Using Kerbin's rotation for infinite endurance flight.

[TheTripleAce3]

Just asking this here to get extra feedback.

If there was a way for an autopilot to work with the ducted fans in 1.8 and set you on a westward course with 167.0m/s surface velocity, you should theoretically have infinite endurance since you are going against Kerbin's rotation and keeping the sun in the same spot (not accounting for Kerbin revolving around the Sun mind you but there should be a way around that).

 

Any thoughts? Has someone done this before?

[Zhetaan]

27 minutes ago, TheTripleAce3 said:

Any thoughts? Has someone done this before?

I cannot speak to it having been tried before, but you should be able to get a corrected velocity by use of the solar day rather than the sidereal day.  The sidereal day is 21549.425 seconds; the solar day is 21600.000 seconds (exactly six hours).  If we assume a constant ten-km altitude, then we're travelling a circle with a radius of 610000 metres; the correct velocity is then 177.44 m/s.

[IkranMakto]

Maybe it is possible with kOS, but I think you won't wait for a kerbin year, even for a day since you cannot time warp or phys warp with this craft. Just make simple helicopter, put 1-2  RITEGs on it and make it howering above KSC. New blades require absurdly low power to spin under load. 

Edited October 28, 2019 by IkranMakto

[TheTripleAce3]

2 hours ago, IkranMakto said:

Maybe it is lossible witb kOS, but I think you won't wait for a kerbin year, even for a day since you cannot time warp or phys warp with this craft. Just make simple helicopter, put 1-2  RITEGs on it and make it howering above KSC. New blades require absurdly low power to spin under load. 

The problem with hovering it in place is that the atmosphere moves with the planet, meaning that just hovering wouldn't actually move you horizontally since you still carry the momentum from being on the ground.

Tesla had ideas for an internet-like thing with data transmitted through balloons or something like that that didn't take such a thing into account, hence why it was never tried.

[IkranMakto]

2 minutes ago, TheTripleAce3 said:

The problem with hovering it in place is that the atmosphere moves with the planet, meaning that just hovering wouldn't actually move you horizontally since you still carry the momentum from being on the ground. 

But why you want to move horizontally? What's the point? 

[TheTripleAce3]

2 minutes ago, IkranMakto said:

But why you want to move horizontally? What's the point? 

The point is to get infinite flight endurance while being able to go around Kerbin and do some science stuff.

[IkranMakto]

5 minutes ago, TheTripleAce3 said:

The point is to get infinite flight endurance while being able to go around Kerbin and do some science stuff.

Plane + motor + propeller + 1-2 RTGs + SAS. Or 1-2 smalest solar panels to recharge some batteries during day time. 

0,4 energy/s is more than enough. But it's boring AFK method. 

[Bej Kerman]

On 10/28/2019 at 3:50 PM, TheTripleAce3 said:

f there was a way for an autopilot to work with the ducted fans in 1.8 and set you on a westward course with 167.0m/s surface velocity, you should theoretically have infinite endurance since you are going against Kerbin's rotation and keeping the sun in the same spot (not accounting for Kerbin revolving around the Sun mind you but there should be a way around that).

You're going against the air either way, and air doesn't like breaking conservation of energy.

[TheTripleAce3]

20 hours ago, Bej Kerman said:

You're going against the air either way, and air doesn't like breaking conservation of energy.

The ducted fans take so little power to spin that it should be possible.

[Bej Kerman]

1 hour ago, TheTripleAce3 said:

The ducted fans take so little power to spin that it should be possible.

Actually, you know what, let Henry explain this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gNkgj9h2oM

Going any non-vertical direction on Kerbin does not affect flight, especially considering atmospheres in KSP are perfectly uniform.

[TheTripleAce3]

10 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

Actually, you know what, let Henry explain this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gNkgj9h2oM

Going any non-vertical direction on Kerbin does not affect flight, especially considering atmospheres in KSP are perfectly uniform.

Using solar power on a plane with the electric motors as propulsion should let me get to a point where I can match the Sun's movement in the sky. It'd be slow, and someone above mentioned that it is possible, so I figured I may as well add it to one of my janky experiments in ksp.

[khearn]

On 10/28/2019 at 11:55 AM, TheTripleAce3 said:

Tesla had ideas for an internet-like thing with data transmitted through balloons or something like that that didn't take such a thing into account, hence why it was never tried.

I suspect you're thinking of Google's Project Loon (www.loon.com), which has successfully used high altitude balloons to provide internet service after disasters like the earthquake in Peru and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, both in 2017. They're planning on using it in non-emergency situations to provide service to remote areas with no cell coverage.

They don't expect the balloons to remain stationary, they've heard of this thing called wind. They also know that winds often blow different directions at different altitudes, and use that to direct the balloons by changing altitude to get to winds that are going the direction they want the balloons to go. But in general, there is more wind blowing east than west, so they can't always keep a balloon over an area. So they keep a bunch in the air and move new ones in from the west as others move out of an area to the east. They can stay up over 100 days, so they can easily make it around the world. 

[AHHans]

First: solar powered electric planes are not only possible with Breaking Ground but also fun. With the blade pitch you have more or less direct control over the airspeed, which makes landing sooo much easier! And the essentially direct throttle response allows for fun aerobatics (or a quick go-around if needed). Second: for a (somewhat) speed optimized design 167.0m/s airspeed is easily achievable. So it should be possible to do what you are thinking about.

But one major drawback of the BG propellers is that they are very physics-warp unfriendly! If you switch on physics-warp while the rotors are turning then the blades on your propellers will develop a mind of their own without any regard of what the rest of the "propeller" might do or want. At least with 1.8.1 the propeller isn't immediately screwed up as it was with 1.7.