Frank_G

With patience and a lot of swearing... One of my old Laythe bases, built completely out of Constellation style landers - it was a total pain to land them that precise, but it can be done (after a series of reloads)... ...and a münar base complex - docked in small parts by the 8 wheeled vehicles you see there... All bases and vehicles are stock parts only.

Really an impressive recreation of the mission. Nice detailed craft you got there and it is always very inspiring to watch your movies and to take a look at your craftfiles. Thank you for sharing and keep on flyin´!

Yes. My most efficient SSTO had a TWR Below 0.4 and took almost 30 minutes to orbit and another 20 to land, but it lifted 40 tons to orbit on 6 R.A.P.I.E.R engines. Very cost efficient but it takes time and skill to get it through the soundbarrier. Since the new aero-model, it needs a bit of tweaking, but it (Morray Delta VI) can be downloaded on my craftfile thread in its original pre 1.2 form, if someone wants to take a look.

I am here since 0.20 and i really welcome the changes made in 1.2.2. Especially the new graphical updated parts, that could be downloaded two weeks ago are pretty cool. For me, the game starts to develop into the right direction.

Thank you :). I was about to give up, as this is the first working design after 19 failed attempts. That moment when you notice, that it will really go to space is priceless. I hope it will perform as good on Laythe. I havent been there for a year or more...

The curse of perfection - early and endless optimization is also known as the silent death in the graphic industry. Just set yourself a deadline and then release it, regardless of what you think you still need to do. At a certain point, all optimization that "needs" to be done is only for one self. 99.9% wont even see it, not even when it is fixed for you. And besides that, i am really thrilled to finally see your creation

An efficient SSTO with low TWR takes three to four times the time to orbit - or even more. If it is overpowered (like a rocket with large wings), you can almost achieve the same time like when launching a rocket. It wont be efficient in any ways, considering payload fraction and fuel usage, or in other words, totally pointless. If you want something up there fast use a rocket, if you want something up there with best fuel efficiency and a payload fraction between 30 and 50%, then use an SSTO.

My latest SSTO, designed to assist in an extended Laythe surface exploration. It will deliver standardized containers from orbit to the surface of Laythe and act as crew transfer shuttle after the delivery missions are done. In its current state, it can reach 110 km circular Kerbin orbit with fuel left for rendezvous and docking. It still lacks a docking port, but some minor changes and tweaks are still to come anyways. The craft will be available for download soon(tm).

When the SSTO goes down with its payload, it will be using almost no fuel, so it will be close to full, when on the surface. I have three containers, so at best, i will go without surface refueling equipment, as the space in those containers is very limited. Besides that, the mothership is pretty overpowered. There will be plenty of fuel available.

Its going to be a Jool-5 Tour, with an extended Laythe surface exploration. The SSTO is designed to bring equipment down to the surface. It will deliver standardized containers, that are filled with equipment, vehicles and other stuff and then return to orbit empty - after delivering all the equipment it will be fitted with a crew compartment and act as a shuttle between orbit and ground base.

Two optimization builds later... Form more polished, flight profile easier, fuel efficiency increased... reached 110 km circular orbit with some fuel left for orbital acrobatics. Now it needs a bit of RCS and solar arrays and the SSTO is good to go. Next step will be designing the payload containers and test, if the SSTO can deliver them from orbit to surface and get back up into orbit without the payload.

Well... not polished, not optimized, but... 100 km Kerbin orbit confirmed - what a tiny change in form can achieve... YES!!!! Happy now and off to meet some friends

Yes, the craft will be available for download when it is finished. And afterwards there might be another iteration, that will make it into the upcoming Jool-5 mission profile.

Thanks :D. Sadly it needs wings... The center of lift is too far to the front and taking away the frontal control surfaces makes it stay on the ground... The whole design still needs some serious work. 14 different designs have been tested so far. The last one however came close to orbit. Very close, but i will allow myself some time to rethink and get some fresh ideas. And then suddenly, a new idea manifests, that allows to keep the style while delivering more lift at the back end - without wings... I have time on sunday to build and test

Very nice sub. I like, that it carries two kerbals and is more compact. Those ore tanks, are they full to provide downforce or are they empty and used to keep the Sub above surface, once surfaced? My first design started with the Mk. I cabin as well, but it got too long. There is still a lot of optimization to be done in my design. Thanks for the tip with the light, but i never obstruct docking ports. The front light is angled towards the ground by purpose. If i go level and move ahead, i want to see, what is on the ground in front of me.

I got stuck with the SSTO design during the last days, so i decided to move on to another topic and give me some time to think and collect fresh ideas for the SSTO... Today, i built the first vehicle for the Laythe exploration, a mini-submarine with a decent set of science equipment. Here are the first impressions and a nice mood shot:

Thanks a lot. The shorter release intervalls of bugfixes and features is really refreshing. Great work!

I used this Lander for a Jool-5 mission. I landed on Tylo first, leaving the first stage behind and the remaining second stage had enough oomph for landing on the 3 other airless worlds. For Laythe an SSTO is by far the best solution. The Crater Flea, as i called it, is still available on my craftfile thread in the archive section, but many things have changed, since this mission. But it might give you some inspiration how to plan and build your own ascent vehicle.

Very nice and compact design. Well done!

I didnt know that. Thanks for pointing me there!

Nice first build, congratulations! Do you have an action group to close the air intakes? Closing them reduces drag on your way up and helps saving delta V.

Continued to experiment with form, function, stability and aerodynamics. It now is a little more stable, but still far from perfect, but it now has a built in crew capacity of four, a more defined form and a little better aerodynamic profile. However, i see no real chance of going without wings, so the next step will be, adding some detachable wings... There is no "real" part clipping going on here. I only clip structural parts and i used a jet fuselage, to cover those ugly rocket tanks (can be seen in the right view, where the tank border slightly clips the fuselage - i used a little offset to prevent z-fighting flicker).

There is no cargo bay, the container sits open under the belly. Aerodynamic effects are okay (maybe the container needs lifting surfaces as floor) - the critical thing this craft currently lacks, is stability in itself. It needs some space tape and a bit more lifting surfaces behind its center of mass. Maybe it will even have to be fitted with detachable wings, that will require orbital assembly, once being at the destination. edit - the aerodynamics are good. It doesnt generate much drag, according to the forces display, as the container is shielded by the front of the plane. The whole plane bends at high speeds, which leads to shaking parts and finally to dragging the SSTO off course, which is just fatal at hypersonic speeds.

I am trying to design an SSTO spaceplane for bringing the containers shown above and the mission crew down to the surface of Laythe (and the crew back up to orbit). This was the first idea and yes, it holds one of the containers... It gets off the ground with ease, but it currently tends to decorate large portions of the sky with part confetti and funny smoke trails, once it gets transsonic.

Here my latest Konstellation lander (stock). It can be downloaded from the Duna Trek thread (link in my sig). And a few older designs, i did during the early days: Tylo Lander (stock): Konstellation Type II (stock) - is available on my craftfile thread: Duna Lander (modded):