Orion aka "Ol' Boom-boom"

[kiwiak]

Im confused with how im am supposed to use various bombs on my ship.

By default, drive just takes turns, one bomb from each container is taken, untill all are empty. So 20kN, 8 kN, 20kN, 8 kN...

When i right click drive i see list of bomb types, with "kill" button next to each. So using this i am supposed to disable using some types of bombs onboard.

But when i click "kill", nothing changes.

And there is no indicator which bomb types are enabled now and which disabled.

[nyrath]

Kiwiak, it can be confusing.

When you right click on the drive and the list of bomb types shows up, any bomb type with "Kill" next to it is currently enabled.

Any bomb type with "Start" next to it is currently disabled.

The marker says "Kill->". The hypen and greater-than-sign is a crude arrow pointing at the kill button. Click on the buttton, not the "kill" label"

When the drive is operating, it will take one bomb from each Active bomb type. So if you turn off all bomb types except one, only that type will be detonated.

As you kill or start various bomb types, the "Nuke:nnnn" display will change. It will only show the total number of bombs available of the active types. So if it drops to zero, check to see if you have any bomb types deactivated.

[kiwiak]

Problem is, that i click blue button next to kill, but still nothing happens, kill doesnt changes into start, nukes:xxx stays the same.

Maybe it wont work properly with 0.23?

[nyrath]

Kiwiak, phooey, you are right. Apparently it broke in the new version and I didn't notice. Sorry about that.

I'll try to fix it but it might take a while.

[kiwiak]

Well, it makes no sense to take care of it right now while ARM and 0.24 are going to be released soon and possibly change how things work again.

And if you want to care of something else than bugfixes, suggest new explosion sound for nukes detonating in space.

Something muffled, distinguished from explosions in atmosphere - current one.

[StevenRS11]

Sometimes, when I need to laugh, I just think about how this was a serious idea, and the main reason that development never progressed is that it was too capable, ie, we didnt need to lift things that heavy into space. Not because, you know, nukes everywhere.

[Anton P. Nym]

With the advent of the ARM pack, thought I'd dust off ol' Boom-Boom and build an ELE defense craft. I've learned a bit since last summer... I give you the KSS Carl Kerman (aka "Big Carl").

The SLS boosters get her up to 35km and 1km/s before I have to light the big candle, so no embarrassing craters/fallout at KSC. She's in a 380x350km equatorial parking orbit for now, with 499 charges remaining in the main stack and 60 each of the 400MN and 0.88MN charges. When I spot a class E impactor, we'll see if she can save Kerbin.

-- Steve

edited to add:

When i right click drive i see list of bomb types, with "kill" button next to each. So using this i am supposed to disable using some types of bombs onboard.

But when i click "kill", nothing changes.

And there is no indicator which bomb types are enabled now and which disabled.

This is still active on my copy (d/led last October), but bomb selection is manageable by action group if folks are looking for a work-around.

Edited April 6, 2014 by Anton P. Nym
Adding info re: bug reported above

[nyrath]

Anton P. Nym, holy moly! That's gorgeous!

Action groups, eh? I'll have to look into that.

[Hremsfeld]

I don't know how many people here are using custom tech tree files, or for that matter even know about treeloader. For those that do, I went ahead and made a new node for Orion, requiring nuclear propulsion as its only pre-req. If you've got a tree.cfg file, put these lines in there:

NODE
{
	name = node7_ProjectOrion
	techID = projectOrion
	pos = -635,1325,-1
	icon = NUCLEARPROPULSION
	cost = 300
	title = ProjectOrion
	description = A propulsion system based on the old "firecracker under a tin can" principle. Except the tin can is a spacecraft and the firecracker is a nuclear bomb.
	anyParent = False
	hideIfEmpty = False
	parents = node6_nuclearPropulsion
	PARTS
	{
		name = USAFOrion3Engine
		name = USAFOrionEngine
		name = USAFOrionTank
		name = USAFOrionMag08kt088mn
		[s]name = USAFOrionMag1_9kt20mn[/s]
		[s]name = USAFOrionMag1_35kt10mn[/s]
		[s]name = USAFOrionMag1kt3_5mn[/s]
		name = USAFOrionMag1p9kt20mn
		name = USAFOrionMag1p35kt10mn
		name = USAFOrionMag1kt3p5mn
		name = USAFOrionMag5kt80mn
		name = USAFOrionMag15kt400mn
	}
}

As-is, it should put Orion about an icon's width above the Very Heavy Rocketry icon - if it overlaps with anything on a different tree (I'm using Interstellar's), change the pos = line. -635 is its x, 1325 is its y.

Edit: Huh, it didn't move the 3.5, 10, or 20MN mags for some reason. Gonna see if I can figure out why...

Second edit: Strange. It looks like treeloader doesn't like it when parts have underscores in their names. Changing them to a p and adjusting the tree.cfg file accordingly seemed to work.

Edited April 7, 2014 by Hremsfeld

[Anton P. Nym]

Memo to self; more reaction wheels on the next model, and maybe convert the LV-Ns into twinned LV-909s in a fore-and-aft "pushmepullyu" arrangement.

-- Steve

[DomDiaemus]

Nice mod but how to add to the career side (into the default tech tree?). Thanks

[8749236]

Is this even still alive? =(

I missed the nuclear bomb..

[HoneyFox]

Is this even still alive? =(

I missed the nuclear bomb..

XD why it's not?

