Rune's Slightly Used Vehicles

[Rune]

Today in Spain, all the kids are really happy because the Wizard Kings of orient arrived last night and left them their christmas presents, if they were good during the year (else they get coal!). So, if you guys had written a KSP letter to them (sent by BoosterMail of course), what would you have asked for?

1) a Station

2) a SSTO

3) a Big Freaking Rocket

Weigh in! You might still find out that they did, indeed, leave something with your name on it when they went past my house.

 

Rune."ʆWe wish you, a merry christmas...ʆ"

Edited January 6, 2016 by Rune

[Dafni]

The first wise king brings us an upgraded Von Braun Station

[Rune]

3 hours ago, Dafni said:

The first wise king brings us an upgraded Von Braun Station

Well, Melchior is certainly a generous one. The upgrade contains integrated (and shrouded) science and ISRU facilities, and it comes in 20m and 40m sizes. The 40m model doesn't have the science facilities, but I'm sure you will be able to mix and match features of the two in you own games. Oh, and the interior of the rings is accessible, of course:

Von Braun Mk VI, 20m

Von Braun Mk VI, 40m

 

Rune. I'll write up the thread for him, though. He is quite busy!

Edited January 6, 2016 by Rune

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Rune said:

the interior of the rings is accessible, of course:

 

Accessible, yes. Practical, no. Have you tried EVAing through those parts in orbit? It is annoying in the extreme.

[Rune]

39 minutes ago, Majorjim said:

Accessible, yes. Practical, no. Have you tried EVAing through those parts in orbit? It is annoying in the extreme.

I've recovered kerbals from rotating rings in orbit under 1G conditions (sadly, they ragdoll) so yeah, I know. But it all depends on your EVA-fu...

 

Rune. Note: I have been using KAS for years. I might have developed "mad skillz".

Edited January 6, 2016 by Rune
The darned new forum software keeps on doing weird things

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Rune said:

I've recovered kerbals from rotating rings in orbit under 1G conditions (sadly, they ragdoll) so yeah, I know. But it all depends on your EVE-fu...

 

Rune. Note: I have been using KAS for years. I might have developed "mad skillz".

I've recovered kerbals from rotating rings in orbit under 1G conditions (sadly, they ragdoll) so yeah, I know. But it all depends on your EVE-fu...

 

Rune. Note: I have been using KAS for years. I might have developed "mad skillz".

EVA skill is moot. I can EVA with the best of them, what ever that means. it is a fact of the game sadly, it makes no difference your 'skill' level. It is annoying for anyone.

[Rune]

9 minutes ago, Majorjim said:

EVA skill is moot. I can EVA with the best of them, what ever that means. it is a fact of the game sadly, it makes no difference your 'skill' level. It is annoying for anyone.

If you don't hit the walls, the camera will stay just as still as if you were in "free" space. It's when you hit things that you start cartwheeling, the camera follows, and you lose your north. You of course have to fly blind or change the camera constantly, but hey, take things slow, and you can move through one of those corridors to the crew cabin on the other end. I know because I have done it, and it didn't seem all that complicated, because I stopped to take pics:

 

Rune. Now, maybe we can get back to the presents and the reactions to them? Else you will get coal, I warn you!

Edited January 6, 2016 by Rune

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Rune said:

If you don't hit the walls, the camera will stay just as still as if you were in "free" space. It's when you hit things that you start cartwheeling, the camera follows, and you lose your north. You of course have to fly blind or change the camera constantly, but hey, take things slow, and you can move through one of those corridors to the crew cabin on the other end. I know because I have done it, and it didn't seem all that complicated, because I stopped to take pics:

 

 

Rune. Now, maybe we can get back to the presents and the reactions to them? Else you will get coal, I warn you!

I'm not having a go at you Rune.. It's just the game. Yes I know it is 'possible' I have done it many times. And yes pressing the screen shot button is possible too..

Why would it be complicated...? Your responses are at right angles to my main point. Also, I like coal, or rather Carbon. It is my favorite element.

 

[Prof B]

Rune, I am simply in awe, this entire repository thread is amazing. I'm hugely enjoying your designs, from flying and (poorly) tweaking to being inspired and (superbly) failing  - thanks for everything!

