STOCK MK3 SSTA Spaceplane - KSS Voyager

[selfish_meme]

This is the KSS Voyager, it's mission to boldly go where many Kerbals have gone before, just better. It is a completely stock MK3 spaceplane that can single stage to orbit from Kerbin and any smaller worlds. It can land like a regular plane in atmosphere or also VTOL on any rocky body in the system, I think even Tylo (not tested yet, I'll get back to you). It can refuel itself and return to Kerbin again. I even think it can SSTO, land again and then SSTO again (again not tested, the dV is there though). It is super easy to SSTO on Kerbin, almost boring you could say. Below is a video showing ascent from Kerbin and descent on Duna, enjoy. I hope @SpaceplaneAddict gets a chance to test it for SCF this week.

To SSTO from Kerbin, Rapiers on and full pelt for the end of the runway, don't bother trying to lift off before your wasting time and fuel, before the end of the runway, RCS on for a little helping hand, it's not strictly necessary but you will save yourself a few heart pounding moments, then full up just before you leave the runway. Keep the nose rising until you can stabilise at the 15' mark, RCS off. Leave it there until about 5000m, if you have not broken 400ms by now shallow out a bit to about 5' until you have and then steepen to 10'+ and let it go. It's a pretty hands off operation. You should reach around 1000ms by 10km, if not shallow a bit, if so let it go, let it go, I have two girls can you tell? Now you want to keep rising and go as fast as possible by 20km, at 20km get ready to hit action group 1. You should be lined up just above the prograde marker by now, right click one of the rapiers and check the thrust, it will be dropping past 200kn by now. Keep an eye on your speed it's probably still ticking over multiple digits, when it slows to ticking over single digits it's time to switch mode on the rapiers with action group 1, probably at about 23km. Change your SAS to follow the prograde marker and wait for you apoapsis to hit the desired height. Personally I don't want to run out of oxidiser because I might need it to land on another world so about 82km seems about right. Once you have reached over 50km in height and drag is not an issue action group 2 to open the rear bay and ramp, action group 3 to turn on the nukes, action group 4 to turn off the rapiers. You should only have at most a couple of hundred ms to circularise and we can do this on the nukes, it's about a minute and a half burn. You can deploy the radiators with action group 5 before turning the nukes on. I have found that timewarping instantly heats the radiators up, I don't know why, don't worry they will be OK for the burn.

Excellent! Now you are in orbit you need to decide where to go, with 3200ms you can go a lot of places.

PSA you want to land on fairly flat terrain, sloping slightly downwards or upwards is fine as long as it is not sideways.

Download

Action Groups

1. Switch Mode on Rapiers

2. Open Rear Cargo Ramp and Rear Cargo Bay

3. Toggle Nuclear Engines

4. Toggle Rapiers

5. Toggle Radiators

6. Toggle Airbrakes

7. Open VTOL/Mining Cargo Bay Doors

8. Toggle VTOL Engines

9. Toggle Solar Panels

0. Toggle Ladders

 

*Note I use SSTA in it's casual form not it's literal, though it can undoubtedly get to Eve, it's not coming back.

Edited March 7, 2016 by selfish_meme

[He_162]

Ingenious.

[PointySideUp]

Pretty cool SSTA!  Downloaded, will fly it soon!

[EdusacconBR]

people do SSTAs that go to duna and beyond while i cant make a simple ssto xD
repped!  

[Redshift OTF]

Nice solid space plane that.

Quick question. How do you have clouds and sea that beautiful? I have the scatterer mod, (I guess an older one), but no clouds and the sea is a stock texture.

[selfish_meme]

4 hours ago, Redshift OTF said:

Nice solid space plane that.

Quick question. How do you have clouds and sea that beautiful? I have the scatterer mod, (I guess an older one), but no clouds and the sea is a stock texture.

I am using stock scatterer, the newest one does the waves and provides memory savings, it's worth upgrading to, and stock EVE for clouds, but my ground terrain is KSPRC

Edited March 6, 2016 by selfish_meme

[selfish_meme]

I have updated the download to add a couple more struts, the rear two cargo bays are a weak spot, also tweaked ladders to make it possible to get in and out on Kerbin or other high gravity world

Edited March 6, 2016 by selfish_meme

[selfish_meme]

Did not pack my undies for the Duna ascent, it's a little tricky, thanks to the higher TWR and RCS you can lift off at around 100ms which is good, go for a steeper climb of about 25'+ and get ready to open the bays and light up the nukes. I run out of oxidiser with an apoapsis of about 55km, I used the nukes to push it up to 60km and then circularised. Was not expecting the rapiers to quit so quickly, you might want to consider going light on the LF getting off Duna so you can save some oxidiser for landing on Ike to refuel, otherwise it's off to an oxygen world to land, which won't be hard as you have 4200ms of dV to burn.

