Ozzallos

I usually go big-- Either with a vertical launch jet engine rocket to orbit or an interplanetary ship with a massive ion thrust array-- No less than 30 nodes powering it. The vertical launch jet is usually picky about fuel ratios no matter how much I give it. It's a hit or miss project. The Ion ship is easy to build, but getting it into orbit as one piece is a bit tricky.

My five year old has learned that the space bar usually produces amusement in the form of catastrophic events.

Since the section is labelled "Challenges and Mission Ideas" I thought this would be the most appropriate place to post this. We have asteroid encounters in place, but let's up the ante. Asteroid 1I/2017 U1 Oumuamua is shaping up to be the first interstellar asteroid encountered by humanity. The most important attribute beyond its interstellar origins is the fact that it is fast, possessing a eccentricity of 1.2 and is currently on its way out of our solar system at 26km/s. Nothing we've built so far has ever reached that speed and an intercept this late in the game would need to get started within the next few years IRL. Project Lyra was commissioned to study that proposal, but something tells me we can do better. One wonders if a somebody or group of somebodies or perhaps even Squad themselves can develop an Oumuamua encounter vaguely based on the Lyra premise. I would like to contribute but sadly do not have the modding skills or time to even consider it, so broaching the idea here will have to do. Of course, there are challenges to consider, mainly in that KSP isn't a 1:1 solar simulator. Tech realism isn't so much of an issue, but it is a consideration. In either case the basic path and composition of the asteroid are known quantities, so pluses and minuses. If this belongs somewhere else, definitely feel free to move it. Regardless, it would be fun to see this real life event gain some traction in KSP.

She rocks the ascent and tops out at 1250m/s @ 40' before stalling for air and switching over. With satillite payload she can still clear 1150 to ceiling with enough left to circularize and maneuver Deorbiting was where i was having the issues and it looks like my descent profile was flawed per this thread. She's hard to handle without power above 10km but is a dream under that. im considering a couple dawn engines to suppliment orbital manuvers so i can keep gas for the atmo.

I cant make space inside 20 seconds, but i can do it in about a minute, minute and a half using 22 vertical takeoff rapiers.

Your reward for teh helpfulness. SSTO Vortex Mod B

Thanks peeps. My re-entry profile has basically been like a capsule-- Ride it to the ground. Instead, it sounds like I should be using the atmosphere to brake my craft naturally. Mistakes were made. Might help with the heat and controllability at the same time by keeping speed up. (using the Mk1 cockpit)

I have the landing gear wobble blues as well. Not all the time, but more often than not. It's to the point where I don't rely on the runway and inherently design my aircraft to be short takeoff designs (ie; bigger landing gear in front than back). They still want to powerslide, but at least I can power out of it and get airborne this way. I did not know you could increase the landing gear drag, so something good came out of this thread for me, at least.

So I seem to consistently encounter two major problems when operating my spaceplanes, both manifesting themselves in reentry. 1. Burnination. The cockpit can't seem to take the heat; though realistically I'm probably not using the correct decent profile? I've also been experimenting with mounting radiators, but not entirely certain they make a difference or even if they applicable to this application. 2. It's really hard to keep the tail from swinging out from behind me basically flat spinning my way down to around 2000m where the air is finally thick enough to allow me to pull out of this. It's tough to maintain stability through rentry and one wrong move during the decent turns my wonderful plane into a paper weight. Most of my weight is predictably aft (once the fuel is used), so I understand this to some degree, but it seems rather obnoxious. Any tips somebody can toss out?

So if you stick Jeb inside a capsule, is he dead or just waiting to max the throttles?

Mister Wiggles says this is bound to be a short flight.

Connect EVRYTHING with a Cubic Octagonal Struts. ...Need moar boosters? Grab a Kerbodyne ADTP-2-3 and weld eight of the COStruts to the underside of it (do not force the node), turning them upside down once they're riding the surface so that the free nod of the strut is now inside the adaptor itself. Position them as close to the circumference. Alternately, you can use a TR-38-D decoupler for the base structure, but either way you'll be able to comfortably hang eight of whatever the heck you want off of them without a gap between structures. For example, mounting eight S1 SRB-KD25k "Kickback" Solid Fuel Boosters with room in the center for a couple more. Make sure to use maor struts to keep Mister Wiggles out of your new mega SRB. ...You can also mount the COStruts to the outside radius of these structures, then turn them on their sides. This is particularly useful for annoying little one node engines such as the IX-6315 "Dawn" Electric Propulsion System, as it allows you mount a multitude of the little buggers assuming the exhaust is exposed. Yes, this all involves a bit of clipping, but I'm not opposed to a reasonable amount when it should have been possible to mount in that manner to begin with.

Some people don't like the cargo bays because, let's face it, they're not exactly user friendly when it comes to attaching things. Using docking clamps to secure your cargo is sometimes meh, let alone actually getting it out of said bay. I use radial decouplers in my space planes. Upon attaching one to the bottom floor of the bay, you'll probably have to flip it to the correct orientation (and even then there will be slight clipping outside your spacecraft). Attaching things is still difficult, but a Micronode as your satellite core will allow you to build onto it with relatively little hassle and some modicum of stability to boot. Get your space plane out of the atmo, open the doors and thump! Screw that graceful departure. Kick your cargo out with absolute certainty!* *Certainty not absolute. Stability may exhibit instability. Your milage may vary. Batteries not included. Do not expose to sunlight.

Lrn2asparagus. A lot.

Prelude to a Short Flight.

Hell, this is the first version where I've actually been able to put space planes into orbit reliably. One has exceptional glide and landing characteristics. I've got an amazingly stable launch vehical that can put a 50t lander into moon orbit without effort, and I'm not an airline pilot. So just a thought-- You're doing it wrong.

