mystik

Do you have to switch to it via control from here command? I saw that thing there, but I didn't know what the purpose was. You need a manual for this thing. Also, how do you fly this one? Do you still have to go low or can you go with a more steep climb? I could not manage to fly the Kraken well, because at 30000 I usually pull up to 45 and blast full engines to escape the atmosphere as quick as possible, I have an SSTO that does this very well.

Wow, you really did it this time, that dv is crazy balls. Looks like a winner. this looks like the thing I've waited for. I already found a method of carrying my rover without having to worry about ramps. I switch the bay upside down, lower the plane, then raise the landing gears installed under the rover and presto, it docks and it's good to go. Look at it. I needs so little customization. I'm thinking to test it by landing on the Mun already to recover a crashed craft I have since my first landing. I abandoned it there because I had nothing capable or bringing it home, but this thing can surely bring it back. You've done great work with this project. Well done.

I engage in some light clipping myself, but only to fit stuff in the cargo bays. As for fuel tanks and such, I tend to avoid it, because clipping another tank in another tank creates additional drag, so it's counter productive. I don't download overly clipped ships. Some clipping here and there is fine as long as it is done to fit something in while not making impossible to click each individual part.

I didn't remove the fuel. I did some math and replaced all the internal tanks with one MK3 tank of the same capacity. The dv increased from 5500ish to 6800ish. I am having trouble with positioning the nuclear engine so that it all fits. I was wondering how to transform this into a mini shuttle for local use. My 8 ton rover is killing it. Does it do Tylo? What powers this? Would you be able to post the craft file?

I like the minimal design. But I don't get much dv. I did make some changes. Because my rover is tall, I removed the internal structure. Replaced all the tanks with one small MK3 liquid fuel tank. I also converted the rover to carry the ISRU and 4 small drills. I use a full RTG setup and it runs on 30 of them. Problem: how do you land on Tylo with just one nuclear engine? The gravity is too high for a single engine to slow you down. You'd need about 12 nuclear engines to slow you down.

What a good looking mini space plane. I will have to download it and test it later. I have some ideas of dropping some weight and increase the DV. As for Tylo, no worries, I will have to dispatch a mining tug to mine and wait in low orbit to pickup the ship once it reaches orbit.

There is another way to go about this. If you are looking for extra capacity you can still get away with it pretty easily. You can just install rover seats in the science bay. I mean, I do it all the time, especially when I need to rescue a kerbal from space also. You can drop 2 drills and stick with 2 instead. The lab is, in my opinion not necessary, as you can get away with a big antenna instead and carrying that big thing in space. Besides, assuming you do go places and gather science, the lab will be full in a matter of minutes, with lots of science remaining that won't fit anymore. This is why I think the lab is not that great to carry around. It should be a better idea to save the space and weight. You can keep the bay for customizable purposes (I am trying to figure out how to place a rover in it that if I turn it upside down and lower the plane while lifting the rover up on landing struts to dock. I have plans for the docking bay, but none with a lab. However, I don't mind seeing the inventiveness that you show so far, which keeps me in front of the editor for hours tweaking your design to somehow fit that rover that I have. Genius. How much dv does the ship have? Do you need to refuel in LKO or does this thing fly all the way from Kerbin to Minmus in one go? I love the fact that the ship need to be lowered to begin drilling adds a "separate state" of function, excuse my nerdy talk, I mean that it has a different setup when drilling than when it is just sitting there. Do you have the craft file? I am interested in learning things about SSTA for convenience sake because I want a ship that that can take my rover (smaller than yours) to places I want to see. I want to go down craters where the ship would not be safe to go to.

Allright. Like the weight loss. The fix to stability was much needed. I'd say this is your best yet. I will have to make some time and fly it to Tylo. I saw a video on how to land on Tylo with a space plane, which I need to test, then I will share with you.

@Korsakovski What if you drop the lab, reduce the size of the cargo bay to the 3.0t model and move the ISRU to the back of the plane to balance out the cockpit? That way you keep the placements of the VTOL engines. Also, I found that placing the reaction wheels around the plane makes it more responsive than placing them in one place. You can probably get away with a full RTG setup too, you only need about 36 EC for ISRU 30, 2X drills 3 and 2 X radiators 3 (about 45 pcs). Which means a single 4k battery is enough and that saves space for M700 and stuff. It will cost more but it should be autonomous.

I've been thinking. Can a design based on MK2 parts work? I think the MK2 parts act as wings too, but I am not sure, I remember being able to glide a lot with those. I know they are more draggy, but this may mean less weight and less need for extra engines. I didn't manage to create one out of MK2 parts, is there any technical difficulty?

