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Frederf

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Everything posted by Frederf

  1. Frederf
    Try using some of the lighter-than-aircraft mods. Use buoyancy and Eve's atmosphere for you instead of against.
  2. Frederf
    Does parachute material affect rip strength?
  3. Frederf
    Are you using FAR? What is your Cd?
  4. Frederf
    In my case I genuinely programmed a sequence that involved the antenna raising and lowering such that it had a command to lower the antenna, all the landing instructions, and then one to raise it minutes later and then the thing lands itself and resumes contact. You want the "Toggle" action name in an action group so you can provide both the raise and lower commands as ALT+(#) before the whole sequence even starts.
  5. Frederf
    We must be twins as I just did that only with a parachute lander and hoping for flat ground. The difficulty was less but a complex reentry sequence made timing a pain. I think we both need to write kOS scripts for first run accuracy for these kind of missions.
  6. Frederf
    I don't have that particular cube yet unlocked in the RD tree. Even though I'm sure workarounds exist I was hoping for more enthusiasm toward the root cause. I'm not sure how the drag shielding works exactly but I would hope an exposed connection node or surface blunt to the air stream wouldn't be shielded. Is it nodes or COMs or ray tracing? I don't have that insight. As a side note I'm aware of the intended construction of the interstage adapter and have used it that way but in this case I wanted the fairings and adapter to depart the craft at different times. What I think would be nice is to have a mode that removed the base+fairings whole, say if you blow the sides it separates the craft (triggers the base decoupler remotely) or if the base is triggered first the sides stay glued to the base and the base decouples directly.
  7. Frederf
    Top (root side) to bottom: Top of craft Squad decoupler Procedural interstage adapter w/ 4 conic fairings DRE 1.25m heat shield Bottom of Craft
  8. Frederf
    Well, it's happened. Through a slight miscalculation in saving and loading I've stranded a vessel because the command queue isn't saved with save game files and thus a craft that was absolutely on track to reestablish contact on its own has suffered short term memory loss and isn't going to do the set actions that makes that happen. The command queue REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY needs to be saved. Did I say REALLY enough?
  9. Frederf
    I'm having a slight issue with a DRE shield below an interstage fairing adapter. The drag (FAR) is zeroed out for the parts inside the shells above it but also the shield applied to the bottom which makes reentry excruciatingly long and hot at Cd 0.002. Could thes shielded volume be adjusted to be more accurate?
  10. Frederf
    Not really. I can't find the orbital speed for a 70km circular around Kerbin with it for example. It's also not so quick and easy to use. Altitudes are in SMA/ecc and calculations take a few seconds.
  11. Frederf
    Not so much. This is orbit mechanic http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/4374-KSP-Orbit-Mechanic-1-2a-Optimize-Your-Orbits?highlight=orbit%20mechanic Something where I can ask what is the orbital period of a 32 x 48.5 around Eeloo or what are the transfer dVs from 70x70 to 100x100 around Kerbin or a thousand other whatifs.
  12. Frederf
    Been using Orbital Mechanic, a small Java app, for all my simple orbital calcs but I've stopped using it since it's out of date and only includes Mun/Minmus in the other bodies and I'm going interplanetary. Is there a current tool for elliptical orbit data on all current KSP bodies, maybe some transfer details? I have KSP_TOT which handles the advanced interplanetary injections and flyby gravity brakes but simple back of the envelope calcs I'm without a tool.
  13. Frederf
    I know it's not trivial but if these parts could be procedurally scaled the number could be cut down drastically and be more useful overall. Often the smallest parts are still too large to make folding rovers and probes.
  14. Frederf
    You're not the only one. I make sure to keep buffer tanks on the vehicles so that small amounts can be transferred and TAC fuel balancer does the manual flow operations. However Id still love for KAS to have a small electrical pump part that handles this sort of thing.
  15. Frederf
    I'll post it later but it looked rather tame. I think a couple of BACC boosters with a skipper throttled lightly for steering control. TWR was no more than 4. Perhaps a high Cd in the 1-2 range is to blame; I'll have to check if it was that high.. As sensible as the craft looked you know how weird aero issues can crop up.
  16. Frederf
    Indeed you should imagine leaving the Mun SOI "cage" is like jumping from a moving car. If you barely escape it you'll be going the same speed as it. To fall down for reentry you need to escape it rearward with some extra speed rearward. If you find what appoapsis speed for a 11400x30km orbit is and subtract the Mun's orbital speed, that's what you need to carry extra as you escape it's SOI.
  17. Frederf
    I don't know if I was getting there exactly but my speed readout in surface navball exceeded the FAR fight data readout. TV increases with altitude (air density) so it is a game of catchup but it stays pretty low for the first 5000m or so. After 20,000m, yeah, forget it.
  18. Frederf
    I've taken it onboard that TV is the speed at which dV losses during (at least vertical) ascent are minimized. Assuming the craft steers properly and stays in one piece it should be the minimal dV to orbit. The best ascent would be to 50/50 your dV losses from effective gravity (cosine attitude) and aerodynamic ones until your Ap was as desired then MECO and circularize at Ap. And I absolutely can exceed TV during ascent without too much difficulty. MRS's thrust fix means that a small TWR at launch can quickly surpass TV as thrust is increasing and weight is decreasing.
  19. Frederf
    The point of TWR 1.5 is that TWR is expected to grow as the atmosphere recedes. You'd love to have TWR infinite up to terminal velocity then 2.0 to stick to TV all the way up. Most RL rockets aren't throttleable and even if they were max TWR adds weight so spending time at partial throttle is wasted weight penalty. With thrust stuck on max combined with thrust improving as you approach vacuum, your initial and final TWR will bracket 2.0. If you start at 2.0 then the average will be >2.0 and your total dV losses will be high due to aero. You'd want to balance it so you spend time slow which has a gravity penalty and time fast which has an aero penalty and minimize their total.
  20. Frederf
    Those are two different ideas, no? I could see disabling the spacebar-parachute link but the armed-state is a different ball of wax. I guess I'd save myself a lot of white hairs to start kOS scripting these landings for better first run chances of success.
  21. Frederf
    A button to update the custom attitude (instead of off/on) would be great. A "zero delay" button would be handy. Sorting queue by which is scheduled first would be welcome. The ability to save and load without breaking the Flight Computer state is a big big want.
  22. Frederf
    I thought so. I mean the blunt end of the shield approaches definition of Cd=1.0 by simple geometry. Is reference area the cross sectional area or equivalent? (The number Cd is multiplied by or rather the flat plate the shape is divided by to get Cd).
  23. Frederf
    With stock parachutes you get a blue "armed" state that's really handy when working with RT2 delays of a couple minutes. I noticed RC doesn't do this armed state or maybe just not the colored icon.
  24. Frederf
    How realistic is it to have Cd values that range from 0.002 to about 1.5? I've been making aero shells with a DRE shield on the bottom and a procedural fairing top and the suckers have like zero drag.
  25. Frederf
    Heat and Gs will damage parts which you can inspect/fix in EVA. It's probability based. To protect against the heat fairings with FAR help a great deal.
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