Kerbal Space Program (in-dev retail game)

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esd
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Post by esd »

Master of the Blade wrote:Oh, you're using an excelsior engine
Yeah, they're a bit... cheaty... in many ways (though they overheat very quickly if you put them on full thrust, and the G they generate would be enough to kill the crew if that was implemented), but it's that or build wobbly rockets - so until the over-wobbly-rockets are fixed, I'm happy cheating a touch :)

Will upload my .craft later, if you want it... though you can see the plans in that YT vid clear enough.
EDIT: call me stupid, but where's the download link for the excelsior engine(s)? The first post just says 'here' with nothing else there.
Attached to the forum post. You have to be registered there to be allowed to download them.
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Master of the Blade
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Post by Master of the Blade »

esd wrote:Will upload my .craft later, if you want it... though you can see the plans in that YT vid clear enough.
Yeah, I pretty much built an exact copy by eye.

Lo and behold, the link is visible now I've registered at the forum. Should've thought of that myself. :roll:
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amtct
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Post by amtct »

Now its accelerating without engines :roll:

[ external image ]
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red assassin
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Post by red assassin »

EmperorJon wrote:Yes but I don't understand HOW...

I mean, I'm doing much better now, but if I don't correct carefully either of my velocities rapidly change. For example, my vertical now is going up, and my horizontal down... and if I leave it it carries on. I never reach the other orbital point and then go back again, I just spiral. Inwards and crash, or outwards and goodbye.
You'll trade vertical velocity for horizontal; that's how an orbit works. If you reach about 1.4 times the orbital velocity for any given altitude you'll reach escape velocity and never return, but anything less than that will necessarily reach the top of the orbit and come back down eventually.

As I said, don't try and adjust your vertical velocity manually. Horizontal thrust only. Just wait for the flat points on vertical velocity, which will arrive if you're not so enthusiastic on the engines you escape. Don't be too hurried about it - you're probably looking at about 10 minutes after launch that you'll first hit 0 vertical velocity. A full orbit takes about half an hour.
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esd
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Post by esd »

Master of the Blade wrote:
esd wrote:Will upload my .craft later, if you want it... though you can see the plans in that YT vid clear enough.
Yeah, I pretty much built an exact copy by eye.

Lo and behold, the link is visible now I've registered at the forum. Should've thought of that myself. :roll:
How'd she fly?
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Post by Master of the Blade »

Pretty well. Couple of false starts, but eventually I managed to get it to go ~20 km away from the center and then loop back around. Next step is to make it carry a bomb. :twisted: :roll:
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Post by andrewas »

EmperorJon wrote:Yes but I don't understand HOW...

I mean, I'm doing much better now, but if I don't correct carefully either of my velocities rapidly change. For example, my vertical now is going up, and my horizontal down... and if I leave it it carries on. I never reach the other orbital point and then go back again, I just spiral. Inwards and crash, or outwards and goodbye.
If you spiral in, you're perigee is inside the atmosphere, a prograde burn near apogee will fix that. If you spiral out, you have exceeded escape velocity and are in a hyperbolic orbit. A retrograde burn near perigee would be the easiest way to fix that, but you probably won't know you're in trouble till its too late to fix it with your fuel reserve.
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Master of the Blade
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Post by Master of the Blade »

Oh, yeah. UKSR orbiter 'Goliath' just entered near circular (64-73km) orbit around Kearth, with 1/3 of a tank of fuel left.

Parachute, escape tower, command pod, stack coupler, SAS, normal liquid fuel tank, NIRVA engine, stack coupler, SAS, 1-3 adapter, 2x large fuel tank, liquid engine cluster, 6x radial couplers -> 6x medium solid rocket boosters.

All non- vanilla parts are from the Sunday Punch part pack.
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Dantrithor
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Post by Dantrithor »

I have a "silly" question.

How do I know I'm in orbit? Other than waiting and seeing if I crash. The Kerbalship ran out of fuel while reaching orbital speed for 50km altitude, as shown in this chart. But It's still climbing (even when the green FPM points to the horizon... I guess it's exactitude is debatable) Jebediah is now at 56Km, and flying at 2312 (bleeding speed at 0,1m/s right now.. it was 0,2m/s at 50Km).

I'll update editing this post as the situation changes... Although I doubt it'll fall below 2300m/s, as it barely loses speed right now.

