I flew a Mun intercept mission, but this time manned. I totally transferred and intercepted awesome. So awesome I ran my Kerbal into the Mun at close to 500m/s. The thing that kills me, is unlike my wanting to nail all my intercepts like a boss, calculating when and how long to burn is relatively easy for maximum efficiency landing. Gonna try again soon enough but this time I’ll know when and how hard to stay my end burn.
KSP Experiment II
Realized I was an idiot. Now I’m using a Stayputnik, fuel tank and engine due to the niceness of having a throttle. Flight one with pictures taken during flight to get an instantaneous snapshot of all variables. Later I’ll drop these into a spreadsheet. Unfortunately, I started working out by hand hoe the formula’s would look and I realized I completely forget how to do even a simple integral.
Gonna have to do some learning.
KSP Experiment I
Built a ship consisiting of a Stayputnik and Rockomax BACC Solid Fuel Booster.
- Stayputnik: 0.05 mass
- Rockomax BACC Solid Fuel Booster: 315kN thrust, 7.785 mass, 18.6 fuel/sec, 850 fuel, 6.37 fuel mass
Sooo… the max speed should be(if ignoring drag):
…huh, at least I’m starting to understand how to use 
Orbital mechanics and me
I’ve always wanted to learn some physics, beyond the genetic stiff I’ve picked up over the years, so I figure my current KSP problems might be just the need.
Starting easy
d=rt
So the distance traveled I’d equal to the rate times time. Super easy and provable. Drive 60 miles at 60 miles an hour, get there in an hour.
Our rocket actually accelerates rather than being at a constant velocity, meaning
d=at^2
But rockets, well they go up. Yup gets counter balanced by gravity pulling down. So…
d=at^2-gt^2
And my rocket burns fuel, fuel had mass, acceleration, if I remember correctly is force times mass. So our a is now force(mass0-flow*time)
Further explorations
I did another couple launches last night, being a bit more aggressive in my goals while still remaining unmanned. The first launch was a mistake example of inattention, not bothering to fire my 3rd stage until I was going to nick back into the atmosphere. I was able to pull back out but only after burning far too much fuel. Realigning my goals with the reality of my flight, I assumed it into an interior with Eve. After burning all remaining fuel, I’m now an a meandering path around Sol. I won’t abort, but neither do I have much hope for some good hard science.
The second launch, while infinitely better, setting as how I don’t flake in the first five minutes was still giving me grief. It appears as much as I like to fly by the seat of my pants, it would behoove me to actually look into done decent orbital formulas.
This all gets me to the crux of the issue. I’m playing a game of rocketry and space exploration. Much like my views on many game mods, using someone else’s calculator for this seems dirty. That being said, while I’ll continue doing my amateur hour launches, I’m going to start building my own formulas for the job.
My current gaming
I was super stoked when the humble store announced a spring sale. Rotating deals and flash sales make shopping for video games into a video game itself. More importantly, in the name of fiscal responsibility, I had made the decision that when Saints Row IV went on sale on humble, I was risky going to pick it up. There really is nothing like playing a video game of being an over-the-top street gangster and being able to claim it for charity. Played that a bit over the weekend, it’s definitely worth it.
I also started up Kerbal Space Program again while working on other things. While I declare myself to be effing smart, I also have an overly aggressive play style in every game. When we’re talking orbital maneuvering and rocket design, Kerbals die. Jebediah, you’re sacrifice will forever be remembered. His mission was plagued with the minor nuisances that accompany poorly planned expeditions. Attempting to reach Mun, but without enough fuel, he turned back, firing his thrusters in a fast burn trying to get back into the Kerbal atmosphere and do an early deployment of his chutes before oxygen deprivation incapacitated him. Knowing he was short of time, he increased the passive of time itself to the point where his rocket disintegrated three kilometers from safety. His last transmission, which was only partially comprehensible due to the time warp already causing radio waves to arrive before they were transmitted, had been transcribed as “Sta… I’m full of…ars.” His spirit of sacrifice and exploration will be forever memorialized and used as an example to all new Kerbalnauts.
Since that tragic flight, Kriminel Ink had since transitioned to unmanned flights while new rockets are designed. The third and fourth flights of these new less risky adventures, named Chubby II and Chubby III, after Jebediah’s nickname, were successful. Landing on the moons Mun and Minimus respectively, they were able to take invaluable readings that will expand our knowledge of our universe.
It’s not that I’m not getting anything done
Actually it is. It’s too hot. Most of my projects require supplies, damn me for shipping ground from New York, or make obnoxious noise. Or some combination thereof. I have the computers shredded, but still bed to drill our rivets. I’m putting together a massive collection of orphan screws and bolts. I think I’ll still out more holes and user then decoratively like furniture tracks in your favorite red velvet loveseat. By the way, my phone just replaced the word furniture with footsie. Does anyone with a smart phone actually also use the word footsie.
This sounds fun
New Project: Computer Power Supply to Bench Power Supply Adapter http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/makezineonline/~3/Jr2ikLRwnQM/
I should make more progress
Like really progress, not just progress updates or random dreams. Shanna is going to Orlando on Wednesday, so I picked up the newest HumbleBundle. One of the games is tower of China which was built using the udk. Seems pretty solid. Obviously I’m not the biggest fps fan, but most endings like that, which could dramatically kill my development time, can also rock a free camera isometric view. I assume at least.
Just because
I’m being Shanna with some homework and she’s learning about all the bits and bytes in computer science. I just realized I have no idea why it is that we use 8 bits to the byte. I assume this is something like the original memory buses limitations out something.