Realistic Solar System Crafts - MEGATHREAD

[avi]

I have a question: what part do you all use for the J-2 engine? The one that comes with realismoverhaul is terrible because it has an aerospike model, meaning that it cannot gimbal and you can't attach anything below it. Where is an alternate part?

[Hattivat]

FASA is the best source of American engines.

[avi]

FASA is the best source of American engines.

Installing now! I also found a parts back of soviet engines, so now I can create multi-ethnic rockets.

[immelman]

The FASA F-1 Works well with real plume, so the launches are spectacular. I like the Soviet engine pack for first stage engines, there are some great choices.

[avi]

I like this parts pack very much. Using some parts from it, I decided to create my interpretation of an SLS Block III. Only blocks I and II are planned, but I wanted to see if I could do something else. This is my heaviest lifter yet, lifting 240T to orbit. It is 10 meters wide, and has four space-shuttle SRB's attacked instead of merely two. The upper stage is just the Saturn V second stage, and the lower stage is a scaled up SLS core stage, which is 10 meters wide, 71m tall (not counting engines), and has about 8 RS-25 engines. I say "about" because I don't have an RS-25 engine, so I used 9 RD-0120 engines as a substitute in the mean time. I also created another Mars lander that I hope will work better aerodynamically.

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The SLS Block III is 5800T on the pad with the payload.

[Tankbuster32]

More RP-0! Today I revised and flew my Black Arrow-ish LV, putting a satellite into orbit for the first time in this install.

[NathanKell]

Tankbuster32, very nice!

[immelman]

After reading through a paper on Mars EDL (http://www.4frontierscorp.com/dev/assets/Braun_Paper_on_Mars_EDL.pdf) I thought I should revisit using an aeroshell for re-entry.

I also have adapted LostOblivion's conical heat shields for RO so I can create a lifting body

My lander is at the upper end of what is possible (at 30 T) But it sure does work!

Here is the lander starting re-entry, using a mass offset it has a V*L/D of 600+

After using S turns velocity is under 500 m/s or MACH 2 before the Drogue is deployed (and about MACH 1.25 for main chute)

And slows down to 75 m/s before the main parachute is ditched:

And the lander has enough fuel to get back to orbit!

Edited February 23, 2015 by immelman

[Sparker]

What an excellent lander! I'm also glad that that it can fly so good!

What is the diameter of the heat shield?

And I've got a little request, could you flip it over in the VAB(heatshield up) and post the results of FAR static analysis at supersonic speed(~20 mach is fine) with AoA varying up to 90 degree? Thanks!

[immelman]

What an excellent lander! I'm also glad that that it can fly so good!

What is the diameter of the heat shield?

And I've got a little request, could you flip it over in the VAB(heatshield up) and post the results of FAR static analysis at supersonic speed(~20 mach is fine) with AoA varying up to 90 degree? Thanks!

Heat shield is 10m, I wish I had the skills to make a folding heat shield! For the lander mass from what I have read this should really be 20m or more.

Sure:

[Tankbuster32]

Thank you. The upper stage isn't the correct diameter (off by about 0.2m) and I haven't unlocked the Waxwing kick motor that was used on the real Black Arrow so it isn't a complete replica, but it works quite well. I find it quite impressive that the UK managed to get a payload into orbit on such a tiny rocket (only 13m tall). More flights will follow.

[Robotengineer]

RSS Space Shuttle. Needs a bit of refining, but I will have a DL up later for those that are interested.

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[immelman]

RSS Space Shuttle. Needs a bit of refining, but I will have a DL up later for those that are interested.

That looks gorgeous, can I ask, how long did you take putting that together?

[Sampa]

RSS Space Shuttle. Needs a bit of refining, but I will have a DL up later for those that are interested.

http://imgur.com/a/L9a5c

That ET, is that from a mod?

[Robotengineer]

That looks gorgeous, can I ask, how long did you take putting that together?

