PSA: Struts actually have weight now

[zarakon]

Struts actually have significant weight, at 0.05 each.

All of the weight seems to go on the spot where you place the first part of it.

If a strut gets broken by stage separation, the weight remains with the root of the strut, so if you're strutting across stages make sure the root is always in the lower stage so you can dump it sooner.

Same things are true of FUEL LINES too now.

Actually all of the old massless parts seem to have mass now, but struts and fuel lines are much more meaningful because they now weigh 10x as much as most of the others. Even the cubic octagonal struts have mass now, even though it's only 0.001

Edited May 8, 2015 by zarakon

[Roflcopterkklol]

Struts actually have significant weight, at 0.05 each.

All of the weight seems to go on the spot where you place the first part of it.

If a strut gets broken by stage separation, the weight remains with the root of the strut, so if you're strutting across stages make sure the root is always in the lower stage so you can dump it sooner.

Same things are true of FUEL LINES too now.

Hmmm i wonder if the struts have physics now too then

[Gargamel]

Weight or mass?

[KerbMav]

Build a rocket with a spider web of struts and without, check atmospheric efficiency?

[Sky_walker]

Actually all of the old massless parts seem to have mass now, but struts and fuel lines are much more meaningful because they now weigh 10x as much as most of the others. Even the cubic octagonal struts have mass now, even though it's only 0.001

Wow... I thought I'll never see that moment.

[Col_Jessep]

Oh thanks! I don't use that many struts but every little bit counts sometimes.

[Caelib]

I've noticed in KER that a lot of the science equipment used to be massless, but now that 0.005 weight appears to be applied to the delta-V calculations.

[Wanderfound]

No more massless battery and solar spam: yay!

[MarvelousBreadfish]

Struts are one thing, but some fairings are absolutely ridiculous and can weigh more than the payload itself. I was building a relatively sleek 14t mining ship, and the fairing around it was 20 t, leaving my upper stage at 34 tons. How can a thin outer shell weigh more than a drilling station + ore rafinery?

[eddiew]

IIRC a part that is "massless" now adds it's extra ha'penny of mass to its parent object. That's why 1.0 heatshields didn't work well; they added mass, but it was at the centre of the pod, rather than where they were attached, and didn't bias the pod to fall butt-first like you'd want them to.

[Jarin]

This has gotten me in trouble a few times in career, since I'll often be riding the ragged edge of the launch pad's weight limit.

[LostOblivion]

Struts are one thing, but some fairings are absolutely ridiculous and can weigh more than the payload itself. I was building a relatively sleek 14t mining ship, and the fairing around it was 20 t, leaving my upper stage at 34 tons. How can a thin outer shell weigh more than a drilling station + ore rafinery?

That's not uncommon IRL. SpaceX recently launched two sats à 2 tonnes each, whereas the Falcon 9 fairings weigh in at around 4 tonnes.

[MarvelousBreadfish]

That's not uncommon IRL. SpaceX recently launched two sats à 2 tonnes each, whereas the Falcon 9 fairings weigh in at around 4 tonnes.

I see. Well, for KSP at least I don't think less drag is worth the weight penalty.

[Renegrade]

Yeah, I've done a series of in-vacuum tests (plus a teeter-totter test on the launchpad) and massless components all do assign mass to their IMMEDIATE parent object (not the root object or something), including struts and fuel lines.

..and yeah.. the struts are rather heavy~

[Brotoro]

Being that struts are mainly there to counteract problems in the game (the structural wobbliness that otherwise result), I would hope that Squad would make the struts NOT overly heavy or draggy.

[Michaelo90]

No more massless battery and solar spam: yay!

Actually, that's still possible because physicsless parts mounted on physicsless parts are still massless.

[LostOblivion]

Are there any physicsless parts with surface attach possibility, though?

[Silanda]

That's not uncommon IRL. SpaceX recently launched two sats à 2 tonnes each, whereas the Falcon 9 fairings weigh in at around 4 tonnes.

The numbers I can find put the Falcon 9's fairing at ~1.9 tonnes, and even if it was double that, that is for a ~500 tonne rocket. The fairings in KSP seem excessively heavy at the moment.

[windows_x_seven]

Oh noes...

Well, that's realism for us

[Armchair Rocket Scientist]

The numbers I can find put the Falcon 9's fairing at ~1.9 tonnes, and even if it was double that, that is for a ~500 tonne rocket. The fairings in KSP seem excessively heavy at the moment.

Yep. That's a 5 meter by 13 meter fairing.

Does anyone know if there's a config somewhere where we can change the "density" of fairings?

[SaturnV]

Cool, now wheels are not the only thing that has mass on my tiny rover. Sounds much more reasonable.

[zarakon]

Actually, that's still possible because physicsless parts mounted on physicsless parts are still massless.

Yep, struts placed on cubic octagonal struts add no mass, and the cubics only have 0.001

[Kaezan]

Oh noes...

Well, that's realism for us

KSP is not supposed to be realistic!

[LostOblivion]

The numbers I can find put the Falcon 9's fairing at ~1.9 tonnes, and even if it was double that, that is for a ~500 tonne rocket. The fairings in KSP seem excessively heavy at the moment.

You're right of course.

[samstarman5]

Whackjob probably has a tic in his eye from this. He better not let it discourage him.

Being that struts are mainly there to counteract problems in the game (the structural wobbliness that otherwise result), I would hope that Squad would make the struts NOT overly heavy or draggy.

Then you economize and strategically place said struts. I've been doing that long before, being careful to place them as symmetrically as possible and as few as necessary(especially with career and parts costs).

Struts are not a game-only implementation. They see plenty of use in the space program, or did at least when the shuttle fleet was in operation, and they do see use on the ISS. They just weren't used as visibly or generously as they are used in KSP. If you do have to use more struts because of a crazy build...then use more boosters. That is our mantra, after all.