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Project Odysseus

Darkshadow

By Darkshadow
in KSP1 The Spacecraft Exchange

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Darkshadow

Darkshadow

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We\'ve been talking about it so here it is the aptly named:

project_odysseus.png

Mission Goals:


  • [li]To build a series of different scale crafts with different purposes[/li]
    [li]To eventually built a spacecraft that can achieved the
ultimate munar challenge[/li]
[li]Getting members of the forum community to work together in designing, building and flying craft[/li]
[li]Showing that stock parts can build craft as capable as mod crafts[/li]
[li]To post crafts and modules onto the forums for others to adapt[/li]
[li]To teach the community aspects of rocketry design,mission operations, Newtonian mechanics and basic astrophysics[/li]

Completed Goals:

The Odyssey I light lifter and orbiter.

the first goal should be to get together a light orbiter design, carrying enough fuel to get into stable orbit and then deorbit in a controlled manner - should also be as easy to pilot as possible.

Orbiter: Darkshadow

Lifter stage: kosmo-not

Current Goals:

-Revising the Odyssey I, current design works nicely, work needed to improve gliding ability of landing stage.

-Designing the Odyssey II, a rocket design to have enough fuel for longer missions like orbiting the moon, or getting into solar orbit.

-Designing a munar lander, Needs to be stable, and capable of landing with the ability of returning home. Extra fuel is a bonus as eventual goal is a lander that can land several times.

-Completing the Argon I, a deep space exploration vessle to travel as far out of the kerbol system as possible.

I suggest that project Odysseus start working on an interplanetary ship. It would be nice to have a stock spaceship that can travel the vast space in the Kerbol system before other planets are added.

Project Positions:

Manager: Darkshadow

Instructors:

Logo Designer: segaprophet

-----------

Head designer: Tim_Barrett

Munar lander designers: adthelad

TMI stage designers:

Orbiter designers: Darkshadow

Lifting stage designers: Kosmo-not

-----------

Test pilots: segaprophet, Kosmo-not, doomboy101

Please post below if you are interested in contributing, and what role you would prefer. Also please post if you have suggestions for any other mission goals or positions.

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segaprophet

segaprophet

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I think the first goal should be to get together a light orbiter design, carrying enough fuel to get into stable orbit and then deorbit in a controlled manner - should also be as easy to pilot as possible.

I\'d like to help as a test pilot, plus I can also create a project logo.

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Darkshadow

Darkshadow

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Sign me on as a lifting stage designer and a test pilot.

Done, welcome aboard

I think the first goal should be to get together a light orbiter design, carrying enough fuel to get into stable orbit and then deorbit in a controlled manner - should also be as easy to pilot as possible.

I\'d like to help as a test pilot, plus I can also create a project logo.

Sounds like a plan, I\'ve updated the OP with the current goal.

EDIT: Included an orbiter, someone else is welcome to start the next stage.

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Kosmo-not

Kosmo-not

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@sega

Looks like your orbiter can go to the moon and back if it had landing wings, as it looks like it has a little less mass than my Kosmo Zero. You could get 700 more delta-V if you used one engine instead of two. That would be a 17.5% increase in delta-V from about 4000.

Were you able to get Sprinter Mk1 into stable orbit with just the lifter stage? My first and only attempt of the night was not a success. Kinda hard to maneuver during ascent.

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Darkshadow

Darkshadow

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I\'m on board.

What role would you like?

As head designer can I put together (or most likely just reform) all of the compenents so they work together? It is very important that everything is fucntional with everything else.

Done, welcome to the project. As head designer you just propose what general style the craft should be, let the other designers built it and then reform the finished design to something a bit more cohesive.

Well done everyone for the first rocket, it is a bit larger than the original spec but most light orbiters are so compact that they would be hardy worth working together on.

Looks like your orbiter can go to the moon and back if it had landing wings, as it looks like it has a little less mass than my Kosmo Zero. You could get 700 more delta-V if you used one engine instead of two. That would be a 17.5% increase in delta-V from about 4000.

What exactly is delta-V and how is it calculated?

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Kosmo-not

Kosmo-not

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What exactly is delta-V and how is it calculated?

That\'s a good question. Delta-V is a change in velocity. When we refer to how much delta-V a spaceship has, we\'re talking about how much it can change its velocity with the amount of fuel it has provided there are no external forces acting on it.

You can figure out how much delta-V a spaceship has by using the 'rocket equation':

delta-V = Ve*ln(m1/m2)

Ve is the effective exhaust velocity. I have determined the values for each engine type experimentally to be about 2250 for SRBs, 5600 for LFEs, and 3000 for RCS.

m1 is the initial mass of the whole spaceship

m2 is the mass of the spaceship minus the mass of the fuel consumed

That is how I can design certain spaceships to do things and know they will be able to perform without having to test it myself.

Did you happen to try out the v1.01 craft I posted earlier?

@sega

Did you drink Red Bull or something?

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Darkshadow

Darkshadow

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Ah okay, being a physicist my first thoughts was that delta-V was a change in potential or something. That\'s a nice simple little equation. Also how does multiple engines affect Ve?

Not yet I\'ve had a night out and a full day lab session (not a good mix), can you upload a picture at least?

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Kosmo-not

Kosmo-not

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how does multiple engines affect Ve?

Multiple engines effect it only by adding more mass to your spacecraft, giving you less delta-V. But if you were trying to maximize your effective delta-V when slingshotting around a planet, multiple engines could work better than one due to the Oberth effect and being able to expend fuel a lot quicker. Some calculation would have to go into that, though.

Also, more engines can reduce the amount of gravity drag when it is a factor because of a much shorter burn time.

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Darkshadow

Darkshadow

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Okay finally got round to testing the additions to the Odyssey I Kosmo added. The extra stages gets the orbiter up no problems. I then tested the positions of the RCS to see if any control axis\'s had any unwanted secondary effects, but most most of the work perfectly and the few with secondary effects could be balanced out. Next tested the glide approach, and found that more than 25% power caused the craft to want to flip round, so never managed to reduce the fuel enough to test what the gliding was like.

One idea I am tempted to try out is removing the top decoupler and seeing if two additional parachutes along with the capsule\'s and the rockets can get the entire orbiter to land safely.

Anyway that aside we have our first community built orbiter!

(pics coming soon!)

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Darkshadow

Darkshadow

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Here\'s something I came up with noodling around in photoshop - I can come up with more variations on this if I need to.

project_odysseus.png

I\'m liking the greek style font. Not quite sure about the lambda, an omicron would be more suitable (though boring as it looks like an O) What do people think is the most suitable letter? Other than that it looks awesome.

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