Foxster

Was just applying a bit of logic - there is nothing like a comment denigrating women to flush 'em out. [i have no idea how to talk to women.]

[i have no idea how to talk to women.]

Just another way... Planned to land just the can but I had plenty of dV so landed it all using the chute and the engine.

No. Kinda against the point of the challenge.

Considered using Vernor Engines for the non-ion thrust? They are massless and Mechjeb will use them as engines if there's no other thrust. Have to careful to turn them off when steering and they seem act a tad weird but I did put a tiny craft to orbit with them after the jet had died. Downside is that the ISP is not great.

Very nice, numerobis. There's definitely some stuff there I don't know about yet. Like gravity boosts. I'd had another go at this and got it down around 14t but your's blows that right out of the water. So congrats and you are the winner (so far).

Just admire it for the engineering. Flies brilliantly, goes to 50km+ on jets, has a shed load of dV in orbit, etc. ...or the Sierra Sausage that can put a probe in orbit around a body and fly on home:

Ah, you are probably right, but I gotta build it to be sure. Its being an engineer, if you aint spannered it yourself, it aint true

Not quite awake here but was just reading about ion engines and had a thought...The pain with them is the huge electricity requirements. This makes scaling up their use pretty impractical.You run out of room for solar panels. But many other engines generate electricity. Would it make any sense to have a light engine with high vacuum ISP ticking over to generate electricity to power ion engines? ---- Only slightly more awake...forgot that we have one throttle control, so couldn't have a liquid fuel engine ticking over and the ions on full blast.

When I've had annoyances like this its usually been down to some invisible imbalance. Perhaps caused by using mirror rather than radial symmetry (or is it the other way around?) when placing a couple of parts. Often seems to creep in on a multi-revision aircraft i.e. one that's been tinkered with a lot. Only fix then being to start from scratch.

OK, its not a spaceplane but I like it...

Umm, OK, but the challenge isn't about making a cute looking craft, its about making an efficient one.

A little more tweaking and we have 1.956t... Gotta luv that orbit shot, uh?

Really nice GeorgeG on the Microjet. Shows off your piloting skills. I couldn't make the trip on so little fuel. Mind sharing what kind of flight plan you used?

So, you have COM in front of COL, right? Make sure its only just so, have it too far and the craft will nose dive. Where is your fuel? If its at the back then the back will get lighter as the aircraft uses fuel. Are your using SAS (and/or RCS) to help keeps things level? Is your probe or capsule pointed in the right direction i.e. is the nav ball the right way around with ground at the bottom and sky at the top?

Won't your last 300 just get you out of Munar orbit? You will surely want some more to get to the KSC.If you can do it then paint me impressed

I think my rocket skycrane might manage that. Now where did I put it...

You can often get away with zero sepratrons if you mount the decouplers low on the tank of the next stage and put the current stage tanks low on the the decouplers. Does make the craft taller but saves some parts and bother.

Sounds like we'd best stick to the original rules and so no lifting parts, including MK2 stuff. You sure 3000dV in Kerbin orbit is going to be enough? I don't think I could manage the transfer to the Mun, the landing and return to the KSC on that, even with aerobraking. I was finding it fairly comfortable with 4500, less than that with aerobraking. The seat thing - good question. I suppose we'd better say there must be a capsule of some sort, bit unrealistic otherwise. I'll add that rule.

Just so its a level playing field, here's a minimalist entry with them modern fangled wing things: An acknowledgement to Astrobond, whose wing layout I shamelessly stole. Hope you don't mind! I'm not very experienced with aircraft. Comes in at 2.012t before takeoff. Flies pretty good but the landing was a tad wibbly wobbly, it kept trying to pitch up, but nothing the intrepid Kerner Kerbal (and his trusty SASsy sidekick) couldn't handle. ---- Update - I had more oxy than needed and so the weight can be cut down to 2.002t and it still made the same orbit and landed OK. Kerner's friend Errick wanted to try but he's a little fussier about what he'll ride in, so I had to tart up his aircraft... ----- Last and final effort. I've been reading up on KSP aircraft (thanks to the excellent guide: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/52080-Basic-Aircraft-Design-Explained-Simply-With-Pictures) and I've made it more flighable by tweaking the wing angles and gear. It now skips off the tarmac once up to speed and handles much nicer. The tailfin went (didn't seem to add much to the handling) and this allowed for a little more fuel while dropping the overall mass more. So, final and last ever, I mean this, I'm not messing with this anymore, no definitely not, can't see it happening at all...1.999t: Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xp4dnky6623jgve/Mun%20SSTO%209.craft?dl=0

I'm not much of an aircraft man. I suppose if they don't add much then they are OK.

As its the difference between taking a few seconds to send data and a few seconds more then I agree there's little point in using other than the Communotron 16. The others need more power and can drain your batteries, leading to longer transmission times. Don't choose the DTS-M1 though. The other two antenna are massless, whereas it weighs 0.03t as listed.

I suppose I might have been a little more impressed by the the idea (which otherwise looks good) if as soon as the demo rover had left the comfort of smooth tarmac it hadn't fallen to bits and exploded.

I suppose common sense should prevail and the usual criteria for mods apply - if a mod doesn't alter the outcome of the flight by changing part properties or game physics then its fine. So, yes, KER is good.

I dunno but my craft meets all the rules. It was actually harder to make it without wings than with. Think I'll leave it to the OP to decide.