Ok, maybe something is wrong with my ascent profile, how do you manage it? As for radiators, I am sure, I had my drills overheat because I placed my radiators too far from them. I used the deployable ones. I don't get it. When in orbit I get 2600 out of rapiers or 1800 if I switch to nukes. That tells me that there is a power to weight ratio issue. Normally nukes should give you lots of dv. I will have to test with the lab removed. Maybe shorten it a bit too. I do have a high drag item that I attach to the front because I have no other way of carrying it anymore since this model does not have a cargo bay for rovers. I carry my exploration rover. Not excessive drag, but definitely not very aerodynamic either. I consider removing the passanger cabin too, to save weight. Sorry, I need to go light, because Tylo will prove difficult.

Ok, I am customizing it right now, because I saw a few issues. It has too many RCS. I think 1 or two sets are enough. You are going to use them for very fine adjustments anyways. The radiators are too far from the heat source. They won't work. Having build a giant asteroid wrangler, that can mine the target, I can tell you that the radiators only work for nearby components. The ISRU would not be cooled if the radiators are so far away. Could be wrong, have you tested the ISRU? I have placed one medium radiator on top for testing. Also added 2x small radiators for each bay with drills. Removed the radiators from the side cargo bays and installed extra fuel cells. Don't worry about the stairs. You can always retract the front gears and extend the ladder. Then once everybody is on you can raise the front back up. I will test more and get back with more feedback. Edit: Found that the 2 sets of 3 vertical engines between the main engine blocks are wobbly when used. Would require a few struts. It's the engines sandwitched between and they're 3 vertical ones on both sides that are attached to the small rocket tanks. New edit: It seems that the current model has less DV than the E4. I used to get into space with 2500m/s with the E4, but with this I can only get 1200-1600m/s. I think that the lab needs to be scrapped. Sometimes extra engines are a bad thing, because they add dead weight, the trick is to have just enough to get you into space and no more. I may be flying it poorly, but I don't seem to get the same perfomance as I got out of the E4. While I did modify some things, I scrapped the crew cabin and replaced the fuel tanks in the side bays with extra control wheels, the model seems to underperform when compared to the original. Sometimes less is more. The trick to get the most perfomance is to keep it light and powerful. Less engines mean less power, but also less weight when in space. I am not sure that Whips are helping too much. I mean, they help on Kerbin and Laythe, but are useless for the rest of the journey and only drain from the total dv.

Good stuff. Take your time. Post when you're happy about the design.

Was your grandfather Henri Coanda?

@Korsakovski Looks like good improvements. Would you like to share the file for additional testing? I tend to try all sorts of maneuvers on orbit trajectory and landings, like do reverse entries or upside down to test the ship for anything that may need improving, or even reverse touchdowns (crazy).

Ok, time for the review and feedback session on the design, because I played around with it. If you're going for that design, then may I suggest some of the following, if you don't mind my input: If you want the small ISRU, then check out the conversion rates to make sure that it is being fed enough ore (the max it can do at 100%). I don't have the numbers now because I can't find them anywhere. They are in game in the part description. Just to make sure you have enough drills. For the large ISRU I found the sweet spot to be at 4 drills. Having 3 drills empties your ore tanks when ISRU is running at max (that means lf+ox with lf and ox also enabled so converting 3 resources at the same time, while having 4 drills keeps them full. I have not played around with the small drill, but keep in mind that the difference in weight is only 3 tonnes, which may not mean much for your design if you only perform this change. But you would save 3 tonnes of weight (4.25-1.25). My guess is that one drill is enough for the small ISRU, two drills are enough for the current design since you want some portability at the expense of performance. I would also recommend to take a look at your ore storage. Both weigh in at 4 tonnes and are not needed. Like I said, if you have enough drills that your tank is always being filled, there is no need to store so much. If you go with the smallest tank and attach it inside radially to the bottom (you only need one tank) that would mean that you save 3.875 tonnes, more than you save with the reduction of the large ISRU. Also, I recommend to scrap solar panels. If this thing is going passed Duna, those will be useless. Instead focus on RTGs and fuel cells. I usually place 6 RTGs to give me a steady 4.8 ec at all times (0.8 per RTG). That is more than enough to power all the reaction wheels and science transmitted. For the rest of the power needs, go with enough fuel cells, but it is important not to overdo it. It's easy to calculate how much is needed, via the part descriptions, then add a safety margin of 10%. Speaking of reaction wheels, this thing needs to be smooth as butter when landing on airless objects. It would also add stability to the VTOL functions, because you are more able to control the angles at which it does the maneuvering. I would recommend more reaction wheels, scattered around the place to balance weight. Another thing I noticed it is missing is a proper antenna. I know the space is limited, but it could really use a Communotron 88 on the roof somewhere on the back, away from the aero drag. Keep the current antenna as well, you never know when it is needed. If you're sending data from Eelloo, you might want to take into consideration using two Communotrons 88 for good signal. Speaking of roof mounted things, since the atmospheric drag is only present on Kerbin, Duna and Laythe, you can sacrifice a bit of aero and add a resource scanner on top, the M700, because if you're using this thing for mining it would be useful to know where to land it. Again, you can add and match as needed to balance the weight of this thing. Last, and I know this one might cause a headache, I noticed that it is kinda hard to land it, because you are tempted to pull hard on landing to slow down. Some of the engines are too low, so maybe it is possible to redesign the placement or rotate them to optimize the layout? I especially lose the whips. It makes me wonder if a landing is doable on airless bodies if the engines are so low, especially on a high gravity moon like tylo. Another solution could be maybe if you add an extra set of heavy landing gears to the bottom engines, that would prevent them from hitting the ground. These landing gears would require their own action controls, because taking off with them would be impossible, so they need to start off retracted.

