Caveman Tech SSTO Challenge

[Andetch]

I really need to work on my interplanetary travel techniques.... I tend to do one way journeys mostly, and I get impatient waiting for launch windows etc.... Mainly because I played on career mode mostly trying to build mass transit systems. I should probably do some sandbox playing to perfect these techniques! 

[Andetch]

You will have to take my word that I made SSTO and back.. didn't even plan to get as close to KSC as I did, it was only as I was gliding over the desert west of KSC at 30KM and 1900 m/s that I thought I would try and make it near KSC.... Crashed just short of the runway... but..... I have made another Spaceplane, similar to my first but as they say in Thailand, "same same but different" 

No way near getting to Duna though, only just makes orbit..... and in orbit you have to deal with the COM/COT differential..... but meh... enjoy.

 

[sevenperforce]

On 5/30/2018 at 1:31 AM, Gordon Fecyk said:

There's also a Turbo Pumped low tech special that can do a Mun flyby. How he got 650 m/s out of the Junos is beyond me.

 

 

Holy crap that was amazing.

[Andetch]

On 6/8/2018 at 4:11 AM, sevenperforce said:

Holy crap that was amazing.

Yeah, and I still haven't been able to re-create it!!! I hope from the inspiration you're working on an entry? 

[Muetdhiver]

Replicating what turbo pumped did is bloody hard. I did put 500 m/s of DV in lko and did reach 650 m/s above sea. But not with the same craft...

It seems to me that the aerodynamics and angle of attack has to be perfect, i.e. tge plane must fly with the nose to prograde and stay nearly horizontal. Then the juno can push above 430 and then things keep going up to 650. I was only able to do it with one craft, and when I changed something the magic was gone.

 

[Andetch]

2 hours ago, Muetdhiver said:

Replicating what turbo pumped did is bloody hard. I did put 500 m/s of DV in lko and did reach 650 m/s above sea. But not with the same craft...

It seems to me that the aerodynamics and angle of attack has to be perfect, i.e. tge plane must fly with the nose to prograde and stay nearly horizontal. Then the juno can push above 430 and then things keep going up to 650. I was only able to do it with one craft, and when I changed something the magic was gone.

 

I've tried recreating turbo pumped's design also. Never got anywhere near with my attempts... although I really want to see a caveman spaceplane on a Dina flyby seeing as ManEatingApe nearly got there. It must be possible. With the exact right transfer....

[sevenperforce]

Perhaps using "flaps" to vary wing AoA during prograde flight would help.

[Andetch]

1 hour ago, sevenperforce said:

Perhaps using "flaps" to vary wing AoA during prograde flight would help.

That sounds like FAR speak to me....

[Kesa]

If you are interested in reusability, fully recoverable TSTO are also possible, and probably offer greater playload, though lesser recovery % (like you describe, with chutes deployed while staging). Doing so, a lot of people tend to assume you should circularize before the first stage reenters the atmosphere, but the first stage actually does not disappear until as low as 35 km, which allows to make fairly balanced and stages and should increase playload ratio. One should be able to make fully recoverable single launch caveman Minmus lander that way.

https://prnt.sc/jumoe6

 

 

[Andetch]

14 hours ago, Kesa said:

like you describe, with chutes deployed while staging

What I mean by that is that the chute is set to deploy when I stage to break up my SSTO rocket, allowing the bottom part to come back to the surface without a probe core. 

14 hours ago, Kesa said:

If you are interested in reusability, fully recoverable TSTO are also possible

I do like reusable, recoverable stuff. But I like spaceplane designs more because they're so much harder to build at this tech level! Although, someone here has nearly got one to Duna, so maybe not as hard as I thought.