Unrealistic progression 0

[Antstar]

Recently I got annoyed with some of the changes and had a bit of a rant in the RP-0 forum (BTW I still love the mod, just not a fan of some of the changes).

So I decided to make the most exploit-y start possible to get quick development. Here is my first ~ 20 days. I only have a couple of pics though.

Presenting the POC:

Able to be built in less than 6 days, this was designed to satisfy the launch first craft contract. The "engine" is angled so as to ensure no damage to the launchpad but it was decided to launch it from the SPH so that there would be no rollout time and it could be pointed away from the KSC.

This mission was a grand success, with the craft raising into the air 3.6m and pinwheeling, thus ensuring a full recovery with 5.8 science.

The POC Mk2 was then built, with an added parachute and the engine centered. A thermometer and barometer were added and used to balance the torque to 0.00kNm like the weights in a car wheel. This craft did not fair so well due to some kind of glitchy bug in the procedural parachute.

The POC Mk2b however had this problem corrected, and it was further discovered that by reducing the number so spare parachutes to none and using silk, further costs could be saved (redundancy is for suckers)

Here we can see the POC Mk2b in its stable position, lying at 45degrees.

Unfortunately this craft landed at 18m/s and was destroyed.

The POC Mk2c had the parachutes expanded to 5.5m and was launched resulting in a perfect 500m climb at 45degrees and a soft 6.8m/s landing with all the juicy science within available for collection.

The POC Mk2c was put into immediate production at SPH around the world, and 6 days later a slew of new science poured in.

Other space agencies should be made aware that the POC Mk2c is an excellent starting craft and, if immediately put into production in every biome (in the SPH of course) can lead to more than 25 science available by the end of day 6...

 

[Antstar]

Sadly, soon after this I started building things that were more or less actually rockets. Launching payloads straight up is nice for easy money.

When I first saw this, I thought I was sending a present to Squad - but after looking at a map it seems like it is actually US (I don't know, Texas? California? I'm not A Merican).

I dropped a lot of rubbish on Florida already. But my favorite was when I had a 500kg sounding payload on an A4 rocket (I think this was roughly the same configuration that the Germans used for their "sounding payloads"...). It went off course and hit - I think - Alabama. This being 1951 I can't help but picture some hick making moonshine in a barn when a V2 falls from the sky and shreds the farmhouse

[Ultimate Steve]

This is bound to be entertaining! Following. Great title, as well!

[Kerbalstar]

6 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

This is bound to be entertaining! Following. Great title, as well!

I agree @Antstar!

[qzgy]

7 hours ago, Antstar said:

but after looking at a map it seems like it is actually US (I don't know, Texas? California? I'm not A Merican).

Looks like Florida, home of the actual KSC!

 

Seems neat though, interested to see how it goes.

[Antstar]

7 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

This is bound to be entertaining! Following. Great title, as well!

 

1 hour ago, kerbalstar said:

I agree @Antstar!

 

37 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Looks like Florida, home of the actual KSC!

 

Seems neat though, interested to see how it goes.

Thanks guys! I was never planning to develop it into a series, but if you want to see more 'missions gone awry' then I will happily see what I can provide

@qzgy The red cross in the Rockys is where the rocket will land when the Earth spins under it. No idea which mod it is, as I downloaded @Aazard 's gamedata folder to get RP0 working. When I tried to install it from github all I got was errors because it was still "very nearly ready"

 

 

 

[qzgy]

20 minutes ago, Antstar said:

The red cross in the Rockys is where the rocket will land when the Earth spins under it. No idea which mod it is, as I downloaded

Oh.. missed that . That could be trajectories. And yeah, texas or northern mexico.

Thats a pretty useful mod though, whatever it is.

[Antstar]

The story picks up in 1953. The "Longbow" series of sounding rockets had progressed from WAC corporals through A4 and A4 booster designs and made a quantum leap with the invention of the LR79 and LR89 engines. Of course, it didn't take long before more than one of these was needed to lift the vehicle from the ground and so 2 boosters were added:

As the Longbow was already at Mk9, some suggested calling this the "Longbow Heavy", but this was quickly shot down by management for being "lame" and the traditional system of letters and numbers continued.

The craft met with some success, however after a booster malfunction caused the craft to roll, pitch west, and almost destroyed the VAB, engineers suggested adopting a clustering approach instead. Initially 3 engines were used, but the frequency with which a single engine would fail aborting the launch suggested a 4 engined design may function even when one engine failed.

Already, a satellite had been barely limped into orbit, literally, using differential application of attitude only RCS to raise the periapsis from 130km to 145km. Although, even at the time, some had argued that even if it only stayed up there for a couple of weeks we could still claim the title of first artificial satellite

The center was already looking onwards towards the Moon and decided that with this new launch vehicle now would be a good time to cash in on those lucrative "polar orbit" and "solar powered satellite" contracts

Spoiler

One of the first of the upgraded rocket designs rolled off the assembly line and was ready for launch.

On ignition, one of the engines failed to ignite. The flight team had trained for this possibility and the launch went ahead. The rocket was difficult to control as the other engines gimbaled to counter, but then the worst happened... Another engine failed less than 1 minute into the flight leaving the rocket with TWR of <1

The rocket was now slewing around, slowing down and not pointed in the direction of travel. The flight director literally had his hand on the "range safety" button. But as the fuel burnt away the TWR started to increase again and, due to the second failed engine being opposite the first, control actually improved. The rocket started to move upwards once more and picked up velocity. There was a cautious optimism that we may yet be going to space today.

It cleared the atmosphere with an acceptable velocity and the second stage was fired.... And almost immediately failed to half thrust. Despite managing the angle of attack it was clear that there was not enough delta V to make orbit...

But, this was rocket was a testbed for a Lunar mission and was carrying the first prototype restartable engine. After some fairly substantial burn from the hydrazine engines, the cargo was delivered to the required orbit.

Needless to say, that day the mission control was filled with handshakes and high fives. At the debriefing, it was concluded that the rocket had dealt with the failures well and the only recommendation for modification was to lower the launch clamps so that the rocket can't tip itself over if it moves sideways at launch.

 

Edited April 16, 2018 by Antstar