Kerbal Space Program

[DontSayBanana]

It occurred to me that killing shooting into space three Kerbals in one rocket was inefficient.  I am currently working on a ship to transport twenty one Kerbals at the same time.  There are still some bugs to work out, such as the rocket being torn apart or the capsules falling off but we are making progress.  One early version had the minor problem of launching toward the stars at only two meters per second, and sometimes not all the rockets go off when I want them to.  I thought I solved that by putting on a coupler that I had forgotten, but all that did was make the whole rocket explode on liftoff.  Still, the parts are cheap and Kerbals are plentiful, I think the project has some real potential.

I've abandoned the "all solid booster" rocket.  I simply can't get high enough.

Another project that seems interesting is to simply build a rocket 50 Km tall so that it doesn't have to travel very far or fast before reaching orbit.  Ideally the Kerbals would just have to climb up and jump off.

I dunno if it's a bug, but I've had bad luck with solids on the launchpad; so far I've had to use liquids for my first stage with no exceptions- otherwise it sticks at around 0.2m/s and doesn't clear the pad.

[DontSayBanana]

Dumb noob question, but how do I get engines to hook to the radial decouplers?  It seems like I can only attach winglets with those.

[frunk]

Dumb noob question, but how do I get engines to hook to the radial decouplers?  It seems like I can only attach winglets with those.

Only Solid Fuel Rockets will attach to the radials.

[frunk]

It occurred to me that killing shooting into space three Kerbals in one rocket was inefficient.  I am currently working on a ship to transport twenty one Kerbals at the same time.  There are still some bugs to work out, such as the rocket being torn apart or the capsules falling off but we are making progress.  One early version had the minor problem of launching toward the stars at only two meters per second, and sometimes not all the rockets go off when I want them to.  I thought I solved that by putting on a coupler that I had forgotten, but all that did was make the whole rocket explode on liftoff.  Still, the parts are cheap and Kerbals are plentiful, I think the project has some real potential.

I've abandoned the "all solid booster" rocket.  I simply can't get high enough.

Another project that seems interesting is to simply build a rocket 50 Km tall so that it doesn't have to travel very far or fast before reaching orbit.  Ideally the Kerbals would just have to climb up and jump off.

I dunno if it's a bug, but I've had bad luck with solids on the launchpad; so far I've had to use liquids for my first stage with no exceptions- otherwise it sticks at around 0.2m/s and doesn't clear the pad.

My first stage is usually a set of solids, or a liquid center with solids radially attached on the sides.

[DontSayBanana]

Yeah, right after I said that, I managed a pseudo-single-column rocket (initial stage was 3 solids on a tricoupler) that set a new personal best of ~300km.

Shattered my previous best of ~17km.

[frunk]

I've hit 5.7 km/s using base components.  It consists of 15 SRB in the first stage, 3 Liquid and 9 more SRB in the second, and a single Liquid in the third.

Minimizing the SAS and moving them down stage as far as possible gained me about 1 km/s.

[HisMajestyBOB]

It occurred to me that killing shooting into space three Kerbals in one rocket was inefficient.  I am currently working on a ship to transport twenty one Kerbals at the same time.  There are still some bugs to work out, such as the rocket being torn apart or the capsules falling off but we are making progress.  One early version had the minor problem of launching toward the stars at only two meters per second, and sometimes not all the rockets go off when I want them to.  I thought I solved that by putting on a coupler that I had forgotten, but all that did was make the whole rocket explode on liftoff.  Still, the parts are cheap and Kerbals are plentiful, I think the project has some real potential.

I've abandoned the "all solid booster" rocket.  I simply can't get high enough.

Another project that seems interesting is to simply build a rocket 50 Km tall so that it doesn't have to travel very far or fast before reaching orbit.  Ideally the Kerbals would just have to climb up and jump off.

I dunno if it's a bug, but I've had bad luck with solids on the launchpad; so far I've had to use liquids for my first stage with no exceptions- otherwise it sticks at around 0.2m/s and doesn't clear the pad.

Need more solids!

[DontSayBanana]

Need more solids!
[pic snipped]

You're getting dangerously close to the kind of pics Ed posted.  This has inspired me to make a peace-sign rocket array.  Failing that, I'll make the star-of-david ships from History of the World Part I.

