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DoctorEvo

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Posts posted by DoctorEvo

    KSP Orbital Calculator [V0.10.1] - Now with selectable Celestrial Bodies

    in KSP1 Tools and Applications

    Posted

    I think I got some overflow in calculations: I was wondering if I could take on the speed challenges by ascending orbits on hohmann trajectories and then flying straight down to the planet (it turns out it doesn't really give you that edge)

    long story short, if you get on wildly elongated orbits, the calculator churns out some weird numbers; using a perigee of 40000m and velocity of 3600m/s on the elliptic orbit calculator results in the apogee at about minus 5 million meters.

    3600 m/s at 40 km is a hyperbolic orbit. That's why you're getting the odd value.

    Automatic Orbiter

    in KSP1 Challenges & Mission ideas

    Posted

    Wow! Just wow. I cant get to orbit with anything still :(

    Have you tried any tutorials?

    If you have and they're just not working for you, feel free to try this thing. It's pretty much:

    LFE (noseweight)

    Pod

    LFT

    LFT + AV-T1(x3)

    LFE

    Decoupler

    SAS

    SAS

    LFT

    LFT

    LFT

    LFT

    LFT

    (might be another LFT here, I don't remember for sure)

    AV-R8 (x6) on bottom LFT

    Tricoupler

    LFE x3

    To launch, throttle up 100%, activate SAS and hit space. Stage immediately upon first-stage burnout and wait a few seconds. Ignite second stage the moment velocity hits 67 m/s. If you're lucky, you might make it to orbit with no input. If not, a bit of steering towards the end (to achieve a level flightpath) may be all it takes. Either way, most of the work is done for you. If you want your orbit more circular, control manually at the last bit and throttle back when you reach 2350 m/s.

    We Close With Good Night, Good Luck...

    in KSP1 Challenges & Mission ideas

    Posted

    ...so, to simplify, factoring in the inevitable imprecision of your orbit's circularity and making sure that nothing starts dragging below the capsule's CG as you orbit, a 'safe' bottom-edge of LKO would be about 35km, unless you know exactly how long your ship is to the capsule's CG.

    Well I think I can safely assume my rocket's upper stage is less than 500m long...

    Orbit for the Un-Orbitable?

    in KSP1 Gameplay Questions and Tutorials

    Posted

    You strap the Yawmaster onto the rear of the CommandPod, like the Apollo SM was. I usually put Moach's heatshield and a micro-decoupler between the two, so that I can jettison it for re-entry and landing, but that's not required (it has insane crash tolerance because it's modeled as a crew module, so it can have an RCS, and with realistic crash tolerance, jettisoning it meant it would kill the crew on impact no matter what), and on one-way missions, it'd be a waste of upmass to include them.

    So it doesn't replace the existing command pod, it's a separate module you attach to it.

    But what I mean is, in the .cfg, does it use the CommandPod module? Something like this at the top?

    // --- general parameters ---
    name = Yawmaster
    module = CommandPod

    There's only a select few modules to choose from (CommandPod being the only one I know of that has any sort of manual RCS), and if there's a way to make other parts (i.e. fuel tanks or winglets) have manual control inputs, I wanna know.

    The Space Station Rendezvous Challenge

    in KSP1 Challenges & Mission ideas

    Posted

    I brought it into an circular orbit around 66265m, did a plane change of around 4° and met it again ~30min later. At this altitude the maximal distance is around 46km, but we can improve it step by step.

    Hmm... less impressive than what I was hoping for, but still...

    (Did it ever completely leave visual range?)

    Now, who can manage an orbit-sync?

    In praxis you establish an orbit and orientate your spacecraft to the right angle. As soon as you fire your engines you'll notice, that your velocity decreases. Eventually it increases again and as soon as you hit your initial velocity the plane change maneuver is done.

    Ooor, you can just hold orbit-normal (90 degrees flat to your flightpath) and rotate a little bit as your flight path bends, while keeping an eye on your velocity... for small plane-changes, it doesn't cost that much, and it doesn't require any math. :P

    "World's First Spaceport in New Mexico Desert"

    in The Lounge

    Posted

    Besides, Branson's spaceport naming scheme is very simple and logical--name it for the country it's located in. Makes it simple for people to figure out where these things actually are.

