[Stock] [1.05] Hurricane Launch Vehicle Family

[Temstar]

Craft files:
Aurora Winged Booster (SPH)

Block I
Hurricane Solo Block I MLLV
Hurricane Duo Block I HLLV
Hurricane Trio Block I SHLLV

Block II
Hurricane Duo Block II HLLV

Block III
Hurricane Duo Block III HLLV
Hurricane Trio Block III SHLLV
 

Background:
Those of you who tried to reproduce the Space Shuttle in KSP knows the number one problem is asymmetric thrust. There I was wrestling with the same problem when I had the brilliant idea of "why not just use more of them?" A pair of shuttles sandwiching an ET between them, now there's some symmetric thrust.

But then I thought about this idea some more, why a shuttle in the first place? Well by attaching your expensive engines to a winged... thing you get to recover and reuse those engines. But the "thing" part doesn't actually have to mean "aircraft shaped fancy payload fairing". Seen as my double shuttle idea calls for the "shuttle" part reaching the orbit together with the ET I may as well put the payload on top, then move majority of the fuel tanks to the "shuttle" part.

Then I recall I saw something similar once, and then sure enough after some research I realised I came upon the same idea as Energia II (Uragan):

|

Or at least, the winged booster part of the idea.

Hurricane Launch Vehicle Family

Block II parachute ET recovery assumes average recovery rate of 80% of the value of the ET, otherwise all recovery are assuming 100% recovery value as they are flyback.

Awww yes the convenience and familiarity of vertical rocket launch with the low cost/ton of SSTO spaceplanes. Normal vertically launched rockets, even partially reusable ones specially designed to offer low cost to orbit can barely break the √1000 per ton barrier, so under √600 per ton in a rocket is amazing. The Hurricane launchers achieve this by using the reusable Aurora Winged Booster (more on this later), throwing way only the cheap, engine-less External Tank.

As these launchers are all based on the same propulsion unit they fly just about the same way (they're basically the same rocket, just on different scales), let's have a look at the typical mission profile:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

Launch is simple: throttle up, turn on SAS and hit stage.


At 600m altitude, tilt eastward 5 degrees to start the gravity turn, once the prograde move to your heading just turn SAS on prograde.


This step is only applicable to Hurricane Solo. At T+46 the three drop tanks are empty, so stage them to lighten the vehicle. Hurricane Duo and Hurricane Trio are single stage to orbit so they do not have this staging event.


Boosting to orbit. For 75km x75km orbit I recommend main engine cut off when your AP reaches 74km. Note that generally Hurricane launch vehicles can handing the heat load during ascent without throttling down. But being SSTO (or nearly SSTO with Hurricane Solo) they all have very high TWR towards the end of their burn, hence the high heat. It is entirely acceptable to throttle back the engines if you find your heat load maxing out, it will have negligible influence on aero/gravity loss.


When you get within 15 seconds from AP it's time to start your circularisation burn. The proofing payloads have been strutted down firmly to the decoupler so it's safe to use the Z and X keys for fast throttle response. Eventually you will get that nice circular orbit.


Payload release. Here we see a Hurricane Duo cleanly separating into two Aurora boosters, the External Tank and the Payload. Note that the External Tank has a service bay on it's rear that's open.


For Hurricane Duo and Hurricane Trio, the ET's service bay contains the deorbit fuel tank. This fuel tank is disabled by default to prevent the Auroras from using them. Once payload is released the service bay can be opened and this fuel tank switched on to allow deorbiting the ET.


Deorbiting the External Tank.


Since Hurricane Solo uses drop tanks and a nose mounted payload adaptor the payload release steps are slightly different. The adaptor first separate from the booster, the adaptor has its own reaction wheel, probe core, battery and small thrusters so it can move the payload way to a safe distance before releasing it.


The payload adaptor can then use its engine to deorbit itself.

Aurora Winged Booster



The basic propulsion unit for the Hurricane Launch Vehicle family is the Aurora Winged Booster separately developed in the SPH. The extremely low cost per ton achieved is done via recovering the Auroras which represent a significant proportion of the launch vehicle, including all of its engines. Let's have a look at a typical flyback process:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

After detaching from launch vehicle the Aurora's nav ball is often in an incorrect orientation. You can fix this by opening up the small cargo bay and hit the "Control from Here" option on the probe core.


Deorbiting burn. I personally prefer a fairly big deorbit burn in the area of 150m/s to 200m/s. In this case the ascent profile on the Hurricane Duo was particularly fuel efficient which left me with a lot of fuel on the Aurora. Steeper deorbit angles from longer burns increase target accuracy and decrease heat load.


