[1.12.x] Tundra Exploration - v7.0 (Nov 5th, 2023) - (Re)Stockalike SpaceX Falcon 9, (Crew) Dragon (XL) & Haven-1!

[Damon]

1 minute ago, Sufficient Anonymity said:

Everything on the Falcon 9/Dragon 2 seems to be working great now - regular missions to my LKO station have resumed

Album 5D0KPHv will appear when post is submitted

 

Sweet!

[HotVector]

Hi @damonvv, how is the progress on the BFS IVA going? I'd love to see some sneak peeks

[Damon]

1 hour ago, HotVector said:

Hi @damonvv, how is the progress on the BFS IVA going? I'd love to see some sneak peeks

Haven't start yet . I do have a very basic sketch but that's it. At the moment I'm trying to finish up the externals and get the beta up and running for you to test. After that's ongoing I will focus on IVA for both BFR and Dragon!

[RealKerbal3x]

2 hours ago, damonvv said:

Haven't start yet . I do have a very basic sketch but that's it. At the moment I'm trying to finish up the externals and get the beta up and running for you to test. After that's ongoing I will focus on IVA for both BFR and Dragon!

Yayyy! What are you going to base the BFS IVA on? There currently aren't any images of its interior.

[Damon]

Probably a bit of this:

[Drakenex]

[HotVector]

56 minutes ago, damonvv said:

Probably a bit of this:

Is it a problem to scale that down to 5 m? If you take an estimate that each cabin in the picture is 1/3rd of the 9 meters, than it would be about 3 meters wide for each cabin.  However, when you scale this down to 5m, it would be too small... I would love to see this design, but doesn't really seem practical with 5 m diameter. The kerbals would not have enough personal space....

[Starwaster]

37 minutes ago, Drakenex said:

Spoiler

 

I don't think that SpaceX has actually said what their RCS propellants would be but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it is NOT going to be MMH/N₂O₄  

It will be methane/LOX the same as the Raptors for ease of refueling, especially insitu. 

				PROPELLANT
				{
					name = LqdMethane
					ratio = 43.37355809528878
					DrawGauge = True
					resourceFlowMode = STAGE_PRIORITY_FLOW
				}
				PROPELLANT
				{
					name = LqdOxygen
					ratio = 56.62644190471122
					resourceFlowMode = STAGE_PRIORITY_FLOW
				}

 

[Damon]

1 hour ago, HotVector said:

Is it a problem to scale that down to 5 m? If you take an estimate that each cabin in the picture is 1/3rd of the 9 meters, than it would be about 3 meters wide for each cabin.  However, when you scale this down to 5m, it would be too small... I would love to see this design, but doesn't really seem practical with 5 m diameter. The kerbals would not have enough personal space....

Yep so I have to kerbalize that picture!

[JadeOfMaar]

@Starwaster Sweeeet. May I ask where you got that engine propellant config from?

[Starwaster]

1 hour ago, JadeOfMaar said:

@Starwaster Sweeeet. May I ask where you got that engine propellant config from?

It's what I use locally. The units are volumetric of course but both the stock engine and RCS code normalize any provided values and then scale them as necessary for the configured thrust and propellant density.

The specific values are reasonably accurate... or accurately reasonable in that they are a typical mixture ratio for 'methalox'. They may not however accurately reflect the final mix ratio in the Raptor or methane powered RCS since there both have yet to be fielded in flight.

One other thing I'd like to mention here is that methane is getting serious consideration now as an RCS propellant for Mars landers (for both sample return and MAV landers, with their own propellant generation) for pretty much the reasons provided, where  previously there hasn't been much talk about doing so.

[Drakenex]

6 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

@Starwaster Sweeeet. May I ask where you got that engine propellant config from?

 

5 hours ago, Starwaster said:

It's what I use locally. The units are volumetric of course but both the stock engine and RCS code normalize any provided values and then scale them as necessary for the configured thrust and propellant density.

The specific values are reasonably accurate... or accurately reasonable in that they are a typical mixture ratio for 'methalox'. They may not however accurately reflect the final mix ratio in the Raptor or methane powered RCS since there both have yet to be fielded in flight.

One other thing I'd like to mention here is that methane is getting serious consideration now as an RCS propellant for Mars landers (for both sample return and MAV landers, with their own propellant generation) for pretty much the reasons provided, where  previously there hasn't been much talk about doing so.

My Vulcan build uses it for his twin BE-4, but in a more simple 3 to 1 ratio:

@PROPELLANT[LiquidFuel]
        {
            @name = LqdMethane
            @ratio = 3
        }
        @PROPELLANT[Oxidizer]
        {
            @ratio = 1
        }

Just add this to cryotanks CryoTanksFuelTankTypes.cfg

B9_TANK_TYPE
{
    name = MethaneLOX
    tankMass = 0.00
    tankCost = 0.00
    RESOURCE
    {
        name = LqdMethane
        unitsPerVolume = .375
    }
    RESOURCE
    {
        name = Oxidizer
        unitsPerVolume = .125
    }
}
B9_TANK_TYPE
{
    name = Methane
    tankMass = 0.00
    tankCost = 0.00
    RESOURCE
    {
        name = LqdMethane
        unitsPerVolume = 1
    }
}

and to CryoTanksFuelTankSwitcher.cfg

SUBTYPE
        {
            name = MethaneLOX
            title = LCH4/OX
            tankType = MethaneLOX
            addedMass = 0
            addedCost = 0
        }
        SUBTYPE
        {
            name = Methane
            title = LCH4
            tankType = Methane
            addedMass = 0
            addedCost = 0
        }

 

[JadeOfMaar]

21 minutes ago, Drakenex said:

Just add this to cryotanks CryoTanksFuelTankTypes.cfg

Concerning your tank type config, it looks to me like you're losing out a bit (afaik). Except for really low density resources (LH2 and ElectricCharge) the sum of resource ratios therein tend to be 1, so I would double the values you have set there for MethaLox. I rather like your very simple 3:1 ratio, meanwhile I had a hard time understanding new fuel ratios and coming to accept the one I use: 57:43... But this is for a Classic Stock (see Angel-125's mods) equivalent fuel mix: Raptium & Oxidizer.

