[0.24.2] TiberDyne Aerospace R&D Division - Shuttle System 3.6 Career Update!

[GoldForest]

That is actually Dream Chaser on top. 0.0

Huh. I didn't notice that lol

[Tiberion]

What you're looking at is a concept of a reusable launch system, with flyback boosters and core rocket stage with a smaller shuttle on top. Thats not really Dream Chaser on there as far as I know, its just one of the 'lifting body' shuttles that its design was derived from, such as NASA's Crew Return Vehicle.

Modeling-wise, the difficult part is the shuttle itself and then an interior for it, making tanks/boosters with winglets to glide wouldn't be too hard.

[blackheart612]

But what if there is a small shuttle being developed already?

[Tiberion]

Don't see the problem, its not the 1st mini-shuttle, and it won't be the last one. Might be worth talking to GoldForest about developing the reusable launcher for it rather than making another one, though. But that's not a topic for the Tiberdyne thread

[Millertime610]

Has anyone tried to use Mechjeb docking autopilot with the extending docking port? Everytime i try to use it docking on my station, i just rail into the side of the station. Any ideas?

[jamberpilot]

guys, anyone got this to work with ferram?

I wish that this was fully compatible with Farrem. The due to the way FAR works it will make the shuttle flip around so the back of the shuttle is pointing forward acting as the nose instead. I love the shuttle enough to not use FAR at all but FAR makes the aircrafts so much better to the point you wonder why its not in the game. TiberDyne would be 500% better if it was updated to be compatible with Ferram - 'nuff said.

[GentlemanJack]

How do i put stuff in the cargo bay? I know i'm supposed to use the special decoupler and it says to mount it on the belly but i tried and it doesnt face the right way, if i rotate it then the decoupler is inside the cargo bay. If someone could post a picture that would be nice.

[Titan Space Agency]

I have an idea, you could add in space shuttle c, and other space shuttle derived launchers, and engeria-polus.

[Wahgineer]

Is this...Dead?

[Tiberion]

Well no, not dead. I'm not actively working on it right now though, as I have tons of work on Novapunch queued up, and I did quite a lot on this recently (well, if 4 or 5 months is recent heh)

Every time I think of what to work on here, it comes down to needed a whole new shuttle, and I just don't feel like tackling like that right now, and no one has come forward wanting to work on one.

I'll get around to it sometime.

[Fox62]

Once your done with NovaPunch, could you make the Jupiter-246? That's a Jupiter first stage, with boosters, that has an additional SSME and has an upper stage with 6 RL-10B engines and is normally partially fueled when lofting payload. That way you could re-create the DIRECT Constellation proposal using STS tech.

[wasmic]

I wish that this was fully compatible with Farrem. The due to the way FAR works it will make the shuttle flip around so the back of the shuttle is pointing forward acting as the nose instead. I love the shuttle enough to not use FAR at all but FAR makes the aircrafts so much better to the point you wonder why its not in the game. TiberDyne would be 500% better if it was updated to be compatible with Ferram - 'nuff said.

You can make it work temporarily by using B9 airbrakes on the Blizzard, along with moving all fuel to the front of the shuttle - or just nearly emptying the shuttle of fuel before reentry. The Fuel Valve from Smart Parts / Space Shuttle Engines will work wonders here. The Jupiter-launched shuttles are harder to do, as they have more mass in the back. increase the mass of the cockpit or nosecone and decrease the mass of the triple-engine-cluster, that should also help until proper FAR configs are written.

[BioHaZarD.PT]

Jupiter launched shuttles are very hard to control in orbit, I think due to thrust vector from the Space Shuttle style OMS not being alined with center of mass. Is this a known problem? Are there any known solutions?

I tried doubling the gimbalRange to 10 on the "Mark 4 Shuttle Engine & RCS Structure" part which allowed Mechjeb to at least be able to do the circularization burn. Decreasing thrust also helps. Doing an orbital rendezvous with Mechjeb seems to still be virtually impossible though.

[wasmic]

Jupiter launched shuttles are very hard to control in orbit, I think due to thrust vector from the Space Shuttle style OMS not being alined with center of mass. Is this a known problem? Are there any known solutions?

I tried doubling the gimbalRange to 10 on the "Mark 4 Shuttle Engine & RCS Structure" part which allowed Mechjeb to at least be able to do the circularization burn. Decreasing thrust also helps. Doing an orbital rendezvous with Mechjeb seems to still be virtually impossible though.

Maybe if the Klockheed Martian KM_Gimbal module was used, it'd work better. Still, you'd have to point somewhat above the blue maneuver marker on the navball. Just pointing at it won't work, due to the angled thrusters.

[Tiberion]

Hey guys

I forgot to update the thread a while back when I stopped using Spaceport - its officially offline now.

You can still grab the current version from the 1st post via the Mediafire link - if anyone has trouble using that, I'll throw a copy up on my dropbox. I look forward to hosting on the new community repository when its ready to go. Sadly you won't find my work on Curse, so any link you might find there is likely not legitimate.

