[WIP][PLUGIN + PARTS]Project HLLV: Nuclear Propulsion parts

[YANFRET]

Really interested in this:

[Nertea]

That shuttle is very cool!

[landeTLS]

That shuttle is very cool!

Thanks man.

Really interested in this:

http://i.imgur.com/QZ61JJ2.png

Glad you like it.

Heheh. Thats the uber greebly version i threw in there. Its actually almost all the "props" from two different configurations together

[landeTLS]

7.5m parts? Well now, that changes things quite a bit. Granted, I'd still like to have more conventionally-sized ones, but this is rather exciting. In that case, how about having a cluster of nodes on the back, for the option of having other engines? Also, would it be possible to get nose and tail parts like these that are compatible with S2 parts? Anything compatible with B9 tends to get very popular.

Expanding on other mod packs is not a direction im going for this pack. I may at some point release a completly seperate pack for such things but for now im focusing on my own parts. Im unsure how the final config for the engine will look. Right now im concidering having all the engines + thrust reversers and the "tankbutt" as an all in one block(like the 4x cluster from the arm pack) since coding the linking of the thrust reversers(using a setup like the rapier) and if i decide to do thermal output connected ntrs across several parts would be too much for my limited coding skills. I may do different configs tho. For example an all chemical "tankbutt" with 7 or 9 nodes on the back to mount any engines you want. This one will be without reversers and thermal reactor. Just oxidizer and lf.

The thermal output one will later have mounts for a radiator im currently reworking(will be used by atleast 3 of my parts)

[Shad0wCatcher]

9 NTRs? Where the hell is that sweet jesus gif when I need it? I pity the planetoid that eats those free radicals.

[YANFRET]

Also those shuttle engines are the best looking part I've seen in a long time. They look so good that you could do anything you like with the spacecraft and it would look believable because of the engines.

[RogueMason]

Now this looks interesting. I suspect I'll be keeping an eye on this...

[sp1989]

Also those shuttle engines are the best looking part I've seen in a long time. They look so good that you could do anything you like with the spacecraft and it would look believable because of the engines.

Do I smell a Chaka shuttle in the works?

[landeTLS]

Also those shuttle engines are the best looking part I've seen in a long time. They look so good that you could do anything you like with the spacecraft and it would look believable because of the engines.

I cant take all the credit. As they are derived from the william black shuttle.

[YANFRET]

Do I smell a Chaka shuttle in the works?

Nope.

But just look at those engines, and artwork! gaw beautiful all around â–²

[landeTLS]

Dusting off the propulsion module and radiator module atm. Thinking about how the heat emissives will work. Ill probably show some wip renders at some time later of the heat transport details on the propulsion module(they will glow bright at high temperature)

In the mean time here is a picture i found that shows a good representation of the kind of particle effect im hoping to achieve for the orion:

Currently also doing some early drafting of the plugin in ms visual studio express.

Concidering some core balancing features for the orion:

* the isp/thrust will be significantly reduced in the atmosphere of kerbin(because it is basically made of soup:D dampening the blastwave). Also toying with the idea of not allowing discharge in the atmosphere, for whatever reason: nuclear fallout, Fear of atmospheric combustion or the dampening effect etc. Meaning a huge first "lofter" stage will be required (dont worry. It will be supplied:P).

* since the blasts each produce a significant amount of force(with no way of adjusting it) fine manouvering will be all but impossible. And therefore use of service tugs with more fine control will be needed. Get ready to waste lots of payloads to get a decently circular orbit

* the blast will destroy vessels in the blast area behind the craft. Good for clearing debris:P

*more to come

This will attempt to offset the huge isp+twr advantages of the orion and hopefully thereby keeping the game fun and challenging. While making the orion a good option for fast interplanetary and interstellar** travel. ideas are welcome.

**would require kopernicus. Damn im so excited for that plugin

Edited August 19, 2014 by landeTLS

[Chris P. Bacon]

I always thought that the place where the Orion really shined as an engine was as an in-atmosphere launch stage. If anything the Isp [realistically] should go down as you reach vacuum, as it has a rather crummy exhaust velocity with fission pellets. (Unless its using laser-initiated fusion bombs) IIRC, the yield of the pellets was increased by something like 50x for use in vacuum as opposed to atmosphere. Since the charge is basically a nuclear powered x-ray laser that converts some tungsten and beryllium into plasma, any air that also gets converted to plasma and shot at the plate just means more efficiency. I'm sure the air, like in a conventional rocket engine, has some effect of keeping the energy from flying off in all directions, and more in line with its directed path. (I could be thinking about this completely wrong though)

Your idea makes more sense to nerf it for gameplay reasons though. As long as I can edit your numbers and plug my own in later for personal use in RSS, I'll be happy.

[Shad0wCatcher]

Air isn't going to do much to contain a nuclear explosion. But I do agree with your principle in that functionally air adds free reaction mass for the fission / fusion reaction. Good luck reconditioning the launch pad afterward though. Oh and pray that your control center is deep underground with air filtration and enough food and water to last for a while if you're trying for a full on nuclear launch. Also total economic collapse from the multiple massive EMPs emitted during upper atmospheric flight. With those small caveats out of the way it'd be perfectly safe to use this as a pure SSTO!

