Horizon Aeronautics - Development Thread

[SkyHook]

That deployment animation is pretty slick. Does that fairing typically de-orbit or does it just contribute to Kessler fun-times?

Many rocket launches jettison the fairings before the launch goes orbital. Professional rocket scientists usually design for that.

[Razorcane]

A bit more flushed out.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1482056/horizon80.gif

I'll make an add-on for the BlockDM tug, so it will have more RCS capabilities in orbit, since it'll be pushing heavier loads with this.

or I could make them more traditional, like this:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1482056/horizon82.gif

I think that the bottom fairing would be better as an interstage than a fairing. Sort of like on Antares, where the Castor 30 is mounted to an interstage ring, and the fairings are attached on top of it.

[NoMrBond]

I would suspect that the fairing would come off while the overall profile is still ballistic, then the payload would boost itself the rest of the way to orbit, this would mean that if anything went wrong the whole thing would come back down rather than kessler out

I vote rockobanana-split fairings, they seem neaterer

[MaverickSawyer]

Does that fairing typically de-orbit or does it just contribute to Kessler fun-times?

What I've seen is that it was released to fly free just after core stage burnout. Then it opened up to release the payload, which included the tug used to push the payload to orbit. At no point was the Energia stack totally orbital; the payload was responsible for providing its own propulsion to complete the orbital insertion.

[skykooler]

I like the fold-out fairings! Since they can fold back in, that would allow for totally-reusable launch stages to be built.

[stubbles]

Started integrating the landing gear stuffs.Angle is a bit funky here, but the gear deploy 30º out on each side, so it's a 60º spread

Top view, so you can see the width of the gear.

[Guest]

That's gonna be the best, most detailed Energia I've ever seen.

[MaverickSawyer]

Uhm... how will you keep these from deleting once you cross the 2.5 km threshold? Some sort of plugin, I presume?

Also, they're going to wind up splashing down if you go for an equatorial orbit. Make sure the gear bays are watertight.

[CAPFlyer]

I think as long as they have a probe core capability, they won't auto delete. Would also resolve the issue of how to auto-deploy the chutes.

I think this is great. Where are the parachutes housed? I've never seen any images of the pads deployed or the rest over the recovery, only the same cut-aways you've seen that show the legs and no chute packs.

[NathanKell]

Nope, *any* vessel that is not the current vessel gets deleted if:

*pressure is >0.01 (aka lower than 25km)

and

*not landed/splashed.

What you may be thinking of is the fact that if there's no core aboard, condition (2) sometimes doesn't hold, i.e. it gets deleted even if safely landed/splashed.

[Guest]

There's a mod to prevent unloading (and presumably deleting) stuff, so if you can afford to use it, you could try that.

[GavinZac]

There's a mod to prevent unloading (and presumably deleting) stuff, so if you can afford to use it, you could try that.

I think TTNeverUnload doesn't work at the moment.

[Boamere]

Unload mods are buggy and annoying anyway (including the fact they take huge amounts of RAM)

Edit: Also stubbles what's the hardest part of modding for you?

The textures, the modelling or making it all work like it's supposed too?

Edited March 21, 2014 by Boamere

[GavinZac]

Unload mods are buggy and annoying anyway (including the fact they take huge amounts of RAM)

If it could be applied to a single craft it would be quite useful. You're right that I don't need every piece of debris in orbit around me loaded though.

[stubbles]

what's the hardest part of modding for you?

....making it all work like it's supposed too?

Bingo. I hate doing all of the config crap. The art is the easy part.

For Energia, even if everything I have planned doesn't work or it unloads or whatever, I'm at least considering it an exercise in practice. If it doesn't work in the end, I'm not going to get upset by it.

Here's some misc dev shots

Edited March 24, 2014 by stubbles

[NoMrBond]

For Energia, even if everything I have planned doesn't work or it unloads or whatever, I'm at least considering it an exercise in practice. If it doesn't work in the end, I'm not going to get upset by it.

Once budgets come in, there will need to be some kind of check for objects passing out of the 2.4km atmosphere threshold to see if they count as 'recoverable' (i.e. will splashdown with parachutes or land in some fashion) and thus return to the VAB as reusable or to the budget or however that will work, so it might not have much effect right now, but I'm sure it will soon enough

[MOARdV]

So... You're doing custom sounds for the retros, right? Just like advertised in this picture?

