This craft is designed to fulfill the contract to unlock the DSC small launch pad.
Its very hacky.
A proper solution requires impact prediction, and while a script exists to perform impact prediction (search for "Impact Prediction"), I have no idea why it works, and I strongly prefer to avoid using code, especially critical blocks of code, that I have no idea how it works.
So the whole suborbital hop portion of the launch is based on manually iterating different values for AP to get it to crash close enough to the drone ship to hover over to it.
The interesting portion of the script is the hover / guide to target code. As long as the rocket is close enough (and the hover code is activated soon enough), the code will hover its way over to the drone ship.
Possible improvements:
1) The current launch code use 100% throttle until the AP value exceeds a hard coded value. Throtteling down when AP is close to the target would improve AP accuracy, which would make it possible to get closer to the barge on a consistent basis.
2) The horizontal velocity caused by the rotation of the planet and the horizontal velocity of the drone ship isn't identical. I originally tried to adjust for this (and the code is still present, but not attached to anything), but its obviously wrong. Something would need to be done to calculate the difference rotational velocity between the origin and destination. I didn't bother to try because just pointing directly at the Drone Ship is close enough.
3) Using the formula for a suicide burn to determine when to trigger the hover script. I just didn't bother to lookup the math, because I was going to have to hand tune everything else, so why automate this portion. :)
While this was an enjoyable challenge (to me), this really, really seems absurdly difficult for such a fundemental task. I mean, I guess you could consider "Unlocking the small DSC launch pad" as optional, but... That seems a weird way of looking at it. I would prefer to see a much easier challenge to unlock the pad, and the current mission retained as a challenge mission.
GENERAL INFO
- Predecessor: AutoHover
- Successors 2 craft(s)
- Created On: Windows
- Game Version: 1.0.6.0
- Price: $49,916k
- Number of Parts: 25
- Dimensions: 50 m x 9 m x 9 m
PERFORMANCE
- Total Delta V: 8.8km/s
- Total Thrust: 13.4MN
- Engines: 6
- Wet Mass: 6.17E+5kg
- Dry Mass: 56,022kg
STAGES
| Stage | Engines | Delta V | Thrust | Burn | Mass |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 3.0km/s | 10.1MN | 2.3m | 6.17E+5kg |
| 3 | 1 | 5.8km/s | 3.4MN | 1.9m | 1.7E+5kg |
3 Comments
- Log in to leave a comment
-
0 dude13316 days ago
Wait, Can it go from Droo to Ali? and if on Droo can it hop from a launch pad to the Drone ship?
-
It only works in exactly one case -- to launch from the Ali launch pad and land at the drone ship. There is a career mode mission that requires completing this specific task.
With significant amounts of work, it is possible that the script can be modified to handle other launch sites / landing sites -- but I'm very dubious that a single script / craft combination can handle launching from an arbitrary location on Droo to land at a different location at Droo. It is necessary to hard code the effects of drag and drag varies dramatically depending on starting and ending location.
Making a craft the can perform suborbital hops on an airless body is fairly straightforward, however.
I have written numerous Stream guides that cover the required math to implement precision landings on airless bodies if you are curious -- just go to Steam and look for guides by "mreed2".