totm june 2018 Work-in-Progress [WIP] Design Thread

[Redrobin]

Ran some tests on Venus. There are good news and bad news.

The good news is that I was able to achieve a terminal velocity of 140 m/s at 4km on Venus.

This means I might be able to get to orbit with less delta V, so I could scale down the lander from 1600 tons to 575 tons.

The bad news is that ascending at terminal velocity on Venus is difficult.

~snip~

More strutting is required XD

So you don't have to get the 27km/s that my delta-v map says?

Also, how do you plan on putting 575 tons onto Venus's surface?

Edited April 14, 2014 by Redrobin

[maccollo]

Modified the rocket a bit and managed to get into orbit. I actually ended up having 1000 excess delta V, so I can make the rocket a little bit smaller. Might be able to go back to 600 tons.

So you don't have to get the 27km/s that my delta-v map says?

In this case I only needed 16 km/s. It very much depends on the rocket. As your rocket becomes smaller terminal velocity decreases, so a few 100 tons is probably the smallest possible rocket you can launch from Venus.

Edited April 14, 2014 by maccollo

[Redrobin]

I am going to retry my stock attempt at a moon landing. Here is my first impactor lifting off on a Falcon 9 Heavy rocket. Shame it gets about 1/10 of the mass of the real thing into orbit.

[astropapi1]

So here's an issue: I don't know where to put my fake nuclear reactor for Duna Direct. There's currently no way to smoothly integrate it with my KRV.

Well, crap. That's the reason why most apollo replicas carry the MEM under the lander or simply don't have one.

[Woopert]

Well, crap. That's the reason why most apollo replicas carry the MEM under the lander or simply don't have one.

Wait, isn't the MEM basically just a play on words of LEM (Lunar Excursion Module --> Munar Excursion Module)? If that's the case, then the MEM would *BE* the lander.

[Redrobin]

Decided to keep probe in lunar orbit for a while.

[maccollo]

Also, how do you plan on putting 575 tons onto Venus's surface?

I prefer to do things in single launches, but that is obviously not an option here (or maybe it is?).

With the transfer stage this thing is going to weigh well over 1000 tons.

I'll probably launch the lander empty, then then the tug empty, and then I will run 4x 300 ton launches to refuel them.

The landing itself will be quite tricky to enginer. I'll probably construct some big aeroshell out of the inflatable heatshields from DR.

Edited April 14, 2014 by maccollo

[GusTurbo]

Well, crap. That's the reason why most apollo replicas carry the MEM under the lander or simply don't have one.

I might have to change the engine arrangement. Either that or I could have it underneath and separate it after the heat shield to land it separately with chutes. The only danger there would be having it unload because of the physics distance.

So maybe the landing sequence would look like this:

Duna atmospheric entry>chutes partially deploy>drop heat shield>chutes fully deploy>drop reactor, which would have its own chutes, wheels, and landing legs>make semi-powered landing

Edited April 14, 2014 by GusTurbo

[Giggleplex777]

New upper stage (based on the twin MB60 LUS):

900kN of thrust; Isp vac of 384s; 4.5mT per engine

Edited April 15, 2014 by Giggleplex777

[GusTurbo]

That looks awesome. How many parts in that stage?

[Giggleplex777]

That looks awesome. How many parts in that stage?

57 parts, but that's mostly struts.

[iDan122]

StarDock:

[maccollo]

After some more tweaks I have arrived at the final form of the Venus launcher.

The mass fraction to orbit is an abysmal 0.16% XD

Emptying this thing on fuel it masses 106 tons, so it's a reasonable launch mass from Earth.

Edited April 15, 2014 by maccollo

[Rune]

No docking port... you are going to claw that thing to Venus, aren't you? The support infrastructure to set up this mission must be something to behold. Kudos!

Rune. I guess you could even considering cyclers between Venus and Earth.

[Majorjim!]

Hi all,

I decided to take a break from working on my Apollo craft and thought I would try out my old ion glider that never worked.

What with the buff and all.

So I built a very simple launcher and put it into and orbit of 100x100.

They are amazing now. I can see how some might find them overpowered!

It took around 2 minutes to escape Kerbin, with a not so close Munar fly-by.

A few not very long burns later (longest was 3 minutes!) I reach Eve.

Now, I hadnt been keeping an eye on the Xenon levels owing to the fact that I forgot it existed! Its been that long since I played with these engines!

I was on a steep descent into the atmosphere and as the glider passed the reentry burn It was flying backwards..

This is backwards!

Buuuuut..

As I reached sea level it was flipping around and infinigliding unassisted! I wanted to land so I manhandled it until it started heading downwards.

And as it got very close to sea level it suddenly stabilized and began to glide amazingly well.

I was out of Xenon by this point but it wasn't needed. I could pitch up, climb a little then dive to build up speed. Then climb again. It would go higher each time.

