KSC to Ascension

[Arrowstar]

Oh, no worries. I've destroyed 4 myself on this run through multiple mistakes on my part. Most of them have been thermal issues, though I did have a SCRAM go nuclear on me once. Actually, the number of times I've landed with no damage is maybe... two? I always manage to break something.

Tomorrow I'm going to try doing it at a speed of 8.5 KM/s and putting on the brakes hard at the end. We'll see how it goes.

 

[SiameseCat]

I managed to do it in 1605 seconds. My top speed was ~8.9 km/s at ~85 km altitude. I could probably have shaved about 20-30 seconds off that time by doing a faster final approach.


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I'm not sure if everyone has done it this way or if it's just me, but I had a CHM in my bay the whole flight. I could probably save a quite a bit of time by flying with an empty bay.

 

[Arrowstar]

Yeah, it's the final approach that really kills you. Everyone's instinct is to slam on the breaks within 100 km of the base. In reality, you can go another 70 km before you really should start slowing down.

 

[Epsilon]

For the record, my best time so far is 1980 seconds. >_>
But as we "speak", I'm modifying the scenario that's got the skin on it that I like for "streamlining" - low LOX load, dropped everyone but the pilot and copilot, cut a bit of main fuel, a bit of SCRAM fuel, etc.

I'd ask if this was fair, but I imagine it's just like dumping it manually, but I can get more precision. =p

/me goes to wreck another XR2. Sorry, Altea! :lol:

 

[Arrowstar]

No worries. I preconfigured my XR2 for this run specifically. I have the exact amount of fuel needed to perform the run at ~10 KM/s at 85KM. The only thing that I need to work on is my aim!

 

[Epsilon]

Note to self: The top hatch does not like 10km/s at 75km.

<_<

>_>

That being said - the air is thick enough at 85km to keep yourself flying downward while inverted? I'll have to try that next time around.

I was managing well with the radiator out until I realized I had overshot WIA (I'm using the new base - very pimp) and tried to get retrograde for a bit of extra burn. I was aerobraking rather well until I accidentally tore the radiator off and then put the top hatch into the airstream.

:hitit:- the Earth, that is. Going at about 4km/s still.

 

[Arrowstar]

New best time here of 1540 seconds. Top speed was 11.2 KM/sec, max altitude was 90 KM. Woo!

Btw, my guess is that nothing under 1500 seconds is possible. I just don't think the XR2 has the fuel and thermal limits for anything else. Of course, if someone can prove me wrong...

 

[wehaveaproblem]

excellent efforts guys! And Epsilon, I actively encourage customization of the XR settings to fit your flight plan. That to me is part of the overall challenge between racers.

 

[Arrowstar]

Yeah, just completed it again in 1600 seconds. It's all about the re-entry. The faster you can hold onto your top orbital speed (of which, mine was 11.8 KM/s this last run I just did), the better. It also helps if you can make a very quick approach, but it seems like even diving from 30 KM above the runway to land isn't fast enough.

 

[wehaveaproblem]

Out of curiosity guys, are you all using SCRAMS to ascend or just rockets?

I was considering having rocket only and SCRAM classes seperate, be interesting to know how much difference it could make to flight times...

 

[Arrowstar]

SCRAM engines are a must on my flight profile. I wouldn't get enough thrust without them, at least not enough to hit the velocities I want to hit.

 

[Epsilon]

Myself, I'm using SCRAMs, but I'm in the same boat as Arrowstar - you just can't hit the right velocity (and still have enough to slow down, at least ) without using your SCRAM engines. Of course, I'm not entirely sure how he's managing to slow down from that absurdly high speed. :huh:

All that being said, is it kosher to say, twiddle the ISP settings for the fuel, or are we going with default settings? Ditto for APU (although you can leave it on the whole flight with the times we're posting, and not even drop below half...) and everything else? I'm on all the default settings for the XR2 as far as that's concerned...
I see other people talking about auxiliary tanks (here, or elsewhere, can't remember...) and stuff like that, and it's got me wondering if we should have standardized settings on some things. <_<

 

[wehaveaproblem]

I plan to standardize things when I release the addon and keep track of the league table. But atm, the guys are just testing out strategies. If you read the ORRL thread (link in my sig), you will get a better picture. That and also the MP version that is being planned, the "How about some racing" thread. Plus there is an ORRL forum group to join now too.

