Warzouz

I never had that specific problem, but the "mouse stoping clicking" : quite often (mostly on the map) For transfer, I noticed I sometime have a hard time clicking on the crew hatch. On occasion, the click-active zone is off and I need to find it...

Yes basicly, successful SSTO space planes are vehicles that failed to explode in atmosphere

No : this is a SSTO ! (600T payload and it's recoverable) More seriously, designing SSTO space plane is not that easy. As they aren't very scalable you find yourself in need of changing the whole design just because you can't add a few tons. It took me quite a long time to get my first one right. I'm working on a small one for now. - Add a inligne cockpit - Add a shock cone in front - Add a big and medium 1.25 rocket fuel tank, - Add BigS wing and fuel them. - Add elevons on the wings - Add a tail fin. - Add one rapier. - Add 3 wheels - Add front canard if you need more control You should get a very stable plane that goes to space (wings are too big though). You must tweak wings positions and elevons to get proper control and balance. - Takeoff - Climb 10° until speed is 250m/s - Climb steeper, keeping your speed constant up to 10km - Follow prograde and wait to cross 10°, swap to SAS - Let your speed increases frmo 300 to 1200/1400 (the faster the better) - You should try to climb slowly by locking SAS. Ideally, you should get to 20km at 1400m/s - Swap Rapier to close cycle mode when you speed starts to stall. The higer the better but don't let go your speed down. - Then continue up to 35km, then follow prograde (your AP should at 75km very soon) - You should circularize with fuel left. When your plane goes to space, you can start adding stuff (energy production, airbrakes, docking...) to manage other operations. Again adjust other parts and test again.

Does your engine show heating or does it oveheat dangerously ? For my first Mun landing I used the 7S engine. It heated (around 60%) but never got higher. Don't be afraid ov heating if it increases slowly. En entering Eve atmo, I usually deal with 90 to 98% heating.

Do you have screenshots ?

For an overfueled Mun/minmus lander - Landing can - Smallest rockamax tank (the flatest) - Landing struts - 1 Terrier - Add batteries, solar panels/fuel cells/science - Add some chutes for reentry You should get above 3000m/s for less than 7 tons. Simply put that lander in LKO, it can go on it's own to Mun or Minmus and return. It's flat and easy to land. If you don't have access to rockamax tanks, built it taller with 1.25 parts.

@Kowgan. Sorry, I didn't had time to go on my test. I tried to size down my 180tons ascent vehicle. The result was aerodynamically unstable. 8000 is a safe value.

No heatshield needed, nor airbrakes, nor drogues, nor chutes, nor engines : only Ker-balls http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/130104-Survived-! More seriously, I'm working on a Eve ascent vehicle too. I succesfully tested one for 180tons. I added lateral griders with landing struts (8 total) and airbrakes + drogue + chutes. These grides are ditched at takeoff. Those griders can be increased in size so the chutes stays quite high on the rocket. They also helps to have a wide landing base. I noticed that Airbrakes are absolutely needed. not to slowdown but keep overheat under control. Atmosphere will slowdown surely, but will you survive the heat is anohter matter. You can remove any drogues (even though, they can be open at 400m/s). Regular chutes can be open at 200m/s My lander was largely overfueled (I ended with 2900m/s in LEO). I started to size it down (80 tons ?) but I never succeed ascending this smaller version du to instability at lift-off. Still working on that... I didn't choose the ISRU option because "my" Eve is very poor on Ore (average 1.2%).

That's because the speed you get/lost during your escape Mun SOI burn is not lost when entering Kering SOI. If it had been, you would find yourself on a near Mun orbit. It's not. And diving into Kerbin atmo is not that dangerous. It depends on your return vehicle. Mine (Mun/Minmus) usually have airbrakes and don't even have any heatshield. For Now, only Moho returns are specific : I usually do a slowdown to 4500m/s before entering atmo, or my airbrakes explodes. I usually dive between 10km and 35km depending on my speed.

Due to design constraints, I changed a little - Kerbin's moons : 300m/s -> 500 - Duna : 700m/s -> 1000 - Eve, Dres : 2000 -> 1900m/s - Eeloo : 2000 -> 2500 - Jool's moons : 2500m/s - Moho : 5000m/s -> 5300m/s (mostly to slowdown before entering atmo, my return can only handle 4500m/s or airbrakes burn) For Jool's moons, I calculated 2400 for laythe (worst case). I don't know how to handle moons inclination (such as Bop). Do I count it ?

