Maelstrom Vortex

Anyone be willing to help me on a design that carries a massive payload, makes it into space, but not quite into orbit? If you are.. pm me.. I'll let you see the .craft file on what I've got so far and we can go for a shared award and perhaps the most awesome spaceplane built for v 1.0 because I intend on it being able to do EVERYTHING... literally. You'll see.

She can't get orbit, but she gets close. Any suggestions on improvements? Reminds me a lot of a b-52 the way I've mounted the nacelles. Also, she can do just about anything, including mine resources.. see craft file. PS: She carries a massive and fairly unique payload. She survived re-entry without even using her drogue shoots on a 10 - 20 degree up-angle glide slope. However, her flaps burnt off her on the the wings on the way in. Link

I almost got a space train to orbit in the form of a boeing sized SSTO.. why are people having trouble hitting orbit? Including craft file.. may need to add a booster but may be the most useful craft I've built to date. Don't know how well it's going to handle re- entry though.. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94022667/Public%20site%20hosting/ksp/Prototype%20Shuttle.craft Hit about 350 meters per second off the runway then pull into a vertical assent slowly. Suggestions on improvement to the design to nudge it into orbit and make for a nice descent profile would be welcome.

Launch it from run way at max speed and watch it fly straight to mach 1 and disintegrate

Behold the Dragon Station. Capable of docking with other stations and tanker craft to form even larger stations with dedicated launch vehicles, science station, habitation, and enough fuel to refuel pretty much any space craft you can imagine including all fuel types... Technically, there are 3 of them in this video... I will upload craft file when I get home. All stock. They have been to Mun and to Duna and probably have the range to go much further but I've not tried.. yet. Getting that many together, causes a TON of lag btw. Enough docking access ports to support a fleet of a variety of sized ships from probe to tanker. Docking port approaches are actually color coded by light. Blue for Tankers, Red for Standard, Green for Jr.

Welp, I went with an extended flying wing, but I couldn't keep it simple for this. I went for utility. The space plane I have assembled can perform every scientific mission at least twice and carries a probe payload which it can carry into orbit. More interesting, the probe payload can make its descent from the space plane to the surface of the moon from 500KM altitude. I was testing it last night so I could do the missions and take photos today and confirmed its capabilities. It can also land precisely anywhere somewhat flat on Kerbin. I have been forced to rediscover Imgur. (Thanks to all who gave me imgur info!) I think I may have made the most useful spacecraft in the history of Kerbal. It also has an inline docking port behind the cockpit and can dock with orbital stations and bodies. Craft file: The Dart So is there a prize for delivery probe to and recovering same probe from a surface in a foreign sphere of influence and then returning with it and docking without the aid of thrusters on an internal bay? Craft action groups: 1: Ion engines 2: Turobjet 3: Rocket Ascent pattern: Run turbojets to 40-44k meters, engage rocket and keep turobjet on and run on low thrust power until about 50k feet then kick over to pure rocket and throttle up. Ions may be used for additional kick to conserve oxidizer. Be sure to turn off the probe's ion engines at launch or you'll be wasting precious xenon!

I just made 2370 meters/second in an aircraft, something I didn't even think possible in KSP using base parts.. I was just using a trubo jet engine. I'm going to see if I can tweak it slightly for this challenge That's it at a slightly lower altitude down from apogee. That's it near max speed. It should definitely make space with a little bit of LOX fuel and a rapier. I like simple, clean designs.

Forgot to note, .90 for mine, updated.

You might get better performance and lift out of the lighter composite wings. Solar panels could also give you better range if battery is the limitation.

Build an intra-solar highway with a fuel tank/space station around each major orbital body and then fuel them all up to 100% payload capacity.

You have a thrust imbalance caused by dropping oxygen intake to one of the engines. Dropping your overall throttle causes both engines to consume less and brings them back in balance. Any jet which has 2 engines or more will have this problem even when very closely stacked. The only solution is to throttle back, or use one engine. You can delay this from happening until higher altitudes by using more air intakes, but only ram intakes and shock cones are very effective at above about 25K meters. Personally, I find this choking mechanism a good reason to justify only ever using one turbojet. The single turbojet will slowly drop off on its own without throwing you into the spin because the thrust isn't imbalanced. However, to max performance of a single turbojet you can still start cutting back on the throttle after around 30k feet to keep it from flaming out and prolong its ability to burn, just at a lower rate. Other solutions are to use a mix of jets and rockets and once the jets start chocking turn off all but the centerline jet until your last remaining engine cuts out and then kick in the rockets to punch you out of atmosphere.

It looks like you're orbiting in the wrong direction. Try to reverse it while keeping altitudes the same. Check and see if the small dots on the orbital path desired are moving in the same direction your craft is traveling.

I have used both mk2 and mk3 cargo bays for vertical launches. I think you're suggesting Mk1 cargo bays horizontal cylindrical cargo bays that can open from bottom after launch and stage separation. Suggested Work around for now: Invert mk 2 cargo bay and use a structural radial point connector to attach it facing down. Put another structural radial point connector inside the bay also facing down below the lander or on the ends of the cargo bay. Connect a small docking port to radial connector in either of these locations. Put a small docking port on the rover facing the way you want it to connect inside the bay. Use structural supports to stabilize the rover while inside the bay until you disconnect it if necessary. Use fairly long landing gear or connect the landing gear to the mk2 bay as the bottom of the lander itself to ensure that once you touch down, open the bay, and undo the docking port the rover drops out without difficulty. Use radial point connectors on the far ends of the bay to connect lower stages to it for launch.

