smunisto

Man, these are heavy ships, they are using the biggest 2.5m tanks, even if the propulsion ship has just half of it. They weigh more than 120t for sure. It's absolutely normal for them to take like 10-15 seconds to turn from prograde to retrograde and being unable to stop. For such ships you would need atleast 2000 monoprop.

The heavier your ship is, the slower it will turn of course. Without RCS you rely only on pod/probe body torque which is extremely tiny. Try a smaller ship and you will see how much more responsive it is. The overshooting of marker is normal too. To stop the turn/rotation you require the same amount of force applied in the opposite direction of the turn/rotation. You can't expect to spend 10 seconds starting your ship to move and being able to nail it on the marker dot, like it's made of paper. This is not a bug, and MechJeb by no means is explanatory for any physics laws in the game. Besides, as stated in previous posts, MechJeb will not use RCS if you don't turn it on. RCS is made exactly for big ships, all rotations and turns are translation maneuvers and require proportional amount of RCS to maintain better control over your ship in the vacuum of space, when your engines are turned off.

The "hull" is called "Fairing". For the stock game, as it is, the easiest way to have a fairing (or hull) is by building one of structural plates, beams and hardpoints(which can be ejected, i am almost sure there was a hardpoint with ejection force on it in the stock game). If you want something much simpler(in terms of part count) and better looking you might want to take a look at the KW Rocketry revised mod pack, which adds 6 types of fairings in 3 different sized, 3m diameter parts such as fuel tanks, engines and more. You may want to hold up a little with mods though, since at this stage in your "career" in KSP they are more like to confuse you with the bigger part variety and complexity

Much easier is HyperEdit Under the Misc button there is an option to destroy whatever you want. Just be careful not to destroy some of your ships by mistake. Note: Use only if you are sure you won't get tempted to cheat KSP, because HyperEdit contains many other "cheat" functions.

Fuel creation through any means is currently not officially supported. BUT! BUT! Be welcome to the most mod-friendly game out there. Welcome to the world of mods. Specifically fuel creation can be achieved through mod called Kethane Mining Pack. You will have to design landers, equipped with the necessary things to gather Kethane and transform it into fuel though. After that you will have to design tankers capable of landing in order to transfer it from the surface to orbit. Look around, there are some great mods, but give the game a chance before committing to mods and stuff - they are highly addictive.

Did you search for the Quantum string in the parts folder of your KSP? If you have them - you have to look harder in the utility menu, but they use the models of other parts, so it took me a few tries to notice them too(I have about 60 parts in each section). The Quantum Strut and Strut Gun use the RCS Directional thruster(the one with just one thrust direction), the Quantum Core looks like a SAS module.

Use a mod like Engineer or Mechjeb to detemine when you stop pushing the TWR ratio up and it starts dropping due to too much engines/fuel. You have too much tanks. Try using less tanks and more asparagus.

Yes, thanks a lot In the meantime:

Thanks, I will try this. In the mean time after slapping some drop-tanks and additional fuel + engines i managed to break the bonds of the kerbin atmosphere - SSTO Space Thanks, I managed to get my own in orbit too. You are using the default turbojet engines too, Taverio's mod replaces them with much less powerful ones, which are more realistic. Even if i get it, it will never lift for me with just 4 engines Thanks though

So has anyone found a fix for the micro-stutter(lag for the people who don't know what micro-stutter) is, which increases with the amount of MechJeb windows that are open?

Almost in orbit, just need to add 2 more mk1 fuselage droptanks and i will have enough fuel to circularize on the next flight. However now it turns out that each time I load the game(which i saved before reaching apo), that my engines just detach themselves from the wings, because on load the wings move about 1m and then warp back in place - like Taverio said they will. Is this going to be completely fixed in 2.6? I can't see a way to design a craft with these wings and not use them for engine placement.

I have tried all this before I installed TAC Fuel Balancer. Now I am managing the fuel levels with it to help ascent and fuel levels are not the issue. After I wrote the previous post I almost managed to get it into orbit - I added 2 tanks of Liquid fuel + 2 more NERVA engines, got to about 30km altitude before shutting off the jets, and starting the KW Engine, however I ran out of fuel when I got my Apo to about 50km. I think I need a bigger rocket engine for the transition stage - with the current one - 1300 power - I can't push the prograde vector up, and i waste fuel accelerating inside the atmosphere without gaining altitude.

