What did you do in KSP2 today?

[Rutabaga22]

Now that I don't have major frame drops, I landed on the mun.

17 hours ago, FuelX said:

Thanks! Lifted it with a rocket.

 

It reach orbit with both nuclear rockets full. About 6400 Δv. Enough for most trecks around Kerbol.

 

 

And today I've been working on a SSTO, but no success so far. 

How bad did that rocket wobble?

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Rutabaga22

[Stephensan]

21 hours ago, justmeman117 said:

Last night, the release of this game made me want to watch The Right Stuff again, lol. Holy crap, it's like a 3 hour movie, and a lot cheesier than I remember. Still, I enjoyed it.

Watching that made me want to build my third aircraft, this time to go to space for the first time. I decided it'd be a cool challenge to try to do so in an NF-104 inspired aircraft (the plane Chuck Yeager crashes in both the film, and in real life).

The NF-104 was the predecessor to the X-15. It was a standard F-104 Starfighter, that had been modified with wing tanks removed, a hydrazine rocket in the tail just above the engine exhaust, and the radome replaced with an RCS system (monopropellant tanks and a few thrusters for maneuvering in the rarified air).

My build is not quite a 1:1 replica, instead it's just inspired by the real deal. I wanted to use my ejection cockpit from the jump jet build, whereas the inline cockpit would look better for an F-104 replica, so I decided not to adhere to an exact replica. The major difference (besides the cockpit) is relocation of the RCS thrusters to the wingtips and just behind the cockpit, instead of trying to place them in the tiny nose this cockpit affords. Some of the proportions are also a little off, mostly because I built it from memory.

I didn't get any screenshots of the ascent unfortunately. I didn't know this was going to be a successful flight, so I didn't document that part. I'd already had a couple unsuccessful flights that usually peaked around 60,000 meters. BTW, I tested the ejection cockpit again at 1,200 m/s at 13,000 meters on one of these flights, and it still worked great, came well away from the plane (I thought I'd have to add more separatrons for those speeds). Most of the plane's fuselage is precoolers, because they're fairly low drag intakes that work well at high speeds and altitudes. They also fit with the plane's aesthetic. I also didn't want to use fuel tanks in the main fuselage, as I knew I'd have to keep weight down. I spammed 4 precoolers and 2 of the small intakes to try and keep the whiplash running into the highest altitudes possible.

I had already exchanged some mono-propellant for more methalox tanks, but it was still failing to get to space. I decided the only way to get that last 10k meters without changing the aesthetic of the plane was to go light on fuel, so I reduced my methane fuel load to 1/2 of what it was before... This plane was light on fuel already, so this is a sketchy decision.

Long story short, it was a 15 degree climb on the Whiplash up to about 18,000 meters, then a shallow 10 degree dive to 12,000 meters to get up to 1,200 m/s as fast as possible. Then a full pitch up into an 80 degree climb. Another reason for the dive is to maximize the amount of time the Whiplash keeps running during that 80 degree climb. Diving back into thicker air also improves authority over the elevator, so you're not taking forever to pitch into the 80 degree climb. Any lower than 12,000 meters though, and you start to bleed too much speed. Then, upon your pro-grade reaching 80 degrees, I fire the Thud rocket. I don't wait for the Whiplash to quit, firing the Thud a little early improves airspeed for more ram air, feeding the Whiplash a little bit longer. Once the Whiplash gets weaker, I use a hotkey to close all the intakes (it makes a huge difference on drag). The Whiplash uses whatever intake air is left in the closed intakes, and chokes out around where it would fail anyway.

This flight, it JUST barely made it to 71,000 meters, just enough time for a 60 second space walk.

Reentry was pretty sketchy, about 900 m/s at about 70 degrees below the horizon for prograde. The fully moving elevator helps arrest the descent around mach 1, and around 12,000 meters. Then begins a LONG turn for home, since the wings arent very effective at that altitude. But I dared not go lower, for a very important reason.

Now the hard part. I left with only 2 tons of methane to begin with. I reentered with just over 1 ton left, and by the time I finished my turn, was down to 900 kilos. That's all I had to get back, and for such a normally thirsty engine, I wasn't sure if I could get back.

