Triarius

These graphs are all blank, and the values are all zero. I started with a fresh install of 1.0.4. No matter how many aerodynamic surfaces I add to the bottom of my rocket it is unstable. No amount of RCS, control surfaces, reaction wheels, and gimbals can hold this rocket upright.

Any idea how to get CoL down below the top of my rocket? Nothing I do in this mod can get the CoL away from the nose of my rockets. I can, for instance, add 8 of the large delta wings to the very bottom of a long, slender rocket but there is no change. I can delete the payload shroud, no change. The airfoils on the bottom have almost no impact!

I'm having similar problems in 1.0.4. Random parts exploding suddenly for no reason. The radial decouplers seem especially prone, but I have also noticed other items doing it. I built a space probe and put it on the launch pad to test unfurling of radiators and solar panels, but the cubic octagonal struts I used to put it together start heating on the launch pad. Even sitting stationary on the launch pad, in the dark, with no engines running, with radiators unfurled. Heat shields also seem to do nothing for these issues.

It occurred to me in contemplating this missile that at 100G, covering 500m in the first second, it will outrun a handgun bullet at that range. At a range of 1 km, this missile has already passed concurrently fired .50BMG, and that's completely neglecting friction (bullets slow down IRL). Breathtaking.

Oi, missed this.

This mod seems to have installed successfully but I am missing parts that the tech tree says I should have. It only gives me 1.25m fairing bases.

A lot of people don't really understand why low density alloys are useful in airplanes aside from "it's lighter". I am an engineer who has spent a good deal of time working with aircraft structures. I am also a pilot and work on my own airplane. If you look at the BEST available alloys for steel, aluminum, and even titanium, you will find out that the strength to weight ratio is surprisingly similar for all three materials. In general aluminum has about 1/3 the density, and 1/3 the strength, and 1/3 the stiffness of steel. Titanium alloys are in between. So, given a similar strength to weigh ratio, why is aluminum better? Looking at an aircraft skin for example you have a sheet surface supported intermittently by ribs underneath and loaded by a distributed aerodynamic pressure. This aircraft skin is primarily loaded in bending. I won't to through all the math, but the strength and stiffness of a beam loaded in bending depends on the thickness of that beam CUBED. So, if you replaced a steel wing skin with an aluminum wing skin, and used the same mass of material, the aluminum will be three times as thick. Using the more "flimsy" material has cost you a factor of three in both strength and stiffness, but tripling your section thickness has gained you a factor of 3^3. The skin is, in fact, 3^2 as strong at resisting the load meaning that in this application it's 9 TIMES STRONGER (but not, unfortunately, 9 times lighter). Note that this advantage is not gained in every application. Struts, flywheels, fasteners and lots of other parts are still made from steel in many areas of an aircraft.

Yeah, like I said it isn't a construction problem as it happens even with nothing but a command pod. I don't think it is related to aerodynamics because the control surfaces deflect on their own, and the reaction wheels draw electricity to spin the capsule at about 600 rpm after separation. I should also mention that I have never updated FAR... I've only had the game about a month. If anything, I'd guess it has to do with mechjeb. I tried removing the mechjeb folder but the game won't work at all without it.

No joy, still spinning.

Everything was going smoothly with mechjeb, FAR, and chatterer installed only for quite a while, and then all of a sudden this cropped up. My rockets all perform an uncommanded roll (ccw when viewed from below) as though the roll command (default key "Q") is jammed. I uninstalled the game, reinstalled it, and the problem went away for a while, but then came back. I tried unplugging the joystick, but that doesn't seem to help. This isn't related to the construction of the rockets, as it happens to all of my previously working designs. It will also make the capsule spin at maximum speed until electrical power is exhausted. Running down the battery seems to be the only thing that can save Jeb from a bad landing with this bug. Has anyone else faced this?