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SSTOs! Post your pictures here~


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Here's my first attempt at an SSTO in KSP 1.0. It unexpectedly worked on the first try, though it did reach orbit with very little DeltaV left (22m/s). I also successfully reentered and landed without the use of airbrakes or parachutes to survive the heat, this was done using S-turns and a kind of skipping reentry.

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1) CoM ahead of the CoL at all fuel levels; check.

2) Decent wing surface; check.

3) TWR > 1.5 at mach 0.9 and 10km; check.

That's all you need for nuStock :) The landing was a bit of a nose dive; need to move the chutes forward, clearly they're behind the dCoM, hence the destroyed intakes.

All of a sudden I'm loving 1.0.2 for the silliness factor. I suspect 1.0 would have been just as good, but at least this sort of nonsense is still viable :cool:

Well, you also need a bit more rocket delta-v than you used to (about 1.5km/s), but yeah, not that hard in the end, especially now that the heat barrier has been seriously nerfed (I just tried 1.02 and polished up the Dart design some more still looking for those horrible issues everybody talks about :P). Same payload and performance as the 0.90 one, only twice the oomph (and much more fuel!). The best part is it can now brave Duna up-and-down if refueled for the job with 100% LFO mix, and I think part count will remain at 50.

kH8t32p.png

Rune. I'd like it to be my first 1.0 release, but career is sucking all my time, starting from scratch and all that. SO. MUCH. FUN. :D

- - - Updated - - -

Ah yes, hi Rune

Youre right, im not english native, and my wrighting is maybe simple/silly because im not used to it a lot...

I hope nobody feels disrespected about that... i am able to speak about seven latin or indogerman languages and

one exotic. I am from Finnland, and my head is sometimes confused about... the right words and... grammatics.

So i take it easy and say as i feel.

I can hardly differ english slangs from each other, americans are allways fun to read.

I try not to judge People, either for actual behaviour nor generally... or other subjectiv impressions.

Greetings MIKKI

Well at least I was within a 5,000 kms error ellipse, right? :blush: Anyhow, just idle curiosity, I understand perfectly well how writing in a foreign language is not as easy as it may seem to a native speaker (that is also perfectly right to widen his eyes slightly when someone does something weird, like I'm sure I have a lot of times). Still, as long as we understand each other, right?

Edited by Rune
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I started another thread with this SSTO (my first 1.0.2 SSTO and my first personally-designed one... I usually just steal Rune's awesome designs for my game), but I thought I'd post it here for comments:

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Comments and suggestions always welcome!

Edited by MinorInconvenience
typo patrol
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I started another thread with this SSTO (my first 1.0.2 SSTO and my first personally-designed one... I usually just steal Rune's awesome designs for my game), but I thought I'd post it here for comments:

http://imgur.com/a/pmizm

Comments and suggestions always welcome!

Well, with that reference, you at least get a comment from me :)

It looks pretty, that's for sure, but there's no craft that can't benefit from a critical look, so... maybe a bit less thrust? As long as you can break Mach 1 at 10kms, you are fine, and each RAPIER you take out is a couple tons extra payload. I'm thinking maybe three could be enough for that weight class (my White Dart 1.0 is probably overpowered too by at least 25%).

Other than that, the control surfaces on the wings look to be really close to the CoM. Use them only for roll control, since they won't add much pitch torque and they will steal lift and increase drag when they try to pitch you up. Or just make the wing bigger and take them out, to get enough roll authority you can usually make do with the pod's reaction wheels. If you are lacking pitch authority (doubtful, the new aero system lets you get away with very little), canards should work wonders in a tail-heavy design like that one, and you can sink them into the cockpit for a flush look, that still works like before (occlusion is only done for stuff inside cargo bays and/or connected by nodes).

Rune. Hope that helps for the next one!

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It looks pretty, that's for sure, but there's no craft that can't benefit from a critical look, so... maybe a bit less thrust? As long as you can break Mach 1 at 10kms, you are fine, and each RAPIER you take out is a couple tons extra payload. I'm thinking maybe three could be enough for that weight class (my White Dart 1.0 is probably overpowered too by at least 25%).