If these engines have a regime in which they could be called "efficient", it is at 12,000-18,000 meters, at their maximum speed. At these altitudes, it doesn't burn quite as much fuel because there's not quite as much air to mix it with. And, it doesn't matter too much if it drinks it quickly, because you're covering over a kilometer of ground per second. On a mileage basis, it's actually a pretty efficient way to travel. This is why I did my turn for home at 12,000 meters, any lower, and it would have been a struggle to get back to that altitude without burning off the rest of my fuel.

I left it in a shallow climb, until it was running at around only 30 KN of thrust, sipping gas, and cruising at 1,200 m/s. This put me in a parabolic arc up to 24,000 meters. At that altitude, I could literally cut the engine entirely (not that it would run well anyway), and just.. Coast. I turned off the intakes again, and again, let the engine quit on air starvation. This is actually proving to be a pretty useful trick, I gained a decent amount of altitude and speed during that time waiting for it to starve, because the engine still runs on stored intake air, but you don't suffer the drag penalties of open intakes.

It actually had a decent amount of legs flying it this way, it probably could have flown much further on that 900 kilos. I left the SAS at about 10-15 degrees above prograde. Although this caused drag, it extended my flight time in that high altitude air where drag is minimal. Although it slowed me down, with the engine off, from 1,200 m/s down to 500 m/s, I had only gone from 24,000 meters down to 22,000 meters. This equates to far less drag loss overall, then allowing it to maintain speed, but descend. And by that time, I was almost straight over the KSC, and had to descend anyway.

I spiralled down, bleeding off speed and altitude as much as possible. I still had about 610 kilos of fuel left, which is enough to ensure I made the runway, or even do a go around (which, as you'll see, I should have).

I almost botched the landing. I was surprised by how fast the runway was coming up to meet me despite my low airspeed, and 4-5 FPS made the plane almost uncontrollable... It was weird, normally I get 10-15 at the worst around the KSC.

... Yeah, lol, maybe you can spot the problem with this picture... I had turned up the timewarp to descend faster, and had forgotten to go back to 1x for final approach and landing. With how narrow the wheel base is, and how bouncy those landing gear are, not to mention the tiny wings and a plane that flies like a brick, this wasn't going to be an easy landing to begin with... And I'd made it way harder than even that out of inattentiveness.

Because of the timewarp, it bled speed too fast for me to react well whenever I cut power. I'd allowed it to stall out way too high, and it clunked down onto the main landing gear VERY hard from probably 50 meters up. The one thing that saved me was the decision to use the bigger landing gear for the main wheels.

Then, because of the tall suspension and narrow wheel base, it swerved side to side down the runway, striking both wing tips. Again, a decision I'd made in building saved the plane. I'd insisted on using the LARGE wings, even though this was about the smallest wings you could possibly make with them (they have minimum chord/tip lengths and thicknesses). I like using these wings, even on small planes, if I can, because they have a very high crash tolerance. This kept them from getting destroyed during the wingtip strikes.

I didnt realize my mistake till I had tried to EVA for a photo op. The game wont let you EVA at timewarp. I was like "Well hell, now I'm surprised I landed that at all".

I decided to recover the plane instead of revert to VAB, for posterity, since it survived the flight. The recovery screen confirmed that I indeed broke the lower roll RCS ports on the wing tips during the wing strikes, and interestingly, I apparently broke the main landing gear...  I think maybe KSP 2 is going for a more complicated damage model than KSP 1 because, although this records the landing gear as having been broken in a hard landing... They didn't explode or anything, the wheels were still actually attached to the aircraft. It makes me wonder if landing too hard makes the suspension give out or act weird (kinda like how in KSP 1, you can  physically break wheels without completely destroying them).

If this is the case, I think it's a cool feature.

saw this post and wanted to make the same thing, but with more f104 look.. quite frustrated as of now..

whiplash is either completely nerfed or for some reason this jet i made has completely insane drag it will not past 280m/s even at 10km... and even going straight down from 60km, it just refuses at a near 90 angle it refuses to go past mach..

no idea why the drag is just utter crap, or the engine is.. it just refuses to go f-104 speeds.

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Stephensan

[Ryaja]

Let's just say... There are Kerbals stranded in kerbol now.

[Kerb24]

There's now a probe orbiting the core of Kerbol.

[justmeman117]

37 minutes ago, Stephensan said:

saw this post and wanted to make the same thing, but with more f104 look.. quite frustrated as of now..

whiplash is either completely nerfed or for some reason this jet i made has completely insane drag it will not past 280m/s even at 10km... and even going straight down from 60km, it just refuses at a near 90 angle it refuses to go past mach..

no idea why the drag is just utter crap, or the engine is.. it just refuses to go f-104 speeds.

