Nefrums

Does that mean engines off?

How is it going Nao? In the meantime I have made this design with twin Rapiers and an Aerospike: Stingray mk1: 52,52%

Thanks. There is always room for more improvements. What where the tweaks you where thinking about? Here is a slightly bigger ship: 28.48%

51.2% Two stage plane with a Rapier and a Terrier.

I'm impressed that you got that to Laythe in less than 1.3kdV. Well done! What's the plan after Laythe?

Look in the challenges part of the forum. Lots of fun this to do. Ulitmate Jool 5 etc.

Why would it be imposible? Even with an SSTO the first 2 levels would not be that hard, when you can refuel. Doing it with a proper SSTO without refuling would be harder. Hmm.. that would be fun to try. ;-) The expert level is probarbly possible but very hard. Building one single stage lander that can take of from Eve and Tylo?? I guess Tylo is not that hard when you can refuel on the surface.

Thanks! Getting a 4th landing at Jool would require another 1k dV at least, and 4x the TWR

Thanks! I am never ever going to design a ship with less than 0.1 twr again!

I did this mission for another challenge, but i think it might fit this one as well Landed on three of Jool moons before returning to land on KSC.

Mission success! Album updated: http://imgur.com/a/PT7J7

As many as I can :-) Nice to hear that you found the same ejection burn method to be the best. Still 400 dV is alot to lose due to low TWR. Btw. The spreadsheet you made helped alot. Thanks!

That is some nice gravity assists. I'm half way through my SSTL mission now. http://imgur.com/a/PT7J7

http://i.imgur.com/NhRoQ19.jpg The power system in the cargo bay there are 25 PB-NUKs, 36 Z400 batteries and one XL solar array. It can power all the 10 ions for ~4 min. The PB-NUKs power 2 of the ions and the solar panel another 2 of them (at kerbin) It is a bit hard to find a good balance of power and weight. There is no obvious solution. PB-NUKs are heavy, solar panels don't work on jool, batteries run out. I think a Pol landing should be doable. Not sure about Bob as the ship cant sustain the TWR for long enough

Finally after several days of trying, I succeeded in making a design I'm happy with. And that can get to LKO with enough fuel for a Laythe assent: StarFlare

I had mixed up the weights 25 t at lko. Takeoff is 34t. Just tested the ionspikes. Took away most of the drag. Still not enough fuel in Lko to take of laythe. Needs some more work...

The ship weight is around 25t. It also needs more oxidizer to get into orbit as the ions have so low thrust, and also have some left for the Laythe assent. The drag of the ions is a big problem. Just got an idea... Ionspikes. I use PB-NUKs and lots of batteries to power the ions.

Will have to try to do that! The spreadsheet in you sign will come in very handy. As i am struggling to get TWR above 0.08 in my ship. I experimenting with a 2/8 Raipier/Ion setup.

Thanks, will have to check out those mods. the PreciseNode one seams handy. I was very impressed with that double gravity assist. Was that very hard do set up? And Tylo... No!

Well done! And nice looking ship! What is the mod you have that makes the planets look good? I should get some of the mods you are using. I only use KER. Now how will I beat that?? Land on other moons as well? Hmm.. 3 of Jools moons might be doable in a single SSTO

I managed to get my ion powered space plane to laythe yesterday, only to find out that solar panels does not work very well there. Back to the drawing board..

What is the TWR of that ship in LKO? I've been trying the Rapier/Ion setup, and can get to LKO with ~6k dv left, but only a TWR of ~0.15

Thanks! I don't know if the aerocapture problems where due the the version i had installed. I had the GOG 1.0.2 version + a 1.0.3 patch i found on... "the internet"... Yesterday the GOG 1.0.3/4 finally became available, so i had that installed when doing the landings. What to do next... Well i will be away on vacation and not able to play for a week, but after that i am thinking of trying out the Realism overhaul mods.

Yes, there seams to be a flaw in the reentry mechanics.. Aerocapture is practically impossible in 1.0.4 The mission is now finished! Lander worked like a charm. :-)

I just tried to arobrake at Eve. It did not work. I could barely touch the atmosphere before my ship blew up. I was coming in at about 5km/s. If i went shallow enough to survive, somewhere around 87km, my ship only lost ~30m/s. There is a huge difference between coming in with 5km/s and the ~3km/s you get from a 100km orbit. My lander survives to the surface when braking to a 100/0 km "orbit".