parts [1.12.x] Sounding Rockets! Start small. Dream big!

[Sophistry]

Awh! Wish I'd known about this at the start of my save, I'd have installed in an instant! :D

[Hysterrics]

For some reason I can't find the download in the dropbox?

[Mynar Moonshadow]

[quote name='Sequinox']For some reason I can't find the download in the dropbox?[/QUOTE]

[url]https://github.com/BobPalmer/SoundingRockets/releases/download/0.3.1.0/SoundingRockets_0.3.1.0.zip[/url]

Downloading from the Github repository is normally a safe bet for all of Roverdude's released mods.

~M~

[NotAgain]

Hey Roverdude, would it be possible to include an inline parachute, some tiny radial decouplers and a shock absorber in the next update?

[vardicd]

I just noticed, the mini de-coupler that comes in this pack, apparently has no drag? When I play, Any debris in orbit stays in orbit, unless it would naturally fall back into the atmosphere, and if it does, I 'fly' it back to the ground, I don't just delete it in the tracking station. I found a decoupler on a sub-orbital trajectory, and rode it down, expecting it to go poof in during the reentry, but it didn't, and was gaining speed coming down, and since it never hit the ground, and with no drag to slow it down, it gained enough speed passing through the atmosphere to almost double it's Apoapsis.

[RoverDude]

On 11/21/2015, 8:01:39, Sequinox said:

For some reason I can't find the download in the dropbox?

Dropbox storage has been deprecated, use KerbalStuff or GitHub

On 11/22/2015, 7:12:19, NotAgain said:

Hey Roverdude, would it be possible to include an inline parachute, some tiny radial decouplers and a shock absorber in the next update?

The radial pack chute is designed to be inline by plunking it on one of the truss modules.  Exploration Pack has a tiny radial decoupler.  Not sure what you mean by shock absorber

On 11/26/2015, 6:55:47, vardicd said:

I just noticed, the mini de-coupler that comes in this pack, apparently has no drag? When I play, Any debris in orbit stays in orbit, unless it would naturally fall back into the atmosphere, and if it does, I 'fly' it back to the ground, I don't just delete it in the tracking station. I found a decoupler on a sub-orbital trajectory, and rode it down, expecting it to go poof in during the reentry, but it didn't, and was gaining speed coming down, and since it never hit the ground, and with no drag to slow it down, it gained enough speed passing through the atmosphere to almost double it's Apoapsis.

FAR or stock?

[vardicd]

35 minutes ago, RoverDude said:

Dropbox storage has been deprecated, use KerbalStuff or GitHub

The radial pack chute is designed to be inline by plunking it on one of the truss modules.  Exploration Pack has a tiny radial decoupler.  Not sure what you mean by shock absorber

FAR or stock?

My issue occurred in a stock game, can provide a video of it occurring, as I was recording at the time, and my game logs if you'd like.

[Ratzap]

The trusses could do with being a little more durable. Both of them are fairly explody touching down on the nosecone parachute at 5m/s

[RocketSquid]

I think Near future tech uses StoredCharge for capacitors. This could run into some problems. Or... Dare I say it? Some probe-lems.

[RoverDude]

Stored Charge is CRP, and in any case has been deprecated for a while now

[mcortez]

Any chance of an integrated antenna in the avionics package, so those of us playing with RemoteTech can start with sounding rockets without first unlocking antennas via R&D?

[RoverDude]

I thought RT gave you your first low range antenna?

 

In any case, toss a PR, sure

[mcortez]

I think it just adds an integrated antenna to a number of the stock probe cores.  I'll see what's needed and submit a PR, thanks!

[cdsang]

I have trouble where it tells me I don't have remote control. only way I was able to get it to set off was using the stayputnik MK1 pod on top. I find it odd you get all the parts, but no control until you get unmanned tech. EDIT: I reinstalled the game and used just this mod. The only "fix" I found was using the avionics package but it locks up my staging. If i use the RT-5 SRB, it launches fine. EDIT 2: I was watching Kottabos Games do a review. It showed the nose having electric charge. I assumed it still did and it doesn't. So I attached that mini battery pack and all works. Still want to keep this here in case someone else may run into the same issue.

Edited January 30, 2016 by cdsang

[ModZero]

On 19 January 2016 at 10:39 PM, mcortez said:

I think it just adds an integrated antenna to a number of the stock probe cores.

Back when I played with RT2 it used to add them to everything, but only after unlocking a certain tech node. The range was only 5km, too.