 

Hmmm... I love the look, it's quite close to the real deal, but this is a tough one to troubleshoot. I don't know enough about KSP 2's drag model yet, but it does seem to consider certain parts very draggy considering the sluggish top speed of my panther powered jump jet.

In my build I made a deliberate choice to get most of my intake air from inline precoolers, since those should be fairly low drag, being so incorporated into the fuselage. I only added the two small ones to the 0.625 meter tanks at the wing roots for realism purposes (running a jet engine WITHOUT a visible intake bothers me on a physical level as a jet engine mechanic). I chose these small ones, because they get the job done, without causing much drag. Your design appears to have two large scoops, and two hypersonic scoops on it. I generally try to avoid the large scoops, because they just look draggy to me (and probably are). So to troubleshoot, I would try removing the radially attached intakes. Then see how it flies.

The whiplash may also need a ton of intake air. I mentioned in my post, I used 4 precoolers, which should be WAY more than it needs, and keep it gasping as high as possible. When flight testing, monitor your whiplash in the parts manager, see if its KN value jumps around up and down. This is a sign it's being air starved. If it is being air starved, I recommend replacing one of your fuel tanks with another precooler intake.

If those dont work, then I have 4 other things I'd check. I generally put my landing gear just inside fuselage parts, because I hate how those bulges stick out if you just slap them on. I see yours are embedded in the wings. It's possible those are causing a ton of drag that occlusion prevented on my build.

I've also never used an empenage as a nose cone before. I see why you did it, since the F-104 has a long nose. But, since it's usually used in game with the fat end facing forward, it could have some weird drag calculation where the fat end forward actually reduces drag, and the pointy end forward increases it. You could try replacing that part with the 1.25-0.625 Methane tank, and a 0.625 nose cone. It would still look decent, and might fix any drag coming off the original empenage part.

The other two big things... So Vaos (a youtuber) figured out that any open and unused attachment points (the green balls on parts in VAB) actually trigger drag, in the drag calculation. For example, a fuel tank with no nosecone. So in his builds, he tries to streamline his builds by putting nosecones on any open attachment points (even if he has to hide the nose cone for asthetic reasons). This, btw, is why he puts nose cones on the exhaust end of his Rapier engines (a weird design choice, but it massively reduces drag).

I see two possible parts that might have open attachment points. First, that antenna you're using as a pitot tube on the front. If I recall correcly, in KSP 1, that had an attachment point (no idea if KSP 2 has one or not).... Also, it's quite possible an extended antenna is triggering drag too, maybe try a test flight without it. Second, the tail end of the 0.625 rocket propellant tank. If there isn't a 0.625 nose cone there, embedded inside that thud motor, then put one on right there.

Those are my recommendations. Hopefully you figure out what's causing the drag. If you do, lemme know, I'd like to know what parts to avoid as far as drag is concerned. When you do your test flights, leave it in a 15 degree climb, and level off between 12,000 and 18,000 meters. If the whiplash never gets up to above mach 1 by that altitude to begin with, then the thrust it produces is pretty bad. It really needs ram air to produce more power. For that, it needs more speed (even in denser air, it seems to run better with more speed). For more speed, it needs to fly high, so the drag can drop off. So I've found a gradual climb to that altitude to be best.

(PS, it's also quite possible that the inline cockpit somehow causes a buggy amount of drag. I haven't used that cockpit yet, it's another difference between your plane and mine).

Edited February 27, 2023 by justmeman117
PS

[justmeman117]

Btw, the Whiplash, in my test flights, peaked around, I dunno, 300-350 KN for me? That was at round 12,000+ meters, and 1,000-1,100 m/s. So it definitely isn't the engine, it's very responsive to lots of ram air and gets up to VERY high thrust in the right speed regime, just like the KSP1 engine. I think your issue is most definitely drag related.

Even with no engine, a slippery enough plane should break mach 1 in a dive like that I think. I tried pushing my super draggy jump jet in the same manner to test my ejection system. In a 60 degree dive with full afterburner, from 8,000 meters, it could only hit 250 m/s by 6,000 meters, and then just HARD stopped at that speed, then slowly slowed down as it went into thicker air. It's a good way to test for drag.

[Stephensan]

just rebuilt the entire f104, same issue persists..

 

and once again i get the "infinite fuel glitch"/ god mode on everything...

