The Real Aerospike Engine

[Ignamious]

I have been doing research on rocket engines, some of which i wanted to add as mods into KSP, while keeping the spirit of KSP. Specifically the Aerospike. I have always loved it but felt that it was a bit off. specifically the inability to have it for higher stages.

Upon a few hours of reading and digging i had come up with a few different models for the Aerospike and a limited understanding of the basic mechanics behind it. No the main project that i was able to dig up was the XRS-2200. It was designated for the X-33 SSTO. it produced 909,300 N of force with an ISP of 339 s at sea level and 1,184,300 N thrust with an ISP of 437 in vacuum. Now if the information that i have dug up is correct the Liner Aerospike Engine (XRS-2200) is modeled with the J2-X parts and some of it's tech. The reason i bring up the J2-X is that i have been catigorically unsuccessful in finding a weight for the XRS-2200. What i did find is that the J2-X is 5,450 pounds.

one could surmise that the "Mainsail" in KSP is modeled after this J2-X, were as the Teroidal Aerospike is probably modeled after Rocketdyne's J-2T-250k.

if i were to surmise a weight for the XRS-2200 i would guess it probably sits at 5,900 - 6,500 Pounds. due to i t being crated in the late 90's i would guess it's the latter at 6,500 pounds, however since then obviously technology for metals and cooling have come leaps and bounds.

So, if i were to model this in KSP i would probably give the Liner Aerospike Engine something like this:

mass = 3.5
cost = 3700
dragModelType = default
maximum_drag = 0.2
minimum_drag = 0.2
angularDrag = 2

attachRules = 1,0,1,1,0

MODULE
{
	name = ModuleEngines
	thrustVectorTransformName = thrustTransform
	exhaustDamage = True
	ignitionThreshold = 0.1
	minThrust = 0
	maxThrust = 1100
	heatProduction = 625
        maxTemp = 4200

	atmosphereCurve
 	{
   	 key = 0 440
  	 key = 1 360
 	}

some numbers in the above "code" is spitballed. i'd like to also use a velocityCurve if i can figure it out to model the velocity as well. but will probably not want to deal with that until ksp evolves a bit.

Edited June 1, 2013 by Ignamious
Added [Flight] Prefix