[1.2 - 1.4] Real Scale Boosters, 0.16 (2018-03-12)

[NecroBones]

25 minutes ago, Felbourn said:

I also must ask: Only launch vehicles?

Perhaps venture into parts that will make ground bases, space stations, and payloads?

 

For now yes, LVs. I'm not ruling anything out though.

 

5 minutes ago, jonrd463 said:

Just another suggestion for lifters that don't get much love-- how about the Japanese H series? A well done H-IIB with included turbopump scream would be awesome!

 

Yeah, the H-IIB would be pretty cool. I can add that to the list of possibilities.

 

4 minutes ago, komodo said:

These look insanely awesome. I had a quick question though: I see clearly that the career mode costs and unlocks are whacked. The question would be is it the unlock 'cost' that is considered whacked, or the tree node placement?

Also, is the progression intended to be temporal wise, payload wise, or technology wise? The shuttle-y things seem to pop up sooner in the tree if I recall correctly.

I only ask because it has been on my list to nudge the parts around in the tree for personal taste as far as what unlocks when, along with some look at the speso cost, but I didn't know if there was a general idea as to which direction the balance should go. (Up, down, left, right, red fish, blue fish, etc.)

I understand that these are big*** boosters, but I rarely get that deep in the tech tree in my careers, and i'd love to play with them more readily

Any thoughts would be great, i'd love to give something back to the project, but only if it would be useful to others!

 

It's mainly the purchase and unlock costs that are totally whacked right now. The positions in the tech tree will probably need some revision, but at the moment it's loosely following a stock-ish behavior, extended the same way SpaceY and Community Tech Tree attempt to do. That is, the next three tiers of rocketry are expected to be 5m, 7.5m, and 10m. So the Saturn V (10.1m) was easily stuck in the last slot. But everything else is a bit of a judgment call. For instance, the STS (space shuttle) parts include the 8.4m ET, and the SRBs are 3.71m in diameter (pretty close to a stock size, 3.75). Keeping the set together, by diameter alone it could go anywhere  between "Very Large Rocketry" and "Gigantic Rocketry".

 

It's not ideal, I know, so I suspect another pass will be needed. Diameter is a pretty useless measure of a technology. But I also figure that mods like RO, RP-0, and other overhaul mods might have their own way of organizing things too.

 

[NecroBones]

 

Some more screenies:

 

 

 

[NecroBones]

 

I think I'm going to rotate the clamshell fairings around so that they attach from the left instead of the right. It will conform to what KSP expects, and allow us to have positive values for ejection charges again. It's best to get the pain out of the way early. Saved crafts will have to be updated of course.

Something I'm also doing is adding attachment points for those fairings on some other parts of the same diameter, such as the Delta IV's CBC and insterstage decoupler. It makes everything a little more flexible for building non-standard rockets. I don't want people to feel that they absolutely have to build the rockets in their real-world configurations.

 

 

[NecroBones]

Oh, does anyone know where the RCS thrusters are on the ISRO PSLV's second and fourth stages?

 

I see the second stage ullage motors, but not the roll control thrusters, for instance.

[NecroBones]

 

A few more screenies. I have a third stage assembled, and it fits pretty well inside the interstage, but just to be sure, that empty space at the top of the second stage is usable space. The colliders conform pretty well to the exterior wall and top dome of the tank inside. Fairings also exist. So while the 4th stage isn't here yet, the rocket looks almost visually complete, since the 4th stage hides inside the fairing. Still need to add ullage/retros/etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2016 by NecroBones

[MainSailor]

So I was just playing around over the weekend and made this beast:

S-IC with 5x F-1Bs, 5 segment SRBs on launch stage. Upper stage is a J-2X RS-68 pushing a pParts tank. Payload is a fuel station with a 5m SpaceY tank at it's core:

Edited February 26, 2016 by MainSailor

[KerbonautInTraining]

6 minutes ago, MainSailor said:

S-IC with 5x F-1Bs, 5 segment SRBs on launch stage. Upper stage is a J-2X pushing a pParts tank. Payload is a fuel station with a 5m SpaceY tank at it's core:

No S-II? The Saturn V can put a pretty significant payload into orbit if you just use the first two stages (SRB's optional )

What were the G forces like near S-1C cutoff?

[MainSailor]

21 minutes ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

No S-II? The Saturn V can put a pretty significant payload into orbit if you just use the first two stages (SRB's optional )

But then I couldn't have MOAR BOOSTERS. Heh not really, I just think the S-II was just far too overpowered for the orbit I wanted to drop that tank into. I'm only playing 6.4x so I didn't need more than ~6500 DV. As it was, I think the S-I was the wrong first stage for this launch, probably carrying too much fuel just for the excuse to use it. As it was, I ended up swapping in the 5-segment boosters from the Shuttle-spec 4-segments and thrust reduced them just to have some extra burn time. I just wanted an excuse to build something like the MLV launchers:

24 minutes ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

What were the G forces like near S-1C cutoff?

I didn't have Graphotron or anything so I'm not sure, but probably not as bad as the real one:

 

Although I think I did have MJ throttling back to exceed dynamic pressure limits, probably further back than real F-1's were capable of.

[NecroBones]

Some more screenies. We have a 4th stage now! So here are some shots of stages 3+4 together. Originally I had built the white ring into the PS3 stage, but it turns out it's part of PS4, so I moved it. The PS4 engines are built in, since they're highly integrated, but the truss on top is a separate payload-adapter decoupler. The RCS blocks are also surface-attach.