[Canopus]

I guess Nyrath just waits for 0.24 to arrive before he updates the mod again. It is also working very good right now, so i see no reason for concern.

[Xaelath]

I guess Nyrath just waits for 0.24 to arrive before he updates the mod again. It is also working very good right now, so i see no reason for concern.

So is it working for 23.5?

[Canopus]

So is it working for 23.5?

It works perfectly fine but you have to make use of the action groups in order to change the bomb type.

[Son of Hicks]

So I've been following this for a year or so. First off, great mod. It brings an incorrigible smile to my face every time I brachistrone to Jool. But the extra textures have never worked in any version for me; every time I unzip the OrionTexturePackv1 and merge the its game data folder to get TurboNisu's beautiful art into KSP, the pusher plate won't shoot bombs and I just fall off the launch clamps. Can anyone help me?

[Hremsfeld]

Nice mod but how to add to the career side (into the default tech tree?). Thanks

Copy the following line:

TechRequired = experimentalRocketry

into each part's part.cfg file, under its category = Propulsion line. I honestly don't remember if that's a stock node or if it was added by Interstellar, so if that doesn't work, try TechRequired = nuclearPropulsion

Edit: Nyrath, do you have any plans to make the number of bombs in a magazine tweakable in the VAB, or deactivated by default?

Edited May 4, 2014 by Hremsfeld

[thutmose]

Best mod I have seen for KSP, This is probably my favourite, or close to it, form of space propulsion ever designed, but one question about the listed blast yields.

aren't they a bit high for use with this type of propulsion system, given the size of the craft in question?

The smallest bombs claim to be ~0.8kt, when fully loaded onto the craft, they have a mass of ~330t.

one such bomb would release ~3x10^12J, which, lets assume has only 50% efficiency for the shaped charge impacting the plate.

assuming 1.5*10^12J of energy, imparted to 80kg of material (upper mass of each bomb, assuming the holder has 0 mass), this results in an exhaust velocity of about 200km/s, which seems about an order of magnitude too high, as should result in about 9MN of thrust, instead of the listed 0.9MN

Given the small version of Orion (800t) was proposed to use 30t warheads, these numbers seem to make sense (will go do the actual calculations when I wake up tomorrow, If there are any blatant errors in my Maths, I apologize, I have been awake for a while).

Maybe you should drop the listed yield of the device by quite a bit? your 880kN of thrust seems to make sense for a 80kg device and an exhaust velocity around 20km/s, given some losses due to imperfect shaped charges, but it doesn't quite match up with the listed yield, as it only corresponds to about 10^10J.

[nyrath]

do you have any plans to make the number of bombs in a magazine tweakable in the VAB, or deactivated by default?

I had not planned on it. Number of bombs in magazine are globally tweakable in the parts.cfg file, I'm not sure how to change the loadout in the VAB, or deactivate.

aren't they a bit high for use with this type of propulsion system, given the size of the craft in question?

Well, as I stated in the first post, the details come from this document. The mod is modeled after the 1950's vintage USAF Orion design.

Using the instructions in the readme file one can easily make new magazines with masses and yields of whatever you want.

If the charge unit is using shaped charge technology, about 80% of the blast should hit the pusher plate. If it does not use shaped charge technology, it will probably be closer to 10%. I'm pretty sure the USAF design uses shaped charges.

Edited May 30, 2014 by nyrath

[thutmose]

More awake now, re-did the maths, I really should not do maths after being awake for 30+ hours...

a 1 kt pulse unit results in just over 1g average acceleration for a 500t ship at 1 Hz, assuming a 23m separation and a 10m diameter pusher plate, after accounting for appropriate losses.

assuming the ship has a mass of 200-500t, those yields are reasonable, the lower suggested yields on the larger ships must also assume a faster deployment rate i guess.

Suggestion for possible later additions to the mod:

the pusher plates are specifically damped oscillators, to prevent accidentally killing the crew, A good way to damp and oscillator is to extract the energy for making electricity, Maybe make a more advanced engine that does this?

Couple the above idea with the mini-mag orion idea to make a more advanced version (but smaller) which consumes electricity (I will see about doing the maths to see how much energy can be retrieved from the blasts in the case of the mmo, though may not be possible/efficient, since it is pushing against a magnetic field, which itself would consume energy to maintain).

Edit:

reading papers on the mini-mag, seems a bit of the energy can be re-used for the field, which would be enough to keep the whole thing running, and power a few other things

Edited May 31, 2014 by thutmose

[optimusjamie]

The download link is dead.

EDIT: It worked just now.

Edited June 11, 2014 by optimusjamie

[ck2000]

i installed the files as it says on the instruction but the parts won't appear

[ExcesFormal]

hey guys, I literally just signed up to the forum to tell Nyrath (who is awesome for undertaking this ridiculously awesome project so awesomely) that the link to the DL is down and to ask to please please please put it back up again asap as I need to launch kerbals into space at ridiculous speeds propelled by nuclear fission. I saw a documentary about Project Orion like a month ago and I've been dreaming about it ever since- and I downloaded ksp for the first time last week and realized that there might be a mod for this and LO AND BEHOLD- there was...​ so I need dis. thank you~!

[technicalfool]

Hi, welcome to the forums!

I had a little look, and the copy.com download address up in this thread's first post seems to be working. At the same time there's another post here mentioning temporary download problems. You might want to try in a few minutes or later on to see if you have any success.