Stock-ish Space Shuttle

[Jaff]

Hey, I found KSP recently (october 16) and have been completely absorbed by how brilliant this game is. I'm up over 200 hours already and I still have not gone further than Minmus yet. 

Addicted as I may be, I have always had a slight fascination with the space shuttle, and the amount I've learnt about it since finding this game alone has been brilliant and so whilst I had the opportunity I thought id give building one a go.

 

here it is...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77857627/Shuttle Mk3.craft

SPEC - 

260 Parts

570.35t (Unladen)

35m High

12m Long

13m Wide

Total dV according to MJeb - 5400m/s

its capable of sending a full orange tank + yellow monoprop tank into LKO with relative ease and it can lift pretty much anything else I have managed to fit in the slightly extended bay. Generally I've only flown it up to 125k as that's where my station is however I'm confident it could easily double that orbit with a medium weight payload. Orange + yellow tank would probably be limited to 200k however if you can refuel to get home then it would go further I'm sure (I'm not the best at flying it yet so still learning) - however it will not land with a full tank of fuel in the bay as the nose just will not pitch up. suggest you leave it in space

 

1st stage is 5x2 SRB's with a fancy cowling atop to try and get it to look right and some separators to ensure a clean break and enough chutes to ensure on average 50%ish recovery (using stage recovery mod)

2nd stage is just a few big tanks with the vector engines on the shuttle, tank has enough chutes underneath to recover 40% value (using stage recovery mod) if I don't utterly ruin the ascent and leave it in orbit

3rd stage is 4 x monoprop engines to complete the orbit.

 

It is fully stock apart from 1 item which is the rear aileron from the Shuttle lifting body mod (https://mods.curse.com/ksp-mods/kerbal/241874-shuttle-lifting-body) to ensure it doesn't go utterly mental on re-entry. If you can suggest anything stock I can replace it with please let me know. also whilst your at it take a look at the RCS (using the RCS balance mod) and either fix or explain to me why I cant get rid of the red arrows!!!

I have 2 "variants" if you will, one has an extra crew cabin in the cargo bay to shuttle some extra kerbs up to orbit should I chose, both are equally as balanced as each other.

 

10 steps to orbit...

 

1 - find the probe core on the rear end of the shuttle and control from there - SAS on 

2 - watch the surface mounted fuel tank levels as you stage those main engines

3 - wait for the shuttle to steady before staging the SRB's and releasing the clamps

4 - watch it shoot off into the sky making sure your pro grade vector doesn't stray too far up away from "straight up" by throttling down your main engines - it will very naturally start its GTurn control this by using the main engine throttle (more thrust = going up straighter)

5 - keep an eye on your heading as the mass of the shuttle reduces, it has a tendency to become slightly unstable and veer off to the right (if you were sitting in the boss' seat) a kick up to full throttle sorts this out though and straightens you up nicely for...

6 - stage the SRB's

7 - now we control from the cockpit - slowly bank over to continue your GTurn try and stop your pro grade vector going too far away from your heading until you get to at least 30k when you reach 30k you can start to let it go a bit more naturally towards the horizon whilst you build up to orbital velocity

8 - wait until at least 45k before turning your belly down, do it before hand and you may struggle to reach an orbit (especially with a large payload) 

I tend to rely a bit too much on mechjeb and its readouts for this part of the ascent - part of my inexperience I feel

9 - as soon as you reach 70k stage your fuel tank and wave goodbye (or cheat like I do and keep it until your periapsis is a + figure)

10 - number 1 engages the monoprop engines to complete your orbit

 

optional extras

11 - number 2 opens your bay doors to reveal the payload (& opens up the antenna for science if your bothered)

12 - number 3 reveals the docking node just behind the cockpit

13 - number 3 hides your docking port away after you've done the business

14 - number 2 closes everything back up for re-entry

 

the next steps took me forever to get even close to right and even now I'm chuffed when I manage to land at the KSC

 

The return!!!

1 - ensure you have at least 800 units of monoprop on board (200m/s is more than enough) when at a 125k orbit

2 - face yourself retrograde at roughly 1/3 of an orbit away from the KSC and burn until your path is showing a direct decent to the KSC

3 - control from the sneaky probe core at the back again and point yourself prograde 

 

the shuttle will get you easily to near the facility by doing this and leaving it be, however if you want to show off and land on the runway you need to adjust your heading depending on where your blue line is telling you you're going to land further east and you need to point the nose down slightly (not too much 10-15 degrees is plenty) too far west and you need to lift it slightly (15 degrees max as you are already flying at 15 degrees)

4 - aim to have your blue line just overshooting the KSC at below 10k and you should have a fairly easy approach

5 - gear down is G - inward ailerons are tied to the B (brake) key to help slow you down (try not to use this too much as you will pitch the nose up too much and start falling faster than your going forward which is extremely difficult to recover from)

6 - touch down as gently as possible (i had a fair amount of trouble with the wings falling off which I seem to have solved with messing about with the landing gear)

6 - number 4 deploys the inner ailerons and a chute to bring you're speed right down

7 - number 5 cuts the chute and retracts the ailerons - by now your slow enough to brake as usual using the gear

 

NOTE - because I'm a wimp and I have no faith in my own ability, the abort action group triggers enough chutes to bring you down safely

I have managed to land it at the KSC a few times now and I assure you if I can manage it everyone else can so please give it a go and let me know what you think on how to improve it (particularly the re-entry)

 

few more pictures giving some flight tips

 

 

apologies about them being mostly in the dark but i think they're clear enough

 

[Starhawk]

Hello Jaff and welcome to the KSP Forums!

That is the most extensive and impressive first post I've ever seen.

Happy landings!

[Triop]

Best 1st post ever.

Welcome.

[Jaff]

hey, thanks, unfortunately (fortunately maybe?!?) I have lost a lot of my life to forums (mainly cars!!!) so I'm accustomed to what is expected ha!

seriously though this game has taken over my life! its way too informative to be a game, and the learning curve is very steep.

 

all because a video popped up on my youtube subscriptions! 

 

 

[Heckspress]

i've been playing since 2011 and i've never done anything like this! awesome!

[Starhawk]

32 minutes ago, Jaff said:

the learning curve is very steep

There's an old forum quote I like to bring back every once in a while.

"KSP doesn't have a learning curve.  It's more of a learning wall."

Happy landings!

[Hailedbean]

On 12/13/2016 at 9:05 PM, Starhawk said:

There's an old forum quote I like to bring back every once in a while.

"KSP doesn't have a learning curve.  It's more of a learning wall."

Happy landings!

Isn't that the truth!

[Jaff]

So, I have installed kOS onto this now and have spent the last 4-5 hours writing a script that will get it into a 100/64k orbit (I'm still working on the last bit!!!) with a full orange and yellow tank.

So if anyone wants to use it let me know and I can upload the script (and anyone who wants to look at the script and make it more efficient? my script writing is basic at best!)

 

pretty proud of myself tbh - Kerbal learning wall strikes again!

Landing script next (although i do enjoy the challenge of a landing and the feeling of achievement when you nail one.)

 

Only issue I have is my game now runs like turd since installing kOS, any ideas? i know it does a garbage collection every 5 seconds and there is a mod that can help that out but i thought 1.2 was supposed to be better for this? Any ideas? its only since installing kOS