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Damn my boosters!


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So basically what keeps happening is when I go to decouple 4 solid fuel engines, what seems to happen is that they rise above my rocket, and either crash into it, blowing everything up or if I'm lucky, they crash into each other above me. Which makes going into space a lot trickier. Why is this happening? It seems like the boosters have more momentum or something than the rest of the rocket, which is strange.

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Do you decouple them when they are still burning? Because they should be completely burned out at the point you decouple them, and then they just fall away from your core.

You could also use Separatrons to push them away from the core when you decouple.

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Most likely, the boosters have lower drag than your rocket.

You may want to read up on something called a Korolev Cross.

But the basic fix is that you want to add a little drag on the outside edge of your boosters at the bottom, or put some other aerodynamics on them -- so that when you decouple them, they curve outward away from your ship. I like to put one or two little fins at the bottom. It's cheap and easy and it works great.

Alternately -- you may be putting nosecones or something on your boosters in an attempt to make them less draggy. Try taking them off and see what happens.

 

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An image of your craft can help us to visualize/diagnose the problem and give better advice. (The forum don't host images,  so you need to host it somewhere and post a link to the image file)

Without looking at your craft,  both are possible:

-your booster are, at the time of separation, heavier than the remaining of your craft and thus have indeed more momentum (mass times velocity) 

-your central stack is much more draggy to the point that it lose velocity quickly than your booster.

In any cause proper placement and a few aerodynamic adjustments should be enough to ensure the boosters deviate away and dont collide with your craft. Put the center of mass of your boosters a bit bellow the decoupler or/and put some fins on the bottom.

 

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I think it's similar to what Bewing suggests but we will only know with pics.

You could also drag the booster using the move toolset in the vab/sph so that the top end of your booster is attached to the decoupler. Then grab the decoupler and reattach the boosters at a proper spot.

This will make sure that the ejection force is to the top of the booster making the boosters curve to the outsides and requires no fin. But you might still need one if this is not enough, it usually is though. 

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Generally, when you decouple radial boosters (whether solid or liquid fueled), you would fire the engine on your central stack. This will carry you up and away from the boosters you're leaving behind. I can understand wanting to coast above 70km to save fuel, but you might consider burning just long enough to get beyond your own debris.

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7 hours ago, bewing said:

 

Alternately -- you may be putting nosecones or something on your boosters in an attempt to make them less draggy. Try taking them off and see what happens.

 

Ill try!

8 hours ago, Dafni said:

Do you decouple them when they are still burning? Because they should be completely burned out at the point you decouple them, and then they just fall away from your core.

You could also use Separatrons to push them away from the core when you decouple.

Yep, when they're over. Unfortunately sepatrons aren't available to me yet,

 

EDIT: Removing nose cones seems to have fixed it! Thanks.

Edited by MajorMushroom
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23 hours ago, Palaceviking said:

Damn your boosters indeed! How are they going faster than you?  This does not sound like a cool situation. 

Not cool situation indeed. I'd like to see a image of the craft because I  suspect that it may have serious design issues related to staging and engine choices.

 

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