 

i havent even modded it yet, and this game has cause me to reinstall 5 times already just for this f104 build to work and needed new saves just to test this rocket.

52 minutes ago, justmeman117 said:

Btw, the Whiplash, in my test flights, peaked around, I dunno, 300-350 KN for me? That was at round 12,000+ meters, and 1,000-1,100 m/s. So it definitely isn't the engine, it's very responsive to lots of ram air and gets up to VERY high thrust in the right speed regime, just like the KSP1 engine. I think your issue is most definitely drag related.

Even with no engine, a slippery enough plane should break mach 1 in a dive like that I think. I tried pushing my super draggy jump jet in the same manner to test my ejection system. In a 60 degree dive with full afterburner, from 8,000 meters, it could only hit 250 m/s by 6,000 meters, and then just HARD stopped at that speed, then slowly slowed down as it went into thicker air. It's a good way to test for drag.

after rebuilding this f104 build, while in this bugged state, once i bypass 400m/s, this jet is suddleny able to pull its own weight at 12km..

 

 

previous build at this alt, had 500kn of drag..

this build has 250-350kn of drag... and now is able pull 600m/s a sec, but CANNOT fly past super sonic until 10km+ in alt

 

still in this bugged state.

(only way fix it is to create a new campaign

Edited February 28, 2023 by Stephensan

[justmeman117]

2 minutes ago, Stephensan said:

just rebuilt the entire f104, same issue persists..

 

and once again i get the "infinite fuel glitch"/ god mode on everything...

 

i havent even modded it yet, and this game has cause me to reinstall 5 times already just for this f104 build to work and needed new saves just to test this rocket.

after rebuilding this f104 build, while in this bugged state, once i bypass 400m/s, this jet is suddleny able to pull its own weight at 12km..

 

 

previous build at this alt, had 500kn of drag..

this build has 250-350kn of drag... and now is able pull 600m/s a sec, but CANNOT fly past super sonic until 10km+ in alt

 

still in this bugged state.

(only way fix it is to create a new campaign

Did you build it exactly the same? If not, post a screenshot of your design. I can hop on, and modify mine to test out your design techniques, see if I can find a problem child part.

[Stephensan]

12 minutes ago, justmeman117 said:

Did you build it exactly the same? If not, post a screenshot of your design. I can hop on, and modify mine to test out your design techniques, see if I can find a problem child part.

got something better, i have the files..

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/so73udrkltmgili/F104.zip/file

 

go to (C:\Users\(YOURUSERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\Intercept Games\Kerbal Space Program 2\Saves\SinglePlayer\SINGLEPLAYERNAME\Workspaces.. and paste there.. best way to get there is to %appdata%, and then go back one, so instead of Roaming, you will go to LocalLow, and its easy afterthat

 

also should have stated i adjusted it to see if it was an issue, and is not the same compared to the OG one due to the file just completely destroying my save.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Stephensan

[justmeman117]

12 minutes ago, Stephensan said:

got something better, i have the files..

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/so73udrkltmgili/F104.zip/file

 

go to (C:\Users\(YOURUSERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\Intercept Games\Kerbal Space Program 2\Saves\SinglePlayer\SINGLEPLAYERNAME\Workspaces.. and paste there.. best way to get there is to %appdata%, and then go back one, so instead of Roaming, you will go to LocalLow, and its easy afterthat

 

also should have stated i adjusted it to see if it was an issue, and is not the same compared to the OG one due to the file just completely destroying my save.

I'll try it out. Might have to get back to you in a day or two though, I have some calculus homework due tonight.

[Stephensan]

Just now, justmeman117 said:

I'll try it out. Might have to get back to you in a day or two though, I have some calculus homework due tonight.

dont have an account, so it will be removed in like 13 days?

[justmeman117]

2 minutes ago, Stephensan said:

dont have an account, so it will be removed in like 13 days?

I'll at least download it then.

done

[SparkyFox]

welp, I tried! It wont lift and game also says no

[LameLefty]

I investigated some weird goings-on in space ... 

Do not click if you don't want to see.

Jeb's not saying it's aliens, but ...

BTW, does that look a bit like Khthulu Kerman? :p 

 

[i dont know how to forum]

[Francois424]

Got the game installed... then messed about in the VAB trying to find parts compatible to build a 'Flying rover'.
No propellers, what a letdown for me, so I went with 2x panther and 2x Mk2 JFT-800.  Barely had enough fuel to get to the North Pole (or at least the north ice shelf)

I was surprised with the lack of that Rover-sized cockpit parts for ASAS and Drone Control part.
This also need a good strutting if I ever want to activate the afterburners as it "shakes itself" and pitch down dangerously when it happens.

