Concentric Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 More spaceplanes. Tried to make a small one, but ran into a few problems. A 50kN thrust radial engine with a high atmospheric ISP would be perfect, but alas. Also, asymmetry is hard to make work. Revisited an older design that achieved orbit (barely) and made some modifications, but didn't get to see it to orbit because I forgot to plug in my laptop, and the battery died a couple of thousand metres into the climb.Going to do even more spaceplaney things, because I am absolutely determined to make an SSTO spaceplane that can dock with Station Aleph without the High Altitude Flight and Advanced Aerodynamics nodes and their dependents. Perhaps an LV-T30, then two Basic Jet engines on Engine Nacelles with circular intakes on the front... well, we'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeppelinmage Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Really really low level flight over Moho. I didn't have enough fuel to orbit, so I went for a low-level flyby.Moments later, the mission ended as planned with a 4 km/s lithobrake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dat_Spacewaffle Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 did some more work on my career mode save, which resulted in a rocket that used jets as the 1st stage, wish I had the RAPIER engines........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBigD60 Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 What's that weird white looking thing just under the nukes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superfluous J Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 What's that weird white looking thing just under the nukes?It's a better smelter (furnace, whatever). It's buried back somewhere in the past 10-15 pages or so.It's one of those things I should have a link to but don't, and the poster should have made his own thread but didn't Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBigD60 Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 ok, so I'm not crazy and I didn't somehow mis-install EL and lose a part. Thanks, I'll look for it myself whenever I get around to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcorps Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Today a light somewhere in the vacuum between my ears turned on and I finally understood that TWR and the time of the burn don't make one damn bit of difference in where you are going once you leave atmosphere, allowing me to FINALLY (after 76 hours of game time) to build a ship that will take a Kerbal from the landing pad to the surface of the Mun and back. So instead of doing that, I used the 3 Kerbal capsule with a 7700Dv and took off. Just as I was about to dance with glee, my lander with the Nuke engine and heavy landing gear exploded on contact with the Mun, going less than 1m/s hz and 1.2m/s v.My landing gear were not as long as the nuke engine. No problem. Reload at 75k and do the 10 minute landing again, but this time I decouple the engine as designed. Victory! Oh wait...the landing gear were on that stage...No sweat, my monoprop tank will break off the decoupler and I can take off. Oh wait, my return engines were mounted to the monoprop tank....sigh.B2TDB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astropapi1 Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 B2TDB.The internet slang is killing me. Can't keep up with all these terms!B2TDB = Back To The Drawing Board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jouni Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 I launched the last probe from a scout ship orbiting Laythe, and piloted it to Pol. It was an interesting challenge, because the probe could only sustain about 15% thrust, producing something like 0.3 m/s2 acceleration. Maneuver nodes were almost completely useless, so I had to do most of the planning manually.I ended up doing something like this: Burn prograde near periapsis over several orbits, until apoapsis is almost out of Laythe's SoI. Do the final escape burn when periapsis is approximately retrograde from Laythe. Laythe's gravity will turn the escape trajectory by approximately 90°, so the probe will depart prograde from Laythe. After leaving Laythe's SoI, continue burning prograde, until apoapsis touches Pol's orbit. Match Pol's inclination at the next ascending node. Burn prograde at apoapsis, until you get an orbital period that should ensure an approximate encounter after two orbits. Wait until the last orbit before the encounter, and fine tune the approximate encounter into a close encounter.I was a bit lucky, because I didn't have to do any course corrections to avoid encounters with the other moons of Jool. And while MechJeb sure looks ugly, the information it provides is really useful for manual piloting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jouni Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 After getting the probe to its destination, I decided that it's time to launch some interplanetary ships.First went Jebediah's unnamed rocket to Gilly. It's basically something that can land on Gilly and Kerbin safely, attached to a transfer stage with enough fuel that it doesn't have to care about launch windows and enough nuclear engines that Jeb doesn't get bored.Next was the Nostromo carrying habitation modules to the Laythe colony. I wasn't even sure it would survive the escape burn, but contrary to my expectations, the ship was nice and stable under thrust - and not so nice when I shut the engines down. Next time I'll use big docking ports for the main cargo, even though