TMF Aerospace Catalog

[Tinty Moce Fowt]

My first mod-heavy career (way back in 2013) got as far as an extensive colony on Duna before an upgrade broke my save file. But that was OK (or, to be more precise, I got over it eventually). The plan for my next career involves heavy use of kOS (which I'm still experimenting with), but in the process of trying to understand how real spacecraft work I ended up hooked on the idea of creating replicas using as few part mods as possible (with the exception of science mods ... I love me some science mods).

Not highly realistic replicas, mind you, but replicas that try to capture some of the whimsy of Kerbal Space Program while using as few parts as necessary to suggest the real-life vessel. It's been a huge learning experience for me and a lot of fun, as I can now identify spacecraft on sight in movies or other media (my friends and family are less thrilled with this new geeky talent).

Anyway, after sharing some of my creations for the weekly KSP Challenges I get the impression that others might like this style of spacecraft modeling too, so I'll start sharing some of my non-Challenge-related creations here. I hope you enjoy them!

Launch Vehicles

• Kiwifruit (Electron replica)
   
• Ham NX (Haas 2CA replica)

Edited June 22, 2017 by Tinty Moce Fowt
Added Ham NX

[Tinty Moce Fowt]

Kiwifruit

Description

Replica of:	Electron
Function:	Orbital Launch Vehicle
Launch site:	Guacamole Space Centre (island helipad)

Notes

Design:	Uses scaled-down Mk3 cargo bays as fairings since TweakScale can’t yet scale Airstream Protective Shells. Payload (deployed as stage 0) must supply probe core for flight control and must have a top node for attaching the fairing (deployed as stage 1). Top of the fairing (cargo bay) must attach to the top node on either the stack decoupler or the girder adapter, depending on the height of the payload, and the Move tool used to align the bottom of the fairing with the top of the battery.
Flight:	Start gravity turn at 25km altitude.
Associated:

Specifications

Cost:	1,506 funds	Stage:	1 (3)	Stage:	2 (2)
Height:	11.5m	Diameter:	0.775m	Diameter:	0.775m
Width:	0.775m	Engines:	9 X S3 KS-25 "Vector"	Engines:	1 X S3 KS-25 "Vector"
Length:	0.775m		0.180m scale		0.180m scale
Mass:	4,404kg		100% thrust		100% thrust
Stages:	2 (+2)		3.0° gimbal range		3.0° gimbal range
Capacity:	225kg to 350km	TWR:	1.56 (4.07)	TWR:	0.72 (1.55)
Delta-V:	5,329m/s	Delta-V:	2,966m/s	Delta-V:	2,363m/s

Gallery

A replica of New Zealand's Electron rocket:

It's a fairly simple model based on a 65% scale factor:

The stock fairings can't be shrunk down to this size so I had to substitute the Mk3 cargo bays instead:

Not too surprising that it works well for the first to second stage fairing ...

... but for the payload fairing, the top of the cargo bay attaches to the top of the decoupler and hangs down over the payload:

Moving parts below their attachment points and over another stage often causes problems for me, but this works really well for cargo bays:

--- TMF

Edited June 10, 2017 by Tinty Moce Fowt
Nicer formatting

[GehringGame]

Looks great! I always like small rockets. You've inspired me to try some smaller scales myself. And how cool is Rocket Lab, huh? I'll certainly be watching them with interest.

[Tinty Moce Fowt]

Thanks! Yeah, I find it very cool that smallish companies are now commercializing space travel.

I've been trying to decide what to post next and you've inspired me to post another small rocket replica (from another smallish company) in the next couple of days. I just need to capture some pretty snapshots first ...

[Skylon]

If you like small rockets (I love yours) then could you try the falcon 1/1e. You could even see if a falcon 1 heavy could be feasible 

Or you could try a really small company, Cloud Aerospace. They have a thread on this forum. Linked is the post of their planned line-up. Someone has already done a full stock replica, but you could improve it with tweakscale. 

Edit: Forgot to link 

 

Edited June 18, 2017 by Skylon

[Tinty Moce Fowt]

Thanks! I haven't heard of Cloud Aerospace before. I'll check them out.

I need to put some work into my stock+Tweakscale Skylon, too  (I got it into space a few KSP versions ago but didn't have enough fuel to get it back down).

[Tinty Moce Fowt]

Ham NX 

Description

Replica of:	Haas 2CA
Function:	Orbital Launch Vehicle
Launch site:	Kerbal Space Centre

Notes

Design:	Uses eight toroidal aerospike engines arranged to simulate a linear aerospike, and a scaled-down Mk3 cargo bay as a fairing since TweakScale can’t yet scale Airstream Protective Shells. Includes probe core for delivering dumb payloads (deployed as stage 0) which must have a top node for attaching the fairing (deployed as stage 1). Top of the fairing (cargo bay) must attach to the top node on either the stack decoupler or the girder adapter, depending on the height of the payload, and the Move tool used to align the bottom of the fairing with the top of the fuel tank.
Flight:	Align the (fake) linear aerospike so it will be horizontal during the gravity turn and can act like a wing (which it is).
Associated:

Specifications

Cost:	5,346 funds	Stage:	1 (2)
Height:	8.8m	Diameter:	1.0m
Width:	1.0m	Engines:	8 X T-1 Toroidal Aerospike "Dart"
Length:	1.0m		0.375m scale
Mass:	4,871kg		100% thrust
Stages:	1 (+2)		No gimbal
Capacity:	100kg to LKO	TWR:	1.48 (6.69)
Delta-V:	5,022m/s	Delta-V:	5,022m/s

Gallery

A 65% scale replica of the Haas 2CA:

The linear aerospike engine is simulated using eight toroidal aerospike engines, plus a wing segment for limited attitude control in atmosphere:

SAS controls attitude in space:

As stock fairings can't be TweakScaled, the Mk3 cargo bay is used as a fairing:

A single stage to orbit reduces costs:

The Ham NX can lift 100kg to LKO; it's not much, but useful payloads are possible:

--- TMF

Edited June 22, 2017 by Tinty Moce Fowt
Spelling misteak

[Skylon]

Another great one! When I next play KSP I'll download them and see how they fly. I like the part count-effective design compared to some replicas (though it is often harder to do in stock). It seems that you have linked your electron replica by accident, but the correct one can still be found on your kerbalx page

Edited June 22, 2017 by Skylon

[Tinty Moce Fowt]

Thanks, and thanks for pointing out my broken link (now fixed). That's what I get for copying and pasting my previous post.