Reusables

Sorry, I can't get what you mean exactly, would you let me know where the parenthesis is closed? I'll give you general explanation: You should count all engines you use. Though if you have, say, 9 LV-T30 and 12 LV-T45, then it has same ISP with 3 LV-T30 and 4 LV-T45. (9=3*3, 12=4*3) Try calculating the two, and spot the similarities.

No, I calculated on 3 LV-T30 and 4 LV-T45. In the case you should weight thrust & fuel consumption with the number to get the sum. LV-T30 consumes 15.77/s while LV-T45 does 13.68/s. So (167969*4+205161*3)/((13.68*4+15.77*3)*9.81*5)=257.2 Though you're right if you are using one of each.

Primarily, exploring all the Mun&Minmus biomes. It can be done in short duration. Also it can easily go interplanetary as well when refueled; @Wanderfound's spaceplane has 5.6km/s when fully refueled, which I think is sufficient to get to Jool and back.

Crew transportation, and science scraping missions. It can haul cargo as well if it has a docking port aligned to the central line.

Right, hence get the spaceplane to space only one time and use it over and over again. It costs less for its own mass, and it's possible to pack lots of dv there while it might be impossible with rocket with second level VAB due to the 140t limit.

StageRecovery is not allowed. It may count as modded entry under StageRecovery category. Flying with mechjeb is allowed, but the craft should work without the mechjeb module. (So that it could get to orbit if piloted well)

I got ISP of 256.9~257 with the configuration, how do you calculate it? 1 second is a bit big for calculation error.

You can go as low as you can. There is certain limit, though. (0t is obviously prohibited) There is no highest launch cost; It's just that you won't be listed and noted as suboptimal entry, when you are inefficient than lighter launch vehicle. I don't know about recording video, I heard that you will need recording program like bandicam.

That sounds great, I want to look at how it goes! You are going to make orbit before the first stage goes under 25km, right? Besides, I think RAPIER has so low TWR that it won't lift enough payload. For 2t is too much..

Currently I'm working on my personal project, so not today. I would try it tomorrow, with MAMMOTH POWER!

I made one on 1.2, to test if electric tiltwing VTOL is possible. This one only has the VTOL part. If I remember correctly, this one got to 8km. Without the heavy crew cabins, it could get to 25km~30km and get broken(this was typical test routine of my electric propellers). Abandoned it as it was hard to control. EDIT: You can find more of these here

Refueling? Ingenious! So you can reuse the whole plane over and over? I should have opened Panther!

I forgot this thread; Sorry for that. So it's a disposable lifter for 1.77t of payload? That explains it, it's great for such a light payload! (I won't say Launch Stabilizer is part of the rocket) Also it won't take much time and effort to orbit, which means it's practical with typical stock career. I'll list you on the disposable category. Again, sorry for being late =P You need to get a payload to orbit very efficiently. Just provide screenshots/video for confirmation, and the cost of a launch. As lifters with lighter payload are less efficient, they won't be compared ones with heavier payloads. So you can go super light, or go heavy and pushing the limit. Fairings have so many bugs... I encountered similar issues as well. I think it's prone to editing/reverts. (Its hitbox get messed up on revert)

(6.166+7.365)*9.8*5. It's fuel consumption rate of the engine in kg/s.

I've encountered a similar issue, and got a workaround by adding empty stages for other lander/tug before putting them together. Probably stages on the same stage number get merged when merging two ships. Separate these stages by adding empty stages before merging in VAB/docking.

You almost got the math! You got one mistake: unit is not mass. 1 unit of liquid fuel or oxidizer weighs 5kg. That'll fix it.

EDIT: why did I ever do such a suicidal rant.. So I thought he has been lying throughout all his videos, like some people does to grab money. Still, no need to be serious on just an youtuber. Lying is bad, it's just that. 'You should not believe anything on internet', even more when there is hardly a proof. Besides. In my opinion, some of those people who posted the bad replies were to have fun. Some of them relieve their stress looking at the resulted pain, while justifying themselves. It gets worse as they usually take it light. Or maybe they are role-playing? I don't know.

I mean, 1/ISP. Let's say L=1/ISP. Then combined 'inertia' is L=Sum(Ti*Li)/Sum(Ti), and L*dv=ln (Mwet/Mdry). It may look more complex to get the actual dv, but actually more helpful to calculate mass ratios like fuel fraction and payload fraction.

Sorry for being off-topic, but the average has a name: (weighted) harmonic mean. Don't know why such a thing has 'harmonic' in the name. (Probably pythagorian?) Personally, I prefer to use inverse of ISP. It makes many calculations easier. (Including the average - still weighted tho) I think it also has the better meaning: consumption rate for certain dv. (Rocketry Inertia)

I think it's not too complex, with a bit of help from wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbolic_trajectory To gain deflection angle of 2D, Needed Eccentricity: e=1/sinD. Closest Approach Distance: r=(-a)(e-1). Semi-Major Axis: -a=GM/{v_inf}^2. ------------ (Definition) Escape Velocity : {v_esc}^2=2GM/r ------------ (On Closest Approach) Let's compare the relative speed on SOI entry with the escape velocity, as it gives reasonable measure of how fast the entry speed is for the planet. {v_inf/v_esc}^2 = -r/2a = (e-1)/2, e=2{v_inf/v_esc}^2+1. D=asin (1 / [2 * {v_inf/v_esc}^2 + 1]) This formula looks horrible.. Let's just put some numbers here. With Eve gravity assist, escape velocity can get up to approx. 4.85km/s. For the last assist just before reaching circular retrograde orbit, the relative velocity(entry speed) should be 20km/s approximately! In this case, sinD=0.028 and D~1.6deg. So you can barely get 3.2 degrees of deflection here, which shouldn't be meaningful. Literally, it was too fast for such a small(?) and hot planet. With Kerbin, that's 3.43km/s and 18.6km/s, sinD=0.167, D~1deg. Even worse! (2 degrees deflection) With Duna, escape velocity is smaller than 1.4km/s(!) while relative velocity should still be 15km/s. No need to bother with this one. Now, with Jool: It has escape velocity over 9.7km/s, while its orbital speed is under 4.4km/s. Relative velocity is now up to 8.8km/s. So even in the worst case, sinD=0.378 and D~22deg. That's 44 degrees of deflection! ...Actually, that's not so much. It means you were already going retrograde(clockwise) before the swingby. Let's push a bit more. There is one more benefit of Jool: even with tiny amount of retrograde velocity after gravity assist, the Pe should be sufficiently high. 5.0km/s relative velocity could be feasible, and that gives D~41deg. Now this gives 82 degrees of deflection, which is enough for this kind of gravity assist. Still, it's hard to get into retrograde circular orbit; It'll cost either bunch of time or major burn. ( - As Jool is your only solution for retrograde circularization. Other planets gives what, 4 degrees?) EDIT: Cleaned up a bit.

Mathematicians like to use some exploits to generalize equations/formulae/object/class/whatever while keeping it simple. In this case, they decided to call hyperbolic orbit 'elliptic(or conic) orbit with negative Ap'. For Simplicity! EDIT: In this general representation of 'conic sections', hyperbola has negative semi-major axis and eccentricity bigger than 1. Reference: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ConicSection.html & https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-major_and_semi-minor_axes

Wow, really? Then you're right, burn at Pe with slight correction on inclination. (Raise it)

I want this thread to be removed, is it possible? If it isn't, please lock this thread.

I think it was stupid idea to post this here. Mods, please lock/remove his thread.

@TheEpicSquared, would you please update my Retrance ll2? It is on the craft link(I updated the file). Also I want to raise its cost to 6000.