Orion aka "Ol' Boom-boom"

[Canopus]

Yes, but the point is, with mods, you will need heat radiators for nuclear power reactors in general, and Trimodal or Bimodal NTR in particular. Otherwise your reactor melts into radioactive lava.

Of course but since no high powered systems are in the stock game one would need to create a plugin for mods.

[crasher925]

Uh no it's not. It's my flag. I made it myself in Illustrator.

-snip-

LOL I was joking, when i said it was mine i meant that only I could use it. but u made it?? that's awesome!

Edited June 22, 2013 by crasher925

[hoojiwana]

Yes, but the point is, with mods, you will need heat radiators for nuclear power reactors in general, and Trimodal or Bimodal NTR in particular. Otherwise your reactor melts into radioactive lava.

The current heat model of the game is a bit broken. It's extremely hard to overheat anything other than the Mainsail or SRB's unless you're around sealevel on Kerbin, due to the atmosphere. Engine heat is radiated away almost immediately, and waste heat from other systems is non existent.

I'd love to see a better heat model and heat radiation plugin, radiators would make ship design so much more interesting. Not to mention making the game more realistic, and possibly even more challenging.

One thing at a time though!

[OrbitusII]

The current heat model of the game is a bit broken. It's extremely hard to overheat anything other than the Mainsail or SRB's unless you're around sealevel on Kerbin, due to the atmosphere. Engine heat is radiated away almost immediately, and waste heat from other systems is non existent.

I'd love to see a better heat model and heat radiation plugin, radiators would make ship design so much more interesting. Not to mention making the game more realistic, and possibly even more challenging.

One thing at a time though!

I'm already working on a better solar heating model, I just need some help from the devs to get my raycasting to work (they've been very helpful so far ). While I don't think we can remove the stock heating system without messing with source code, overriding it is no trouble... I'm not going to rework the heating model (yet), but my plugin adds heat sink and thermostat systems to deal with hot parts and ships.

Just click on the "Dev Thread" button in my signature, I've got an In-Development build publicly available.

[Canopus]

The current heat model of the game is a bit broken. It's extremely hard to overheat anything other than the Mainsail or SRB's unless you're around sealevel on Kerbin, due to the atmosphere. Engine heat is radiated away almost immediately, and waste heat from other systems is non existent.

I'd love to see a better heat model and heat radiation plugin, radiators would make ship design so much more interesting. Not to mention making the game more realistic, and possibly even more challenging.

One thing at a time though!

The Devs probably didn't implement it yet because there really is nothing in the game with high energy output but i would love to see it

[hoojiwana]

Just click on the "Dev Thread" button in my signature, I've got an In-Development build publicly available.

I check in on your thread every time you post Orbitus, I know exactly what you're up to already!

The Devs probably didn't implement it yet because there really is nothing in the game with high energy output but i would love to see it

It feels very strange having engines cool down faster than they heat up in almost all cases when there is no radiators for anything at all. Not even Kerbal body heat (if they indeed produce it) and life support systems (which aren't in the game yet) should require heat radiation. Look at the ISS, or the Shuttle. Both have very visible radiators just for heat management of the crew and systems.

[Canopus]

It feels very strange having engines cool down faster than they heat up in almost all cases when there is no radiators for anything at all. Not even Kerbal body heat (if they indeed produce it) and life support systems (which aren't in the game yet) should require heat radiation. Look at the ISS, or the Shuttle. Both have very visible radiators just for heat management of the crew and systems.

Radiators on todays spacecraft (except the ISS) aren't really that visible. Btw where were the radiators on the Apollo service module?

[hoojiwana]

Large image of Apollo 15 CSM from Wikipedia.

The white banding around the lower section of the CSM, along with the white banding near the top.

Annotated diagram.

Now to get back ontopic, I made a few videos with Orion in, although these are from a few versions back.

Doing a re-entry at something like 250km/s, the video is in real-time. I left Kerbins SoI and then reversed the direction of my orbit around the sun, and then just used all the remaining bombs I had. Plenty of 400MN ones used for that.

And this was a lift off using the 400MN bombs. The music fitting so perfectly was accidental, I just picked it randomly off of the Youtube overdub list.

Edited June 22, 2013 by hoojiwana

[Canopus]

Thanks hoojiwana.

[hoojiwana]

I'm just someone who spends too much time either reading Nyrath's website or poking about Wikipedia, usually after being intrigued by a concept from Atomic Rockets.

[Canopus]

I love the site too. Not only is it interesting but also thought provoking.

[LaydeeDem]

I love the site too. Not only is it interesting but also thought provoking.

Agreed. I've gotten so many mod ideas from his website.

[nyrath]

Now to get back ontopic, I made a few videos with Orion in, although these are from a few versions back.

Doing a re-entry at something like 250km/s, the video is in real-time. I left Kerbins SoI and then reversed the direction of my orbit around the sun, and then just used all the remaining bombs I had. Plenty of 400MN ones used for that.

And this was a lift off using the 400MN bombs. The music fitting so perfectly was accidental, I just picked it randomly off of the Youtube overdub list.

