Completed Vikings in Space! (Kerbal Space Programme)

[Ulminati]

I'll probably end up scrapping the nuclear engine, which by itself could most likely make the Löngboat feasible. Switching from the LV-N to the LV-909 saves a whopping 1.75 TONNES of payload to bring into orbit. While the LV-909 won't have the same fuel efficiency as the LV-N once in orbit, at least it won't have to burn 2/3rds of its reserves just to break free of the atmosphere. I had to attempt 7 launches before I finally got a gravity turn right enough to allow the rocket to escape.

But BROs.... Nuclear rocket. I had to try.


[edit]

Yep, just replacing the LV-N with a LV-909 allows me to enter orbit using the same gravity turn without using any fuel in the LV-909 at all :D

 

[Burning Bridges]

Kermany has tested new rocket and powered descent on Kerbin, is now aiming for Duna. Read the full story.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I'll probably end up scrapping the nuclear engine, which by itself could most likely make the Löngboat feasible. Switching from the LV-N to the LV-909 saves a whopping 1.75 TONNES of payload to bring into orbit. While the LV-909 won't have the same fuel efficiency as the LV-N once in orbit, at least it won't have to burn 2/3rds of its reserves just to break free of the atmosphere. I had to attempt 7 launches before I finally got a gravity turn right enough to allow the rocket to escape.

But BROs.... Nuclear rocket. I had to try.

[edit]

Yep, just replacing the LV-N with a LV-909 allows me to enter orbit using the same gravity turn without using any fuel in the LV-909 at all :D

If you want to lift something that heavy into orbit you must compensate for the weight. You either need to add power (i.e more propellant) in the lower stages, or simply use the LV909. My feeling is that the LV909 is good enough, the main advantage is that it's really light.

The NERVA makes sense if you engage it in vacuum, and have enough fuel, but you need more lifting capacity for that.

 

[Ulminati]

I ran another test where I had replaced the NERVA with a LV909. I didn't think to take screenshots until suddenly I was in Münar descent with a full tank of fuel and RCS propellant.


LENMARK CAN INTO MÜN!

The descent stage used too much fuel from the Kommand Kapsule to return it to Kerbin. But Viking Space Kommand is confident it has ironed out the bugs. A submarine is en-route to the south pole to retrieve Stereotypical Villain

 

[Burning Bridges]

But are you now using a LV909 to replace the NERVA and second one for descent? If so, that's not very efficent.

 

[Ulminati]

But are you now using a LV909 to replace the NERVA and second one for descent? If so, that's not very efficent.

Current Löngboat stages:
1- 4x small solid fuel boosters -> ~2.5km
2- 3x liquid fuel rockets -> ~30 km
3- 1x liquid fuel rocket -> orbit
4- LV909 -> Mün transfer and approach
5- Kommand Kapsule (lv909+RCS)

Depending on how well I manage the Mün approach, I should be able to switch to stage 5 ~2km above the Münar surface. That will give me enough fuel to return SV safely to Kerbin...... I think.

 

[Burning Bridges]

For unmanned missions, or if you don't plan to return, you could combine the transfer / approach stage with the one for the descent, and save weight.

But ok, if you are planning a return, it's really better the way you have it now.

 

[Ulminati]

UPDATE 6: VALHALLA AWAITS!

The Löngboat II transmünar deployment and return vehicle:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/18263459/KSP/Longboat II.zip

Spoiler

BREAKING NEWS! LENMARK LAUNCHES OPERATION RAGNAROK. STEREOTYPICAL VILLAIN TO BE FIRST VIKING ON MÜN!

Back from his polar adventures, Stereotypical Villain returns to the lauchpad at VSP HQ in Lenmark. He refuses to ascend the Löngboat II until it is rechristened the "Prisoner of Ice". VSP sees no reason not to humor him.

The climb towards destiny. Viking Space Program acknowledges their Kerman peers. Many of the engineering details were developed in cooperation with contractors leased from Focke-Wulf.

"Macht Den Weltraum Frei!"

Launching the Löngboat in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

ODIN! ODIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!!!!!!!

