[1.12.5] Bluedog Design Bureau - Stockalike Saturn, Apollo, and more! (v1.14.0 "металл" 30/Sep/2024)

[DaveyJ576]

15 hours ago, Spike88 said:

I'm trying to launch the Vanguard 1 rocket for the History of Spaceflight contract. The contract needs me to launch the satellite to an orbit of 935km x 155km with an inclination between 31 and 37. However I'm struggling to get my rocket to these perimeters. Anyone have any advice? I'm using a 2.5x scale system and I have mechjeb to try and help with the launch.

Yeah, that will be a bit tough to hit exactly. The inclination won't be a problem, but those exact apoapsis and periapsis parameters will be tough to hit. You have to use the Star 20 solid upper stage (X-248 config), with a manual shutdown at just the right time. You can use MJ in either Classic Ascent or PVG, just go for a circular orbit at 159km. After 2nd stage burnout you will still be suborbital, but wait until just before you hit 155km, put your heading just below the horizon, disengage SAS, light the spin motor decoupler, then light the solid. When you hit the desired parameters cut off the solid. I just tried it and got to a 1900km x 159km. I overshot by nearly 1000km. The solids are hard to control.

@Rodger, is it possible that the Vanguard Interstage has the decoupler at the wrong end? At staging the cone stays with the 2nd stage. Shouldn't it stay with the 1st stage? I suppose it was meant to be that way in real life, but it seems like a lot of unnecessary weight to carry uphill.

Thanks!

Edited March 20, 2023 by DaveyJ576

[Spike88]

1 hour ago, DaveyJ576 said:

Yeah, that will be a bit tough to hit exactly. The inclination won't be a problem, but those exact apoapsis and periapsis parameters will be tough to hit. You have to use the Star 20 solid upper stage (X-248 config), with a manual shutdown at just the right time. You can use MJ in either Classic Ascent or PVG, just go for a circular orbit at 159km. After 2nd stage burnout you will still be suborbital, but wait until just before you hit 155km, put your heading just below the horizon, disengage SAS, light the spin motor decoupler, then light the solid. When you hit the desired parameters cut off the solid. I just tried it and got to a 1900km x 159km. I overshot by nearly 1000km. The solids are hard to control.

I’ll have to try this. The closest I got was using PVG to get to 165 periapsis, using a little bit of the second stage to get the desired inclination and start the final burn and then using the solid. My final orbit was 700kmx165km. The contract actually just requires an orbit greater than the minimum, doesn’t have to be exact. 

[DaveyJ576]

@Rodger, disregard my earlier question. I found a document that showed the actual location of the frangible bolts that held the 1st and 2nd stages together. The adaptor did stay with the 2nd stage. The 2nd stage motor was actually hot-staged, with the motor starting before staging happened. The circular shapes on each side of the adaptor were blow out panels that vented the engine exhaust outward until staging actually occurred. There was also a heatshield installed on top of the 1st stage LOX tank to prevent the 2nd stage exhaust from destroying it before separation. It was an interesting system that betrayed the lack of experience on behalf of the designers. This was VERY early in the space age and some of this stuff was just not known at the time. They were learning by doing. 

Edited March 20, 2023 by DaveyJ576

[Blufor878]

Anyone want NLS Centaur?

[Royalswissarmyknife]

13 hours ago, Blufor878 said:

Anyone want NLS Centaur?

No but now I do. 

[Blufor878]

The original version was too large. But I wanted to do some graphics design stuff.

Inspiration was taken from old spaceflight books and information packs. Let me know what you guys think.

[Royalswissarmyknife]

My only question is how useless is this thing for LEO considering its fairing size.

[NaviG]

Hello, how can i replace the stock parachute textures and use the ones that come from this pack? I'm totally noob

Edited March 22, 2023 by NaviG

[CobaltWolf]

On 3/18/2023 at 8:18 AM, TaintedLion said:

Any chance we're gonna get Pegasus and Taurus parts to round out the Orbital solid rocket family?

