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I'm sorry I haven't been able to do much work lately as I have EXAMS the first week after easter. Not important ones but still, EXAMS. So I'll put the best version on KerbalX. It needs... a lot of tweaking. There is a fine balance between 'too little fuel' and 'too heavy to go supersonic' which I haven't been able to get right. Please feel free to tweak it until it gets to orbit. Or even re-design the whole back end.

https://kerbalx.com/fulgur/Wisp-2

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On 4/5/2019 at 2:15 PM, fulgur said:

I'm sorry I haven't been able to do much work lately as I have EXAMS the first week after easter. Not important ones but still, EXAMS. So I'll put the best version on KerbalX. It needs... a lot of tweaking. There is a fine balance between 'too little fuel' and 'too heavy to go supersonic' which I haven't been able to get right. Please feel free to tweak it until it gets to orbit. Or even re-design the whole back end.

https://kerbalx.com/fulgur/Wisp-2

ok

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On 4/5/2019 at 8:15 PM, fulgur said:

Please feel free to tweak it until it gets to orbit. Or even re-design the whole back end.

I uploaded an alternative design, the Wisp 2b. Let me know if it meets your requirements. It's yours to use and/or finalize.

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19 hours ago, Barzon Kerman said:

could you optimise my Dream Chaser?

Time permitting I'm willing to look at it.

Perhaps something like this?

Spoiler

rZaNKVT.png

Carries 8 kerbals, at less cost and mass. Very stable in reentry. More than enough operational range in orbit for KCSS needs.

cVC1dXa.png

Much better glider. Together with the alternative LES solution it can glide to a safe landing without need of a chute (backup chute included anyway).

Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/afrj6cngv56j0io/Dream Chaser II.craft?dl=0

Problem is that it's still a good bit too heavy for the Muon 6, so launches will be less frequent and considerably more expensive, not even counting the man rating cost. It looks good and works well, mind you, but I'd still strongly suggest going with something that can be lifted on a Muon (iow something that weighs 8 tonnes or less).

 

P.S.: to answer a question about the lacking angle of incidence on the wings - this is completely intentional. This vehicle will never need to push itself supersonic or fly itself to orbit, so it gains little benefit from a flight-optimized lift/drag ratio. In fact the main problem becomes to minimize the wing/body lift generated during a typical gravity curve. Angle of incidence on the wings would add a strong force high up in the stack pushing away from pure prograde, making it very unstable and potentially flipping the launch stack. So in this particular case, that one tweak is skipped.

Edited by swjr-swis
wait... no AoI??
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@swjr-swis: It's much better than mine so if you think it's good enough, I think so too. It's got a different flight profile to most of mine so I'm not the best at flying it when I tested it this morning, but it's good. :-)

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7 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

Time permitting I'm willing to look at it.

Perhaps something like this?

  Hide contents

rZaNKVT.png

Carries 8 kerbals, at less cost and mass. Very stable in reentry. More than enough operational range in orbit for KCSS needs.

cVC1dXa.png

Much better glider. Together with the alternative LES solution it can glide to a safe landing without need of a chute (backup chute included anyway).

Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/afrj6cngv56j0io/Dream Chaser II.craft?dl=0

Problem is that it's still a good bit too heavy for the Muon 6, so launches will be less frequent and considerably more expensive, not even counting the man rating cost. It looks good and works well, mind you, but I'd still strongly suggest going with something that can be lifted on a Muon (iow something that weighs 8 tonnes or less).

Is the abort system still functional?

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2 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Is the abort system still functional?

It is indeed. As Barzon mentioned, the sepratron pods on the wing tips safely get the vehicle to enough altitude to transition into a glide and a soft landing (or with one more staging event, on chute, for those so inclined). I tested this from ground level, without the benefit of the launch vehicle altitude, which is a worse situation than should ever occur during launches.

I tested at max Q (~10km up on a typical gravity curve) as well. Those are the two most critical points - every other moment during ascent (short of an unpredictable direct Kraken attack) is easier and safer to abort from.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I learned a lot from this challenge, about teamwork based challenges in general. You're still welcome to launch if you want to, but I'm pretty sure that this is dead.

In the meantime, I have started a much simpler challenge, one where there is a list of modules that need to be designed and people can choose one (or several) and submit it to me to be launched, sort of NASA style. It can be found here, if any of you want to participate in another community station:

 

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