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camacju

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  1. camacju
    Yes, that's correct. KSP's drag model is weird. Basically each part is a cube, and by attaching parts by nodes, you change the surface area of the cubes. KSP calculates drag based on cube surface area. It's a bit more complicated than that but that's basically all you need to do it
  2. camacju
    He's not really floating in there for 20 years. Jeb starts by sitting in the return vehicle's command pod and Bill starts in the Laythe lander. After the Laythe ascent I throw away the Laythe lander's command pod and then Jeb crawls into the airlock. Maybe he has a folding chair in there, otherwise it wouldn't be very comfy. But it is pressurized - it has to be, otherwise it wouldn't be inflated. Additionally in your clarification you specified "no command chairs." It's possible that I had set reentry heating to less than 100%. However I did try to do as gentle of an aerobrake as I could (My Laythe periapsis was only 5 km into the atmosphere) and tried to do low relative velocity encounters hence the Kerbin and Eve assists to get back. So maybe that's the difference. If it's necessary, I can try to re-fly the Laythe and Kerbin entries using a more aggressive gravity assist route for easier aerobraking, and then I could show you the heights and entry velocities. Additionally the crafts aren't put together in the way they look. They both take advantage of node occlusion and part inlining (No clipping however) in order to reduce drag cubes which also reduces heating. Edit: I looked back at my screenshots and my Laythe aerobrake does show 100% reentry heat with 45.4 km periapsis and 2387 m/s velocity. Laythe orbital velocity as shown in the screenshots is 1793 m/s and it takes about 600 m/s to escape Laythe which implies a minimum aerobrake speed of 2393 m/s - this is reasonable as I am passing periapsis in the screenshot and have bled off a bit of speed. So the Laythe aerobrake seems to check out. If you aren't convinced then I can re-fly the aerobrakes and maybe record video. The Laythe lander had more work put into it than it might seem at first. The Oscar tanks were attached at the top of the lander and offset downward into the cargo bay, and the Donut tanks were attached to the bottom of the lander using an adapter and offset upward into the bay. This reduces the drag cube of the lander significantly which makes it a lot more drag efficient. I also took a steep trajectory to give myself more time above the atmosphere for the low thrust of the jetpacks to circularize the orbit.
  3. camacju
    My first craft was a command pod on top of two Hammer SRBs. It got to space and I was happy for about two minutes until I crashed back into the ground because I forgot a parachute
  4. camacju
    What does the nifty plane 9000 look like? I'm guessing you're using subsonic jet engines (Wheesley, Goliath), and/or your craft is not drag optimized.
  5. camacju
    Speaking of mods, a stock mod manager might be pretty cool for new players. Think CKAN but bundled with KSP. It would make adding mods a lot easier
  6. camacju
    Yes - that's the point of the inflatable airlock. Airlock is lighter and cheaper than a command pod but doesn't provide a control point, that's the reason for the use of a command pod on the return vehicle. Side note - it's actually possible to deflate an airlock with a kerbal in it. Makes for a funny mental image
  7. camacju
    I don't remember the exact speed. However it was pretty slow and the service bays / engines have a good deal of heat tolerance. I was also spinning the craft if it got too hot
  8. camacju
    Vall and Laythe assists give me an orbit high above Jool Vall flyby Tylo assist gives me a Kerbin intercept Kerbin flyby Kerbin and Eve assists Aerobraking Landed
  9. camacju
    I opened and closed the service bay doors. Buoyancy of parts inside a service bay is not calculated when the doors are closed, so the craft sinks. Buoyancy is calculated when the doors are open so the craft rises Second edit: Also yes the Laythe launch vehicle is very small. I used jetpack for a lot of the ascent to save mass and cost - EVA propellant is very light and cheap.
  10. camacju
    Further ascent Now this is where the engineer comes into play. Bill has an EVA pack and an extra fuel cylinder equipped, and grabs a second EVA pack using the EVA construction mode. Imagine him holding it with one hand and controlling his main pack with the other hand or something. The pack and cylinder run out, so Bill ditches them and swaps in the second EVA pack he had been carrying Laythe orbit Intercept with station Rendezvous A joyful reunion
  11. camacju
    Using the EVA construction mode. That's not the main reason I brought the engineer but it's useful for giving me more margin. Not really, they could be touching the service bay or capsule with no change to the mission. I just did this so I don't have to fool around with time warp when detaching them. Edit: Before you ask, there's no clipping in the service bay. There are three Donut tanks in the service bay and two Oscar tanks in the donut holes. The Twitch engines are offset but there are already gaps in between the parts so I'm basically imagining a more conformal fuel tank in the service bay which would leave more room for the engines. The total volume in the service bay should check out. Second leg of mission: Setting up Kerbin assists Eve flyby Kerbin flyby Jool encounter Tylo assist, Laythe encounter Tylo flyby Aerobraking Proof of 100% reentry heat Setting up landing site in DeGrasse Sea Lander separates, return vehicle circularizes Aerobraking Chutes deployed Splashed down Service bay doors close to dive, open to ascend. Deep sea science Ascending Grabbing science. The extra jetpack here is a surprise tool that will help us later. Ascent from Laythe using a steep gravity turn
  12. camacju
