A Hodgepodge of Whatever I Think of: The Madness of Manatee Aerospace.

[Rutabaga22]

You should make a cursed KSP challenge. No one could make a better challenge than you.

 

[DeadJohn]

On 12/10/2022 at 8:33 AM, Blufor878 said:

I actually would love to make more asymmetrical rockets but I'm terrible at it. I made one successful design but it's really only useful for a specific task. Even that required a lot of finagling with the engine on the side stage. In all other cases my attempts have resulted in unwanted flips and HUGE levels of flight instability. Any suggestions?

Asymmetric multiple core rockets are tough to fly.

Build the heavier cores with more thrust than the lighter cores. If all cores have similar TWR the rocket will fly straighter. Put the highest TWR core on the west side of the rocket so you won't be fighting against the gravity turn.

Add fins at the bottom to help low atmo control and resist flipping. Use reaction wheels or RCS if you lose control at high altitude but by then the asymmetric core might already be staged away.

Maintaining consistent balance as your rocket burns fuel during ascent can complicate things:

• For the best DV, enable crossfeed on the radial decoupler or use a fuel duct so the main core pulls fuel from the asymmetric tank first. That will let you stage away the asymmetric tank sooner. The tradeoff here is that as the asymmetric core loses fuel mass the TWR of that core will change, and the rocket will want to turn away from that core. It might be necessary to adjust the thrust of just one core during ascent.
• Or, for perhaps easier control at the expense of DV, avoid crossfeed. The cores will remain more equally balanced as you burn fuel during ascent.

[SunlitZelkova]

On 12/22/2022 at 9:02 AM, Blufor878 said:

I don't know, do you guys thing posting these right before Jesus Day is a bad idea?

And the home additions:
https://kerbalx.com/ManateeAerospace/NOTRAG
https://kerbalx.com/ManateeAerospace/NOTRAG-Charlie
https://kerbalx.com/ManateeAerospace/NOTRAG-Lambda

I usually just find your vehicles entertaining in design (not in a somehow "lesser" way, but not necessarily shocking), but these actually made me spontaneously think "oh my God" to myself 

[Blufor878]

Manatee Aerospace, now with procedural parts. That is all.



No files yet, this is a test bed. Stay tuned y'all.

[Blufor878]

I've released a new rocket, the JL20, on KerbalX. It's my first rocket on the site to make use of procedural parts. More info here:

I'm also officially now on Instagram. I have some more images of the JL20 there as well as other random stuff not strictly related to rockets:
https://www.instagram.com/blufor878/

Edited January 5, 2023 by Blufor878

[Blufor878]

My first attempt at recreating Rocket Lab's neutron rocket. Specifically as seen in early concept art. The current version will come later (I hope).

[Blufor878]

Some new uploads to KerbalX. First, Little Joe III:

And a personal favorite of mine (for some reason) ADS Block II (ADS meaning Agena-Derived Station):


More pictures on the BDB forum topic:

 

Available now on KerbalX:
https://kerbalx.com/ManateeAerospace/Little-Joe-III
https://kerbalx.com/ManateeAerospace/ADS-Block-II

[Blufor878]

Space shuttle with a set of Falcon 9 pattern boosters.


I have no justification. Blame @Damon and @benjee10 for making their stuff available for download. On that note it flies surprisingly well. Might replace the radial decouplers with something more subtle.

[Royalswissarmyknife]

American Buran 

[Blufor878]

Today I figure I would make some rockets based on some old drawings of mine (very old, around elementary school if I recall)

[Blufor878]

Sorry if I've been a bit dry this week. Work has me busy. Might be a few days before I post something. Wanted to ask what you guys wanted to see? Any rocket combinations you've been entertaining and been hesitant to make public because your friends may judge you (I won't, because it's too late for me!). Definitely not asking because I've run out of ideas or something...

But for real, I am open to suggestions. I want to see how insane everyone else is. Fire away!

Edit: I actually do have something. Everyone say hello to my J2 Aerospike powered smallsat launcher, Mimas!


The J2 Aerospike variant is one of my favorite engines from BDB, I had to use it as the first stage engine on something!
Not released yet, still being tested. But it can put over 1 ton into LKO.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Blufor878

[Blufor878]

I made some refinements to one of my early designs, Fafnir. It was my early attempt at making a Falcon 9 style rocket. Fafnir can lift over 21 tons to LKO.




KerbalX Download:
https://kerbalx.com/ManateeAerospace/Fafnir-GPLV

[Blufor878]

Short little video of my latest old rocket revamp, Kitty Hawk.

 

[Blufor878]

Bridenstine Stack anyone?



https://kerbalx.com/ManateeAerospace/Falcon-Heavy-Bridenstine

[Blufor878]

On 11/1/2022 at 12:19 AM, Blufor878 said:

A preview of the rockets made by the company from my third and final (for now) Mars Horizon Playthrough, Kaitek Industries.
If anyone can guess the significance of that name, you deserve the finest POB's (that's pats on the back).
But anyway, previews!