This is the sort of trajectory you want after a deorbit burn. This one been a rather steep deorbit I targeted middle of the Africa shaped continent that KSC is on. For shallow deorbit you can aim for a point further away from KSC - I've glided back to KSC from trajectory that indicated it was going to land in the coast to the west of the Africa shaped continent.


Once your deorbit burn is completed orientate the Aurora so it enters the atmosphere at high AoA presenting it's belly. This massively increase the drag in the upper atmosphere lowering the peak heat load. The belly first orientation also spreads out a heat on a wider area. The AoA should be between 30 to 40 degrees.


Once peak heat load passes you can now lower the nose to start the glide phase. Note that during the transition between reentry and glide the Aurora can be quite twitchy if you perform any violent manoeuvres, I recommend switching fine control on before you pitch down by pressing the Caps Lock.


Gliding back to KSC with air brakes deployed.


Aurora shortly before touch down. Don't worry too much about running out of runway - with six air brakes and powerful braking force on the landing gears the Aurora can stop in a hurry. The main thing is try to land with minimum vertical speed by flaring just before touch down.


And here it is, safe and sound back at KSC runway for that sweet 100% recovery rate.

The craft file for Aurora Winged Booster is intended for SPH. Note that it's partially fuelled as this is the test fuel load for horizontal take off to orbit and deorbit mission. For use as actual booster I recommend filling all bipropellant fuel tanks and then retract the landing gears before you save the subassembly.

Speaking of subassembly, here's a how to:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

I setup my assembly by dividing the Aurora into two, a bottom section and a top section. The section you attach often has a pretty wonky orientation.


Use the rotation and offset gizmo to correct the orientation.


You can then attach the top half fine.

Of course just because I used the Aurora to create the Hurricane launch vehicle family doesn't mean they are limited to this, they are useful for all sorts of payloads that can support radial boosters such as this interplanetary ship:

Edited January 18, 2016 by Temstar

[Stone Blue]

Nice.....

So how best do you recover the boosters in a stock game?...Or would you recommend using Flight Manager for Reuseable Stages ?

PS- I STILL use the Munshine lifters in 1.0.5.... They are proving to be timeless...

[Temstar]

I don't use FMRS, but seems like a good option. However if you do use it to recover stages then it's by definition not stock

With stock I've seen three methods:

• SSTO, the whole rocket goes up on a single stage, release payload into orbit and then deorbit itself. Eg: SKRV
• two stage, where the first stage separate quite early during flight after providing a huge amount or acceleration. The upper stage coast up to above the atmosphere, during this coast you switch to the first stage and land it on Kerbin. Once it lands you immediately switch back to the 2nd stage and it will just about reach AP for the circularisation burn
• what I've done here

I'm planning to work on making the ET for Dual and Trio recoverable, shouldn't be very hard. Although I don't think it will make the economics much better as the empty ET is worth very little.

[Rune]

  On 12/27/2015 at 1:30 AM, Temstar said:

I don't use FMRS, but seems like a good option. However if you do use it to recover stages then it's by definition not stock

With stock I've seen three methods:

• SSTO, the whole rocket goes up on a single stage, release payload into orbit and then deorbit itself. Eg: SKRV
• two stage, where the first stage separate quite early during flight after providing a huge amount or acceleration. The upper stage coast up to above the atmosphere, during this coast you switch to the first stage and land it on Kerbin. Once it lands you immediately switch back to the 2nd stage and it will just about reach AP for the circularisation burn
• what I've done here

I'm planning to work on making the ET for Dual and Trio recoverable, shouldn't be very hard. Although I don't think it will make the economics much better as the empty ET is worth very little.

Expand  

I wanted to comment, because I like the concept a lot (as I think I have already said elsewhere). But I didn't know what to add! Still, that post provides a very good excuse...

Isn't this a SSTO? I mean, the "Hurricane Solo" is a stage-and-a-half, but in all other designs you pull the ET with you all the way to orbit. That means you have the relatively low payload fraction of a SSTO... But I'm nitpicking, really.

And there would be another class too, those that use very fast-firing boosters that detach and reach the ground before the rest of the rocket goes past 22.5kms. Not that I have built one, but it should be doable, with Fleas and chutes. Not very practical, though, given how easy SSTO is in kerbin.

 

Rune. Oh, and the "Hurricane Dual" would fit better the naming scheme being "Hurricane Duo".

[Temstar]

  On 12/27/2015 at 12:01 PM, Rune said:

Isn't this a SSTO? I mean, the "Hurricane Solo" is a stage-and-a-half, but in all other designs you pull the ET with you all the way to orbit. That means you have the relatively low payload fraction of a SSTO... But I'm nitpicking, really.

