Jamie Logan

Thanks!.. I guess. I'll admit it's a little unconventional, but crude and ugly?

Hey KSP People!! So the other day I decided to put together an orbiter that can place a small payload into orbit, as well as land in one piece, and thought it would be cool to built it a space shuttle style launch vehicle. There are a few major differences between my shuttle and the real one, such as the non-solid external boosters, lack of wings, landing like a capsule, and the way I chose to model the cargo bay. The cargo bay opens by splitting the orbiter in half, and then re-docking after the payload is released (in this case It's just a small satellite) The Launch into orbit is not too difficult, as long as you are constantly watching/correcting orientation. The vehicle has a decent amount of tolerance for the center of mass being out of line from the center of thrust due to the 5 SAS modules used (4 on the orbiter and 1 on the orange booster) Keep in mind that the success of the launch is entirely dependent on activating and deactivating the small radial rockets at the correct time. If done incorrectly, you will surely spin out of control and crash. The whole purpose of the radial rockets is to provide enough torque to keep the vehicle from pitching too far out of the control of ASA/gimbaling engines/etc. The first set of radial rockets thrust upwards (with respect to the cockpit's control axis) because the center of mass is below the line of thrust to begin with. As fuel is burned from the orange tanks (which feed the orbiter's engines) the center of mass shifts upwards (towards the cockpit) and the direction of radial thrust has to be reversed as the center of mass continues to shift upwards throughout the ascent. there are three sets of radial rockets that are used in the opposite direction from the first set in order to keep the vehicle under control. As soon as the orange booster runs out, stage it away immediately, as the imbalance of thrust will cause the vehicle to flip out. you may have to practice your orbital ascent a few times, as it is not nearly as straightforward as a regular rocket ascent. Anyway, here are the... ----------------------------------- FLIGHT INSTRUCTIONS ----------------------------------- 1)Throttle to 100% 2)Activate the single engine that is attached to the launch clamp. This is just used for emptying the jet fuel tank that is right behind the cockpit. It is only there for aesthetics and should be emptied prior to liftoff. 3)Stage to liftoff. The first 5,000m of ascent are very stable, requiring almost no manual input. 4)Hit space to stage away external boosters when they shut down. 5)Around 5,000m, press 1 to shutdown the initial set of radial engines. By this point the center of thrust should be in line with the center of mass 6)Start gravity turn around 10,000m. At this point the center of mass is starting to shift above the center of thrust so hit space to activate the second set of radial engines (which point the opposite way from the first) 7)Hit space to activate the third and fourth sets of radial engines when needed. The last set should be activated just prior to main booster shutdown. 8)Hit space to stage away main booster immediately after shutdown to avoid flipping out. 9)The rest should be pretty simple. Hit the horizon with an AP of about 50,000m for maximum efficiency. 10)when landing, try to keep a little fuel left in order to slow down just before touchdown. -------------- HOTKEYS -------------- 1)shuts down first set of radial rockets 2)extends solar panels Craft file: http://www./?8fvn12qf8eqzrj8 Wingless Space Shuttle Orbiter in flight:

This is the coolest thing I have seen on the forums in a while. Amazing!

Well I guess the purpose behind the chairs was to make an efficient lander, that's all. Also I find it silly to be considering "real world applications" when playing a game involving little green men, but ok.

Quite a large lander compared to my two man version. Lightweight and efficient is the way to go, man!

I don't get all of the negativity. I think this is an amazing design, and I love the fact that landing this vehicle adds an extra challenge to the game, as you need to be more gentle with the touchdown.

