totm june 2018 Work-in-Progress [WIP] Design Thread

[Giggleplex777]

Every fairing type you have!

[GusTurbo]

Speaking of fairings, can someone make subassemblies of them?

I'd like to second this. Every time I try to make fairings, it ends in extreme frustration. I can be a bit OCD sometimes with this game.

[Ravenchant]

Okay, I'll get on it soon^TM! Just don't expect Mulbin or Majorjim- type quality In the meantime, I'll post a light lifter pack (probably later today) which features some fairings as well.

[Overfloater]

Did somebody say "fairings"??? I completely forgot, I had fairing subassemblies I worked on.

Here is a zip file, containing fairings for 2.5 AND 3.75 diameters. Each comes in three lengths, and each consists of 2 parts. Use double symmetry.

-The fairings are topless, just put any rocket cone on top of what you have inside.

-Reinforce the fairings by attaching a strut on top of each one that connects to the uppermost part of the ship(inside).

-They require wings on the bottom of your rocket, like on my Apollo, in order to maintain control.

That's about it :/

[Majorjim!]

Hi all,

I would like to share my in progress Apollo craft as I having some trouble with it.

She flies beautifully, no trouble there.

I can get the third stage into LKO and a bit to the Mun but she falls short there.

I had to add an orange tank to the first stage just to give it enough DV. I am using Skippers as they seem

to be a good fit for the F1s.

And it means she takes off nice and slowly.

I may have to use Mainsails but I would rather not.

I'm really happy with the fairing on this one.

Second stage ullage motors firing.

Second stage motors fire then interstage ring releases.

Showing off the shape of the third stage.

This is the shape of the third stage faring base.

Adding more fuel to the lower stages reduces the TWR too low and she topples at launch.

Are Mainsails the only answer???

MJ

[sgt_flyer]

i clipped two LRB's inside my S-1C instead of a mainsail - their nozzles are roughly the same size as the LVT-30's (and they look even more like F-1's), so i ended up clipping 5 of them in the middle, with max thrust at 93% (so i have exactly 1000 kN of thrust per nozzle )

although, you might need to empty some of the 3.75m fuel tanks, and add some structural panels between those tanks and the full ones.

the two LRB's are basically radially attached to a stack of 1 small 3.75m fuel tank and 1 medium 3.75m fuel tank (all full), and the 5 LVT-30s have separate fuel tanks, with a full small 3.75m fuel tank, and a rockomax x16 fuel tank (that gives my S-1C an early cutoff for the LVT-30s) the rest of the 3.75m tanks i have on my S-1C are empty, and simply used as structural parts (as the empty ones are isolated with the structural panels from the rest of the tanks, they don't mess with the fuel gauges ).

still working on my mini saturn V

Edited April 19, 2014 by sgt_flyer

[Majorjim!]

i clipped two LRB's inside my S-1C instead of a mainsail - their nozzles are roughly the same size as the LVT-30's (and they look even more like F-1's), so i ended up clipping 5 of them in the middle, with max thrust at 93% (so i have exactly 1000 kN of thrust per nozzle )

although, you might need to empty some of the 3.75m fuel tanks, and add some structural panels between those tanks and the full ones.

the two LRB's are basically radially attached to a stack of 1 small 3.75m fuel tank and 1 medium 3.75m fuel tank (all full), and the 5 LVT-30s have separate fuel tanks, with a full small 3.75m fuel tank, and a rockomax x16 fuel tank (that gives my S-1C an early cutoff for the LVT-30s) the rest of the 3.75m tanks i have on my S-1C are empty, and simply used as structural parts (as the empty ones are isolated with the structural panels from the rest of the tanks, they don't mess with the fuel gauges ).

still working on my mini saturn V

Thats great for a mini saturn V!

Im tempted to try that now.

MJ

[Rune]

Hi all,

I would like to share my in progress Apollo craft as I having some trouble with it.

She flies beautifully, no trouble there.

I can get the third stage into LKO and a bit to the Mun but she falls short there.

I had to add an orange tank to the first stage just to give it enough DV. I am using Skippers as they seem

to be a good fit for the F1s.

And it means she takes off nice and slowly.

[snip]

Are Mainsails the only answer???

MJ

The biggest mass penalty I see there is the Poodle on the CSM. That's 2.5mT you are lugging all the way to the Mun and back, and probably the reason Skippers aren't cutting it for you. But, I've got to say... really nice Saturn V! It looks absolutely gorgeous, and that S-IVb is sexy.

[Majorjim!]

The biggest mass penalty I see there is the Poodle on the CSM. That's 2.5mT you are lugging all the way to the Mun and back, and probably the reason Skippers aren't cutting it for you. But, I've got to say... really nice Saturn V! It looks absolutely gorgeous, and that S-IVb is sexy.

Thanks Rune, in very happy with the asthetics.

Also I never thought of a different motor for the

CSM! I will try that tonight.

MJ

[Halsfury]

So recently I built a Soyuz rocket at full scale and I had a thought, that since I can't spend the time to fit it out with every single payload which has ever launched on this venerable rocket (That is 1000 or so different builds without even thinking about concepts) why don't I turn it over to the community to build the payloads?

With this in mind I built the rocket accordingly, I considered that some will not have the computer to run a very accurate Soyuz lifter, and a very accurate payload, all at once so I built a version with similar stats but with simpler boosters

So the idea is that, because the two rockets have interchangeable statistics, that any payload built for one will work with the other, so that even those with small computers can build and fly highly detailed payloads, and since the only difference is the boosters, even those who don't have great computers will not have to look at the booster for more than 90 seconds into the flight anyway

the download is in the sig btw

[Capt Snuggler]

Thanks Rune, in very happy with the asthetics.