it will increase the already too high part count.Due to its low TWR and poor maneuverability, I decided to launch the Nostromo from a 1600 km orbit. Then I had some bad luck with a Mun encounter after the launch, but the ship still ended up heading to the general direction of Jool.The final ship was a fuel tanker carrying a refueling station to Laythe, before heading to drill kethane at Pol or Bop. I didn't notice that the ship was on a 80 km orbit, so it went below 60 km during the burn. Add another unlucky encounter with Mun, and the tanker will need almost 600 m/s course corrections to reach Jool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qromodynmc Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Sticking with planes for a while,Im just researching about new styles; Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeppelinmage Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Landed on Gilly with an ion-powered lander. Also EVA'd from orbit -> surface -> orbit just for laughs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capi3101 Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Built a challange (okay, refined a crummier challenge) and then attempted to build a 16-tonne spaceplane capable of completing it. Ran out of gas at 27,000 and 1700 m/s - still trying to figure out why that happened, all the numbers said it should've made it. I'm thinking I've got to be doing something wrong during the ascent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauix Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 I finally managed to build a supersonic plane in career mode:Then I span it out of control: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunaRocketeer Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Mostly been failing to get into orbit with new launch hardware. Again, and again, and again, and again, and again ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biker Joe Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Got bored in Career mode,really want to go to the mun so I built this!It actually worked! but it had too much power so bits came off it, gonna refine my design and go again tomorrow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Concentric Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) Ahahahaha! Success! Revisited one of my earliest spaceplane designs, stuck a pair of Cylindrified tanks, a pair of circular intakes, some RCS thruster blocks and a docking port on it and managed to dock it with Station Aleph. And all without High Altitude Flight or Advanced Aerodynamics, so no structural wings, no turbojets, no ram intakes, no aerospikes and absolutely no RAPIERs. Refuelled a touch at the station, then returned to Kerbin's surface. Now to refine it... and put on a solar panel or something, even if there was plenty of battery. Might add a touch more fuel, maybe switch the cockpit, possibly use Delta Wings, fix the struts, put the undocking on an action group (awkward location)... et cetera... But anyway, turbojets and the like are an entirely unnecessary addition to spaceplanes for most uses. That's proof positive.Also this. Edited February 28, 2014 by Concentric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cakeofruit Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 I made a big shuttle !! This craft can lift 36 tons to LKO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragosnat Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) I believe this sums up what I did today nicely: Had to detach the nuke that I had docked to the craft just to make it able to land as well as manuelly switch to jet mode as the auto switch refused to do it. Might have to add 1 or 2 more reaction wheels to help make the craft more stable in space as well as in flight on Laythe at least.Oh yeah. Had to unlock the front steering wheel just so I could use my momentom from landinging to turn the craft around. Edited February 27, 2014 by Aragosnat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeppelinmage Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 At last was able to bring enough DV along to orbit a probe around Dres. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisarmingBaton5 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 ~snip~Those are some large wings...I built an F-15 today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astropapi1 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 "I didn't sign up for this!"I have officially given up on designing a shuttle. I'll use Giggleplex's one from now on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisarmingBaton5 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 "I didn't sign up for this!"http://i.imgur.com/BMOs3i7.pngI have officially given up on designing a shuttle. I'll use Giggleplex's one from now on."The heatshield is on the BOTTOM?!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragosnat Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Well successfully lited off Laythe and this was what I had left for a 330 km + circular orbit roughly: Now. I need to wait and see if. My refueler / pusher can get to laythe and then push it back to Kerbin. With hopefully enough fuel to then have the SSTO land back onto Kerbin (hopefully on flat land and not water, at least I have a chute if need me). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunaRocketeer Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Got my new shuttle up and running! Here it is after performing an RTLS Abort: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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