Hey KSP People. I've got yet another real life replica to show you all; the unmanned SpaceX Dragon supply capsule along with it's launch vehicle: the Falcon 9! I'm sure you all have seen KSP replicas of older spacecraft (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, etc) so I decided to replicate something that is very new and very much in use today. There have been four successful Dragon launches to date (all unmanned), of which three have supplied cargo to the ISS. The craft has enough Delta-V to get into orbit, rendezvous with a target in LKO (in this flight I used the stock space station core) and spalsh down back at Kerbin. The biggest problem is that the central part of the capsule tends to break (even with no crash damage and unbreakable joints enabled) and spew debris everywhere both on water and land touchdowns. It's kind of annoying but I didn't think it was that much of a problem considering this is purely for aesthetics and not meant to be practical. Action groups: 1)stage away nose cone (do this after second stage cut off because it has no sepatrons, just the force of the clipping parts to nudge it away) 2)toggle solar panels Craftfile: http://www./view/h3q60qn0c8ua56j/Dragon.craft

Awesome!!!!!!

Hey KSP People! I'm back with my latest project: A complete Tylo landing mission included in one single launch vehicle! I have been testing this design intensively, and have been successful many times in both landing, and returning to Kerbin without running out of fuel or losing any Kerbals. The mission isn't particularly difficult as long as you follow the flight plan and use your fuel as efficiently as possible in your injection burns, course corrections, orbital maneuvers, and most critical of all: the landing. ---------------------------------- FLIGHT INSTRUCTIONS: ---------------------------------- Pre-launch notice: Make sure that the angle between Kerbin and Jool is ~95 degrees for optimum planetary phase. This will make sure that you go directly into a Jool encounter after your injection burn with minimal course correction needed. Launch and Jool injection burn: 1)Engage SAS, throttle to 100%, hit spacebar 2)Gravity turn ~10,000m 3)Stage outer boosters when they run out 4)Hit the horizon wtih an AP of ~50,000m 5)Stage central booster when it's empty 6)Coast to AP, use small "poodle" stage to put you into a circular orbit 7)Stage away "Poodle" stage, sepatrons will deorbit it 8)Activate both nuclear rockets 9)Set a maneuver node as shown in photos, Delta-V requirement should be ~1950m/s Side notes: 1)You will need to make the injection burn in multiple passes, three usually works the best for me 2)The nuclear engines will draw fuel from both the lander's tanks and from the command module's tanks. This is not a problem because you can transfer the fuel back into the lander before landing. Another option would be to just disable fuel flow from all six lander tanks. Whatever feels right to you Journey to low Tylo orbit: 1)Make any necessary inclination corrections to match Jool's orbital plane. This Maneuver should be small because Jool's inclination is close to Kerbin's 2)Try to reduce your Jool PE to as close to Jool as possible (or even into Jool itself) prior to entering Jool's SOI 3)Once in Jool's SOI, adjust your PE to ~128,000m for aerocapture. Aerobreaking at this altitude will put you onto a highly eccentric orbit around Jool 4)After aerocapture, coast to Jool AP, and create a maneuver node that will boost your Jool PE up to the Tylo orbiting altitude 5)Coast down to Jool PE and make a slight retrograde burn (I suggest using RCS instead of fuel to be more precise) that will adjust your orbital period so that the next time you return to the altitude of Tylo's orbit you will enter Tylo's SOI with a PE of ~60,000m 6)Continue around your eccentric Jool orbit one last time that places you right into your Tylo encounter 7)Once in Tylo's SOI, make several retro-burns at PE to place your craft into a circular orbit at ~60,000m Side notes: 1)Make sure you aerobreak in Jool's atmosphere in the correct direction (East) otherwise you will encounter Tylo in the retrograde direction and will have no hope getting into orbit 2)This part of the mission can be different every time because it is impossible to plan for Laythe and Vall to be out of your way when making orbital maneuvers. Most of the time you wont have to worry, but beware you might need to make further adjustments to avoid unwanted encounters. 