I decided to see how far I could fly it. I passed near the shore of a large Evean lake.

As I passed the lake and headed over the crest.......

Whoops...

Jeb survived but is now stranded..

So Im going to redesign and send a rescue party!!

Then send in a team who went in to get the team.

Then a team to get the team who went into get the team who went into get the team..

MJ

Edited April 15, 2014 by Majorjim

[The Destroyer]

I've been trynig to send a ion glider to Eve, but my impatience meant the launchers exploded...

REDESIGN.

[Giggleplex777]

I tried to build this:

[table=width: 1000, align: left]

[tr]

[td][/td]

[td][/td]

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[/table]

Only 168 tons to orbit though.

Edited April 15, 2014 by Giggleplex777

[WooDzor]

So this is my latest Craft I am working on, 3 launches to get it into orbit and then 2 extra for the crew. Though I need a proper launcher for the 4 orange tanks I only had 25% of their fuel left by the time I docked them to the Copernicus Also I want to use the same Interplanetary drive for the lander (the good ol' Consternation(which will be renamed) but it still needs a good looking fairing (of at least 72 small square steel plates.. which is a hassle :-/ The plan is to set it up in a similar fashion as the NASA Constellation Mars Mission, test it on Duna and a 2nd flight to Laythe and maybe a permanent(for obvious reasons) base on Eve. After that the Copernicus will be redesigned and will have a lander for the smaller atmosphere-less Moons and smaller planets of the Kerbalian system. WELCOME TO THE WOOOORLD OF TOMORROW!

[maccollo]

So it turns out that aerobreaking a 600 ton lander without unplanned dis-assembly is pretty hard.

I thought I could just cobble together something like this. There's the shield at the bottom, and then the extra drag balloon at the top for aerodynamic stability.

Unfortunately the design is... flawed. It went into a crazy spin, with wild oscillations along the thin upper stages, and the inevitable happened.

It would appear that while the lander is facing right towards retrograde it is an unstable position, because the drag balloon is partially shielded, so it swings to one side, but then the drag ballon enters the airflow, and it swings back. Couple this with the spinning and the oscillations build up to the point of structural failure.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD!

Edit*

Found a configuration that is stable as a rock The only problem now is that the beams that hold the upper shields burn up on reentry, and then terrible things happen, but once I solved that all I have to figure out is how to safely detach the heat shields and deploy parachutes.

Edited April 16, 2014 by maccollo

[iDan122]

Figured a way to keep low part count for my station, total number of parts for every pillar is only 5

[maccollo]

Alright, it's done! The lander works from reentry to ascent!

Here it is!

This 400 part, 620 ton mess of a lander is capable of taking a kerbal through atmospheric reentry, landing him on the surface of Venus, and then returning him to orbit. Trust me, I'm a doctor!

Now, only one hurdle remains. How the hell do I get the Kerbal down onto the ground from the capsule and, more importantly, back up again? If I use ladders it's going to be a lot of them, and this thing is already 400 parts.

Edited April 17, 2014 by maccollo

[GusTurbo]

Maybe put a tiny command chair lander on top of the capsule that you can use to putter down to the surface and then back up again. You might put a detachable parachute on it to save delta V on descent.

[maccollo]

Put a tiny command chair lander on top of the capsule that you can use to putter down to the surface and then back up again. You might put a detachable parachute on it to save delta V on descent.

Doesn't work well on Venus.

The only reason I'm getting into orbit with just 16 km/s is because my rocket rather large, so it has high terminal velocity, and on Venus you REALLY have to maximize terminal velocity.

If the terminal velocity at liftoff is half then the atmospheric ascent will take twice the delta V, and I would need 24 km/s. So in order to push myself through the first 50 km with reasonable efficiency I have to use a huge rocket no matter what.

*edit

Oh, wait, I get it!

I'll try that actually. All comes down to weather I can actually dock it with the big lander again XD

Edited April 17, 2014 by maccollo

[Overfloater]

Hey Mac, your lander is coming along nicely

As for me...

Just you wait until I figure out an acceptable way of blocking these horrid little gaps...

The rest should be a piece of cake }:^3

Edited April 17, 2014 by Overfloater

[GusTurbo]

Doesn't work well on Venus.

The only reason I'm getting into orbit with just 16 km/s is because my rocket rather large, so it has high terminal velocity, and on Venus you REALLY have to maximize terminal velocity.

If the terminal velocity at liftoff is half then the atmospheric ascent will take twice the delta V, and I would need 24 km/s. So in order to push myself through the first 50 km with reasonable efficiency I have to use a huge rocket no matter what.

*edit

Oh, wait, I get it!

I'll try that actually. All comes down to weather I can actually dock it with the big lander again XD

Like this:

I'm currently testing the feasibility of this concept. It's pretty hard to get back up!

And by pretty hard, I mean nigh impossible.

Edited April 17, 2014 by GusTurbo