Essays for HotAirBalloons from ColdJ

[Lisias]

This is not an issue for HLAirshipsCore, but someplace to develop support for ColdJ's HotAirBalloons.

[Lisias]

First try - looks promising.

Config File: HooliganGasBall.cfg.zip

Craft File: Untitled Space Craft.craft.zip

Strong Points

• It works! 😄
• The balloon's engine allows for some cruise (there's no winds on KSP!)
• It can be attached to any contraption created by the user.
• You can control it using reaction wheels.

Weak Points

• I think we should left the engines to be added by the user, but I do not object it necessarily
  • There's no indication to where the trust vector is pointing on the Editor, however, and this will be a nuisance
• The balloon inflation is weird, I think it should be animated by a separate module
  • The HLA animation was meant to allow balloons to be retracted on a container (something like the solar panels).
  • What we need is something to inflate the balloon with the altitude
• The trust is not being applied on the CoM, and so the thing shakes a bit while trusting.
• I think the balloon should had a reaction wheel embedded, locked to do only Yaw, since it's going to have an engine.
• The engine gimballing must be locked to Yaw only! Pitch and Roll doesn't copes very well with Balloons!
• I think we need to remove the lift vector from the thing, too.
• And to make it fall like a para-glider, instead of falling down like a rock once we remove all the lift.

[Lisias]

Registering the ColdJ's answers from Forum:

There's no indication to where the trust vector is pointing on the Editor, however, and this will be a nuisance

if attached normally in the VAB orSPH then the thrust pushes you forward compared to what is hanging underneath. Try it with the Mk2 Lander can in rover mode and have the rover control set to forward and you will see it is straight forward.

Yep, but once you start to rotate and attach things, you will lose the reference pretty quickly!

What we need is something to inflate the balloon with the altitude

I agree, the animation was designed for the throttle in the Hot air balloon, so as you increased the throttle the balloon got bigger, the burner flame gets longer and the warm glow of the burner gets brighter. I removed the burner effects for the gas filled but it still inflated with throttle to look as if gas was being pumped into it to make it rise. The reaction wheel in the balloon is strong enough that you could hold a 10 degree tilt to drift. Had to remove the throttle animation to use your mods animation method.

I will think on something.

The trust is not being applied on the CoM, and so the thing shakes a bit while trusting.

This is on purpose, because this is a balloon not a plane. If a balloon gets pushed by wind then the wide part of the ballon leads because it is like a sail catching the wind. If this is still shaking under full thrust then I might need to lower it more, it is meant to speed up slowly. Also balloons shaking is more like real life.

Point taken, it makes sense.

I think the balloon should had a reaction wheel embedded, locked to do only Yaw, since it's going to have an engine

It does have one imbedded. Trouble is you can't have it as just yaw because the command pods only have up and reverse points of control, so you need roll to steer them, and you need the pitch to counter and control the direction of thrust for drifting up or down.

Humm... I missed that. I will check it again.

I think we need to remove the lift vector from the thing, too.

I am lost by this as the only lift vector is your mod in this model.

Hummm... I may had misdiagnosed the source of the lift, it may had came from the Capsule... I will reproduce the test again.

And to make it fall like a para-glider, instead of falling down like a rock once we remove all the lift.

The drag model is set to override as that is what you had for your Cirrus. If your mod can cause it to have more drag then it would fall more slowly, or a Drag Cube could be added to the config to fool the game into thinking it is much wider and so more likely to drag on falling. In my thrust version you simply lowered the throttle till it started to slowly decend and it looked right because the balloon got smaller and so looked like it had less gas, and so started to sink.

Yep, but the cirrus is a "closed cycle" balloon. All the HLA ones are this way. Hot Air are open cycle, and they have some paraglider effect.

Check this:

Hot air balloons will descend like a rapidly falling parachute if they run out of fuel.

https://www.quora.com/What-would-happen-if-a-hot-air-balloon-were-to-stop-working-Would-the-people-riding-fall-to-their-deaths-or-would-it-act-as-a-parachute-and-lower-them-to-the-ground-gently-enough-to-save-them

[ColdJ-KSP]

Hi Lisias. As the KSP forum is getting worse I have created an account here so that we don't lose touch. ColdJ was taken so I cjose ColdJ-KSP I have no idea how to navigate here yet but atleast this gives us a chance.

[ColdJ-KSP]

Haven't seen you for a bit, you ok?

[Lisias]

Firsts essays about the Zeppeling.

HotAirBalloon.zip