Ophiuchus

Yeah, PFairings works for me until I resize the base, then everything shows up as unshielded

Yeah, FAR isn't recognizing procedural fairings as shielding after resizing the base

True enough NK, and if that's what's going on it's perfectly reasonable, but the thrust frame is so vehicle specific - number of engines, gimballing, whether any boosters are bottom-pushers or top-pullers. Example: take the thrust structure for the N1, divide by 30 and multiply by 2, would the mass be comparable to the Antares thrust structure?

Hey Red: The KW LE-7A in-game has no throttle capacity; the engine should be throttleable to 72% http://www.astronautix.com/engines/le7a.htm and http://www.mhi.co.jp/technology/review/pdf/355/355344.pdf (in Japanese) The KW Vulcain 2 has a weight of 3.1t, but http://www.astronautix.com/engines/vulcain2.htm has it at 1.8t and http://www.esa.int/esapub/bulletin/bullet102/Coulon102.pdf 1.935t The KW HM-7B has a mass of .2475t, http://www.snecma.com/IMG/files/fiche_hm7b_ang_2011_modulvoir_file_fr.pdf has it as .165t and http://www.astronautix.com/engines/hm7b.htm at .155t (also ASL Isp of 310s instead of 156s, but no idea where they got that number) The KW AJ-10 137 has a mass of .65t, http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/850062.pdf has it as 850lbs (ugh), 0.386t The KW RS-27A has a mass of 1.7t, http://www.astronautix.com/engines/rs27a.htm has 1.1t The Castor 120 has a fueled/dry mass of 58t/9t, http://www.astronautix.com/engines/casor120.htm has 53t/4t

Hey Red: The Squad H-1 has an Isp of 262-306, while http://www.astronautix.com/engines/h1.htm gives Isp as 255-289 for H-1 and http://www.astronautix.com/engines/h1b.htm 262-296 for the H-1b

@Red I'll be more specific in my nitpicking in the future Just re-downloaded the Squad tanks, props for the Pyrios design

@3, yes, but they hit ~80 or 90 % almost instantly, the same as the GEM-40s (http://www.ltas-vis.ulg.ac.be/cmsms/uploads/File/DataSheetSolidATK.pdf), while in game they deliver ~150kn thrust for several seconds (releasing clamps at the same time as igniting solids results in a dramatic fall to the pad, unlike say a DIV launch where they are lit at t-0 and certainly develop appreciable thrust in a fraction of a second) ie in your configs the GEM40s start at 0.721 thrust while the GEM46 and GEM60 start at 0.147 and 0.019 respectively @4, yup, that's my problem, deleted all the stock tanks in favor of PP @5 thanks, NK

Hey Red, just a few little things - the AIES RS-68A weighs 9.9t in game, while every source I've found gives a weight of 6.7t (http://www.ulalaunch.com/products_deltaiv.aspx) the NASA pack 4xSSME engine has both ASL and vacuum Isp of 453 the thrust curve on the KW GEM-46 and GEM-60 builds up very slowly, taking about 3 seconds to hit 90%ish the attach nodes for the NASA pack Pyrios booster base are floating ~20m above the booster (unless I messed something up updating to most recent RO; they were working previously) And just as a flavor thing, the RLA RS-2200 seems pretty overpowered, with throttling, low weight, great Isp etc. Since it was never built maybe replace with the XRS-2200? (http://www.astronautix.com/engines/xrs2200.htm) And since we've got plenty of CECE/RL-10s, maybe a CE-20 and LE-5 for some variety? Great work and thanks

24 hours is a solar day, you want it to equal one sidereal day which is 23hr 56m 4.1s. The approx altitude for this is 35,750 km

It's not just small bells...

Its in the settings file: RangeModelType = Additive

Yup. that's how it works

Jackpot: thrust curves for every ATK SRM http://www.ltas-vis.ulg.ac.be/cmsms/uploads/File/DataSheetSolidATK.pdf

Yup, these are all at the highest quality I could find them All my comsats look like sea urchins

If you put more than one antenna on your craft, the range adds up

I had no doubt you would, the thrust profiles were to play with until we get some usable boosters Castor 30 Castor 120

Well here's a craft that doesn't need SRMs... the Delta IV Small, which was proposed as the smallest member of the Delta IV family. It would have consisted of an RS-68 core with a Delta II second stage. https://www.dropbox.com/s/t1lkkocnv2a1ym7/Kappa%20IV%20S.craft

