Sattorin

Coming in late, but just did this one for fun anyway: 2-Kerbal SSTO to Duna and back with liquid fuel only.

It is insanely frustrating that my tourist options are: 1 guy wants a suborbital flight on Kerbin 2 girls want to orbit Kerbin 4 tourists want to land on Pol, suborbital flight on Laythe, fly by Duna and suborbital flight over the Sun. Come on! Give me a Mun tourist that I can try to SSTO up and back!

Can confirm, did boom.

No... but hard mode should have some penalty for declining contracts.

So much yes, OP. It's an easy source of science, but it's even more tedious than biome-hopping. After collecting science from 3 biomes on the Mun, I hauled it back up to the orbital MPL... I've now spent over 9 years in-game diligently combing through data, and I've only used around half the available data. It wouldn't be so bad if you could just load up everything you have at the same time and automatically get science as a result, but damn... all this micro-management and time warping is ridiculous. It's especially ridiculous since it's only science from 3 Mun biomes and we're scanning the data for decades!

I first heard of KSP when Markiplier picked it up.

The missions I've seen seem a LOT smaller (and easier) than pre-1.0 Also, the large aircraft landing gear (as seen above) are MUCH better suited to Eve landings than the puny lander legs we used to use.

That is one [very attractive] simple ship. I've always liked making my big interplanetary ships into space trains. Dropping tanks off the back feels somehow more satisfying than radial decoupling.

The best part of KSP is that you can play it however you want. The second best part is the large number of opportunities to not be sensible I don't think anyone builds long-range SSTOs because they're logical, but because they're an interesting challenge. Pushing real physics to its limit is essential in exploring space in the real world. The way I play KSP is to push the game's physics to its limit! EDIT: And really, there are only small differences between a cargo SSTO and a distance SSTO. I'm pretty sure I can haul a 33%+ payload fraction to orbit with my 4,200dV-in-orbit design by switching out the nuke and replacing a bunch of fuel with cargo.

Thanks! It only barely made orbit, but I could probably replace the nuke with a 909 and have a very solid cargo hauler. What engine config are you using?

Well, it ain't small!

It definitely is! I just got a medium-size SSTO into LKO with 4,200 dV available. Going to fly it some place and post the pics after work!

You've given me quite a bit of inspiration with that plane! Gorgeous!

- - - Updated - - - I did! And whether it should be doable or not, I believe it can be done. I also think this aero model will allow for a SSTO planet-hopping ISRU craft that has a more manageable part count than my design. EDIT: Well doing what's fun for you is definitely what counts I think I'd really enjoy setting up a series of ISRU outposts such that a SSTO to Laythe could easily refuel and return, though I also enjoy the engineering challenge of dragging every last drop of dV out of a single-stage craft.

I'm reasonably certain we'll see a traditional SSTO Laythe with return soon. It's going to be like the 3 minute mile, once someone proves it can be done, tons of people will be pulling it off.

If Science is removed from contracts, then the strategies to convert Reputation/Funds into Science should be buffed slightly. I LOVE being able to complete the tech tree without biome-hopping all over everything, it's just how I want to play the game.

Just finished a big project (inspired by KerikBalm's monstrosity) to test my computer's limits. 297 parts, 36 RAPIERs and 4 Nervs. The result: 2 crew, a full ISRU package, and 2,400 Dv in a 74x74 orbit. ISRU refueling at Minmus (filling up all the liquid tanks) would give it a lot with which to explore the Kerbol system... if I had the patience for this framerate. It can DEFINITELY be made more efficient. I probably had more RAPIERs than I needed and obviously ended up with way more liquid fuel than necessary to reach Minmus. EDIT: Changed some bad math.

Yeah, I misinterpreted you there, sorry!

If you can do that, you can probably ISRU Minmus and do an interplanetary return with what is technically a SSTO!

I said a nuclear only design that didn't use conventional rockets (such as RAPIER in closed-cycle mode). Your closed-cycle design is easily one of the best, but I don't think a liquid-only SSTO is going anywhere. A lot of my designs were stalling out around Mach 1, which is why I mentioned that number (don't have access to the actual numbers atm). In any case, their TWR is considerably lower than turbojets at low speed, which may make turbojets a good choice in some designs.

Have you been using Kerbal Engineer to compare thrust at speed/altitude? It has a feature which is absolutely perfect for planning out SSTOs. Not able to load the game now to screenshot it, but I encourage you to check it out if you haven't.

It should. I've gotten a SSTO to LKO with 1,200m/s to spare using 2 RAPIERs and a LV-T30. I believe it could be better by switching the T30 with a 909 and relying more on RAPIER closed cycle. I have yet to see a nuclear SSTO design that surpasses conventional rockets either for dV in orbit or in payload capacity. You could probably do a really nice "Two stage to Laythe and return" mission though, since I expect RAPIERs to be much more effective there. The RAPIERs actually lose thrust as they go from Mach 0 to Mach 1. Then thrust skyrockets after you pass Mach 2. If your plane has too much mass, RAPIERs won't be able to push through Mach 1 to reach their ideal speed. I can imaging some very large designs for which it would be more efficient to haul along a few turbojets rather than burning LFO to break that barrier.

AFAIK, the lower your reputation is, the less difficult/rewarding the contracts will be. In Hard Mode, I think it's still worthwhile to trade rep for science. Also, it has always rounded up the science for me... so every single contract that I complete (that gives at least 1 reputation) will give at least 1 science.

I pick up Reputation->Science immediately, but only at 25%. On Hard mode, that gives you at least 1 precious science point for every contract completed, which is EXTREMELY useful in the early game.

All of my 1.0.2 SSTOs have run without pre coolers without overheating. Unless they actually increase thrust (and they may), they're useless.