Expand  

Yeah true enough, but I suppose generally when people think SSTO reusable rocket they expect the entire rocket to come back in one unit as well. That's certainly doable but if you want that kind of reusable SSTO to also have precision landing capability AND be able to scale the design up and down then it becomes really difficult.

Meanwhile I've been working on this:

  Reveal hidden contents

Credit goes to @Darth Lazarus to demonstrate to me that this method does indeed work. 

And yes @Rune it will be called "Hurricane Duo Block II", ditto the Block I.

Edited December 27, 2015 by Temstar

[Darth Lazarus]

wow, very nice lifter concept   well done Temstar! Well done !

 

and it's nice to see, that i inspired you with the parachute landing. I know it full of trial and error, but it works perectly

 

[Temstar]

Hurricane Duo Block II HLLV is released!




By utilising parachute recovery on the External Tank, this version of Hurricane Duo is now fully reusable! The recovery equipment decreases the payload slightly by 2 tons compared to the Block I design. The ascent is still the same as Block I.

ET recovery typically go like this:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

Deorbit step is still the same as Block 1. Remember to switch on the fuel tank inside the service bay to feed fuel to the deorbit engines.


Trajectory after deorbit burn.


Peak heat during reentry. Note that airbrake deployment is required to keep the ET in correct orientation with heat shield down during reentry. The heat load during reentry has been extensively tested and max out at around 80% on airbrakes so it's safe to keep them open the whole way during the reentry.


ET passing overhead over KSC


Once it's safe to do so, deploy the parachutes. When the ET hits dense enough air for the parachutes to fully deploy the tank will automatically go into a near horizontal orientation. You may want to use the SAS to keep it exactly level if you have plenty of electricity left for your reaction wheels.


Safe splashdown near the Island Airfield.


A different landing, this time on land with downward slope to prove the design.

Craft file is in the OP

I must say I wasn't convinced that recovering the ET would make that much difference in terms of cost/ton to orbit. Now looking at the numbers (the ET recovery amount is assuming you average 80% value recovered. With practice you should be able to get even higher than that) I can see it does make a difference.

I probably won't be making a Block II for Hurricane Trio though. The plan is now to proceed directly to a Block III for Hurricane Duo and Trio with winged ET so the ET itself can also make a precision landing back at KSC for that 100% recovery.

Edited December 27, 2015 by Temstar

[mythic_fci]

Very nice! These are great reusable ships that deserve to be used in all career saves At least, they'll replace my ELVs in my career save for a long while. Unrelated question - what graphical mods do you use @Temstar? Those screenshots look amazing. I know Scatterer and EVE are being used, but what other mods are being used (if any)?

[Temstar]

  On 12/27/2015 at 4:26 PM, FCISuperGuy said:

Very nice! These are great reusable ships that deserve to be used in all career saves At least, they'll replace my ELVs in my career save for a long while. Unrelated question - what graphical mods do you use @Temstar? Those screenshots look amazing. I know Scatterer and EVE are being used, but what other mods are being used (if any)?

Expand  

It's Scatterer and SVE on medium resolution texture. SVE is like EVE but fancier, it uses a lot more memory though and I notice KSP crash more often with it installed. But looks amazing.

[sgt_flyer]

looks a bit like the old Ariane 5 FLS concept  (except the core stage had it's own engine)  http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/arie5fls.htm

 

 

[XB-70A]

Impressive achievement! I wanted a long time ago to attempt an Uragan, but the recovery of multiple self-propelled boosters was too complicated on KSP. If only they would have gone back independently to the center or if we could remote control them from the main launcher.

[Matuchkin]

  On 12/26/2015 at 3:48 PM, Temstar said:

I came upon the same idea as Energia II (Uragan):

Expand  

Your LV family was called "Hurricane" because of the English meaning of the Russian word "Uragan"?

Not a bad idea, I usually spend too much time trying to make a BadS name for my rockets. I never really thought of that approach.

Anyways, a very nice craft, I haven't seen that idea in a long time. As the question goes amongst winged aircraft, would it work in FAR?

I really don't remember if gifs are allowed here, so please do not penalize me if they aren't. Just tell me, and I will remove it.

Edited December 27, 2015 by 073198681

[Rune]

  On 12/27/2015 at 11:01 PM, 073198681 said:

I really don't remember if gifs are allowed here, so please do not penalize me if they aren't. Just tell me, and I will remove it.

Expand  

I believe they aren't actually, which is why you don't see them. But I could be wrong, a quick look at the rules should clear it up.

[Temstar]

Yeah I know about the Ariane 5 flyback booster thing. And yes It's named Hurricane because of the Uragan connection.