This curve gives a profile pretty close to the real EAP. Hits max thrust at ~22 seconds, max bucket at 40 seconds, slowly throttles up till 110 seconds, then tails off, hitting TWR=1 at 132 seconds: thrustCurve { key = 0 0.001 key = 0.01 0.01 key = 0.03 0.03 key = 0.035 0.15 key = 0.05 0.3 key = 0.10 0.65 key = 0.20 0.655 key = 0.30 0.66 key = 0.40 0.655 key = 0.50 0.65 key = 0.60 0.62 key = 0.65 0.6 key = 0.70 0.8 key = 0.75 1 key = 0.80 0.98 key = 0.85 0.95 key = 0.90 0.94 key = 0.95 0.93 key = 0.975 0.93 key = 0.985 0.92 key = 1 0.90 } This thrust curve gives a roughly square-shaped profile that preserves the SRM's overall burn time and leaves about 3% residual propellant, similar to thrustCurve { key = 0 0.01 key = 0.01 0.01 key = 0.03 0.03 key = 0.035 0.2 key = 0.05 0.77 key = 0.10 0.96 key = 0.20 1 key = 0.30 1.015 key = 0.40 1.02 key = 0.50 1.026 key = 0.60 1.02 key = 0.65 1.022 key = 0.70 1.02 key = 0.75 1.025 key = 0.80 1.03 key = 0.85 1.02 key = 0.90 1.03 key = 0.95 1.075 key = 0.975 1.03 key = 0.985 1 key = 1 .88 } For example, the Atlas V SRM should burn out at 94 seconds; with this profile they cease to produce meaningful thrust at 94 seconds.

The propellant consumed should approximate the integral of the time curve, but it's been a decade since calculus so can't help you there And I don't have another size of that graph, sorry. Just what I found on Google.

Here's the actual Araine 5 thrust curve. It needs to start at higher than 1 initially (Ariane has a very high launch TWR), then climb even higher, then go into a thrust bucket at max-Q, then go back up to ~1, and hit ~5% max thrust at "burnout" (burnout is actually when booster TWR<1 or thereabouts). The problem is converting this time curve into a % propellant curve, which will require calculus

I'm still playing with the thrust curves, these GEM 40s last ~75 seconds instead of 63. I'm trying out increasing the thrust to above 1 just after liftoff to decrease burn time, but it's not easy since the key is based on %fuel remaining so it requires (ugh) calculus to convert to burn time

No, I changed the GEM 40 thrust curve. Previously it was key = 0 0 key = 0.03 0.36 key = 0.1 0.48 key = 0.16 0.69 key = 0.23 0.79 key = 0.29 0.89 key = 0.35 0.96 key = 0.42 1 key = 0.48 0.99 key = 0.55 0.96 key = 0.61 0.9 key = 0.68 0.84 key = 0.74 0.76 key = 0.81 0.69 key = 0.87 0.56 key = 0.94 0.44 key = 1 0.38 Now it's key = 0 0 key = 0.03 0.4 key = 0.04 0.70 key = 0.1 0.79 key = 0.16 0.83 key = 0.23 0.85 key = 0.29 0.89 key = 0.35 0.96 key = 0.42 0.93 key = 0.48 0.89 key = 0.55 0.87 key = 0.61 0.95 key = 0.68 0.97 key = 0.74 1 key = 0.81 1 key = 0.87 1 key = 0.94 1 key = 1 .97 Here's a video of how they act during launch:

The comsats are three planes with three comsats each (deployed all at once) at 10Mm so there's always a satellite close by for launches. One plane is equatorial, another is the same plane as the moon's orbit, and the last is the same inclination but with the opposite argument of periapsis. The GEO sats are mostly for interplanetary coms, but have one antenna pointed at the planet. Overkill, but its pretty To make sure I had enough RCS I just attached a N2O4/MMH thruster to it, made sure there was well over 1800m/s, then removed the thruster heh. The solar panels are AIES. And the spinning is mostly for fun, but it's actually helpful if you want to time warp through the burn; its better than SAS at keeping the vector pointed the right direction using RCS. Yeah the last RealFuels update implemented SRB thrust profiles, and the ones in the RO pack all start at around .4 max thrust and build up full over a period of time. I modified the GEM40s used on my Delta II to produce full thrust at ignition, then a bit of a bucket, then higher thrust till they peter out: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lqs4xv9cg9f45of/GEM40.cfg I recommend doing what the actual Delta II did, and ignite the air lit motors as the thrust from the first 6 is approaching 0, then eject the ground lit ones when they're producing ~20kN. The remaining thrust actually helps steer them away from the vehicle.

I had the same issue, in my case updating TweakScale fixed it