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You Will Not Go To Space Today - Post your fails here!

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SpecialSpock

SpecialSpock

Posted
Posted

I was building a replica of the "USS Enterprise" from Star Trek for a video on my Youtube channel. I tried multiple approaches. Launching two separate sections, launching the whole craft at once, but the two parts couldn't slow down enough for docking due to a bad design, and the all-in-one design couldn't reach orbit. So, instead of getting depressed about my failure, I let Jeb steal the launcher for a joyride.

Let's just say, the VAB won't be constructing more crafts for a little while...

Video link of Jeb's joyride: 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Ultimate Steve

Ultimate Steve

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, Spaceman17 said:

uhff.

right 10 min ago i was triyng to put my jool probe in orbit and what? it was not enought fuel, but i tested and i discovered it works as intended (the lander/probe not the rocket)

If you still have a quicksave, you can try using a gravity assist to enter Jool orbit. If you plan it right, capture can be almost free.

 

Also, I was playing RP-0 and I was sending a probe to impact the moon. However, I filled the tanks with Hydrogen instead of Hydrazine... Why are the two spelled so similarly?!?!?!?!? :D

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Hotaru

Hotaru

Posted
Posted (edited)

@NotAgain@CatastrophicFailure It was testing the system for jettisoning the rear heat shields on an Eve lander. At this point it's already successfully completed the test... nobody gave much thought to what it would do after that. Oddly, the parachutes survived being blasted by the rocket exhaust and it actually "landed" mostly intact.

 

PS. This is what we're trying to avoid:

i0AoirT.jpg?1

This one actually ended up working, but nobody liked the idea of just vaguely relying on the rocket to be sturdier than the jettisoned stuff.

Edited by Hotaru
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Hotaru

Hotaru

Posted
Posted
23 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

I'm out of likes for the day but this really demands a gif... or a full video. :0.0:

Unfortunately there isn't one of the tests... I'll see if I can record the first one to actually go to Eve though.

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Zophos

Zophos

Posted
Posted

Sadly too startled to take pics, so a description will have to do. Fortunately, no Kerbals were harmed.

Playing my 1.2.2 RSS/RP-0 campaign, and setting up for the first manned orbital flight. I have a Mercury-capsule analogue with a small service module (a few hundred m/s and four extensible solar panels on a decoupler stuck to the heatshield) sitting on top of a 2-stage launcher with plenty of delta-v to put the package in orbit, capped with a launch escape system (LES) on another decoupler.

Because I care about my Kosmonauts, I decide to launch the first one unmanned. This proves wise.

The gravity turn on stage 1 goes fine, with no real flaws other than a slightly-too-high arc. But I have the delta-v to spare, so no worries. I can manage that with pitch controls in stage 2.

I reach MECO, separate the upper stage, and light the engines. It's a good light, so I stage to detach the LES and send it arcing away. Only it doesn't. The decoupler fires, pushing the LES tower a few meters ahead of the ship, but no rockets fire. The LES then settles back against the nose of the capsule, slightly off-center, and just hangs out, sapping delta-v. what?

Well, it's odd, but not fatal. I wiggle the pitch a bit, eventually dislodging the non-functional LES, which tumbles down the side of the stage and (fortunately) doesn't hit anything on the way. Need to check that out in the VAB, though. Make a note.

I then fly to my parking orbit of around 200km, needing a fair bit of down-pitch to zero my vertical velocity. Nicely inserted, I detach the second stage of the booster, run out the solar panels, and test everything out.

At this point, everything looks fine. Orbit is good, we've got plenty of life support, we've got...ooh, not enough power from the panels. It's fine in sunlight, but it loses far more in the dark than it can build back up in the sunlit portions of the orbit. Right...make a note to fix that in the VAB, too. Glad I tested this.

So, all that's left is descent. I spin around to retrograde, fire the engines to give myself a 35km periapsis, then pop off the tiny service module, reorient, and warp ahead to the atmospheric interface.

Just for kicks, I decide to see if I can manage G forces with a lifting reentry, so I activate descent mode, and proceed to more or less level out in the upper atmosphere, bleeding off speed but next to no ablator.

Then a heat bar pops up. On the capsule. Ok...I check the thermal properties and discover that, sure enough, the skin temp is fine, but the internal temp is climbing through 650K towards its max of 800K. Rather quickly, in fact. Maybe a bug? I dunno, but let's kill the lift and put this sucker down before it blows. G-forces be damned. And...yeah, make a note not to do that next time.

With descent mode disabled, the pod begins dropping and decelerating. Pretty flames spring up, and the internal pod temp peaks at about 785K, just shy of failure. The reentry forces peak somewhere north of 8Gs, but that's fine, and the pod drops down through Mach 2 and starts the long, slow fall to the ocean below.

Then the double stack chutes pop. At 30,000 feet and 600 m/s. They are immediately ripped off and destroyed, as I gape in bewilderment. Weren't those supposed to be a drogue at 8km and mains at around 4? Uh...crap. Make a note to check that, and ... well ... sigh heavily as the capsule plows into the ocean at terminal velocity. 

Ahem. What were those notes again? Ah yes. 

On return to the VAB, I applied the correct parachute settings (doh!) and added another set of solar panels to allow battery charging on the dayside (doh!). Most amusingly, I discovered that during my build I had somehow managed to remove all the solid propellant from the LES without noticing (I probably clicked-through something and hit "remove all tanks"), rendering the LES just an amusing bit of sculpture on top of the rocket. So...fill that sucker back up, too.

So that just leaves "don't do a lifting reentry." And the question of whether to do another dry run before sending up my first crew...

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kraden

kraden

Posted
Posted (edited)

I have M.O.L.E. and have BARIS active and I was doing a static fire test to improve the reliability of my parts.  I had the capsule manned because after the tanks ran out of fuel I would detach the capsule to test its functionality (it literally would just drop to the ground and be recovered [also, note that the vehicle was sitting sideways as I had no intention of actually launching]).  Just after ignition, there is a catastrophic failure which automatically triggers the LES... which flew straight into the Launchpad's flag pole, and exploded, killing the engineer on board and destroying the pad.  Well, crap.

Edited by kraden
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Angelo Kerman

Angelo Kerman

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, kraden said:

I have M.O.L.E. and have BARIS active and I was doing a static fire test to improve the reliability of my parts.  I had the capsule manned because after the tanks ran out of fuel I would detach the capsule to test its functionality (it literally would just drop to the ground and be recovered [also, note that the vehicle was sitting sideways as I had no intention of actually launching]).  Just after ignition, there is a catastrophic failure which automatically triggers the LES... which flew straight into the Launchpad's flag pole, and exploded, killing the engineer on board and destroying the pad.  Well, crap.

Most amusing launch failure I've heard to date! :)

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