Kerbal Space Program, Revisited.

[Grumman]

My spaceplane.

[HMS Sophia]

7th December 1958, the first lunar flyby mission was conducted by the GDR.

Link to the thread where this story continues.
(I just liked the picture)

[TimothyC]

Beta Than Ever is now out.

[Lagmonster]

For anyone who hasn't played the game in many, many months, like me, the changes and new content are staggering.

[TimothyC]

These new Mk 3 parts are very nice. First try I had a VTHL SSTO.

[Lagmonster]

I used the new Mk3 parts to make something large and...phallic...which exploded, because I have never been able to build a spaceplane that lifts off via *any means* other than rumbling over the edge of the runway at 200 m/s and hoping for a hill that points it upwards long enough for sheer speed to push it in the desired direction without explosions.

[TimothyC]

Sounds like you need to add more control authority forward without pulling the CoL forward of the CoM. This sometimes takes some fuel pumping in flight to maintain stability. Have you tried flying the stock SSTOs?

[Lagmonster]

I haven't tried any of the stock ships for sheer glee of launching my own monstrosities, but I will probably have to capitulate at some point just to learn how to build them right.

My brain just looked at "fuel pumping in flight" and blanked out. I assume you mean I can move fuel around to re-distribute weight, but have no clue that is a thing that you can do. I always just watch fuel being drained from things in whatever order the game decides.

[TimothyC]

I haven't tried any of the stock ships for sheer glee of launching my own monstrosities, but I will probably have to capitulate at some point just to learn how to build them right.

My brain just looked at "fuel pumping in flight" and blanked out. I assume you mean I can move fuel around to re-distribute weight, but have no clue that is a thing that you can do. I always just watch fuel being drained from things in whatever order the game decides.

Right click on a part, then alt-right click on another part with the same resource and you can transfer the resource around (only works for two parts at a time). This works for fuel, oxidizer, monoprop, and electricity (although electricity doesn't mass anything in game).

[Napoleon the Clown]

Really big one, you need to make sure that there is a control surface BEHIND the rear landing gear. The landing gear are, essentially, the fulcrum. If all the force to bring up the nose is coming from in front of them, they'll just fight you. If you have a control surface behind them, though, it will effectively "push" the rear of your plane down, bringing the nose up.

[Lagmonster]

Really big one, you need to make sure that there is a control surface BEHIND the rear landing gear. The landing gear are, essentially, the fulcrum. If all the force to bring up the nose is coming from in front of them, they'll just fight you. If you have a control surface behind them, though, it will effectively "push" the rear of your plane down, bringing the nose up.

That's...probably it. I tend to put wheels right under the rear engines, because I kept losing my engines to violent take-offs.

[Napoleon the Clown]

Alternately, there's the JATO or RATO method, where you have a short-lived but high-thrust engine toward the nose of the plane. Rockets work best, of course, since their thrust-to-weight is largely better than jet engines, and they give you full thrust a hell of a lot quicker.

Just don't pull up too fast and you can have some amount of your engines "hanging" behind you. There are also possible designs that keep the engines well away from the ground, even when you pull up as fast as possible. It's possible to build stable designs where the engine is higher up, or more toward the middle of the plane. Takes a bit more effort, though.

[Beowulf]

You can also stick a canard on the nose. It'll move in the opposite direction as the surfaces behind the CG, so you'll gain lift at takeoff. Just don't make it too big, or you'll end up flipping as your CL ends up ahead of your CG.

[Grumman]

That's...probably it. I tend to put wheels right under the rear engines, because I kept losing my engines to violent take-offs.

See the spaceplane at the top of the page? It's got four wheels in a cross shape, roughly centered on the center of gravity. The rear wheel is mounted higher than the other three, so it is capable of remaining stable either horizontally on the front three wheels during taxiing, or tilted back on the rear three wheels during take-off.

You might want to do something similar with yours, using a fourth wheel just under the engine to protect it from tailstrikes.

[Grumman]

I'm building a spaceplane that fits inside other spaceplanes.



I call it the Jart.

[Lagmonster]

Attempted to launch an ultra-ultra-heavy SSTO this morning. The plan was simple: Distract physics long enough that it wouldn't notice the flagrant transgression I was trying to slip by it. It was like trying to lift a rhino by attaching thousands of dandelion seeds and waiting for a strong breeze.

[Grumman]

Define "ultra-ultra-heavy". Preferably in pictoral format.

Oh, and I was able to get my first Jart to orbit. It only just made it, and I had to use the satellite's ion drive to get it up to orbital speed, but it's in space and not falling down.

[Jaepheth]

Right click on a part, then alt-right click on another part with the same resource and you can transfer the resource around (only works for two parts at a time). This works for fuel, oxidizer, monoprop, and electricity (although electricity doesn't mass anything in game).

You can select multiple tanks. You can only transfer to/from one tank though.

So for example:

Code: Select all

____         ____
| 1 |         | 2 |
|__|         |___|
        ___
       | 3 |
       |__|
____         ____
| 4 |         | 5 |
|__|         |___|
 

Say I want to move fuel from tanks 4 and 5 to tanks 1 and 2 in flight without screwing up balance too much; I'd select tanks 3,4,and 5 and click "In" on tank 3. This will transfer evenly from 4 and 5 into 3. Then I'd select 1, 2, and 3 and click "Out" on 3 which will transfer from 3 into 1 and 2 evenly.

[TimothyC]

That is new (to me anyway).

[bilateralrope]

7 days till Kerbal Space Program leaves early access and is officially launched.

Also, female Kerbals are being added.

[Lagmonster]

That's a positive thing, although it'll ruin my image of Kerbals as photosynthesizing asexuals.

[Grumman]

Only a few more days now. I'll be starting a new Career mode when it comes out, and adding my mods back in as they are updated.

[TimothyC]

The new aerodynamic model really messes with old designs. So does the way fuel usage works.

[Grumman]

Hence why I started over. So far the only problems I've had are from mass distribution causing a few rockets to want to tip over, but with the exception of one small experimental rocket I've been able to work around it. The reentry effects are less dangerous than they appear - I've been able to use half-opened parachutes as drogues during reentry without anything exploding, despite the scary-looking heat effects.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Alas, today's patch just "fixed" parachutes. I haven't tested them yet, but I fear my 3,000 m/s Kerbal Re-Acquisition Trajectories will no longer be saved by a parachute or two deploying in the mesosphere...

Which is doubly problematic, given what a bitch it is to get anything off of Kerbin in the first place now. Pre-1.0 making a Mun round-trip rocket for 1 or even 2 Kerbals was almost trivial, but now I'm struggling to get 1 Kerbal there and back again while still packing enough science doodads to make the trip worthwhile.