WhimChaser Shuttle [Alpha Release - feedback welcome!]

[artwhaley]

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Alpha Release - WhimChaser Space Shuttle!

Updated to v 0.5.5 Improved mesh and texture and added the two service modules!

Obviously WhimChaser is inspired by Dream Chaser, but it's also inspired by a couple of half finished projects here on the forum - most notably Pteron .

This is my second attempt at a KSP part(and at Blender in general), so I'm certain there will be bugs in it. I really built it to fill a niche in my gameplay, but given the enthusiasm around Pteron, I thought it might be useful to others, at least until they finish their shuttle.

My idea was to create a craft that could handle rescue missions as well as providing a low-cost crew service vessel for my orbital station. I'm also in the process of designing an educational simulator around KSP that will be used by kids... so I wanted a part that would be fun to fly... and a vertical launch/glider return vessel fit that bill and gives a flight profile similar to Dream Chaser and the Space Shuttle, so it's something familiar and educationally valid.

I ALSO wanted to make it an exercise in efficiency... and this is a part for those times when you want to fly... not build. Towards that end, the single part has, built in,

Electricity,

MonoPropellant,

Liquid Fuel,

Oxidizer,

aerodynamic control surfaces,

6-way RCS Thrusters

and main Engines!

So with a part count of 1, you can throw this thing on the launchpad, hit the space bar, and leave the ground. You won't get far - as the fuel tanks only carry about 525 m/s of delta-V, but it's more than enough to blast off, turn east, and practice gliding to the water.

The idea is to launch and insert the shuttle into orbit on top of a conventional rocket then decouple and use the built-in engines and fuel for orbital maneuvering - shifting orbits, rendezvous(if you planned the launch well!) and de-orbit burn.

As a glider... the lift and drag numbers aren't great... but this is a spaceship first and a glider second. It's designed for water landing (it CAN tumble to a stop on land without killing kerbals... but I wouldn't call that a 'landing' exactly.) Because of the reasonably steep glideslope I haven't successfully landed it with wheeled gear without a lot of bounce and flip... though it might be possible? The engine also has sufficient TWR that you can operate in glider mode down to the last 250m, drop airspeed to 50m/s, and then turn the nose up and engine on and do a powered, vertical landing. It's a bit of a trick, but it can be done.

Keep in mind that this thing DOES generate lift from the body(though not OODLES of it)... so if you throw it on top of a rocket without any other aerodynamic surfaces it will be unstable. Standard winglets at the bottom of the launcher will keep the pointy end towards space. Because it's a single part... when it's by itself the COM and COL are at the same point when it doesn't have anything else attached. If you attach anything to it that shifts the COM aft, you're going to have stability problems unless you also attach winglets back there. I've had no problem throwing a small docking port on the back of the vessel, but trying to just strap an engine or fuel tanks to the back is a recipe for disaster when you're inside the atmosphere. Keep the COM at or in front of the COL and keep SAS on and it flies rather nicely... for a stubby space brick!

Here's a terrible youtube video showing the basics of flying the gizmo! I recorded it on my development machine which is set for low graphics quality to help speed up the thousand reloads required to get a mod working!

Update to .5.

I added two service modules that are designed to work with WhimChaser on longer ranged missions. They add additional LOX, MonoProp, and Batteries and include their own engine, so they can slap on the back of the shuttle. They are NOT designed to remain attached during atmospheric re-entry... they WILL make the shuttle unstable. The service modules also have integrated junior compatible docking ports! The docking ports now fully work!

Roadmap to V 1.0

Retractable docking port for Shuttle itself.

IVA interior

Fairing for launch

NEAR and FAR integration

Solar Panels on Service Modules

Edited September 3, 2014 by artwhaley

[Jaxx]

This actually looks really good, good job.

[Joachim]

Awesome mate I like little self contained ships, always adds something fun to the game

[Joachim]

Tough little thing, smacked it into the ground and it bounced

[kenbobo]

One comment-

Please, just PLEASE- make it like real dream chaser.

but other than that- EPIC!

[Woopert]

Looks really good! I think you should add some more variety to the white part of the craft. Not exactly scratches, but some shadows and grey to mix it up would be nice. Downloading now!

[Pecan]

My new escape pod, I think ... let's play!

[artwhaley]

I just updated to version 0.2 on Kerbalstuff. I substantially improved the mesh and the texture. They're still not finished, by far, but better than they were!

I've also added a couple of lines to the config file to make it possible to fly it remotely without any kerbals onboard... which is useful for rescue missions and is in keeping with the capabilities of the actual Dream Chaser as well!

[passinglurker]

any chance we can get a version that can fit in a spaceplane+ cargo bay? *plots shuttle-ception*

[MightyDarkStar]

Lets hope so lol!

[Sage Sagan]

This is so cool Artwhaley, looks a lot like the early Pteron sketches. The engine in the middle leaves no-where for a docking collar but that is a minor niggle. Would it be possible to add control surfaces for a little fine control?

[artwhaley]

There's room on the 'back (aft of the cockpit)' for a Clamp-O-Tron JR, which is what I've been doing for docking so far. Way down the line I may try to build some sort of retractable docking port for it, in that same position - behind the cockpit on the dorsal side... but I haven't really wrapped my head around animations yet!

