Three new missions:
- Mission 7: Gearing Up — gear reduction and torque transitions
- Mission 8: Pump It Up — an RL-10 inspired LOX pump on a test stand
- Mission 9: Turbine Trials — F-1 engine turbopump dynamics
Mission 9 was honestly my favorite to build. I spent way too many hours reading old NASA documents about the Saturn V turbopumps. The F-1 pumped something like 15,000 gallons of kerosene per minute. Wild. You won’t be replicating that exactly—Meco’s models are simplified—but you’ll feel the same tradeoffs those engineers dealt with. Admission ratios, efficiency curves, that moment when you realize you can’t just crank everything to max.
The sim engine got real turbine loss modeling now. You can see actual eta_ts values (that’s total-to-static efficiency, for the uninitiated) and watch how your design choices ripple through the whole system. New sampler tools let you visualize pump and turbine performance curves as you tweak things.
Some editor stuff that’s been bugging me for months, finally fixed:
- Pin the component editor so it stays open while you work on the schematic
- Simulation auto-runs when you change things (no more clicking Run after every tiny edit—this alone has saved me so much frustration)
- Nudge controls with arrow keys and mouse wheel for fine adjustments
- Colorblind-friendly chart colors using Okabe-Ito. Should’ve done this ages ago.
I also built a bunch of internal tools to author missions faster. More content is coming.
If you bounced off Meco before because it felt overwhelming—honestly, fair—this might be a good time to try again. The new missions hold your hand a bit more through the turbomachinery concepts.
And if you play and have a minute, a Steam review really does help. Visibility is everything for a small project like this.
