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Planes, hypersonicplanes and Spaceplanes are fun to play a little, but in my opinion very limited to Kerbin area and the game is about Rockets and SpaceShips. (btw a good aero model is good thing for the game) In real world rockets (even if launched from plane) are the only way to send big payloads to LEO, so i play rockets 99% time.

Yes yes, i like rockets not flying noodles

7 Ion engine and less than 100 part (lander included) is clearly not part count astronomical. Nukes are very slow.

@Astrobond and Manek, my grand tour ssto isru have 4 aerospikes (for space travel, 5850m/s deltaV) and 1 mammoth (for landing and liftoff). For operation inside kerbin system or low gravity moons, one kerbodyne KR2 engine is very good (high vector high thrust), 4 skipper or 4 poodle are good too. And Jeb is level 5 !!

You can easily go to Eeloo and back in around 1+1 year with a 24000 m/s deltaV manned ship (small lander included 1400 deltaV high accel for efficient landing), no nuke, one launch, 100% stock : First part is 12000 m/s LFO aspargus (from KSC to LKO to Eeloo capture) Second part is 12000 m/s Ion engine with jettisonable fuel cells and solar panels (from Eeloo capture to low orbit to ejection (f.cells), to Kerbin capture to LKO (s.panels)). It's probably possible to do it faster with this design. Trajectory is very direct and a very good transfer window is needed. Real world Ion engines can have 30000 ISP (stock are only 4200), don't lose your time with unrealistic outdated nuke engines.

Sent 3 new ComRelaySurvey LFOProbes to Jool (for Vall, Bop, Pol), Laythe and Tylo allready have one. Sent a big very fast Xenon Probe to Kerbol low orbit to check data, energy flow, sunflares, etc Sent another big fast Xenon ship (manned this one) to Eeloo for a 1+1year trip (to and back). Corrected the trajectory of the ComRelaySurvey LFOProbe for Eeloo, because the fast xenon ship launched 2years and half after was going to reach it before. Sent to Duna Valentina team without Valentina to complete missions, collect science data and gain exp. All went smoothly, except two Kraken NaN attacks that destroyed the universe.

Unrealistic stock and mods, it seems KSP is stuck somewhere between 1950 and 1980 with nuclear rockets, spaceplanes, warp drive, etc. But there are realistic mods, so soon after grand tour/jool-5 byebye stock and welcome good mods and fine tuning of parts for more 21th century space realism !! Note : good aspect of KSP, people can have fun the way they want with mods : unrealist, scifi, oldies, realist, modern, etc; but stock is a bit disappointing at the end of tech level, very outdated.

Mun ? i'm speaking about interplanetary high deltaV 10000 m/s at least up to 35000 m/s (stock), and my Ion stage have max burn duration 1h30. If you don't need high deltaV/fast travel time, LFO are enough (KSP should have 450 ISP LFO engine like the real stuff, we are in 21 century not 1950 and 350 ISP) and with good twr you gain a lot Oberth effect. (not with nuke) Mun ... lol it's 850 m/s deltaV, are you serious ? you need a 4 part rocket to go to the mun. We just need time warp for low acceleration (1-4 m/s2) constant thrust engines, and for heavy stuff a bigger Ion engine, real ones can have 30000 ISP, nuke are totally out. Oh and try aerobraking with nuke in real life, just tell me when, i'll be ready for the big firework !! lol And gigantor solar should have 2400° max temp, it's easy to protect, KSP is so unrealistic@warp drives and antigrav. Thanks for the fun !

I only use 200% sepratron with 3.75m mammoth boosters, my other boosters don't need it. Just place two of them near the top to counter aerodynamic forces. I think the problem comes from insufficent ejection power of radial decoupler, they are enough for smaller boosters but not for 3.75m big boosters, even if i offset them. Obviously i offset the sepratron near the surface of the booster to reduce drag, and i reduce the solid fuel amount to the minimum (12.80 for 200% sep), so it weights nothing : 0.38 tons 2 sep for a 136 tons booster : 0.28% !! clearly it's dramatic for deltaV. Thanks for the fun.

You can start multiple Biome from the highest one (Highlands or Peaks) in a place where other Biome are not far, i did 5 Eve Biome in less than 1 hour recently with a stable, heavy, powerfull Rover (see sig, stockbugfix for wheels was applied). You can use a scientist to reset experiment (goo and materials) since 1.00. Yes. I had up to 40-50 scientific data stored on a scientist or in a pod during two recent missions, it looks like a bug if u can't store more than 5.

