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NASA DART Challenge


St4rdust

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9 minutes ago, N9vaivie said:

I can't help but wonder... are the asteroids stable if n-body physics are introduced? (aka the mod Principia)

just might die

2 hours ago, obnox twin said:

So is FMFRS allowed aka linuxgurugamers mod that allows you to recover boosters and continue with the mission after recovering and is Mech Jeb allowed?

That is what we don't know yet. To be safe, let's try stock. Quicksaves are available... you don't have to visually recover it... idk...

2 hours ago, obnox twin said:

Kraken drives?

This is not a freestyle challenge. It must be a replica of the DART spacecraft and possibly even the Falcon 9.
 

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1 hour ago, N9vaivie said:

I can't help but wonder... are the asteroids stable if n-body physics are introduced? (aka the mod Principia)

Our tidal locking hack might make Principia freak (might not too, hard to say).

Edited by R-T-B
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10 hours ago, N9vaivie said:

I can't help but wonder... are the asteroids stable if n-body physics are introduced? (aka the mod Principia)

Support for Principia is not included.  You can try it if you want to see what happens, but do so at your own risk and don't ask for support if you run into problems.

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This looks very solid to be honest. That's an interesting topic how far they can go? Maybe if they will make some kind of protection in the right time, so we are not going to fear the possibility to be nuked by some random asteroid :D That would be really cool and this project looks promising to me :awe:

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Stock-only attempt:

Spoiler

zXa4Kc9.png

The probe. Single ion thruster, two large sets of solar panels powered by robotics parts- I couldn't get a "roll out" style deployment to fit inside the craft as the robotic pistons were too big, so hinges were the next best thing) and some RCS thrusters positioned similarly to the probe shown in the video. Totally overbuilt for this mission with over 8km/s of ion delta-V available. The OKTO2 stuck on the side is intended to mimic the little deployable craft on the real DART and will separate close to arrival.

EYxzkdg.png

My best attempt at a Falcon 9- 9x Swivel engines on the first stage, capable of RTLS recovery (if you don't care about the rest of the mission crashing as it leaves physics range, that is!) and plenty of grunt to push the upper stage on its way to orbit.

BgsnrsW.png

Landing accuracy wasn't particularly great, but then again I'm flying this thing by eye with no mods to help out so even making it back to the KSC was an achievement on its own.

fU838JU.png

And a successful landing! Made a lot harder by the fact that one Swivel alone can't actually support this thing's weight at sea level so the other engines had to chip in and lend a hand, poor control despite multiple reaction wheels and the Vernor thrusters on the top and a general lack of fuel.

Getting the booster back to the launch site meant that the rest of the mission crashed, so I only did it once to prove that it could be done, then reloaded to just before booster separation and continued from there.

LCTtq9C.png

AzVYECj.png

The solar panels were tricky- I wanted to use robotic pistons to create something similar to the roll-out deployment system on the real DART probe, but they were too big to fit inside it properly; this system with two hinges and one pivot per "wing" was the best I could come up with. The two wings can be rotated on those pivots to catch the sun, since the panels themselves are static.

roSkZg0.png

The ion propulsion system worked as expected, though it wasn't really needed. Those little RCS thrusters were invaluable though, helping to fine-tune the approach to Didymos and later to Dimorphos.

hzalBC7.png

Like the real thing, I deployed a small secondary probe shortly before the approach to Didymos and impact with Dimorphos.

ctHpFql.png

A solid hit with a noticeable change in trajectory.

It's probably possible to build a more accurate replica using mod parts and/or Tweakscale, but this is the best I could do with stock KSP.

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Guest The Doodling Astronaut
11 hours ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

Stock-only attempt:

  Hide contents

zXa4Kc9.png

The probe. Single ion thruster, two large sets of solar panels powered by robotics parts- I couldn't get a "roll out" style deployment to fit inside the craft as the robotic pistons were too big, so hinges were the next best thing) and some RCS thrusters positioned similarly to the probe shown in the video. Totally overbuilt for this mission with over 8km/s of ion delta-V available. The OKTO2 stuck on the side is intended to mimic the little deployable craft on the real DART and will separate close to arrival.

EYxzkdg.png

My best attempt at a Falcon 9- 9x Swivel engines on the first stage, capable of RTLS recovery (if you don't care about the rest of the mission crashing as it leaves physics range, that is!) and plenty of grunt to push the upper stage on its way to orbit.

BgsnrsW.png

Landing accuracy wasn't particularly great, but then again I'm flying this thing by eye with no mods to help out so even making it back to the KSC was an achievement on its own.

fU838JU.png

And a successful landing! Made a lot harder by the fact that one Swivel alone can't actually support this thing's weight at sea level so the other engines had to chip in and lend a hand, poor control despite multiple reaction wheels and the Vernor thrusters on the top and a general lack of fuel.

Getting the booster back to the launch site meant that the rest of the mission crashed, so I only did it once to prove that it could be done, then reloaded to just before booster separation and continued from there.

LCTtq9C.png

AzVYECj.png

The solar panels were tricky- I wanted to use robotic pistons to create something similar to the roll-out deployment system on the real DART probe, but they were too big to fit inside it properly; this system with two hinges and one pivot per "wing" was the best I could come up with. The two wings can be rotated on those pivots to catch the sun, since the panels themselves are static.

roSkZg0.png

The ion propulsion system worked as expected, though it wasn't really needed. Those little RCS thrusters were invaluable though, helping to fine-tune the approach to Didymos and later to Dimorphos.

hzalBC7.png

Like the real thing, I deployed a small secondary probe shortly before the approach to Didymos and impact with Dimorphos.

ctHpFql.png

A solid hit with a noticeable change in trajectory.

It's probably possible to build a more accurate replica using mod parts and/or Tweakscale, but this is the best I could do with stock KSP.

What's impact velocity? Mine was a wee-bit too small to make a diff. even at 7.1 km/s.

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5 hours ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

What's impact velocity? Mine was a wee-bit too small to make a diff. even at 7.1 km/s.

Only 2.8km/s. Not sure how heavy the probe was on impact, I’ll check. Maybe all those structural panels (the gold bits) made a difference?

edit: Probe was ~3 tons on impact. More than I was expecting.

Edited by jimmymcgoochie
Checked probe weight
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17 minutes ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

I'm not entirely sure how I did that either; must be some combination of the structural panels, the hinges for the solar panels and a big fat tank of xenon stuffed inside it.

Mines like... 1.25 tons only...!

Spoiler

GhxElAc.png

 

And also

this is the 5th time I'm reloading KSP because the game dies on quickload :(

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5 hours ago, Kerbal Productions said:

Is it necessary to have 7 consecutive game crashes just to crash on a binary asteroid?

Probably caused by some mod interaction.  Try uninstalling unnecessary mods and playing DART in a stripped-down installation.
 

Edited by OhioBob
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