Frank_G

Just checked. They are stronger, dont wobble and no longer clip into the ground - Quite happy with the update!

Thanks a lot for your hard work Downloading now.

It has (around 5 km/s when fully loaded), but it will not only fly a mission to Duna, it will visit Ike as well. One additional transfer and capture can burn through reserves quite fast. I have never flown such a massive craft to Duna. Once i have all the data from the mission, i can start to optimize the craft and mission profile for things to come.

The lack of aerobraking capabilities of the transfer vehicle really created a fuel problem, questioning a safe return of the crew. A proper solution might be transporting the lander in a custom cargo rack with an inflatable heatshield, instead of an aeroshell. After the transfer vessel has reached a safe orbit, the lander is ejected together with the complete cargo rack. It can reuse the inflatable heatshield during its descent, making the originally planned aeroshell obsolete. Once reaching safe speeds, the cargo rack will be jettisoned, using some separatrons. I dont know, if this will be the final solution, but i will have to test it at least.

These here work fine in 1.1. The first one is available for download on my craftfile thread:

Like Exothermos said, a low Thrust-to-Weight-Ratio is good for an SSTO. While rockets need a TWR of 1.x, a SSTO spaceplane can successfully reach orbit with a TWR below 0.5. It only takes its time to get there. A key point in your ascent profile is breaking the sound barrier. This can be quite a challenge, if you fly a low TWR craft. Once you pass Mach 1 and reach altitudes above 10.000 m, the R.A.P.I.E.R engine really wakes up. If you cant pass 330 m/s while going up, it is no crime to take a little dive to build up speed. The design you have there, already looks capable. Try to exchange the two jet engines and your rocket engine for a single R.A.P.I.E.R. I dont want to fight you, Exothermos, but a single engine should be enough for such a small craft. The extra loss of mass will increase fuel efficiency for sure.

Your craft are very inspiring! I love the realistic and detailed approach you take in your builds. Hopefully we see a fix to the landing leg bug in the patch coming this week.

Yes, R.A.P.I.E.R.S are hungry, but they pack quite a punch. That is why you must throttle down immediately, once you switch the engine cycle. Usually you can go with one third throttle or less. That will increase your engines burn time. Continously throttle down more and more the higher and faster you get.

Very good tip! Try using a small single R.A.P.I.E.R engine design. Make sure your craft generates a lot of lift. Start with a design, that does nothing but to reach orbit. Once you know your stuff, add functionality and payload capacity. Check your flight profile. Go for a shallow ascent angle with constant acceleration. Built up hypersonic speeds, when getting close to an altitude of 20.000 m. Switch to rocket cycle, when close to 1.500 m/s and an altitude of roughly 23.000 m. Dont forget to close the air intakes. Slightly pull up and reduce throttle (but not too much - you need constant acceleration).

It already serves me well... the loading ramp really sits very accurate in place, using that hinge. I have simplified it a bit (only 3 thermometers per end and the crafts floor plating to keep it from falling to the ground) as i only need a single downward motion. The small size is awesome. It does not disturb the crafts geometry at all and fits into the payload bay at ease.

Your hinge not only works, it is also very reliable... incredible and simple design. But still i hope, we will get a controllable stock rotating joint some time in the future.

I just tested, strutting the landing legs to the craft. I can confirm, that it totally stops the jittering.

Horizontal landers are fun! So different to fly and so much more useful than vertical designs. And they look awesome. Thank you for showing your new hinge design. I will give it a try and i will try strutting the landing gear. Currently, the rear gear is kicking like a mule... Originally i had six motors in mind myself (inspired from the awesome NASA Constellation Mars Mission on YouTube), but i stripped two of them away, as i just dont need the thrust. The current design is already far too overpowered for such a small and light craft (got a TWR of 8 / 12.5 on Duna, so one LV-T45 engine would have been more than enough... but i want those large bells and lots of ´em). To assure equal fuel consumption, i have used 4 FL-T200 tanks, that feed fuel to the DAV tanks. That keeps the craft at balance and the DAV tanks full for ascent. I really hate, how deep the new landing gear sinks into the pad and the ground... totally unsure, how much clearance is needed below the craft, to not slam the engines into the ground... edit: Strutting the landing leg works like a charm! Thanks a lot

Flight and function tests of the Rhino Mk. II Konstellation lander. Landing & flight stability tests - On Kerbin the craft can perform not much more than a suicide burn, but it will be totally sufficient for Duna landings. Deployment and functionality test. Also batterie capacity and solar array efficiency have been checked, if they are sufficient to power the habitat for the duration of Dunas nights. Thank you! I hope to see some of your 1.1 Constellation craft some time :). I checked some of your craft, which used the "thermometer ant hinge". 1.1 seems to have different or buggy collision checks. THe landing gear is messed up for sure... it wobbles and it blows up some times... i hope we will see a hotfix on this issue soon.

Jebediah is testing the comfort functionality of the small habitat module in an overnight test. For testing purposes an unkerbaled rover has been loaded into the cargo bay of the Rhino Mk. II Konstellation lander. It will later be replaced by a 1 or probably 2 seated version, to carry scientists during surface missions.