This site has very good multiple engines analysis : http://meithan.x10.mx/KSP/engines/, a very good way to see what are the possibilities for a given payload and deltaV. 3400 m/s deltaV is a safe value to LKO, a good launcher and MJ with the good values and it's ok. I did 3350 m/s deltaV (vac) to LKO recently and payload fraction was 26% (see here and here)

Real LH2/LOx engines (Ariane 5 Vulcain, Delta IV RS-68) runs with mixture ratio 1:6 (and tanks volume ratio is 1:5), why Cryogenic Engines Mod runs with 1:10 ? Is it possible to fix this ? (or am i reading a wrong ratio ?) I've been using this mod in RSS with lots of tweaks (mostly thrust, weight, and procedural tank dry weight, full weight and volume to match official data), and after a few tries i ended with the same ascent trajectory (slightly falling for the last 15-20%) to orbit Earth with Ariane 5 launcher, that was very interesting. In my opinion, Hydrolox engines needs to be stock and are clearly indispensable for RSS. Thanks for this mod !

You'll have a lot more deltaV using LFO aspargus + Ion combo, compared to these high deltaV setups, nuke is very bad : low twr, horrible payload fraction, overheat, etc

Orbiting Eve with his (7 kerbals) crew, waiting for the next window for Kerbin. After that, Jool+Grand Tour and....

Very easy with LFO+Ion (6 gigantors for 7 ion engine should be ok for duna), you can have at least 20000 m/s delta-V for manned (lander included) and 30000 m/s unmanned, 200 days real max kerbin-duna-kerbin. This could be a challenge.

High ISP (450) Vacuum LFO (hydrolox) Engines (1.25m, 2.5m, 3.75m) with realistic volume ratio (LH2+Ox, 1:5 or 1:6) 1.25m Ion engine 5000 ISP (current ion is 0.625) 3.75m Reaction Wheel 5m Heat Shield Bigger Sepratrons 50 m/s crash tolerance Landing Legs Adapters and nosecones with fuel Reworked 2.5m tank textures (orange is ok not the dirty white) Increased weight and heat for nuke stuff (more realistic) Longer lightweight strut (like the cubic octagonal strut) Basic tools showing deltaV, etc

Very high delta-V ? Ion Engine clusters for Mars manoeuvres and coming back + chemical for the first part and the lander are the best way to manage safe realistic Mars mission. Ion and chemical exist and perform very well, nuke don't, it's outdated, overheats (2000K running !?), heavyweight, dirty as hell, boring, why losing our time and money on it ? The real improvement are in life support equipment and storage (water/air recycling, etc) in this kind of mission. @davidy12 : When KSP will allow stable time warp for low twr long time propulsion, it will be easier to simulate 'fast travel between planets'. Note : for example in KSP my Ion manned racer for Eeloo (solar panels / fuel cells ~ 2 years total to and back) have 12000 m/s delta-V for the ion stage with 1h30 burn total duration. (3x30 min 'forum friendly' : from Eeloo capture to low elliptical orbit + manoeuvres + from low Eeloo orbit to ejection + Kerbin capture to low orbit; add to this another 12000 m/s delta-V from the LFO aspargus stage, total 24000 m/s manned rocket stock)

Final Tests of ISRU version for Jool-5/Grand Tour, the Magnum Navigium, 4 Kerbals, 5850 m/s ÃŽâ€v, can land everywhere except Eve. (1 mammoth, 4 aerospikes, isru, 2 drillers, 2 gigantor solar, 2 fuelcell) SSTO 1300 m/s ÃŽâ€v remaining in LKO. (upper tanks are locked during ascent to increase stability, main tanks 90% full so the twr atmo is >1)

Nice winged rockets SSTO, Neotician and Camaron. Mammoths (and aerospikes) are the best, Ion are good too !

Val landed on and reorbited Eve, Jeb did it better : Episodes 4-5-6 (from 450m with refueling and science rover rendezvous)

I'm updating the first post with 3 new episodes : time for Jeb to go to Eve !

KRAKEN Thermal Attack ! (1 of 3 reaction wheel between Mk3 2.5 adapter and service bay instantly overheats) Emergency Evacuation into a new fresh hopefully safe Moon Harvester 5.1. Team is alive, mission going on !

Why not ?

The lander can has a bad aero, the conic command module is a lot better. And no need to go clipped command seat, a good rocket can do the ascent from asl. I've done landing and reorbiting with a 7 kerbals rocket from 1200m, see sig for report.

I've been using mechjeb landing prediction and same small deceleration burn method from 100km orbit (at the opposite of the landing site), after a few tries i know where i should aim. But Eve is big, precise landing or setting rendezvous for two crafts (for ex a science rover and a mainlander/reorbiter) is not easy, tests, patience and tools can help.