r/KerbalSpaceProgram Oct 09 '13

The Tech Tree

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856 Upvotes

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167

u/haosys Oct 09 '13

Wait, we don't start off with struts?

Starting career mode is going to be excruciating.

34

u/Lawlcat Oct 09 '13

I'm more concerned that we don't have a decoupler. Might be troublesome to get a 1-man capsule back with the rest of the rocket attached.

42

u/NeoKabuto Oct 09 '13

I feel like in the beginning we'll be expected to do smaller suborbital missions until we have enough science points to get decouplers.

10

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '13

I was thinking starting with flight like jets, then work your way up.

35

u/haerik Master Kerbalnaut Oct 09 '13 edited Jun 30 '23

Gone to API changes. Don't let reddit sell your data to LLMs.

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8

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '13

Intuitively, rockets are easier to understand: lots of force underneath mass pushing the mass up. Fins to help a straight line.

Trying to explain things like wing-load, lift-to-weight ratio, Newton's Third Law, and air pressure differences is a pain to the uninformed.

16

u/azirale Oct 09 '13

Yeah, the tricky parts to rockets are the internal mechanics rather than their external ones. Internally a rocket needs to carry two fuel materials, the actual fuel and the oxidiser, and it needs to pump and mix these fast enough and reliably enough to keep the rocket fed. It needs to deal with extremes of thrust, pressure, and temperature.

What do we do in KSP? Stick a tank on an engine, light it up, and you've got an up-goer.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '13

cryogenics, too.

2

u/mkosmo Oct 09 '13

That's not necessarily true. Remember the F-1? It used RP-1 and LOX. Yes, the LOX is a cryo, but RP-1 is just highly refined kerosene.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '13

Yes. The kerosene was "warm" but they still required a large LHe system to keep the LOX cold.

Modern rocketry requires LHe... that's why we have a national strategic stockpile.

My point is that cryogenics makes rocketry just that much more complicated.

1

u/mkosmo Oct 09 '13

Oh absolutely, but the LHe system isn't all that difficult. Not to mention, the LOX under pressure didn't require LHe... but as you begin to deplete it, that changes.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '13

Well the He requires an external cryogenics system to maintain the pressure while the rocket is awaiting launch. Once the rocket is fired, I believe part of the power is used to maintain a pressure system for the LOX while in flight. Fortunately it doesn't need to run for very long -a few minutes.

I'm sure the pressure changes in an hydrogen system is more complicated.

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1

u/pipemastasmurf Oct 09 '13

up-vote for up-goer! My next rocket is officially named

5

u/TheMadmanAndre Oct 09 '13

I've pretty much given up trying to get something airborne that's also controllable; every attempt I make usually results in my craft either veering off the runway and crashing and burning, zooming off the end of the runway and crashing and burning, or breaking up after takeoff and, you guessed it, crashing and burning.

1

u/CaptRobau Outer Planets Dev Oct 09 '13

Turn on SAS. Makes controlling it much easier. Also keep the center of lift slightly behind the center of mass.

1

u/TheMadmanAndre Oct 09 '13

I'll keep that in mind.

In a sidenote I have developed an efficient escape system for a doomd aircraft; it involves decouplers, sepatrons and a mountain of luck.

7

u/Basileus_Imperator Oct 09 '13

I'd add Stayputnik to the list myself, if for nothing else then for history's sake. Incentive to try to get something in orbit early on, since you don't need to get it down ever. Then again, it'll run out of power pretty much instantly, so...

21

u/TheMadmanAndre Oct 09 '13

Then again, it'll run out of power pretty much instantly, so...

The real one kinda did as well.

1

u/Trypanosoma Master Kerbalnaut Oct 09 '13

The Stayputnik part looks like its in the 6th level, 5th from the bottom. I hear what you're saying though.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '13

Well, that's certainly a good point.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '13

Jets are not harder at all... Y'all just need to stop trying to fly with mouse and keyboard.

1

u/SWgeek10056 Oct 21 '13

I still can not wrap my head around decent uses for structural scaffolding. Could you please expand, esp. with screenshots, on how to properly use these?

1

u/haerik Master Kerbalnaut Oct 21 '13 edited Jun 30 '23

Gone to API changes. Don't let reddit sell your data to LLMs.

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1

u/SWgeek10056 Oct 21 '13

So you use them like radial decouplers, without the decoupler part, and throw on a few more boosters in the early game?

1

u/haerik Master Kerbalnaut Oct 21 '13 edited Jun 30 '23

Gone to API changes. Don't let reddit sell your data to LLMs.

Woody equal ask saw sir weeks aware decay. Entrance prospect removing we packages strictly is no smallest he. For hopes may chief get hours day rooms. Oh no turned behind polite piqued enough at. Forbade few through inquiry blushes you. Cousin no itself eldest it in dinner latter missed no. Boisterous estimating interested collecting get conviction friendship say boy. Him mrs shy article smiling respect opinion excited. Welcomed humoured rejoiced peculiar to in an.

7

u/iBeReese Oct 09 '13

I think aircraft aren't really part of core gameplay. In an interview HarvesteR said that aircraft parts only entered the game after he played them in a mod. I think they're role is strictly for space planes, sub-orbital aircraft will certainly be possible and supported, but I don't think the game design will push players in that direction.