bsalis

More SSTO pron...

It's a bit nose heavy when full of rocket fuel but perfectly flyable. When empty of rocket fuel and running on the jet fuel tanks only it's nicely balanced. I fine tuned the smaller wing placement so it would be this way. To stay on-topic... another pic of it! Meanwhile, back at KSC...

Yup. Handbrake is needed. Billy-Bobgel learned that lesson a while back.

It's Dawn on Kerbin...

Build something like.... Then FLIP IT by driving, rocking it back and forth, and using the brakes. Flip it and get it back on it's wheels. Bet you never thought of that challenge! EDIT: Ok, so an illustration of what i mean... WARNING: it is dangerously addictive.

Much thanks... and yes, an SSTO spaceplane isn't easy. You really have to focus on balance. It's strange, but when I started playing KSP my attitude to spaceplanes was a bit "meh", but now i'm hooked. Just installed the fuel transfer mod and built a tanker truck. Have taken this SSTO up and down several times now in one mission...

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No I don't have a water lander. However, now that you mention it, it reminded me about posting about a landing on the Ocean Moon. I wonder if there will be parts added, like flotation devices, to land something big on that. In order to ascend back to orbit.

Congrats. IMO orbital rendezvous is the hardest maneuver to do in the game at the moment.

Well, just tried landing it now. To answer your question about the landing gear... Landing could have been better, and that was in the rough, since KSC was in the dark at the time. Note that it's not so heavy with all the tanks empty. I'm sure it's possible land in one piece. I don't think splayed landing gear is the way to go. But meh, a few tweaks here and there and you can make it better.

I had a play around with your craft. It's kinda goofy but I actually like it. I can't believe how remarkably docile it is to fly under jet power. Anyhows, some changes later and i get it into orbit... Solution was that it just needed MOAR! Note that the I needed to shut down the jets after starting the rockets since the jet exhaust knocks them off now for some reason. It's also a bit of a handful part way through the burn... had to cut the engines once to get it aligned again. So... no joy to fly, but it gets there.

I believe that SRBs were not used on early manned rockets mainly because of safety reasons. The big one being that they could not be shut down. Trying to abort a launch during ascent with SRBs still going can't end well... imagine being pulled away by the escape tower while the rocket is chasing you under SRB thrust *shudder* Also note that the Challenger disaster was due to SRB failure. Obviously, in the Kerbal Space Program, attitudes to safety are a little different.

As responded to, the 2/3rds thrust was not to exploit the fuel bug. Rather, I speculate, to allow control of the descent if needed. If you aim to land on a spot using full thrust, what do you do if it looks like your going to over-shoot? Using less than full thrust gives you some room for more breaking if needed.

I have seen this issue as well. If it happens often for a craft, it probably has borderline stability issues. You should probably save a backup copy then tweak it a little to see if you can get all or the majority of MechJeb Ascents working.

Yeah, sorry. I didn't get a screenshot of the completed burn showing a 100km circular orbit. But I made it, with one-and-a-bit tanks left. Plenty for re-entry. This was more of a personal achievement. Only thought of posting here as an afterthought. I had a lot of trouble building a SPH based SSTO, and last night I finally nailed it. It only gets to LKO and back, but that's enough, i'm chuffed. EDIT: just to clear things up, I put another up, using MechJeb Ascent all the way to see if it could do a better job. It seems the result was much the same for fuel, but it messed up the burn a little at Ap. See it here in all the full screen resolution glory. Oh, and the name of the craft is called "Helios"

Finally, a fully working SSTO spaceplane!

Well the ideal may depend a little on the rocket, in what the optimal ascent profile is. It seems to me that 100Km is considered the standard LKO, and a good place to do a transfer orbit to benefit from the Oberth effect. If you go higher, you can save delta-V from atmosphere drag, but lose on Oberth effect. There are always tradeoffs.

If I am not mistaken, liquid fuel rocket engines are most efficient at full thrust in RL.

I wager with current stock parts it is not possible. Getting a rocket off Eve, yes. Getting that rocket to the surface from Kerbin, no.

Good work. Done this a few times myself, both ways. Odd that whenever I see anyone else do this they do Mun then Minmus.

public static void main(String[] args) { //prompt user for length String inputValue = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "Enter the length : " , "Length" , JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE); double length = Double.parseDouble(inputValue); //Prompt user for Width inputValue = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "Enter the width : " , "Width" , JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE); double width = Double.parseDouble(inputValue); //calculate area double area = length * width; //Display the results System.out.println("The area of a Rectangle with a width of " + width + " and a length of " + length + " is " + area); }

Looks like PhysX still using 32 bit numbers. Was obvious The Kraken had a hold on that bus.

Those numbers on Eve look ... heavy. Anyone like to take a guess of the Delta-V to get to Low Eve Orbit (LEO)? Looks like my hopes of being able to get to all of the hard-surface planets and returning to Kerbin is slowly receding into the distance.

You make it sound like it's all too easy! Why didn't you post which actually has the getting to orbit bit, not just sub-orbit.

How the heck did you put that spaceplane down on the Mun on and get back again! Since it does not look like a VTOL. Not doubting you did it... just want to know how.