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Play With Your Buddies / Re: (KSP LP) Bay12 Space Program: Update Failed; Summary Posted
« on: April 26, 2014, 10:09:18 am »Alright. Let's try that KAS thing.
First, we design a ship. A neat little thing, really. First, I spend a lot of time trying to design a neat little rocket with a detachable fuel tank up front and an engine in back, for the return from Minmus, but fuel lines were...problematic. So, instead, I just remove the "detachable" requirement and go nuts.
The Kasper RRV, which is capable of landing on and returning from either the Mun or Minmus thanks to its 2.6+ km/s of Δv. I intend to use this 5-ton craft in future missions.
Shame I can't save it as a subassembly.
I discover that, contrary to what Councilor Mark Afkerman claimed, you can't put landing legs in these containers.
Lies...LIES!
But then I notice a couple of other things I could add.
Click. Click. Yup. All I need is available. It should help the thing turn over, if nothing else. And if it fails...send another mission. You know how much I like not telling you my plans, so let's just skip to the final rocket design.
It's a simple rocket, really. A Skipper, to get us to space; a Poodle, to get us to orbit and Minmus; and the Kasper, to get us back.
Bill's flying this mission, being the mechanical brains of the trio. Jeb tries very hard, managing to slip in after I'm sure I ordered Bill to go, but in the end Bill gets his chance.
He is clearly considering his career choices.
It's a pretty simple little rocket, really.
The Skipper runs through half its fuel in the first minute and 18 seconds, getting us over four kilometers up. Starting to think I should have added another fuel tank, or maybe some boosters. Still, we're rising pretty darn fast...but it wouldn't hurt to turn the throttle down just a little, right? Keep the velocity at a barely-rising ~100 m/s. It jumps up to 125 when I take my attention off the throttle for a bit, but that's no biggie. Still well below the 200 m/s are-you-insane mark. Once we hit the gravity turn, at about 20% fuel, we need to up the throttle to keep our time-to-apoapsis high enough.
The Skipper ran out of fuel at to km ASL, but our apoapsis was at almost 29 km--pretty good, for that early in the flight. Even better, thanks to a little fuel tank and such, the Poodle had a TWR of almost 1.4. Between the efficiency of the Poodle and the boost given by the Skipper, we easily get to a nice little coasting thing, apoapsis above 70 km.
By burning, oh, 64% of the "to-Minmus" stage's fuel.
...
Simulation!
Sticking another semi-jumbo fuel tank on the rocket brings its surface TWR below 1. More importantly, I remember we have real Jumbos now. So, after fiddling with fuel, I need to add boosters. Three Kerbodyne liquid fuel boosters, to be precise, giving the craft a massive 3.25 initial TWR. (It could have been 3.26, but I added nose cones.)
And who wouldn't?
It amazes me just how much oomph these things have. Throttle down to half, and we've still got 0-100 m/s in well under 15 seconds. For those interested, that's over 200 mph, and about as fast as nerve impulses go. That's right--this rocket is moving at the speed of thought. It's rolling, however, at the speed of ignorance. Luckily, it pitches faster.
Keeping the rocket from wasting fuel on the sound barrier is harder than it sounds. Thankfully, that isn't so important once you get out of the lower atmosphere. By the time we do so, enough fuel has been shed to give us a TWR of over 5.5, so it's time to let 'er rip! The TWR shoots past 6 (I miss the eventual value) and the apoapsis jumps past 30 km by the time those boosters die at 17 km. I hear some explosions, probably from the boosters hitting each other, as I fiddle with pitch to get a more optimal ascent. I then notice that the boosters are still attached. Why do they always do that? Why is it so hard to get the bigger fuel tanks positioned on the frigging decouplers? I even used the truss ones, which should have been--never mind. Point is, thanks in large part to those boosters, our TWR is terrible. 0.75. I need to go vertical for a while to avoid losing too much vertical velocity. Luckily, it begins rising soon enough. Yay!
I push the craft into orbit, then drag the periapsis out of the ground, discarding the booster stage fairly early on in the second task. Unsurprisingly, apoapsis comes and goes before we can complete it, even though (thanks to the first boosters not falling off) TWR actually increased when we switched to the Poodle (and the tiny spacecraft that it propels). I get into a 155-55 orbit (mere moments before re-entering the atmosphere), and while you'll note that 55 km is still inside the atmosphere, have no fear! I have a plan. It's called "maneuver node at apoapsis". Bill seems to like it.
SONUVAKITSCH, that's terrifying.
On an unrelated note, the rocket looks really sciency when you turn it around.
The apoapsis drops by 25 kilometers, down to 130, by the time we leave atmosphere. Eh. Plan a maneuver node (estimated burn time: 3 seconds), wait ten minutes to get there, circular orbit.
The waiting is the prettiest part.
