video Stock 1.2 Orion Drive... Kinda

[DasValdez]

Managed to get a stock Orion (style) drive working in KSP 1.2 exp 1522 last night... worked out better than expected! 

The craft uses the landing leg cannon tech we found last week to propel high velocity RCS tanks out the back, pushing the ship forward. It's really more of a mass driver than an Project Orion drive, we don't truly get any energy from the explosion... but hey, fashion explosions are legit.  

Firing a full .625 RCS tank backwards at 12 km/s (yes, KM) will push the craft forward about 90 m/s. The final version fires empty tanks at such high velocity they melt due to G forces... Kessler would be proud!

It carries 41 projectiles... 8 rows of 5 = 40 in storage and one in the chamber at launch. Each empty tank pusher about 125 m/s d/v, for a total of over 5km/s. The RCS Puffs are for fashion... and fine(r) orbital adjustments upon arriving at the dest... I did manage to circularize at the Mun in increments of 125, but it's kinda dicey heh.

Steps to fire: 

1. Action group 1 undocks the loaded projectile, and it's kicked out by 40 landing legs for the first pulse.
2. "G" key will retract the drive legs into the "load" position
3. Space bar will decouple the next projectile (Yes, all 40 are individually staged). They undock in opposing order to maintain balance
4. Action group 2 will activate the loader legs, pushing the decoupled projectile to the center where it docks
5. Action group 2 again retracts the loader legs
6. G Key will prime the drive legs... after the locking sound...
7. GOTO 1

If you find the projectiles are rebounding, action group 3 will activate the tamping system, which can help hold a decoupled projectile flat against the load plate until the loading legs push it in.

When you get the rhythm down you can load and fire a projectile in about 15 seconds.

Download from KerbalX... thanks @katateochi!
https://kerbalx.com/KSpaceAcademy/KSA-Orleggin-Drive-FINAL

Yeah, I called it the Orleggin Drive. I really hope this excellent feature doesn't get "fixed" heh.

[katateochi]

That's really awesome! I'd wondered if an Orion style drive was possible so it's cool to see it's kinda doable in KSP. But actually, I think I'm more impressed by that loading mechanism!! 

[Mekan1k]

In the word of me when I discovered what the Orion drive was... Damn man. That's EPIC.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

I've got to reverse engineer this... This sounds amazingly practical as a propulsion system (considering it for what it is). 

[Commander Zoom]

"God was knocking, and He wanted in bad."

-- Larry Niven and/or Jerry Pournelle's description of an operating Orion drive, Footfall

[DasValdez]

On 9/30/2016 at 8:05 PM, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

I've got to reverse engineer this... This sounds amazingly practical as a propulsion system (considering it for what it is). 

No need to reverse engineer... you can DL the craft file, it's a very simple mechanism.

You can even get it working firing just docking ports... will revisit my mkII this week on the cast. 

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

9 hours ago, DasValdez said:

No need to reverse engineer... you can DL the craft file, it's a very simple mechanism. ...

I did, I just am trying to figure out how to increase the size of the magazine and make the propulsion process more simple (EG: AG: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, repeat)

Also wanna figure out how to make different size drives and reshape possibly

Edited October 5, 2016 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[DasValdez]

On 10/5/2016 at 7:41 AM, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

I did, I just am trying to figure out how to increase the size of the magazine and make the propulsion process more simple (EG: AG: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, repeat)

Also wanna figure out how to make different size drives and reshape possibly

Yeah, I worked on that but a weird bug with the Action Groups remembering landing leg state on toggle kept it from working as I wanted. Added to the bugtracker heh