3)On more than one test I didn't need to make the Jool orbit Period adjustment maneuver and subsequent extra orbit because Tylo happened to be in the right place when I returned to my Jool PE. If this happens to you then just go with it and skip step 5 4)Keep your Tylo orbit above 60,000m to allow for faster time acceleration Pre-landing: 1)Transfer two Kerbals via EVA from the Command Module to the two seats on either side of the lander 2)Transfer fuel into lander to make sure it is full if it isn't already 3)Undock, and plan make a slight retro burn shortly after sunset so that you will end up landing on the day side of Tylo (landing in the dark is suicide ) 4)Perform slight retro burn to lower your PE to ~6,500m THIS IS CRITICAL! if your PE is too low you will collide with surface and if it is too high you will have high gravity losses and will run out of fuel when returning to orbit after landing 5)coast down to PE, use physical time acceleration once below 30,000m so it doesn't take forever Sidenotes: 1)Once you leave the Command Module in orbit, it is stranded due to lack of engines. If you are feeling extra wimpy, you will always have the option of aborting the landing and coasting back up to your 60,000 AP in order to rendezvous with the CM. But that wouldn't be the right stuff now would it? Landing: 1)Begin your landing descent burn once you reach your 6,500 PE. At this point your horizontal velocity should be ~2,050m/s 2)IT IS CRITICAL that you maintain a vertical velocity no greater than -10m/s while retroburning. Any greater and you will be descending too rapidly and will slam into the ground moving at ludicrous speed. Do this by constantly adjusting your angle of burn to maintain a -10m/s vertical descent velocity 3)Once your surface velocity hits ~500m/s you can allow your vertical velocity to increase so that you begin your final descent quickly to cut down on gravity losses 4)Lower your landing gear 5)LAND THAT SUCKER! Side notes: 1)At some point during the descent burn the two exterior tanks will run out, so decouple them as soon as they are empty. They can also be used to get an estimate on your radar altitude on your final approach so watch the distance indicators on them up until they impact the surface 2)Deactivate SAS and activate fine controls just before landing. By this point the lander will be fairly light and overly responsive so be careful about over thrusting and losing control just before touchdown. Launch back to orbit: 1)Place both Kerbals back into their seats after a glorious EVA 2)Throttle to 100%, liftoff, and orient the lander to the east ~45 degrees to vertical, at first as to gain primarily horizontal speed but altitude as well in order to avoid colliding with those pesky crater rims 3)Lower your angle of burn as your horizontal velocity increases and continue until you have an AP on the other side of Tylo of ~40,000m 4)Coast to AP and make a slight prograde burn to circularize your orbit 5)Rendezvous with the CM 6)Transfer landing crew back into CM prior to docking. If not they will be knocked off lander because of weird game physics Side note: 1)Select "Control from here" on the CM's docking port to allow easier docking, as you will need to dock the CM backwards onto the lander because it has no RCS Return to Kerbin 1)Prior to leaving Tylo orbit, make sure that Tylo is in the correct position relative to Jool and the Sun. You want this angle between the Sun and Tylo (with Jool as the vertex) to be ~100 degrees 2)Place a maneuver node that will allow you to escape Tylo in the Tylo retrograde direction, and drop into a tight Jool PE as shown. This burn can and should be made in one pass 3)Once you have dropped into your low Jool PE make a prograde burn to achieve Jool escape velocity. If your phase angle was set up and timed properly then you should be escaping Jool in its retrograde direction and falling down to a Sun PE that matches Kerbin's orbital altitude 4)This point is specific to the circumstances of your mission. if you can manage to get a Kerbin encounter on the initial injection from Jool then great! If it would happen that Kerbin is simply in the wrong place when you reach your Sun PE then simply make a slight retro burn to adjust the time it takes for you to make one extra pass around your solar orbit to arrive back at your PE exactly when Kerbin gets there. This method will always work, with the trade off of waiting a loooooooong time to make an extra solar orbit 5)Adjust your final approach to Kerbin to intersect the atmosphere. In this case I decided to land at the north pole just for fun 6)Deploy the Parachute 7)Open up a bottle of champagne to celebrate another successful mission to the far reaches of the solar system Sorry this is a lot of text and a lot of pictures but I really wanted to show you all this mission and I hope you will give it a try and tell me what you think! Mediafire Download-http://www./download/cgwotj9chdf0dw6/Tylo_X.craft

infinite power!!!!!1!!!!11!!!!1!!!

