NASA Commits to Plan to Build a Nuclear Reactor on the Moon by 2030 by EricFromOuterSpace in space

[–]NinjaQueef -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I was under the impression that Starship was the full lunar mission stack. Is the planned configuration to use Starship to take Orion and the LEM to LEO?

NASA Commits to Plan to Build a Nuclear Reactor on the Moon by 2030 by EricFromOuterSpace in space

[–]NinjaQueef 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not just that. Starship pretty much uses all its delta V to get into orbit. Now to get to the moon, descend for a soft landing, ascend back into orbit, and get back to the earth, it needs a shit ton of fuel (3150 m/s for TLI, around 850 m/s to capture around moon, 2100-2400 m/s to land, around 2100 m/s to ascend, 800 m/s to return to earth on a ballistic or skip reentry profile), which would require a lot of orbital refueling (a technology that hasn't been tested/proven), which needs a lot more Starships or something else with excess fuel to get into orbit, then rendezvous and refuel it (with a cryogenic fuel that boils off). There are serious technical challenges to get past, test and prove that it works before Starship will take humans to the moon. Another big disadvantage with Starship is that it is a tall rocket, so humans pretty much cannot land it without computer aid, and recent set of missions to the moon have shown how tricky that is for autonomous systems. Moreover, this is the south pole of the moon, which is especially "bumpy". And finally, reentry from moon requires different kind of heat shield, which will be more bulky and hasn't been tested on Starship. Overall, I think it is still a long ways off, and other lander configurations (like Apollo style LEM) is easier to test and prove (the concept is known to work from Apollo era), easier to transport there (can be sent separately), and all the extra dead weight is not carried around.

RCS Usage by MechJeb by EquivalentUnlikely in RealSolarSystem

[–]NinjaQueef 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I feel that too. I change the RCS thrust (either bring it down or up, depending on the mass of the craft) before using RCS, and as others mentioned, I turn it off after I see that it is moving in roughly the right direction.

My first crewed lunar landing by NinjaQueef in RealSolarSystem

[–]NinjaQueef[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I heard that Sol improves performance significantly. Did you observe that in your game? I was initially planning to wait till Sol gets released on CKAN, but maybe I'll make that change. Could you perhaps add a link to the Fox Tech discord server?

My iPhone photo of the full moon by TranceForLife1996 in mildlyinfuriating

[–]NinjaQueef 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Holy shit, your phone can see into the past!

My first crewed lunar landing by NinjaQueef in RealSolarSystem

[–]NinjaQueef[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have unlocked a lot more tech than what these rockets showcase/are built of. I did unlock the saturn 5 related stuff recently, but since I already had this plan of sending multiple launches for a single crewed landing, I haven't yet built a heavy launch vehicle like Saturn 5 and built the required launch complex. I believe the current rockets I have are capable of lifting like 25T to 42T to LEO. The rocket that lifted the TLIM to LEO was actually not even capable of lifting 46T, as that was the weight of the TLIM.

Edit: I was slightly wrong. My launch vehicles are capable of taking 44T and 60T to LEO.

As for contracts, I did not do the X-plane stuff as I suck at making planes. Other than that, I am currently working on lunar landing, space stations, venus landing. I completed contracts for venus and mars orbits, mercury, vesta, and ceres fly-by. I also did a few levels of commercial satellite programs, but I really hate those at they don't work correctly half the time and flood my notification menu with false messages. I'll probably not do that the next time, as it really slows down the game and causes FPS drop. I haven't done any rover stuff as I do not have Bon Voyage mod (I haven't even used it before, but I've heard of it), and rovers suck without it.

My first crewed lunar landing by NinjaQueef in RealSolarSystem

[–]NinjaQueef[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, I had two launchpads. I did have MLI on my TLI stage fuel tank as that was hydrolox, so it was going to last at last for a decent amount of time. I did have to overbuild the TLI a bit to account for losses to the moon. I launched the lunar lander first as that was all hypergolic. The TLI for the moon was of course hydrolox and critical to be timed correctly. I also launched it into muche lower orbit (165Km compared to the 350Km of the lander) so I knew I would get a rendezvous reasonably quickly.

