DerekL1963

Those fans have some... impressive thrust.

You might want to post in the current thread:

The HLAirships one is from the Hooligan Airships mod. The other two are from MechJeb. The Vessel Info screen is stock, the Airship Info screen is a custom screen (see MechJeb for Airships in my sig for details).

o.0 Both Orbital-ATK and SpaceX have launched multiple NASA payloads. Who else has a demonstrated viable launcher, obtained NASA certification, and is offering launch services?

Development testing on a new version of the Norge. This version is nuclear powered and much more capable than the old, but dang if she doesn't look naked without her signature solar panels. Here, a static balance test... It shows -2.1 degrees in the picture, but after a bit of oscillation it eventually stabilized at -0.6 degrees. Some engineering development on lift motors for a possible Duna Dirigible. According to the Hooligan build assistant, she should float on Duna - but her buoyancy is scary low and her equilibrium altitude is only 100m ASL (I.E. below ground level most places on Duna). So, some form of augmentation is going to be a must. The motors come from the Buffalo mod, they're positioned where they are because of the need to keep the sides of the vehicle clear for the orbital boosters.

Development testing on a new dirigible using the Heisenberg mod. Here, a static balance test... It shows -2.1 degrees in the picture, but after a bit of oscillation it eventually stabilized at -0.6 degrees.

No assumptions needed - simply stick to the facts relevant to SLS. In the same vein New Space isn't relevant to the DSG unless and until NASA makes a decision that makes it relevant. Etc... etc... Otherwise, once that camel gets its nose in the tent, we're right back where this meta discussion began. Facts v. fantasy and self control... these shouldn't be hard concepts to grasp. And with that being said I'm going to bow out of the meta discussion at the point, before the actual moderators show up with their cattle prods.

Well, the article isn't entirely wrong... they did get a NASA contract. But NIAC contracts are kind of like DARPA, small investments in "out there" concepts that may or may not be valid and may or may not yield usable technology in the future. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-invests-in-shapeshifters-biobots-other-visionary-technology https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2018_Phase_I_Phase_II/Mach_Effect_for_In_Space_Propulsion_Interstellar_Mission Or, to put it another way, the article Zeiss links to is just wee bit... well, the polite term is incredibly optimistic.

On top of the 11 years cycle, there's daily weather too, just like the annual cycle and daily weather we're accustomed to. That's part of what makes predicting uncontrolled re-entries so difficult.

Well, this statement is wrong in two respects. First, public opinion doesn't care much one way or another what NASA does. Very few people care. (And of those few, the consensus is almost overwhelmingly that they should use other people's rockets.) Second, the vast majority of NASA launches are already on other people's rockets. I can't disagree with that... But the problem is that once the partisans of New Space get involved the discussion become about New Space and the fantasies of said partisans. Not only are they off topic in this thread, most of them are pretty naive about the matter and don't grasp that NASA is ruled by the policies and actions (or lack thereof) of the Administration and the budget provided by Congress - not the whims of some ideal fantasy NASA administrator. It really shouldn't be hard, this thread is about NASA and what it is proposing or is doing. Not about fantasies of what they should be doing.

Guys, this is the NASA/SLS thread - please take the SpaceX stuff that's filled the last two pages elsewhere.

Nonetheless - there's something wrong. The config files for the medium and large are different... the large has ":NEEDS[!HLAirships]" where the medium doesn't. Deleting that extra function (making the large match the medium) seems to restore functionality to the large. They can be one hop away (reactor->dirigible section->radiator for example) and still work. Cool!

The plan is to get as close as I can to positive buoyancy with a reasonably functional vessel, and then make up any lack with lift motors. My design (presuming it's possible) is ultimately based around preserving the key abilities of a dirigible - the ability to travel at low speeds, to hover at zero horizontal velocity indefinitely, and to land precisely with zero horizontal velocity. Otherwise, why lug the weight and bulk of the dirigible sections all the way to Duna? Entry on Duna is easy-peasy. If you look at the Skydancer craft in Angel's sample craft folder, the NERV based drive section is more than capable of slowing the craft down enough that's there's no atmospheric heating effects. Basically, you're flying tail first and thrusting all the way from orbit to the ground rather than relying on aerodynamic drag to slow you down.

Quite the contrary. They did a survey some years back and found that the majority of the players never left Kerbin's SOI. Now whether or not that's entirely due to a lack of tools is open to debate, but from the comments on the forums it's inarguable that such lack is a factor. There's simply too many players looking for such tools (in stock) to dismiss his claims as "dead wrong" Says the guy who just dismissed someone else's argument as the product of a "unique butterfly" and then argues that his perspective is the one that defines the basis for the discussion. You can't have it both ways.

