What did you do in KSP1 today?

[SmashingKirby148]

I think I'm about to die from a panic attack. My SSTO survived re-entry.

I am absolutely baffled at this SSTO's fantastic performance. Only one part broke and that was a radially attached flag that could only survive 1000K worth of heat. Everything else, A-OK.

It used pretty much all of it's fuel, so an ISRU base will be needed. I also need to give it solar panels and a docking port, maybe a few chutes too and then it's finished!

[Vanguard319]

17 minutes ago, Martian Emigrant said:

Congrats.

Feels good doesn't it?

I still struggle with anything with wings myself.

I find that the MK! cockpits has a tendency to explode on reentry unless I keep the nose real high. But it might be something I do.

Landing? I use parachutes high up on the nose and when the ship is upright blast the engines to slow down to something below "splat-Speed".

 

ME

Sounds like you're reentering at too steep an angle. try setting your periapsis to around 45~50k m. Even then you want to keep your nose up during reentry so you bleed off speed as you descend, but the angle shouldn't be as high, about 30 degrees or so.

[SmashingKirby148]

Just now, Vanguard319 said:

Sounds like you're reentering at too steep an angle. try setting your periapsis to around 45~50k m. Even then you want to keep your nose up during reentry so you bleed off speed as you descend, but the angle shouldn't be as high, about 30 degrees or so.

 

I actually managed deeper than that. After the periapsis vanished I instantly cut the engines.

[ThatHomelessGuy]

19 minutes ago, SmashingKirby148 said:

that have the wings lower down instead of snap dead in the middle, does this help with reentry and do the wings have a higher heat tolerance?

Not that I'm aware of but it does pot the tanks mostly behind another component to help reduce heat during reentry.
I find a slightly angled wing pointing up with the tips flared up a bit more helps allot for reentry and moving the wings down the body with angled wings helps prevent the centre of lift being way above the centre of mass. The angled wing is a lovely surface that tends to just ride the atmosphere down.
Example sorta.

5 minutes ago, SmashingKirby148 said:

I think I'm about to die from a panic attack. My SSTO survived re-entry.

I am absolutely baffled at this SSTO's fantastic performance. Only one part broke and that was a radially attached flag that could only survive 1000K worth of heat. Everything else, A-OK.

It used pretty much all of it's fuel, so an ISRU base will be needed. I also need to give it solar panels and a docking port, maybe a few chutes too and then it's finished!

Grats Perfect shot for your first SSTO landing. I want to go into sandbox now.

[SmashingKirby148]

1 minute ago, ThatHomelessGuy said:

Not that I'm aware of but it does pot the tanks mostly behind another component to help reduce heat during reentry.
I find a slightly angled wing pointing up with the tips flared up a bit more helps allot for reentry and moving the wings down the body with angled wings helps prevent the centre of lift being way above the centre of mass. The angled wing is a lovely surface that tends to just ride the atmosphere down.
Example sorta.

 

Oooh! Ok! I'll try that with future designs, since ever since I managed to not destroy my first one I feel like I have a chance.

Wai, what wings are those? They look stock, but are a strange shape.

[ThatHomelessGuy]

Just now, SmashingKirby148 said:

Oooh! Ok! I'll try that with future designs, since ever since I managed to not destroy my first one I feel like I have a chance.

Wai, what wings are those? They look stock, but are a strange shape.

They look like they might be procedural wings.


By the way.

 

[SmashingKirby148]

1 minute ago, ThatHomelessGuy said:

They look like they might be procedural wings.


By the way.

 

 

Ok, I'll try them out.

[ThatHomelessGuy]

6 minutes ago, SmashingKirby148 said:

Ok, I'll try them out.

This is procedural and also a better example of  what I call a "stable" reentry wing.

[SmashingKirby148]

1 minute ago, ThatHomelessGuy said:

This is procedural and also a better example of  what I call a "stable" reentry wing.

 

Another question, should rudders go on the tilted part as well?

