Project ETS-Evolved Transport System

[K_Jameson]

for a weight of 13.000 kg i have imagined a much smaller vehicle... for comparison, the Buran is a 90t beast!

 

[Loru]

Usually mass is function of volume. For those designs I've calculated mass in comparison to F-18 Hornet

In the larger one there is a large payload bay (~4x6 meters)

Also remember that that Shuttle & Buran are from seventies. Those shuttles are "near tech" and they incorporate more composite materials than STS or Buran.

Further detailed data to come...

Stay tuned

 

[K_Jameson]

Usually mass is function of volume.

clearly, but with caution: a conventional aircraft as the F-18 Hornet could be a pretty optimistic reference (IMHO!:tiphat

For comparison, watch here:

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lks.htm
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/lks.html
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/hermes.htm

Both are spaceplanes with rougly the same size of the ETS.
Note that the LKS have folding wings, for reduction of the turbolence at launch.

Anyway... your work is very impressive! :thumbup:

 

[Loru]

Thanks for the reference K_Jameson: I still have some extra tons in launcher so I'll carefully consider this issue.

In the mean time:
Separation routines are working as planned & dev team is moving to incorporate derbis spawning after explosion.

---------- Post added at 11:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:41 PM ----------

Anyway... your work is very impressive! :thumbup:

I'm not alone in this project. I'm responsible for idea, design, vessel specifications, meshing, texturing and visuals.

All coding is done by Woo482.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I've finally gotten around to flying this one. I've gotta say it's a really sweet ride, and am really looking forward to the final release.

I had to relearn to land like this though (whoo for quicksaves!), I've been doing to much work in capsules. Without the brake, this thing can realy come in hot.

 

[Loru]

Aye - flying this shuttle can be tricky. As I said It loses lift at high AOA so imidiatelly after reentry pitch down to recover from stall and regain lift.

Landing is easy with aproach speed ~130 m/s. Deploy brake just above the runway and counter pitching up caused by brake.

On touch down you can deploy drag chute.

 

[Capt_hensley]

I don't remember is the docking system LIDS or CBM?

 

[Loru]

Basically it was modelled as APAS

 

[Yoda]

Is this beeing released anytime soon ?

 

[Loru]

There are still work to do and I don't want to release buggy or incomplete add-on with promisses like "that will be fixed in MK2 version".

Basically I could release launcher in few days but it will lack AP, and some other major components. Also as a part of this add-on there will be 2 shuttles seen on sreenshots and one or 2 satelites as sample payloads for unmanned versions.

I can work on this projects mostly on weekends so progress on modelling things is slow.

A lot of ideas were incorporated during developement (abort system & safety range detonation), and shuttle meshes need major rework. (they were done before local light sources came out so they're not optimized to it). Also I'm not happy with those meshes as they were just proof of concept sketches used to develop aerodynamic properties. I need something much more detailed this time.

I estimate release sometime around end of August but that is not official release time.

 

[Loru]

ETS Vertigo Shuttle.

Mesh is reworked. Only old elements are vertical stablilizers but they're smaller now. I've created texture to match Prometheus.

Meanwhile another cargo version is developed.

---------- Post added at 01:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:55 AM ----------

And some details inside cargo bay

 

[K_Jameson]

wery well!

The textures of the spaceplane seems to be pretty large... 2048x2048?

second question: what is the payload capacity of the cargo bay?

 

[Loru]

currently (before texture resize) fuselage uses 512x1024, on wings we've got 1024x1024 - we've got also 2 textures 512x512 and one 256x256.

And that's how it presents itself in orbiter:

 

[K_Jameson]

i see.. and regarding the payload capacity?

 

[Loru]

5 meter long x 2.4 wide, 2.4 high but if you adjust payload to bay's shape overall volume can be much higher.

Here is screenshot of cargo bay:

and here is glide performance test...

 

[Grover]

if thats an APAS docking system, that gives it a diameter of just under 2 meters, so your crew wont have much living space, they'll have to put up with even less than the Apollo astronauts had, though the flights will be considerably shorter id wager.

looking good Loru, cant wait to see the final!

 

[Loru]

if thats an APAS docking system, that gives it a diameter of just under 2 meters, so your crew wont have much living space, they'll have to put up with even less than the Apollo astronauts had, though the flights will be considerably shorter id wager.

looking good Loru, cant wait to see the final!

Actually after moving docking mechanism from nosecone to payload bay it has quite roomy crew compartment. Sure it can't be compared to Skylab or STS but I estimate room inside to 11-13 cubic meters - much better than in Soyuz. I'll make detailed calculation tomorrow.

As developement continues:
Vertigo shuttle is modelled, textured and animated. RCS thruster exhausts are in correct places.

In the meantime: 2 closeups on extended docking mechanism (for easy docking port extends by 90cm) - You can also see payload bay details.

 

[Ark]

Will the cargo version only have UMMU support for 2 or so instead of 6?

Also as I'm sure others have mentioned, the RCS seems really overpowered and makes the handling extremely jumpy. It might be nice to have it turned down a bit.

 

[Loru]

Will the cargo version only have UMMU support for 2 or so instead of 6?

Aye.
ETS - Vertigo (cargo version) has crew of 3
ETS - Prometheus (passenger version) has crew of 2 and up to 4 aditional passengers. Prometheus is much smaller as it carrries no cargo at all.

Here you have size comparison:

Also as I'm sure others have mentioned, the RCS seems really overpowered and makes the handling extremely jumpy. It might be nice to have it turned down a bit.

RCS will be turned down. Thing that is on OHM is just beta and we're working on project very hard.

 

[Ark]

Ah, not knowing the size difference had me confused.