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Screaming through the Cosmos - Goodbye for now


NotAgain

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Zaltonic - 3

Mission: One last attempt at launching the [REDACTED] satellite.

Launch Site: LC - 1, Cape Canveral

Launch Vehicle: Devoid 2

Date: 19/11/1953

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Domain - 2

Mission: Fly another bat to orbit.

Launch Site: LC - 3, Cape Canveral

Launch Vehicle: Domain 1

Date: 5/1/1954

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Edited by NotAgain
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  On 2/5/2018 at 10:54 AM, NotAgain said:

The curse is lifted!  The contract is complete!

Wait, what? Only 10,000 credits? Those stingey little @?#%*!.

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Wow, that definitely doesn't seem like much, especially after 3 rockets.  Does the scale of money change when you rescale the solar system?

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  On 2/5/2018 at 2:24 PM, NotAgain said:

Yes, but it's still a significant loss.

I got a :funds:5,000 advance, but still not enough to break even.

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I guess all the cash went to a retirement home for bats with PTSD. Still, at least you demonstrated the bat orbital insertion is repeatable. I'm looking forward to hearing the ultrasonic squeaks of the first bat on the Moon. :D

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Ya know what? It's high time we started naming these bats. We can't expect them to push the horizons of space exploration and just be referred to as 'The Biological Payload'.

I am now officially taking suggestions for bat names.

 

EDIT - WE HAVE ENOUGH BAT NAMES

Edited by NotAgain
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I'll name a bat Caesar  and another Bunny. Vaguely curious if anyone would get the reference. RSS can be a remarkably frustrating experience in and of itself, and TF is even worse; I gave up trying to make orbit with the aerobees in the early game; you really need something far better to reliably make it.

 

EDIT: Re-looking at your testflight fails, are you SURE you're not burning past max ignition time? Each engine has a specific amount of time it can run for before it goes BANG (you can sometimes get past that), but you've had a lot of nearly identical failures which suggests to me you're *really* pushing the limit. Knock about 10-15 seconds off the max (basically, time fuel exhaustion to happen BEFORE you hit max engine lifetime), and it will drastically help prevent engine explosions. SRBs are also immune to TF (they're dead simple stupid in RL); I also use seperation motors a LOT to get the ulliage kickstart on in-atmo stages, so you can get quite a bit of bang to using them to get the first stage moving and decreasing long burn times.

Running through full R&D research also does a lot, AJ-10 failures should become relatively rare as long as you're using the higher end models. It was an extremely reliable engine in RL as well. I also believe short of catastrophic failure, you can attempt to relight failed stages though you obviously need a relightable engine which you might not have that low in the tech tree.

Edited by NCommander
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  On 2/6/2018 at 8:35 AM, NCommander said:

EDIT: Re-looking at your testflight fails, are you SURE you're not burning past max ignition time? Each engine has a specific amount of time it can run for before it goes BANG (you can sometimes get past that), but you've had a lot of nearly identical failures which suggests to me you're *really* pushing the limit. Knock about 10-15 seconds off the max (basically, time fuel exhaustion to happen BEFORE you hit max engine lifetime), and it will drastically help prevent engine explosions. SRBs are also immune to TF (they're dead simple stupid in RL); I also use seperation motors a LOT to get the ulliage kickstart on in-atmo stages, so you can get quite a bit of bang to using them to get the first stage moving and decreasing long burn times.

Running through full R&D research also does a lot, AJ-10 failures should become relatively rare as long as you're using the higher end models. It was an extremely reliable engine in RL as well. I also believe short of catastrophic failure, you can attempt to relight failed stages though you obviously need a relightable engine which you might not have that low in the tech tree.

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Yeah. You're entirely correct. I'm actually in late 1958, and I've just got a huge backlog of stuff, so I realised this a while ago. But you're still correct. IIRC, it took me another few missions to realise where I was going wrong. But you've got that to look forward to. But I shan't spoil it for y'all.

And consider the next bats to be flown named Caesar and Bunny. I don't get the reference, but it's good enough for me.

Edited by NotAgain
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TF is a great mod, but god all mighty is it not well documented. A lot of playing RO required asking questions in IRC. You need it to prevent breaking RO in two; it's quite possible with the A-4+aerobee staging to get orbit very very early with an upgraded LP

As for handy tips, when working with realism overhaul, the easiest way to prevent screwups is build the entire payload first, and then stick a decoupler on the bottom. I'm going to guess you're using a simulation mod (KRASH gets installed with KCT), and test it in Earth orbit. MJ/KER don't quite work correctly with RF, hence why it's easy to get tank mismatches. For things like a lunar lander, build the ascent/aboard stage first, then the descent, etc.