[Vanguard319]

6 minutes ago, SmashingKirby148 said:

I actually managed deeper than that. After the periapsis vanished I instantly cut the engines.

It is possible to have a steeper descent angle, but you run the risk of burning up on reentry. Spaceplanes don't have access to the ablative heat shields that capsules do. and the MK1 cockpit is especially susceptible to overheating. The major advantages of spaceplanes is that they are reusable and their aerodynamic properties allow them to come in on longer glide paths than capsules, meaning you have more time to lose speed before hitting the thicker atmosphere, where most of that kinetic heating is going to occur. This is important to remember if you want to build a spaceplane that can travel beyond Kerbin, as your Velocity will generally be higher, and aerobraking will likely be required.

[ThatHomelessGuy]

4 minutes ago, SmashingKirby148 said:

Another question, should rudders go on the tilted part as well?

It's upto you really. I usually put some on even if they are tiny tip control surfaces for the sake of letting the sas prevent spins that turn into explosive flips if left unchecked. Since the back of the wing and the upsweep section will be getting more air than the rear yaw surfaces on top will get during the drag stage of reentry the added control can be nice. But you can also make anything you want. There isn't just one way to do it though play around and have some fun. I have had success with Xwings and even forward swept wings too.

 

[SmashingKirby148]

4 minutes ago, Vanguard319 said:

It is possible to have a steeper descent angle, but you run the risk of burning up on reentry. Spaceplanes don't have access to the ablative heat shields that capsules do. and the MK1 cockpit is especially susceptible to overheating. The major advantages of spaceplanes is that they are reusable and their aerodynamic properties allow them to come in on longer glide paths than capsules, meaning you have more time to lose speed before hitting the thicker atmosphere, where most of that kinetic heating is going to occur. This is important to remember if you want to build a spaceplane that can travel beyond Kerbin, as your Velocity will generally be higher, and aerobraking will likely be required.

 

The only thing that actually heated up for was, like you said, the cockpit. It went to 3/4ths of heat tolerance but everything else was grand. If anything my ascent was worse as 1 part blew up (it was only a flag decal) and a lot of others warmed up.

16 minutes ago, ThatHomelessGuy said:

This is procedural and also a better example of  what I call a "stable" reentry wing.

 

Wait, how do I actually change the size of the wing?

[ThatHomelessGuy]

19 minutes ago, SmashingKirby148 said:

1 part blew up

That moment as the fireball clears and you are left thinking "please don't be important" I had a violent flatspin yesterday and that was one of those moments where I wasn't sure if it was about to rip to pieces or not. It got stuck with one iintake taking all the air and the other spinning backwards through the air. Had to force shutdown the driving engine so the flamed out engine would get enough air to spool up again and then killed that engine when the spin stopped. Wrestling that plane into a dive on one central engine was a nightmare. i just wouldn't roll or pitch at all for me and insisted in a dead drop while maintaining level to the surface. It just wanted to be a propeller and was yawing back and forth. Eventually I was able to get enough forward momentum to sort of unstall the wing enough  To pull into the dive before Val and Bill slammed into a mountainside took so much work the plane has been relegated to the hall of fame next to my runway. It handles like a pig but tops out at about 16000m so at least it flames out with a good altitude to practice loss of control and test your pressure suits waste management system to its limit.

Edited November 2, 2016 by ThatHomelessGuy

[SmashingKirby148]

2 minutes ago, ThatHomelessGuy said:

That moment as the fireball clears and you are left thinking "please don't be important" I had a violent flatspin yesterday and that was one of those moments where I wasn't sure if it was about to rip to pieces or not. It got stuck with one iintake taking all the air and the other spinning backwards through the air. Had to force shutdown the driving engine so the flamed out engine would get enough air to spool up again and then killed that engine when the spin stopped. Wrestling that plane into a dive on one central engine was a nightmare. i just wouldn't roll or pitch at all for me and insisted in a dead drop while maintaining level to the surface. It just wanted to be a propeller and was yawing back and forth. Eventually I was able to get enough forward momentum to sort of unstall the wing enough  To pull into the dive before Val and Bill slammed into a mountainside took so much work the plane has been relegated to the hall of fame next to my runway. It handles like a pig but tops out at about 16000m so at least it flames out with a good altitude to practice loss of control and test your pressure suits waste management system to its limit.

