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[miauw62]

Anyone know a good, up-to-date mod that has spherical fuel tanks? Just for aesthetical purposes

[Krevsin]

Anyone know a good, up-to-date mod that has spherical fuel tanks? Just for aesthetical purposes

Here.

[da_nang]

Although, there is ONE way with which we could achieve such a trajectory with current technology

Project Orion was a study of a spacecraft intended to be directly propelled by a series of explosions of atomic bombs behind the craft.

Someone mod that part in. I want to see Jebediah on an External Command Seat flying through space with a line of detonating nuclear bombs powering the spaceship from behind.

[Girlinhat]

It's already been modded, animated pusher plate and all!  At the last I'd heard, it actually still ran on rocket fuel and oxidizer because there wasn't enough framework to add resources.  It was also possible to use to takeoff with, as it didn't care about bombing nukes at the ground

In real life, nuclear explosions have been outlawed in space, simply because we don't know what it'll do to the magnetosphere.

Nuclear weapons have also been outlawed to be transported in space - this is to prevent nuclear missile satellites that could start a nuclear war, but the danger there is strictly political as we fear the bombs being dropped on cities.  Bombs in space are a whole other thing.

[miauw62]

Anyone know a good, up-to-date mod that has spherical fuel tanks? Just for aesthetical purposes

Here.

Thank you!

[Krevsin]

It's already been modded, animated pusher plate and all!  At the last I'd heard, it actually still ran on rocket fuel and oxidizer because there wasn't enough framework to add resources.  It was also possible to use to takeoff with, as it didn't care about bombing nukes at the ground

It's for the .17, I think.

Nuclear weapons have also been outlawed to be transported in space - this is to prevent nuclear missile satellites that could start a nuclear war, but the danger there is strictly political as we fear the bombs being dropped on cities.  Bombs in space are a whole other thing.

Orbital nuclear rocket silos make sense until you consider that there is no stealth in space and that when you launch anything from orbit, it'll be known in a matter of seconds and properly dealth with. There are rockets designed to take down satellites that can be launched from a normal jet fighter for chrissake, so ground-based nuclear silos are much more practical in that they can actually be concealed by the landscape and the fact the rocket won't be visible on radar until it reaches a certain height.

[mainiac]

Although, there is ONE way with which we could achieve such a trajectory with current technology. Or something very much like one.

You could also imagine picking up stray atoms during the trip.  There is about 1 stray atom of hydrogen per cubic centimeter in space.  The distance to Alpha Centauri is 4.3 lightyears, or 4*10^18 centimeters.  Create a net 10 kilometers across and the volume of the flux traveled is going to be 4*10^30.  Multiply by an atomic mass of 1.6 *10^-27 kilograms and you are left with a about 6 and a half metric tons of scavenged matter to use.

That's assuming that my math checks out and I didn't drop a power of 10 somewhere.  Gotta run.

[Putnam]

Lining up the boosters properly is also going to be a pain.

Um....MECHJEB. I'm pretty sure it has autodocking.

Yeah, but it requires RCS. It's possible to dock manually with liquid engines, but it's really hard.

[Krevsin]

Although, there is ONE way with which we could achieve such a trajectory with current technology. Or something very much like one.

You could also imagine picking up stray atoms during the trip.  There is about 1 stray atom of hydrogen per cubic centimeter in space.  The distance to Alpha Centauri is 4.3 lightyears, or 4*10^18 centimeters.  Create a net 10 kilometers across and the volume of the flux traveled is going to be 4*10^30.  Multiply by an atomic mass of 1.6 *10^-27 kilograms and you are left with a about 6 and a half metric tons of scavenged matter to use.

That's assuming that my math checks out and I didn't drop a power of 10 somewhere.  Gotta run.

That's called a Bussard Ramjet and it's quite possibly one of the most amazing things ever.

The only bad thing is that the distribution of hydrogen atoms in Earth's local cluster is relatively low when compared to the rest of the universe, making these things incredibly unwieldy here.

Not to mention the fact that they're only getting infinite fuel while on interstellar travels, or travelling at Ludicrous Speed^tm. The rest of the time, they have to get by like the rest of us puny mortals and have limited fuel.

[Girlinhat]

Lining up the boosters properly is also going to be a pain.

Um....MECHJEB. I'm pretty sure it has autodocking.

Yeah, but it requires RCS. It's possible to dock manually with liquid engines, but it's really hard.

In this particular case, his nuclear autopilot drives do have RCS.

[PTTG??]

Although, there is ONE way with which we could achieve such a trajectory with current technology. Or something very much like one.

You could also imagine picking up stray atoms during the trip.  There is about 1 stray atom of hydrogen per cubic centimeter in space.  The distance to Alpha Centauri is 4.3 lightyears, or 4*10^18 centimeters.  Create a net 10 kilometers across and the volume of the flux traveled is going to be 4*10^30.  Multiply by an atomic mass of 1.6 *10^-27 kilograms and you are left with a about 6 and a half metric tons of scavenged matter to use.

That's assuming that my math checks out and I didn't drop a power of 10 somewhere.  Gotta run.

Interesting. That sounds reasonable. You'd need cray cray ISP and non-specific fuel to make use of that, though. Ion engines come to mind.

[LoSboccacc]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50685-Modular-Base-Creation-Kit

interesting what people do with subassemblies

[Krevsin]

Although, there is ONE way with which we could achieve such a trajectory with current technology. Or something very much like one.

You could also imagine picking up stray atoms during the trip.  There is about 1 stray atom of hydrogen per cubic centimeter in space.  The distance to Alpha Centauri is 4.3 lightyears, or 4*10^18 centimeters.  Create a net 10 kilometers across and the volume of the flux traveled is going to be 4*10^30.  Multiply by an atomic mass of 1.6 *10^-27 kilograms and you are left with a about 6 and a half metric tons of scavenged matter to use.

That's assuming that my math checks out and I didn't drop a power of 10 somewhere.  Gotta run.

Interesting. That sounds reasonable. You'd need cray cray ISP and non-specific fuel to make use of that, though. Ion engines come to mind.

Eh, Liquid Hydrogen reigns supreme in the propellant department.

The best engines to use would most likely be some sort of a fusion or gas-core nuclear engines due to their large thrust (compared to the puny thrust of an Ion engine)

[mainiac]

Interesting. That sounds reasonable. You'd need cray cray ISP and non-specific fuel to make use of that, though. Ion engines come to mind.

Well there's no way you are even going to seriously consider interstellar propulsion without a very high ISP.

[Shooer]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50685-Modular-Base-Creation-Kit

interesting what people do with subassemblies

Reminds me of what I did with robotics awhile ago.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Was fun, but the quickly growing debris field was making it a little to lagy.