[CloudlessEchoes]

Ah I was just going to comment that the MKIV station had some weird glitches (one of which I discovered 60km up, the flipped nukes and shroud blocking the thrust, oops!), but you already have a new one up.  Awesome as always!

Edit: was the original intended for fuel storage? Looks like the new version doesn't work for that, but it looks nicer!

Edited January 10, 2016 by CloudlessEchoes

[CorBlimey]

why do you clip a shock cone intake into the end of your rapiers? (e.g. on the Claymore design) Don't they get enough air from the ram intake?

[Rune]

On 7/1/2016 at 9:59 PM, Prof B said:

Rune, I am simply in awe, this entire repository thread is amazing. I'm hugely enjoying your designs, from flying and (poorly) tweaking to being inspired and (superbly) failing  - thanks for everything!

Thanks! It's always nice to hear those things. Especially the part about inspiring your own designs! Keep at it, and I hope to see stuff from you here.

On 10/1/2016 at 5:50 AM, CloudlessEchoes said:

Ah I was just going to comment that the MKIV station had some weird glitches (one of which I discovered 60km up, the flipped nukes and shroud blocking the thrust, oops!), but you already have a new one up.  Awesome as always!

Edit: was the original intended for fuel storage? Looks like the new version doesn't work for that, but it looks nicer!

Hum, it might have had a weird launch procedure (i.e: flip 180º on the coast to apoapsis), or it may have been bugged. In any case, yeah, the new one launcher in a saner manner. Oh, and the shroud on top can (and should) be ejected with the abort button when you clear the atmosphere. As for uses as a fuel depot, yeah, the old one could serve the function, holding about 4 Big Reds in a lot of small tanks. But it was bothersome, and I have been switching to storing my fuel as Ore (then I can decide the LF/O ratio on the refuel), so I just add ore tank modules to it. It still has quite a bit on the three tanks on the body, though, so it can serve in a pinch (~1.5x Big Reds). You can get one of my tanks, which are sized to fit in teh same space as a half orange tank capped with Sr. Ports, in this thread.

On 10/1/2016 at 2:16 PM, CorBlimey said:

why do you clip a shock cone intake into the end of your rapiers? (e.g. on the Claymore design) Don't they get enough air from the ram intake?

The longsword is a tiny bit outdated, but basically, to reduce the drag of the open node on the back (though I don't think the four intakes on front can feed eight engines). These days, after the latest re-balance, you'd be better off using small nosecones. Be sure to offset them a bit inside so the gimbal on the RAPIERs doesn't fry them.

 

Rune. Keeping the OP updated is a never-ending task.

[CorBlimey]

11 minutes ago, Rune said:

The longsword is a tiny bit outdated, but basically, to reduce the drag of the open node on the back (though I don't think the four intakes on front can feed eight engines). These days, after the latest re-balance, you'd be better off using small nosecones. Be sure to offset them a bit inside so the gimbal on the RAPIERs doesn't fry them.

oh, I didn't know rear facing nodes would suffer drag in 1.0.5. I thought that parts further up the stack occlude in-line parts behind? My knowledge on the drag model is very poor so I am glad you have explained

[regex]

Rune, thought I'd stop by and +rep for the Lackluster (free bump, too).  I'm not one to download other's stuff, preferring to build and figure things out for myself, but I just love that design.  Here's mine, in a permanent configuration (stock install, no IR):

Spoiler

There are some extra cosmetic parts and some of the stuff that was originally clipped was moved into the cargo bay when I installed the Hitchhiker.  The Vernors didn't seem to work as RCS (I'm mainly an RO player, so I'm not entirely familiar with the new stock stuff) so I have the linears and a few clipped reaction wheels to handle control.

Took me a while to figure out a good ascent profile from Kerbin, the margins are pretty tight.  What did help was those Fleas at 50% throttle, providing just enough TWR to get it through the first half of the first atmosphere band.  Gravity turn starts at 80~90m/s.