 

 

[NecroBones]

 

OK, time to let people play with the PSLV. Posted:

 

0.6 (2016-02-28) - New rocket & Tweaks.
 - Renamed and reorganized some of the ModuleManager patch files.
 - Enabled a multiplier for propellants to bring them back up to the intended mass with RealFuels/RealismOverhaul, for parts that don't get the propellant replaced by those mods.
 - Added a "FOR" statement to the TweakScale MM config.
 - Adjusted Ariane V core stage texture: Broke up the tile pattern somewhat, to look less repetitious.
 - Converted Ariane V textures to DDS.
 - Corrected Ariane V clamshell fairing flag decal to not cast shadows on itself. 
 - Added clamshell fairing attachment points to aid in making non-standard rocket configurations:
    - Ariane V core stage, and interstage decoupler.
    - Delta IV CBC, and 5m interstage decoupler.
    - Atlas V didn't make sense to add, since fairings are sized only to the Centaur or to the "boattail".
 - Rotated clamshell fairings 180 degrees, to attach from the left, and use positive ejection charges. Saved crafts will need to be updated.
 - Added ISRO PSLV rocket parts.

 

[NecroBones]

 

I thought about making the OrbitalATK Antares, and decided to see if anyone else has done an Antares pack. It looks like one exists (forum thread) but hasn't been updated since KSP 0.25, and is 64% scale. So it might be a viable next project. Just not sure yet.

[Theysen]

Check out raidernick's / Kartoffelkuchen's version:

 

 

[NecroBones]

Just now, Theysen said:

Check out raidernick's / Kartoffelkuchen's version:

 

 

 

Ah, I missed that one. Thanks! Yeah, since that's there, I'll de-prioritize it here.

[Delta_8930]

10 hours ago, NecroBones said:

 

Ah, I missed that one. Thanks! Yeah, since that's there, I'll de-prioritize it here.

Lol. I was gonna make a re-engined version with RD-181s before I discovered that here.

Also, are you planning to make other Asian launch vehicles (i.e. the Chinese rockets)?

[NecroBones]

3 hours ago, Delta_8930 said:

Also, are you planning to make other Asian launch vehicles (i.e. the Chinese rockets)?

 

Possibly. I took a quick peek (and I do mean quick) at the Long March family of Chinese rockets, and it looks like there's a lot of variation within the lineup. For something like that, I suspect I'd have to narrow it down to one or two representative configurations and work from that. There's also the Japanese H-IIA, which superficially is reminiscent of the Delta IV, which could be cool. I'm just not sure what I feel like working on right now. Heh.

 

[VenomousRequiem]

2 minutes ago, NecroBones said:

 

Possibly. I took a quick peek (and I do mean quick) at the Long March family of Chinese rockets, and it looks like there's a lot of variation within the lineup. For something like that, I suspect I'd have to narrow it down to one or two representative configurations and work from that. There's also the Japanese H-IIA, which superficially is reminiscent of the Delta IV, which could be cool. I'm just not sure what I feel like working on right now. Heh.

 

What about a real scale Carrack from Eyes Turned Skyward? Us over at BDB have the parts to make one, but it's not real scale.

[NecroBones]

4 minutes ago, VenomousRequiem said:

What about a real scale Carrack from Eyes Turned Skyward? Us over at BDB have the parts to make one, but it's not real scale.

 

Huh, that could be interesting too. Google has turned up some imagery; are any specific stats out there? I'm not sure how detailed they get in that universe.

[VenomousRequiem]

26 minutes ago, NecroBones said:

 

Huh, that could be interesting too. Google has turned up some imagery; are any specific stats out there? I'm not sure how detailed they get in that universe.

I can't find any specifications for the launcher itself; however its made out of parts that exist in the real world, so you can use that for values you need. It's a Castor 120 for the first stage, same with the second, then an ascent Agena D. Same Agena used for the Gemini ATV .

[Phineas Freak]

On the topic of ETS, Saturn 1C would be really easy to add, just a new fuel tank (or two if you want variation): Launchers Link

[MainSailor]

8 hours ago, NecroBones said:

 

Huh, that could be interesting too. Google has turned up some imagery; are any specific stats out there? I'm not sure how detailed they get in that universe.

Fairly technical. I've used these stats with procedural tanks: http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/timelines/eyes_turned_skyward_spacecraft_and_launch_vehicle_technical_data

And imagery: http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/timelines/eyes_turned_skyward_media

 

I know that there was an effort on the boards to replicate some of the equipment, but not sure how far it got. I believe one of the folks involved in modelling on the alternate history forum released his models for use over here.

[VenomousRequiem]

6 hours ago, Phineas Freak said:

On the topic of ETS, Saturn 1C would be really easy to add, just a new fuel tank (or two if you want variation): Launchers Link

Yeah, then we could easily make Saturn Multibody out of that. 

@NecroBones I guess there's a lot of demand for ETS stuff nowadays.

[NecroBones]

Yeah, and it's something I hadn't looked into, so now I may have to go read all of it.

 

Saturn IC needing only one more tank modeled would make that an easy addition. And what I like about the Carrick is that since it uses that Castor all over the place, the number of parts to model (and add to the menus) is pretty low. Yay for modular designs! That might be cool to do.

[NecroBones]

 

Saturn IC is a go!

 

 

And while I was at it, I thought I'd give everyone over in R&D a big scare.

 

[Theysen]

You kind of have the tendency to ram big lower stages into the KSC, don't you?

Nice work, I really appreciate all the stuff you've already put in here! 

[Phineas Freak]

Awesome! Here, have 10000 rep!