Zero G - parabolic flight

[varsass]

HI all,

Few days ago I was wondering if it's possible to perform a parabolic flight in KSP, in order to provide 15 secondes of micro gravity to a bunch of Kerbal inside a plane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_gravity_aircraft).

I've tried and tried and tried again, and I've got 2 conclusions :

1 - Kerbals than can float in air are Kerbals in EVA, and Kerbals in EVA generate drag even inside a plane. To solve the problem the parabola has to be as vertical as possible, to be the slowest possible. It's still a parabola, but a 3billion x² parabola .

2 - When the plane pitch invert, the poor kerbal is smashed on the roof (the turning point on my plane is far behind the experiment room), this could be solved with a better plane design, but for the moment I'm lazy.

Here is the result :

Plane is B9/pWings, tests are performed with FAR.

So here is the challenge :

1 - Build your own Reduced Gratity Aircraft and make your Kerbals float inside (part of the training of every astronaut ).

2 - Find a better way to perform the flight (more/less speed, better trajectory, lighter plane, etc ...).

3 - If you get out the atmosphere you're disqualified, "Ooops I made it in orbit" forbidden.

Enjoy !

[nli2work]

very nice! I didn't think of putting a pod inside the cargo hold and lost the kerbals through the hull during take off. Now I can rebuild my vomit komet bigger and better

[Kasuha]

EVA Kerbals have drag 0.1 and there are some parts that have even lower drag than that (although just slightly). It might be possible to make a "container" with overall drag 0.1, simulating a zero-G chamber all the way to impact with ground. But I don't think it would look or work like an airplane. I guess throwing it up into the air with boosters, then decoupling them from it would be the only reasonable way to put it into the air.

[varsass]

EVA Kerbals have drag 0.1 and there are some parts that have even lower drag than that (although just slightly). It might be possible to make a "container" with overall drag 0.1, simulating a zero-G chamber all the way to impact with ground. But I don't think it would look or work like an airplane. I guess throwing it up into the air with boosters, then decoupling them from it would be the only reasonable way to put it into the air.

Having a big container full of Kerbals free falling from a high altitude is not really the expected result, but it's definitely something to try

[Tidus Klein]

Try a b9 cargo bay with far?

That may work.....

Actually never mind, it only shields parts that are part of the vessel

[ihtoit]

Manley recently did a video (I think it was his Zardoz flyer in the Interstellar series) where he had a pod floating around in the cargo bay, he closed the door and RCS'd the mothership around until the pod engaged the internal clamp. It's worth hunting it down just for that clip.

[Kasuha]

Partial success so far - made chamber 5x5x5 2x2 structural panels which is perfectly drag balanced but it turned to useless slideshow even though the part count is not that bad. I'll probably try again with something smaller.

Chutes shouldn't be problem to balance, too. Their drag is funny (0.22) but it will require large amount of them anyway.

[Kasuha]

Another pic - Bill happily levitating in chamber during reentry.

[That guy who builds stuff]

Another pic - Bill happily levitating in chamber during reentry.

snip

Is that Kerbal hell?

[varsass]

Another pic - Bill happily levitating in chamber during reentry.

Yeah the first Kerbal oven, does anyone have a good recipe ?