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Showing results for tags 'proble core'.
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I think there needs to be some redesign on the RC-L01, which is the 2.5m probe, a/k/a Remote Guidance Unit. I must say I love its little brother, the RC-001S - the latter is my go-to probe core for most ships (both manned and unmanned) due to full SAS functionality. Unfortunately, the bigger RGU is inferior in almost every way. It's much heavier (0.5 tons vs 0.1), uses more electricity, and has only tiny improvements in SAS torque and electricity storage. Apart from looking bad next to its little brother, the RC-L01 is also completely eclipsed by both the new HECS-2, and even the Mk2 drone core. Both feature substantially more battery storage and torque, for much lower mass. The Mk2 is even pretty competitive in cost. The HECS-2 costs more, but I guess you pay for the ease of not needing separate batteries and reaction wheels, as well as the "cool factor." And truth be told, I don't care much about spending a small amount more on my spiffy resuable ships or interplanetary craft. Thus, it seems the only real reason you'd ever currently use the RC-L01 is if you have a 2.5m stack and absolutely no place to put a 1.25m probe core. But that's seldom the case - even on bigger ships I almost always have a tapered front end, with a medium docking port or the like in front, where a probe core could fit. Heck, if you had no other options you could put in a 2.5m service bay, put NOTHING in it but the smaller RGU, and STILL come out ahead mass-wise. It seems like there are two decent solutions. The first, more humdrum one, is to just reduce the mass and power consumption to be more in line with the smaller RGU. Basically, imagine the Kerbal engineers took the little one, and did nothing more with it than encased it in an adapter to fit the 2.5m form factor. Since we have some pretty darn light 2.5m parts (Rockmax adapters, Z4k battery, big reaction wheel), it's apparent "in world" that just building a thin disk to the 2.5m form factor should not add a ton of weight. The second option, which I'd endorse, is to leave the RC-L01 somewhat heavy, and maybe increase the cost, but add some better features to balance it out. More electricity storage and torque would be goods starts, again to make this competitive with the OKTO-2 as a one-stop solution for several needs. But there are probably more interesting options as well. Maybe a little monopropellant, like with the manned command modules? It's a pain to have to lug even the tiny-sized monopropellant tank if you want to dock an unmanned craft. Built-in static solar panels or RCS thrusters? Something brand-new? At the end of the day I don't really care if it's not the more practical part ever, but it should at least be interesting and not all-around worse than previous parts. It's an end-line part that takes 1,000 science to get. That alone should demand a cool factor, and right now it's just not there.
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