Bored 3D Modeler looking for a challenge..

[Cryocasm]

Nice! We definitely do need more space station stuff in all different shapes and sizes.

Speaking purely in hypotheticals, would a large spinning cylinder be able to keep things inside purely by centrifugal force, or would that bug out?

It would be far too buggy, and while I like the idea of a Neil Cylinder, its simply undoable for KSP. We need a Kerbal version of it, and a few part packs include ring centrifuges to generate gravity, but why not simply attach massive magnets to the "floor" of the station and make everyone wear shoes made of iron, its practically gravity!

The space station parts will be on the order of 2-3M parts, with trusses, nodes, and simply more unification to reduce lag on space stations. I'm also planning a space-tug.

[Sevans]

For my first post ever, I want to second ialdabaoth's suggestion of a Project Orion Nuclear Pulse Propulsion hacked propulsion system. I've been dying for a Project Orion of my very own!!!

[ummwut]

It would be far too buggy, and while I like the idea of a Neil Cylinder, its simply undoable for KSP. We need a Kerbal version of it, and a few part packs include ring centrifuges to generate gravity, but why not simply attach massive magnets to the "floor" of the station and make everyone wear shoes made of iron, its practically gravity!

The space station parts will be on the order of 2-3M parts, with trusses, nodes, and simply more unification to reduce lag on space stations. I'm also planning a space-tug.

Ignoring the fact that magnet shoes does not downward acceleration make, we do need some sort of non-buggy way to have artificial environments. Possibly to land ships in, more for walking around with kerbals. Because why not.

Less complex textures and collision meshes? I do like the idea of hulking huge space station parts that don't lag me to death.

[Cryocasm]

Ignoring the fact that magnet shoes does not downward acceleration make, we do need some sort of non-buggy way to have artificial environments. Possibly to land ships in, more for walking around with kerbals. Because why not.

Less complex textures and collision meshes? I do like the idea of hulking huge space station parts that don't lag me to death.

That English..., and yes, magnetic shoes would mimic acceleration due to the fact that they create a resistance to your foots movement, which is equal to what gravity does when you lift your foot.

[comham]

That English..., and yes, magnetic shoes would mimic acceleration due to the fact that they create a resistance to your foots movement, which is equal to what gravity does when you lift your foot.

Not really, it just sticks your foot to the surface when it gets close. Magnetism falls off very, very quickly.

[Cryocasm]

Not really, it just sticks your foot to the surface when it gets close. Magnetism falls off very, very quickly.

I'm not talking about toy magnets, rather about more energy intensive electromagnets, but whatever

You don't really lift your foot that high while walking anyway, so I don't see what speaks against a magnetized iron floor.

Well anyways, seeing that my pipeline works, I need to find a way of getting unity functional to .mbm my stuff, but I'll prolly release a few versions with .daes first.

<--- update on OP

Edited April 27, 2013 by Cryocasm

[Tw1]

Speaking of magnetic shoes, we've been having a bit of a discussion here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26134-Magnetic-boots-for-the-Kerbals

As I argue in the thread, they'd be useful outside as well. But I am talking about smaller magnets, the minimum needed to let you stick to a station's external deck.

Edited April 28, 2013 by Tw1

[Cryocasm]

Speaking of magnetic shoes, we've been having a bit of a discussion here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26134-Magnetic-boots-for-the-Kerbals

As I argue in the thread, they'd be useful outside as well. But I was talking about smaller magnets, the minimum needed to let you stick to a station's external deck.

Well yeah, classical mechanics and magnetism are some of my favorite things, so I am quite aware that a Magnetic field usually has a diameter about 3 times of its field-generator (electrical or natural). Good examples of this are:

Earth, whose magnetic field extends about 7000 km towards the Sun and then very, very far towards the anti-sun direction. This example is an extreme one.

A regular iron magnet has a field about 3x its width, which is a regular example.

Focused electromagnets include toroidal ones as used in fusion reactors.

[Cryocasm]

Speaking of magnetic shoes, we've been having a bit of a discussion here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26134-Magnetic-boots-for-the-Kerbals

As I argue in the thread, they'd be useful outside as well. But I was talking about smaller magnets, the minimum needed to let you stick to a station's external deck.