Edited March 7, 2016 by selfish_meme

[PointySideUp]

I got to orbit easily, and landed on Minmus with less than 100 m/s dV remaining!  I was almost a little too cautious landing it for the first time.  Back in Minmus orbit now, probably head to Duna next.

 

[selfish_meme]

40 minutes ago, PointySideUp said:

I got to orbit easily, and landed on Minmus with less than 100 m/s dV remaining!  I was almost a little too cautious landing it for the first time.  Back in Minmus orbit now, probably head to Duna next.

 

Cool Duna is a bit more challenging, was it aerospike dV you were low on, I can't imagine using all the lf going to Minmus

[PointySideUp]

Yeah, ran out of oxidizer, but was also a little low on LF from some sloppy flying, and a lot of course tweaks, and almost too cautious slowing for my first landing.  Def more a piloting issue   

[selfish_meme]

How was taking off from minmus?

[selfish_meme]

I'm just about to leave Duna and head for Ike, I have no Oxidiser but I am going to try and land it anyway, tail first and then flip onto the vernors

Edited March 7, 2016 by selfish_meme

[Guest]

I like the use of the cargo ramp.

[selfish_meme]

Suicide burn setup, maybe I should live stream this, lol, everyone can see me create a big explosion on Ike

I also seem to be pointed for the Central Mountain Ranges, that does not seem like a good thing

Oh no I overwarped by about 10 seconds, this could be a short journey

spamming the mono at the moment

Edited March 7, 2016 by selfish_meme

[PointySideUp]

1 hour ago, selfish_meme said:

How was taking off from minmus?

Not bad at all, I used the nukes with a blast or two from the rapiers to gain a little altitude

[selfish_meme]

I didn't make it, all crew survived so I now have 4 Kerbals who need rescuing, I'll put a video up later of the final moments. I was very close, only moving at about 10ms but I could not get the nose down fast enough to make contact with the wheels first, I thought I had made it with only minimal damage (the tail planes came off), and the speed readout was only showing 4.5ms, but something broke and a tank exploded.

[selfish_meme]

I'm now thinking about landing legs inside the cargo ramp, I might move the drill there too, so you can drill in horizontal or vertical landing mode, Voyager II!

Edited March 7, 2016 by selfish_meme

[PointySideUp]

Darts don't seem to be bound to 8 on mine

On 3/6/2016 at 10:08 PM, selfish_meme said:

8. Toggle VTOL Engines

 

[selfish_meme]

1 minute ago, PointySideUp said:

Darts don't seem to be bound to 8 on mine

 

strange, you have the bays open on action group 7 yes?

[PointySideUp]

Yes, bays open, no darts toggle.  Same in the SPH, nothing in AG8

[selfish_meme]

Didn't you just land on Minmus with them?

3 minutes ago, PointySideUp said:

Yes, bays open, no darts toggle.  Same in the SPH, nothing in AG8

I'll check them a bit later, I went through them with the latest update on KerbalX, and they were definitely there

[PointySideUp]

5 minutes ago, selfish_meme said:

Didn't you just land on Minmus with them?

Nope, no oxidizer.  And I used the Rapiers because the Darts didn't engage. 

[selfish_meme]

um 

10 minutes ago, PointySideUp said:

Nope, no oxidizer.  And I used the Rapiers because the Darts didn't engage. 

on minmus the rapiers would be using oxidiser too, it must be in the ftl-800's and not in the main tank

Edited March 7, 2016 by selfish_meme

[PointySideUp]

Well, I used the last of the oxidizer in Kerbin orbit, nukes the rest of the way until landed on Minmus.  After refueling, I could use rockets again, but no Darts, used Rapiers.  I just downloaded it again, still not in AG8.  No big deal, I added it to my copy in my SPH   Noticed 3 not bound for nukes too  

 

Edited March 7, 2016 by PointySideUp