Tbh, anywhere that I'd end up with an odd number of rapiers, I'd favour a turbojet as the odd number; that low-speed thrust will kick the whole thing through the mach barrier during ascent, then the rapiers can take over with their meaty high-speed power delivery :)

Putting a turbo onto my Scuttler turns it into one of the most brutal things I can imagine surviving the trip to space, just aim at 30 degrees the moment you're off the tarmac and hands off. With 5 rapiers, it'll bumble up to the mach threshold and sort of hesitantly knock on the door before finally crossing.

Seriously tempted by some turbo/nuke clipping shenanigans to have the best of both worlds on a symmetrical engine layout ¬_¬

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It looks pretty, that's for sure, but there's no craft that can't benefit from a critical look, so... maybe a bit less thrust? As long as you can break Mach 1 at 10kms, you are fine, and each RAPIER you take out is a couple tons extra payload. I'm thinking maybe three could be enough for that weight class (my White Dart 1.0 is probably overpowered too by at least 25%).

Other than that, the control surfaces on the wings look to be really close to the CoM. Use them only for roll control, since they won't add much pitch torque and they will steal lift and increase drag when they try to pitch you up.

I was experimenting with only three engines previously, but getting it balanced and looking nice was... not happening for me. And since I am still getting about a 10% payload fraction (not including passengers) with the 4x engine configuration, I am hesitant to try and mess with it.

Excellent point about pitch control surfaces on the main wing near the CoM! That was foolish of me now that I think about it in lever-fulcrum terms. I am now wondering how much speed that drag I was creating cost me on my last orbiting attempt....

Thanks for the feedback!

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Well at least I was within a 5,000 kms error ellipse, right? :blush: Anyhow, just idle curiosity, I understand perfectly well how writing in a foreign language is not as easy as it may seem to a native speaker (that is also perfectly right to widen his eyes slightly when someone does something weird, like I'm sure I have a lot of times). Still, as long as we understand each other, right?

I just gave you a heartly REP on your own "slightly used..." Threadin your adds...:wink:

To all who look for a very different, realistic and functional Attempt of building Planes, i can highly recommend RUNES Thread...

While looking your Thread i burned a Lasagne in the Oven...

I made from beginning on my own Vernor Thrusterblocks attached to a little Girder, maybe youve seen it...

I guess i forgot to tell the People that my K 176 requires the "SUPERDUCTTAPE" provided by Kerbal Joint Reinforcement Mod...:blush:(DONE)

Yesterday i tried it without, and it barely spontaeniously dissassembelt on the Runway, so Jeb and Doodock went back to

the KSC Mensa to have a... Snack. I got to reorder KJR, or my brave Kerbonauts will become only the more unwilling as they allready are...

My next Goal is to make something like in your very first Pic of your Thread... mine is a sturdy Whale in comparison to yours.

All the best MIKKI

Edited by Mikki
(Lawn mowing issue, DONE)
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Finally!!

B4D10A608EDB8ACD6A688AF536612969EAEA998C

Made it to orbit with this thing, 120t at the runway. 6 rapiers, 4 turbojets, 2 nukes, loads of clipping and 36t of "cargo". Need to rearrange the fuselage and include that extra section...

Edit: Turns out that adding lenght to the fuselage increases drag more than sacrificing cargo space. Can make it to orbit with about 20t of cargo without that. Mechjeb reports drag coefficient of 7.5 on the runway. Is there a plugin for calculating drag in 1.02?

Edited by Radam
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Turns out that everything I'm working on right now is a SSTO of one kind or another:

A liquid fuel-only SSTO! Pure joyride with an ungodly TWR on airbreathers.

GSorA20.png

A handy general purpose shuttle with 18mT payload! Perfect for base modules from my pack, while fulfilling tourism contracts to LKO.

Z50qaGY.png

The big guy of the pack, this is how 40mT payloads will get to orbit, once I polish reentry.

qKueIDl.png

And of course... my signature bird, the Dart:

cIDNETE.png

It will be a long time before they are polished, tough.

Rune. Probably just in time forme to unlock the RAPIERs on career.

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Turns out that everything I'm working on right now is a SSTO of one kind or another:

As is right and proper ;) Lovely crop of ships, smooth and sleek as we have come to expect from RSUV.

It will be a long time before they are polished, tough.

Rune. Probably just in time forme to unlock the RAPIERs on career.

