Idea Delta Tug Update Suggestion

[Kevon Daye]

Ok, so your DG has, for one reason or another, become disabled. You and your crew have escaped safely, but the glider (which can be repaired) is in a decaying orbit, and you don't want to lose it(or it's going to come down over a populated area). Oh what to do?:shrug:.

Well, here's my theory on a possible solution.Perhaps the Delta Tug could be modified (in the next update?) to be able to attach itself to a DG in mid flight, ie, outside of scenario editor. If this could be accomplished, the DT could, in theory, tug the DG to the ISS (or mir, whichever is closer) for temporary repairs. It may even be possible to use it as a Lunar rescue tug (in case something goes wrong in or on the way to lunar orbit), perhaps even interplanetary rescue may be possible if a larger version were made (100?).

Thoughts?

---------- Post added 05-22-10 at 04:38 AM ---------- Previous post was 05-21-10 at 08:20 PM ----------

Hey just thought of a good potential use for something like this.Have a few on standby in LEO, lunar orbit and martian orbit for the O-F Mission to Mars, in case of emergency. Again, just a thought.

 

[Kevon Daye]

The problem with that is that you have to fly the DT to the stranded DG and that uses fuel. Not to mention actually getting the DT to attach to the DG.

This shouldn't be a problem for someone with good fuel management skills. I was able to fly the DT 75 to lunar orbit no problem. That, and further modifications would likely include decreased fuel consumption.

 

[River Crab]

So basically like Parom, but for emergencies? Could make for some interesting scenarios...
Would this necessarily be the Delta Tug? Because I'm not sure if Kulch has been on the internet within the past year.

 

[Izack]

I haven't seen head or tail of Kulch, but I think he's still hanging around somewhere. At least, he was early in January. :shrug:

 

[insanity]

It seems rather silly, to be honest. The tugs are primarily used as the last stage of a rocket launch (typically with Kulch's stuff, the Energia) to provide the fuel to circularize and start an injection burn without tapping into the mains of the delta glider.

It doesn't seem very logical to send up a full stack to get a simple rescue tug into orbit, not to mention that to be useful as a rescue ship it would have to have enough fuel to get to the ship in a timely manner and have enough fuel left over to provide assistance.

 

[River Crab]

Isn't Parom supposed to be reusable a few times? http://www.russianspaceweb.com/parom.html Dunno how they plan to fuel it. But were the Delta Glider (presumably on low engine settings) to launch to the same inclination many times, it could be left in a parking orbit after circularizing, with some fuel left as a tug and for deorbit. Maybe single-use only, but still.
Kind of a complicated system, and not that usable for rescue. I guess if your launcher is big enough, there's no need for a tug though, huh...

Now I'm just trying to find a use for it, I guess. :shrug:

OK, I changed my mind mid-post. :dry:
Maybe we should stick with DBeachy's philosophy: It should be safe enough to not need rescue.