[DontSayBanana]

Today's achievement: my first launchpad explosion.  I made by far the biggest rocket I've made, using some of the mods.  As soon as I switched to the launchpad, it instantly and spontaneously exploded.  Of course, thanks to the sheer size, the capsule was blown from the pad to relative safety.  Bill, Jebediah, and Bob are shaken but seem uninjured.

The beast:


What happened on the launchpad:


Reviewing the logs, it seems there was some sort of problem hitching an SAS to the 1x3 cone adapter- it blew off on warmup and knocked one of the solids into that enormous liquid tank.

[HisMajestyBOB]

I made a few modifications to my best rocket and got to 1600 km above sea level. My attempt at going into orbit with that rocket failed.

I don't know if it's feasible to reach escape velocity without mods. I hit 2.5 km/s with my rocket, and it's hard to see how I can add more without it becoming unstable or getting diminishing returns thanks to the added mass of rockets and fuel.

[DontSayBanana]

I've gotten close.  Modded parts make it stupidly easy, though.  Instant recipe for nearly endless flight, bottom to top: 5 stock liquid rocket engines with a single stock tank each, a 3m-to-5x1 adapter, two fatboys chained, a stock liquid fuel tank, a SAS unit, a RCS module (I used this for purposes of not just stacking SAS), a decoupler, and finally the crew module with the stock parachute.

I hit 3.8km/s and didn't burn out my fuel until 150km.  I ran this launch twice; each time, I had to quit and turn off before seeing it hit an apex, though each launch hit over 9000km.  Gravity from Kearth is in effect at any distance, but according to the Tcirc/Vcirc/Vesc table, the deceleration falls off much slower than the calculated Vesc at each altitude, so I was cruising at a de facto escape velocity.

I'm most likely not going to get a chance to play tomorrow, but next time I do, I'll start tackling the joy that is orbiting.  I'm expecting it to take probably 2-3 days before I can consistently get a ship to circle Kearth once.

[Razgovory]

I think solid boosters give more thrust, but don't last long and can't be controlled.  A craft with just a capsule, parachute, fuel tank, and engine will go like three times as high as a craft that consists of a capsule, parachute, and solid rocket booster.  However, the rocket booster will have a higher Gforce, so they can be helpful at the initial launch.  Kerbal Earth has the same surface gravity as regular Earth, but since it's so much smaller that gravitational pull decreases fairly quickly as you get higher up.  You don't have to get very high before a craft that was too heavy on the surface can make good speed.

You know, this would actually be a good game for a classroom.  It does demonstrate some import aspects of Physics and Math in an entertaining way.  Would be good for a Middle school or High School Math or science type class.  I remember a class I had in middle school which was essentially an introduction to practical science and engineering. In the class you would rotate between different stations that had different lessons.  One was a flight simulator, one was bridge construction etc. I found it interesting, but terrible math skills held me back.  This game would have fit with it really well.

[Razgovory]

I've hit 5.7 km/s using base components.  It consists of 15 SRB in the first stage, 3 Liquid and 9 more SRB in the second, and a single Liquid in the third.

Minimizing the SAS and moving them down stage as far as possible gained me about 1 km/s.

Best I've seen anyone do with base components was 6975 m/s.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD0dOC7EyAM   Not good enough for real escape velocity but would make an effective ICBM.

[HisMajestyBOB]

I think I got just over escape velocity using basic components. I've learned that going crazy on the SAS Modules for the first stage or two really helps keep the thing stable.

Apparently the next update (currently available in beta) will have struts, allowing you to stop long stacks of engines from flopping all over the place. On the one hand, it will make rocket-building easier; on the other, getting around the inherent instability of any large rocket is part of the challenge/fun.

[Razgovory]

I achieved escape velocity with non-mod parts.  Shot up into space, and left the PC on for a few hours.  When I came back, Kearth was so far behind I couldn't even see it.  With the mod parts it's stupidly easy to get into space.  I achieved escape velocity with a craft consisting of one large fuel tank and one high powered rocket engine.  meh.  Building bigger rockets with mods doesn't always work though, I had a rocket where the engine moved so much faster then the top it blasted right through the rest of the craft.