Keeping Roll pressed stabilizes rocket!

[Luke321]

Hello fellow Kerbelnauts,

while trying to get insanely huge rockets into space i found out that pressing either e or q the whole time greatly inhances stability of the rocket,

wooble and random turning is minimized, mechjeb ascend auto pilot suddenly handels rockets he always crashed..

can anyone test and confirm this? maybe it helps someone getting things into space

is this common knowledge or did I actually find something useful? ^^

good luck!

[Bluejayek]

As far as I know, this is true for the same reason guns have rifled barrels. If you spin an object, then any unbalanced forces will average out over the period of rotation.

[Tim_Barrett]

Yup, because any unbalanced end will be equally spread on all sides of the craft during flight.

[Luke321]

in my tests it also works even if the rocket turns very slowly (not even one full turn up to 10 000 meters) or it doesnt turn at all.

the tourque input alone seems to stabilize the rocket, if I let go and the rocket is rolling it immediatly starts to fail, if I press e again it stabilizes...

[Bluejayek]

Ok, that sounds like something different that I didn't know about! I might try it out later.

However, generally my ships are either so unstable they explode soon after leaving the launch pad, they are perfectly stable under ASAS to orbit, or the detachment of one of the stages causes the rocket to explode, so this probably won't help me in most cases. Further, I tend to build rockets that are so ridiculously large that its impossible to spin them in atmosphere.

[Luke321]

mine also didnt spin so I added some sepratons in each stage to keep it spinning!

take a look at my stock explorer

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/22263-0-17-Explorer-Series?p=281691#post281691

Edited September 29, 2012 by Luke321

[Bluejayek]

With the size of my rocket I think I'd need something more like a perpendicularly mounted mailsail engine, rather then a sepraton...

[Luke321]

well that sounds huge! how does your pc manage that?

[spikeyhat09]

This may be true for going straight up, but many people want to get into space as efficiently as possible and perform a gravity turn on the way up. this is exceedingly more difficult when the rocket has rotation.

[Bluejayek]

This may be true for going straight up, but many people want to get into space as efficiently as possible and perform a gravity turn on the way up. this is exceedingly more difficult when the rocket has rotation.

Efficiency is what people do when they are too afraid to use MOAR BOOSTERS!

By the way, this is what I am talking about by "insanely large rockets". Does it match your description?

1424.3 tons on launchpad.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Bluejayek

[Luke321]

gravity turn is no problem when you use mechjeb even if you spin around from 24 sepratons...

yeah i also tried a 30 xl booster rocket, and rotation helps but staging destroys it!

[Bluejayek]

gravity turn is no problem when you use mechjeb even if you spin around from 24 sepratons...

yeah i also tried a 30 xl booster rocket, and rotation helps but staging destroys it!

Staging while rotating makes the things fly outwards and often does cause explosions.

Also, the rocket I showed has *76* XL boosters and 16 normal boosters, much more then the puny 30 you have

[zapy97]

Efficiency is what people do when they are too afraid to use MOAR BOOSTERS!

By the way, this is what I am talking about by "insanely large rockets". Does it match your description?

1424.3 tons on launchpad.

no offense bluejayak, BUT YOU'RE A MADMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

[phoenix_ca]

Yeah...um...use NovaPunch? Same bang for far fewer parts. O.o

[cardgame]

Fact: four 1.75m rockets from NovaPunch will bring you within 375km from Kerbol.