Thank you very much! To answer your questions: it will not be a Constellation recreation mission. Yes, i use a lander that was heavily inspired by the Constellation mission and the Ares I will deliver the crew to orbit, but the transfer vehicle will be more close to Von Brauns Mars mission concept. The horizontal lander will sit on the front inside the fairing. The midship cargo rack will carry an Ike lander and if i can make the concept work right, i will take an assemblable solar ion glider along (the wings can be taken off - a second version has wings that break up into two parts each). It currently works, but not to a satisfying degree. The loading ramp is currently a separate craft. I have a münar lander, that has a deployable ramp that reattaches itself, using jr docking ports, but they take up too much space in a 2.5 m profile, like my Constellation lander. If you like to take a look, you can download the ramp subassembly here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/462a722pryr4gad/Loading%20Ramp.craft?dl=0 And thanks a lot for hinting me towards pushing the ramp down with a landing leg. I will give it a try

Added a working stock loading ramp to the lander. Now i need to figure out, how to redock it, after its being deployed. It doesnt need to close again, but i want it to be part of the craft again, after the deployment, so it can survive time warp and scene switching. Sadly, i will have to wait until the landing legs are fixed. As they are now, i cant determine the true deployment angle - or nothing to really rely on.

Closeup of the habitat / science module. The asymmetric arrangement allowed for a shorter storage profile. It might not be the most comfortable habitat, but the surface mission will only last a few days, so it will be sufficient.

Congratulations on this big achievement ! I remember the moment, getting my first SSTO spaceplane to orbit very well... yes... it limped into circular orbit too - and i needed to sent a rescue mission to return the pilot home, as it had no fuel for de-orbit... Found some time to continue work on the Von Braun / Constellation Duna Lander. I finally decided to move back from a 3.75 m to a 2.5 m profile again, as the large design only added weight and parts, without offering any massive increase in functionality. Here is the WIP, i´ve been working on over the week. The new 2.5 m lander with habitat / science section deployed and docked into place: Deploying Duna Ascent Vehicle cover - different thruster settings assure, that the cover moves safely away from the lander: Launching from the lander - The new DAV provides 1750 m/s of dV - my best and smallest 4 Kerbal DAV so far. Separatrons are propelling the DAV free of the lander, before main the engines ignite for orbital ascent:

Found some time to continue work on the Von Braun / Constellation Duna Lander. I finally decided to move back from a 3.75 m to a 2.5 m profile again, as the large design only added weight and parts, without offering any massive increase in functionality. Here is the WIP, i´ve been working on over the week. The new 2.5 m Duna Konstellation Mk. VII Landing vehicle: The habitat and science complex is transported in the rear payload bay. Rover wheels and a probe core allow fully automated deployment: Habitat / Science section deployed from its storage on the back of the lander and docked into place: Deploying Duna Ascent Vehicle cover - different thruster settings assure, that the cover moves safely away from the lander: Launching from the landing vehicle - The new DAV provides 1750 m/s of dV - my best and smallest 4 Kerbal DAV so far. Separatrons propel the DAV away from the lander, before the main engines ignite for orbital ascent: Next will be the construction of the surface rover. It will be fitted into the frontal payload bay.

Found some time to fiddle around in 1.1 and installed EVE and PlanetShine among other visual mods. The new GUI is fantastic, so is the performance and the stability... finally i can test craft without having to restart every second launch. Well done Squad! After installing the mods, i got back to my Constellation / Von Braun Duna mission and concentrated on the Duna Ascent Vehicle, that will bring the 2 Kerbonauts back to orbit. I wanted it to fit inside a 3.75 m profile without sticking out... And within a 3.75 m fairing:

For me it is working better than ever... Loads fast, no CTDs anymore, Visual enhancement mods work now (did not before, due to memory issues) and better ingame performance. iMac 27" late 2012, 3.5 gHZ i7, 32 gB RAM, 3 tB Fusion Drive, running OSX El Captain 10.11.4

I tried some different ascent vehicle configurations for my Constellation / von Braun mission, but did not find any satisfying solutions (i want its profile to fit within a 3.75m radius without the need to extend fairings outwards). And i was so into the task, that i missed the release of 1.1 X.x Cant wait to download this evening. Hopefully, my craft will import and work as intended. If not... Well its fun to rebuild too

I really did not expect this... Congratulations Squad! Thank you for all your effort and hard work. Cant wait to download and give it a test this evening

Forgot to say something on topic in my above post, so here we go: I build craft with mouse and keyboard. I also launch rockets and drive rovers with mouse and keyboard. Whenever the launching craft is somwhat close to a plane, spacplane or glider, i switch to joystick. Also maneuvering during docking procedures is more intuitive to me, when using a joystick. I own a SpacPilot Pro for 3D modelling, but i dont like playing Games with it... Tried with KSP and Elite... Its very precise and easy to use, but it just isnt giving the right feeling.