Bay 12 Games Forum

I just realized we have no docking ports. This will negatively affect our ability to dock, and hence use, our lab.

So, what will we do instead? We'll send another mission to Minmus, of course! But this time...we'll make the rocket and the rocket car the same thing!

Well, I redesign the thing after a first imagining, which had a big complex return pod and a front-heavy, back-wheeled car. I didn't get much past that before deciding that there was A Better Way.

It involves a lot of fuel (over 3.3 km/s), plus a couple materials bays, mysterious goo containers, and such. It's on top of a smallish rocket.


_{The next version may involve 100% recoverability. It would be neat to do that.}

After the failure of our line of civilian rocket-cars to take off, or of them to not explode once they did, Meleny is trying to re-introduce confidence in our brand of rockets.
We're spinning at first; we need more reaction wheels on the next version. We're also starting to tilt. We may need to abort and introduce the new version now. Also, a stronger engine--initial TWR after dropping the solid boosters is 0.75, which I suspect means we will not go to space today.

So. Redesign of the launch stage:


_{Eight Wildcats, then a Poodle...either a pretty big rocket or the weirdest pet shop ever.}

And then I added a reaction wheel to the car, and we're ready to go.
The Mark Ib, or the "Ib," is going to Minmus, baby. With Jeb flying it, because he needs to get away from base for a while. At the request of Ground Control.

Takeoff is swift and straight. The gravity turn is a bit clumsy (partly my fault, but this does maneuver...poorly...technically also my fault), but I'm basically turned by the time I eject the boosters. Good news: This makes the ship a lot easier to turn! Bad news: I didn't actually get a significantly stronger engine. Time to make the Ic, I guess.

KW's Maverick, despite being smaller, has higher thrust. Man, whoever made the Poodle is not a good rocket scientist.
After the gravity turn, I adjust this estimate, because the rocket seems to have no gimbal, making the rocket...difficult to control.
All seems lost...then, I realize that the radial engines have great gimbal, and six would provide more than enough thrust! So, putting some of those on the fuel tank, and reducing boosters to let them fit...add more fuel to compensate for lower isp...


_{The Mark Id should be good.}

Takeoff is slower. Eh.
The gravity turn is horrible. The Mark II is getting some cheap, disposable reaction wheels or something!
Half of the radial engines get knocked off. Not symmetrically, either.


_{Those lazy seperatrons were supposed to prevent this!}

Silver lining:


_Yay!

...Maybe I should take a break for the day. Especially since I probably don't have enough time to launch again.