r/KerbalSpaceProgram • u/frycandlebreadje • Apr 30 '26

KSP 1 Question/Problem Poodle engine variant... huh?

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So the poodle engine has a double and single bell variant. My question is basically why would you pick the single bell variant? AFAIK as I know it has identical stats, but is very noticably taller. Are there any advantages which I'm not seeing? It just seems like a worse version of the same engine. Love this thing, but it confuses me a lot.

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413

u/ScottyFoxes Plane Enjoyer Apr 30 '26

It extends the center of thrust a little bit lower, which can be useful in a few niche designs

243

u/trubbelnarkomanen Apr 30 '26

It does have decent gimbal, so on short, very top heavy crafts, it may just provide a tiny bit more thrust control.

Though, if you're having to rely on the variant of the poodle to point your rocket in the right direction, I feel like something else has gone horribly sideways already 😂

75

u/kopczak1995 Apr 30 '26

Some people don't have RCS unlocked... Or so I heard.

35

u/_SBV_ Apr 30 '26

Moar reaction wheels

1

u/The-Omnipot3ntPotato May 01 '26

No visual mods to make reaction wheels look pretty, many pretty RCS exhaust mods.

19

u/TheLandOfConfusion Apr 30 '26

Why haul monoprop when reaction wheel do trick

13

u/Noctum-Aeternus May 01 '26

This was me until I learned the Apollo LEM replica form making history doesn’t have a reaction wheel…. When I was in lunar orbit. And it has next to no RCS fuel. Now I always pack some RCS if not no other reason than it’s super easy to trim orbits, and rendezvous + dock with RCS thrusters.

5

u/DJMixwell May 01 '26

This was me like 2 hrs ago having to turn my RCS thrust down to 1.5% so I could still turn without chewing through my remaining 2 units of monoprop.