[1.12.x] 'Project Orion' Nuclear Pulse Engine (2025)

I'm not moving at all when I throttle up.

You did not install USITools then. You need all of the bits in that ZIP.

Yup but in KSP it would be at the start of the tech tree...how crazy is that? If it is placed there, before NERVA, heck before the 2.5m parts, why bother with anything else for propulsion? Only thing I can see in game that would balance it out is cost and maybe a rep hit for using nukes as firecrackers, but even then Freeman Dyson I think said one Orion launch would cause between .1 to 1 fatalities from cancer per launch, so realistically maybe big rep hit for the first launch (much fear) but after the first maybe much less? Even then if we assume later, improved, version of the Orion drive are using fusion instead of fission charges with 90% or higher efficiency the fallout is negligible. So maybe just cost to serve as a reason to develop other engines?

Of course that's if you want to place as 1950's tech.

S\urprisingly, it really is not the best thing for all designs and has some of it's own constraints. In career, your limitations will be cost and the irradiation of the KSC when you launch these from the surface [1.12.x] 'Project Orion' Nuclear Pulse Engine (1) Granted in reality you'd launch it from elsewhere - but each time you're irradiating your launch pad so there's a financial hit from a Kerbin launch. Also doing some tweaks where you're going to lose a lot of the 'feathering' you can do right now, so it will really be a one-trick pony (i.e. dramatically cut down transfer times, get massive payloads to orbit).

Can't seem to surface attach onto the Orion engine.

Can you fix this? It makes strapping on side boosters difficult.

EDIT: And maybe separate the tanks from the Orion drive, so we can customize it more easily.

As noted (a few posts above yours) this is by design.

I seem to be missing something. The rocket won't work. I try to turn it on, it's got propellant, and it has thrust, but it just won't work. It doesn't move, explode, or do anything.

EDIT: I'm reasonably certain it is because for some reason USI Tools did not get put in gamedata. Oops.

Wow. These things are FAST. I tried hopping to full thruttle on the launchpad and in less than a second I had been blown to smithereens. Before having been blown to smithereens, my velocity was TWO KILOMETERS PER SECOND. Right off the launchpad! That is insane!

It feels overpowered, but in the RIGHT way. It's like using a monster to pull goods instead of a horse. Sure the monster can pull much more much faster, but it will also try to eat you.

Looks like you sorted the DLL which is good. Yeah... don't just hit full throttle.

Also, the Orion sometimes pistons on it's own. Sometimes in the VAB, sometimes on the pad (with explosive results, in the later case).

And it really, really hates launch clamps.

- - - Updated - - -

Maybe, but the Orion's too big to not be surface attachable, as it makes up a substantial amount of the hull surface area on any reasonable(!) spaceship.

- - - Updated - - -

Another bug to report; the animation of the drive seems to be fixed. It doesn't match up with the rate the bombs drop at max throttle.

I've had no launch clamp issues - please be specific.

And nothing is too big to not be surface attachable - engines are generally not surface attachable, and the awkward design considerations are there for a reason. And yes, the animation is fixed - also as noted above, it's a matter of syncing the particle effects, the animations, and your physics frame rate... and I have control over about one and a half of those [1.12.x] 'Project Orion' Nuclear Pulse Engine (2)

4x detonations per second??? I thought the 4,000 ton reference version topped out at 1x per second, mostly to give the secondary shock absorbers time to rebound and to smooth out the acceleration (my references and books on the project show acceleration max as cycling up and down about two of three G's every second, quite a ride...).

Yep I'm going to be doing some tweaks - bear in mind this is pre-release [1.12.x] 'Project Orion' Nuclear Pulse Engine (3)

Oh, and another thing; the Orion Drive needs an attachment point on the bottom, so we can strap a chemical booster to the bottom.

Which I realize sounds absolutely bugnuts, but fallout is a thing. I'd like to at least get the Orion a few kilometers up before it gets underway.

It does not have a bottom attachment node by design.

[1.12.x] 'Project Orion' Nuclear Pulse Engine (2025)
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