[Guest]

One question. Why did you place the retros like you did? They make little sense there. Take a look at this model: http://www.cardmodels-r.narod.ru/html/Energia-e.htm

The orange nozzles make the retro/separation motors quite visible. Note that they were actually covered with white caps and had no visible nozzles.

EDIT: OK, I took a closer look and realized that they are, in fact, landing rockets. Nice.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Guest

[stubbles]

NoMrBond - good to know!

MOARdV - I should totally do that as an easter egg ;p Actually record my voice going "pew pew!"

Dragon - Those are the landing retros, not the separation retros. There are other pods on the sides and front (facing the center tank) that will work when staging

[Guest]

Yeah, just noticed this. That's really incredible detail, can't wait to see it finished. Oh, and if you don't like doing the configs, I could help you out with that.

[NathanKell]

Once budgets come in, there will need to be some kind of check for objects passing out of the 2.4km atmosphere threshold to see if they count as 'recoverable' (i.e. will splashdown with parachutes or land in some fashion) and thus return to the VAB as reusable or to the budget or however that will work, so it might not have much effect right now, but I'm sure it will soon enough

Guess what MCE's had for about six months?

[stubbles]

Finally got the chutes working correctly (thanks stupid_chris!)

Granted, it doesn't work the exact way I wanted it to (as in real life) but KSP is a bit too limited to support that sort of functionality with major plugin/code support (bleh). This will work just fine for my needs. They'll also have drogue chutes that will deploy higher up in the atmosphere to slow their initial decent.

[Boamere]

Finally got the chutes working correctly (thanks stupid_chris!)

Granted, it doesn't work the exact way I wanted it to (as in real life) but KSP is a bit too limited to support that sort of functionality with major plugin/code support (bleh). This will work just fine for my needs. They'll also have drogue chutes that will deploy higher up in the atmosphere to slow their initial decent.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1482056/horizon88.gif

Neato! How many more issues/things do you need to work out with the models? (just out of curiosity not asking for a release time! )

[stubbles]

Neato! How many more issues/things do you need to work out with the models? (just out of curiosity not asking for a release time! )

Right now I'm working out the retro pack and smart part integration. Smart parts are what is going to control the functionality of these things once they detach. The boosters will auto-detach when their fuel runs out, then auto-arm the chute charges. When they hit the right height the drogues will pop, then those detach at a certain height and pull out the main chutes which will then fully deploy at a set height. Then about 100m off the ground the gear open and 3-5m off the ground the retros fire. It all worked out great when I tested it with stock parts, so I'm just making my own art now and integrating it all. The chutes brought the booster down to about 13m/s and the retro firing slowed it to right around 2-3m/s for a soft gear landing.

I might have to take a break from this for a few weeks, though. I lost my job at Turn10 a few weeks ago (my contract ended) so I've been unemployed since. I was contacted by Autodesk, recently, to help with a 3dsmax demo scene, which is supposed to be about 4 weeks of work. I'll let you all know if that contract gets signed or not. If not, I'll keep trucking ahead on this

[BLUAV8R]

Right now I'm working out the retro pack and smart part integration. Smart parts are what is going to control the functionality of these things once they detach. The boosters will auto-detach when their fuel runs out, then auto-arm the chute charges. When they hit the right height the drogues will pop, then those detach at a certain height and pull out the main chutes which will then fully deploy at a set height. Then about 100m off the ground the gear open and 3-5m off the ground the retros fire. It all worked out great when I tested it with stock parts, so I'm just making my own art now and integrating it all. The chutes brought the booster down to about 13m/s and the retro firing slowed it to right around 2-3m/s for a soft gear landing.

I might have to take a break from this for a few weeks, though. I lost my job at Turn10 a few weeks ago (my contract ended) so I've been unemployed since. I was contacted by Autodesk, recently, to help with a 3dsmax demo scene, which is supposed to be about 4 weeks of work. I'll let you all know if that contract gets signed or not. If not, I'll keep trucking ahead on this

Good luck with your employment!