My first orbit!

[technotica]

Hi!

I just bought the game and even though I am at work I couldn't help myself, I had to try and get a rocket into orbit.

I tried a lot of different designs and this is what finally got me into orbit (though this is on a second launch):

I call it the Jet Rocket 1b! (Unfortunately Jet Rocket 1 and 1a did not make it)

I actually was trying to see if parachutes like this could work:

But I guess I had too many rockets strapped under the ship and spent the fuel too fast, when I reached orbit I had no way of getting back out of it...

The map showed me this:

I think that means the orbit is stable? I accelerated time for two revolutions and the ship didn't come down on its own.

Though it does get pretty close to the surface at its lowest:

Oh well, poor Kerbonaut will have to spend the rest of his days up there alone...

Now on to Jet Rocket 1c, lets see if this thing can actually land, though I am not very confident, the liquid fuel engines are permanently attached and it has no landing gear... but maybe the three parachutes will be enough!

Edited September 18, 2012 by technotica

[burnie]

Wow, what a beast! Looks kinda cool though.

[Luxmaster-CZ]

First of all: Nice and welcome to comunity:)

To your orbit: it is not stable, you are in atmosphere and it is breaking you down whenever you fly under 70 km. If you didnt fell down this orbit, you will fall next one for sure:)

Next: I see you use boosters, and as they are good, they burn for shot period of time, most of people here use it only as a boost on start and then use liquid fuels. But its on you, use whatever you like:)

And last: You know there are smaller decouplers than you use right now? those are for bigger parts.

[technotica]

Thanks to both of you!

Well I guess that means my kerbonaut at least won't be lost forever up there in the sky then, which is good!

I guess I will switch those decouplers out for smaller ones, and see how the liquid engines work, I liked my tower of boosters though!

Hmm this is all stuff for Jet Rocket Mk. 2 though, first I'll see what happens when those parachutes actually deploy!

[Dizzle]

Congrats, your space program is on its way!

Also, that's a cool looking craft.

[simplemunrockets]

Hmm. Not the most orthodox way, but good job! You definitely have the power to direct yourself into a stable orbit and back. I'll try this design out.

[Zephram Kerman]

Technotica, welcome aboard!

I always love seeing these fresh designs. Hanging around the forums means you learn all the tricks to optimize things, but it also means conventionalizing your designs. (Did I make up that word? Sorry.) Nice job on the images too.

Guys, have they changed the "unfocused ships have no drag" issue? If not, Technotica, you'll need to be flying that ship the next time it enters the atmosphere. Otherwise it would have no drag and stay up there forever. So get in the ship, skip ahead until they hit the atmosphere again, then go to map view and watch your apoapsis start to decay. They'll come back down in a little while.

The only reason your orbit is slightly unstable is the eccentricity. If you can get it to be circular, your crew could camp out up there for as long as they like. (Just remember to save some fuel to get them back home again!)

[Khrissetti]

Nice first orbit. As the others have said, the orbit will slowly decay every time you fly through the atmosphere. Your screenshot looks like it dips to about 45k? If so it should take no more than two or three orbits to bring your Apoapsis inside the orbit, then you'll start heading for kerbin. A perfect time to test those parachutes! (which should work, my space plane is equipped similarly.)

[technotica]

Thanks for all the tips!

I think I shall donate my design to NASA as a blueprint for the next spaceshuttle, I launched it again and accidentally hit space too early, separating the first stage too early, this set of a chain event with all the solid boosters exploding with me hitting space as often as possible to seperate them before they blow up the ship.

In the end one of the four ship-engines got ripped off, all three parachutes were deployed and my ship tumbled towards the planet (it wasn't that high up to begin with), I managed to right it but when the parachtues unfurled both wings ripped off and the ship hung on its last parachute nose poiting in the sky.

Despite all this and despite finally landing upside down witht he cockpit buried in the ground my kerbonaut survived.

Now if that isn't a design worthy of Nasa I don't know what is!

Or maybe it was just really good luck !

[Jay_Em]

I like how your orbital craft is plane like. I'm gonna try making one like that now.

[tijn433]

welcome to the forums! good luck landing on the mun !

[technotica]

So I improved on the design a bit, it now looks like this (Jet Rocker Mk. 2a):

I haven't had it go into another successful orbit yet because I noticed something on the last launch and that is that its toom top heavy to launch without SAS. I have to keep SAS on to have it reach space otherwise it'll just turn around and crash. Do you think its cheating if I keep using it instead of building a stable rocket that can launch without?

Edit:

Hmm I guess those liquid engines aren't strong enough to get me into orbit:

But the single parachute works:

But I guess it really needs landing gear, all four engines were destroyed upon touching down (also upside down again):

(I hope these images aren't too big?)

