Testing Space TRucker MK I - Wha..? (Photo heavy)

[Valley]

Space Trucker MK I (Available in the Spaceship Exchange along with the MK II)

Now, I have never been good at reusable space craft so I have decided that I should focus on making simple and effective space craft that can carry cargo while they don't kill the pilot. But I did make a few ships that had chutes attached to them JUST in case. Wishing to test one I put it in orbit and then told it to land again (I use MechJeb 2). I figured that the command pod was the weak point. Once the chutes opened it would rip away from the rest of the ship and allow the pilot to land safety.

I noticed a few problems right away. Well, not problems as much as a interesting fact. I seemed to be slowing down. Even before the chutes came out.

Why am I going so slowly...? Maybe as the ship is kind of small and not full of fuel...

Then the engines started to brake and I thought the chutes may be ripped off. But nope, it just seemed to help it slow even more.

At this point I realize my knowledge of KSP science is not as sound as I thought.

Then I realized it was going to land...

It finally lost the chutes...

And landed safety.

I mean this is great if I ever play career mode and have to worry about cost - recovering and reusing ships would be a good tactic. But, really, can somebody tell me what I did right by accident?

Edited August 17, 2013 by Valley
typo

[Lheim]

Terminal Velocity and aerobraking.

That's what you're missing; KSP models it in a sorta clunky way but it's there.

Basically, terminal velocity is what happens when the force of gravity is matched by the force of air resistance.. put simply, unless you change your aerodynamic profile, there's a maximum speed an object will hit when falling through an atmosphere, and as it thickens, you slow.

Also, of course, coming from orbit, you hit the atmosphere and get slowed down massively by the friction alone.. that's all that plasma that builds up. If you were paying attention, you saw the G meter rising from the deceleration.

Now none of this works when you're coming in on a body with no atmosphere. It works waaay less effectively on a body like Duna, that has a very thin atmosphere. But on the mun, you'd just keep coming down faster and faster; needing a lot more fuel to manage the landing safely.

Aerobraking can be super useful. You can choose to dip far enough into a planet's atmosphere to get slowed down enough to hit an orbit without using any fuel at all.. of course, if you muck up how high to hit the atmosphere you might end up not getting captured, or just barely getting captured.. or the other way, slowing down enough to drop out of orbit altogether.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Lheim

[Landge]

+1 :thumbs up:

When I saw your pic I thought... where are your wheels? That's no truck. I misread your subject title. I thought it read Space Trucker. Unless that's a typo.

That's a nice lander but if it's supposed to be a truck, it could use some wheels.

Just some constructive comments here. I noticed the tops of the outer rockets are bare. You can place a couple Mk25 Drogues or Mk16-XL's Mains. Try 2 X 2 diagonally across so you won't mess up the balance, or just place 4 drogues or 4 mains to play around and see how much those will slow you down. That way you won't need rockets to assist slowing you down (Unless it's Duna, maybe Laythe). That is if you need the fuel for later. If 4 drogues can get you under 9m/s descent, you're golden.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Landge

[Valley]

No, it is Space Trucker...that is a typo!

I may change the design in the future - when the next updates come the Trucker may use those areas for new equipment - detectors or what not.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Valley