EDIT: It's now falling down, very slowly. And I'm slowly accelerating. Highest altitude: 58710, Slowest speed: 2302,4m/s

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/1664 ... hpoint.png

EDIT2: Now going up again!

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4102 ... wpoint.png

EDIT3: Yep, orbit. I reached the same "highest orbit" again, just 6 metres above the last one, but same speed. YAY!

Now I'll have to do it again but with a re-entry engine.
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softweir
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Post by softweir »

You have an elliptical orbit! If you had any fuel you could wait until your highest point and do a very short thrust to get up to the circular orbit speed for an altitude of 58710. But as you don't...

Alas poor Kerbals. :(
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Dantrithor
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Post by Dantrithor »

YAY, orbit and comeback. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XThVhLFdFPg

Is there any bug with the collision detection? My command capsule exploded on landing, despite it being completely slowed down by the parachute.
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Post by oatemeal »

Dantrithor wrote:YAY, orbit and comeback. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XThVhLFdFPg

Is there any bug with the collision detection? My command capsule exploded on landing, despite it being completely slowed down by the parachute.
For some reason you can't land on the night side of the planet it will cause you to explode.
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Master of the Blade
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Post by Master of the Blade »

I wrote:Next step is to make it carry a bomb.
Guess what?


[ external image ]


See where the mk.83 explosive device landed, and at what time? I aimed that after flying a couple of kilometres away, then coming back. FEAR THE UKSR! :twisted: :lol:


EDIT: Just flew the Goliath again. Got into orbit between 78 and 95km, then descended after the 2nd orbit.

Ended like this:

Jeb: We're burning for reentry now. Aiming for the space centre.

Mission control: Confirmed Goliath. We're readying rescue teams.

*cue three minutes of flailing the spaceship about trying to point it at the pink circle before the fuel runs out*

Jeb: Jettisoning NERVA and empty fuel tank. Escape tower final boost for reentry.

*ship lands*

Mission Control: confirm position, Goliath?

Jeb: ...middle of nowhere... :wall:
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EmperorJon
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Post by EmperorJon »

Finally got a decent orbit.

Launched.
Lined up. Did some maneuvering.
Apokee 58.470km
Perikee 44.258km
Apokee (Missed due to dinner, high then was 55.724km and falling...)
Perikee 44.272km

So only a 14m variation in Perikee.

(For those who don't know, it's Apogee and Perigee for Kerbin/Kearth)

That's nice and stable!
I'll measure one more Apokee then drop down to command next time, got enough fuel for it. :D

Kerston, mission success!
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Master of the Blade
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Post by Master of the Blade »

How're people getting orbits as 'low' as 50km? I always end up either drifting another 20 or so km before I lose vertical momentum or leveling out just to find I dip back into the atmosphere after a minute or two.
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EmperorJon
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Post by EmperorJon »

Do you start angling at about 10km and fly up like that? That's why I did, and I manually thrusted off any extra vertical momentum, which seemed to work.

Apokee 58.453km...

So that's a very small variation, once again.

It seems that the orbit was slowly (very) becoming slightly more circular. Interesting. Anyway, I'm going to drop down on the next pass :D
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Master of the Blade
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Post by Master of the Blade »

:lol: No sooner did I ask how you get a low orbit than I managed to get into one with a perikee of 37.5 km. I'm waiting for the apokee, but I reckon it'll be around 43km.

EDIT: Never mind, apparently I suck at estimating orbits. It's headed for >60km. Damn.

EDIT again: Apokee was 53.2km. I might have to burn at perikee - I don't think it's a stable orbit atm. Nope - Perikee was 37.5 again. I'm boosting up a bit anyway - it's not good for my nerves to be that close to the atmosphere.
Last edited by Master of the Blade on Mon, 18. Jul 11, 20:39, edited 2 times in total.
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EmperorJon
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Post by EmperorJon »

Just landed in the sea just off the launch pad. :D
Turns out the crew were subject to 63.3G at some point. o_O
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Master of the Blade
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Post by Master of the Blade »

:o What did you do? Fire a bank of 50 SRBs or something?
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EmperorJon
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Post by EmperorJon »

Nope. I'm just checking the take-off now...

That doesn't seem to be particularly strenuous though.. I've got an idea...
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