Edited September 18, 2012 by technotica
Additional Info

[khearn]

If you land above about 7m/s, things start to explode. Add a second parachute to slow things down a bit more. I often use the one-kerbal capsule with an RCS tank and thrusters for my final stage, and it comes down around 8-9 m/s, which blows up the RCS tank. But if I fire the RCS thrusters just before I hit, it slows it down enough for a non-incendiary landing.

Also, there's absolutely nothing wrong with using SAS. You've got a stack with lots of drag at the front and lots of thrust at the rear, it really wants to flip itself around. Trying to fly that without SAS would be nearly impossible. I'd add some tailfins near the bottom as well. if you're using ASAS, add some small control surfaces to the tailfins, or use winglets. The ASAS will use then to control the ship as well (but normal SAS won't use them).

[LukeTim]

I think the LFEs are enough to get you into Orbit, it's just that the Boosters are sort of wasted because they're working all alone to lift your upper stages...

The idea of boosters is to complement the LFEs and give them a "boost" to get them off the launch pad... allowing you to get more delta V for less liquid fuel usage... as long as your rocket isn't too heavy.

A good improvement to your design might be to stick your boosters parallel to your lowest LFE stage using radial decouplers and have it all burn together at launch. I would try that next.

[technotica]

Thanks for the tips, I modified the whole thing a little. I tried putting boosters next to the liquid engines but the whole thing just broke apart. For now I will try it this way:

It flies, lets see if I can get it into orbit.

Edited September 18, 2012 by technotica

[RoboRay]

Rather than a tri-coupler holding 3 of the 1m tanks with an engine behind each tank, try a single 2m tank with a tri-coupler on bottom holding the 3 engines. You'll get a little more fuel, and a stronger, more stable structure. And fewer parts, so better framerates during the launch.

And you'd probably be able to strap the SRBs onto the sides of the big tanks without tearing the vehicle apart.

Edited September 18, 2012 by RoboRay

[Pawelk198604]

Congratulations, but I know from personal experience that traditional rockets are better.

[technotica]

Hrm...

Well I didn't manage to get into orbit, but think I did get to escape velocity:

I modified the design again, I thought about doing the 2m tanks and three engines but then I just put in the big tanks and big engines, I will try putting the boosters next to the engines next time so it won't be so tall.

I also thought about redoing it with a traditional rocket design, frankly I don't think the wings and stuff are actually doing anything? But I want to get this thing into orbit now!

Edited September 18, 2012 by technotica

[Vanamonde]

traditional rockets are better

But weird ones are so much fun. I'm actually intrigued that your original version was able to reach orbit. The SRBs are pretty powerful but don't burn long, so I would have thought you'd get going really fast and the lose most of your speed again before getting out of atmo. I might have to experiment with that.

By the way, there is an additional advantage to the larger decouplers: they can be activated out of order by right-clicking on them. But then again, there's a bit of a glitch and they're not as strong as they're supposed to be.

I don't think the wings and stuff are actually doing anything?

On the way up, the wings are adding a little stability in the air, but the canards are not in a good place and are reducing stability in the air. On the way down, though, you might be able to fly and land it like a plane. Edited September 18, 2012 by Vanamonde

[Tauge]

Just so you know, the mods prefer that you use spoiler tags if you have pictures. You might want to go through and edit your posts and place your pictures in some spoiler tags.

Now, as for your rocket. Keep an eye on your apoapsis after you reach...oh we'll call it 30km. Remember that the atmosphere stops at 69100m. So if you get your apoapsis up to about 85km, you can shut off your engines, coast to apoapsis, light the engines again to pull up your periapsis up to something greater that 70km, and now you are in a stable orbit it might be elliptical, but...baby steps.

[sal_vager]

Yeah, spoiler tags are advised, especially for all images after the first (you need one to get people interested)

I'll have to add spaces here so you can see it, but spoiler tags look like this:

[ Spoiler=TextGoesHere ]ImageURL[ /Spoiler ]

[technotica]

Ah, will do, how exactly do I use the spoiler tag? its not in the edit menu is it?

*tries out shutting the engines down 85km apoapsis*

edit:

Oh! Nevermind! *goes to edit*

edit2:

It's really odd, whenever I move the throttle above about 70% my solid boosters all blow up without the overheating showing up.

Maybe they get so hot instantly that the indicator never gets a chance to show?

Edited September 18, 2012 by technotica

[Saphira]

solids have a habbit of doing that at times, but as you may know by now, once you ignite Solids, they dont stop

[technotica]

I put some control surfaces onto the tail end of the wings, now maybe I can really fly it like a plane, I'll have to get rid of teh parachute and try, maybe add another engine for atmospheric flight.

[RoboRay]

Just so you know, the mods prefer that you use spoiler tags if you have pictures.

Gawd, I hate this policy... I do most of my forum reading via a mobile browser and there's no way to open the "spoilers." Tapping them does nothing, so I miss out on most of the pictures.