KSP Academy with Poppe - Ep. 1 'Rocketry 101'

[Timmon26]

Hi, all! Last Friday we did a livestream of our KSP Academy: Rocketry 101!

This started as an internal Slack channel where I could give KSP lessons and post tutorials for the Community Team or new Intercept hires who were new to the KSP franchise.  We decided we should start streaming them, and the first lesson is now up on Youtube!

This stuff probably pretty basic for you all, but it was a lot of fun to make, and I hope you enjoy!

Some corrections:

1. Escape velocity from LEO is closer to 11km/s, not 8. That's LEO orbital velocity.
2. The boiling point of LH2 is about 20K, not about 3K. That's liquid helium. 

(See, even when I'm wrong about things, it's only because I'm right about other things. HA! )

Class slides (click to view in full res):

[Vanamonde]

Hey, that was pretty good.

[Casellina X]

This is the sort of thing that would have been terrific to know during my early KSP days. Filled a lot of gaps and assumptions I've been working with. If the team has the bandwidth, I think some of this should be incorporated as more "advanced knowledge" tutorials. The current set is easy to digest but doesn't come with the physics lesson and leaves you (me) a little wanting. Can't wait for the next.

[Snips]

As I wrote in another thread (which seems to has been deleted by a mod?) thank you for your effort. Looking forward for the next chapter, and thanks for sharing your drawings.

[dmsilev]

That was a very nice presentation. The one thing which I think was missing given the "101"-level scope  is more about the benefits of staging and why it works. It was mentioned, but only as a sort of "oh, by the way" at the end. Since you go through the math of the rocket equation, showing how staging changes that math isn't that much more of a leap to make, and it'd give that section the same level of depth as the rest of the presentation. 

Oh, and just for the sake of nitpicking, the correction needs correcting:, liquid helium is 4.2 K (and regular LOX is roughly 90 K, not the hundred and fifty or thereabouts mentioned in the vid). Both numbers the one-atmosphere boiling point. 

[ncw33]

I slightly dispute that launcher engines are "dumb". Are F-1, Raptor-2, or RS-25, or BE-4 "dumb"? All of them are not arguably not vacuum engines (which you call "fancy"). Exotic power source to get high V_e (like Dawn) - that's fancy. But putting a longer engine bell on a keralox engine isn't really dumb vs fancy, is it?

[Clayel]

hm, what is TMR? I'm assuming it's something to do with the ISP, but it's not explained in slide 3.

[OrdinaryKerman]

40 minutes ago, Clayel said:

hm, what is TMR? I'm assuming it's something to do with the ISP, but it's not explained in slide 3.

based on context I think it's thrust to mass ratio

 

also @Timmon26 I think these slides make up the best spaceflight primer I have ever seen

Edited January 26 by OrdinaryKerman

[Wheehaw Kerman]

On 1/23/2024 at 4:29 PM, ncw33 said:

I slightly dispute that launcher engines are "dumb". Are F-1, Raptor-2, or RS-25, or BE-4 "dumb"? All of them are not arguably not vacuum engines (which you call "fancy"). Exotic power source to get high V_e (like Dawn) - that's fancy. But putting a longer engine bell on a keralox engine isn't really dumb vs fancy, is it?

The Big Dumb Booster was a concept back in the day - e.g. Sea Dragon.  Big, high thrust, simple and cheap makes a lot of sense before reusables.  So there’s precedent to “dumb boosters” as a turn of phrase.

[Grandhobbit]

Please continue to make more of these. Excellent presentation, was very understandable. I thought the level of depth you talked about the physics and mechanical elements was great. Moving forward please maintain or go deeper on these subjects, don’t back off. 

[Dakitess]

This presentation, and especially the visuals are stellar, for real. Really really nice.

As an occasional Orbital Mechanics / KSP teacher in Engineering High School / University, I've been trough all theses explanation in pretty much the exact same order, but with about 3 to 4 hours courses content, detailing every aspect of it and using KSP as the perfect support to learn and feel how it works. I'm clearly not at the point of doing that kind of visuals which are very helpful and well thought ! It's a shame I'm such a bad drawer haha.

[Tetopia]

This is really great!

I love to teach rocket science to fellow KSP players and also people who never played KSP before. This Rocketry 101 gave me so many tools, analogies and explanations to do that, I love it!

You teasered the Rocketry 102 at the end, any chance we will see that some time soon?

[Timmon26]

On 3/7/2024 at 11:04 AM, Tetopia said:

You teasered the Rocketry 102 at the end, any chance we will see that some time soon?

Hopefully sometime this month, fingers crossed? Really depends on Dakota and I being able to wrangle a few unsuspecting test subjects co-workers on relatively short notice.

I already have the slides prepared for the next one though. We'll be going a bit more in-depth about ISP,  covering launch vehicle control and stability, then flying efficient gravity turns in-game.

[Meecrob]

14 hours ago, Timmon26 said:

Hopefully sometime this month, fingers crossed? Really depends on Dakota and I being able to wrangle a few unsuspecting test subjects co-workers on relatively short notice.

I already have the slides prepared for the next one though. We'll be going a bit more in-depth about ISP,  covering launch vehicle control and stability, then flying efficient gravity turns in-game.

Sounds brilliant, buddy. I hope they put your lessons in the game. The current tutorials are a bit much for anyone over the age of 12 to be quite honest.