[1.12.0] Ж-20 "Moroz" Spaceplane

[Guest]

Any chance for a 1.5m adapter for Titan I?

[Angelo Kerman]

In the real world, the X-20 was cancelled and MOL took its place. In KSP...

[biohazard15]

After several flights, I must say: this is absolutely the BEST spaceplane out there.

- Works great with BDB's Titan IIIC (as USAF intended). Perfect ascend, be it manual flight or MJ. (Tip: disable control surfaces before flight, and enable them shortly before reentry). You might want to use original plans for winged Titan II, though, especially on stock Kerbin and with career save - IIIC is sorta overpowered (and expensive) for it.

- Glides very well both in passenger and cargo configurations. Landing isn't a problem, as long as you have some flat terrain.

- Can take one passenger in its trunk (aka Silbervogel service connector), which makes it quite useful both for tourist and rescue missions.

Suggestions:

- Small payload parts. Simply cut the existing cargo bay and passenger bay in half.

- Inline Clamp-o-tron Jr (as a "small" part, would be useful if you want to use X-20 as a small service craft for your satellites.)

- Custom rack for science parts that fits into large cargo bay.

[Barzon]

Adding on to @biohazard15's part suggestions, would a inline docking port compatible with Benjee10's 0.9725m port be possible @Well?

[linuxgurugamer]

Nice to see yet another shuttle style vessel.

[Well]

15 hours ago, biohazard15 said:

After several flights, I must say: this is absolutely the BEST spaceplane out there.

- Works great with BDB's Titan IIIC (as USAF intended). Perfect ascend, be it manual flight or MJ. (Tip: disable control surfaces before flight, and enable them shortly before reentry). You might want to use original plans for winged Titan II, though, especially on stock Kerbin and with career save - IIIC is sorta overpowered (and expensive) for it.

- Glides very well both in passenger and cargo configurations. Landing isn't a problem, as long as you have some flat terrain.

- Can take one passenger in its trunk (aka Silbervogel service connector), which makes it quite useful both for tourist and rescue missions.

Suggestions:

- Small payload parts. Simply cut the existing cargo bay and passenger bay in half.

- Inline Clamp-o-tron Jr (as a "small" part, would be useful if you want to use X-20 as a small service craft for your satellites.)

- Custom rack for science parts that fits into large cargo bay.

Many thanks, 

I actually try to see an option for the docking because that a big problem, i've also thinked to make a half cabin, and half cargobay... i don't have decided.

In stock scale a Titan IIIC could probably put the X-20 to duna 

13 hours ago, Barzon Kerman said:

Adding on to @biohazard15's part suggestions, would a inline docking port compatible with Benjee10's 0.9725m port be possible @Well?

I don't want to include a docking port, too many variant and size depend on the mod you use, i like more the idea of having the space to put the docking you want, in a small cargo bay or something different....

Also have you noticed a 0.9375 module fit completely the cargo bay, so a docking at this scale is a little too much for this small plane.

But anyway, most important is  i've adopted this mod, i really like this small spaceplane, and i want to make it more useful, so i want to add some little parts.

I still hope @IronCretin could send me these original assets, like psd texture files.

[DStaal]

53 minutes ago, Well said:

I don't want to include a docking port, too many variant and size depend on the mod you use, i like more the idea of having the space to put the docking you want, in a small cargo bay or something different.... 

How about taking the 1.85 adapter, cutting it short, then adding a fairing to where it was?  That is, have a node on the bottom, and then another node at the original bottom, which if used gives a fairing between.

Then you put the docking port on the bottom, and stack from the fairing (below the docking port) to the launcher.  Orbital engine location could be a problem, but the plane is fairly small so a couple of Twitch or Spider engines (or relying on RCS) should cover that for most cases.

[Well]

11 minutes ago, DStaal said:

How about taking the 1.85 adapter, cutting it short, then adding a fairing to where it was?  That is, have a node on the bottom, and then another node at the original bottom, which if used gives a fairing between.

Then you put the docking port on the bottom, and stack from the fairing (below the docking port) to the launcher.  Orbital engine location could be a problem, but the plane is fairly small so a couple of Twitch or Spider engines (or relying on RCS) should cover that for most cases.

We could already do that if you put the fairing on top of the launcher, the adapter don't need to be modified.

You probably think to something like that :

[Svm420]

How about doing the docking like the real thing. It had little arms that docked to a bar attached to the space station. Video

Anyone know what the abort procedure looked like? I hate to send kerbals on a rocket without a proper abort sequence.