Well yeah, classical mechanics and magnetism are some of my favorite things, so I am quite aware that a Magnetic field usually has a diameter about 3 times of its field-generator (electrical or natural). Good examples of this are:

Earth, whose magnetic field extends about 7000 km towards the Sun and then very, very far towards the anti-sun direction. This example is an extreme one.

A regular iron magnet has a field about 3x its width, which is a regular example.

Focused electromagnets include toroidal ones as used in fusion reactors.

[ummwut]

A big damn Xenon tank? YES! YESSSSS!

[iDan122]

I would absolutely love inflatable/deflatable lander cushions like on the MER landers. Ideally they would actually bounce and fit on the small structural panel, so one could build pods with those. Their footprint would be square instead of triangular. I've looked into doing this myself, but realistically I don't see that happening.

At the 3:18 mark:

Sorry to dissapoint but that is already done by Yogui87, it's called the Prometheus solar rover

Edited April 28, 2013 by iDan122

[Cryocasm]

A big damn Xenon tank? YES! YESSSSS!

Don't worry, the array of xenon hungry high-power Ion Engines are planned as well

Oh and, I've been formulating an idea which uses Helium-Ion propulsion, the hook to it being that you can collect all the fuels in space: Helium is a common element ejected by stars due to fusion. This way you can scoop the Helium, solarpanel the electricity and then even use the solar sails, which would make you have a ship with no defined Isp, depending on how much Helium you can store at once/scoop over time.

[ummwut]

That could be interesting, as an extremely long-term form of propulsion!

[Dr. Muttonstache]

I loved the Venture in EVE Online, would love to fly it around in Kerbal Space Program

[Cryocasm]

I loved the Venture in EVE Online, would love to fly it around in Kerbal Space Program

The problem being the VAB isn't as tall as the Venture is long. I could however consider its rather modular look for space station parts. Multi-part ships are currently still fairly buggy/instable..

[Camacha]

Sorry to dissapoint but that is already done by Yogui87, it's called the Prometheus solar rover

Nope, it has not. Those parts are, like mentioned before in this topic, strictly usable for the Prometheus rover. I am talking about airbags that can be used in KSP for landing your own craft, so, MER style air bags, not necessarily MER air bags

I did find this, which has awesome looks. Unfortunately I do not think it ever has been released, the news just goes dead after this video.

[Cryocasm]

Nope, it has not. Those parts are, like mentioned before in this topic, strictly usable for the Prometheus rover. I am talking about airbags that can be used in KSP for landing your own craft, so, MER style air bags, not necessarily MER air bags

I did find this, which has awesome looks. Unfortunately I do not think it ever has been released, the news just goes dead after this video.

It remains a question as to how you can do this in KSP.

[Camacha]

It remains a question as to how you can do this in KSP.

This mod seems to function pretty well without a .dll, it just does not look good.

[Cryocasm]

This mod seems to function pretty well without a .dll, it just does not look good.

Ehhh, currently I'll put airbags to the back of my mind. Its more important to focus on stuff like the VASIMR line of engines and the mass resource storages as well as the Saturn V analog, which I designed today in class (I know you shouldn't do that...but...).

Basically I called it the PR-51 (Prototype Rocket 51) which uses the 5 as the diameter meter measure and the 1 as the first 5 meter in diameter rocket designed by CCC.

brb fetching image of my rocket design:

Basically, the launch vehicle is the same thing, save for the delivery stages as detailed.

I'll have a mock-up of the complete rocket in a TMI configuration done in Blender soon before I dissect it into smaller components.

Edited May 1, 2013 by Cryocasm

[Steambirds]

Alright, this is an idea for a part I had, but the model is up to you! Just make sure it has a lot of useless doodads and gizmos and pipes.

Thrust: 2000

ISP (Sea Level): 250

ISP (Vacuum): 300

Gimbal Range: 3

Mass: Up to you, just make it really heavy.

Produces 3 electric charge a sec.

Large part.

[Cryocasm]

Alright, this is an idea for a part I had, but the model is up to you! Just make sure it has a lot of useless doodads and gizmos and pipes.

Thrust: 2000

ISP (Sea Level): 250

ISP (Vacuum): 300

Gimbal Range: 3

Mass: Up to you, just make it really heavy.

Produces 3 electric charge a sec.

Large part.

