rhoark

Rotation about the intermediate principal axis of an asymmetric body is an unstable equilibrium, so the axis of rotation will be changed with the slightest perturbing force. In theory, carefully controlling the mass distribution could allow controlled changes of the rotational axis without anywhere close to the energy expenditure of applying torque directly against the undesired axis. When you're done you just make yourself axisymmetric again. I can't tell from the last few pages what the motivation for changing the axis is though. Here's an animation, and further in a link to some equations: http://fouriestseries.tumblr.com/post/91685028535/rotational-stability

The RL-10B2 engine on the IUS uses an expander cycle. The poofy looking tank the engine sits on holds LOX, while the white cylindrical tank holds LH2. The red spheres hold helium to actuate valves, pressurize the LOX tank, and purge water from the system after shutdown. (Water is the combustion byproduct and will freeze and block lines if not purged.) The red cylinders are probably hydrazine for RCS. The LH2 tank is pressurized by gas tapped off the combustion chamber. The black box top/center looks like a computer. There's a schematic of the RL-10B2 on page 9 of this: https://webfiles.uci.edu/dbeerer/rockets/RL10.pdf

There are 3 solid motors in the LES. The main one for abort mode propulsion, one for attitude control, and one for jettison.

Another thing to try is disabling the forward fuel tank until after the turn.

It sounds like the CompoundPart system in 0.9 could have useful implications for robotics. Substructures attached to the parent on a free hinge, then telescoping struts to wherever you like.

You can create a ModuleManager config to slightly scale up all the mk2 parts. Alternatively, the Kerbin Mini Shuttle will comfortably accommodate 1.25m parts that have small radial attaches as well. B9's S2 fuselage set can hold 2.5m cylinders.

The center is full of chocolate.

Wow, NecroBones - that's unexpected. We met a few times on UO Atlantic, I think. Thanks for the fairings.

Use a two-tiered system for steering. One variable holds the desired heading, another variable the commanded heading. The commanded heading should converge to the desired heading at a safe rate.

kOS could be used for something like that.

Doesn't Texture Replacer do exactly that?

I will use this so hard.

I would use the cold gas isp of around 68 as the starting point for nerfs. Keep propellant mass and flow rate the same, and reduce the thrust proportionally to the isp reduction, and see where that gets you. Lower thrust should make it easier to do a proper EVA where the goal is to move about the ship rather than launch from Minmus. It's hard to avoid overshooting currently.

Sounds like you're making it just for me.

RealHeat should be quite helpful - some comments though. Partially shielded parts would be more accurate if they could have 2 instances of the module with a conductive link between them. Each would filter every source of flux to only process those that come from appropriate vectors. The difference would be observable, at a minimum, in that the vehicle would continue to receive significant flux from any non-ablative shield even after landing. The shuttle boiled and vented ammonia to deal with this. Secondly, solar luminance should be recalculated from time to time for compatibility with StarSystems.

With a control surface, you are expending energy to accelerate air particles. A gyro is deferring rather than eliminating the need to expend energy. Thrusting off axis will eventually saturate the gyro, and some other source of torque will have to be applied to bring it back into operation.

The lunar program stopped because N1 failed. N1 failed because the acoustics and fluid dynamics involved in clustering 30 engines was way beyond the state of the art at the time. The accident that caused a lot of deaths was the Nedelin disaster involving an ICBM, not the N1.

SLS is the final draft of Ares V. The same people were responsible. The SLS core tank is the same diameter as a shuttle ET, but longer.

Instead of an experiment, it should be the subject of a contract: deliver it to some arbitrary point in the solar system without turning it upside down in any gravity field above 0.1 G.

The cfgs in the original download are written against an old version of EVE. EVE changed its cfg format.

From 0? Start with this: http://web.mit.edu/alexmv/6.S184/sicp.pdf

HX looks quite amazing and unexpected. The only thing I can imagine that the pack is missing is a hollow connector between S2 and S2W cargo bays. It wouldn't even need to open, just be traversable.

Love it. Unfortunately, I promised myself to make more progress on my own mod before playing any more KSP. A radial version that holds 2-3 cards and omits the RTG/radiator would also be great.

Sounds like a lot of fun. To keep the performance implications reasonable, it would probably need to spawn the rocks in a just-in-time fashion and clean them up at the earliest opportunity.

Regarding size, I suggest a 1.25, frame that accepts the standard parts - just more of them. After that there might be a need for a 1.25m frame devoted to propulsion systems that don't fit in the small frame. (but not replicating larger versions of the original components)