5 ms·
Please note: This is pulled out of my a.. ahem KSP knowledge, but: The first stage of an orbital rocket doesn't yet have a very high horizontal velocity - becau
by m_mueller 13y ago
Please note: This is pulled out of my a.. ahem KSP knowledge, but: The first stage of an orbital rocket doesn't yet have a very high horizontal velocity - because of wind resistance it's best to go more or less straight up until a certain height has been reached. Therefore most of the first stage velocity can be killed just using gravity and letting it decelerate to terminal velocity before firing the engines again. The 2nd stage is where recovery becomes much more costly per ton. Thus, recovery capabilities might lead to new designs, such as more lightweight second stages or even two stage orbiters.
- stcredzero 13y agoIn The Rocket Company book they use a "pop up" 1st stage, so there is no downrange to contend with for the 1st stage. The 2nd stage then is basically a "cheating SSTO" that gets to start in vacuum. So their setup was TSTO. It was also massive, but only put 5000 lbs in orbit. The Rocket Company has other similarities with SpaceX. Kerosene open cycle engines. Aluminum construction with friction stir welding. Company started by dot-com tycoons.
- kd0amg 13y agoThis is pulled out of my a.. ahem KSP knowledge My understanding (from watching Scott Manley's KSP videos) is that Kerbin's atmosphere is amazingly thick near sea level and that a real-world rocket should start its gravity turn much lower.
- XorNot 13y agoKSPs out of the box drag model is also quite unsophisticated so you end up with a lot more then you otherwise would.