on another couple of antennas and some tin foil.) The landing sites were all in mares, wide areas of darker and (it was hoped) flatter ground. One of these was close to the Mun\'s equator, in easy reach of Munatic 3\'s current orbit, but also close to the day/night line. As commander, Jeb chose instead to land at the alternate site to the north, in full sunlight. Time and fuel was spent to tilt the craft\'s orbit accordingly. Soon it was time to begin the descent. The thrust of the new engine was weak, but so was the Mun\'s gravity; it also sipped fuel rather than gulping it, giving the pilot plenty of hover time over the target. Bursts from the RCS thrusters were used to further slow the craft. Bill counted down the distance, Bob held his breath until he passed out (missing the rest of the landing) and Jeb tried to concentrate on the ball, the speed indicator, and the view out the window all at once. There was a gentle thump; Jeb cut the throttle, checked everything one more time, and gave Kouston the good news: 'Munatic Base here, we made it. We are on the [deleted] Mun, over.' Bill\'s cheering woke up Bob, who joined in once he understood the situation. There was plenty of cheering in Kouston too, before everyone got back to business. The crew was given permission to depressurize the capsule and make their way down the ladder. Jeb was the first one down, of course; he actually leapt from the bottom and landed with a mighty whoop. 'Hoooo! That was fun!' were thus the first words spoken on the munar surface. The three kerbonauts spent almost an hour on the surface: planting the flag, taking photographs and measurements, bouncing around the lander in the low gravity, and leaving lots of corrugated footprints in the grey soil. When it was time to come back in and prepare for the return, Jeb lingered at the foot of the ladder for a last look around. 'So long, Mun. We\'ll be back real soon.' Soon after liftoff, it became clear that Jeb intended to abandon the flight manual and 'wing it' as far as getting back to Kerbin. First he put Munatic 3 in an unusual retrograde orbit, then made several aborted attempts to extend it in the proper direction and inclination. When the craft finally left the Mun\'s gravity well, new calculations required further course corrections. All of these long burns ate into the reserve left over from the landing. Munatic 3 eventually settled into a high orbit, and Jeb was still trying to tighten it up and reduce the inclination when the main tank finally ran dry. Bill and Bob stared at the gauge for a moment, then began screaming in unison. Jeb hushed them: 'Knock it off! We still got another tank, hardly been touched. It may not be pretty, but I promise, I will get us down.' Jeb was, of course, referring to the RCS fuel. It was just enough to bring the perikee down into the upper atmosphere, where aerobraking would take care of the rest. There was no hope of hitting the recovery area; in fact, there was at least a 50/50 chance of coming down on land rather than water. There had been many (many) crash-tests of the capsule with dummies inside, which suggested good odds of survival for both... but like landing on the Mun, it had never actually been done before. Still, it was their only shot. After running the RCS quads dry as well, Jeb jettisoned and christened the empty landing stage in the same breath: 'Farewell, Oddity, and we thank you.' The long, shallow re-entry of Munatic 3 was easier on the kerbonauts, but meant more anxious waiting for them and for ground control in Kouston, cut off by radio blackout. The projected landing was on the other side of the world, somewhere in Kermany; recovery teams were being mustered there with all available speed, but it would still take some time to reach the crew... and that was if the capsule didn\'t hit a mountain or something. To everyone\'s relief, the parachute opened on schedule and the crew of Munatic 3 landed safely (if roughly) in a grassy meadow in the foothills of the Kerman Alps. Their round trip had taken just over 20.5 hours, with two thirds of that on the troubled return leg. 'Stage 8': SRBs; 'Stage 6': lower stage; 'Stage 4': mid stage, in munar orbit, shortly before landing; 'Stage 2', munar module Oddity
  14. For what it\'s worth, Silisko, I got down just fine with your lander engine (and legs); I had some assist from RCS, but probably could have done it without.
