Suggestion - Thrust profiles for SRB's

[Turbo Ben]

I watched a YouTube video a while back discussing the launch of the space shuttle. One thing that was discussed was how the SRB's thrust could be tuned (reduced for MaxQ) based on the shape of the solid fuel within the booster (google image search "SRB fuel shape" for examples of shapes and thrust profiles). Basicly, the surface area of the fuel determines the thrust, and the way the shape burns away determines the overall thrust profile.

It got me thinking of KSP back then, and in KSP1 today, I launched a basic moon lander using just an SRB (to keep costs low). It's all good at the start of the launch (TWR about 1.8) but not being able to throttle the SRB meant that, as the fuel depleted and the mass reduced, the thrust became way too high. By the time the SRB ran out of fuel my poor lander was engulfed in plasma and on the verge of burning up.

So, my suggestion would be to add a feature where the thrust profile of an SRB can be configured before launch. This could be anything from a couple of preset profiles to a completely free adjusable profile. For those who know, imagine the fan curve you see in BIOS, where there are usually a couple of presets and the ability to custom tune different fan speeds for different temperatures, only with thrust Vs fuel level. To keep things simple for new players, the default could be 100% as it is now. There could even be the option to increase thrust above 100% at the cost of available fuel mass (the shapes for greater thrust require there to be gaps in the fuel).

I think this would add more utility to the boosters so they could remain useful after liquid fuel engines are available, all while simulating how SRB's operate in the real world.