bsalis

Another great installment. It looked like Aldners dream almost became a nightmare! Hope you continue though .21... i was able to convert over.

To me the problem is less to do with actually nudging an asteroid, and more to do with observation (of both trajectories and internal composition of an asteroid) and computer simulation.

Anything I think below about a 20Km threshold on Kerbin will be removed unless it is within the 2.2Km physics sphere. So I would recommend either an SSTO or a two-stage system. For two stages, have the first stage push the craft into a sub-orbital with your desired Ap. Then decouple at Ap, and circularise the orbiter. Then switch back to the first stage and land it.

Sounds like you need more intakes, lifting surfaces and control surfaces. It also sounds unbalanced if it is yawing. Some pics would help.

First landing on the VAB in .21. Sadly nothing in ProgressTracking for it. Might try adding landing gear for next test flight.

i really hoped it would be back

Sadly not much progress for me as yet. However it will be interesting when the modders get around to using this info. For a start you could have the info shown in the game, which is the obvious one. Another more fancy thing you could do is have a mod to integrate into the ribbons generator. Assuming game engine security allows an outbound socket.

Yes, like peoples comments from the teaser pics, I agree with others that it could use some tweaks. However... I suspected that it would look a lot better close up, say at a low and fast 6km high orbit. I was right.

From this... Rendezvous Made Easy This was back in .16 I think, and possibly one of the first guide/tutorial on a reliable way to rendezvous using the information at hand. This was before maneuver nodes, targeting and docking.

Nice post Tom, looking forward For me... Career-mode progression - since that is huge, so on the critical path More celestial bodies - since i'm itching to explore beyond Jool, using Laythe as a hub of operations. For me that is taking it the next level.

Well it looks like i'm late to this.. 44 pages now BeefTenderloin! As an avid SSTO Spaceplane enthusiast, including some VTOLs, the nerfed torque and heavy reaction wheels impacted me more, but I can deal with that. As for the ASAS (now called SAS-enabled), welp... first question is, emotions aside, is it meant to hold a heading? If it meant to hold a heading, then it does a miserable job of that. If you like that or not is a different matter. Like != Correct.

Yup, I agree

I have done this. A complete system for exploring Laythe by plane. However I shipped fuel and oxidiser from Kerbin. I don't use Kethane. You can read my complete (pic heavy) exploration mission if you want. Post #19 on Page #2 has more details on refueling. I'm not sure what you are planning, however if you are just exploring Laythe with SSTO spaceplanes, you should not need to bring large amounts of fuel down. The reason being is that when you take the plane down to the surface, you fill it to full with fuel, and only as much oxidiser needed to get back to orbit. Then offload the back-to-orbit fuel and oxidiser into the tanker. This will give you plenty of fuel to fly around efficiently. Then you load up on fuel and oxidiser from the tanker when you want to go back to orbit. I explored all of Laythe with dozens of flights, and only did two fuel runs from orbit.

Looks like the Island Airport will be back...

Good to see that you are setting your own boundaries and (hopefully) sticking by them. However, you may want to still quicksave, but only quickload when hit by a bug in the game. A nasty one I have seen many times is the trajectory prediction somehow missing a Tylo encounter... and i'm not talking about grazing the SOI, once I was on a direct collision course. You don't want to spend hours assembling a craft in orbit around Kerbin and taking it to Jool only to splat into Tylo through no fault of your own.

If you do not want it to wobble then just launch it as a single piece. Docking several crafts to make a station will make it wobbly, will increase the part count, and is more effort.

I have seen this engine a while ago. It is quite impressive. I hope one day that something like this will be used as the platform for a sequel to KSP.

Epic. It does not looks safe, with the Earth just out there in the vast empty space.

I see a couple of big problems which are clearly causing it to flip. 1. As someone else has pointed out, you have a lot of fuel mass at the front. When this is drained, the CoM will move back to where all the dry mass is... the engines, and possibly even the cockpit in this case. If the CoM moves behind the CoL then the plane will be unstable and prone to flipping. 2. Other problem is the canards. Canards at the front of a craft are a great help with pitch control. However they can be a flipping hazard if not used well. If you have them far to the front, they will be far from the CoM, then when you pitch up, they will be high above the CoM and pull the front back and... flip your craft. So safe canard use is: a) don't have them too far in front of the CoM and; make sure that the control surfaces at the back are as strong or stronger in control authority.

There is no clear threshold between airhoggin and not airhoggin. Personally I don't care how others choose to build craft. However if you're new to SSTO Spaceplanes, and just keep spamming intakes until you make it work, I think you are denying yourself a true understanding of what makes an SSTO Spaceplane tick. If that is not an objective then it's not a problem, but I think many people do think they know but really do not. Fact is you can get to orbit with a 1:1 ratio. For a Challenge thread, I did it with *one intake* on a craft that had 3 jets. From my experience I would say that... 1:1 = hard mode 1.5:1 = workable but poor performance 2:1 = adequate 2.5:1 = ample 3:1 = plenty 4:1 = more than needed If you can't get to orbit on a 4:1 ratio and the only goal is only to do that, then you are doing it wrong. I have done a Duna return, non-stop, on a 3.2:1 ratio, and i'm sure it can be done on 3:1

Welp, I thought I would start with some older models... My first K-prize SSTO (though a slightly improved version I think) Refueling (with mods). Busy day at the tanker. Docking before docking. This was from my grand tour (moons only, no planets yet). Pilot switch on Minmus. Jebediah insisted. VTOL SSTO using DR rotatrons. This is The Battleaxe. First interplanetary. Duna orbit and return, or Laythe one-way. 3-seater cruiser. Heavyweight... mostly rocket powered SSTO.

If you're having issues with spaceplanes now, when others are not. Then I highly doubt the new ASAS will remedy the issue, and allow you to get a spaceplane to orbit... especially under 5 mins.

What kind of a VTOL? What are you planning to do with it? Any typical rocket is a VTOL by nature. If you're building an SSTO Spaceplane, you can just take one that works. Then put legs on the back, and chutes at the front, and then it's a VTOL too. You can land and take off vertically on Kerbin or an airless body, using jets and/or rockets as needed.

I'm I the only one who really wants the Campaign feature done. Biggest hope for me is to be able to push the difficulty slider all the way to Hard and then fail.