Project HOPE-X spaceplane

[Pipcard]

How? Just how did the bottom wall of the tail cone (thickness marked in blue) not manage to run into the body flap? false assumption

edit: upon closer inspection of Loru's old shuttle (Prometheus) + launcher system (ETS), it appears that the body flap is outside the adapter. Is that actually okay?

more edits:

(added RCS textures at front, and changed my mind about the flag on the wing)

initial version

 

[Loru]

Adapter for Prometheus has parts cut out of it to fit body flap:

---------- Post added at 06:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:43 AM ----------

Also I would't follow ETS much. Rocket and shuttles are badly designed.

 

[Pipcard]

Adapter for Prometheus has parts cut out of it to fit body flap:

---------- Post added at 06:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:43 AM ----------

Also I would't follow ETS much. Rocket and shuttles are badly designed.

I don't think the "cutting out" method would work:

Can you just have the body flap outside the adapter?

 

[MaverickSawyer]

I don't think the "cutting out" method would work:

Can you just have the body flap outside the adapter?

Depends on if the rest of the structure can withstand the loads... or how much handwavium you're willing to use.

 

[Pipcard]

Which brings me back to my first question in post #81.

which is based on a false assumption

 

[Loru]

I'd just end this collar above bodyflap (and match it's bottom shape to flap).

 

[Pipcard]

Now I'm thinking that this is fine, because the adapter is actually supporting the vehicle on 3 out of 4 sides. I guess it's good enough.

---------- Post added at 08:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:43 AM ----------

 

[Donamy]

Which led to this,

 

[Pipcard]

Which led to this,

Was Jason partially inspired by HOPE, or was it entirely inspired by that "shuttle from 'Space Fury'"? (which I can't seem to find pictures of)

 

[PhantomCruiser]

There is a thread somewhere regarding addons from "B" space movies. I think the Jason was born there?

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=16119&highlight=space+fury

 

[Pipcard]

There is a thread somewhere regarding addons from "B" space movies. I think the Jason was born there?

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=16119&highlight=space+fury

So it's actually a Russian shuttle?

---------- Post added at 01:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:37 PM ----------

Speaking of movies: several weeks ago, I found this when searching for 'HOPE-X 宇宙' (space) on Google Images. It is called "北京原人 [Peking Man] Who are you?". The shuttle isn't even the main plot point of the movie.

You can watch it here, but there are no English subtitles, so I only looked at the launch which happens at the 10-minute mark.

The H-IIA 222 configuration (2 Liquid Rocket Boosters, 2 SRBs):

Some shots of the launch:

The manned version is called "HOPE-X2"

Below that is a trailer for a [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokusatsu"]tokusatsu[/ame] film called "Space Sheriff Gavan: The Movie", in which you can see (for a brief second) HOPE-X...

orbiting Mars?

Now where have I heard that music before?

 

[n0mad23]

This is a very cool project, Pipcard! I was going to offer my 2 cents on the fairing connecting the Hope-X, but see now you've resolved it.

I've been wondering about a connection between the Hope and the Chinese Lucky Dragons, however finding any info at all about the latter is next to impossible.

Look forward to seeing this come to completion!

 

[Pipcard]

This is a very cool project, Pipcard! I was going to offer my 2 cents on the fairing connecting the Hope-X, but see now you've resolved it.

I've been wondering about a connection between the Hope and the Chinese Lucky Dragons, however finding any info at all about the latter is next to impossible.

Look forward to seeing this come to completion!

Thanks! But Shenlong literally means "Divine Dragon." If you look for images of that ('Shenlong space plane'), you might get some proposals of Hermes/HOPE-esque minishuttles, but in reality, it is apparently a X-37B-like spaceplane.

also, can you imagine an H-II with six SRBs?

Another thing, in the anime "Space Brothers" (I haven't seen past episode 44 as of this post, and I've been taking a break from watching the series for quite a while now. Maybe it's time to get back in.), one character talks about how Japan is going to have its own manned spacecraft soon (the series takes place in 2025). And guess what it is? Yes, that's right.

(source)

As you can see, all the above depictions of HOPE (which I haven't shown you until now, because I'm not planning on making the manned 22-tonne HOPE, although someone else can pick up the task) have vertical stabilizers on the wingtips. NASDA/NAL had moved them to the fuselage in the most recent version of HOPE-X (before cancellation). I guess it was to save mass.

H-IIA with 4 LRBs?

 

[n0mad23]

Thanks for the correction, as typing either "Shenlong" or "Divine Dragon" is giving me much better results with the search engines facepalm. I actually wondered which came first the X-37B or the Shenglong as they look like one copied the other. Very different approach to the mini-shuttles' engines between the two, but in terms of form....

I like the idea of someone doing a manned 22 tonne version of the Hope-X, and can certainly understand why it's not something you want to do. I'm currently working with Liber's X-37 C manned model that he sent me 3 years back and at 14.6 m I've been able to get 6 or 7 passengers into the converted cargo-bay. My biggest challenge so far with "re-engineering" the design is figuring the best way to install the docking-port/airlock taken from the Space Shuttle. One of the tentative Boeing/NASA designs I've uncovered actually has the docking port out the back of the mini-shuttle where the rocket nozzle should be (and putting two much smaller nozzles on either side of the port). I'm trying to get it into the back of the cargo-bay instead.

After seeing your work on the Hope-X I'm wondering if I'd known about this earlier if I would have gone with a Hope instead of the X-37 variants. It's such a beautiful form. I really love how your little craft looks!

Well done. Looking forward to seeing this one completed!

 

[Loru]

Hmm - abundance of small shuttles . Always good to have choice. Especially for people that want to simulate near future worldwide space endouvers.

I need to finish this baby.

---------- Post added at 12:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:21 AM ----------

@Pipcard: How big will be your manned version?

 

[Pipcard]

I was planning to make a manned HOPE-X for my own space agency, which would be about the same size, but recently I changed my mind and decided that I was going to make a lifting body instead. If escaping from two M-II solid rocket boosters (total thrust of 4780 kN) which are still causing the rocket to accelerate up to 1.8 G* (and probably more after separation) sounds reasonable to you (this thread was actually me trying to justify that, but since then, I have changed my mind), then I'll go back to the HOPE-X-based vehicle.

(for posterity, the reasons are here)

*this isn't simulated in Velcro Rockets, though. They act as if their thrust has been terminated. But my M-II's SRBs don't have "thrust termination ports". Maybe they can be the "Block II" in production. Are thrust termination ports reliable enough for human-rating?

 

[Pipcard]

I'm not sure whether I should finish this project or just upload the mesh & texture to the Developer Resources section of Orbithangar and let someone else finish it.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Why not do both?
It'd be an excellent platform in which to work with SC3 (then convert it to a dll with Artlav's conversion program. Or, use it to work your way into C++.

Somewhere buried here on the forum Greg Burch had given his OK to use his SC3 craft as a learning tool (in essence to reverse engineer his stuff to see how he's done it). Some of his stuff is Grade-A, particularly when you realise that it is working within the limitations of SC3.

 

[Pipcard]

It's because I want to start work on my own space agency's lifting body.

 

[Donamy]

That's the best thing about Orbiter, ...you do what you want 'period'.