bsalis

I recommend reading the K-Prize post. Landing light mod parts are fine to use. I also suggest you should be wary of 0.16 designs due to the fuel bug, since many SSTO designs used fuel crossflow which was impacted by the bug. Remember that there are only 3 ways to increase the delta-V of an SSTO; a) increase the full:dry mass ratio, use higher Isp engines - aerospikes are your friend, and c) avoid fuel waste through better design - ie. excessive gravity loss from poor trust-to-weight.

Aerocapture is where you aerobrake into orbit, which I think everyone here should be familiar with. I understood Kerbin well. 36km was a nice altitude to set the Pe for capture from Mun and Minmus return. Anything under 35km was a full re-entry. So far I have found that 15km is good for Duna. That was a proper intercept near Ap on an eccentric orbit. So what have peoples experiences been of aerocapture at the new planets? I'd like a heads up, since I prefer to avoid quickload if I can. EDIT: details so far... Duna 10.5km Pe, 1900 m/s = 1333 km Ap 11.5 km Pe, 1680 m/s = 1155 km Ap (me again) 12.6km Pe, 1300 m/s - fail, too slow/low (me again) 14.5 km Pe, 1675 m/s - fail too fast/high (me again) 15 km Pe - mixed results... too little or too much depending upon entry m/s 25 km Pe - Fail - too high Eve 60km Pe, 4000 m/s - capture success 70km Pe (m/s unknown) = success 300km Ap Jool 90km Pe - epic fail (~120km minimum suggested) 119.5km Pe (m/s unknown) = success (and Laythe capture) 115km (m/s unknown) = 22,000km (~Laythe orbit height) 121km Pe (m/s unknown) = 46,000 km Ap 127km Pe (m/s unknown) = success Laythe 9km Pe, 7600 m/s - fail, too low 21.88km Pe (m/s unknown) = 235km Ap

Is this to land, then get back to orbit and return to Kerbin? That would be Eve I think. If it's just to get into orbit around the target, then return to Kerbin, then that would be Jool.

Well IMO, Son of Kraken is out there. Weak it is, but it is there.

The game seems to be missing that Mission Control Room feature. I would imagine that it will make visiting planets much easier when added. The same as Map View made getting to the Mun a whole lot easier. However theres more value in adding the planets first. Also, the challenge of getting to the planets now will keep most players occupied until 0.18. If the planets are too much effort to get to now, then best to ignore them and wait until it gets easier.

It has been posted before several times... There's a mod for that

Might be a while before we see some good SSTO designs out there. Since everyone is off to the planets at the moment. There were a few Mun return capable craft around in 0.16. However, with the.... change... in 0.17, I don't expect to see many of those doing repeat trips. However, with the new NERVA engine, I actually think a Mun return capable SSTO is now easier - no refueling needed. I'm sure there's a great mix to be discovered of jets, aerospikes and NERVAs to give you a great TWR profile for ascent, and a nice high ISP for a large delta-V once in orbit. Looking forward to seeing the designs and building myself... just after this next Duna visit... and some Jool missions... and... those moons.

The proper ejection angle depends on the TWR of the craft. For my craft it is 7.51 degrees earlier, not 6 degrees. The ejection angle shown by the online calculator assumes an instant change in delta-V. However, real craft have a burn time, so you need to start earlier. To work out what the ejection angle adjustment is... you will need to use my super special secret trick.

Pilot looks nonplussed. Who is that champs name? Resolution too low to see.

Great work echris1. Here I was thinking every Kerbal and the Ker-dog were off to the planets! I have added you to the leaderboard. No issue with it not being a full SSTO. This challenge is for any spaceplane, even my VAB based plane-on-a-rocket (i didn't have an SSTO at the time). There's already an SSTO thread. This challenge is about precision re-entry at a non-equatorial location, and landing on rough terrain. Which I can see you have done well... Sherbert II doesn't look easy to land there in one piece either. That's the largest plane so far. As for getting there quicker using a direct path, Suzaku did it that way (watch his video). So it's certainly possible to get into the qualifying orbit and back down in time. If you get the heading right, you don't need to do an inclination change.

Well, yes I like them. Especially when they stay attached to your craft. Somewhere in transit this one decided it did not want to be a part of my mission to Eve. I completed the mission without it. IMO the thrust is too little. My 2c is both thrust and weight should be quadrupled. So that's Thrust 240, Mass 9. Then have it such that they will not work in atmosphere at all (for "safety" reasons).

As I have posted before elsewhere, I think the fuel bug caused under-consumption in certain cross flow situations. It wasn't just a throttle thing. For example I have an SSTO that used full thrust all the way to orbit (jets to 11km, then rockets to 100km). In 0.16 it had 668 units of fuel left. Now in 0.17 it has 245 units. IMO i played the game as-is with the fuel bug in 0.16 and now i'm playing it as-is in 0.17. If it's an over-consumption bug now or not I don't care. I just built it bigger.

It's a shame you can't see the planets from orbit, which I think you should be able to. Since if you could do that, you could work out if the phase angle is correct from the nav ball.

Sorry, that was not so clear to me. I will message Suzaku to start a 0.17 thread with my ideas on a more comprehensive commendation/achievements system. He seems a more keen and accomplished SSTO enthusiast.

I think the bug caused under-consumption in some cross flow situations as well.

Well, the Kerbol system has grown. With the time and distances involved, a little more planning and little less trial-and-error is in order. I also have some plans in the coming months for some elaborate missions. So that leads me to ask... Are there any diligent souls out there willing to put together, and share, a Delta-V map for the Kerbol system? So that's not just getting to and from the planets, but also to the moons of the planets and back to low host orbit. Oh, and getting into orbit from the ground as well.

