iLikeRovers

Maybe I shouldn't have used the word "fat", my intuition is that a vacuum optimised bell has a more slender shape proportionally, with a smaller nozzle exit angle so you minimise the component of non-axial (sideways) exhaust velocity. Its also proportionally a longer bell to best match the vacuum pressure like Scott Manley's excellent video mentioned. But I'm not a rocket engineer, so I might be wrong on some things! There's an interesting bit here on bell nozzle shapes. http://www.braeunig.us/space/propuls.htm

Great news! I wonder if it'll cope with Asparagus staging dV! The only other reason I really use Kerbal Engineer is for viewing PE and AP during flight mode, and ground radar height. (Though other readouts are very useful for tight suicide burn landings.) I wonder if these readouts are possible without overwhelming begginners?

I do like the more accurate bell shape, but it still seems a bit too fat. I mocked up a slender version.

What if all the companies were technically different but are really under the same programme, that way if one sub company fails the rest are protected. SpaceX is one example; https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/4ifvir/spacex_subsidiary_corporations/ Also lets not forget the way of the butterfly...

Generally 1.1. has been fine for me. Frame rate drops badly at launch unless I point the camera at the sky. I've had fun with the large rover wheel bug :

Is it this mountain that you are going up?

I'll leave this here (not my video) It looked like it had a dV in the region 130 000 m/s, but some staging damage did waste some.

@ March Unto Torment How easy is it to substitute the mod parts for stock parts? If the parts are similar capability then swaps should be ok?

Contrast is a bit low for the small drill on this picture. Maybe a well placed background galaxy on top of the standard background could work and be subtle enough. Plus the drill bit is clipped on the large drill.

The Mk4 space plane mod has some BadS cargo bays. It depends if you want to go down the non-stock route.

Hi cubinator, I couldn't help notice your overheating problems during re-entry. Like what boolybooly says, the angle of attack of the plane is really important, that's how you can massively increase your drag. It also spreads heat to other parts of the plane rather than just the front. I see in your explody pictures the angle of attack is almost zero. You should still have a high angle (about 30 degrees is good) as you go below 40 000m, and keep it there until you get below 1200 m/s in velocity. You should be able to get to that speed roughly above 15 000m in altitude. If your space plane can't hold that angle for you, check your centre of mass and centre of lift in the SPH, (check with full and empty fuel tanks), maybe add a canard. You won't need retrorockets or firing rockets in the atmosphere. Good luck and I like the look of your space plane, like a bat-space-plane!

Ah thanks, so its what it should be. I'll need to get an engineer aboard... (I rounded down the ore concentration number. )

What ore rate should a large drill have in optimal conditions where the ore concentration is 5.7%? I've got my SSTO space-plane on Minimus and currently my ore rate is 0.004287/sec. This happens even at 500K and plenty of Electric Charge available.

Ah yes, version 0.9, where you could cram air intakes to good effect. 1.x has a different air intake model. It looks like its limited not only by altitude but speed.

I played around with Mk3 Hypersonic Systems in my no-heat sandbox game. It was fun figuring out how to tweak the config files to get a faster jet. You need to modify the rapier and the ram air intake config files. I commented out the default values. GameData/Squad/Parts/Engine/rapierEngine/rapierEngine.cfg GameData/Squad/Parts/Aero/ramAirIntake/ramAirIntake.cfg airCurve I think is engine performance depending on the altitude and machCurve controls the air intake performance depending on the speed. velCurve I think controls the engine power output depending on the speed. So you can see in the chart how there's no way a stock rapier can get you to 6000m/s (mach 18). So you need to modify the config files. (I copied the scram jet's airCurve) Cheaty result with overpowered stock parts: You keep running out of planet, so I recommend a mod for that.

I was interested to see how much the heating problem prevents high speeds. So I made a sandbox new game with no heat effects. Surprisingly I can't get that much faster. Either the drag is too high or the air is too thin. Sometimes when I was going faster than 1650m/s I would get sudden loss of thrust, even at heights of 10 000m.

Welcome kerbyourenthusiasm! If you look at it from an efficiency point of view, you can use ion drive landers to hop around the various biomes on small low g worlds without worrying too much about fuel reserves. But larger worlds (and those with atmospheres) you need a normal rocket to fight gravity (and air) to hop around and fuel becomes a much bigger problem. It can also be difficult to control, especially on Tylo! So either you use a ISRU to mine for more fuel every time you land or save a load of weight by having a electric rover that essentially has unlimited range. So if you've managed to land on Mün, try making a design that will detach a rover from the lander. Don't forget to test the rover around the space centre. It doesn't matter if you use a probe core, strap a seat on or a cabin, you choose! Of course you can do not so serious missions...

I read this as: you can assemble all your pieces into one mother ship in Kerbin SOI, go in one piece to Jool SOI, then split up or do what you need to achieve the mission inside Jool's SOI. As for dumping stages in Kerbin SOI, I'm pretty sure you can do that. I did. If it was otherwise I think you would be talking about a SSTJ ship.

[URL="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/123950-THE-ULTIMATE-JOOL-5-CHALLENGE-Continuation-for-KSP-1-0%21?p=1988118&viewfull=1#post1988118"][QUOTE]1ST LEVEL: one Kerbonaut lands on all the moons and come back safely. -> Level 1 Low-Mass Sub-Challenge: Using [B]only stock parts and physics[/B], try to minimize the mass of your ship and still accomplish the mission![/QUOTE][/URL] Hope that's clear for you, I look forwards to what you come up with!

@EBAO You've documented your mission very well! I don't see any obvious problems, I assume your ISRU re-fulling was legit on Laythe. The Kerbal Space Station is impressive! That would require a lot of patience to dock. I wonder how that drop tank got possessed by the Kraken, but glad it was still usable later. I like that ion-powered scanner, an elegant way to find the ore. Overall, you took an epic Nautilus on an epic trip and made it work! Perhaps your title should be "20 Billion Leagues Over the Sea." You'd need a Nemo Kerbin though...

Could the small ISRU be balanced by making it only work above a certain concentration of ore? Then more effort is required to land at a precise location (and potentially higher dV cost)

I did mine in Sandbox so you should be fine for level 2 or 3. I believe its Jebediah level you need to worry about.

I can confirm everything Foxster says, a lag free smaller ship is much more fun to fly!

@SpaceplaneAddict Its unlikely you can use Tweakscale, it depends how you use it, have a read of this post.

I did it! For my 2nd attempt I chose to be as light as possible with the landers, its amazing how much difference a lighter payload has! I still had loads of dV from the mother-ship, so I think the single launch vehicle could be lighter if I was more elegant with my Joolian manoeuvre . 4 Kerbanauts lived in the Mk2 passenger capsule and there was room for 2 on each lander. Launch Vehicle was 789 763 Koins, Mass of 1343.6 tonnes and dV of 18000 m/s. Mods used: Kerbal Engineer, Precise Node, Docking Port Alignment Indicator. I used quick-load a few times for tricky moments, the trouble is the save state doesn't remember if the resources tab was open, so there's a few pictures that only have kerbal engineer dV info. I hope this is fixed The Laythe lander might be controversial, but I like to think there is a hatch in the fairings or its hinged .