  15. (and now, as promised, the continuation:) Munatic 1 was a further development of the very successful Orbiter 2 design. The first stage was expanded from 2 to 3 meters, with a corresponding increase in the size of the six attached SRBs. A mid-stage was added, retaining the upper 2 meter tank and adding a Doubledown 'Twin Bertha' engine. The upper stage was retooled again, replacing the custom extended tank and Kerbaldyne KX-2 orbital engine with a standard FL-T500 tank and LV-T30 engine along with the newly-invented RCS quad thrusters and tankage for them; the overall size of the stage remained more or less the same. As no lander was yet available - even the design was still being settled on, with various contractors submitting their own proposals - it was decided to send the rocket to the Mun and back in this configuration, a 'practice run' or 'dress rehearsal' for the real thing. Bill Kerman came down sick a week before the launch, and so the backup crew of kerbonauts were at the controls when Munatic 1 lifted off the pad. The flight was surprisingly smooth and uneventful, considering the mission; from parking orbit to trans-munar injection to decelerating into munar orbit, the crew did it all by the numbers. Observations and photographs were made of the munar surface to help determine landing sites for future missions. After three orbits, Munatic 1 fired its upper stage engine again and headed for home. Disaster struck at the very end of the mission, when a misheard instruction caused the premature jettisoning of the service module, stranding the crew in orbit. Fortunately, Jeb Kerman was on hand at KSC and led a round-the-clock rescue effort. A partially-assembled Orbiter 2 stack was completed with any parts they could find, hastily fueled, and moved to the pad for an accelerated launch. Jeb was alone in the capsule for this mission; the plan was to match orbits and transfer the Munatic 1 crew over in suits, followed by a cramped but survivable re-entry. Once he was actually in orbit, however, Jeb decided to hold this option in reserve as a 'Plan B.' His first, and ultimately successful, solution was to make hard contact with the other capsule (with a brief EVA to secure them with a tether) and use his retros to gently deorbit both spacecraft. The two pods splashed down within kilometers of each other, and both crews received a hero\'s welcome at KSC. [The stranding-in-space thing actually happened - my goof, and par for the course in KSP, but I figured Jeb wouldn\'t just let them sit up there until their air ran out. And this is just the sort of Crazy Awesome thing he\'d try, if the game engine let him.] The second Munatic mission was ambitious, to say the least. With the lander design still stuck in development hell, the 'bigger is better' faction in the program had come up with a design that could send any conceivable payload to the Mun with fuel to spare. This was accomplished by adding a second mid-stage to the stack, which now exceeded the height of the gantry. The first and only flight of Munatic 2 called to mind the many failed attempts to come up with a viable Orbiter 2: the overloaded rocket lurched off the pad, struggled to gain speed and altitude, and finally broke apart at its weakest point, the coupling between the first and second mid-stages. The crew was able to eject and parachute to safety, while a train of rocket stages (still carrying most of their fuel) plunged into the ocean behind them. Munatic 2 on the pad Another round of yelling and finger-pointing, again calling to mind the Orbiter 2 trials, followed. It didn\'t help that this embarrassment came on the heels of the 'successful failure' of Munatic 1. It was eventually decided to go back to that earlier design, at least for now. Even Jeb acknowledged, 'There\'s nothin\' wrong with that rocket. It got those boys to the Mun and back just fine. That\'s what we need, not ways to kill a lotta fish.' As a result, Munatic 3 was almost identical to Munatic 1. The only modifications were to the upper stage: some of the engineers, tired of waiting for the committee, took the 'back to basics' order of the day to heart and went down to their local hardware store. There they bought a ladder and the parts to make four sturdy legs, which they proceeded to weld to the side and base. The rest of the weekend was spent swapping out the LV-T30 for a hand-built engine which was smaller and less powerful, but much lighter and more efficient. (One of the engineers had been working on it as a hobby, there being little demand or interest in the KSP for such things.) On Munday they presented the ad-hoc lander to their superiors, who mostly stared and mumbled to each other... until Jeb stepped forward, praised them for their initiative, and gave them all a raise. Five days later, Munatic 3 thundered off the pad into a clear blue sky... and history. Even though this was his first time flying an actual Munatic, not a simulator, Jeb handled the launch and orbital insertion like the pro he was. His TMI was so smooth that he was able to retain the mid-stage all the way to the Mun and use its remaining fuel to enter a stable munar orbit, where it was left as a comm relay. (Engineers had imagined this possibility only a few days before the mission, just enough time to weld on another couple of antennas and some tin foil.) The landing sites were all in mares, wide areas of darker and (it was hoped) flatter ground. One of these was close to the Mun\'s equator, in easy reach of Munatic 3\'s current orbit, but also close to the day/night line. As commander, Jeb chose instead to land at the alternate site to the north, in full sunlight. Time and fuel was spent to tilt the craft\'s orbit accordingly. Soon it was time to begin the descent. The thrust of the new engine was weak, but so was the Mun\'s gravity; it also sipped fuel rather than gulping it, giving the pilot plenty of hover time over the target. Bursts from the RCS thrusters were used to further slow the craft. Bill counted down the distance, Bob held his breath until he passed out (missing the rest of the landing) and Jeb tried to concentrate on the ball, the speed indicator, and the view out the window all at once. There was a gentle thump; Jeb cut the throttle, checked everything one more time, and gave Kouston the good news: 'Munatic Base here, we made it. We are on the [deleted] Mun, over.' Bill\'s cheering woke up Bob, who joined in once he understood the situation. There was plenty of cheering in Kouston too, before everyone got back to business. The crew was given permission to depressurize the capsule and make their way down the ladder. Jeb was the first one down, of course; he actually leapt from the bottom and landed with a mighty whoop. 