Project Energia-M

[PhantomCruiser]

I've been looking for some 'real' pictures of the fairing, and I'm not having much luck. Perhaps one of our Russian friends can help me out...

Does the fairing split along the entire length, or just the very front (grey section shown)? I've found one picture that led me to believe that only the grey part spits off and was to be ejected, but I can't see how that would make good sense.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[PeterRoss]

I've found this sentence regarding the cargo hold of Energia-M:

Конкретное конструктивное исполнение корпуса головного обтекателя выбирается на этапе обеспечения рациональной технологии его изготовления.

It means something like:
The specific design of payload fairing are being chosen on the rational production technology selection stage.

There's also that sentence:
Головной обтекатель (грузовой отсек) по геометрическим обводам и конструктивному исполнению подобен грузовому контейнеру "Энергии" (14С70) и отличается от него меньшей высотой (25 м) и наличием ферм крепления боковых блоков.

It means that fairing construction are identical to that of standard Energia cargo container 14C70 except of its smaller size of 25 meters and booster-holders attached to it.

 

[mc_]

This may help. But english version is available only for buran and "normal" Energia

 

[N_Molson]

That's a very cool .gif !! :thumbup:

 

[Thorton]

This is weight-dimension mockup for launch operation training.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Work continues, spent most of the night texturing the engine section. It's getting there.

 

[PeterRoss]

Will it be .dll- or spacecraft3-based?

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Multistage for the time being. I'm taking some tenative steps into coding a .dll. But I'm entirely new at it, and can't dedicate a lot of time due to real-life.
Although... Artlav has the conversion program that he wants to eventually convert multistage as well as SC3.

 

[n122vu]

Looks awesome!

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Just a little update...

OK, the 4th holiday is over and done with. I've got a friend whose preggo and about to pop, so there is a cradle being built, but I still managed to make some progress.
Kultch's Energy Project is a great reference, but the monster boosters aren't the same as the "little brother" here on the Energia-M. But at least I can use it for inspiration. Still needs texture and some added piping/tubing, etc., but I'm getting there.

On a side note. I'm trying to make an educated guess about the fairing. It's freaking big, as far as the weight goes, does 12 tons (12,000 Kg) sound about right?

Oh, and I really want to go old-school on whatever hack keeps attacking our friend at Astronautix, a wealth of information that's unavailable right now because of some bozo with nothing better to do.

 

[Wishbone]

Have you tried http://classic-web.archive.org/collections/web.html for an archived version?

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Not yet... Headed there now. :thumbup:
Also I found http://www.aerospaceguide.net it's kind of clunky, but it's seems useful also.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Boosters near completion

There seems to be little difference between the port and starboard booster, so this mesh will serve as both.

I still have to figure out how to make and arrange the brackets to attach these to the core, but I think I'm pretty much "there" as far as the boosters go. Maybe a little more detail but not much. I still need to work on the engines as well. I have some pretty good pictures of the RD-170, but I don't think I have the ability to do it justice. I eventually do want to finish this and get back to my Athena.

I've been learning a lot with this project though, it's been a pretty good challenge.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Running hot, straight and normal. Although it's only a single engine, the 4 chambers of the RD-170 can really "haul the mail". These boosters are essentially the lower stage of the Zenit rocket.
The exhaust textures look about right, as does the location. I still need to tinker with the 'core' stage, as it looks kind of smaller than it should.
On the 'to-do' list...
1] Stand-off brackets for mounting boosters to core
2] Arranging the boosters slightly off center to match the real thing, they seem to be about 15 degrees of center (anybody know why they arranged them like that?)
3] Bracing above the core stage to 'attach' the payloads so they don't appear to hang there magically.
4] Perhaps knock together a tug? I'd hate to have to rely on another add-on in order to make this one 'work'

 

[Tacolev]

Boosters are probably off-center so it could mate with the same launch pad block as the full-size energia.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Good tip #1, save often...
Tried to make the boosters look 'better' resulted in screwing them up royally. I only lost maybe an hours work, but the end result was that I figured out an easier way to get the look I wanted.
Anyway on the to-do list I think I've got #1 X'd off the list...

My thoughts are that this will be the final version of the booster. There are lots of things I'd like to do to it, mostly the engine, but meshing out a really good looking RD-170 is currently beyond my skills.

#3, internal bracing, scaffolding, whatever it's called. I really don't know what this is supposed to look like. The reference pictures I have aren't clear at all. A few other things on the 'Hangar either don't have anything (and payloads just kind of hang there magically), or they look something like this... Either way, I'm not exactly happy with it, but it beats nothing.

 

[K_Jameson]

excellent mesh!

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Thanks! :thumbup:
Now back to tweaking on the core stage.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I'm almost ready to call the core stage finished. I spent some time tonight working on textures for this and the fairing; and decided to take her for a spin around the block.

I had to tweak the weight of the Neesys module to a mass of 27000. But as far as the size goes I think length is about as big a payload as it'll take... Come to think of it, a Neesys might be a meter or so too long.
Using Artlav's UAP, I managed to get to a 300 X 300 orbit with a shade more than 15 Kg of fuel remaining. I can do better when I remember to dump the fairings earlier (mass reduction of 10000).

All in all I'm almost happy with it. Multistage won't seem to let me offset the boosters like they were in real life. I may try my hand at velcro rockets and see if I can do it that way.

Regardless, if I can dedicate just a bit more time to the project, I'll be over and done and ready to tackle something else.

 

[K_Jameson]

Multistage won't seem to let me offset the boosters like they were in real life.

you can: in the config file, instead of one single "booster" section for both boosters, you can have two different "booster" sections, one for the left and one for the right booster. So you can place them in unusual positions and utilize distinct meshes. This trick is usually used for the simulation of a Launch Escape System for manned launches.