About a month of evenings and weekends, crashes mod bugs did not help.

That ET, is that from a mod?

Space Shuttle Engines, now maintained by Sarbian. It requires Infernal Robotics for the OMS, and B9 procedural wings for the wings.

[Sparker]

Robotengineer, that's an impressive shuttle you've made! By the way, there's a different topic for RSS spaceplanes :

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/66462-Realistic-Solar-System-Spaceplanes-MEGATHREAD

I wish I had the skills to make a folding heat shield! For the lander mass from what I have read this should really be 20m or more.

Thank you for the FAR analysis!

As for the folding heat shield, I think I've found one solution:

The spacecraft is launched only with the bottom 'inline' shield attached to extendatron. Then other side shields are attached by using another vehicle(I used KAS magnets to do it). With hinges the shield can be deployed or retracted for orbital maneuvering. Side attached engines can be attached to the shield side of spacecraft and used when the shield is retracted, allowing also to store heavy propellant at the bottom and shift center of mass further forward. Also it's possible to vary deflection of individual shields to compensate for CoM offset or to create some angle of attack. And very important, there are very few parts there(which sometimes can overweight almost any argument in KSP )! Actually I haven't tried to land with it, I use it for aerocapture/aerobraking.

[Robotengineer]

Very nice lander, and interesting use of heatshields.

[avi]

This is probably the last of my heavy lifters. The current largest class of lifters is "Super Heavy Lift Vehicle", which can lift over 50 tons to LEO. I've decided to create a new class of rocket, the Egregiously Heavy Lift Vehicle. This is my EHLV; it can lift 400 tons to orbit, and weighs 8 kilotons on the pad with payload. It uses an M-1 engine (in the "initial production" configuration) in the upper stage, and 8 M-1 engines (in the "first stage" configuration) in the lower stage, along with 6 liquid-fueled boosters which fire for 140 seconds and are powered by RD-170s. The upper stage is 10 meters in diameter and about 30 meters long, the core stage is 15 meters in diameter and about 85 meters tall, and the boosters are each around 40 meters tall and 4 meters wide.

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I doubt I'll use this one too much; there is very little my 240T-to-LEO SLS Block III can't do that this can, and this one slows my computer to a crawl when I try to launch it. It's probably also the last lifter I will make for a while, as the only way to get a substantially heavier one would be to go insane and make some 30 meter fuel tank with 50 F-1s on the bottom, and that's just silly. But if you need to get a mass equivalent to the entire ISS into orbit in one go, this is the vehicle to do it.

Edited February 26, 2015 by avi

[Sparker]

I can hardly imagine how huge it would be in life. For example, here is the side booster of your rocket:

[Fenisse]

I can hardly imagine how huge it would be in life

Edited March 2, 2015 by Fenisse

[avi]

Yeah, you guys shouldn't worry. KSP struggled to render that thing so much I couldn't stand to use it again. Instead I'll be sticking with my SLS Block III; it's only 5830T on the pad with payload, and the parts no larger than 10m in diameter. and with 240T to orbit it's more than I should usually need. So it's merely absurdly massive instead of ridiculously colossal.

[JT2227]

A lot of people here are talking about Landing on Mars, I hope this isn't the wrong place, but in RSS, what are the phase angles? All my tries so far have ended up with me missing Mars pretty drastically.

[avi]

Personally, I just use mechjeb to launch at the appropriate time. It seems to get the phase angles right.

[Fenisse]

I highly reccomend using Transfer Window Planner and Kerbal Alarm Clock (which work with RSS). If you can find the right transfer window and pick it, you've going to use way less dV than with every other method I've ever tried, but really MechJeb does the job really well and it's easy to use (it can even display the phase angles I think).

[Tankbuster32]

I found out about the save-breaking part of the latest RP-0 update the hard way and had to start over. Fortunately I hadn't gotten too far, and I passed my previous point today. Losing my save meant that I had to design a new rocket.