[WIP] US Probes - Old and New - Dev Thread

[Guest]

The lower dome should probably be a bit more gray and less black. Otherwise, looks good.

[TMBakeNaut]

Personally I like it darker, sometimes ascetics trumps realism. More visually pleasing having it almost black.

Do you plan on adding DR configuration to the HS?

[raidernick]

Do you plan on adding DR configuration to the HS?

Yes but I'm not very familiar with Jool's atmosphere. It's going to be a chore to figure out the proper altitude for both chute deployments, how long to wait between each chute deployment and how much heatshield to use and at what strength. The probe should enter the atmosphere directly without slowing down at all as it is detached from the main craft about a month before reaching the planet and enters at full speed. This speed will likely be double your normal reentry speed at kerbin, IRL it entered with 230G of force to Jupiter.

Edited September 22, 2014 by raidernick

[Hattivat]

This is probably going to be hard to configure, especially given that Jool has pretty much no upper atmosphere as it currently stands (it gets very thick very fast). Make sure that the probe's ballistic coefficient (FAR's flight data displays it) is sufficiently low, that's an important and often overlooked component of a successful reentry.

[Guest]

Personally I like it darker, sometimes ascetics trumps realism. More visually pleasing having it almost black.

This is a historical replica. There's no such thing as "aesthetics" in this case. Nor can they ever trump realism in a game like this, except with some very non-serious/sci-fi packs. Spacecraft are not designed to look visually pleasing, sorry. They're designed to work. Everything you see on them has some sort of purpose.

[raidernick]

I redid the bottom texture. This was taken directly from the actual probe.

[TMBakeNaut]

Yeah it may not be practical after all, between the lack of upper atmosphere to perform proper aerobraking prior to hitting the thicker stuff below. I have feeling it'll take a few practice shots before I get it to either not burn up or shoot back out, especially with a 5 month release prior to insertion.

Seriously don't see 2 shades detracting from historical accuracy. It is a game after all.

[raidernick]

You wouldn't be able to release it significantly ahead of time in this game anyway. There's no way to "hibernate" a probe without completely disabling it's batteries which if you are using remote tech will screw you over. There's no way I can provide enough battery to last that long you would need thousands. So practically you'd release it right when reaching Jool's SOI.

[TMBakeNaut]

True that current game mechanics would not allow for that unless you fudge the lines and added an RTG in the probe, which of course throws realism out the door. Guess that shows the distinction between a game vs. true to life simulation. Anyhow, I thought of an additional resource for familiarizing yourself with Jool atmosphere. Scott Manley's Interstellar Quest, Episode 66 - Joolian Atmosphere Entry at about 6:00, shows the use of aerobraking to slow the craft, it ends with the ship blowing to pieces. But it should give you a feel for how DRE and FAR behave in relation to craft trying to achive atmosphere entry.

tM1Hm

[raidernick]

I don't build my parts using any mods, especially ones that affect the ship mechanics like FAR. It has to be built to stock standards.

[raidernick]

Ok so the probe was not salvageable. I had to redo the entire main body part to get rid of the mesh tearing. It is done now, I am not releasing it until I do Magellan also.

[NathanKell]

That looks *very* sharp

[Guest]

Indeed. The top protrusions should probably look more smooth, but the rest is spot-on.

[raidernick]

Still working on this, the computer I use to model broke and I had to get a new one. I am currently reloading all of my software and restoring backups so all mod progress will be on hold until that is done. Unfortunately all progress made before the break was lost as my backups are several days older so I will have to redo a lot of stuff, including this probe.

Edited September 28, 2014 by raidernick

[NathanKell]

Ouch! Best of luck, and fingers crossed.

[raidernick]

Got the hdd today and back to work. I redid the probe and got a chance to test it on Jool. From what I've tested the best flight profile is to:

1) Detach probe when reaching Jool's SOI

2) Enter Jool's atmosphere directly. You will decelerate at maxed g forces(didn't actually measure but in real life it was over 200G's).

3) When you decelerate enough to not be on fire, but still supersonic, deploy the head shields parachute.

4) At around 30KM you detach heatshield and enter free fall.

5) At 20KM deploy probe chute.

6) At 15KM probe chute fully deploys

7) Probe will slowly start to overheat starting at 15KM

8) When you are between 8-9KM the probe will overheat and explode.

[TMBakeNaut]

Awesome, very glad to see you back in business!

[raidernick]

Well I tested it with deadly reentry. For some reason this mod allows the probe to actually LAND on Jool without exploding due to heat. The heat is displayed as NaN and it never overheats.

Here is a picture from the "surface". Once hitting the surface I fell through it and started to go up again on the opposite side of the planet. This is a major problem for DRE users as it causes the Kraken in your game if the probe isn't destroyed before reaching the surface. I don't know what to do about this.

Edited October 6, 2014 by raidernick

[Hattivat]

Deadly Reentry seems to be having some problems with balance (several updates in the last few days, people still posting bug reports), so I think it would be best to postpone this test a day or two until NathanKell releases a new, balanced version.

[raidernick]

The galileo orbital module is finished. I just need to find the best way to attach and decouple the atmospheric probe from the satellite and I can get to work on magellan.

There are two variations to the dish, the broken "realistic" dish and the intended unbroken dish. Featured in these pictures is the "realistic" dish.

[raidernick]

Galileo is now 100% complete. The atmospheric probe decouples from the main spacecraft fine and the main spacecraft has the capability to put itself into orbit around Jool after releasing the probe. You will still need to aerobrake though, it can only circularize the orbit.

Edited October 19, 2014 by raidernick

[NathanKell]

Awesome!

[Hattivat]

Beautiful : )

[raidernick]

Finished Magellan, visit the release thread to download. Like Galileo it only has enough DV to circularize and make some orbital corrections. In order to bring apo down you need to aerobrake.

I have not added hullcam support to either this or Galileo yet because I don't feel like dealing with the difficulty of placing the camera as it is nowhere near as easy as placing a node. It will come in a later update.

Edited October 19, 2014 by raidernick

[Guest]

Aside from flat solars (if they have a normal map, it needs to be stronger), the Magellan actually looks pretty nice. Any chance of the IUS for launching it from the Shuttle? Nobody had modeled that one yet, AFAIK. Ideally, it'd come with an Infernal Robotics-powered mount, too. Gallileo would benefit form this as well, as would Chandra and Ulysses, should you make them someday.

Edited October 19, 2014 by Guest