It wouldn't be hard to implement I imagine. I would simply like a feature that would allow me to sort contracts by particular features, like due date, pay out, location, and type. That way I can elect to perform them in the order of my choosing.

I consider this mod essential for docking particularly large craft at odd angles

Go for ion, even better payouts.

You.. can tweak your own payouts? Or intentionally disregard excessive contracts?

And they thought the grind was bad NOW... lol.

Trust me, I've had many aircraft that have flown like lawn darts and in almost every situation the problem simply wasn't enough lift towards the front of the craft to help haul up the weight of the forward chasis and keep it pointed in that direction. I have over 525 hours invested in this game so far.. I've experienced things that just based on description can probably tell you what the cause is. Sure, he hadn't posted any pictures, but he didn't need to. I could tell just based on the description. It's either that, or I'm psychic, you pick. I wish to note.. his pictures.. PROVED ME PERFECTLY CORRECT.. the center of lift was sooo far to the rear it's hilarious. Truth is while having a center of mass near lift is important, even more important is having just enough lift in general for both halves of the aircraft to keep the craft on an evenly balanced trajectory when in level flight. You can't really overpower lift. It just results in more control It increases fuel costs so not good for career designs, but you can always stack on more engines unless you're in one of the realism sims. I prefer to build practically though. So in summary, yes.. yes... I knew exactly what I was talking about.

I personally find the career mode just right on normal mode. Gives me objectives and I've done things I've never done before, like having a true ion probe skimming the surface of the moon at not more than 9000km. I was once afraid I'd crash flying that low.

I have a simple solution to your lawndart problem. Position some leading canards near the front end of the aircraft to control initial contact air flow to lift your front end. I noticed most of your craft have a lot of back heavy control surfaces.. you need a couple of forward control surfaces.

Welcome. I just stick to low weight easy maneuver satellites for such missions. Try my probe, seriously, you'll be amazed at how ridiculously easy they are using it. Atop that, the launch vehicle is recoverable, minimizing mission expenses.

Make good use of maneuvering thrusters as well. When a small touch is needed, a low mass low thrust are key. That's why I use ion engines and monopropellant thrusters exclusively for my temperature satellites. I just did this mission earlier today and still had enough xenon left over to bring my orbit to 10km ap / 10 km periap on a perfectly polar orbit so I can use it for temperature contracts indefinitely. Try using this, launched from a mk 2 cargo bay with a docking clamp to get it into orbit. Undock in in orbit, fly by ions to destination and probe forever. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94022667/Public%20site%20hosting/ksp/Temperature%20Probe.craft Seems that's the whole launch vehicle and probe, but I think you'll appreciate it, all stock.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/33312-Showcase-SSTO-s%21-Post-your-pictures-here?p=1639917&viewfull=1#post1639917 Big Bus Betty.. before I tweak her for this challenge... (she's currently cargo configured). Only mod is over-sized landing gear. - - - Updated - - - Big Space Plane Betty, 16 dual cycle ramjets, 8 shock cone intakes, multiple side inlets. Tons of fuel. Probably can make it to the moon, but for got solar panels, so will update on attempt two after I add a few renewable power sources. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94022667/Public%20site%20hosting/ksp/Space%20Plane.craft The little red dot in the right is her sister, the shuttle, orbiting nearby. Ohh, missed the Kerobodyne tank requirement. Will fix that too. - - - Updated - - - And.. final entry, Kerbodyne Betty, who will probably make it to the moon if not beyond: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94022667/Public%20site%20hosting/ksp/KerbodyneBettty.craft - - - Updated - - - What about mun and minmus? - - - Updated - - - Deorbiting right above the space center with plenty of fuel to land... I am sad to report that the game suspended the plane before it could reach the space port to land. As I was making the turn to bring it around, the craft suddenly went to 0 airspeed and hung in the air..... and won't move.. Although it is consuming fuel and the jets are running, is so strange. Strangely, it let me recover the craft as if it were on the launchpad and said it was on the launch pad in the flight monitor screen *scratches head*.

Behold Big Bus Betty, the probe and station deployer: Some brief stats: 8 shock cone intakes, 8 dual cycle ramjets, 8 side vent intakes, and all stock with no part clipping except the landing gear which are modified stock landing gear resized to x2 size. Makes orbit with little fuel left over, but I suspect if I wanted to put a booster stage behind her she'd go a very long ways. Mk 3 regular + shortened cargo hold makes for large object carrying. Can carry the default stock space station core. Forgot to add solar panels, really should do that. Makes use of what I cal two "fuel wings" basically a pair of mk2 bodies on the outside of the mk3 with the front and back having the dual inlet/outlet attachment points on the mk 2 ends. Add a couple of bi-coupler stacking joints to the nose of those turned vertical by 90 degrees and you can put 8 nose cones on the front of them allowing breathing to up to 30kkm before rockets kick. Nosecone is a regular docking port. Could double as a station itself if I added a few solar panels. Craft file if you want to check out my designs.: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94022667/Public%20site%20hosting/ksp/Shuttle.craft You will need these parts: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94022667/Public%20site%20hosting/ksp/MyCustomParts.rar Which includes small, medium, and large landing gears. Just un-rar to your game data folder.