Crispynaut

I'm with you, I guess what I'm saying (poorly) is I want more science stuff. I want to understand how he came to those numbers.

@The Moose In Your House, Thanks for the video, that's one of the better ones I have seen working through the problem. Thank you for taking the time to post. I suppose it also embodies the kind of video that is widespread for SSTO, it has a bit more science but I still think it uses too many rules of thumb. I am trying to avoid empirical figures and develop tools to examine design parameters from first principals and allow a greater level of optimisation without so much trial and error. What do you think my chances are?

Hello All, I recently learned that I'm heading back to school to do some postgraduate study and I need an excuse to revise and touch up my MATLAB skills. Simultaneously I have been grappling with the SSTO design problem and the fact that I cannot find any tools that will guide me in the design of an SSTO and payload. My thought is that while fluid dynamics was not my strong suit (I am a mechanical engineer) the simplified modelling of KSP should make this a reasonable endeavour with a bit of research. My a first step will be to produce an aircraft design tool that I will input a desired payload, ceiling and perhaps a few other parameters and the program will output required thrust, lift surface area and required coefficient of friction. In this way, the 'art' of aircraft design still exists because you have to design something within those parameter (x lift surface, y kN of thrust etc) so but at least the science gives you a starting point. Would be keen for thoughts, guidance, advice or be pointed at any existing tools. Good flying

Great guide, I know it's a few years old now but hasn't stock KSP upgraded the aerodynamic to be slightly more realistic? (Rocket fairings are actually useful now?)

I must sincerely apologise I didn't intend to pass this off as my own work, credit belongs to Burkitt, however I got that image from a Pinterest page so not sure what his forum information is. Very fair question considering my seemingly bold aspiration, little to no practical experience in this case (C++, CUDA C, Matlab Scripting). My intention is to probably develop some printable templates that people can doodle in as part of their initial plan and construction. Once constructed and if they want to share with friends they can import Kronal Vessel Viewer Images into a template to build. If they are popular templates I might look at seeking help from someone with mad programming skills to help develop the idea further. Me too for the most part, sometimes I make silly errors. The overview image is one part of this project, the protocol is the main part. A list of steps anyone can follow to have a robust, detailed design for that particular mission. I am sure this has already been done but it's something I would like to do for my own game and I will post so hopefully it helps others too. Fingers crossed haha

I found that return from Mun, manoeuvre such that your periapsis is between 35-40km and you will survive re-entry.

Hi @Castlekside, sorry for the newby question but what do you mean by theoretical lowest fuel calculations. I assume the mission has the same delta v requirements for everyone given the most optimal trajectories however the fuel consumption varies based on weight? How do you calculate this? Thanks in advance.

What do you guys consider cheating? I often find myself thinking "Is this cheating", particularly when using the Krash mod. It does help test and evaluate the design before you invest a bunch of time and effort flying the mission which isn't too dissimilar to simulations in real life. Although I guess the fun and excitement comes when there is a sense of achievement from designing something on paper and it works in 'real life'

Hi All, I have been a longtime lurker of the forum and learned a whole lot from the discussions that have been had. I found myself spending most of my time playing KSP and wanted to invest more into the community so here I am. My goal is to develop a mission planning protocoI that would incorporate mission planning, construction checklists and mission validation into a single document pack. The idea is that anyone from beginner to advanced player could develop a mission plan and then execute it (or have it executed by others). I was thinking developing a tool that would generate a summary of the mission similar to this: It would then have a storyboard of each stage that explains delta v, electrical, control, RCS, docking and any other requirements. My current mission planning method is to construct a delta v budget in a table that describes each stage of the mission. I then construct the spacecraft from the payload down according to that budget. This is reasonably simple for straightforward mission but starts becoming less useful when there are more complex mission profiles. It is relatively ad hoc and while it does work, I find myself regularly fixing silly design errors (forgetting power generation in some stages etc) as I am not following a methodical process. How do you guys do it? Do you have any tips or tricks you would be willing to share?