[1.3.1] Stock Shuttle and SLS Mod - v0.7 28-01-18

[selfish_meme]

The purpose of this mod is to make building a stock size Space Shuttle and SLS easier, with less parts and without using much more memory. Using Module Manager by @sarbian it duplicates several parts, and then resizes and enhances them. The engines have been re-balanced for the Shuttle as that is the least dynamically stable of the two designs. But that also makes a quite capable SLS possible. If you have Firespitter you can also have orange tanks. There are two example craft [pictured above], the Shuttle can take a 18t+ payload to 100km+ and the SLS can take a 70t+ payload to 100km+, that should make them quite flexible for most needs.

Requirements

Module Manager

Optional

Firespitter

Download

MIT Licence

Parts

Shuttle Main Engine (Vector)
        @maxThrust = 700
Shuttle Booster (Kickback)
        @maxThrust = 2000

Shuttle Main Tank
Shuttle Medium Tank
Shuttle Tank Adaptor 1
Shuttle Tank Adaptor 2
Shuttle Tank Nose
SRB Nose Cone
Shuttle Tank Bottom
RS-25 Engine Cluster

Flying the Space Shuttle

In the video below you can see me pilot the Space shuttle with an 18t cargo to an ~100km orbit and return.

Launching

Pull back slightly straight away and slowly try and nudge it towards 45' by the time the SRB's are about exhausted, the closer they are to spent the smaller your adjustments should be as they are closer to overwhelming the SSME's I am not making any other adjustments here except nudging the pitch, and I advise you to do the same, deviating will result in instability.

Orbiting

Once the SRB's have gone you have more control but again I am leaving everything except pitch alone, the lighter the tank gets the twitchier it will be. Once I have reached an AP of 100km I switch on the OMS engines and rotate the shuttle upright to make control input easier. As I circularise you can see the shuttle become harder to control right at the end. Once you have a stable orbit, ditch the main tank and use action group 1 to switch to OMS mode. This disables the gimbals on the vectors and enables the internal OMS tank. You now have about 300-400ms of dV for rendevous and de-orbiting.

Re-Entry

Once you have disposed of your cargo set your re-entry manoeuvre well, there is no flight extension in this craft, you have to glide right into the runway, it is tricky. Set yourself to prograde and level the wings then set to radial-out, this will keep the shuttle belly on to the air and reduce your speed fastest. At some point equilibrium will be lost and the shuttle will start to deviate from radial-out, click prograde again and level your wings. Now it is up to you.

Landing

You need to keep your speed up above 50ms or you may start to lose authority. if you need help getting the nose up or recovering from a spin hit the brake, this will deploy the rudder in airbrake mode and help you stabilise the craft. In the video below you can see I overshot the re-entry and had to try for a circle and land on the grass. I was flying with the keyboard and as the speed dropped it got a bit unstable, as soon as I deployed the rudder brake it stabilised again.

 

Edited January 28, 2018 by selfish_meme