Nice work. Your plane si quite nice looking too. Tweaking ascent profile can help a lot to save fuel. Try various approach. You can also try to simplify your plane. Usually it helps. I'm starting to wirk on a SSTO for Laythe. It will start from a space station, fly and land (maybe several times) and return to the orbiting station. It's a science plane, it should be a simple one. I think I'll go for the wiplahsh + LV909 instead of one rapier. My question is : how can I test it to Kerbin and translate to Laythe. Laythe is smaller so I'll need less rocket fuel to orbit. But Atmo is lighter, so I should get less lift and less drag. So I should get faster with less fuel ? Should I put more intakes ?

I usually don't circularize return ships. I alway dive to the atmo with aribrake. The only exception is Moho, as the high speed is not compatible with my return vehicle (2 stackes landing can, a small heat shield, 2 airbraikes and chutes), so I brake to reasonable speed (down to 4500m/s) and, even I'm still on hyperbolic, I can dive into atmo. Return vehicle that dive into atmo need less dV (sometime MUCH less). It also need less fuel to put it at target. But your argument about ship reusability is very valid. If those "crew orbit to orbit transports" are reusable, they must be sigle stage. That maxes them very bulcky.

It only recommended orbits. It's a balance between low orbit and decent timewarp (except for Eve, Tylo and Laythe which orbit is limited by the generic miner design, those are "safe orbits"). In theory, you're right about altitude. But, if you park your station too low, you won't be able to timewarp. That'll make rendez-vous very painful... I did a rescue rendez-vous in a very low orbit once. I was a very long wait... (maybe 20min, doing nothing iirc). You can always return to space center and timewarp from there, but that's not very user-friendly. I understand returning to space center to wait for 1 day, but not 20min... As I love docking (I find it relaxing), I don't like rendez-vous maneuvers...

I usually send 2 missions - one space station fully equiped (maybe with one lander) - one separate mission with landers and return vehicles. They all meet at target.

I tried that, it's not "efficient", sure you don't need re-entry stuuf, but you need more dV to capture and circularize. Ships are bulkier. All the returns I did like that ended in rescue mission in Kerbin SOI. Now I dive straight to the atmosphere. The only brake I do is from Moho because speed is very high and even my airbrakes burn...

Slingshots/gravity assists are nice to get a kick. But I find that managing encounters is hard. I prefer adding some fuel; it's simpler

I'm working on return vehicle to bring back crew from my various stations I came with - Kerbin's moons : 300m/s - Duna : 700m/s - Eeloo, Eve, Dres : 2000m/s - Jool's moons : 2500m/s - Moho : 5000m/s Do you agree with that ? Further more : what are your return vehicle looks like ?

For Dres you have a +0/1000 m/s depending on when you start. Transfer windows aren't all the same. You can get there for very cheap and next, expending a lot more dV, even with a nice encounter. LKO to Dres LO is 2850 up to 3860.

I don't use any heat shield for Mun and Minmus return.

Yes, Heat stuff is only needed if you do long burns with LVN (Nerva). Remember that a 50% overheating is not dangerous. Even 90%. You can live with it nicely. Usually, when heating is not under control, it rises so fast that you can't do anything about it.

I've created a self refueling exploration space station design. It's quite well documented. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/132464

I upgraded the package with the 400 tons and 600 tons launchers.

Probably my low TWR SSTO Tylo landing and return to orbit. I packed 6050 m/s and ended with less than 50m/s. Hopefully the tug was around to bring my 16tons ship to Laythe space station to envoye the view once more. That was in 0.9. But the funniest was to try landing a 6 tons ship on Eve with Terrier engine without heatshield, airbrakes, or any kind of chutes. Moho is quite a feat too, when you get there with low TWR and you have to do multiple burns to capture correctly. I'm now on a Eve landing and ascent mission. It may be even harder as my sandbox/hyperedit tests continue to fail...

Good job. Understanding aerodynamic is not a small feat. Back in 0.9, when I managed to get to space (that was much easier back then), I tried to go to Mun, no even landing. I was wondering how the hell I would get back home...