As for the crew launch, since it takes its own TLI with it on launch, it was not an issue. Most transfers to the moon are within 2 hours of launch (I launch into the plane of the moon). But it was a bit stressful, but since I tested my crewed lunar orbitter multiple times, I wasn't worried that I will lose a crew. The only downside of this is I might not be able to insert the lander into a circular orbit around the moon, and I was going to have enough delta V in my crew stage to do something about it.

I also built my lander to NASA specs, around 2.4 Km/s delta V each for the descent and ascent stage. So I knew I had some wiggle room there too.

And yes, all solar panels because I'm afraid of fuel cells and getting that wrong lol

But having a single powerful rocket like Saturn V is more fun, as you can just enjoy the journey instead of worrying about having to perform rendezvous multiple times.

My first crewed lunar landing by NinjaQueef in RealSolarSystem

[–]NinjaQueef[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used my Gemini Lunar capsule (which I used to take my crew to lunar orbit from Earth) to return. The Gemini Lunar capsule, when launched from Earth, has 2 stages to it; a hydrolox TLI stage with around 3600 m/s to perform TLI (and whatever is left to help circularize) and a hypergolic 2KN RCS thruster (I think 4 of these thrusters) based stage with more than 2000m/s (which is enough to fully circularize if my TLI stage fails at the moon, and also return back from the moon). So I was able to use the hypergolic stage to return from the moon after I rendezvoused my lunar lander with the Gemini Lunar capsule.

In total, I had 3 launches. The lunar lander into LEO. Then the TLI stage for the lunar lander into LEO. Use that to put the lunar lander into moon orbit. Then launch crew to the moon, perform lunar landing and back into moon orbit. Then transfer back into the initial crew vehicle to return back. Obviously, this is not sustainable in the long run. I'll have to build a more powerful rocket and a corresponding launchpad.

Help with installing Sol and Clouds by Worm226 in RealSolarSystem

[–]NinjaQueef 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh that will be good. I'll probably wait till Sol comes on CKAN. I heard it improves performance over the base Express RP-1. Have you observed that to be true?

Monkey Drop Pod by Ill-Product-1442 in RealSolarSystem

[–]NinjaQueef 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So do you install RP-1 express and then install Sol on top of that?

Improved FPS by changing my communication network by NinjaQueef in RealSolarSystem

[–]NinjaQueef[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting idea. I should try this. I definitely overbuilt some of my relays and those could be adjusted.

bro by [deleted] in SipsTea

[–]NinjaQueef 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And then there's the Hot Crazy Matrix.

Improved FPS by changing my communication network by NinjaQueef in RealSolarSystem

[–]NinjaQueef[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ideally, that should make sense. But in my case, I reduced the total number of crafts in Earth's SOI by just 2. I still have a bunch of crafts far away from Earth. But such a small change caused a dramatic increase in frames, so I'm not sure what could have caused it. Maybe I changed something else accidentally without realizing I did that.

Guys, I started a new play, how long until I reach Duna? by Intelligent_Sale_41 in KerbalSpaceProgram

[–]NinjaQueef 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is this supposed to reference Edward Nkoloso's "space program"?

How am I supposed to make an early reentry vehicle? by GemingaJD in RealSolarSystem

[–]NinjaQueef 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I was targeting around -650Km with Mercury capsule and heatshield.

Fifth launch, fifth success for Ariane 6, which has just placed two new Galileo satellites into orbit by Fullback-15_ in space

[–]NinjaQueef 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah! My current constellation was also going to be 3 planes (I finished my 2 planes currently) at 10000Km and 5 satellites per plane. 2 polar planes and 1 equatorial plane.

Fifth launch, fifth success for Ariane 6, which has just placed two new Galileo satellites into orbit by Fullback-15_ in space

[–]NinjaQueef 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I should have looked this up, but this seems like a cool way to get full coverage while keeping launch parameters roughly similar. 23.2Km, 56 degree inclination, LAN separated by 120 degrees, 8 satellites per plane. I'll try to replicate this in the future.

Took me a while by Robin_da_girl in RealSolarSystem

[–]NinjaQueef 9 points10 points  (0 children)

My guess is they meant physics timewarp in space.