Making Kerbal Space Program Realistic Enough to Design Real Rockets and Aircraft

[zephramcochrane]

Hi All,

This is my first post, and it maybe repeating a topic from the past, but doing a search I couldn't find anything like it so here goes.

Kerbal Space Program is the best space simulator out there for the richness in mission content, and having a very active community that builds its own rocket, aircraft, and spacecraft designs, and then flies them in the simulator. As an engineer working in the aerospace industry, it fills my heart with joy to see this. It also is an opportunity in my mind. Aerospace has been stuck in the weeds ever since we left the Moon in the early 70's. True, companies like SpaceX and Planetary Resources are pushing the state of the art forward, but aerospace still suffers from Cold War era thinking in that nobody shares information. The KSP community does not have this problem, you all share freely! I for one want to see much of the vehicles you design in KSP to actually be built and flown, and think the aerospace industry would benefit ENORMOUSLY from your passion and creativity.

So on to my actual question to the community. Is anybody interested in making KSP realistic enough to make it useful as a design tool? From asking around on other forums, and reading other people's posts on this forum, I know KSP has made a lot of progress in making the aerodynamics and dynamics more realistic. Also from playing KSP, some heating effects are also included. But, I also know there is still work to do; I have a list of things that should be included and couldn't tell if they were to make KSP useful as a design tool.

Now I know some of you (the ones who work in the aerospace industry at large companies) have access to very accurate flight simulators (SDK and others) and wind-tunnels, and may be wondering why bother making KSP more realistic. Well my answer is this, those accurate flight simulators are not accessible to the mass public, KSP is. KSP is affordable, and already has a huge community of vehicle and mod developers, so if we choose to do so, KSP can become just as good the expensive flight simulators NASA or Boeing use.

I'd love to see what you all think about this. Let me know what you think.

[Randazzo]

It's still limited by the Unity engine, but I'd say you should check out the Realism Overhaul thread.

[hab136]

If you want missing planning and simulation, also check out KSP Trajectory Optimization Tool which works with RO/RSS.

[Azimech]

Yes, yes and yes. Take a look at a few of my topics.

What we really need is fluid dynamics, but since we need a monstrous computer for something like that, I have an idea for a simplified model, but that's a long story.

Here's an example of how I like to build aircraft, this being a low detail example. Add skin and you're almost done.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

And here's the first stage of an N1. It flew one first try and didn't explode ;-)

Javascript is disabled. View full album

In KSP, I invented both the turboshaft helicopter and the coaxial turboshaft helicopter, and by now have a pretty big list of other inventions as well.

Here's something I've built to measure the thrust from my "turboshaft" engine/propeller setups, with this I increased efficiency from 8% to 28%. Again since we don't have fluid dynamics, a turboshaft is really just jet engines using their wash to spin a turbine.

So yeah, I'd love a KSP version focused on engineering. I'm currently waiting for a mod to fire my ignition system, en then I'll be launching my piston engines a well.

[NathanKell]

Yep, Realism Overhaul is being used in some academic work and industry presentations for a "first blush" approximation of things.

[regex]

It's still limited by the Unity engine

KSP could use some serious optimization, blaming it all on Unity is lame.

Realism Overhaul is your best bet, OP, and it's pretty darn good too.

[viktor19]

Yep, Realism Overhaul is being used in some academic work and industry presentations for a "first blush" approximation of things.

Wow, never heard of it! Do you have some links? I would like to see those presentations

[NathanKell]

Haven't been made yet, so I don't have a link yet, sorry.

[Rath]

Yep, Realism Overhaul is being used in some academic work and industry presentations for a "first blush" approximation of things.

By NASA, its shown a generic 4X big orange heavy lifter as a "next generation rocket" Another time, on NASA TV there was this guy playing KSP on one of the consoles when he thought no one was watching.

- - - Updated - - -

Yes, yes and yes. Take a look at a few of my topics.

What we really need is fluid dynamics, but since we need a monstrous computer for something like that, I have an idea for a simplified model, but that's a long story.

Here's an example of how I like to build aircraft, this being a low detail example. Add skin and you're almost done.

http://imgur.com/a/Y4zpe

And here's the first stage of an N1. It flew one first try and didn't explode ;-)

http://imgur.com/a/2Kyqs

In KSP, I invented both the turboshaft helicopter and the coaxial turboshaft helicopter, and by now have a pretty big list of other inventions as well.

Here's something I've built to measure the thrust from my "turboshaft" engine/propeller setups, with this I increased efficiency from 8% to 28%. Again since we don't have fluid dynamics, a turboshaft is really just jet engines using their wash to spin a turbine.

So yeah, I'd love a KSP version focused on engineering. I'm currently waiting for a mod to fire my ignition system, en then I'll be launching my piston engines a well.

The plane looks like a Streched-Skin early WW2 plane that has been hit alot