The Löngboat rocket delivers the Prisoner of Ice into orbit with precision that would astonish engineers from the Koviet Union. Kerman scientists describe the ascent as "adequate".

Orbital Transfer to Mün is initiated

Goodbye Kerbin...

...Hello Mün!

The Löngboat burns its remaining fuel to retrograde the orbit, ensuring the Kommand Kapsule will land on the day side of Mün.

Viking Space Command, this is Stereotypical Villain. I have detached the Longboat and I am powereing up the Prisoner of Ice. ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL!

A slow burn of the engine is enough to control the vertical descent of the Kapsule. RCS is used to cancel out lateral drift and fine tune the descent speed.

THE PRISONER IS IN LOCKDOWN!

SV, this is VSP command. Do you have any message you wish to relay to the people of Kerbin?

TODAY... *static* ... I... *STATIC* ... BRING MULTI CULT... *static* RAPE TO THE MOON!

SV spends several minutes searching for Münmaidens to rape. They prove scarce however, and he is forced to settle for performing awesome low-gravity combat techniques and pillaging a bunch of Münrokks.

HERO OF THE VIKING NATIONS

His kill kruise complete, SV prepares to bring the Prisoner of Ice home

Once free of the surface, part of the the plentiful reserves of RCS fuel are expended to bring the Prisoner of Ice into a high parabolic arc above Mün

From apoapsis of this arc, it requires only a minor adjustment to slingshot the Prisoner of Ice back towards Kerbin

Once inside Kerbins sphere of influence, a retrograde burn is planned to return to Kerbins atmosphere for an aerobrake

Sunrise as SV returns to port

Stereotypical Villain tirelessly fine-tunes his descent using the last dregs of fuel in his tanks, RCS and even the solar panels to adjust drag to his liking.

Finally satisfied with his approach vector, he ejects all surplus weight and hovers his hand over the parachute button. See that purple marker near the coast? That's Viking Space Centre

To the Mün and back again with a drift of 12.5 kilometers.

Stereotypical Villain. The Kerbal. The Kerbalnaut. The Legend.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

I'M CRYING OVER HERE BROS SO EPIC

 

[Ulminati]

VIKING SPACE PROGRAMME -- BRINING MULTICULT RAPE TO SPACE SINCE 2012!

Spoiler

 

[Ulminati]

Well... That's every goal I set for myself in the initial post done. I guess I can finally claim to have completed a Let's Play!


But now comes the fun part. Extracurricular activities. There's a whole universe out there to explore and I've got plenty of ideas to things I want to try.

- Travel to Minmus, Duna and more. Bigger, more impressive Löngboats to haul Lewt from the far reaches of space home to Lenmark
- Deployment of a Münar Rover. I actually made a couple of these, but none of them work terribly well. I'm trying to decide between building one from stock parts or downloading a mod to get steerable rover wheels.
- Kerbinational Space Station. Multipart orbital station (lots of docking and transfer). Possibly as a co-operative venture with Polant, Kermany and more, passing a savegame around and taking turns docking stuff with the station until we got a nice Kraftworld.
- Minmus Mining Facility. Can I land a shitload of stuff on the same planet in relatively close proximity and pretend to build a surface base?
- Much, much more.
- totally open to suggestions.

The let's play may be complete, but the space adventure continues!

 

[Hellraiser]

SV wants to go to Vall(halla) and back. Will SV ever see Kerbin again? Or will he become, a prisoner of ice.

 

[Ulminati]

VSP denies all rumors of the existence of a secret "Skunkwërks" prototype development facility, as well as the "preposterous" claims that they are developing a super-heavy lifting vehicle for bringing large bodies into orbit.

Spoiler

Straight up (as straight as I could make it on manual control without SAS or RCS), apoapsis at ~800 kilometers

The Mjölnir heavy lifting rig (once finalized) should be able to lift heavy payloads into orbit either on top of or inside the central cage.

Adding a 10 ton payload, the vehicle still has plenty of thrust to get into orbit. It's just not very structurally sound

Push a stage seperation - something Awesome™ happens.

