Spricigo

a combination of clever tricks, post prodution and...wait for it... Mods!!

Wrong on so many ways... rocketplanes don't need to be SSTOs SSTO don't need to be planes planes don't need to be SSTOs rockets don't neeed to be STTOs But the worse part is that an SSTO that use Rapiers don't need to, but often is a rocketplane.

Starship Super-Heavy. In that case, the best engine is the best engine. Seems we are now in a stable orbit. So far your question is as vague as it can be, need clarification if you expect more than some vague ideas on how to figure it yourself.

@vv3k70r AFAIK Principia mod only uses n-body calculation for the orbits of the craft while keeping the celestial bodies bound to their perfectly ellipitical orbits. I also suppose, asteroids still counts as craft and thus not affecting other craft orbit even f the player gather bnch of those in the same place. maybe someone with more interest may check in the mod's thread to be sure (i'm fine with just what my flawed memory tells me)

Sure. While some players do things like this: I barely find a reason to use this: https://kerbalx.com/Spricigo/Krakatoa IMHO at the point in career it's viable to launch craft of that size*, re-usability is probably a moot point already and concerns with practicality and efficiency can easily be throw out the window. For those there is little incentive to go for anything but Mammoths with the odd vector/twinboar/clydescale finding use here and there. And since we don't want orbital meneuver to take weeks, not likely to use something smaller than the rhino in space. However, experience tells that is probably not the case for the OP. More likely looking for a viable alternative with more limited options (Mainsail? Skipper? Cluster of Reliants?) Personally, I want to see if that is what we should look for before give him the false impression that only the later prtsof the tech tree have useful stuff. *I mean, not even a sounding rocket by@Whackjob standards. Just what we mortals can do.

It depends... What are you going for? How much payload you want it to care? How much deltaV left in orbit for the Starship? (with or without orbital refueling?) Where the Startship is meant to go? It need to looks like the SS+SH or just work in a similar way? Is a parachute landing fine or a powered landing is required? It will land at KSC or just within acceptable range? Career or Science/Sandbox? Some of those option ma narrow it to a few engines options (e.g : Vector, Twin Boar, Kodiak, Mammoth for the booster; Rhino, Dart, Wolfhound, Nerv for the upper stage) while other may allow for crazy stuff like SRB/Jet combos.

At this point maybe is better to try to avoid Minmus SoI and make it a Mun-Kerbin cycler.

Not a single mod. But we have mods for part failure, part upgrade, alternative part progression, alternative progression and so on. There is a lot that can be customized by mods.

No worries. Also, it goes without saying that took me a while to notice the answer too. A few days after the request for support I figured out the button only show up with focus on the celestial body. I guess we can write it off as user error. So, reporting that is working fine in version 1.10.1.

If your goal was to looks in needs of a reality check, congratulation you got it. As far as the devs are concerned modding is part of the "genuine finished product". And mos are quite popular with the player base. As a result, some things remain as mod territory, if nothing else because as soon it become stock people will mod it out. [snip] Clearly redefine nothing. Every single aspect of it is already implemented as mod long ago. [snip] As we can see, this forum are full of ideas. Most of which are barely noticed for a brief time before being buried by more recent ideas and forgotten. [snip]

That or we are just blaming the victims.

Since it is happening in sandbox mode, no, he don't. But I hope he figured out a solution by now. Been a while since he asked.

They "just appear", not sure if sentinels find them too. They are a lot rarer than regular asteroid, so it may take a while. Maybe there is a config somewhere to make them appear more often but I'm not aware.

I try. Didn't had the time to elaborate (busy with real life) but your post cover pretty much everything I had to add. I think we can summarize as: there are several different kinds of cyclers; they are somewhat complex to setup and operate and they may be a viable (dare I say, even effective) option given the right circumstances (just those circumstances are not the most obvious) You can do many thing and is up to you, and just you, to decide what exactly will be done. Though, we can provide some ideas, thou. My first assumption was that you wanted to do it because of "cool", it seem that cost and practicality was more your concern. If that is the case, a dedicated but regular spaceship that can do the Mun-Minmus 'cycle' when required is likely to be a better option than a true cycler. The station may acts as transshipment staging post or given a different use (or no use. If it looks cool enough, why not?)

I know, I know. But that is a lot of screaming and I just prefer to save my energy for something more productive.

AFAIK only with mods

It seems that the craft is barely stable, at some point it just go past the limit and there is no coming back. Maybe it is the CoM shifting back as ablator get consumed, maybe is some of those micro-wobbling going just a bit too far from progade. In either case the solution is to move the heavy part further ahead and the draggy parts further behind, probably adding some heavy/draggy parts for this particular craft to work.

While we often talk about the most efficient ways to do things, that is the kind of trade of trade off we regularly accept when actually doing thing.

It is supposed to stay in the same orbit forever. You just need to avoid being throw out of course by the Mun or even by Minmus. Just make sure you understand the drawbacks of hitching a ride with the cycler. Higher deltaV cost Longer wait time Longer travel time Silly me! Expected that going on a bicycle would just take two cycles.

Oh well... there is the Aldrin_cycler and there is the Aldrin_cycler A cycler is nothing more than a craft that have periodic encounters with body A and body B while maintaining its trajectory. For a Minmus-Kerbin Cycler that is just an orbit with low periapsis, high apoapsis and a bit of synchronicity to be there when Minmus show up*. There is a bunch of reason why that may be a good idea in real life but not so many reason why it would be a good idea stock KSP. *not necessarily every time, just 'often'

Evidently, you didn't get my point. What you describe is doing nothing after the 1s burn. What I described two periods off active maneuvering or a lot more than two f we decide to break it down to 1s intervals. In any case, some people have the patience to do the math demonstration. I consider that I can better use that energy into something else. If you don't think long burns are inherently inefficient , then I really don't care to convince you it is.

That means whatever you are using to controls (reaction wheels, gimbals, control surfaces) don't produce much torque. So it is hard to start to turn and hard to stop turning (as predicted by the law of the inertia). If doing the adjustments slowly works for you, than no changes necessary but i guess if you provide some pictures we can find ways to improve your craft nonetheless.

May not be useful for you, but nice to have for someone that can use mods and stumble on the thread when facing a similar issue. Ironic that AFAIK there is no such mod. There is some that displays the dry CoM, or help manage the fuel levels, you may also look into how the CoM shifts as a possible cause of the issue. But you will need to adjust the fuel levels manually of course.

A Kerbin-Minmus Cycler don't need to take in account the Mun's gravity while it stays away of Mun's SoI. Avoiding get into Mun's SoI can be quite tricky in itself.

Well, there is alternatives* for the lack of steering. e.g: the overpowered reaction wheels we have in KSP. The real issue with SRB on later stages is that they are quite heavy. That extra mass will cause a cascading effect with every stage below it requiring more fuel and more power. For the first stage , specialty one that will not be kept for long, the extra mass is a much lesser concern. *not to mention launch vehicles that don't require such "complex procedures" like steering the craft during launch. A preference not many players share with me.