Just so y'all know it might be a few weeks before I can post more pictures. My only real weekend for the next 2-3 weeks has abruptly ceased to exist because of work stuff (not blaming anyone, this stuff happens; still a bummer).

I'm slowly uploading Kaitek Industries' stuff to KerbalX. Right now we have two rockets (King Atlas and W01), and a station (Wyjan I).

W01 medium lifter, and (according to the "lore") Kaitek's first orbital rocket.

King Atlas medium lifter. As the name suggests it's a combination of BDB Atlas and @Beale's Commonwealth rocket parts.

Finally, Wyjan I, Kaitek's first space station. It can act as a standalone installation or be the core for a multi-module facility. The spacecraft is called the K2, I'm still working on it.

Some lore/story for the company. I imagine Kaitek is a private launch company out of Hong Kong (or at least the KSP version of Hong Kong). In this particular scenario, Hong Kong/Kowloon is essentially a wealthy independent city-state (think Singapore or Monaco) rather than a Chinese territory. Basically Kaitek's rockets are supposed to have a Sino-British bent to them,as those are their nearest cultural associations. However, seeing as they are headquartered out of a major trade hub, they have access to numerous other components as well. I also imagine they some sort of rivalry with 101 Rocketry, which is based out of Taiwan (or the KSP equivalent).

TLDR: Kaitek Industries is basically Hong Kong SpaceX/ULA with a British/Cantonese accent.

On that note, I've fleshed out other designs in this particular save, but because Kaitek does use some Chinese components, I need to figure out which mods they belong to. Worse still they don't seem to show up on the KerbalX modlist when you upload a design.

Update 3/26/2023: Found a typo with the rocket descriptions, they were switched around, should be fine now.

Download Pages:
https://kerbalx.com/ManateeAerospace/King-Atlas
https://kerbalx.com/ManateeAerospace/W01
https://kerbalx.com/ManateeAerospace/Wyjan-I

Edited March 27, 2023 by Blufor878

[Blufor878]

Two new rockets are available on KerbalX:
Mimas, a J2 Aerospike powered rocket

https://kerbalx.com/ManateeAerospace/Mimas
Saturn IB Soyuz. The name should be self-explanatory, and I do not apologize (ok maybe a little).


https://kerbalx.com/ManateeAerospace/Saturn-IB-Soyuz

[Blufor878]

Gonna be out of town for a week. In the meantime, I leave you with Energia Orion.

On 12/25/2022 at 6:53 PM, Rutabaga22 said:

You should make a cursed KSP challenge. No one could make a better challenge than you.

 

I hate myself for not responding to this sooner. That's an awesome idea! I kinda already have something like that here:

I haven't posted there in a hot minute, but I'm far from done with the idea. Also there's the fact that KSP2 is on the horizon, and seeing as it apparently has even more VAB tools...

[Rutabaga22]

On 2/15/2023 at 5:19 PM, Blufor878 said:

I hate myself for not responding to this sooner. That's an awesome idea! I kinda already have something like that here:

I've seen (and participated) in the challenge, I more meant a challenge based on your style of Kit bashing rockets, not just building rockets made by AI.

[Blufor878]

4 hours ago, Rutabaga22 said:

I've seen (and participated) in the challenge, I more meant a challenge based on your style of Kit bashing rockets, not just building rockets made by AI.

I mean, that’s kind if what this thread is for. Though I do kinda want to do polls to help direct future ideas.

[Rutabaga22]

8 hours ago, Blufor878 said:

Though I do kinda want to do polls to help direct future ideas.

Ooooh, do energia-saturn V

[Blufor878]

52 minutes ago, Rutabaga22 said:

Ooooh, do energia-saturn V

I like that. I haven’t given Energia enough love yet.

[Rutabaga22]

11 hours ago, Blufor878 said:

I like that. I haven’t given Energia enough love yet.

I did it....

[Blufor878]

On 2/17/2023 at 8:16 PM, Rutabaga22 said:

I did it....

Nice!
Also, I'm back! So now I can show my interpretation.


For my take on Energia Saturn I also replaced the core first stage engines with a bunch of J2's.

I also have a bunch of other stuff in the works.
First, the T680 jet.



Second, me playing around with @benjee10's latest Habtech2 update.

Oh, I almost forgot!
Goddard I, my first rocket in KSP2.



I'm still testing it. So far it can carry at least 7 tons to LKO (almost certainly a lot more, I'm still figuring out the new UI).

[Blufor878]

Lanhua gets one last module (or I guess 2 or 3). In further celebration of the latest Habtech2 update, I've given the station a modified Kibo Science Module.


Also, a new crew vehicle, the CTV-I, which uses a hybrid Apollo/HTV service module. It's maiden flight is to the (for now) complete Lanhua Station.

[Blufor878]

I'm about to drop some late 90's/early 2000's what-if nostalgia.



Also I've made a vertical orbiter stack that doesn't totally suck!