I flew with it, and I also rolled on the ground for a while, works pretty good.
( PS: Anyone playing in 3440x1440 as well?  It only stretches a 1920x1080 to fit that resolution making my in-game graphics less interesting )
( EDIT: Never mind... dunno why but game had reverted to 1920x1080 in the settings...  DUH ! Fixed now ! )

Mandatory picture landed on the northern ice shelf :

Edited February 28, 2023 by Francois424

[FuelX]

 

Today I tried to achieve SSTO. I had to redesign my rocket, turns out nuclear engines prevented my space plane to achieve high speed in the atmosphere.

So i did some trials and errors with the Rapier and eventualy managed to reach space !

 

Of course, an SSTO is just fancy waste without a payload. This one is Valentina's taxi.

 

Her ship unfortunatly had a broken fuel sensor and her onboard maneuver tool would not cooperate. So she had to pilot her ship by intuition.

 

She did reach the moon and next time will try a landing.

 

 

 

7 hours ago, Rutabaga22 said:

How bad did that rocket wobble?

Not much. The rocket was made of few huge parts. Did some strut magic for the side nukes and it was fine.

[dragonart777]

today i landed on  minmus  i well post pics in the morning as it is 2:20 am  and it took me a good bit figuring out how i was going to get there and save fuel to get home.   but ended up dropping my pods  for a safe landing.   minmus  is not a friendly planet.  your kerbals tears  well bounce on the ground like a rubber ball  and then hover.    not joking.   had to drop the pod with 1.800 fuel left  and watched it bounce on the ground  you well see it in the pic.      i made it tho.  safe  but my kerbal is asking for a rescue mission,  so i well send one tomorew  after i post pics  of this mission.     god speed all  

[ShadowZone]

I tested my Duna rover delivery system. Needs a gentle hand when putting it down on Kerbin (sorry, Jeb!), but should be fine for Duna.

Now to build a rocket for it...

Edited February 28, 2023 by ShadowZone

[mcwaffles2003]

Built a rapier/whiplash spaceplane

Repasted my laptop that idled at 75C in desktop (now 50C)... Ive gone from probably <3 fps to around 10 - 15. It has drastically changed my experience so far.

Made a dragster, got it to 750 m/s before it blew up

Made a simple fighter jet. It's nice just to just fly it around. The sound experience is very nice, the procedural wings feel solid and responsive

Sent a SWERV with a ball of hydrogen to orbit and sent it past eeloo at 15000 m/s. It's been 250 years, I dont think I have gotten very far but I dont see Kerbol anymore.

Game obviously needs work but I'm having fun

Did quick algebra... that marker is as far away as I could make it which comes to almost exactly 5000 ly away... Is this the edge?

Edited February 28, 2023 by mcwaffles2003

[croviking]

Jebediah is hiding under the rock on Minmus until he can get some SCIENCE done! Or until someone brings snacks.

https://imgur.com/a/uk78Cec

[OakLeaf]

Built a phantom powered taildragger airplane. Tuned up nicely so far. Working on suspension and braking for easy landing. Needs a bit more work but coming along very well.

I’d like to see better tailwheel options. The small gear doesnt have the travel to take the load. Medium works but doesnt look very good.

[The Aziz]

I tried to build a space station but docking became impossible due to vessels skipping on timewarp switch. No docking it is then.

[HowDoKerbal]

I am attempting to build, in orbit, a ship with lander capable of round tripping to Duna

No idea if I’ll be able to actually dock the drive module to it. I’ve had issues with docking where when 2 vessels approach on orbit, at around ~850 meters the one not in player control loses all velocity and falls to the planet.

[AlexPacini]

I brought Val and Jeb to the Mun. Some weird bug happened and Bill mysteriously took their place. I brought Bill back but stranded him in some forest, so tonight I'll send a plane rescue him.

Also, I almost got stranded there with not enough gaz to come home but I remembered to burn retrograde from Mun's orbit to lower my kerbal periapsis and fling myself back in the atmosphere. Good thing there was no atmosphere, Bill got 15G in his green face upon reentry.

Next mission, I think, will be sending low-orbit probes around Minmus to try to find cool stuff.