I've considered adding to the next Tundra Exploration release a sweeping change that will make all its raptor-themed engines require CRP's LqdMethane and not LiquidFuel, but I expect the players at large would be unhappy with something like this-- and I haven't even tested it yet. The trouble to setup and balance everything around it may outweigh the gameplay benefit of handling Methalox in-game. Also, I don't know if there's sufficient demand for this anyway.

Edited October 6, 2018 by JadeOfMaar

[Drakenex]

26 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Concerning your tank type config, it looks to me like you're losing out a bit (afaik). Except for really low density resources (LH2 and ElectricCharge) the sum of resource ratios therein tend to be 1, so I would double the values you have set there for MethaLox. I rather like your very simple 3:1 ratio, meanwhile I had a hard time understanding new fuel ratios and coming to accept the one I use: 57:43... But this is for a Classic Stock (see Angel-125's mods) equivalent fuel mix: Raptium & Oxidizer.

I've considered adding to the next Tundra Exploration release a sweeping change that will make all its raptor-themed engines require CRP's LqdMethane and not LiquidFuel, but I expect the players at large would be unhappy with something like this-- and I haven't even tested it yet. The trouble to setup and balance everything around it may outweigh the gameplay benefit of handling Methalox in-game. Also, I don't know if there's sufficient demand for this anyway.

I'll have to test them, but proportionally is the same (doubling values). May be the only issue with my config is having to add much more fuel in orden to switch from LF/OX to MethaneLOX.

[JadeOfMaar]

@Drakenex Yeah. I expect it'll be just fine. You'll just be getting twice the fuel in the tanks that you're accustomed to, and a rightful amount to expect. You shouldn't have to spam tanks as though you were using Hydrolox. It'll be a dark chapter in spaceflight history if Methalox rockets start looking like actual blimps.

[Drakenex]

50 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

@Drakenex Yeah. I expect it'll be just fine. You'll just be getting twice the fuel in the tanks that you're accustomed to, and a rightful amount to expect. You shouldn't have to spam tanks as though you were using Hydrolox. It'll be a dark chapter in spaceflight history if Methalox rockets start looking like actual blimps.

very nice advice, thanks!

[Danielrojo]

so...is the new bfr with no iva uploaded ?, or do we have to wait until the iva is ready?

 

[Damon]

I've added the 2018 BFR parts to Github!

BE AWARE!

This is pure a test build. DO NOT use this with your current save!

Things that are added:

• BFS Command pod
• BFS fuel tank
• BFS Engine Shroud
• SL Raptor engine
• 2 actuated fins
• 1 fixed tail fin
• BFB Interstage
• BFB Fuel tank
• BFB Engine cluster

Massive thank you to @JadeOfMaar for helping me out getting things fairly good balanced!

About re-entry: Please be aware that the BFS is very unstable during re-entry. Any help or tips to improve this is highly appreciated!
There's a craft file in the Ships/VAB folder to try out and see how things are set up.

Happy (test) launches!

[notJebKerman]

29 minutes ago, damonvv said:

I've added the 2018 BFR parts to Github!

BE AWARE!

This is pure a test build. DO NOT use this with your current save!

Things that are added:

• BFS Command pod
• BFS fuel tank
• BFS Engine Shroud
• SL Raptor engine
• 2 actuated fins
• 1 fixed tail fin
• BFB Interstage
• BFB Fuel tank
• BFB Engine cluster

Massive thank you to @JadeOfMaar for helping me out getting things fairly good balanced!

About re-entry: Please be aware that the BFS is very unstable during re-entry. Any help or tips to improve this is highly appreciated!
There's a craft file in the Ships/VAB folder to try out and see how things are set up.

Happy (test) launches!

-snip-

Great! Can't check it out today, but just wondering... Are those fins actuated by KA or are they proper airbrakes/control surfaces? 

[Damon]

Just now, notJebKerman said:

Great! Can't check it out today, but just wondering... Are those fins actuated by KA or are they proper airbrakes/control surfaces? 

Even worse, they are just animated. Still thinking of a way to make them work!

[eskimo22]

The BFR tanks have no fuel, what to do?

[Damon]

Just now, eskimo22 said:

The BFR tanks have no fuel, what to do?

You still need all of the mods listed in the OP for it to work!

[space_powder]

Ayo, where them aft cargo parts at

[Damon]

Just now, space_powder said:

Ayo, where them aft cargo parts at

Still in the making! I need lots of variations to support a lot of mods, and I'm still not sure as of texturing so that one will come soon!

[Damon]

1 hour ago, Danielrojo said:

so...is the new bfr with no iva uploaded ?, or do we have to wait until the iva is ready?

 

I just uploaded it, but no IVA! I wanted to get this one out asap so people could test while I make the IVA.