Sorry, didn't see this one within the first few pages

Your epic screenshots. Post them. Or else.

I've only recently downloaded 113 and have found (again) that many of my previous designs just didn't cut it. One of the casualties was my beloved Vertical Single Stage to Orbit project, The Starscream C. Needless to say, the engineers at Twerkstar have labored to remedy this problem with the VSSTO Starscream D The Block C Starscream mounted 8 Rapiers, 8 Whiplashes, and a Aerospike to push it into orbit. Unfortunately 113 said no, so we went back to the drawing board. The original configuration was underpowered and could never sustain orbit, so we figured more seed velocity was required during the atmospheric ascent phase. Block D changed that. After trial and error the designers settled on 22 Rapiers, dropping the Whiplash array and even the single aerospike in favor of raw atmospheric speed. Depending on the angle of ascent, the Starscream D will pump out 1400m/s up to 24,000m before switching out to vacuum mode. Coasting up to Apoapsis usually puts us at 85km, at which point we cut 8 of the engines off and use the remaining 14 to circularize. The remaining fuel is enough for modest orbital operations, such as docking and refueling. The original intent was to have a fully reusable VSSTO that could lift off, express to orbit and refuel before continuing to its final destination. The final phase would be to drop back into atmo using chutes for a safe landing 100% whole and intact. Even in a worst case scenario, she's fully capable of emergency command pod separation and re-entry.

Squid, kraken... I'm actual good with this

And finally, I tested a Mono/Puff deceleration scheme... That more or less fails to perform. The Mk1-2 pod doesn't have nearly enough mono and supplementing it with more increases your rate of descent. In fact, weight becomes problematic with four more mono tanks and eight nozzles; the minimum required to make create timely deceleration. In this configuration you'll find yourself with a 250ms descent- 100ms more than the seperatron config -and only enough fuel to decelerate into the 80ms range... Well outside your capsule's ability to survive. Adding more fuel or nozzles to compensate adds more weight... See where I'm going with this? You might was well build a full up landing stage at this point. Or just use parachutes. So in the end-- Seperatron Braking: Viable, but insanely risky. Mono Braking: Completely inefficient. Parachutes: Unless you're an adrenaline junky, use these.

Works! 12 Sepratrons and struts of steel. :D [img]https://www.dropbox.com/s/kvb8t4yoetkeapt/screenshot43.png?raw=1[/img] Pretty much works as advertised. I used the Rockomax to clip the Seperatrons in and hung the heat shield off of it, so it pulls double duty. Face the seperator the right way (note the arrow) and you blow off the ablator once it's usefulness has expired, exposing your final deceleration stage. I call clipping fair in this case because the separator is preserved after use and nominally empty space. 12 Seperatrons are what it took to bring a minimally equipped Mk1-2 capsule from 150ms to zero, and trust me when I say your timing has to be dead on. You've got a four second burn window to do it and about the only advice I can give is you need to be seeing texture on the ground before you pull the trigger--the splotchy stuff before actual grass blades. Even if you pull it off successfully, anything on the outside of your capsule is likely to get trashed. I'm going to say this is landing on hardmode without some sort of radar altimeter to trigger the burn. Unless you land in the same spot at the same altitude, terrain will vary and so will the textures that you use for terminal reference. As a final note, the Rockomax screws up the flight characteristics of the pod. Landings were handled with SAS set to retrograde. All in all, it kinda reminds me of the old cowboy days of Kerbal without a lot of the flight assist, so kinda fun... And potentially a bad way to end a mission. Good luck :D *the three outer seperatrons were part of the escape system, not the deceleration stage **Designated craft name Mk1-2 (H)ard (L)anding

Hnn. Or a Rockomax separator (arrow pointed down) bolted to the bottom of a Mk1-2 with Sepratrons clipped in and an ablator below that. 4 of them can pull a Mk1-2 away from about 400ms. Probably more weight efficient, too. A roundified tank is about .3 mass (full). x4=1.2 mass A Puff engine is .09 mass. Large reaction wheel .2 mass. x1 vs Rockomax Decouple, .4 mass. Separatron .01 mass. Even if you added a silly amount of them (You could clip at least 16 to the inside if you really wanted to) you'd still come out way ahead on weight, but like somebody mentioned, your timing better be good. Still, it's not that impossible. A Mk1-2 can survive a 45ms impact and you only need to bleed about 150ms (ish) off by the time it gets that far into Kerbin. Time the deceleration rate and the number or rockets needed to bring you to zero and you should be golden for most landings inside an altitude of 50-100m. I'm betting it would only take 4-6 by the time you're close to ASL. I'll test tonight. Could be fun. :D

Don't forget, most command vehicles also have built in mono. I suspect it would be an insufficient amount to provide proper breaking, or just enough Puff engines to create enough instant impulse. Either way, it would be easy enough to supplement assuming the pod's reserves are insufficient. I'm thinking a Mk1-2 Command vehicle with a large SAS module bolted under it and four Stratus Roundified tanks clipped into it. You could nestle at least eight puffs in there as well for the impulse. Add an XL Stack separator under the Large SAS and an Ablator beneath that-- Instant soft landing capability without chutes. If you wanted to be tricky, throw up some airbrakes onto the capsule. They're pretty good about surviving reentry deployed in my experience and I can fit at least three before things get horribly crowded. Separate capsule, deploy airbrakes, reenter atmo, jettison shield, enjoy a brisk decent and begin counterburn at 500m to get a feel for the performance. I suspect you can probably wait until 200m safely, but am really guessing at this point. And maybe pack a chute and some sepratrons, because I'm at work and have no way to verify this beyond rough experience :D

The space. It appears lacking. [img]https://www.dropbox.com/s/x8ytfv330cstaxs/screenshot32.png?raw=1[/img]