 

Yikes! One time for a manned Duna mission I made it way more complicated than it should have been where I had a rover, a habitat and a launch vehicle. There were many quicksaves, and ultimately the crew were screwed until I somehow messed with a quicksave I had which brought them back, and I realised that was useless, but I was using Alt F5 + F9 which meant I could jump FOWARD in time, and I don't know what I did, but the crew lived. xD

[Aragosnat]

Did more lonesome streaming. Found out that at 300 meters down underwater parts get a nice little warning of their impending doom:

While not a warning. Pretty neat that there are milestones and I know know how to sink parts properly. Without meaning too. Also Bill bailed at 307 m underwater and is fine....

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

1 hour ago, Aragosnat said:

Did more lonesome streaming. Found out that at 300 meters down underwater parts get a nice little warning of their impending doom: <snip>

Yes! Now I have a financial excuse to perform the submarine visit I wanted to take to some debris that is lying on the sea floor west of the KSC continent. (The debris is the result of a spaceplane mishap caused by me not pausing the game while watching youtube. I posted about it a while back. The kerbals survived).

 

Anyways, I've mostly finished my North American X-15 replica, so now I need to get back to work on that B-52.

I'm too lazy to get a better picture right now

[Sharpy]

SXT updated the yellow trucks, yay!

A test run, cresting the mountain pass east from KSC, then preparing the trucky for Duna. Yay, the lil thing is so cool! And it fits in the MK3 cargo bay with so much room to spare it's not even funny.

 

[Trenchfoot]

Built a science Rover for minimus.

Turned into a bobsled...

Back to dust.  Almost got 70m/s on the surface.

 

[-M-TheDoctor]

So, after a year hiatus to focus on classwork, family, and building a new computer, I come back to continue my space program. So I look at my last save, and I don't remember what I'm doing... NEW SAVE!!  Start with a penta-node Kerbin comms system. Next.... well. See I have ADD and get distracted easily.... Soooooo I'm building a massive ship to explore the Sonnah system in New Horizons. Thus begins Project Genesis...

[DerekL1963]

Building out a 1.2 install, only to have 1.2.1 drop...  Meh.

[Brownhair2]

Since 1.2.1 is out, Kopernicus refuses to run because it's version locked. So I've been limited to testing planes on a different save. I've been trying to work on a Titanus SSTO, but I have no idea how much Delta-V I need.

Edited November 2, 2016 by Brownhair2

[Aragosnat]

Found feather prof no one will visit Dres as well as the Mün landing being faked:

 

[flatbear]

munbase mining expansion

and more xenon relays

[JadeOfMaar]

Creativity Aeropsace? Who's that?  

Here's another spontaneous, highly eccentric and feature-filled craft from me, moreover a completely vanilla one to honor this new flag which indeed, contains the vanilla flower.

A drone ship that not only makes it 1/3 around the world and can deliver crew and cargo, and has thrust reversal to seriously ease its landings. The nacelle midsections are 1/4 cargo bays.

The NCS adapters (fuel tank cones) under the crew cabin are props for medium gear so the plane has steering while moving on surface and to not suffer the exceeding nose-down problem.

Its operating limits are 1150m/s (due to strict heat limits on FAT wing parts) and 20km alt (Whiplashes die). Unfortunately, the craft itself appears quite frail and cannot survive its own landings, even at <40m/s. I'd have to strut the ugly into it, possibly. If anyone wants this to tool around with, let me know and I'll put it on KerbalX.

 

Edited November 2, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[AccidentsHappen]

Spoiler

3 hours ago, Aragosnat said:

Found feather prof no one will visit Dres as well as the Mün landing being faked:

 

 

But I love Dres...

Edited November 2, 2016 by AccidentsHappen