Once you have it working, build the second stage as a separate craft and test it. Once you have it working, throw it as a subassembly (and mark how much dV at what weight it gets). Continue until you have a full rocket. You'll end up with a bunch of rocket assemblies that are known to work and you know roughly what they can do. One slight catch with subassemblies is sometimes TF variants don't seem to survive but that's relatively minor in the end.

RCS is your biggest friend. Due to both ulliage and lack of deep throttling engines (the only one you get is the Apollo Descent stage until near the end of the tech tree), you'll need a LOT of it to get accurate burns. Embrace the RCS. For engines that need ignitions, you need to calculate how many burns you'll need; usually you can get the moon on one, but you might need multiple if you want to try a Mars/Venus flyby + one for orbit. Hypergycemic engines (aka, stuff that doesn't need lights) are very inefficient, but short of critical failure, can be relit when TF strikes.

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  On 2/6/2018 at 9:45 AM, NCommander said:

As for handy tips, when working with realism overhaul, the easiest way to prevent screwups is build the entire payload first, and then stick a decoupler on the bottom. I'm going to guess you're using a simulation mod (KRASH gets installed with KCT), and test it in Earth orbit. MJ/KER don't quite work correctly with RF, hence why it's easy to get tank mismatches. For things like a lunar lander, build the ascent/aboard stage first, then the descent, etc.

Once you have it working, build the second stage as a separate craft and test it. Once you have it working, throw it as a subassembly (and mark how much dV at what weight it gets). Continue until you have a full rocket. You'll end up with a bunch of rocket assemblies that are known to work and you know roughly what they can do.

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I already build missions from the payload down, and make subassemblies of whole lifters and some more common stages. And yes, I have a simulation mod.

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The X - Plane update

It's been a little while since I posted anything about our X - Plane program, so here's an update:

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  On 2/6/2018 at 7:53 AM, NotAgain said:

Ya know what? It's high time we started naming these bats. We can't expect them to push the horizons of space exploration and just be referred to as 'The Biological Payload'.

I am now officially taking suggestions for bat names.

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Hmmm..  BAT...

Banzai Attitude Transport

Bind And Torture'

Burning Ambition Tontine

Boffins Are ****Tards

Beyond All Temerity

BigAss Target

Borderline Acrophobic Tendencies

Barely Acceptable Tolerances

Beer And Tacos

Anyway, I think you and I should have a contest to see who has the most launch failures :wink:

 

Edited by Geschosskopf
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Domain - 3

Mission: Fly one last Bat into orbit.

Launch Site: LC - 3, Cape Canveral

Launch Vehicle: Domain 1

Date: 25/2/1954

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Genesis - 2

Mission: Launch a Lunar flyby probe.

Launch Site: LC - 3, Cape Canveral

Launch Vehicle: Domain 2

Date: 20/4/1954

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Also, thank you to the brilliant @Albert VDS and @linuxgurugamer for the Hullcam VDS mod, which I'm amazed that I'd forgotten to install for this long.

Edited by NotAgain
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  On 2/11/2018 at 4:47 AM, NCommander said:

Here's a thought, send a payload on a free return trajectory to get science return from the moon. I can't remember if the biological samples need to be returned for full science, but if you can get a flyby, you *should* be able to get a free return.

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Spoilers. (Wait 'til 1958).

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More X - Planes

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Plus, spoilers for tomorrow's update:

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Also, does anyone have any suggestions/improvements? For either the mission reports or the missions themselves.

Edited by NotAgain
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Genesis - 3

Mission: Fly by the Moon.

Launch Site: LC - 3, Cape Canaveral.

Launch Vehicle: Domain 2A

Date: 18/6/1954

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Edited by NotAgain
Sp&G
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KSA PRESS RELEASE - 24/6/1954

Following on from our fantastic success last week with the Genesis - 3 lunar flyby and the continued success of the Domain orbital atmospheric re-entry test program, it has been decided amongst the KSA administrative team that we should, as a logical next step, place a significant quantity of our resources behind a new program, one with the aim of putting a Kerbal in Low Earth Orbit and returning them safely home by the end of the year 1957. This will be by no means be an easy project, but with the expertise we have gathered from our operation during the Domain and X - 3A programs, we are confidant about its feasibility. More details are to follow, but rest assured, great things are ahead of us.

 

 

Kador - 1

Mission: Test out the RCS and service module of the proposed crewed orbital spacecraft.

Launch SIte: LC - 1, Cape Canaveral

Launch Vehicle: Domain L

Date:12/7/1954

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X - 3B Flight 1

Mission: Test out a new, truly sub-orbital, spaceplane.

Launch Site: LC - 1

Date: 21/7/1954

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  On 2/6/2018 at 11:46 PM, Geschosskopf said:

Anyway, I think you and I should have a contest to see who has the most launch failures :wink:

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Score 2 for me.

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