'Hoooo! That was fun!' were thus the first words spoken on the munar surface. The three kerbonauts spent almost an hour on the surface: planting the flag, taking photographs and measurements, bouncing around the lander in the low gravity, and leaving lots of corrugated footprints in the grey soil. When it was time to come back in and prepare for the return, Jeb lingered at the foot of the ladder for a last look around. 'So long, Mun. We\'ll be back real soon.' Soon after liftoff, it became clear that Jeb intended to abandon the flight manual and 'wing it' as far as getting back to Kerbin. First he put Munatic 3 in an unusual retrograde orbit, then made several aborted attempts to extend it in the proper direction and inclination. When the craft finally left the Mun\'s gravity well, new calculations required further course corrections. All of these long burns ate into the reserve left over from the landing. Munatic 3 eventually settled into a high orbit, and Jeb was still trying to tighten it up and reduce the inclination when the main tank finally ran dry. Bill and Bob stared at the gauge for a moment, then began screaming in unison. Jeb hushed them: 'Knock it off! We still got another tank, hardly been touched. It may not be pretty, but I promise, I will get us down.' Jeb was, of course, referring to the RCS fuel. It was just enough to bring the perikee down into the upper atmosphere, where aerobraking would take care of the rest. There was no hope of hitting the recovery area; in fact, there was at least a 50/50 chance of coming down on land rather than water. There had been many (many) crash-tests of the capsule with dummies inside, which suggested good odds of survival for both... but like landing on the Mun, it had never actually been done before. Still, it was their only shot. After running the RCS quads dry as well, Jeb jettisoned and christened the empty landing stage in the same breath: 'Farewell, Oddity, and we thank you.' The long, shallow re-entry of Munatic 3 was easier on the kerbonauts, but meant more anxious waiting for them and for ground control in Kouston, cut off by radio blackout. The projected landing was on the other side of the world, somewhere in Kermany; recovery teams were being mustered there with all available speed, but it would still take some time to reach the crew... and that was if the capsule didn\'t hit a mountain or something. To everyone\'s relief, the parachute opened on schedule and the crew of Munatic 3 landed safely (if roughly) in a grassy meadow in the foothills of the Kerman Alps. Their round trip had taken just over 20.5 hours, with two thirds of that on the troubled return leg. 'Stage 8': SRBs; 'Stage 6': lower stage; 'Stage 4': mid stage, in munar orbit, shortly before landing; 'Stage 2', munar module Oddity [Munatic 1 uses SP and Silisko / SIDR & Wobbly parts ; Munatic 3 also has lander legs and an engine imported from the Silisko Edition pack. Munatic 2 included for the morbidly curious, but don\'t say I didn\'t warn you.]
  16. As it\'s my understanding that these parts are at least in the ballpark of scaled stock parts, I wonder if the 'too good' performance issues that we\'re seeing (and Silisko was complaining about in his own thread, with people putting 'too much' stuff in orbit) go all the way back to those stock parts, and HarvesteR picking numbers that 'seemed good at the time', but now...
  17. Okay, fair enough... Let\'s say I\'m in a circular parking orbit around Kearth/Kerbin, with the Mun at 12 o\'clock (N), and I want to 'aim' my apoapsis at 10 o\'clock (NW). What\'s the best point, roughly, to start thrusting to expand it in that direction? What if I already have an eccentric orbit, and I want to shift its major axis clockwise or counter-clockwise?
  18. Got the first two, and the last, of course. But could you be more specific about the middle part? Burning in mid-orbit to shift its axis - where along the orbit is best? At what angle? EDIT: Incidentally, you didn\'t actually specify in which direction to burn for the first part either - I know what you mean only from my own experience - so for the benefit of anyone else who may be reading: To increase apokee, burn at perikee, in the direction of orbit (green circle). To decrease apokee, burn at perikee, in the opposite direction (green circle with X).
  19. The math in most of the entries on Hohmann orbits makes my eyes glaze over. I\'m looking for some simple rules of thumb as to where in an orbit to apply acceleration, and in what direction, to most efficiently expand, contract, and/or 'aim' the apoapsis. Example: To shift the apokee counter/clockwise, apply thrust about X degrees ahead/behind/at perikee, in/opposite/at a Y degree angle from the direction of orbit. To circularize an orbit, ... I can eyeball this stuff, now that we have an orbital map, but I\'d appreciate a starting point.
  20. Only the difference between Apollo 8 and Apollo 11.
  21. It\'s not terribly hard to find these packs in their last version(s), separately. While I appreciate the thought/effort to combine them, breaking functionality with existing rockets that use these parts makes this a non-starter, IMO.
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