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Showing results for tags 'mythbusting'.
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(Cross post from the Reddit board) So I came across some YouTube videos about Kraken Drives which seemed to re-iterate a few misconceptions about them and their capabilities. Myth 1: Limited carrying capacity A kraken drive relies on the non-Newtonian wheel "reaction" force to propel a craft forward. A single wheel will have a certain carrying threshold; more force required = more wheels can be placed in parallel. Myth 2: Hard to control Kraken drive force is no different to an un-gimballed engine: put the force along the centre of mass and it will work fine. There are some complexities, primarily around where the centre of force on a wheel/lander leg is generated, but these are simply things to be aware of in the vessel design. There is a maximum amount of force you can put through a wheel before it deforms, creating less predicable effects, and also wheels can only be compressed by a given amount before they warp and twist, also reducing their predictability and effectiveness. Myth 3: Cannot be used in time warp Prior to self-interaction, this was true. These days Kraken drives can be time warped without any issue. Interestingly they only work at full power in single physics time, however. Physics warp appears to maintain their output but over a longer time frame (i.e. reducing their actual force), and this can even be used to make more precise manoeuvres Myth 4: Cannot be used in interstellar space This myth is based on a true fact: applying kraken force to a wheel in Kerbol SOI (particularly further out than the Kerbin orbit) generates a tremendous amount of wheel stress which can cause the wheel to buckle a few seconds after being turned on. This can be alleviated by reducing the spring and damper strength to 0, but the real trick is to add a KAL which "cycles" any kraken drive wheels, toggling their self-interaction on and off over a period of about 3-4 seconds (from my testing this only needs to be off for <0.5s, so the power loss is limited, and if this is staggered over all wheels then the effect is smoothed) as this stops the wheel damage from occurring while allowing thrust to be maintained indefinitely. To provide evidence that these myths are indeed just that I knocked together a rocket which took 10500 units of Ore from KSC to Dres. Having spent many dozens of hours investigating their use, I have already shared some of my creations here and on KerbalX, but could also think about making a longer tutorial, if there is interest.
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So I was thinking that some people have a certain myth that they want me to bust or anything. For the next two weeks I'll be collecting myths and then I will start busting them ( away from pc right now will be back in two weeks). So things like methods or certain parts that act weird. Anything is welcome. Post below.