As for control surfaces - it 'sort of' has them - they're defined in the config file and affect the flight of the ship, but they would have to be separate pieces to make the animation work (unless I wanted to write a .dll plugin that animated pieces of the model in response to control input... which probably wouldn't be that hard... now that I think about it?). But there's no reason that control surfaces can't just get thrown on the backside of the wing - that will move the COL further aft, which would only help with flying the thing, I would think!

I'm glad you like it! I really built it because I loved the sketches of your Pteron, Sage, and wanted something like it to fly until yours got finished.

As for making it fit in a cargo bay - I'll look at it! I wouldn't be surprised if it already fits in the b9 HL cargo bay... The wings are too long for a 2.5m fairing, but a 3.75 m fairing ought to hold it nicely. I'll see how far off it is from being compatible with other stuff.

Art

[anarkhon]

nice!

maybe the door too small for kerbals.

[Starwaster]

Will you update the pictures on the OP to show the improved texture? Or is that it?

[Devin88d]

Great Job! Maybe you should add textures for heat tiles on the underside of the shuttle. And you should make a spot to attach a docking port. And aybe even a cargo bay. Anyway great job it looks nice:)

[Devin88d]

Great job, it looks amazing. Maybe you should add texture for heat tiles on the bottom. and adding a docking port.

[Volcanix]

This is great!

I might give it a try later, currently looking around a bit on the forum. This is great for an escape pod!

About the landing, a little thing.

Do you know the real glider planes? They've got wheels like this one. It would be awesome if you could include them!

Oh, by the way. Just looked at a picture of the real Dream Chaser. It looks awesome

If the end model of this shuttle would look like that, it would be just perfect!

[bazz]

Cool part mate downloaded to test it out.

Constructive criticism would be the model is a bit simple especially the cockpit window but this is an early release and with a bit of love I can see this being part of my mod collection.

[BrianMcNett]

Kinda cute. Nicely reminiscent of the Pteron (which may still see the light of day). Could use a slightly more "stock" texture, and paint a fake heat shield on the underside. That hatch... Don't like it. Take a look at the stock hatches for say the Hitchhiker Pod. Still pretty awesome for a first effort!

Not sure I agree with the "single part" ethos, but I'm giving you a pass on that one. Solves a number of problems. Still, a bunch of accessory parts (custom parachutes, maybe solar-panel integration (with animations!), landing skids (with animations)...

One last thing: Ditch the square window. Go ROUND! Borrow a chapter from Burt Rutan and do a set of circular windows!

Or just ignore me and have fun. This mod has potential.

[passinglurker]

There's room on the 'back (aft of the cockpit)' for a Clamp-O-Tron JR, which is what I've been doing for docking so far. Way down the line I may try to build some sort of retractable docking port for it, in that same position - behind the cockpit on the dorsal side... but I haven't really wrapped my head around animations yet!

As for control surfaces - it 'sort of' has them - they're defined in the config file and affect the flight of the ship, but they would have to be separate pieces to make the animation work (unless I wanted to write a .dll plugin that animated pieces of the model in response to control input... which probably wouldn't be that hard... now that I think about it?). But there's no reason that control surfaces can't just get thrown on the backside of the wing - that will move the COL further aft, which would only help with flying the thing, I would think!

I'm glad you like it! I really built it because I loved the sketches of your Pteron, Sage, and wanted something like it to fly until yours got finished.

As for making it fit in a cargo bay - I'll look at it! I wouldn't be surprised if it already fits in the b9 HL cargo bay... The wings are too long for a 2.5m fairing, but a 3.75 m fairing ought to hold it nicely. I'll see how far off it is from being compatible with other stuff.

Art

Well I mentioned shaving the wings and otherwise adjusting the model to fit in spaceplane+'s mk2 cargo bay because its likely the first cargo bay that will be included in stock(squad has said the spaceplane+ bays get priority and they will add the other rocket diameters if they have time)

Also I'd agree with the consensus that the windows should have their corners beveled(or circular if you like its still your creation) it would make the craft look more structurally sound and spaceworthy

[Magion]

Coincidentally, about 5 days ago I also started to model shuttle, which is a bit more similar to Dream Chaser, than the your one.

It's in very early development, so it'll take a while to finish it, if I don't scrap it.

Back to the topic:

I'd add a deployable docking port on the roof, because this vehicle can well serve as an escape pod. Another feature I'd like to see is the shuttle divided to more smaller parts, so during buzzing the tower you can strike off your wing, but your pod will remain intact... at last for a while.

[Oafman]

This is great, thank you. Four of these are already on their way to Laythe Station, which is known to have both an insufficient means of escape for its ever-growing crew, and an increasingly unmanageable parts count. So these are just the job.

One thing I noticed when testing one of these from KSC, was that I had 2 kerbals in it, but only one little kerbal face appeared in the bottom right of my screen (i know there were 2 in there due to crew manifest).

Also, maybe build a little solar panel into the roof? That was the only part I needed to add to it, apart from the docking port. And compatibility with TACLS would be amazing, so that there is a small amount of snacks in there to keep evacuating kerbals happy.

[bazz]

Reminds me a bit of this badboy.

[wasmic]

It looks pretty bland currently, and also too short. IMO, the wings should be shorter and the body longer. Still, it's good for what I assume is one of your first projects.

[kopapaka]

Nice work...