Having managed that, the rest of the mission can wait a bit. I've had enough issues for right now, and need to leave soon anyways.
First, we design a ship. A neat little thing, really. First, I spend a lot of time trying to design a neat little rocket with a detachable fuel tank up front and an engine in back, for the return from Minmus, but fuel lines were...problematic. So, instead, I just remove the "detachable" requirement and go nuts.
The Kasper RRV, which is capable of landing on and returning from either the Mun or Minmus thanks to its 2.6+ km/s of Δv. I intend to use this 5-ton craft in future missions.
Shame I can't save it as a subassembly.
I discover that, contrary to what Councilor Mark Afkerman claimed, you can't put landing legs in these containers.
Lies...LIES!
But then I notice a couple of other things I could add.
Click. Click. Yup. All I need is available. It should help the thing turn over, if nothing else. And if it fails...send another mission. You know how much I like not telling you my plans, so let's just skip to the final rocket design.
It's a simple rocket, really. A Skipper, to get us to space; a Poodle, to get us to orbit and Minmus; and the Kasper, to get us back.
Bill's flying this mission, being the mechanical brains of the trio. Jeb tries very hard, managing to slip in after I'm sure I ordered Bill to go, but in the end Bill gets his chance.
He is clearly considering his career choices.
It's a pretty simple little rocket, really.
The Skipper runs through half its fuel in the first minute and 18 seconds, getting us over four kilometers up. Starting to think I should have added another fuel tank, or maybe some boosters. Still, we're rising pretty darn fast...but it wouldn't hurt to turn the throttle down just a little, right? Keep the velocity at a barely-rising ~100 m/s. It jumps up to 125 when I take my attention off the throttle for a bit, but that's no biggie. Still well below the 200 m/s are-you-insane mark. Once we hit the gravity turn, at about 20% fuel, we need to up the throttle to keep our time-to-apoapsis high enough.
The Skipper ran out of fuel at to km ASL, but our apoapsis was at almost 29 km--pretty good, for that early in the flight. Even better, thanks to a little fuel tank and such, the Poodle had a TWR of almost 1.4. Between the efficiency of the Poodle and the boost given by the Skipper, we easily get to a nice little coasting thing, apoapsis above 70 km.
By burning, oh, 64% of the "to-Minmus" stage's fuel.
...
Simulation!
Sticking another semi-jumbo fuel tank on the rocket brings its surface TWR below 1. More importantly, I remember we have real Jumbos now. So, after fiddling with fuel, I need to add boosters. Three Kerbodyne liquid fuel boosters, to be precise, giving the craft a massive 3.25 initial TWR. (It could have been 3.26, but I added nose cones.)
And who wouldn't?
It amazes me just how much oomph these things have. Throttle down to half, and we've still got 0-100 m/s in well under 15 seconds. For those interested, that's over 200 mph, and about as fast as nerve impulses go. That's right--this rocket is moving at the speed of thought. It's rolling, however, at the speed of ignorance. Luckily, it pitches faster.
Keeping the rocket from wasting fuel on the sound barrier is harder than it sounds. Thankfully, that isn't so important once you get out of the lower atmosphere. By the time we do so, enough fuel has been shed to give us a TWR of over 5.5, so it's time to let 'er rip! The TWR shoots past 6 (I miss the eventual value) and the apoapsis jumps past 30 km by the time those boosters die at 17 km. I hear some explosions, probably from the boosters hitting each other, as I fiddle with pitch to get a more optimal ascent. I then notice that the boosters are still attached. Why do they always do that? Why is it so hard to get the bigger fuel tanks positioned on the frigging decouplers? I even used the truss ones, which should have been--never mind. Point is, thanks in large part to those boosters, our TWR is terrible. 0.75. I need to go vertical for a while to avoid losing too much vertical velocity. Luckily, it begins rising soon enough. Yay!
I push the craft into orbit, then drag the periapsis out of the ground, discarding the booster stage fairly early on in the second task. Unsurprisingly, apoapsis comes and goes before we can complete it, even though (thanks to the first boosters not falling off) TWR actually increased when we switched to the Poodle (and the tiny spacecraft that it propels). I get into a 155-55 orbit (mere moments before re-entering the atmosphere), and while you'll note that 55 km is still inside the atmosphere, have no fear! I have a plan. It's called "maneuver node at apoapsis". Bill seems to like it.
SONUVAKITSCH, that's terrifying.
On an unrelated note, the rocket looks really sciency when you turn it around.
The apoapsis drops by 25 kilometers, down to 130, by the time we leave atmosphere. Eh. Plan a maneuver node (estimated burn time: 3 seconds), wait ten minutes to get there, circular orbit.
The waiting is the prettiest part.
Having managed that, the rest of the mission can wait a bit. I've had enough issues for right now, and need to leave soon anyways.