Hey! This is my Apollo-Soyuz replica, which currently only includes the spacecraft, with no launch vehicles. (Yes, this was done purely for the glamour shots) I probably won't end up building the launch vehicles and replicating this mission legitimately because of the high part count on each craft including all of the useless aesthetics , and my sub-par CPU probably would have a tough time running it. Regardless, enjoy! Pics: http://imgur.com/a/N3ooq

there are 275 parts including the CSM

I built this CSM just for this photo shoot, it is not the one used in his munbug. is is however very much modeled after his design, which i must admit is the most accurate one ive seen.

Hey guys, I have an updated replica of the Skylab orbital workshop. let me know what you think!

What is the point of the RCS if there are no docking ports?

It's actually hollow. I needed to keep the part count low enough so that my somewhat decent computer can handle it and keep a good framerate. there are just a few struts and stuff.

Hey! This is my Skylab replica in LKO. The station weighs in at about 380 parts. Enjoy!

My "2001 style" station in LKO

Nice! I love everything in this project. keep up the good work.

DAMN! thats amazing!

Woah I love your design! I just wanted to go with a bigger design for this ship. I might try a lightweight/nuclear powered landing at some point. why do you say "almost return"?

I LOVE the new large ports. they hold up very well. However, they don't hold up as well as something like this: but It's not enough of an advantage for me to really want to do lots of bulky quadruple dockings in orbit

I have tried and failed returning from Eve many times. nothing I ever land on the surface ever has enough Delta-v to get more than a few Km up before falling back down.

This was my second Tylo landing and return mission. The entire interplanetary vessel was launched in four parts and assembled in LKO. The mission also required the launch of two refueling tankers to replenish the fuel supplies in the drive system tank, totaling in six launches for the whole mission. I designed each component of the vessel to be modular to allow any desired docking arrangement to be possible, provided fuel cross-feed is functioning properly. Launch One: the Drive System tank Launch Two: the Drive System engines Launch Three and Four: the Refueling tankers Launch Five: the Lander Launch Six: the Crew Module Vehicles on the launch pad: Launch One: the Drive System tank Launch Two: the Drive System engines Launch Three and Four: the Refueling tankers Launch Five: the Lander Launch Six: the Crew Module Mission Photos: Drive System fuel tank, already launched into orbit Rendezvousing and docking the Drive System Engine Rendezvousing and docking the first of two refueling tankers Rendezvousing and docking the lander Lastly, rendezvousing and docking the Crew Module Heading off to Jool!!! Aerocapture in Jool's atmosphere Tylo Encounter Tylo orbital capture/circularization EVAing Jeb and Bill over to lander Still using rover seats to cut down on weight Piloting the Crew Module with Bob still inside into a lower orbit to await Jeb and Bill returning from the surface to rendezvous a few days later Disconnecting all of the parts to get rid of the empty Drive System tank prior to landing Deorbiting the empty Drive System tank using RCS Seconds before impact Starting deorbit burn for landing using Drive System engines Getting rid of the Drive System engines and quickly pitching around 180 degrees to ignite lander engine Final landing descent!!! Landed!!! Launching back into orbit. discarded landing stages can be seen in background Rendezvousing with Bob/Crew Module, EVAing back in Ditching the lander and large docking ports Deorbiting lander with leftover fuel Seconds before impact Leaving Tylo Dropping into a tight Jool Periapsis before making the interplanetary transfer burn Leaving Joolian system Home at last!!! Please comment with suggestions on future missions.

The Orange ones tend to overheat/collapse much easier I find.