So if you haven't seen it in the news, yesterday Elon Musk announced that they were going to use their BFR(Big F**king Rocket. I'm sure they'll change that name when it actually starts flying...) for just transporting people around on Earth.He said that any location on the planet was reachable in an hour. He also showed a flight animation(the soundtrack is awesome!!):
So, I decided to (**roughly**) recreate this in Kerbal Space Program. If you don't know what KSP is,basically it's a game where you can build rockets, and explore the various planets in the (fictional)solar system. KSP has pretty big community of people who make videos, or even mods to enhance the game. But all screenshots in this post are of stock KSP, and the craft itself is all stock parts, mostly because my laptop can't really handle the mods. Can't wait to get a better laptop or even gaming a PC! Maybe with the Steemit money *starts dreaming*. The major difference between the real one and the one i made in KSP is that **i did use parachutes for landing,because i can't really do powered landings. BUT it DID have quite a bit of fuel remaining, so i think it is doable.** I'm not like a god at KSP, but I'm not exactly a noob.
Initially when testing,I went on eastward flights but the problem was that I would always come down on a hill or a slope, so it would always tip over. So instead, I decided to go to the poles,because they are flat ground.
So, this is how it looks on the launch site:
Initially, I didn't really pay attention to the news, and so I thought it was the same basic design with 3 fins that they showed last year. Turns out they changed them to just 2 delta wings. So I had to rebuild and fly it again. This will actually carry 36 kerbals, compared to the real one, which is supposed to carry a 100 people(although I don't think initial flights will carry that many people). I added a single vector engine, which was a pretty good choice actually, because this does need a lot of control while coming down. I just added a generic booster to this vehicle.
During launch you have to take a somewhat steeper-than-normal trajectory, because the vehicle actually has a tendency to tip down early on in the atmosphere. I had to keep the engines throttled up during ascent, because I needed the gimbal control for stopping it from tipping over.
The booster was able to loft it all the way to a suborbital trajectory that just reached the north pole. I used the second stage fuel to boost it a little bit more to ensure that I wasn't going to land in the sea.
Just cruising in space...
So while coming down, I don't know whether the real vehicle will come down engines first, or whether it will glide down using the wings,but at least in KSP, gliding down is really hard. The thing is, all the fuel is in the back, so when the ship hits the atmosphere, it just tips back to an engines-first orientation. The wings, and even RCS is not enough to control it. And of course, if you put the fuel in the front, it tips over later on in the descent. So the best way for me to come down was to come in engines first, and slow down with the engines.
This is my favorite part of the whole flight, because the screenshots just look SO good!! The Mun in the background is just a cherry on top of an excellent cake.
Enjoy the reentry shots...
This was actually a pretty good descent. I don't think I ever went above 4-5Gs of acceleration.So if this was real, most people would need some training to go on a flight, but it wouldn't be deadly. It actually became more unstable as it slowed down, and in the end, I had to use the engine vectoring to keep it straight.
Now, the thing about this, is that even when coming down ass backwards, it behaves like a bullet. It will never slow down past 250-300 m/s. And if you open your parachutes at that speed, they will almost always get ripped off.So even after you open your parachutes, you have to keep the engines ON to maintain speed.
Looks awesome with the Sun in the background doesn't it! And the glimmer at the horizon looks awesome.
Once the parachutes open up completely, then you can shut down the engine. Although if you touch the ground at that speed, it still will break the landing legs. So just before touching down, you have to slow it down some more with the engines.
AAND a successful landing!
Of course, Jebediah had to plant the flag. But as you can see, the ship has no ladders, because I forgot to add any. But after a "gentle fall", I got him down and planted the flag. Look at this epic shot in the night. I love how the night sky looks on the pole.
As you can see, he's less than happy, probably because of the "minor" injuries while coming down. But I'm sure he's mostly fine.
So anyway, that's it. Hope you loved the screenshots. I'm gonna try and do a powered landing next time. I'm sure it will be a bomb...
2/10/17 EDIT :SUCCESSFUL POWERED LANDING!!!!
See those parachutes? They're still packed!!! So after 2 days of trying, i finally was successful in doing a powered landing. As you can see, I added speed brakes at the top to slow it down better and stop it from tipping over. The problem I was facing is that at the very end, the ship wobbled too much and eventually used to fall. I mean, the occupants survived, but the ship was down. Then I realised that the wobbling was because of the engine gimbal going crazy. So, while coming down, I turned off the gimballing in the engine, and it was a very smooth descent!
Thanks for reading this post. If you love KSP, or know someone on Steemit who does, resteem/share this post!
Sources
Header Image from Pixabay(yes, I know it's not the BFR. I just couldn't find an image of that)
All screenshots my own
Footer Animation by @malos10