I'm secretly hoping that by then, the aero will have been dialled back to 1.0, with the heating issues sorted. At which point all your designs will be marvellously powerful! :)

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As is right and proper ;) Lovely crop of ships, smooth and sleek as we have come to expect from RSUV.

I'm secretly hoping that by then, the aero will have been dialled back to 1.0, with the heating issues sorted. At which point all your designs will be marvellously powerful! :)

You know what? I'm secretly hoping the same thing. Right now the margin is quite thin on some of them! :)

- - - Updated - - -

I was experimenting with only three engines previously, but getting it balanced and looking nice was... not happening for me. And since I am still getting about a 10% payload fraction (not including passengers) with the 4x engine configuration, I am hesitant to try and mess with it.

Excellent point about pitch control surfaces on the main wing near the CoM! That was foolish of me now that I think about it in lever-fulcrum terms. I am now wondering how much speed that drag I was creating cost me on my last orbiting attempt....

Thanks for the feedback!

I almost didn't catch that. Tip for the balancing part: KER has a nice "thrust torque" indicator that you can access in the VAB. That and the translation gizmo, and balancing a design is a breeze, just zero that number.

I just gave you a heartly REP on your own "slightly used..." Threadin your adds...:wink:

To all who look for a very different, realistic and functional Attempt of building Planes, i can highly recommend RUNES Thread...

While looking your Thread i burned a Lasagne in the Oven...

I made from beginning on my own Vernor Thrusterblocks attached to a little Girder, maybe youve seen it...

I guess i forgot to tell the People that my K 176 requires the "SUPERDUCTTAPE" provided by Kerbal Joint Reinforcement Mod...:blush:

Yesterday i tried it without, and it barely spontaeniously dissassembelt on the Runway, so Jeb and Doodock went back to

the KSC Mensa to have a... Snack. I got to reorder KJR, or my brave Kerbonauts will become only the more unwilling as they allready are...

My next Goal is to make something like in your very first Pic of your Thread... mine is a sturdy Whale in comparison to yours.

All the best MIKKI

Saw that, thanks! :)

Rune. And off to bed. It's about time!

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I loved it so much that I copied KerrMü's Shinden and adapted it for 1.0. (I hope you don't mind KerrMü!)

http://i.imgur.com/gKmnvWd.png

If I mind? Are you crazy? I LOVE it!

And I´m so happy right now that you liked my design that much. And you just proved, that such crafts are possible in 1.0. Awesome! :D

Sorry for the late reply, but I´ve playing career mode lately and didn´t follow the forum.

I think I have to start a SSTO sandbox save tomorrow. ;)

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If I mind? Are you crazy? I LOVE it!

And I´m so happy right now that you liked my design that much. And you just proved, that such crafts are possible in 1.0. Awesome! :D

Sorry for the late reply, but I´ve playing career mode lately and didn´t follow the forum.

I think I have to start a SSTO sandbox save tomorrow. ;)

I tried to recreate your craft and I cant do it justice sadly...for some reason something is causing too much drag which causes it to go no faster than 200m/s which isn't enough to get some altitude at all. I will keep working on it! I cant give up! Its too awesome looking of a craft not to try replicate. Reminds me of the X shuttle nasa was working on way back but gave up on.

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In attempting to replicate Frozen_Heart's SSTO, I built this:

ZMrrIRf.png

The thing is SUPER unstable on reentry and it takes special care not to go into a flatspin, but it does haul almost 6 tons to orbit.

Also it looks sorta like an Anvil Gladiator.

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So as soon as I read that nukes don't need oxidizer anymore, I was trying to make a no-ox SSTO, but I just wasn't getting the TWR I needed to circularize after climbing out of the explosion-zone.

The thought process here went along the lines of, "I need ~1000dV in a hurry without oxidizer." (Also, I learned that shock cones are excellent nose cones, on par with the NCS system and a reversed tail.)

78M5AmZ.jpg

Re-entry was strangely fine - I took it pancake-mode and didn't even get any atmospheric effects or heating! However, I was in the middle of the ocean with 35L of fuel...

Oooh. Sleek.

Built this before work this morning...

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/37496931407527879/C66786398FDC28AEA82673496FFDD53B60210766/

It's a small liquid fuel only SSTO (no oxidizer). Will probably continue to refine the design tonight but for the moment it gets there and has fuel to spare...

You make it look so easy. :(

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