On the particulars of drag in 1.0.4

[GoSlash27]

Starhawk,

This one's just a testbed at the moment, not a serious design. I'm just trying to see how much payload/ efficiency I can achieve with these concepts right now.

Best,

-Slashy

[NathanKell]

Occlusion isn't quite as naive as subtracting area alone. Instead it subtracts the weighted occluded area from the weighted total area, as you've found. Consider the nosecone adapter. it has has (.625/2)^2 pi flat-plate area, and another .29pi m^2 of highly sloped area (say Cd of 0.15). That's a weighted sum of .15625pi m^2. Adding a .625m nosecone will occlude from the former area only, so it's now 0 + (.29pi * 0.15) = 0.0586pi m^2 effective area.

[DocMoriarty]

Those are great charts in the OP. Would be interesting whether the node-mounted parachutes also reduce drag. They should due to their shape but who knows. Also the shielded docking port would be nice to know, should also act like a nosecone.

[GoSlash27]

Those are great charts in the OP. Would be interesting whether the node-mounted parachutes also reduce drag. They should due to their shape but who knows. Also the shielded docking port would be nice to know, should also act like a nosecone.

Doc Moriarty,

I've been digging through the drag cube figures this past week and I'm almost ready to post my findings.

I can tell you that the nose mounted chutes are draggy. The radial mounted chutes are better.

And the shielded docking port doesn't make a good nosecone. It's marginally better than the unshielded docking port when mounted radially.

More to come,

-Slashy

[DocMoriarty]

Well the nose mounted chutes should act like a nosecone though due to their shape which is pretty similar to the standard nose cone. In some cases you have to use them since they are a lot more effective than the radial ones.

[GoSlash27]

Well the nose mounted chutes should act like a nosecone though due to their shape which is pretty similar to the standard nose cone. In some cases you have to use them since they are a lot more effective than the radial ones.

DocMoriarty,

The Mk1 Parachute's numbers when mounted on the nose:

Area= .277 Drag coefficient= .642 Side drag= .346

Compared with the Mk.1 command pod

Area= 1.25 Drag coefficient= .479 Side drag= 1.10

The Mk.1 pod is actually more aerodynamic with nothing attached than it is with the Mk.1 parachute. Therefore by definition the Mk.1 parachute does not make a good nose cone.

The radial parachute is actually pretty darn good.

Area=.085 Drag coefficient= .689 Side drag= .318

But I do agree; sometimes (especially in the early career) you have no choice. You've got to have a parachute and that's the convenient place to put it. But that doesn't change the fact that it doesn't make a very good nosecone.

Best,

-Slashy

Edited September 15, 2015 by GoSlash27

[Superfluous J]

I agree with both of you (and GoSlash, I think DocMoriarty agrees with you). Nose-mounted parachutes DO increase drag.

However, they SHOULDN'T.