Interestingly both Ariane 5 LFBB and Baikal (flyback booster proposed for Angara) have nose mounted jet engines to give them powered flight capability. That's something I might have a look at. Putting the jet engine in the nose is quite clever and I know why they designed it like that - otherwise the empty booster will be extremely tail heavy and will naturally want to flip around in flight. I resolved this on my flyback by putting the biggest fuel tank in front.

Now if only Squad would give us hinges so I could make proper viable geometry wings.

Edited December 28, 2015 by Temstar

[Matuchkin]

  On 12/28/2015 at 12:47 AM, Rune said:

I believe they aren't actually, which is why you don't see them. But I could be wrong, a quick look at the rules should clear it up.

Expand  

Thank you for telling me. I appreciate the information.

Also, thank you for writing in such a legible way, I really had a good time reading this.

[Rune]

  On 12/28/2015 at 12:51 AM, Temstar said:

Now if only Squad would give us hinges so I could make proper viable geometry wings.

Expand  

Well, as long as you are going to space, nobody is stopping you from undocking a stowed (i.e: strutted) wing, then re-docking it into a flying configuration with a firm double (or triple) dock. That could work.

 

Rune. Hang on, I'm having ideas... might tackle an Energia 2/Uragan replica next.

[Temstar]

  On 12/28/2015 at 1:30 AM, Rune said:

Well, as long as you are going to space, nobody is stopping you from undocking a stowed (i.e: strutted) wing, then re-docking it into a flying configuration with a firm double (or triple) dock. That could work.

Expand  

That's crazy enough that it might just work.

You will need double dock for sure though, wouldn't want to have to try to fly back to KSC with lop sided wings. All the RCS stuff will probably need to be on the wing part too for simplicity.

[sgt_flyer]

mmh, you should be able to hide a mechanism like this within an interstage fairing (just have a gap between two fuel tanks - besides, it'll prevent the mechanism from making drag) you might only need an additionnal fixed flat piece just above the wing, so it stays level during rotation (for a baikal style wing). - just keep in mind that a docking event will reset the throttle to zero , so you want to do that while you're in the ballistic phase 

 

Edited December 28, 2015 by sgt_flyer

[DMSP]

I just put some of my Gilly Colony Modules into orbit with a "Solo".

I just want to say it's an excellent lifter.

I'll be using it again.

[DMSP]

Well, I encountered a problem.

The "Aurora Winged Booster Flight 1" Broke up on re-entry.

It kept tumbling from 65,000 M onwards and broke up at about 1,230 M/S at 28,500 Meters.

Any idea what happened?

 

Otherwise the lifter preformed incredibly well.

[Temstar]

Could you describe a bit the parameters around this reentry? Most important numbers are your AoA, original orbit, deorbit burn delta-V and SAS setting.

I usually just set AoA to 40 degrees and put SAS on hold heading, turn on fine control and just make minor adjustment to AoA to keep it between 30-40 degree range and then wait till around 1300m/s before i transition to level fight.

Oh another thing, if you are reentering with fuel remaining, pump the fuel to the middle of the craft, say the adapter between 3.75m tank and mark 3 tank. Generally if you have fuel left it will be at the most rearward tank and that will upset the CoM too much. Since the craft is already tail heavy as there's nothing heavy in the nose to counter balance the extremely heavy engine it wants to flip in the air. Having the CoM a fair bit in front of CoL allows control surfaces to counteract this tendency to flip but if you upset the CoM by having fuel in the rear then you run the risk of aerodynamic forces overpowering the control surface's ability to keep it straight.

 

[Majorjim!]

  On 12/28/2015 at 1:57 AM, Temstar said:

That's crazy enough that it might just work.

You will need double dock for sure though, wouldn't want to have to try to fly back to KSC with lop sided wings. All the RCS stuff will probably need to be on the wing part too for simplicity.

Expand  

This has been done before. It is 100% possible. The problem you have is, and it renders the whole idea moot is that you can only ever recover one booster..

[Stone Blue]

  On 12/28/2015 at 2:44 PM, Majorjim said:

The problem you have is, and it renders the whole idea moot is that you can only ever recover one booster..

Expand  

Hence, why I was wondering if FMRS was a possibility... But that was already discussed above...

[Majorjim!]

  On 12/28/2015 at 6:13 PM, Stone Blue said:

Hence, why I was wondering if FMRS was a possibility... But that was already discussed above...

Expand  

I don't know what FMRS is..

 

[sgt_flyer]

  On 12/28/2015 at 6:20 PM, Majorjim said:

I don't know what FMRS is..

 

Expand  

i guess he's talking about this addon that creates multiple save points when you drop a recoverable stage, so you can switch between saves to control each part

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/72605-105-flight-manager-for-reusable-stages-fmrs-v1001/