I loaded the ship, but it is destroying my framerate, with its 590 parts. I think you can make it lighter and smaller if you scrap the crew cabins. Thanks for uploading.

Cool, I love your designs, take your time. As a special request, the 1.5t service bay would be very helpful, because I have a subassembly made to fit perfectly in that full of science instruments. Best placement would be behind the crew cabin. Most people could do with a universal science and ISRU SSTO. One ship to see all places is on target. But I rather have an efficient model as I can tweak it to my needs afterwards, so ignore any of the above if it messes with your design. You did mention that you have issues with stability. What if you scrap the extra crew cabin? It's hardly needed since you'd want to take the original 4 with you to places.

Sure, I'm always looking for good designs, I'm interested in testing it out to see how it does with the requirements.

@Korsakovski Your Kraken E4 has officially ended my quest to make an inteplanetary SSTO for all planets (except Eve) available here. The fact that it can do Tylo is great. My idea used 2 ships, one for landing (based on your Midgard B16M) and another low orbiter tug ship that would assist with getting to another moon to refuel. Anyways, how do you use the VTOL feature? I tried this in space and all it did was to spin me around. Does it require to use the back engines at the same time? Maybe I was using it wrong. Also, are there any chances to get a version with even more DV without making it too heavy? It already looks great. I would recommend to scrap the Monoprop tanks and the monoprop engines and go with vernors to use the standard fuel instead. Plus, the vernors are 6 times more powerful than the ones used now so that drops the part count and also makes the ship look cool.

Hi guys, sorry for the lack of updates, but the development of this SSTO has ended. Reason: I could not get enough DV out of the thing to make it viable for long distances. Also, @Korsakovski has made the Kraken E4, which has so much DV left that it puts my design to shame. If anybody is interested in any of the designs listed here, I can post some links. However, you can consider them obsolete. Still, not all is lost. I have learned important lessons on SSTO building and aerodynamics. I have also come up with a great fully autonomous rover that can science the crap out of biomes, with or without crew, with storage space and two seats. No need for solar panels, fully able to return to horizontal if flipped, no matter the gravity, even able to dock with a ship in space on it's own power. For mining assistance, it can serve as an additional power source to help when not in use. It can dock while landed in all gravity conditions, since it can lift itself to various heights, using retractable landing gears under the chassis. I will be using the rover as it is an awesome rover that can be attached to the front of Kraken E4, and can withstand the heat of atmospheric flight even if it adds some drag. The Tug can also be shared, but it is not needed anymore. Seems that my building skills are not as awesome. Seriously, if you are looking for an interplanetary SSTO go download the E4 from here https://kerbalx.com/Korsakovski/Kraken-E4. It gets the job done. I have been tweaking it a bit to add science, and if the author approves, I will release it to the public as well once I am done with it.

How about a small flight suit? A small tank, the small engine with a gimball, one OKTO2, one kerbal hanging on to a ladder, get your kerbal there, once above the surface have your kerbal gather a surface sample without having to let go, then you're off. If that fails, go with rover that has a rocket engine, using it to counter ballance the gravity, while hanging from a ladder, this will allow you to gather samples without touching the ground.

After some testing and designing, I have solved the problem, at least so I think. Presenting the 3 part expedition fleet. 1. Bee: Rover for advanced roving needs, able to flip itself back if needed, fully autonomous, emergency docking capable, advanced recovery vehicle; 2. Thoth: SSTO for all your expedition needs (except Tylo and Eve), able to land on Tylo, take off, but not escape it's orbit on it's own, but there's a solution; 3. Trident: Orbital and interplanetary tug ship, able to refuel on a moon and rescue the Thoth from low orbits, suited for non-atmospheric planets only. All tested separately, no parts are dropped, assembles in orbit. Does not require additional rocket assistance. Fully automated and fully refuelable. Tylo plan: Thoth lands, does science, refuels, goes to low orbit, then is docked by Trident who is able to pull it to safety in orbit to one of the low gravity moons for refueling. http://imgur.com/a/rn28R I have some math done, but I can tell you that the only places it cannot do are Kerbol (not enough dv to reach), Jool (no surface to land anyways) and Eve (not enough dv for reaching orbit).

Big update on the design. I have reduced the weight even more and now the thing has 3200m/s in rocket mode. 10.8km/s in jet mode fully loaded. 12.3km/s with optimal fuel load. I need to test it a bit. I will upload the model soon. Flying it became much easier.

It's the brakes.