iLikeRovers

Maybe I shouldn't have used the word "fat", my intuition is that a vacuum optimised bell has a more slender shape proportionally, with a smaller nozzle exit angle so you minimise the component of non-axial (sideways) exhaust velocity. Its also proportionally a longer bell to best match the vacuum pressure like Scott Manley's excellent video mentioned. But I'm not a rocket engineer, so I might be wrong on some things! There's an interesting bit here on bell nozzle shapes. http://www.braeunig.us/space/propuls.htm

Great news! I wonder if it'll cope with Asparagus staging dV! The only other reason I really use Kerbal Engineer is for viewing PE and AP during flight mode, and ground radar height. (Though other readouts are very useful for tight suicide burn landings.) I wonder if these readouts are possible without overwhelming begginners?

I do like the more accurate bell shape, but it still seems a bit too fat. I mocked up a slender version.

What if all the companies were technically different but are really under the same programme, that way if one sub company fails the rest are protected. SpaceX is one example; https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/4ifvir/spacex_subsidiary_corporations/ Also lets not forget the way of the butterfly...

Generally 1.1. has been fine for me. Frame rate drops badly at launch unless I point the camera at the sky. I've had fun with the large rover wheel bug :

Is it this mountain that you are going up?

I'll leave this here (not my video) It looked like it had a dV in the region 130 000 m/s, but some staging damage did waste some.

@ March Unto Torment How easy is it to substitute the mod parts for stock parts? If the parts are similar capability then swaps should be ok?

Contrast is a bit low for the small drill on this picture. Maybe a well placed background galaxy on top of the standard background could work and be subtle enough. Plus the drill bit is clipped on the large drill.

The Mk4 space plane mod has some BadS cargo bays. It depends if you want to go down the non-stock route.

Hi cubinator, I couldn't help notice your overheating problems during re-entry. Like what boolybooly says, the angle of attack of the plane is really important, that's how you can massively increase your drag. It also spreads heat to other parts of the plane rather than just the front. I see in your explody pictures the angle of attack is almost zero. You should still have a high angle (about 30 degrees is good) as you go below 40 000m, and keep it there until you get below 1200 m/s in velocity. You should be able to get to that speed roughly above 15 000m in altitude. If your space plane can't hold that angle for you, check your centre of mass and centre of lift in the SPH, (check with full and empty fuel tanks), maybe add a canard. You won't need retrorockets or firing rockets in the atmosphere. Good luck and I like the look of your space plane, like a bat-space-plane!

Ah thanks, so its what it should be. I'll need to get an engineer aboard... (I rounded down the ore concentration number. )

What ore rate should a large drill have in optimal conditions where the ore concentration is 5.7%? I've got my SSTO space-plane on Minimus and currently my ore rate is 0.004287/sec. This happens even at 500K and plenty of Electric Charge available.

Ah yes, version 0.9, where you could cram air intakes to good effect. 1.x has a different air intake model. It looks like its limited not only by altitude but speed.

I played around with Mk3 Hypersonic Systems in my no-heat sandbox game. It was fun figuring out how to tweak the config files to get a faster jet. You need to modify the rapier and the ram air intake config files. I commented out the default values. GameData/Squad/Parts/Engine/rapierEngine/rapierEngine.cfg GameData/Squad/Parts/Aero/ramAirIntake/ramAirIntake.cfg airCurve I think is engine performance depending on the altitude and machCurve controls the air intake performance depending on the speed. velCurve I think controls the engine power output depending on the speed. So you can see in the chart how there's no way a stock rapier can get you to 6000m/s (mach 18). So you need to modify the config files. (I copied the scram jet's airCurve) Cheaty result with overpowered stock parts: You keep running out of planet, so I recommend a mod for that.