KSPlopnik Part 2

"Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ" (doge-supreme) 02/05/2015 at 18:13 • Filed to: None

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Expanding on my space plane from before, I have now built a drone version prototype and a launching device. The current design of the drone has no capability of taking off or landing on its own yet, but with the aid of the new launching device it takes off extremely easily elevating the issues I was having with the manned version. The launch device runs on 4 air breathing engines and carries the drone up to about 7000 m before being jettisoned and letting the dual mode engines of the drone carry it to space. My next step is to add the capability to take off and land without assistance to the drone for missions to other planets and only rely on the launch device for leaving Kerbin.

I've also been developing a small drone rover that uses crawler legs instead of wheels, that I plan on dropping a few on each planet to help with base building.

CB > Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ 02/05/2015 at 18:19

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You are much better at Kerbal than I.

Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ > CB 02/05/2015 at 18:23

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I am still mostly just throwing parts together and hoping it works, It's just some of the new tools make it easier to make ships look better and I use alot of part clipping in my builds to keep things clean looking.

E. Julius > Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ 02/05/2015 at 18:58

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Is the limiting factor on your launch device fuel, intake air, or lift? I've never done a two stage space plane design like that, but I think it would be within the realm of possibility to design one that gets your drone to at least 15km, if not 20. What type of ascent profile are you using? Never mind, I'm just being annoying. I should be designing my own space planes.

Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ > E. Julius 02/05/2015 at 19:29

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It could actually take me much higher, I just got impatient and detached from it early. I could probably use it to fly to the top of the atmosphere where air breathing engines flame out before it would run out of fuel.

E. Julius > Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ 02/05/2015 at 19:52

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Yeah you should be able to get up to at least 20k on the air breathers if you have enough intakes and do it nice and slow. I was able to get my last one up to 24-25k if I got really close to a flameout. I need to try a two stage design though and see how much performance I can squeeze out of that. What's your solution for what you do with the two craft after they separate since you can't pilot them both? Do you just let the lift vehicle fall to the surface? Give it some parachutes? Use something like RemoteTech or a flight computer to preprogram the drone?

Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ > E. Julius 02/05/2015 at 20:07

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So far I've just let the lifter crash and burn. It doesn't have any guidance of its own yet. I'll probably start working on a dedicated lifter probably designed like White Knight, that will be able to be flown back to base to be reloaded and reused.

E. Julius > Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ 02/05/2015 at 20:09

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This type of mission would be so awesome to do with some robust multiplayer. At this point I'm not sure if the performance of the multiplayer mod is up to it, but I hope they get some solid functionality baked into the full release.

Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ > E. Julius 02/06/2015 at 01:34

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Yeah it would be nice, or have a power-full enough AI to control one ship and get it back to base and landed while you fly the other.

E. Julius > Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ 02/06/2015 at 03:46

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I suppose one could install a probe core (or even some other kerbals) on the lander, trim it for zero vertical speed when you jettison the second stage, and then once the second stage is on a stable trajectory quickly switch back and use the auto–land feature of mechjeb. In my experience that feature is still too spotty to successfully land the plane on the runway, but it will be able to get the vehicle close enough to either ditch in the water and recover from KSC or quickly switch to manual landing. The second one would be tricky though.

I think I'm going to try and see if I can make this work this weekend. I'll post it on here if I come up with anything. I'll have to check the forums and see if anybody has done any seaplane style landings.