While I have more conventional crew shuttles for Kerbin I think this will make a damn fine crew shuttle for a Duna surface base.  Thanks for the inspiration!

[Rune]

1 hour ago, regex said:

Rune, thought I'd stop by and +rep for the Lackluster (free bump, too).  I'm not one to download other's stuff, preferring to build and figure things out for myself, but I just love that design.  Here's mine, in a permanent configuration (stock install, no IR):

  Hide contents

There are some extra cosmetic parts and some of the stuff that was originally clipped was moved into the cargo bay when I installed the Hitchhiker.  The Vernors didn't seem to work as RCS (I'm mainly an RO player, so I'm not entirely familiar with the new stock stuff) so I have the linears and a few clipped reaction wheels to handle control.

Took me a while to figure out a good ascent profile from Kerbin, the margins are pretty tight.  What did help was those Fleas at 50% throttle, providing just enough TWR to get it through the first half of the first atmosphere band.  Gravity turn starts at 80~90m/s.

While I have more conventional crew shuttles for Kerbin I think this will make a damn fine crew shuttle for a Duna surface base.  Thanks for the inspiration!

Thanks! It's always nice to hear that kind of feedback. But frankly, I don't think I came up with much, the parts just wanted to fit in that shape once I started tinkering trying to make a Mk3 rocketship with cargo bay... The hard part was getting enough dV out of it to make orbit without ruining the shape, I must have tried dozens of powerplants combinations, form three to five spikes and every other engine of similar thrust in between. Nothing to say about the modifications, perfectly sensible, tough I don't quite get why you put the radiators in there (but they do look nice, shining that dull red). If it is to help with reentry, note that nose-first you have one of the pieces with the highest temp rating out there, for the initial entry... then when you are merely supersonic, drop the brakes and forbid the control on the winglets, and you should flip the right way for landing. And totally +1 to the Flea idea, in fact, I have actually worked out for myself something to provide that same extra kick to get out of the ground and make best use of the big dV figure in the tanks:

The idea is that this gets the thing going to minimize gravity losses, and it burns out so quickly that you can land it and still switch back to the LackLuster before starting to seriously grav-turning (that took quite a few tries to calibrate the chutes to open at just the right time). It might sound silly, but it increases the payload to almost double, with a wider margin, so I might release it at some point. This design is really on the ragged edge of TWR, gravity losses seriously drag it down, so getting a free ~100m/s to plow through the atmosphere while you burn into respectable TWR helps quite a lot.

And using vernors... well, they are awesomely powerful, and they are put the right way to provide a very responsive attitude control when it is full (i.e: just like yours). When it is empty, you can trust the internal reaction wheel. And besides, common propellant means you can only run out of everything, and that you can use a small refinery to refuel everything. Mighty convenient, even it they are a bit heavier than monoprop RCS, and you have to watch your fuel levels like a hawk. Since I also rely on a single fuel cell (outer system), that means that as long as I have LFO, I'm happy, but that without it it's dead in the water. I don't get why they weren't working for you... maybe you had fine controls on and you weren't seeing the exhaust?

 

Rune. Still, I encourage aftermarket modifications, especially if reported about, so well done!

[regex]

29 minutes ago, Rune said:

Thanks! It's always nice to hear that kind of feedback. But frankly, I don't think I came up with much, the parts just wanted to fit in that shape once I started tinkering trying to make a Mk3 rocketship with cargo bay... The hard part was getting enough dV out of it to make orbit without ruining the shape, I must have tried dozens of powerplants combinations, form three to five spikes and every other engine of similar thrust in between. Nothing to say about the modifications, perfectly sensible, tough I don't quite get why you put the radiators in there (but they do look nice, shining that dull red). If it is to help with reentry, note that nose-first you have one of the pieces with the highest temp rating out there, for the initial entry... then when you are merely supersonic, drop the brakes and forbid the control on the winglets, and you should flip the right way for landing.

While the way it fits together seems pretty simple it's the Mk2 parts and the landing legs on the rear end that really make the craft, and you saved me the same trouble looking for the ideal combinations of engines.  Reentry is rear-first and works like a charm.  Landing on Kerbin is a bit rough at @ 15m/s, but I only used two chutes.  vOv  On Duna it should be perfectly fine on those aerospikes.

