Spaceplane Speed Challenge III: Ice Skating on Minmus

[Wanderfound]

I'm winner! Appears to be 30 fps for some reason though :/ I am sure I uploaded 60 fps. Oh well.

The run looks legit; it would be nice to see proof that you can get that thing from KSC to LKO, though. And if you feel like trying to go faster, since you're playing with Hyperedit anyway: wanna teleport some audience into place as background scenery?

Stylish wing-walking, BTW.

[KITTYONFYRE]

Yeah, I doubt that whale can even make orbit :/. if I can refuel, then I guess TECHNICALLY I can just use a massive fuel station, then, and keep it with me... Hmmm.... No engines on the station I assume though?

[KITTYONFYRE]

Uh what the hell? I only tested for a minute, but the thing just disintegrate a on takeoff! I have a few mods, and I had near installed. Does near do that? Every time I start up, it says it's not installed properly and will not work, but it seems weird... I mean I was going like 200 m/s...

[Wanderfound]

You might be able to get that thing off the ground in stock aero. Trying it in FAR/NEAR is...ambitious. Might make for some good screenshots, though.

NEAR doesn't include aerodynamic failure as FAR does, but it's still possible to just shake the thing to pieces the same as you could in stock.

You may find adding a control surface or two to be helpful, BTW. 200m/s is a rather high takeoff speed. Carrying that much bulk at that speed, I wouldn't be surprised if your landing gear are failing.

No bringing the fuel station with you to Minmus; the only thing allowed to leave Kerbin orbit is the racer, carrying no more or fewer parts than it had when it left KSC. Single Stage to Minmus.

First time out of Kerbin SOI, introduction to spaceplane design...this may end up being an interesting learning experience for you.

Perhaps try it with something a smidge less ambitious, then scale up once you've got that working?

Edited September 9, 2014 by Wanderfound

[KITTYONFYRE]

No, I've landed a bunch of times on the mun and minmus, but I doubt I've ever been under the kerbol's gravity. I have a bit over 100 hrs in this game so I pretend to know what I'm doing I've never experienced a plane just tearing apart like it did, though. No matter how stupid, that's never happened. And I have a good amount of struts on it... Now that I think about it, I bet the CoM is too far from the CoL, I never actually checked it because I thought I could be cheaty. Idk if I'll try to edit my craft or just screw it... I might just change it to mono prop propelled. But hmmm then I'd have too much extra mass. This is more complicated than I thought... Is there any easy way to test whether I am in stock or not? I have removed NEAR from my mods folder but again, it just flew apart...

[Wanderfound]

If you don't have FAR or NEAR in your mods folder, then you're flying in stock aero.

As mentioned above, the most likely cause of the takeoff explosion is gear failure. Try sending it down the runway with your camera rotated to watch the landing gear from in front; you may see them start to wobble just before it all blows up.

[KITTYONFYRE]

Well, even with it removed, near gives me an error message. That's why I was confused. There's no near folder in my gamedata at all, but I still get the message saying it won't work. And it's not the landing gear, I have plenty of those. It explodes just after I pitch up - I get to about 25 degrees and the side tanks get ripped off in spectacular fashion. I'll upload a 30 second video in a few minutes.

[KITTYONFYRE]

Might have found the problem. For some reason, I had another "gamedata" folder inside the normal one, with a few mods in it. Weird.

[Wanderfound]

Well, even with it removed, near gives me an error message. That's why I was confused. There's no near folder in my gamedata at all, but I still get the message saying it won't work. And it's not the landing gear, I have plenty of those. It explodes just after I pitch up - I get to about 25 degrees and the side tanks get ripped off in spectacular fashion. I'll upload a 30 second video in a few minutes.

Don't rule out the gear yet; as you pitch up, you increase the load on the rear gear, which can cause Bad Things to happen. I had a similar issue on one of my early heavy spaceplane designs (which had about a dozen sets of gear).

It might be something else, but gear-related structural failure is still the first place I'd look.

[KITTYONFYRE]

Don't rule out the gear yet; as you pitch up, you increase the load on the rear gear, which can cause Bad Things to happen. I had a similar issue on one of my early heavy spaceplane designs (which had about a dozen sets of gear).

It might be something else, but gear-related structural failure is still the first place I'd look.

It was near, being weird even though it was installed incorrectly. Well, I couldn't even get to 5,000 m, much less orbit. Oh well. gg me.

[Wanderfound]

It was near, being weird even though it was installed incorrectly. Well, I couldn't even get to 5,000 m, much less orbit. Oh well. gg me.

Repeated explosive failure is the True Kerbal Way. Looking forward to your next entry.

[Wingblaze]

Oh dear lord....

Yeah um.... things went fairly kerbal.

Archangel Aerospace is fielding it's first racing entry - the Ice Pirate. Here it is, ready for takeoff. (I'll hand the bottle of champagne over to someone who can tell me why Kerbpaint seems determined to be odd with me where some parts get painted, some don't.) In a move that surprised absolutely no one, Archangel took a successful spaceplane design and modified it for what it thought might be ice racing, based on a magazine article someone read while in a dentist's office. (It was Wanderfound's Velociraptor)

Modifications include rearward engines for braking, intakes to compensate for the ones they hacked off with a sawzall, and a couple separatrons to add a burst of braking (yeah right).

Despite the modifications, the ship made it to Minmus successfully. Unfortunately low fuel meant they only had one shot. Below is the "official" entry, with a peak speed of 64.2 and successful braking to a dead stop. Intact even.

Of course there were plenty of kerbal like episodes along the way. I offer a mere sample of some of the "adventures"

Having gone all this way, I really wanted to see what I could do if I could fly better (i.e. had more fuel). So I loaded up the tanks.

Speed kills ladies and gents. Well the speed was fine and respectable. Braking kills. At least it killed the wings. I'm fairly sure the braking caused the craft to get some air. Roll around. Break some things off. There's no atmosphere anyway - who needs wings. But would you believe I got this thing to stop finally.

That all done, we're going back to the dentist's office to read the rest of that article.

Archangel Aerospace - We will get you to the heavens! ...one way or another

Edited September 24, 2014 by Wingblaze

[Wanderfound]

Oh dear lord....

Yeah um.... things went fairly kerbal.

<snip hijinks>

Archangel Aerospace - We will get you to the heavens! ...one way or another

Thoroughly rep-worthy.

[Doge]

Does it count if we scraped the ground for a moment at around 1000 m/s but survived?

[Wanderfound]

Does it count if we scraped the ground for a moment at around 1000 m/s but survived?

Yup. You'll need a well-timed screenshot of the scrape and another of yourself stationary and intact on the flats afterwards, though. Done in a vessel capable of getting itself from KSC to Minmus with no refuelling outside Kerbin SOI.

[Doge]

Yup. You'll need a well-timed screenshot of the scrape and another of yourself stationary and intact on the flats afterwards, though. Done in a vessel capable of getting itself from KSC to Minmus with no refuelling outside Kerbin SOI.

Ah, thanks. I had the perfect vessel for the job.

I'll post my submission soon.