    It also fits in with the naming system the Virgin Group used for their various local airline branches (Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia, Virgin Nigeria...)

    Fox news? Again? argh...

    Saying Branson owned SpaceportAmerica would be like saying EasyJet owned every airport they fly to.

    It's a private spaceport intended to be shared by several commercial operators, but Virgin is currently overseeing the whole thing.

    Orbit for the Un-Orbitable?

    in KSP1 Gameplay Questions and Tutorials

    Posted

    It's also a visual clone for the Apollo Service Module (to the point where he has approved use of the model and texture with a new .cfg file that converts it into a fuel tank for his SPS-10 engine, making the combination look *just* like an Apollo CSM), and can sometimes be the only way to get a decent pitchover rate on particularly tail-heavy or high-thrust vehicles. (I recently tried my Nova Mark Two that emulates the biggest contemplated Nova configuration of the 60s without it, and with full input immediately after ignition, I didn't reach 45 degrees until about 35,000 meters...)

    Wait, so does it use the CommandPod module?

    "World's First Spaceport in New Mexico Desert"

    in The Lounge

    Posted

    'Spaceport America'? Really? ...Really?

    Maybe someone finally started to think there were too many things called 'Freedom' and the plebs might start getting confused?

    It's part of the theme. There's a Spaceport Sweden as well. And these unoriginal names were pretty much picked out by Branson (a Brit), so...

    Never underestimate the limited vocabulary of americans with big mouths :P

    You're just prejudiced.

    Orbit for the Un-Orbitable?

    in KSP1 Gameplay Questions and Tutorials

    Posted

    I keep reading about the yawmaster, but I never really use it. I find I always lose control whenever I try it. The only times I've ever had any success with it was with exceptionally huge rockets, and even then I made sure to have it jettison along with the giant first stage.

    I like to use the normal controls, and then if I think I overcorrected, I try to manually counter the turn. If that isn't enough, I'll activate the SAS until I've almost stopped the bank or roll I had problems with. I then use manual controls to fine tune it and be absolutely sure I'm pointed the right way. After this, it depends on what I'm doing. If I'm in orbital flight, I leave the SAS off, so I can easily continue to fine-tune my trajectory. If I'm still burning a main phase, especially above atmosphere, I'll re-activate the SAS to ensure I maintain my current attitude.

    What is the yawmaster, anyways?

    And what I like to do is use SASs on the lower stages if manual control isn't strong enough to hold a vertical line, and then usually for my top two or three stages I'll use the command pod's RCS alone (and I'll usually hit caps lock on the last stage to make things a little more precise). And I usually won't deactivate the SAS at all, simply because a vertical line is all I need for lower stages and the damping is nice to have for upper stages (though I can fly most of my rockets just fine without it - it just requires a bit more focus).

    Stay Low, Go Long

    in KSP1 Challenges & Mission ideas

    Posted

    I have taken my last plane, stripped it of unnessescary parts like a parachute, and landing gear, added more fuel and created an insanely efficient plane. Again, it doesn't count because of the mods, but it's still pretty cool.

    ZLVGW.png

    Score: ((9*60+12)*81,960.8 )-100^3 = 44,242,361.6 points.

    Mods used: C7 Aerospace Pack (dropped green SAS because it was useless, replaced with normal)

    I know it doesn't count, but it's still higher than my score... so I might have to go beat it anyways.

    SM-65B Atlas-K missile!

    in KSP1 The Spacecraft Exchange

    Posted

    Yeah, it's pretty sweet. I wish I had some lighter (maybe more fragile?) tanks to really complete the model. I've added a third fuel tank and a simple manned stage and approximated the Atlas-D Mercury launcher as well, and it easily lobs a capsule with a full orange minitank and engine into a 75km orbit.

    You COULD tweak the .cfg files to do that. Reducing empty weight is easy enough... and making them more fragile I think is pretty straightforward, though I'm unfamiliar with how much the CrashTolerance, BreakingForce and BreakingTorque affect the part's resilience.

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