Hotel26

And I like the way you think! (I will figure out the "custom height map" as it will have "other applications" for my space program.) When I am done, I will publish Old Smokey (the spaceport, including the map decals) in Kerbal Konstructs Airport Exchange so that other intrepid pilots can feel the excitement terror... And Kryptonite, of course, in KerbalX. Meanwhile, Kryptonite 5 has shed some mass/drag. I implemented the jettisonable crew section. (It's Soviet-style: bale out when low & slow enough.)

Thanks for the suggestion. I had thought I had just succeeded but inspecting the screenshot closely the orbital figures were 93,822 x 86,612 m. It looks doable now, though... [click + arrows = slideshow] Just short.

A progress report: almost "square". Suborbital: 92 x -59 km. Came very close, with inexpert handling of the controls. So this vehicle, Kryptonite 3, is probably up to the job. Payload: a Mk-2 capsule and a Hitchhiker for a total of 7 kerbals. Returning to the surface requires something like a half fuel-load, which means that a failed ascent is going to be fatal -- unless some solid booster emergency system can reliably give the crew sections a final "kick".

Have you ever looked at MKS? ...Kolonisation Congratulations on your achievements and all the enjoyment and entertainment you gained from KSP!!

This is very helpful -- exactly what I was looking for, too. Thank you, KB. I think, before I go any further, I will drop the elevation of Old Smokey to an even 12km. Even if transport planes need to get some Vector assist to make it there from "sea level", it would be easily practicable. Yes, I think this looks more "plausible"...

Not before it runs on Linux. Show-stopper.

For the record, the following were/are inspirational: How to build and pilot your own EVE SSTO!!! Leave Nothing Behind - EVE SSTS - Success! It kind of grows on you!...

Ignoring the "thing" in the middle: on its left, you can see Mauve Mountain, which has an airport elevation of 6415m. On its right: you can see a flat, square airfield, Eva Firma, which is 5x5 km and elevation 3100m. (No facilites as yet.) Which brings us back to the monstrosity in the centre: Old Smokey. A little over 3x3 km square, it accommodates a 3 km ruway and has an elevation of 20km. You can see the curvature of Eve from it, looking over the edge; and the sky is completely black, but no stars! From a distance, too, it does look like a Squad 'monolith'... [albeit unnaturally elongated. ] So we know that the "state of the art" is to use propellers to get as high as possible and then single-stage rocket power to go to orbit, delivering a single kerbal with perhaps a packet of smokes. I guesstimated that propellers might get one somewhere close to 20km, before kicking in the rockets. (I figure if it's too high, we'll just bulldoze some of it over the side. ) So, we don't know what the next part of the plan is. It would be good to get an ore loading measurement on top of 'Old Smokey'. So any rocket vehicle that can get from 20km to 90km on Eve, ought to be able to fuel up at Eve Firma and then climb to and land on Old Smokey. Then refuel. It's an SSTO[2], which signifies "Single-Stage, Take-Off twice". Alternatively, a super-charged passenger prop aircraft can ferry pax to the top of Old Smokey and then the SSTO[2] craft can simply ascend to orbit from Old Smokey and return to same. It just has to have wings. Which will be the other side of the too-low (to orbit) equation. How well will wings fly (glide) at 20km on Eve (too-high)? OK, so we still have a lot of work to do. Just call this then a mad, mad, mad, deluded scientific/engineering experiment. As mentioned earlier, my KSC Kommand believes that kerbonnel is the only reasonable "export" from Eve. Not fuel, not equipment; not even science (which can be tele-transferred (albeit for lower points)). 8-10 out at a time would be the jackpot.

On long interplanetary voyages, there is not a lot to do except gaze out and ponder how small the Kerbolar system is, embedded as it is, in a vast panoply of an artificial "sky box" [whatever that is]. Does this look familiar to you? Big Dipper It looks to me like a French Legionnaire cap... but YMMV. Some Kerbals I know say it is a saucepan. Or a Big Dipper (ladle). So then, if you are a Sky Watcher, here is the thread for you to waste while away some productive time as you journey across the vast interstitial space... If you see a distinctive 'constellation', post here in this thread as an "entry". If someone else finds it, and posts a similar image except including a slightly wider area (sufficient to be validated by the original finder), a link to your image gets posted here (OP) in the index, listing the Constellation Name, Discoverer and Validator. As well as the Constellation Index here, there will be a Leaderboard for Discoverers (1 point each validated post) and Validators (2 points once confirmed), as well as Aggregate. (No, you cannot Discover your own Post; but you already knew that.) Constellation Discoverer Validator Big Dipper Hotel26 -none- Have fun!

Well, here's a square island I built on Kerbin at location 70W on the equator about 50 klicks downrange from KSC: Same for Eve, except it would be purple and "toad-ugly".

Yes, CSV was a typical Intermediate Language; and 'Export' used to be known as 'Compile'. With Commas most often used in the western hemisphere, whereas the Soviet Union and Friends used Tabs, preventing code interchangeability, for obvious reasons of national security. [You might have known of it as '3PT']

And even closer to CSV!

I think this is brilliant! Congratulations. I knew this was theoretically possible and have been waiting years to see a realization of it. Is there any chance of you posting your component craft for study, somewhere like e.g. KerbalX? Kudos!

Just discovered this same thing myself. 3x astelets. Nope, now there's 4... How very dreslicious!

So I have graded a perfectly-flat 6x6 km landing field, Eva Firma, 3100m altitude at -0.2169 +169.7142. SSTO is most probably going to be a Mk2 capsule (3 kerbs) + hopefully 2 Hitchhikers (8 kerbs) and will be vertical liftoff, return glide capability and vertical landing under chutes. Thus it can easily return to Eva Firma and be refueled, passengers embarked and disembarked. Fuel trucks and fuel production will be onsite. At departure time, the SSTO will make a short ascent trajectory over the nearby Mauve Mountain facility, currently 6415m MSL, located at -0.5147 +167.5023 and land there fore topping up before final ascent to LEO. The launch platform therefore only has to be big enough to target for landing from nearby, plus contain a fuel depot and fuel trucks. I think 500x500m should be sufficient, thereby reducing the amount of earth-moving. So the the remaining question is still the key question. How high? Any advice about engines would also be helpful!? I guess this can be trial & error. My next step should probably be to get a dV budget and then make a preliminary space-glider design. Even just 7 kerbs in & out in an SSTO config would be outstanding, so I will start with that as a baseline. I have this funny feeling that everything about this project is going to be toad-ugly, except for the bottle of champagne at the end.