[farnayway]

I'm not quiet sure if I used them properly but it does seem that the parachutes have not been working for me. The small sounding rocket that I sent preformed similar with and without the parachute deployed. It even stayed straight when I deployed the chute early during boosting. I use a few mods, and I will see if removing some of the few probable offenders may fix my problem. I have also already validated the game cache through steam. I wanted to see if this was a known issue as none of the helpful mod videos present the new iteration of this mod.

Edit: also I am using FAR.

Edited February 23, 2016 by farnayway

[Ruedii]

Could we get inline versions of many of the radial attach parts.  (Batteries, experiments, control cores, etc.)

Furthermore, can we get the stock experiments added to this? This would be, temperature, pressure, atmosphere analysis, gravity-meter, possibly mystery goo.  An all-in-one unit might be particularly nice for advanced science. 

[RoverDude]

Part of the design is that you have to craft and balance your internal payload - that's by design

Also the bits are pretty small - most of the stock parts would not fit in a sounding rocket (especially the mystery goo)

[Warro]

I think inline Goo canister of the same size of the stock one would fit nicely in .65 rocket.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Warro

[DStaal]

10 hours ago, Warro said:

I think inline Goo canister of the same size of the stock one would fit nicely in .65 rocket.

SXT has one of those.  And you can download it as a stand-alone part.  (It's also got my all-time favorite manufacturer name. )

(And I've managed to fit a mystery goo into a sounding rocket without that...  Admittedly not the .65 sounding rocket.)

[PocketBrotector]

I like the idea of starting out by using tiny rockets to get science, instead of wandering around KSC grinding out experiments at the mini-biomes. 

Some observations:

• All of the solid rockets have the same Isp curve (140 -> 165), contrary to their descriptions. Also they all seem to produce more thrust than required, to the point where it's possible to stack several of the same stage and keep total TWR well above 1. 
• The aerospike is surprisingly good on paper compared to stock rocket engines, e.g. the Spark (slightly lower TWR, but much higher vacuum Isp).
• The structural adapter is .1 tons, which is actually very heavy in the context of these rockets - it's very much preferable to decouple it than to leave it attached.
• The gyroscope has the stats of the .625m reaction wheel, despite being smaller and cheaper.
• Grid fins are some of the most expensive items in the pack, at 500 funds each.
• The batteries are relatively expensive - they both cost 150 funds, even though the larger one is equivalent to the 80-fund stock battery, and the smaller one has one-fifth the capacity.
• I'm getting an odd mismatch between KER readouts and actual performance - for example, this has enough supposed dv that it should be able to make orbit easily, but it is barely capable of suborbital flight. Seems that the upper stage doesn't have the TWR that the readouts would indicate - is there some kind of hidden penalty to the aerospike that wouldn't be visible via KER? Or am I missing something else?

Edit: I decided to try tweaking some of the values mentioned above.

The most significant thing I did was improve the Isp curves of the solid rockets - I changed the upper-stage motor to be Hammer-like and the .625m motor to be Thumper-like. Even with improvements to the SRBs, I found the rockets had a hard time pushing a tiny payload (avionics package, tiniest battery, one experiment, and the .35m nosecone chute) to significant altitudes. I would have expected a two-stage .35m rocket to reach the upper atmosphere (18km), since that's what sounding rockets are for, but instead I needed to use the heavily buffed .625m stage to get that high - and at that point, I could make sub-orbital flights pretty easily by using those stages exclusively. (Even OTRAG-esque asparagus shenanigans weren't very satisfying.)

Edited March 10, 2016 by PocketBrotector

[RoverDude]

1.1 Pre-Release is up!

0.4.0 - 2016.03.29
------------
Compatibility with KSP 1.1

 

Download from GitHub:  https://github.com/BobPalmer/soundingRockets/releases

[run1235]

jsut want to report that in 1.1 pre-release the sounding rockets dont detach when they run out of fuel.

 

i stand corrected, it seems to be the first two rockets that dont detach. (launched like 10 of those without them detaching before using the larger ones.)

Edited April 4, 2016 by run1235

[pfig]

@RoverDude Thank you for /another/ fabulous mod, incredibly fun (plus, dem science points!)

[VaPaL]

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or interpreting this mod the wrong way, but it sounds to me that the idea it's to launch sounding rockets right from the start to boost your science. But I can't launch them because they have no control, and the probe is unlocked only in the middle of the tech tree, costing 90 science. Shouldn't it be available from the start?

 

Nevertheless awesome mod @RoverDude