So its supposed to be a bit stronger than the Mainsail I believe and offer more electricity?

[nyrath]

I'm a bit shrouded on the exact limitations of the DevKit and the game itself without a plugin, are you 100% sure its possible to do this without external code? I also have this odd feeling that "1 billion kN" aka 1 Teranewton (currently practically unmatched even in explosive/propulsive power) would utterly rape the rocket apart rather than propel it, this simply because 100 ms is enough to impart the massive multi-G forces on the craft, meaning the shock absorbing code must really work and really defend the craft, otherwise (this requires lots of testing as you mentioned) we'd have to tone down the thrust but up the number of pellets, equaling the same effective delta-V, but more "applicable".

So I'm going to do some math here:

The original poster's estimate of the thrust from Orion Drive nuclear pulse units is a bit extravagant. The ones from the various NASA studies were more like 2,000 to 400,000 kiloNewtons per nuclear pulse unit.

(btw, the charges are nuclear shaped charges)

From my website

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunconvent.php#id--Nukes_In_Space--Nuclear_Shaped_Charges

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist.php#id--Pulse--Orion

For what is is worth, this is the best information I have on Orion pulse units. Detonating each unit results in the listed thrust being imparted to the pusher plate. This is why there are two stages of shock absorbers in between the pusher plate and the rest of the rocket.

NASA Orion pulse unit (pusher plate 10 meters diameter)

Yield 1 kiloton

Total Mass 141 kg

Propellant mass 90 kg

Cylinder

Diameter 0.36

Height 0.6m

Thrust 3,500 kiloNewtons

Isp ??

USAF Orion pulse unit (pusher plate 10 meters diameter)

Yield 1 kiloton

Total Mass 79 kg

Propellant mass 34.3 kg

Cylinder

Diameter 0.36

Height 0.6m

Thrust 2,000 kiloNewtons

Isp 15,290 seconds?

4,000 ton Orion (pusher plate ?? meters diameter)

Yield 5 kilotons

Total Mass 1,152 kg

Propellant mass ?? kg

Cylinder

Diameter 0.81

Height 0.86

Thrust 80,000 kiloNewtons

Isp 11,900 seconds?

10,000 ton Orion (pusher plate ?? meters diameter)

Yield 15 kilotons

Total Mass ?? kg

Propellant mass ?? kg

Cylinder

Diameter ??

Height ??

Thrust 400,000 kiloNewtons

Isp ??

The dirty little secret of the Orion drive is that it is best used to boost payload into orbit. Which is exactly where there is the most opposition to its use.

[nyrath]

Please remove this

Edited May 3, 2013 by nyrath

[nyrath]

The top of the Orion plate would be a .5m tall, 3m diameter cylinder with a magazine of pellets on the bottom; then below that four very, very large hydraulic shock absorber pistons, with a scaffolding tube in between them that connects to the plate itself, which is a 10m diameter, VERY flattened cone or parabola that looks like it was cast out of a single piece of hardened steel or tungsten. A tiny hole in the center of the plate lines up with the scaffolding tube, which animates to drop a little cylindrical pellet through.

The early design for an Orion pulse drive had a plate that was only 10 meters in diameter. If you ever want to model such a thing, I have better resource pictures to use as blueprints. PM me.

Something like this:

Edited May 3, 2013 by nyrath

[Cryocasm]

Well right, my physical dissertation was just to get a general idea (even for myself) of just how powerful this is. But I'll be honest, I think its better to have a "spiked" nuclear engine (burning liquid/oxidizer + a bit of magic from a third fuel) which provides a much higher dV but at much more doable levels.

Oh and, by the way, thanks for your website, you just showed me an array of propulsion methods that I can think about and dissect using my vast knowledge of physics. Mmmm, I'm never really bored, especially when mind boggling stuff like this comes into my path.

Massive OP update:

Large Wing made by me.

Habitat Capsule requested by Moon Goddess.

Spiked Nuclear Engine inspired by Nyarth's post.

Capsule Service Module 1 Meter requested by I Got BCed.

Landmaster Rover requested by UltraVires.

Dream Chaser requested by Skeligandrew.

Massive Battery Pack needed by all.

VASIMR Engine requested by czokletmuss.

So..who wants to be my texture slave?

Edited May 4, 2013 by Cryocasm