Centrifugal ship

[LABHOUSE]

I challenge you to make a centrifugal space station with engines for propulsion.

Requirements:

Circular part.

RCS

One Rockomax 64 tank

20 kerbal capacity

5 kerbals always inside the craft.

G level of at least .38 or that of mars.

Optional:

Lights (10 points per light)

Railing for kerbals (You will get 10 points for every part fully railed with ladders)

Escape pod (100 points, 100 additional if you have enough for 20 kerbals)

Dockable Lander (200 points)

Awesomeness (I judge and will give you a grade and that will be how many points you get)

Stock (250 points but you may use MechJeb, Kethane, KWrocketry, and Procedural Fairings)(Realism mods also do not count)

You used a realism mod(s) (100 points for every realism mod)

Undockable smaller station (200 points) (It can also get bonus points listed above but only one tenth as many per option thing done)

Leader board:

Based on points. I will edit this when you post after me.

#1 - ihtoit - 80 points

#2

#3

I give you permission to post on this after 3 months.

Edited May 14, 2014 by LABHOUSE

[Wadusher0]

Have you tried this challenge yourself? Also, what do you mean by "centrifugal"?

[TJPrime]

G level of 5 would be incredibly laggy, as would either require an extremely long ship or an extremely wide ship. That G-level is hard to get on the surface, let alone space. Re-entering kerbins atmosphere would do it, though.

What do you mean by "centrifugal"?

He means 'spinning the ship very fast in order to generate artificial gravity'. If you have ever spun a bucket of water fast enough over your head, the water resists gravity, as the centrifugal force is pushing it down respectively to the bucket is slightly greater than the pull of gravity. It's a similar concept (idea). Spinning the ship so that the stuff (representing water) sticks to the ends of the ship. No-one has been in a centrifugal ship, but astronauts use a machine similar to the concept to see if they are fit for launch and re-entry. Kerbals have no fear (until you decouple the boosters)!

If that doesn't make sense to you, I think Scott Manley (a youtuber) made a video about it.

[Captain Sierra]

If that doesn't make sense to you, I think Scott Manley (a youtuber) made a video about it.

Harv (HOC Gaming) did a whole mini-series around his spinning ring station design.

[ihtoit]

wow... ok, let's do the math. Let's start with some assumptions: firstly, that the station is 1km from centre of mass to the outermost part (ie it has a diameter, assuming circular symmetry, of 2km).

Given the formula for centripetal acceleration: a = W^2 r

where:

a is acceleration

W is angular velocity (in radians per second)

r is the radius of rotation,

If 1rpm=0.105 radians per second (which it is in any system)

Then at 1rpm, a=11.025m/s

Plug that in to g:

at 1rpm, our model would result in a "gravitational" (actually centripetal) acceleration of 1.124g

For an artificial G-force of 5g, our model would "only" have to spin at 4.45rpm. That's one complete revolution every 13.5 seconds. Considering we're talking about a model that's pretty much on the limits of KSP's physics rendering capacity, yep that's gonna get laggy and also considering the speed of rotation, each point on the outer edge of the "ring" will be moving at 465m/s relative to the axis. Prepare to strut the hell out of it.

Good luck docking with that. Good luck docking with anything smaller which will necessarily be spinning even faster to induce the same centripetal effect.

[Wadusher0]

wow... ok, let's do the math. Let's start with some assumptions: firstly, that the station is 1km from centre of mass to the outermost part (ie it has a diameter, assuming circular symmetry, of 2km).

Given the formula for centripetal acceleration: a = W^2 r

where:

a is acceleration

W is angular velocity (in radians per second)

r is the radius of rotation,

If 1rpm=0.105 radians per second (which it is in any system)

Then at 1rpm, a=11.025m/s

Plug that in to g:

at 1rpm, our model would result in a "gravitational" (actually centripetal) acceleration of 1.124g

For an artificial G-force of 5g, our model would "only" have to spin at 4.45rpm. That's one complete revolution every 13.5 seconds. Considering we're talking about a model that's pretty much on the limits of KSP's physics rendering capacity, yep that's gonna get laggy and also considering the speed of rotation, each point on the outer edge of the "ring" will be moving at 465m/s relative to the axis. Prepare to strut the hell out of it.

Good luck docking with that. Good luck docking with anything smaller which will necessarily be spinning even faster to induce the same centripetal effect.

I get the impression the OP pulled the 5G out of his rear.

Maybe someone could try this at 1 of 2Gs?

Also, the OP seems to have neglected the fact that one can dock to this station on the axis at which it is rotating, which would encounter significantly less Gs. It wouldn't be as hard as docking at the edges, though it would possibly be harder than if the station was not spinning.

Not only that, but apparently there is an arbitrary limit to angular velocity in Unity. That could pose some problems.

[dacamp66]

.5 or maybe .25 g would probably be enough, remember, you don't need the full force of gravity, all you need is enough g-force to keep bone and muscle decay from becoming a health issue.

[LABHOUSE]

.5 or maybe .25 g would probably be enough, remember, you don't need the full force of gravity, all you need is enough g-force to keep bone and muscle decay from becoming a health issue.

Ok I did see a 27 g ship on the old challenge for this so I made this 5. Have some reputation.

[ihtoit]

I just tried it with a 50m ring, got to 8rpm (barely 1g) and the thing exploded due to mechanical stress. No survivors.

[LABHOUSE]

I just tried it with a 50m ring, got to 8rpm (barely 1g) and the thing exploded due to mechanical stress. No survivors.

Look at the old thread those guys used steel beams and other things like columns and stuff.

[ihtoit]

Look at the old thread those guys used steel beams and other things like columns and stuff.

I had the snot welded out of as much of it as I could (using the partwelder plugin to make 10m trusses - got the structure down to about 180 parts from 1700. Don't worry, this was an old orbital platform I was putting together with a view to making a challenge so it was pretty much already there), then assembled in orbit (in 8 sections) and hitched together with KAS trusses (which weren't part of the original plan, it wasn't intended to spin) before spinning the ol' lady up.

I might actually just chuck another one up there as a showcase build. It was pretty nice considering the size of it. It was a classic 6-spoked wheel with hub and central mast, loads of fuel, loads of accomodation, I might even leave the drive rockets on this time so I can change orbits without burning through monoprop...

Edited May 14, 2014 by ihtoit

[LABHOUSE]

Any more players?