 

[mjessick]

I enjoy playing around with this type of scenario, but don't have a lot of free time to look into every configuration under the sun. I would like to see a startng scenario set that is pretty small, and widening later if interest warrants the additional work.

 

[Epsilon]

MJessick: For the record, the scenario we're all playing with is a suborbital flight (at absurdly high speeds) to WHAP's base on Ascension Island - middle of the Atlantic. It's about an 8000km trip (give or take a couple hundred km).

That being said, we could have two classes, perhaps: "Professional" (dumping fuel, low LOX, etc, everything to shave a couple of extra seconds), and a "stock" class (hmm - "Enthusiast", perhaps? Not sure...), which basically takes one of the XR2s from say, the KSC-ISS scenario, and you run with that. No offloading, nothing silly like that, so the people who want to just focus on strategy can do so?

On the run reporting note:
I just did a run, and I missed Ascension. >_<
Ran out of fuel - if I'd kept the SCRAM fuel, I probably could've limped in, but I dumped it once I hit 80km - got a bit cocky, I imagine. :lol:

I still did a rather nice landing - on the Atlantic. Which is made of ice, of course. Thick ice. :dry:

And I -passed- Ascension at 24 minutes, which means I'd have been on a good time run probably - I just didn't slow down quickly enough.

 

[MeDiCS]

This is fun, I just detroyed four XR2s .
@Arrowstar: How do you brake a ship flying at 11m/s!? When I finally get that much speed, I only have 4000km, not enought for powered beak or aerobraking...

 

[Epsilon]

MeDICS: The best I can figure is that you SCRAM yourself into a hyperbolic orbit at ~80km, flip the ship over, using a combination of hovers and inverted lift to keep your vertical speed down (and even a bit negative), and then when it's time to brake, burn 'til you can't burn no more and pray that you can aerobrake the rest of the way. >_>

That being said, the link in my .sig is the OH IRC chat - pop on by and we can swap stories and strategies. ;p

 

[agentgonzo]

Well, after many many burned up XR2s littering the atlantic, I've finally done a decent run. 1231s from wheel-start to wheel-stop and 20m 17s from wheel-up as clocked by the MET timer. I'm sure that with tweaking and practice, a sub-20m journey is easily possible - it's a case of losing 31s.

A few notes on the configuration:

• Most of the APU fuel was dumped before flight, as was LOX
• No passengers in the XR2 (config file), no payloads.
• Dumped about half SCRAM fuel before flight as it never got fully used anyway, dumped remaining SCRAM fuel as soon as the diffuser doors were closed

Cruising speed was about 11km/s and reentry-profile was steep. Juding when to begin reentry so that you drop out of the sky on ASC is important. I ended up in a 60degree descent down to the base and only became subsonic about 20s before landing. As you can see, pretty much all the tanks were empty at wheel-stop (I even had a bit of fuel left to fire the retro engines on the runway to stop!)

 

[Epsilon]

Sweet Jesus, man. That's a -toasty- re-entry there. >_>

I just did an 1800 second run (measured by the MET), but I almost tore my wings off in the process. If I could just get lined up on Ascension to begin with, I could probably shave a couple of minutes off my time, but... I suck at that. :lol:

 

[wehaveaproblem]

some nice thoughts there epsilon, duely noted. I plan to draw up some 'rules' and final addon plans, then offer them to the community for critique. But I'm gonna be quite busy over the next week or so, so not sure when the dev will come.

great flight btw, gonzo.