Another idea: Control surfaces don't just belong to wings!

[MedwedianPresident]

Control surfaces; those little cute metal boards that help you control your craft. Didn't you wonder how you can use them except for attaching them to wings? Well; i think it's possible! They could be used as winglets for rockets or missiles; they also can be attached to personal heat shields and reentry modules to encache control. In real life, control surfaces often are attached to lifting body vessels or even "blunt end forward" reentry vehicles for additional steering.

Your thoughts?

[cantab]

I'm not sure if they can attach in the right orientation. If you put them long-edge-on to your rocket you can control pitch and yaw but not roll. (Then again, roll is quite easily handled by reaction wheels). And that assumes the controls "work" and the game doesn't think they're pointing in a different direction and thus mess things up.

In any case, we already have two winglets and two canards that mount the right way to a rocket and work just fine.

[Anton P. Nym]

I've used small control surfaces on their own to act as mini-canards for some of my SSTOs to fine-tune the centre of lift, and on this drone I used one as a tiny rudder. (It's between the two radial intakes in the shot.)

Very handy design tip if you need just a tiny bit of aerodynamic authority but don't need a winglet.

-- Steve

[Cerberus738]

ha ha i really like that design... may i steal it?

[Anton P. Nym]

ha ha i really like that design... may i steal it?

Sure! It's simple and all-stock; can't really claim any genius behind it. FYI, not seen on the photo is that the intakes are in quad symmetry and not just a duo on top. If I recall correctly, there's a Communotron-16 on the underside of the probe-core too to help with weight distribution.

-- Steve

[Amaroq]

Control surfaces go very well at the bottom of "tail fins", if you're using those parts -- for a F.A.R.-compatible large rocket, you may get some success out of tail-fin + control surface near the tail of the first stage, plus winglets near the top of the second stage; use the F.A.R. setup screen to limit the total deflections so you don't get oversteer.