[Airlock]

Air isn't going to do much to contain a nuclear explosion. But I do agree with your principle in that functionally air adds free reaction mass for the fission / fusion reaction. Good luck reconditioning the launch pad afterward though. Oh and pray that your control center is deep underground with air filtration and enough food and water to last for a while if you're trying for a full on nuclear launch. Also total economic collapse from the multiple massive EMPs emitted during upper atmospheric flight. With those small caveats out of the way it'd be perfectly safe to use this as a pure SSTO!

It's not like there's much of a civilization on Kerbin to worry about it anyway. As Orion charges only create a 276 km EMP, that space center on the other side of the planet should be fine!

[Shad0wCatcher]

Is that at sea level? You have to remember tropospheric and mesospheric explosions exponentially enlarge the EMP from a nuke.

[Airlock]

Is that at sea level? You have to remember tropospheric and mesospheric explosions exponentially enlarge the EMP from a nuke.

Not sure. Read here: http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist.php#id--Pulse

The link to the actual analysis seems to be dead though.

EDIT: However, for comparison, you can look at the first nuclear test in space from which EMP was noticed. The 1962 Starfish Prime test detonated a 1.4 megaton bomb at 400km. The warhead sizes for an Orion are much smaller, under 30 kilotons.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Airlock

[Shad0wCatcher]

At the risk of becoming too tangential: http://fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/effects.htm The graph shown will give a little idea of what kinds of forces you're actually talking about here I'm well aware of the original plans for the Orion (I have that website bookmarked in fact).

Mind you I prefer having correct ISPs for the propulsion system itself (to get back on topic) and leave it to the user to decide whether or not they want to kill the entire ground operation around the space center (figuratively; since, you know, we don't actually have a population center around the space center, but extrapolating here).

[Tommygun]

I was wondering how you plan on landing the shuttle.

Do you think the shuttle will need VTOL like engines to help with landing it?

Maybe you could do something like Porkjet did and give the body extra lift in the part config file.

[landeTLS]

Hey. Some different questions here. Ill try to answer all.

About orion configurability:

In my very early code draft you can define thrust, resource. In addition to the bomb transform and pusher animation name a different module will handle the heat animation. ill likely be adding more as it gets a bit more finalized. I also aim to make any locking functions cfg configurable.

Vtol shuttle:

Atm i am not sure about how it will work yet. Its intended to be conventional horizontal lander. But it will have thrust reversers to bring it to an almost stop just before touchdown. Its intended for use in a thin atmospheres and low gravity but it should also be able to reach kerbin orbit and land with a small payload. But it should be hard as you need to fly quite fast to generate enough lift. It does make sense to give the fusulage some lift too.

I may also do a smaller dedicated vtol shuttle parts set at some time or perhaps some vtol engines for the current shuttle parts. But i should really be finishing the current parts first.

Edited August 23, 2014 by landeTLS

[landeTLS]

not much progress atm. been busy this week with other things.

but here is a new shuttle render, with heattiles. and if you look closely you can see jeb sitting on top of the cockpit for scale

im not happy with the tiles yet tho, thay should probably be offset rather than aligned like now.

i also halfway finished the orion lander parts. will be posting some renders of them once they are more polished.

Edit: o i forgot to mention. I am working on a "flat" face for the shuttle parts to make them more modular.

Edited August 24, 2014 by landeTLS

[SessoSaidSo]

status?!!!

[SkyHook]

I NEED that shuttle!

[mike9606]

not much progress atm. been busy this week with other things.

but here is a new shuttle render, with heattiles. and if you look closely you can see jeb sitting on top of the cockpit for scale

http://i.imgur.com/k4ZqgHb.png

im not happy with the tiles yet tho, thay should probably be offset rather than aligned like now.

i also halfway finished the orion lander parts. will be posting some renders of them once they are more polished.

Edit: o i forgot to mention. I am working on a "flat" face for the shuttle parts to make them more modular.

I honestly quite like the way the heat tiles look in that picture.

[landeTLS]

Oops. I didnt see you guys asking for status.

Status is that im knee deep in unity plugin code. Its been some time since iwe coded in c# so im a bit rusty. Iwe also never done any programming for games before so its all a new experience for me.

I finished a simple plugin i was thinking of bundling with the pack. It basically is a partmodule that tells the vab/sph camera to zoom out if it is within 20 distance units when a part with it is attaced. Zoom is reset on detach (just because) Its pretty much a must for these parts as they are just too big for the default zoom(you would be looking inside the model until you zoom out, not very pretty). I may also impliment more temporary scaling of the workspace/cam extents too in the same way.

The orion plugin is still in the early phase but i managed to solve the biggest hurdle (the high gees from the pulses) force is applied in a curve and pusher plate animations will also follow the same curve so it should look pretty synced.

As for the shuttle im still doing some brushing up on some curved surface detailing techniques.

The plugin for the shuttle engines is still in drafting but shouldnt be as complex as the orion as i can probably just extend moduleenginefx. If i get the modelling on it to a stage im happy with before then i might release it for testing without plugin.

Edited August 31, 2014 by landeTLS

[landeTLS]

just thought id update on the status of the orion plugin. making progress

here is a vid capture from my unity project

its a gif so it looks a bit jerky but in action its not

the slowing down at the end is because gravity is applied to the rigidbody after the first payload is released. im currently using key input to launch each payload but ill port it to use thrust once its ready for ksp.

now to tackle the animations