Kergarin

The mix of aerospikes and mammoth were in my test worse or equal to mammoth only designs. Yes I have just landed my isru ssto. Just working on some beauty fixes and hope to have a video tomorrow.

It's now a 10 ton payload eve ssto Reached orbit with isru mk1 cockpit and 8tons of spare fuel.

I think it's to match the default camera perspective. Now someone could ask why the camera is oriented this way. As soon as it's works like expected, there will be a video

Thanks, what an honour Maybe this is due to a lack of sleep, but what if I use an SSTO to move an asteroid to low eve orbit, and use this to refuel the lander using its ISRU?? instead of using a mothership to move the lander around.

Well I'm just answering this question. Nothing more, nothing less. Most of this thread is theory and assumptions, and im posting what I know from SEVERAL HUNDRED launches on Eve, to help others and make clear which assumptions are right and which are wrong. I have started working on an Eve SSTO long before, but this thread really motivated me a lot, to focus on this and show what's possible. But this has nothing to do with fun anymore, it's hard work and took several weeks of my life to get this far. If you would like to steal build a Hercules named sistership of my MONOLITH once it's released, that would be ok to me. But it would be nice, if you then refer to its original Apart from this, the thing is working. I'm just trying to give the Kerbals a more comfy place than sitting between the engines I have a version with a prograde facing Mk1 cockpit at the lower top of the rocket (like on a container ship), this gives the pilot a really impressive view, but adds to much weight compared to the lander can... while it's great to outbalance the ISRU equipment.

Which mission plan? Why do I get the feeling I'm developing something for you?

I have just build an SSTO which brings 2 Kerbals to Orbit. ISRU seems so near.

Thanks for the tip. But radial mounting will require additional parts like nose and tail cones, which will result in extra weight and drag. There is really no margin without massive upscaling. I will try to make this thing 100% reusable, so disposable parts would be my last way out.

I think high altitude is the only altitude that works. Even from 1.000m less it seems impossible. Every letter and number of the model name C9H8 stands for a new type, model and version that I have tested. And that's not a straight line, there a dozens parallel to that. Nothing else worked. Thanks I think my upscaled version can land, and its so wide that it won't flip. But it's still 120m/s short on ascend... Thanks The shielded docking port is the only part that I found to be heat resistant enough. If I go up any slower, I don't reach orbit, even not with the reduced weight or drag of the other nosecones that I have tested. The only reaction wheels are the ones inside the probe core. That's just enoug to keep it straight before reaching orbit. The rest is done by engine gimbal. The problem by using the mk1 Pod isn't weight, it's heat again. I just can't get fast enough, without exploding the pod. (if it's top mounted) Also a really usable top mounted pod would need ladders. And ladders are enough to change the the CoM so badly, that the rocket will flip. I have tried a bottom mounted lander can, but you can't get back inside it, because it's not possible to walk between the engines of the mammoth. (collision box does not match the real model) An ISRU refuel will take month, if not years. But there is a much bigger problem: there is no ore at my launch site

Finally... here is the video

So here it is. It's the total oposite of what i was thinking about when i started working on an Eve SSTO... No wings, no drag. Just get out of the soup as fast as possible. Im working on an upscaled manned version with ISRU. But that only reaches 3.080m/s at 90km AP by now. Seems possilbe!

Did it!!! (at least unmanned SSTO from EVE, landing is another part ) The video and details will follow soon!

Ok, then I got you wrong, sorry. I thought you were talking about something like "just a few aerospikes" That's exactly how I did it in my first attempts. But it seems more efficient, to climb in a straight line until you go into a gravity turn. At the moment when twr is high enough to increase climb rate, the atmosphere is already so thin, that you can fly more efficient straigt throug it.

I think the question is: how do you define low twr and slow ascend? Until now, I was thinking you are talking about something, that's much slower than the planes in those two videos. My best eve planes have a takeoff speed of around 150m/s and i'm trying to keep it at 200m/s on full throttle at around 45degree angle until I'm out of the soup. Is this what you mean by slow, or are you talking about even less?

Have you tried it? I did several times. It just does not work on eve.

I have tried a lot of different designs. -High and low twr -More wings, less wings, tilted wings, no wings -Vertical and horizontal launch -Fast and slow ascend -Vectors, spikes, mammoth in every thinkable combination The best I did until now was 3.080m/s at ap 90km started from 5.800m. It's nice to have all this theory here, but this is how the game works: the low twr slow ascend works worst.

Is there a higher "landable" mountain than ~6.000m on eve? My best so far is 2900m/s at 90km ap started from 5.800m.

Yes, your are right. it was a plane, see pictures in my last post. A full video will follow this weekend.

I do also think it's a good idea to do this in sandbox mode. But... I brought up my fully assembled 47ton station just for ~9.000credits of fuel. I think this was cheap and efficient?

No it's not dead, it's just a little frozen, sorry I will continue soon and implement all your work, thanks for that verry much!

So here it is. I have changed some things to make the station fit the requirements, and pushed it to orbit using my Excalibur Stationlift Mk2 Unfortunally, I'm somewhere with almost zero upload, but i will post a video next week. Here are some pictures: I think it now meets all requirements for "ULTRA MEGA DELUXE CHALLENGE"? -Weights 47.425t -100% reusable SSTO -Landed at KSC runway -All experiments on board -Return landers for 6 (emergency use only, crew transfers are done by comfortable SSTOs) -5 docking ports Also has some extras like fuel and monoprop tanks

Interesting challenge. I did something like this a while ago. Using the shown SSTO to bring up this station in one Piece. http://imgur.com/a/RhetN 100% reusable, 100% stock. Even the station is made to be recoverable. What do I have to change to make it fit? -2 return landers -what do you mean @Garrett Kramme by "2 crew pods" and "any lander can"? Here's something else I did a while ago. What if the station itself is the reusable rocket? http://m.imgur.com/a/AH5Z7

Thanks @HoloYolo for taking this over! For my entry it was absolutely without any mods, 100% stock. I didn't even use informational mods. Maybe you could link to the gallery/video for each entry? For me it would be https://youtu.be/FXAzQk01vuw (for the short version)

As far as i know, this has not been done before Made the stock Stearwing A300 a fully functional SSTO. Don't ask why. Ask why not

After a lot of testing... made possible the impossible... here comes antoher SSTO from Kergarin Aerospace : the Stearwing A300 SSTO taking 20 Kerbals to Orbit, based on the stock Stearwing A300