The radiators on mine are there because every spaceship should have radiators.

Quote

And totally +1 to the Flea idea, in fact, I have actually worked out for myself something to provide that same extra kick to get out of the ground and make best use of the big dV figure in the tanks:

The idea is that this gets the thing going to minimize gravity losses, and it burns out so quickly that you can land it and still switch back to the LackLuster before starting to seriously grav-turning (that took quite a few tries to calibrate the chutes to open at just the right time). It might sound silly, but it increases the payload to almost double, with a wider margin, so I might release it at some point. This design is really on the ragged edge of TWR, gravity losses seriously drag it down, so getting a free ~100m/s to plow through the atmosphere while you burn into respectable TWR helps quite a lot.

That's a nice idea, I was thinking something the same, maybe like early sounding rockets that used a massive, incredibly short-burn engine to get the rocket going...  Then I remembered I'm carrying Kerbals and decided on the less ... stressful launch option.

Quote

And besides, common propellant means you can only run out of everything, and that you can use a small refinery to refuel everything. Mighty convenient, even it they are a bit heavier than monoprop RCS, and you have to watch your fuel levels like a hawk. Since I also rely on a single fuel cell (outer system), that means that as long as I have LFO, I'm happy, but that without it it's dead in the water. I don't get why they weren't working for you... maybe you had fine controls on and you weren't seeing the exhaust?

Ah, they use LFO, that's where I went wrong.  I tested them on an earlier flight where I hadn't quite gotten to orbit and was wondering why they weren't touching the RCS.  Makes sense.

Edited January 23, 2016 by regex

[Paranoid Shark]

Hey,

I am trying to recreate your superflea above, but however i try i cannot get a central flea and 8 radial to survive the phyicis load. I have even tried attaching the radial ones to the decoupler and then some extreme offsetting and rotating and that doesnt work.

Whats the trick?

Kit 

[Rune]

10 hours ago, Paranoid Shark said:

Hey,

I am trying to recreate your superflea above, but however i try i cannot get a central flea and 8 radial to survive the phyicis load. I have even tried attaching the radial ones to the decoupler and then some extreme offsetting and rotating and that doesnt work.

Whats the trick?

Kit 

In struts we trust, my friend, in struts we trust.

Make sure the exterior Fleas are surface-attached to the central one, and they are the ones touching the ground, then strut them to each other with one strut each, and it becomes solid as a rock.

 

Rune. Actually, since tweaking the chutes so you can land it and switch back to the ship in time is tricky... do you want a mediafire link? I think I can still give them whole in PMs...

Edited January 28, 2016 by Rune

[Paranoid Shark]

1 hour ago, Rune said:

In struts we trust, my friend, in struts we trust.

Make sure the exterior Fleas are surface-attached to the central one, and they are the ones touching the ground, then strut them to each other with one strut each, and it becomes solid as a rock.

 

Rune. Actually, since tweaking the chutes so you can land it and switch back to the ship in time is tricky... do you want a mediafire link? I think I can still give them whole in PMs...

Yeah that would be great, I have stage recovery installed at the moment so it isn't critical that it lands before i have to switch, just that the parachutes deploy. 

On my 1+6 Superflea that I threw together and did a couple of test flights with last night I had the parachutes fully deploy at 300m, and with the fleas all set to 100% I was getting either an extra 280m/s of delta v, or an extra 2t of payload on my "VSSTO to anywhere but Eve (as long as it refuels in LKO)" TWR was 2.05 on the Superflea on liftoff, and I started main engines after the superflea had burnt out.

I think there is definitely some potential here.

Kit

[ryan234abc]

Eyyy I'm back! Wow I missed a lot.

The latest VB looks amazing with the new hollow interior ring. I'll be sure to test that out. Was there anything else you uploaded since Christmas? The new forum makes it hard to find your started threads.

 

[Rune]

15 hours ago, ryan234abc said:

Eyyy I'm back! Wow I missed a lot.