Also, stay tuned tomorrow for unveiling of Lenmark Levitations amazing new Ascent Weight Reduction technology. Aspergers approved!

 

[Ulminati]

"Ion engines to power a manned mission? Don't be ridiculous! You'd need to power like 30-40 of them to make that thing move anywhere!"

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

But more importantly: Does it have a downwards-facing laser beam?

 

[Hellraiser]

Although for optimal power/weight you shouldn't use Gigantor XL ones, I only used them for my 9 ion engine probe because I thought they were 10 times lighter and thus the optimal choice

Did you launch all those panels sans crew module with one rocket?

I don't want to know what the burn time for a transfer on that thing is.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Kerman Rover has landed on Duna

We had to do it - before anyone else did

First part of story here.

 

[Burning Bridges]

"Ion engines to power a manned mission? Don't be ridiculous! You'd need to power like 30-40 of them to make that thing move anywhere!"

That's one nice Kraftwerk you built up there in space!



How you got all that stuff up there, it's staggering.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

I got Yog to teleport the stuff up there. Being a servant of the great old ones has its benefits.

 

[Ulminati]

Greetings, esteemed collegaues from Polant, Kermany, Kamerica, Kweden and so forth. I am Höggar Bech Kielsen, professor in explosive propulsion at the Univerity of Kopenhagen. Today, I am here to discuss the revolutionary new fuel tank design known as the ASPERGERS STACK. This highly efficient staging combines the best traits of asparagus stalk fuel tank jettisoning and the low drag coefficient of a single stack rocket design!

The ASPERGERS STACK paradigm calls for multiple, small fuel tanks, stacked in a tower atop the engine. To aid in seperation during acceleration, each of these tanks is subsequently fitted with several harmless yet powerful DIRECTED EXPLOSIVE CHARGES to blast spent stages out of the path of the main vessel.

During launch sequence, it is important to note that the seperation sequence is reversed compared to inefficient "conventional" designs. It is of the utmost importance that the topmost, spent, stages are ejected first. Failure to do so will leave you with a lot of highly unstable rocket fuel soaring through the skies and no way of controlling where it will impact!

Once our engineers wrap their puny minds around the design challenges of this HIGHLY EFFICIENT, RELIABLE and most of all SAFE way of designing launch stages, we are confident it will be the most commonly accepted way of launching payloads into Kerbin orbit!

 

[Hellraiser]

It may be big but it should be fairly light, at least the solar panel and ion engine cluster part. I think you could fit it on one 4 rockomax wide rocket.

EDIT Ulminati: I think the outermost (relative to the engine) tank gets drained first, at least that's how it works for my jet engines. So all those fuel lines are in fact pointless.

Also I'm not sure if the increase from less drag justifies the added mass from decouplers. Especially considering drag is only a significant issue until 20 or 30 kilometers.

 

[Ulminati]

Ulminati: I think the outermost (relative to the engine) tank gets drained first, at least that's how it works for my jet engines. So all those fuel lines are in fact pointless.

Within a stage, yes. But tanks from earlier stages are drained first, regardless of the axial location of tanks in later stages (so long as fuel lines are pointed the right way). I managed to run a mainsail engine at full burn until 38 kilometers inside a gravity turn. That would not have been possible on a single small tank.

Welcome to Viking Rocketry! Please turn your textbooks to page 12!

Polant just wishes they had thought of this revolutionary design first!

(I blew up about a dozen rockets during tests because the stages didn't seperate in time and collided with the main vessel.)

 

[Burning Bridges]

Revolutionary. I also thought the fuel gets drawn from the lowest tank first.

But yes, you wouldn't have gotten up into orbit if it was really so.

 

[Ulminati]

It is drawn from the earliest stages. You just have to arrange your seperators so that the earliest stages are also on top of the rocket.

The Asbergers Stack Mk I test got to 38km/1300 m/s ground speed before running out of fuel. This was a (nearly) vertical ascent. Apiapsis of the hyperbolic arc was about 300 km. The design could EASILY establish orbit.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Considering fuel efficency - isn't it better to group several smaller engines together instead of the big one? Efficiency of the big ones is really bad, I believe.