And is Orion 38 for the existing Minotaur IV possible?

Sorry for the delay in responding, but I was waiting until I had something to show...

 

Minotaur C is also coming. Funnily enough, the one thing I haven't started on is the Orion 38 + avionics, the one thing shared between all these LVs!

[Blufor878]

1 hour ago, Royalswissarmyknife said:

My only question is how useless is this thing for LEO considering its fairing size.

Wait, are you talking about me or something else?

[Zorg]

Just realised I hadn't posted any previews of this (I think?). But I've been working on a MORL station to add to the Skylab sized parts.

The side docking thing isnt really possible so you just have spots for 0.625m ports for radial docking. The top node can be switched between recessed Gemini, semi recessed Apollo and a 1.25m node. The actual version modelled here is based on a document assuming Apollo and Apollo derived logistics modules.

Spoiler

 

My favourite part of this set is in fact the alternative to the solars, a Plutonium Brayton-cycle Generator. Its like a big RTG, just a block of Pu238 but with the far more efficient Brayton cycle for electrical generation. It should achieve something like 20% efficiency compared to a thermoelectric couple which gets around 3-5%. Brayton is more complex though as it has moving parts while TEC does not.

This is almost done at this point tbh, will be in game very soon.

Edited March 22, 2023 by Zorg

[zakkpaz]

20 minutes ago, Zorg said:

 

Is anyone else having trouble geting these two images to load? I love that we're getting these parts, i just wish i could see them.

[Zorg]

3 minutes ago, zakkpaz said:

Is anyone else having trouble geting these two images to load? I love that we're getting these parts, i just wish i could see them.

Strange. Maybe better luck here?

 

[Grimmas]

They didn't load for me either. Maybe because they're discord uploads? Twitter loads fine.

Spoiler

This site can’t be reached

The webpage at https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1075863787862757437/1088165287959994458/screen_2560x1440_2023-03-22_22-46-38.png might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
ERR_INVALID_RESPONSE

 

[septemberWaves]

1 hour ago, Zorg said:

The side docking thing isnt really possible

This looks very interesting, but what makes side docking impossible? Wouldn't it be possible to make a docking port that attaches to the side of Gemini, and has a counterpart which attaches to the side of the station?

[Zorg]

8 minutes ago, septemberWaves said:

This looks very interesting, but what makes side docking impossible? Wouldn't it be possible to make a docking port that attaches to the side of Gemini, and has a counterpart which attaches to the side of the station?

I shouldn't have said impossible but rather messy and problematic (ie needing to deal with robotics and so on).

I put it in the spoiler in my earlier comment but this is the setup. Perhaps people can kitbash this, but Im not interesting in doing this as bespoke parts. Gemini is a bit different but broadly similar.

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by Zorg

[Blufor878]

21 minutes ago, Zorg said:

I shouldn't have said impossible but rather messy and problematic (ie needing to deal with robotics and so on).

I put it in the spoiler in my earlier comment but this is the setup. Perhaps people can kitbash this, but Im not interesting in doing this as bespoke parts. Gemini is a bit different but broadly similar.

 

My brain hurts from looking at this.

[DaveyJ576]

The often rumored but never confirmed Titan I Agena A with the Midas 1 payload. Evening launch from Vandenberg AFB SLC-3W. 

Spoiler

Staging in the high altitude twilight...

Spoiler

Agena A doing its work...

Spoiler

Orbit achieved right on the money. Deploying solar panels and antennas.

On the mission with sensor deployed.

Spoiler

Hmmm... what's going on down there in the Red Sea...

The U.S. Department of Defense issued this statement: "The launch that took place yesterday from Vandenberg Air Force Base was a routine weather satellite deployment. We can neither confirm nor deny that it was associated in any way with the rumored Midas program, neither can we confirm nor deny that any observation of joint Egyptian/Soviet naval exercises in the Red Sea ever took place." 