The latest VB looks amazing with the new hollow interior ring. I'll be sure to test that out. Was there anything else you uploaded since Christmas? The new forum makes it hard to find your started threads.

 

Glad to have you back! But no, It's actually been quite a while since I posted anything. I mean, I have a bunch of things that I could release, but most of them are insufficiently tested, since lately I am mostly playing my own career save, where I haven't needed new things in a while. Then again, if you are up for a bit of test piloting, and don't mind providing a documented accounting of it... Plus, the whole mediafire thing, I gotta rewrite the whole OP and re-upload everything, and it all sounds so much like a chore...

 

Rune. I always build more than I can fly.

Edited February 2, 2016 by Rune

[Iago]

4 hours ago, Rune said:

I always build more than I can fly.

I always fly more than I can build 

[Tangle]

A SSTO, of course!

 

[But if we do end up with coal, will it be asteroid-and-ore-kit shaped?]

[Rune]

12 hours ago, Tangle said:

A SSTO, of course!

You know? You are about one month late, but I guess on the way back to the Orient, Gaspar could have dropped the latest in SSTOs, the Orca.

Based very loosely on the Trident, it basically does everything that one did, but with twice the cargo bay space, more delta-v, and in fact enough oomph (and room) to lift a whole Big Red to orbit, or lift off from the water under kerbin's gravity. So actually, quite a lot more! I think it's going to replace the Spatha too, it's that versatile...

I really wanted to re-test the maximum payload after some fuel tweaks, plus take it on a ride to Mun to make yet another base (yup, some minor redesigns there, too), but you kind of forced my hand with that comment, and I haven't released anything in ages. And what the heck, if it can VTOL on kerbin (partially empty of course!), I'm pretty sure belly-landing on the Mun or Duna will be no problem, it's got more dV and TWR than the Trident...

It's perfectly balanced on both axis of propulsion and it has powerful reaction wheels and RCS, but if you are towing stuff, you can tweak the horizontal CoT by tweaking the thrust in the wing-mounted engines, which is a nice touch I think. Makes it the perfect tug for base packs! All in all, a true rarity in my builds: a design where overkill is the word, and every area of performance has really fat margins. It even has a rather high wing loading! But don't worry, I didn't betray my low-part-count ideals: it does all that with just 80 parts, which is actually less than the Trident. Poor Trident, how little time have you been among us before being rendered obsolete...

12 hours ago, Tangle said:

[But if we do end up with coal, will it be asteroid-and-ore-kit shaped?]

That could be an idea, but what I do with Potatoes is use a very tiny mobile refinery module, and a single-nuke nuclear tug that you can get on my subassembly pack, and then go crazy with KAS. You can see the tug here on top of the pic, I launched it I-don't-even-remember-how-long-ago on a Longsword:

It is not a technique for the faint of heart, that's for sure, that big sucker took more than a few hours burning with the nuke at TWR ~0.003. See, this is the pic that gives you the right sense of scale:

Incidentally, I found out that such tiny thrust doesn't actually work at all in some circumstances (specifically, high altitudes and/or low orbital velocities), which must be a bug caused by the krakenbane I guess, or some floating point thing, but it forced me to 'cheat' the thrust on the nuke a couple times to raise periapsis. I won't count it as cheating, tough, since I had the time and the fuel to do it right, and in fact I actually spent the fuel. Also, even though I caught it a good ways away from kerbin, I fudged the insertion and it took quite a while to get the inclination right, I ended up with it at almost 45º and with the nodes in almost the worst possible places, meaning even though I used aerobraking a lot, I still had to burn something like 600m/s at such a horrible TWR to get it where I wanted it to go (100km circular LKO). Learn to use Mun to change your inclination is the lesson! In any case, it was about 2500mT when I caught it, and now it is ~2200, ~1700mT of which is fuel (yup, I burned some ~400mT through a single 60kN nuke...). I guess I'm not launching any tankers in a good while!

 

Rune. And that is how I spent this weekend, mostly, fixing the inclination and sprucing up the place.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Rune

[Raptor9]

I captured a Class E asteroid into a high Kerbin orbit once (somewhere between Mun and Minmus)...definitely a process I would prefer not to experience again.