Me too. I hadn't noticed that before. Just out of curiosity, decided to see how the Hurricane and Typhoon tiltrotors would mount in case the Tornado isn't enough of a lift engine on Duna - and they fit just fine.

That radiator is actually radiating less than they do on my test fixture with the reactors off... So I'm not sure what's going on there. I've had battery buffers before but not that large I think. So I reconfigured my dirigible section templates for EC (57k!) instead of liquid fuel, and on the eight engine/four gyro ring version all it did was extend the runtime... after about ten minutes all four reactors were in overheat and started to clamp their output. The battery drained and that was that. But now for the really weird part. Just for fun and to be thorough, I added a pair of large fixed radiator panels to each ring... And it worked like a champ. After an hour, running at full throttle in full daylight... Everything is working fine (no high temps leading to clamping) even though the radiators still don't look like they're accomplishing much. (A couple in the 18% range, most in the 16% range.) Either my expectations are off from years of playing with KSPI or Near Future reactors (certainly not an impossibility or even an improbability), or there is something odd going on with the heat generation/radiation. Either way, you nailed the fix. Thanks much! Angel, for your to-do list for the next version, the HL-10 Hangar Bay does not have a battery option in it's template menu.

It controls how far you can see "over the horizon". You can see that in flight if you set occlusion < 1.0, you'll actually see your CommNet connection line dip into the planet's surface as that setting lets you "see" over the horizon. I usually play with .98 for worlds with an atmosphere (some atmospheric ducting, which is a thing IRL), and 1.0 for vacuum worlds.

Restored the original config, and no dice. The radiators don't radiate (yes, I remembered to activate them) and the reactor output still clamps at a fraction of what it should be.

I should have thought of that when I first saw this thread... @LameLefty it's a Smart A.S.S. function: IIRC it's generally easiest to use if you have a control point that you can point at the Sun or that is oriented towards a cardinal point as compared to the solar panels. I usually use it to position the axis of the station module that has the arrays mounted on orthogonal to the LOS to the Sun, then manually roll about that axis. If you want it to *stay* oriented between visits, you'll want Persistent Rotation.

Ah, wouldn't have thought to look there... So, modified the file and tested.... On an eight engine test, there wasn't enough power to keep eight Twisters at full throttle... And, oddly enough, the same held true for four Twisters.... (Check out the load percentage....) Log of the eight and four engine tests (I spotted what I think are errors): https://www.dropbox.com/s/sva6kx8nurdoven/KSP_1003.log?dl=0 Config file from /Heisenberg/Templates/CRP (as edited):

The only converter I can find in the Nuclear Gyro Ring's .cfg is the compressor. I can't find anything related to core heat or generated heat for the reactor. The config file is behind the spoiler...

Yamato hasshin!

Actually, no, they had some pretty severe issues... But the reactors are a known problem and I haven't had time to make the changes you suggested, so I didn't bring them up. There's some performance-over-time issues, and I need to try the heat fixes you suggested to make sure they aren't related. And I need to figure out how to properly document and present them once I've put the heat fixes in place. (I'm not a coder, but once-upon-a-time I was a trained troubleshooter and the habits have stuck.) Plus after a week of farting about in the SPH and sitting in clamps on the runway, I wanted to fly! Yep, if it has enough oomph in the Duna's thin atmosphere, the Tornado is my go-to for a lift fan. It's nice and compact and fits neatly beside a gondola. As you no doubt saw with Skydancer, space on the sides of the envelope is at a premium and I'll need that for my drive motors. If it doesn't have enough oomph, I've got a couple of other ideas but they'll be a pain to implement. Yeah, I've seen the arm/crane over in the M.O.L.E thread and it's pretty cool. Might be an easier way to load/unload a rover than the current cargo elevator.

Messing about with Angel-125's Heisenberg mod and airships for the first time in a long time...

Took the newest version of Norge out for a spin - and even though she looks naked without her signature solar panels, she can flat out haul tail on eight engines. I'll probably go down to four... Her mission doesn't need that amount of speed. Also loving the new "Void" template, that wasn't there the last time I played with airships - it clears out a lot of clutter in the UI. (I'd still love a compressed air template someday.) Also discovered that, when put into an action group, "Toggle fwd/rev" doesn't work. (And what is "Toggle RW"?) Pondering on the various options for a Duna Dirigible, I decided that the primary features I wanted to preserve were the ones that define a blimp as opposed to an aircraft or rocket. The ability to travel indefinitely at low speeds, to hover indefinitely, and to land precisely at zero horizontal speed. That leads inexorably to lift fans. So, when I get to that point I'll look into one of the throttle mods to see if I can move the lift fans to a seperate set of throttles.