Also I never thought of a different motor for the

CSM! I will try that tonight.

MJ

First off Great Apollo dude! I would have to say i think part of the problem is the trust to weight. maybe use main sails on the first stage? also agree with Rune that poodle is pretty heavy for the work it does.

also those structural panels are damn heavy anywhere you can swap those out would help.

keep up the great work!

[Rune]

@Capt Snuggler:

He is trying to stay away from Mainsails, since the original had only 1.18 T/W at liftoff, and Mainsails would dictate a much bigger build. Plus, I think me showing it could be done on Skippers also helped a bit...

@Majorjim

Since you take the weight form the top of the rocket, the mass savings from that engine change (even though you lose the not-so-big engine bell) are going to cascade throughout the design: not only you can pack more fuel for the S-IVb, even if you didn't the mass ratio would improve delta-v on its own.. And the delta-v of the lower stages a bit, even. And you need less fuel for the CSM itself (empty mass is at least 2mT lower for a 3.5mT capsule payload, that is a lot), which can be transfered also to the S-IVb...

Rune. Now I'm sorry I didn't try your tank size!

[Woopert]

@Capt Snuggler:

He is trying to stay away from Mainsails, since the original had only 1.18 T/W at liftoff, and Mainsails would dictate a much bigger build. Plus, I think me showing it could be done on Skippers also helped a bit...

I think it's best to use whatever gives the most realistic TWR, i.e. whatever is appropriate. Look at Mulbin's Munbug, it was so heavy from all of the fuel tanks and I-beams that he had to use Mainsails AND Skippers, clipped together.

[Majorjim!]

I think it's best to use whatever gives the most realistic TWR, i.e. whatever is appropriate. Look at Mulbin's Munbug, it was so heavy from all of the fuel tanks and I-beams that he had to use Mainsails AND Skippers, clipped together.

Agreed.

I have tried the mainsails and she is still falling short on that burn to the Mun.. I haven't changed the CSM engine yet as pulling it apart was going to be fiddly

and I'm sleepy.

So instead I drained the same mass in fuel from the CSM tank. It still fell short by an average of 250 m/s dv.

I'm resolute to getting it working with the skippers! I have a video of the launch uploading to YT so I will post it and you can see how close it is.

I'm sure its doable.

Perhaps my launch profile is crappy? I don't know. I could have learned some bad habits. I will be interested to see what others have to say.

@Snuggler:

Yeah we discussed using mainsails last night and I subsequently tested them. With the above result sadly..

Agreed that the poodle is a problem, I will try it tomorrow.

MJ

[Woopert]

If there's excess fuel in the lander you could try emptying that.

[Majorjim!]

If there's excess fuel in the lander you could try emptying that.

That lander has very little fuel and tight margins so nothing to be gained from there..

[Rune]

Someone expressed interest on the files for the launchers I showed here, so here you go, have fun! I reserve the right to actually release some version of the probe launcher on its own thread if I ever take it somewhere interesting: I really like how the Solid 1.5 staging came out.

The 20mT lifter

General science probe

See the post where I linked the pics for more info.

Rune. Ask, and you shall be given!

[Majorjim!]

Ok chaps,

This is what I am dealing with. This is a video of the full launch, up until the third stage runs dry.

She gets really close and I'm not sure how to improve the dv..

This is with fuel removed from the CSM to simulate a different CSM motor.

Feel free to tear apart my launch profile and tell me where I am going wrong.

MJ

[GusTurbo]

First off, that looks awesome.

Second, I think you could save fuel by launching to a lower parking orbit. How much delta V do your first two stages have combined?

[Majorjim!]

First off, that looks awesome.

Second, I think you could save fuel by launching to a lower parking orbit. How much delta V do your first two stages have combined?

Thanks Gus!

I will check this tomorrow, off to bed now.

Aside from doing some maths how else could I check this?

[Redrobin]

KER or MechJeb

[GusTurbo]

I've only used Kerbal Engineer. It works well and doesn't have the sort of stigma that mechjeb has.

[Ravenchant]

There seems to be a demand for fairings, so here's one subassembly in case you're interested. The sepratrons and decouplers are bound to abort, it weighs 7.7 tons and fits nicely onto 2.5m stages.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99520841/KSP/Subassemblies/Fairing%202.5m%20base%20extended.craft

It still has the 2.5 probe core as base, however. I could split it into parts, but you'd have to set up and angle the cubic struts then

[Giggleplex777]

Hmm, what a coincidence! I just took the fairing from your S-EC and lengthened it a little to fit a (super secret) payload, and in doing so messed it up.

Thanks for posting this!

Edited April 21, 2014 by Giggleplex777

[Majorjim!]

Hi all,

Well I managed to get it to work, with mainsails.

I launched her with Skippers over 30 times in one evening and my profile was perfect on a few of those.

It just wasn't possible with 5 Skippers in the first stage.

So I used mainsails and added more fuel to the first stage. She now flies exactly how I wanted! She is very powerful now and

most people would find it easy to get to the Mun with it.

I made a new launch video, you can see my new realism tweaks, extra ullage motors and such. I have the bandicam trial so only 10mins.

But you get to see how simple it is to dock the CSM to the lander.

I may make some changes to the lander and then release it as the new version of my Selene Apollo craft.

Thanks for looking.

MJ