Edited March 22, 2023 by DaveyJ576

[rcollier]

4 hours ago, Blufor878 said:

My brain hurts from looking at this.

Yeah, you can tell some of these designs come from a time before drug testing became a thing.

[Spike88]

@DaveyJ576 So I set PVG to 150, when my apoapsis hit 159 I cut the engine and ascent guidance and then used maneuver node planner to create a node at apoapsis for a new apoapsis of 934. Using whats left of the second stage and then the solid booster stage got me to an orbit of 1.1Mmx158km(with some fuel left in the SRM) which meets the demands of the contract. Unfortunately, my inclination was only 19%, and this was a test run using KRASH. Tomorrow I'm going to try fine tuning the apoapsis.

[tg626]

2 hours ago, rcollier said:

Yeah, you can tell some of these designs come from a time before drug testing became a thing.

Thats one way to avoid a hatch in the heatshield... There were similar nutty ideas for Gemini and even Mercury I think. Even an inflatible tunnel between capsule and habitable space behind it.

And then there's TKS from the Soviet side of things. 

[DaveyJ576]

10 hours ago, Spike88 said:

@DaveyJ576 So I set PVG to 150, when my apoapsis hit 159 I cut the engine and ascent guidance and then used maneuver node planner to create a node at apoapsis for a new apoapsis of 934. Using whats left of the second stage and then the solid booster stage got me to an orbit of 1.1Mmx158km(with some fuel left in the SRM) which meets the demands of the contract. Unfortunately, my inclination was only 19%, and this was a test run using KRASH. Tomorrow I'm going to try fine tuning the apoapsis.

Sounds like you are making progress! But I need to ask… you do know that inclination can easily be set in MJ, right? Just below the boxes where you set the desired Ap and Pe parameters there is a box to enter the desired inclination. When you use this your rocket will execute a roll maneuver right after launch, rolling to the heading necessary to attain the desired inclination. You can even adjust when the roll  maneuver takes place. Obviously it is better to have your rocket roll to the correct heading before it executes the pitch maneuver, so the earlier the better. I usually set it to roll at 50-60 meters, or whenever the rocket clears the tower (I use the MLP mod for realistic launch pads and towers). 

[Spike88]

On 3/23/2023 at 8:12 AM, DaveyJ576 said:

Sounds like you are making progress! But I need to ask… you do know that inclination can easily be set in MJ, right? Just below the boxes where you set the desired Ap and Pe parameters there is a box to enter the desired inclination. When you use this your rocket will execute a roll maneuver right after launch, rolling to the heading necessary to attain the desired inclination. You can even adjust when the roll  maneuver takes place. Obviously it is better to have your rocket roll to the correct heading before it executes the pitch maneuver, so the earlier the better. I usually set it to roll at 50-60 meters, or whenever the rocket clears the tower (I use the MLP mod for realistic launch pads and towers). 

I did  have the inclination set for 35, not sure why I ended up with a final inclination of 19. Previous launches had all had the proper inclination. I need to experiment and see where I went wrong. I also use MLP.  

 

Edit: I finally got it using a lofted trajectory, once my Apoapsis was 155 I cut the guidance and then burned Normal+ to bring the inclination inline. Finally I created a node at apoapsis and burned to hit the desired orbit before cutting the SRM.  Tested it a couple more times to be sure.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Spike88

[Zorg]

One more addition to the upcoming MORL partset, a Resistojet electric RCS pod. Not too common in KSP mods, resistojets are commonplace in irl GEO satellites. They pass current through a resistive element to heat fluid which can be non reactive.

 

The MORL proposals studied using hydrogen, ammonia and biowaste recovered CO2 (from scrubbers). In game there will be 2 configs, H2 and Monoprop using ammonia stats. One of the options for biowaste recovery was water recovered from poop, though CO2 won out at least within the biowaste category. I think the bare version set to H2 config will be a nice match for nuclear vessels.

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by Zorg

[Spike88]

I finally pulled it off.

Vanguard 1