Edited May 17, 2019 by Svm420

[Well]

14 minutes ago, Svm420 said:

How about doing the docking like the real thing. It had little arms that docked to a bar attached to the space station. Video

Anyone know what the about procedure looked like? I hate to send kerbals on a rocket without a proper about sequence.

I've thinked to that, like a little claw on the cokpit, that could be interesting

[DStaal]

13 minutes ago, Well said:

I've thinked to that, like a little claw on the cokpit, that could be interesting

One of the other attempts at the dyna-soar in KSP actually implemented one of these, IIRC.  It does have the disadvantage that if you're playing realistically you can't transfer a Kerbal through it - it just holds the ships together while you EVA between them.

[linuxgurugamer]

8 hours ago, DStaal said:

One of the other attempts at the dyna-soar in KSP actually implemented one of these, IIRC.  It does have the disadvantage that if you're playing realistically you can't transfer a Kerbal through it - it just holds the ships together while you EVA between them.

That's not a disadvantage.  Any idea which one it was?

[Svm420]

7 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

That's not a disadvantage.  Any idea which one it was?

 

[linuxgurugamer]

Thx

[CobaltWolf]

On 5/16/2019 at 9:45 AM, Svm420 said:

How about doing the docking like the real thing. It had little arms that docked to a bar attached to the space station. Video

Anyone know what the about procedure looked like? I hate to send kerbals on a rocket without a proper about sequence.

So, one of the (many) issues with the real X-20 (we get to ignore most of them in KSP) was that it had a giant honking solid abort motor that it had to lug around everywhere it went - basically a modified Minuteman 3rd stage, that would pretty much fill the adapter section between it and the Transtage.

You'll have to forgive the tiny size of the diagram, most of the drawings of the X-20 online either show just the glider, or the glider attached to the Transtage with the abort motor not shown.

 

There is also this configuration, but I'm 99% sure it isn't real and is just some random fan art someone on the internet made?

[Well]

3 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

There is also this configuration, but I'm 99% sure it isn't real and is just some random fan art someone on the internet made?

I think that something actually planned because i've see more other picture with these "external" booster

Edited May 17, 2019 by Well

[Well]

After many test, this is what i see at first for docking. 

A Crew Tube Payload to put in the cargo bay with 2 variant ~2/3 cargo bay size and full size

Top cylinder is docking Jr size.... i need to make some test in game to see if i have the place for the docking and if i could close the cargo bay.

Also on the screen... a new cockpit, i see it like a X-20 evolution. This "Sanger" Cockpit have a remote control capacity. I know it is not really X-20 on the shape, but i've thinked that could be great to have a cockpit variant to match other parts... it's also inspired by the Martin Bell X-20 purpose.

[Well]

The cockpit variant "Sanger" in game 

[BillKerman123]

 

 

 

On 5/14/2019 at 3:41 PM, Jay The Amazing Toaster said:

Do you know where to get the upper stage that's mounted behind the X-20 in this shot? I have the mod and BDB but I can't find it. BDB has the engine for that stage but not the tank. 

[Well]

This Transtage is still in developpement, idk when he could be aviable

[Cheesecake]

3 hours ago, Well said:

Where did you find this X-20 concept? That`s awesome and would be cool to have it ingame.

[Well]

1 minute ago, Cheesecake said:

Where did you find this X-20 concept? That`s awesome and would be cool to have it ingame.

http://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/blog/?p=13

Maybe later like a probe core module or an other variant

[Well]

Test in game work fine, i've also tested with other docking system from other mod. But Docking Jr is the best for this small spaceplane (or Restock Docking Jr work fine)

Of course not a lot of docking at this size, but still some option.

Those are bigger and don't really match (that a little dumb) but fit for most of them or need to be a little clipped on the bottom:

The BdB active dock fit but need to be clipped inside the cargo bay, but that work and fit nicely :

That beautiful for this small spacecraft!

-----------------

Size remind :

Edited May 18, 2019 by Well

[jpkerman]

I know I am late to the party but for docking what about just putting a node on the bottom of the X-20 for a re-entry shielded docking port?

[DStaal]

This works surprisingly well - four Kerbals to orbit, with some fuel to maneuver and dock:

That's a full-sized docking port.

Engines in use:

I'm using some monoprop engines from Internal RCS.

My one thought is that the adaptor to 1.85m is pretty much dead weight.  A thought would be to make it a small service module: a monoprop fuel cell, an antenna, and a small monoprop fuel tank.  (Maybe 50 units or so.)