There's a new rank around here...

[Horus Lupercal]

Energy independence is the #1 reason to go solar. We are going to have electricity no matter what happens to the grid.

Erm...ok?

 

[Altaïr]

I continued my braking job around the Sun, and I finally consumed my second fuel tank. This is the situation now:


However there's a bad news: the ship doesn't brake as much as expected. I already noticed it after I burnt the first fuel tank, and the second one gave me 180 m/s less than expected. I had a margin and in theory I still have enough delta-V to do it, but if it keeps vanishing that way, there's a chance I fail in the end

I couldn't figure the reason until now, I've redone my calculations, they seem correct. I've noticed that the orbit can go glitchy when I'm close to the Sun, but the only effect I noticed is that the apoapsis tended to diminish without any action from me, which should act in my favor even if the effect is low...

I'll continue, we'll see how this ends...

 

[Jez 10]

I would really cry by now cause I have done nothing except a failed shuttle nose...

 

[Pink]

I would really cry by now cause I have done nothing except a failed shuttle nose...

I'm still working on a good tank...

 

[Altaïr]

I think I found the problem about why my delta-V vanished! And that's not about the glitchy orbit apparently. I tried to burn retrograde at the perihelion with only my final stage, which allowed to spend 6246 m/s in a few minutes, and my speed at periapsis diminished from the expected value.

However I think I've discovered a new bug: transferring fuel while the ion engines are burning reduce their performance.
Here is a proof with this ship:

By burning the content of a single fuel tank, the expected delta-V is 3178 m/s. Here, both fuel tanks are at 50% because now ion engines consume fuel from all tanks, the same as RCS do. I'm at 3148 m/s here because I only know approximately when I am at 50%.

But if I redo the flight by transfering the fuel from one tank to the other:

I tried twice, by transfering upwards and downwards, but the result is the same: 2530 m/s. The performance has been reduced by 20% just because I transferred some fuel!

That's good to know Horus Lupercal don't transfer fuel while you use ion engines!

 

[Horus Lupercal]

That's good to know @Horus Lupercal don't transfer fuel while you use ion engines!

Wonder why that could be. Must be similar to the titan fuel transfer glitch where it messes with the consumption somehow

 

[Altaïr]

Wonder why that could be. Must be similar to the titan fuel transfer glitch where it messes with the consumption somehow

Maybe that's something related... I thought it could be because during a transfer the center of mass is modified while under acceleration, which could have funny consequences in the calculations, but apparently no. Having the center of mass moving upwards or downwards doesn't change things (that's why I made 2 tests). Moreover this bug doesn't happen with a Valiant, it seems specific to ion engines. Maybe I could test with the RCS though...

 

[Blazer Ayanami]

There's another glitch that If you transfer fuel between 2 fuel tanks back and forth, suddenly both tanks are empty.

 

[Horus Lupercal]

Maybe that's something related... I thought it could be because during a transfer the center of mass is modified while under acceleration, which could have funny consequences in the calculations, but apparently no. Having the center of mass moving upwards or downwards doesn't change things (that's why I made 2 tests). Moreover this bug doesn't happen with a Valiant, it seems specific to ion engines. Maybe I could test with the RCS though...

There's another glitch that If you transfer fuel between 2 fuel tanks back and forth, suddenly both tanks are empty.

Yeah, it could just be 'deleting' fuel. The weights aren't changing so the dv shouldn't change even if the CoM does. It could just be certain engines. Add that ions don't really work at the moment cos they've been shoe-horned back in

 

[The Dark in the Light]

There's another glitch that If you transfer fuel between 2 fuel tanks back and forth, suddenly both tanks are empty.

I'm pretty sure that happened to me as well when I was sending stuff up to the station.

 

[Altaïr]

I've finished burning my side tanks:


Looks like I'm getting closer right? Don't be fooled by the scale, my apoapsis is still nearly as high as an Earth's SOI diameter
And the Sun alone is nearly twice as big as the Moon orbit. The scale is really crazy there.

The good news is that I've burnt nearly two thirds of my fuel. Which only gave me 7222 m/s, while the last third is expected to give... 28676 m/s.

 

[TtTOtW]

This is nerve wracking, lol!

 

[Altaïr]

I'm getting closer and closer to the objective:


But this is painful. Apparently the ion engines are glitched, it often happened that I lose some delta-V (up to 500 m/s in a few minutes!), or that my fuel consumption became stupidly high (more than 100 tons of fuel consumed in a few seconds, when it was not instantaneously!). It seems that transfering the fuel is what triggers the glitch.

Anyway, I'm close to the objective now. However, what's fun is that I still haven't spent half of my delta-V, which means that if I wanted to return, I still could.

 

[Altaïr]

I'm close to the end now...


Now the no-return point has been reached for a long time.

 

[Altaïr]

I had a really rare achievement there:

"Descent to Low Solar Orbit"

I've nearly reached my goal...


The last stage finish burning its fuel... I'll only pass below the 1000 km mark when I'm at 5% of fuel remaining. The remaining margin was quite low... But finally:


Mission accomplished, 4.8 tons of payload in Low Solar Orbit below 1000 km.

Now this probe won't go anywhere. It has some docking ports, so it's possible to dock a rocket to it, but if someone wants to bring back rayman, I wish him good luck

 

[4KidsOneCamera]

I had a really rare achievement there:
View attachment 43385 View attachment 43386
"Descent to Low Solar Orbit"

I've nearly reached my goal...
View attachment 43387 View attachment 43388 View attachment 43389

The last stage finish burning its fuel... I'll only pass below the 1000 km mark when I'm at 5% of fuel remaining. The remaining margin was quite low... But finally:
View attachment 43390 View attachment 43391

Mission accomplished, 4.8 tons of payload in Low Solar Orbit below 1000 km.

Now this probe won't go anywhere. It has some docking ports, so it's possible to dock a rocket to it, but if someone wants to bring back rayman, I wish him good luck

Absolutely insane! You sir are a man of talent (and patience).

 

[The Dark in the Light]

Cheers Altaïr! Well done!

 

[Altaïr]

Absolutely insane! You sir are a man of talent (and patience).

Cheers Altaïr! Well done!

Thanks guys
Though I don't beat the Moon Tour or a Moon mission with no time warp in terms of patience.

 

[TtTOtW]

Well done, Stigman! Slightly less than the smallest fuel tank... is quite an achievement!

 

[TtTOtW]

Also, Blazer vs BANDWITH's results, up next.

 

[Altaïr]

Well done, Stigman! Slightly less than the smallest fuel tank... is quite an achievement!

Thanks! That's not much but that was already insane
I wonder how many times I would have to do this to build a Dyson swarm..

 

[nikolasd]

Energy independence is the #1 reason to go solar. We are going to have electricity no matter what happens to the grid. I researched some blogs and found this one about solar PV

Interesting.

 

[Altaïr]

Interesting.

Glad to know that you're interested in your own post...
However this is off-topic. This is a SFS challenge, If you want to talk about solar panels please create your own thread.

 

[Blazer Ayanami]

Also, Blazer vs BANDWITH's results, up next.

Me still waiting

 

[TtTOtW]

Yeah, things got... interesting... in my phone's memory. Virus. Will promptly redo the evaluation.