Yes please! But this thread or another? Also, with both 0.17 and the docking mod out now, there are so many possibilities. For example, my Grand Tour was quite an achievement, but cannot be classed the same as doing it without refueling. It's almost like you need a seperate thread to work out exactly how to lay out SSTO achievements. At the least PM boolybooly.

The ejection velocity is accurate. My understanding is that it is based upon an instantanious burn (delta-V change) at the right spot. As a craft moves along the escape trajectory, it slows down. Because it's not possible do the burn instantly, a craft starts moving along the new trajectory while still doing the burn. So if you end the burn at the target velocity, you are actually going faster than you should be at that point. I'm sure it's possible to work out what the right velicity is to stop the burn, by factoring in the PWR. But.... just use the escape velocity as a guide and use map view get the Ap correct.

I think people need to figure out the eccentricity part themselves. What I want to know is if the ejection angle is correct for moon-to-moon transfers. Since my understanding is that the formulas provided by Kosmo-not assumed that the ejection trajectory is hyperbolic. Which may not always be the case.

I thought this was worthy enough for a General thread... So here we are. An SSTO on the runway with Bill in command. Ready to go for a Grand Tour. Minmus, then Mun, then return to Kerbin. Not possible in that you say? Sure, but it's not practical to build such an SSTO in RL anyhow. You would dock and re-fuel right? Thanks to the mod available now, that is exactly what I will be doing. We are off... The Orca tanker is ahead. Need to catch up and rendezvous. (crappy night pics, there are a few of these - sorry)... Now time to dock. Set attitude control to orient, then use RCS translation to guide her in. These pics are from the fixed cameras (mod)... Fuel transfer is... somewhat painful in this mod. You have to EVA and connect the "pipe". Undocked. Full of fuel. Ready to go again. Meanwile, on a related mission. I have a fuel tanker set to land at the Mun. In case I need more fuel to get back to Kerbin. Bill has arrived and landed on Minmus. I landed on the most convenient lake. By chance, I had another mission landed only 10km away. I didn't know, but none other than Jebediah was in command. I though he was, um, dead. But no, just hiding out in a capsule on Mimnus. So he decided to pay Bill a visit in the buggy. After some... "discussion", it was decided that Jebediah would complete the Grand Tour mission. With Jebediah in command. It was time to head to the Mun. Planned landing point is below at the Mun Arch. It's dark... will wait for daytime to land for safety reasons. Change of plans. A buggy is at the base, I park it near the tanker. The ground in front of the buggy is very flat. The headlights should help me guide the landing. Landing at night. Mebe this was not such a good idea. Jebediah seems fine with it. As usual. Landed! The landing was very wasteful on fuel, but I had plenty. Better safe then sorry. The tanker is too far away. I need to move it over. I'm more worried about this than landing the SSTO. Need to be careful not to crash into the SSTO! Oh my. It's Bob in command of the fuel tanker. I remember that. Seriously, I did not plan it this way with any of the "prime" crew involved. Anyhow, time fuel up again. However, after checking fuel stocks... it seems that I don't need any! Since I went to the trouble of getting the tanker here, I *have* to use it. I decided to top-up the jet fuel tanks to be 100 units each. Just in case I need it flying back to KSC. Finally, time to head home... I had fuel to spare. So after one pass of aerobraking, I rounded out the orbit to 100km with a couple of burns. Now it's time to land while it is still daytime. And that's it folks. MET 6:11:00. Grand Tour in a small-ish SSTO. One docking in LKO. Two fuel stops. One crew transfer (unplanned). Ad-hoc precision night landing on Mun. Return to Kerbin on KSC runway. So the question is... what features do you want to see on 0.18 eh?

I would launch again with a north or south heading. The inclination change you want to do i'm thinking is about 4500 m/s ! Possibly don't even have the fuel for that.

I thought it was obvious...

Docking FTW

All I have done is vessel substitution. So lets say you want to insta-orbit something. So pick something already in orbit you don't care about (warning: it will be deleted). Copy the relevant vessel details, which is everything you see in the example below in bold. This is all the non-part details, except for pid, name and stg. Then delete that whole vessel entry and save the file. Now put the vessel you want on the launch pad or runway. Now exit the game and open the persistence file again. Find the vessel by name, the sit should show it being on the pad or runway. Now paste in all the details you copied, preserving the pid, name and stg of your new vessel. Save the file and enter the game again, and hey-presto, the craft is now in the orbit the other craft was. If you want to specify a particular orbit then you need to adjust the ORBIT data. However, IMO, if you want something in Kerbo-stationary orbit, then you should do that playing the game I only insta-orbit vessels rarely to test balance. I don't use it for real missions. With the center-of-X features in 0.17, i won't need to any more. VESSEL { pid = 40fc91647b624f678398abaa74822a54 name = Galileo - Epsilon KL [b]sit = ORBITING landed = False landedAt = splashed = False met = 2733736.78637049 lct = 10242454.713972 root = 0 lat = -0.0978857632452315 lon = -523.201267830071 alt = 2867790.71383903 hgt = -1 nrm = -0.5125027,-0.8196898,0.2558319 rot = 0.6101579,0.08489279,-0.3731015,0.693755 CoM = -0.0004872347,-1.463317,-0.01370263[/b] stg = 0 [b]prst = False eva = False ORBIT { SMA = 3466647.98308393 ECC = 0.000536371356336351 INC = 0.0984309557060202 LPE = 44.0289865801569 LAN = 280.61945542462 MNA = 4.05016023592667 EPH = 12976191.5003425 REF = 1 OBJ = 0 }[/b] ...