    Ok here's the first leg of my mission. I launch a lander and an orbiting station onto an Eve transfer Craft in VAB. 16750 funds. From top to bottom are the Laythe lander and descent stage, transfer and return vehicle, and two stage SRB launcher. Launch Thumper boosters jettisoned, Kickback booster continues. The pitch is carefully controlled so the launcher runs out of fuel right when apoapsis breaks 70 km. Circularization with return stage. To cut costs I use the same engine for circularization and the legs both to and from Laythe. Kerbin orbit Having an engineer kerbal is a necessity for this mission. Bill detaches the empty fuel tanks From here I follow my usual high efficiency route to the Jool system. Two Mun assists give me a high orbit above Kerbin. One Mun assist could do this as well but two assists allow for a smaller initial transfer burn. Detaching more fuel tanks A third Mun assist ejects me from the Kerbin system The height of that Mun assist was carefully adjusted so I come back to Kerbin after a few orbits, since the initial ejection won't get me anywhere. At Kerbin, I get another gravity assist from Mun which drops my orbit almost down to Eve. Mun flyby Then, I use Mun for further energy gain as well as a plane change, to get an Eve encounter. Now I can get to Jool easily
  13. camacju
    Is any EVA allowed? For example to transfer science between a lander and an orbiting station? If so then my planned design just got a lot cheaper
  14. camacju
    This might work for some spaceplanes, but if it works, you have too much thrust, or you're losing too much fuel to cosine losses. If you are able to do a consistent 20 degree climb then you can probably cut the thrust in half and still fly it to orbit, or add a lot more fuel. Either way, you're not flying efficiently. I prefer using Mechjeb's Smart A.S.S. for flying spaceplanes. My typical ascent profile goes like this: When I leave the runway, I descend down to sea level to pick up speed. Then I pitch up to 7-10 degrees above horizontal to maintain level flight, and gradually relax that down to zero degrees as I pick up airspeed, while staying as close to sea level as possible. (Select the SURF mode on Smart A.S.S and set roll to be 0, heading to be 0, pitch to be 7-10, then click Execute) When I reach 600-700 m/s I pitch up 7-10 degrees again and continue accelerating until my apoapsis reaches about 19 km, in order to take advantage of the thrust peak of the jet engines. Then I gradually pitch back down to horizontal such that I'm pointing horizontal at about 21 km altitude. I adjust pitch up and down here to stay at 21 km while getting as much delta-v out of the jet engines as possible. I can usually reach 1650-1680 m/s here, at which point I turn on prograde hold, light the rocket engines, and let the jets run until they flame out. Then, it's a mostly hands free ascent to orbit. There are more efficient ways to fly a spaceplane to orbit but this method is easy enough that I'm comfortable with it.
  15. camacju
    The Aeris 4A is a reasonably capable SSTO spaceplane, able to do a Mun or Minmus flyby, or even go interplanetary with proper gravity assists. It can also dock with other Aeris 4A. How far can you take one? You could try to fly a single Aeris 4A but might not make it too far. However, using one as a fuel tanker is an option...
  16. camacju
    That craft has a lot of engine. I wonder what your ascent profile looks like? A good rule of thumb is to have 36 tons per Rapier and 45 tons per Nerv. In this case that would mean 9 Rapiers and 7 Nervs. Cool looking plane though
  17. camacju
    How about an application that both uses parts in the way they were intended and uses the same parts in a way they weren't intended? Retracted landing gear makes for great landing skids, and you only need two for stability!
  18. camacju
    Asymmetrical SSTO, part 2 Destination 3 Destination 4 Returning home Mission summary: Asymmetric SSTO landed on Laythe, Pol, Eeloo, and Ike before coming back to Kerbin. Flybys of Mun, Minmus, Eve, Tylo, Duna, Jool.
  19. camacju
    KSP has a way to track Mach number. Go into the Debug menu, go to Physics ->Aero, and click "Show Aero GUI" Then it will show an AeroGUI window that looks like this: [Left side of the screen, ignore the Mechjeb windows] It gives a bunch of useful information.
  20. camacju
    I'd actually prefer a one-up on that and have a high performance SSTO capable of a trip to Laythe and back, or even farther. The SSTO stock craft are clearly intended for low Kerbin orbit operations, which is fine, but so much more than that is possible. If not that, then at least one craft that pushes the envelope of the typical KSP player would be nice. For example, an Eve return
  21. camacju
    Here's the first part of my submission for the asymmetrical aircraft challenge. Single stage to orbit. Part list: (20 parts) Structural Wing Type A Structural Wing Type B Wing Connector A Wing Connector B Elevon 1 Elevon 2 Elevon 3 Elevon 4 Delta-Deluxe Winglet Shock Cone Intake AE-FF1 Fairing LV-N Atomic Rocket Motor CR-7 RAPIER Engine Probodobodyne HECS2 PB-NUK RTG Small Landing Gear Medium Landing Gear Large Landing Gear MechJeb 2 AR202 Case Mk3 Liquid Fuel Fuselage Launch Traveling to the first destination Destination 1 Destination 2 [Apr 23] the mission will probably continue tomorrow. I have some more landings planned.
  22. camacju
    Doesn't matter anyway, I'm just using the probe core's built in reaction wheels now.
  23. camacju
    Am I allowed to have a single small reaction wheel on a 35 ton plane? I'm planning to fly it to another planet/moon and I'm going to need some kind of attitude control while in vacuum. Obviously, that small of a reaction wheel won't have much of an effect on the plane's stability. If not, I'll just swap the reaction wheel for a probe core and use the reaction wheel contained there, since I've seen some runs use cockpits which also have reaction wheels.
  24. camacju
    I assume radiator heat shields are allowed since I used one on my submission to this challenge.
  25. camacju
    In a similar vein, while holding W and spam-tapping A and S, you can go really fast with the big wheels. It eats a lot of electricity though.
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