The nice thing in KSP is that you can add more fuel in a much less punishing way than IRL. You can add radial tanks to a stage and jettison them when empty. This still only makes your mass ratio larger rather than improving specific impulse (i.e. fuel efficiency) so it has diminishing returns, but you at least don’t have to haul around the mass of the empty tanks. IRL, there’s various reasons why you can’t get away with that, so it’s an even bigger problem.
Setting all the other issues aside, this strategy seems a lot more effective in Kerbal Space Program than it is in real life due to the dry mass of “liquid fuel” tanks and engines in the game being a lot higher than they should be (3-8 times higher, according to modders who have “corrected” this). The gains from dropping this mass are over-exaggerated as a result.
You probably already know, but I found out about orthogrids in rocket tanks recently. I saw the inside of a fuel tank in AlphaPhoenix’s latest video (wait I just realized he never shows it here, maybe he edited it out?) and it’s really cool how they make the surface rigid with as little structural support as possible with thin, vertical struts that run across the back of the surface of the tank.
Differential equations are hard. Let’s just make it bigger.
Average KSP rocket
The nice thing in KSP is that you can add more fuel in a much less punishing way than IRL. You can add radial tanks to a stage and jettison them when empty. This still only makes your mass ratio larger rather than improving specific impulse (i.e. fuel efficiency) so it has diminishing returns, but you at least don’t have to haul around the mass of the empty tanks. IRL, there’s various reasons why you can’t get away with that, so it’s an even bigger problem.
Setting all the other issues aside, this strategy seems a lot more effective in Kerbal Space Program than it is in real life due to the dry mass of “liquid fuel” tanks and engines in the game being a lot higher than they should be (3-8 times higher, according to modders who have “corrected” this). The gains from dropping this mass are over-exaggerated as a result.
You probably already know, but I found out about orthogrids in rocket tanks recently. I saw the inside of a fuel tank in AlphaPhoenix’s latest video (wait I just realized he never shows it here, maybe he edited it out?) and it’s really cool how they make the surface rigid with as little structural support as possible with thin, vertical struts that run across the back of the surface of the tank.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Just one more lane bro