Kibble

That's not actually how rocket engines work! The three important values are combustion chamber volume, nozzle throat area (at the top of the bell), and nozzle exit area. The ratio of chamber volume to throat area is fixed, and depends on what fuel mixture you are using - increasing thrust means scaling up the chamber volume and throat proportionally. The ratio of throat area to exit area determines the efficiency at a chosen ambient pressure - usually between 1 atm (sea level), and 0 atm (vac). The shape (curve) of the bell is pretty much always the same, and it is made that way to balance out mach shock waves in the propellant flow. I would say tweakable options should be fuel (determines alot of stuff, including throat area for a given chamber volume), thrust (makes chamber bigger), and expansion ratio (makes the bell bigger). Also combustion and cooling cycles would be super awesome, there should at the very least be pressure fed vs. gas generator turbopump fed.

How about calling it Beyond? I think the word is pretty evocative of inspiration and exploration, and the point of this launch vehicle is to send big things beyond where they have ever been sent before, and little things beyond where anything has been sent before! (want Uranus orbiter!)

Oh yeah in the outer Solar System water is cheap as dirt! In fact, out there water literally is ​dirt! Edited for a complete thought: But the delta vee, travel time, low data rate communications, and limited solar power mean its (probably) not a good idea to go back and forth from like Jupiter to Earth.

When everybody lived in Africa, starting a service for transporting cargo across the USA would be extremely expensive and it would not make any profit. It wouldn't even make sense! But now the USA exists and people live here, and there are all sorts of profit-making organizations dedicated to the transportation of cargo, among countless other things. Someday people will live in outer space, and it will be profitable to do things there! No crazy launch-cost-drops required!

With simple* observations from Earth we can determine the general physical and orbital characteristics of minor planets, and sort out the ones that are close-by and that have useful compositions (metal or carbon-rich, or whatever). And unlike Mars or Moon, countless minor planets are small enough to tug onto more favourable, easy-to-reach orbits - easing the delta vee load on interplanetary infrastructure. This smallness also makes them easy to launch from and land on, both delta vee- and TWR-wise. AFAIK, while minor planets in the inner Solar System are drier than the driest slab of concrete baking in the Gobi desert, you can still find volatiles on them (in the form of hydrated clays and such). With water and ammonia, you can make hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide, tasty** rocket fuel! Alternatively if the minor planets are just too dry, a good backup is a base near the Lunar poles. *complex, math-heavy **deadly poisonous

What about minor celestial bodies? The minor planets have alot to offer, in convenient bite-size packages!

There are so many question things, the only way to know how to do it is to try it. Try...what? La Rinconada, Peru is one of the worst places on Earth. It's 5 km above sea level, sits at the foot of a glacier, temperature hangs around freezing all year, and there is no plumbing or sewage systems. But 50 000 people live there, encouraged by a rich gold mine. Legendary Hop David suggests government sponsoring of settlements in places like this, nearly-inhospitable corners of Earth, and helping them grow, seeing if they eventually thrive and approach self sufficiency, like any other city on the planet. And once these experiments become successful you can try it in more once-threatening places - including outer space! Of course, doing this kind of thing (like alot of things people do, now that we are a civilization instead of just animals) has no immediate economic/survival benefit, and is likely of a scale a little beyond what modern society is willing to do. Maybe in a couple hundred years!

Adding two boosters "back on" to Soyuz 2-1v would give almost the same performance as Soyuz 2-1B, with fewer components and more commonality! And then a four-booster version would be in the same payload class as Falcon 9~

<3 I always wanted DIRECT, and your models are very pretty!

Hey AFAIK that's the first time a spacecraft will orbit the satellite of another planet! Awesome~

Good point - Von Neumann probes should reproduce sexually! The problem with interstellar travel is that it takes a really long time, but things don't last very long. Without constant maintenance, something as complex and intricate as a human being, spacecraft, automobile, or modern house only remain functional for a maximum of around 30 years. That's why living things reproduce and die! So Von Neumanns should be launched with a big chunk of raw resources (like Ceres!) to live, reproduce, and die on during the journey to another star.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/69540-Making-high-contrast-nav-ball%21/page11 With Navball texture changer (or whatever it's called) is on CKAN! There are alot of other good textures on that thread but this one is my fave

Just wanna say I think SpaceY rocket engines are simply lovely! Plus with Stockalike RF Configs I can use in RO >:3 Kiwi configed for high-energy upper stage^

I did my first successful interplanetary mission! Flyby within Venus sphere of influence! RTGs on probe because I honestly had no idea where it was gonna go when I launched

At least the first failure was caused by the difficulty controlling so many rocket engines. Also there's a fourth advantage to having several motors - each launch you get much more flight time and data to evaluate performance.

The main issue is that - unlike Centaur - Ariane's ÉPC isn't an upper stage. Vulcain would have to have extensive, expensive modifications to start mid-air, among other complex problems.

Grr actually some modifications due to incompetance: A detanked "LEO version" of Orion can actually be launched on Delta IV Medium+ (5,4) to Space Station. Which is good because it costs half as much per launch! In the future, DIVH could launch a modified version of Orion - unpiloted and optimized for cargo, like an American ATV. Also what I meant to say was how much payload the SDHLLV could deliver to Trans Lunar Injection - Orion and Lander would have to perform their own LOI, but that shouldn't be a problem! Honestly this two-launch scenario seems pretty favourable to me, as long as Lander could be made to have an extended life-span dormant while waiting for Orion. It would use storable fuels anyway! Maybe if NASA committed to a piloted Moon landing program it would be worth it to delay EUS, human-rate SLS Block I, and focus developement on a lander?

A: Human-rate the RS-68 rocket engine B: Develope Orion spacecraft C: Launch Orion LEO missions on newly human-rated Delta IV Heavy D: Develope Shuttle-derived rocket inspired by Jupiter DIRECT The rocket consists of flown 4-segment Shuttle SRBs, Shuttle core stage with 2x RS-68, and 5m DCSS. It can deliver around 30 Mg to Lunar orbit - enough to send Orion on Lunar orbital missions. Eventually begin developement of a lander designed to be inserted onto LLO for rendezvous with Orion. Two launches, rendezvous at Moon for a landing!

Halo and Lissajous orbits are different - halo orbits are closed, repeating, and periodic, while Lissajous orbits are not.

Actually a good definition for (major) planet could be "has a differentiated interior, but is not doing nuclear fusion". Orbiting the Sun seems like a superfluous qualifier to me!

Seconded! <3

Pluto is a minor planet! But not one of the 8 Planets that take up more than 99% of the non-Sun mass of the Solar System. That criterion only refers to a planet's capacity to clear its neighborhood. Pluto is in a resonance.

Atlas V core wasn't originally designed for boosters - the oxygen line and avionics package ended up getting in the way of SRM placement.

Simply fabulous! <3

Vulcan will fly with Centaur at first. And probably for a long time.