KerBlammo

Its MechJeb not MechChuckYeager

I find MJ most useful for providing information (Ap, Pe, time to each of those, true altitude, time to impact etc.) I also use it to create and/or execute maneuver nodes when precision is important, when close enough is good enough I still prefer to create and fly them by hand. I learnt docking by watching MJ do it, and now I can (usually) do a better job myself, but its nice to have the autopilot ready in case I get in over my head.

I've been practicing VTOL landings. Its tricky but I'm getting the hang of it. The key is managing the transition from normal forward aerodynamic flight to being supported by the lift engines only, while killing as much forward velocity as possible without gaining significant altitude.

Oh good its not just me. Dropped an empty can in the recycling last night and it was a "staging event"...

The classic Larry Niven Sci-Fi story Neutron Star is basically about this effect (and the Kraken). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_Star_(short_story)

It did, thanks! Now I'm practicing take offs (easy) and landings (not so easy)

I blatantly ripped off DunaRocketeer's design for a VTOL plane that was posted earlier in this thread http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/27292-what-did-you-do-in-ksp-today/&do=findComment&comment=2311735 My attempt is not quite balanced but does take off vertically Landing using only the lift engines is hard. but is possible without breaking either the aircraft or KSC.

i used to separate and ignite the next stage at once, but in 1.0.5 it caused the first stage to explode. Like GoSlash27 I try to avoid the 'splodey stuff so I put some separtrons on the next stage and fire those for a short period before igniting the second stage.

Another vote for stock fuel switching.

I consider the flat area immediately adjacent to KSC to be an extension of the runway for landing purposes The jump idea is an excellent one. I was thinking about building one to help a heavily laden space lane lift off the other day. In the end I of course just strapped MOAR BOOSTERS to it and ran it off the end of the runway...

Back in my day we had to walk 8 miles to get to the internet, barefoot through the snow aaaand it was uphill both ways!

Spent more time flying my SSTO rocket plane. Up until now I've flown with the cargo bay empty, so its time to actually try and use it. I put in a hitchhiker pod and an inline docking port. In this configuration it barely made it to LKO (72x74km) and only had enough main engine dV to de-orbit. This is OK if I want to leave something in orbit for a tug to pick up or, in this configuration, a crew transfer vehicle can rendezvous with the plane, but no good if I want to rendezvous with a space station. So what to do? Add lightness? Come up with a new clever ascent profile? NO!! this is KSP! the answer of course is to add MOAR BOOSTERS! The boosters are lit after take off and help push the spacecraft through the thickest part of the atmosphere. Once on orbit it now has plenty of dV on hand to change orbits and rendezvous with a space station in a 95x95km orbit. But of course now its not a SSTO. At least its 100% resuable... In this configuration nothing is left in orbit and the extra weight up front makes re-entry and landing much more difficult. The next step is a redesign with the cargo bay further back to make it more balanced on the return trip. Here's another pic from an earlier test flight with an even more unstable configuration (this one resulted in the first (and so far only) crash landing of this space plane).

I've been spending a lot of time flying my SSTO spaceplane. I can now land it without blowing the nose off it, and some of the time it lands where I want it to! Now I start off with a 70 degrees angle of attack and keep that as long as possible into the descent, this seems to spread the heat around more than a 45 deg AoA. On the deorbit burn I try to put the pe down to ~50km about a quarter of the way around Kerbin beyond the target (KSC). If I do the burn right I can often end up right on target: Other times I go screaming overhead at hypersonic speeds: On some of the less extreme overshoots I was able to turn around and make it back to KSC after transitioning to normal flight. I never actually landed ON the runway, but most times I have enough momentum (plus a few blips of the throttle) to make it back onto KSC. I do think any(non destructive) touchdown on the flat area immediately surrounding KSC to be a success.

Yeah this design did not work out.

Spent some more time on SSTOs. The ascent is smooth, take off, let the gear come up then pitch up to 45° then follow prograde above 25km. I have yet to find a re-entry profile that does not result in the front of the space craft overheating.

Played around with air launched space craft again. Built a launch plane that can put a small satellite into a high orbit around Kerbin. The ascent is tricky but I can get 950 km/s at 20 km altitude. The separation is even more tricky and most times the upper stage tumbles out of control, but when it doesn't it can push the satellite up to a high orbit (800x725km)! [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/zg7wNEf.png[/IMG] [img]http://i.imgur.com/K90bukV.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/aX7mGEQ.png[/img]

[quote name='hugix']How is falling from 100 km any more difficult than falling from 1 km? [/QUOTE] Did you see how fast that thing was falling even after it begun its burn? Its nothing like the Grasshopper flights (which were awesome). The Grasshopper was under power the entire time, went up, hovered and went down again, all under power. This is closer to what SpaceX has been trying to do with the Falcon 9 1st stage, except this was pretty much a straight up and down flight, so no supersonic downrange velocities to worry about. If/When SpaceX pulls it off (and I hope they do) it will be a big step forward for actually putting things into orbit.

Fantastic video of the suicide burn landing! A great day for the sub-orbital joy-ride industry.

I try to keep space junk to a minimum. This means putting separtrons on upper stages to encourage them to re-enter Kerbin's atmosphere or crash on the Mun/Minimums/Duna etc. IF I'm sending up an un-Kerballed craft as part of an assembly mission I make sure the detached transfer stage is controllable and has enough dV to de-orbit itself. I consider NRVs to be too valuable to discard so any one sent up is part of a reusable craft (often a un-Kerballed tug) and is put into some parking orbit for future reuse. This means if I am constructing a station in orbit around the Mun, after the first launch I just send each section into LKO and send the tug to get it and take it to the station's orbit.

I completed my first ever SSTO flight!!!! Its a still a prototype and very much a WIP but this test flight succeeded far beyond expectations! Its pretty overpowered in the lower atmo but got into a final orbit of 258x138 km. I could have circularized at 258km but wasn't sure if I had enough dV to de-orbit from there (I had forgot to put a MechJeb on it so did not have my usual readouts). The operational version will haul cargo to a lower orbit so this flight indicates it may have enough dV to haul an additional cargo bay placed at the CoM. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/uIGzIxv.png[/IMG] I de-orbited by lowering pe to 48km. I Ran out of oxidizer about 75% of the way through the burn and used the auxiliary monoprop engines to complete the rest of the burn. Reentry was very smooth and there was some liquid fuel left in the tanks so the RAPIERs could be re-lighted. I did not even attempt to land at any given location but at least it came down over land and not the ocean! [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/0ra3BZj.png[/IMG] Although the plane is not as maneuverable as a glider as my air-launched rocket plane, it was very well behaved on final approach and landing and touched down very gently! [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/uhj0Su1.png[/IMG] A good landing is one you can walk away from. A great one is one where the aircraft is still flyable afterwards! [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Y9Y00pE.png[/IMG] I did not expect to succeed with a SSTO tonight, so I am really happy this actually worked! Its right up there with landing on the Mun for the first time!

Congrats! Landing on the Mun is a major KSP milestone and for me it never gets old :)

Nope

Val, Bill and Bob went to the Mun and back. [img]http://i.imgur.com/J8r8Bio.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/oL3i9vx.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/8ZxJWNt.png[/img] All stock. 48 parts (would work without the seps (8) and probably could get by with 2 panels & 2 batteries instead of the 4 flown).

You're burning fuel and changing the COM. Or in other words what RCgothic said :)