I'm just someone who spends too much time either reading Nyrath's website or poking about Wikipedia, usually after being intrigued by a concept from Atomic Rockets.

I love the site too. Not only is it interesting but also thought provoking.

Agreed. I've gotten so many mod ideas from his website.

Great videos hoojiwana!

I'm glad everybody likes my website. That's what it is for, to give people ideas.

[hoojiwana]

Great videos hoojiwana!

I've got a lower quality one where I launch the 800 ton monster that blew up Roche into an almost circular Kerbin orbit as a Twitch highlight here. The rough cut after using the NTR's was quickloading. Abusing the power of the 400MN bombs again, that rocket did the Eve transfer burn in a single bomb.

I might do some more videos, it's a fun mod to play with, and a fun mod to watch.

Have you considered that with some tweaking the plugin could be used for a mass driver?

Edited June 23, 2013 by hoojiwana

[Canopus]

Maybe i should do a video too...

[nyrath]

Have you considered that with some tweaking the plugin could be used for a mass driver?

Yes. Ever since my early version of the plug-in. I tried launching an Orion with a single control cabin, loaded with 400 NM bombs. I fired one bomb, the recoil slammed the control cabin so hard it shot off like a champagne cork, developed a plasma envelope as it streaked upwards, and reached an altitude of about 92,000 meters.

I'm sure somebody will try to weaponize this.

[hoojiwana]

Sounds impressive. I meant more that if you essentially removed the entire explosive part, the pulse-thrust segment would work pretty well for a regular mass driver engine part. Of course you would require some new code to handle powering the driver, all the different propellent sources and altered the pusher plate part to run the animation for the buckets.

The part would probably end up being pretty long, but you could always fudge it a bit so it wouldn't break how KSP works.

Not that I want a mass driver for my electric engine pack or anything!

[Tommygun]

Yes. Ever since my early version of the plug-in. I tried launching an Orion with a single control cabin, loaded with 400 NM bombs. I fired one bomb, the recoil slammed the control cabin so hard it shot off like a champagne cork, developed a plasma envelope as it streaked upwards, and reached an altitude of about 92,000 meters.

I'm sure somebody will try to weaponize this.

Maybe you could put this on one of the smaller asteroid mods to reposition them closer to Kerbin.

For mining purposes of course and not for threatening other nations.

[PyroDesu]

If my computer could even run unmodded KSP properly, I would download this mod right now. The Orion is one of the most insane rocket ideas (that could actually work) that I know of (thanks to your site, Nyrath), and having it for use in KSP is awesome.

Edited June 23, 2013 by PyroDesu

[Markarian421]

It seems like madness to drop this down a well after all the trouble of getting it up, but if the mood strikes you, the "Otherworldly Aircraft Leg" is just about exactly the right size to help out.

Mysterious Projects R2: Falcon Drone + Otherworldly Aircraft Leg + Bender Radial Mount

I recommend placing it so the the legs touch down at the same level or above the pusher plate, so they keep you from toppling over but don't support a lot of weight. Otherwise they get twitchy, even with a lot of reinforcement. (I also used the quantum struts to help.)

I decided to try Vall:

I have yet to try and take off again, but I've got plenty of charges and half my liquid fuel left.

[Tommygun]

Wow, those landing legs are perfect for that craft.

They are like a 1950's flash back.

Edit:

OK I have the legs, but I need a lot more RCS thrusters if I'm going to push that asteroid around.

Edited June 23, 2013 by Tommygun

[nyrath]

It seems like madness to drop this down a well after all the trouble of getting it up, but if the mood strikes you, the "Otherworldly Aircraft Leg" is just about exactly the right size to help out.

Mysterious Projects R2: Falcon Drone + Otherworldly Aircraft Leg + Bender Radial Mount

I recommend placing it so the the legs touch down at the same level or above the pusher plate, so they keep you from toppling over but don't support a lot of weight. Otherwise they get twitchy, even with a lot of reinforcement. (I also used the quantum struts to help.)

I decided to try Vall:

I have yet to try and take off again, but I've got plenty of charges and half my liquid fuel left.

Wow, those landing legs are perfect for that craft.

They are like a 1950's flash back.

Edit:

OK I have the legs, but I need a lot more RCS thrusters if I'm going to push that asteroid around.

OOoooo, great find Markarian421! I agree, those legs are perfect!

My attempt was not quite as successful:

[Canopus]

Those legs are a little bit to much for my taste @nyrath you showed us some pictures of legs that move with the plate. Are you still working on it?

[nyrath]

Those legs are a little bit to much for my taste @nyrath you showed us some pictures of legs that move with the plate. Are you still working on it?

That has been fixed, legs and anything attached to the plate now move with the plate animation. Though other people have managed to land on just the bare plate.

I was also embarrassed that Scott Manley noticed the plate animation was linear, not sinusoidal. That has been fixed as well.

But I didn't want to release a new version until I got the blasted actions groups to work. I'm about halfway there...

[Canopus]

I too just noticed that you can land perfectly well on the plate so that is not a problem anymore.