I have some things in my head to work on for this mod, and I hope to start on those when I finish my "Odin" update for Novapunch. The current version should still mostly work in 0.23.5 as-is.

[MelancholyFlapper]

Hey guys

I forgot to update the thread a while back when I stopped using Spaceport - its officially offline now.

You can still grab the current version from the 1st post via the Mediafire link - if anyone has trouble using that, I'll throw a copy up on my dropbox. I look forward to hosting on the new community repository when its ready to go. Sadly you won't find my work on Curse, so any link you might find there is likely not legitimate.

I have some things in my head to work on for this mod, and I hope to start on those when I finish my "Odin" update for Novapunch. The current version should still mostly work in 0.23.5 as-is.

Good to hear! I was wondering, for next version, any chance of a nose that looks a little more like the real deal? They're cool as-is, but the lack of real-style, slightly blunter nose makes me a sad panda. I think the Shuttle is a beautiful craft, hee! Still, in any case, I'm thankful for the mod. c:

[Nicholander]

Does this work with 0.23.5?

[wasmic]

Yes, it does. It does not work with FAR, though, unless you make some changes that I mentioned on the previous page.

[BioHaZarD.PT]

Does this work with 0.23.5?

If you don't use FAR, the Buran style shuttle works quite well in 0.23.5. The other one is hard to control once in orbit.

[Tiberion]

So I have finished up Odin for Novapunch and will release its 2.05 update tomorrow, which means its Tiberdyne Time (TiberTyme?)

I just cleaned up my shuttle KSP install and got a clean version of 0.23.5 installed. Boy.. that Odyssey shuttle is good and broken. I already know how to fix the OMS now (should have been doing it this way all along) and I should be able to improve the SSMEs as well.

So, anyone who has been using this, what else needs tweaked for 0.23.5? I'm not really looking for things to add now, as I already have some cool things planned to add, but first up is fixing things and getting a proper working version released. So submit your bugs and issues.

Major items:

Fix thrust alignment on Odyssey engines

Remove some copies of the landing gears since they're tweakable now and you can choose to start deployed or not.

Find a way to make cargobay tweakable open/closed (maybe?)

Fix the nodes and whatever else for FAR compat.

?????

[wasmic]

That actually sums it up pretty well. I haven't had other problems than those that you describe there. Other than the fact that attaching the Blizzard LFBs to the Blizzard EFT is a PITA when there's a shuttle wing right there clipping into the boosters. Oh, and the 5-segment SRB has some problems with attaching inside whatever you try to attach it to.

[Tiberion]

So was there a FAR config for the shuttle wings somewhere, because without those I can see why it wasn't working. The node sizes wasn't the reason the shuttle was flying backwards, it is the unconfigured wings. Will also need a set of configs for the engines, because with the improved drag models the shuttle can go supersonic before it hits 10k and it'll experience heating during ascent before 20k and go *BOOM* - So we'll need nerfed engines and wing configs (as well as heat-shield setups) to make FAR work.

That is a lot of extra work, I'm going to focus on fixes for the mod itself 1st and then ponder FAR compat.

If anyone with experience figuring out FAR winglet configs wants to handle that, please do so, I can deliver you some raw models to measure and such.

[wasmic]

So was there a FAR config for the shuttle wings somewhere, because without those I can see why it wasn't working. The node sizes wasn't the reason the shuttle was flying backwards, it is the unconfigured wings. Will also need a set of configs for the engines, because with the improved drag models the shuttle can go supersonic before it hits 10k and it'll experience heating during ascent before 20k and go *BOOM* - So we'll need nerfed engines and wing configs (as well as heat-shield setups) to make FAR work.

That is a lot of extra work, I'm going to focus on fixes for the mod itself 1st and then ponder FAR compat.

If anyone with experience figuring out FAR winglet configs wants to handle that, please do so, I can deliver you some raw models to measure and such.

I do not use DRE myself, although I do use FAR. Going supersonic before 10k is not unusual, but the shuttle engines are too powerful for FAR. What I usually do is that I attach a MechJeb unit, and then I play around with thrust limiting and fuel values until it has about 3800 m/s of DV, with a launch TWR of 1.3 to 1.5. Then those values simply have to be baked into the cfg files, possibly via a ModuleManager config. I have no idea how to fix the wings for FAR, though.

[evilC]

I really like the extending docking port, but I have 2 issues with it:

1) It will not retract while something is docked.

2) If you extend it with something docked, it seems to pull a node apart?

Also, if you could add action groups so we could have finer control over extension (extend + / -), that would be even better.

Coupled with the core dune buggy mod, this would provide a way to attach/detach the buggy, without having to resort to more exotic mods.

[wasmic]

I really like the extending docking port, but I have 2 issues with it:

1) It will not retract while something is docked.

2) If you extend it with something docked, it seems to pull a node apart?

Also, if you could add action groups so we could have finer control over extension (extend + / -), that would be even better.

Coupled with the core dune buggy mod, this would provide a way to attach/detach the buggy, without having to resort to more exotic mods.

The thing is that with the way KSP sets part connection nodes up, that's pretty much impossible. Unless you start using Infernal Robotics, of course.