Oh hell yeah! I was about to suggest the same thing! MIRDS launcher (Multiple Independently targetable Re-entry Dyna-Soars) would be the perfect mission for all those failed attempts, and salvage the whole thing. And Matt, stop trying to do a gravity turn with that massive thing so low in the atmosphere. It's gonna burn up every time. Just do the most inefficient launch you can. Go straight up to 50 - 60 km then turn and continue to burn.
Two little bits of info: 1. The DynaSoar likely didn’t work due to center of lift/center of mass issues. Just like planes, the center of lift needs to be behind the center of mass (quite literally like a giant dart). Having all the wing bits up top might easily be balanced by large fins on the first stage, but will quickly overpower anything else once the first stage detaches. 2. When trying to build fairings in symmetry, just hold ALT while you left click to duplicate the part after you build the first one.
looked more to me like the dynasoar had the center of thrust offset from center of mass since iirc at like alt 50000 where aerodynamics shouldnt matter much, it still flipped
The problem is that Fairings can’t be duplicated with the Alt Key. A way to ‘duplicate’ fairings is to have 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 (Etcetera) symmetry octagonal struts, and to then place the fairing part on said octagonal strut and remove THAT from symmetry instead of trying to eyeball it. Or you can go the Craft-File-Editing Route, which is a whole thing on its own.
1 - Yep, I know, but I was restricted here because I was literally recreating the aesthetics of a real vehicle, so I couldn't fix the problems by changing the wing design. 2 - This does not work for fairings. It will only duplicate the base.
RE: the Dyna-Soar - You were probably having an issue of your center of lift shifting in front of the center of gravity when you separated stages which is why the craft kept nose-flipping immediately upon separation. More tail fins on the second stage booster probably would have helped, although it probably would have looked a little strange haha
You guys don't understand I was watching still after I posted the comment but it was really good where I was so I like decided to comment before I forgot. Sorry for the confusion!
I like that you fail all your videos that I’ve watched you’ve had nothing but short of perfect missions so to see that you can sometimes fail missions makes you more relatable than ever I like this fail attempts type of videos
For the sea dragon perhaps you could launch an entire Interplanetary transfer space station into orbit around kerbin. From there you could go to jool and maby do a jool five
In ksp2 you could use the super heavy to launch major parts of an orbital shipyard/colony, if I remember correctly you can build vehicles in orbit and this would be an ideal rocket to set up the infrastructure
as someone who has just watched a lot of your videos from 3+ years ago, I love seeing all the improvements in the editing and the voiceovers! keep it up matt
this was such a wonderful video 😂 love the editing, love the pacing, love the commentary and all around I like this sort of video where you show some failed projects every once in a while. ❤️
I've done DynaSoar builds before, you need really really big wings at the bottom of your stack. Some of the concept art from the original Air Force program actually shows this too.
I like the high altitude supersonic rapier engine plane approach for getting around Kerbin. Just get up to speed and then sip fuel going 800-900 m/s, you'll be there in no time. I hope KSP 2 gives us an option to launch from the water, maybe even other vessels. Since they have a base building aspect to the game, maybe you can build a launch pad anywhere.
Matt a tip for cruising a Planes on time warp. You should right click the elevators and that way while you are flying you can adjust the angle which means you can make the plane acsend and decend with small adjustments will warping to keep the craft level also send fuel to the center of the craft to stabilize the plane making it stay level without having to stop warping.
12:30 "I started to think perhaps my problem was lack of boosters!" Matt, theres always more boosters. If your rocket cant achieve the speed of like in less the a nanosecond of leaving the pad, it needs more boosters.
That was a great video, loved it! I tried to make a Dream Chaser replica a while ago and had the same trouble with the rocket flipping every time. In the end I launched it with a fairing. It’s a shame because the plane flew like a charm and the reentry was a ton of fun.
One thing that came to my mind for the Sea Dragon is the "rods from god" station that the US military considered building. Though, I'm not sure if the tungsten rods it would've been equipped with could even be modeled in Vanilla KSP.
great vid despite all the difficulties (kind of reassuring actually...) maybe in KSP 2 you'll be able to build your own alternative launch sites, Sea Dragon Heavy, Sea Dragon Heavy, hmmm, how about a really big can of beans for one of your colonies? (I mean reeally big!)
This was probably one of the more entertaining videos I've seen from Matt. I guess I had this weird assumption that everything went right for him on the first go. This video looks a lot more like my game play. I laughed out loud at, "this is stupid, this has way too many boosters... I'm in!". Bahahah!
37 minutes ago for a Matt Lowne video? Last time it was this early Matt was an SSTO RU-vidr. Jokes aside, great video and I can’t wait to see what you‘lol do in KSP 2.
Very first thought when I saw your issues with the Dyna-Soar was to instead sandwich the Dyno-Saur plane between rocket parts, leaving it near the base. Not exactly historical, but it made the rocket fly amazing.
For hiding piston its best to hide it in cargo bay and move docking port to desired place hovwever it usually ends up with pistin sticking out a bit and port flying soo we have to make comprmisses
So nice to see you pay homage to KSP, before you move on to 2, by using the tried and true method of more struts and more boosters to (try) and fix everything :)
sea dragon heavy, go to a world with an ocean. Maybe vall's KSP2 subsurface ocean, or laythe, or even one of the new systems in ksp2 once they come out
What a wonderfully Kerbal video. Idea #1 worked great, but too slow, so let's come up with a bunch of different ideas, and none of them work. And I loved every minute of it! For the sea dragon heavy, it might have better flight manners if you tried launching it at 50% thrust. Also, you should use it to capture and land an asteroid on Kerbin.
Just an idea to help along the SDR design Those little SRB's connecting the boosters to the tank, maybe use them as separation boosters instead of firing them on the ground?
Also when u do a spaceplane on top of a rocket disable it's Elevons and u rly need to pay attention to the aerodynamics for each stage cuz u add all ur wings for the first stage but none for the middles one
You are correct in calling it an AWACS-type plane, however the more "correct" term would be AEW&C (Airborne Early Warning & Control, pronounced AY-Wack), as the US Air Force's Airborne Warning & Control System refers specifically to the E-3 Sentry in American service. They provide aerial reconnaissance and target identification for planes that would rather not have their radars turned on, and usually serve as an aerial command post as well.
i did the dyna-soar it worked for me i entered a north pole incline up to 90km decoupled the plane and had enough fuel for polar orbit and a bit of practice i have the craft file if you wish to have it
If you wanted, I think it could be cool doing a touch down on all planets before KSP 2 EA gets released. I also think it could be a cool ide if you did a challenge, on how fast you get to Eeloo, land, and return to Kerbin. I think this could be interesting.
The sea dragon should be used for a grand tour, but one that uses brute force. There’s a vessel that detaches and goes to moho. A separate vessel that detaches and goes to Eve/gilly. A third one that goes to Duna and it’s moon. A fourth vessel detaches and goes to Dres, etc. each of these sub-missions has one kerbal in a fairly minimalist pod, but by launching them all together it’s so heavy that you need the sea dragon to do the job.