I can't do this anymore, it really drives me crazy. After 1 week and numerous iterations of the same basic hull and wings(HW21), i still cannot get the damn thing to space. The idea: A heavy cargo craft, carrying DEMV 4 Rat DROP pod(or any other payload up to 20t). The problems I am having: I am using Taverio's revised jet engines, which means they are less powerful. Now I managed to get the required amount of engines for the altitude i want for transition - 12 engines, with intake ratio 4:1. If I tilt the wings 5 degrees up, to get more lift - at high altitudes the SSTO becomes unstable and eventually does a backward/forward roll. The latest version allowed me to have a stable climb to 23 000 m, speed of around 1100 m/s and then the craft stops climbing. If i pitch up more than 30 degrees I can't bring the nose back down and it rolls. I tried transitioning at 23 000 m - it just pitched down and made a roll - this may be due to the fact the winglets in the front are tilted 5 deg down, to stabilise the ascent. Please help me, i have no idea how to get this thing to space. I am sharing some pics and the craft file, but since i make heavy use of mods - it may be hard to test for the visitors in this thread. In any case - mods used are: 1. B9 obviously; 2. KW Rocketry; 3. Taverio's Pizza and Aerospace 4. TAC Fuel Balancer 5. MechJeb 6. DEMV Mk 4 -RAT with DROP pod 7. KAS - Kerbal Attachment System 8. Aviation lights Here are the screens: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tjj1vode29b7k06/screenshot129.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/ozur7wwgdgbc6ss/screenshot130.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/2rns61jhpk6gc0q/screenshot131.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/2rns61jhpk6gc0q/screenshot131.png Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5iz56owex125hs/SC%20Unsuc.craft

I noticed you are all linking and discussing quite light SSTOs. I spent the last week trying to get a heavy SSTO Cargo craft in LKO, so far highest I have reached with the varying changes has been 55km Apo, unable to circularize due to the lack of fuel. Being a perfectionist, i want it to be aesthetically pleasing, as well as capable of reaching LKO. The craft itself is around 115t, 110 without the payload. I will post some pics of the most recent version later today. Has anyone been able to figure out a reasonable ratio of TurboJets per ton?

1 - Kethane Pack 2 - Kerbal Attachment System/Regular docking ports with wheels on tanks/space cranes( the last 2 achievable are stock, not a mod) 3 - Kethane Pack 4 - Kerbal Attachment System 5 - A few mods come to mind, none of them are particularily well polished 6 - Now this is the new idea, however the Unity physics won't like it.

Thanks for the clarification, so i have not messed up the installation of your mod. 3Gb game with so many mods would have been painful to reinstall

This is very important Just for extra certainty - place it on an engine which sits on the central axis of the craft.

Place a docking facing outwards on an engine or other part with available node, then attach the opposite facing docking port to it, build your payload, turn off snap-to-angles option and attach the whole payload inside the cargo bay. Rotate the camera, zoom-in for more precise alignment - the textures have a circular shape on them, and a cross in the middle - these will help you in aligning your cargo perfectly. Do not forget to strut it in place, unless you want to experience the 100% fatality rate "HL Cargobay Payload Wobble of Death".

I have done a quick test with wings tilted 5 degrees up, even with just a prototype version of my cargo SSTO it worked pretty well. Now i need to figure out how to get atleast 4:1 intake cones to TurboJets ratio without making my craft look like an ancient torture device with so many cones. And for the update - you left the old wing versions too? Or i ended up with duplicates, like you said? I deleted everything that contained NTBI in and overwrote the other files. Now i have some parts that are identical as name, but apparently different version: Let's say "6x4 Wing" and now i have "6x4 Wing2" with different shape and stats.

Ok, I've spent the last 4 days trying to get my SSTO to orbit, with varying results. I am using HL body, and the whole thing(with the B9 large wings and engines) weights about 100 t. So now I am trying to fix my max altitude only on jets, but it is hard, since I don't really get the difference between the Turbo Jets in your mod and the Ramjets. Also the difference between the Ram Air Intake and the Shock Cone Intake. I guess I am trying to make a fairly intricate design(read heavy payload, heavy craft overall), because I have no problems with my rocket missions to other planets, but SSTO cargo craft drive me crazy. These are the things I know so far, please correct me if I am wrong, and if possible - give some more info on how exactly these parts are supposed to be used: 1. Shock Cone Intakes and Ram Air - Intake Air 0.275 vs. 0.25 respectively, with the shock cone being a tad heavier than the ram air intake(negligible difference). Are shock cones getting more drop in intake air when the craft is pitched up farther up than the actual prograde vector? For example my cargo SSTO is quite heavy, and as result I get a significant difference between prograde vector and the actual orientation of the plane, which is always higher by atleast 10 degrees - does this mean that i have to use Ram Air Intakes instead of shock cones? If not - if both types of intakes get the same drops when pitching higher/lower than the prograde vector - what is the incentive to use ram air intakes anyways? 2. TurboJets and RamJets - this one i think I understand - you have scaled all jet engines to suck proportionally less air (more ISP on the ramjets than on the turbojets), but the RamJets provide very low thrust until you pass 1200 m/s. Which makes them useless for main jet engines. So my cargo craft is subsonic - my expectations are for it to get to about 23-25 km and speeds of about 1000-1100 at that point, before firing the rocket engines. Which means TurboJets for my craft(and any subsonic craft). So I guess you made the Ramjets with the idea of being used on supersonic atmospheric craft, not SSTOs. The simplest example that comes to my mind would be a central Turbo-Jet engine + 2 Ramjets on the sides, for the supersonic stage of the flight.

I have the following problem with the avionics control - a little wobble. The engines are small hardpoints with a Nacelle on them, 2 stack separator, Intakes and turbojets. Not strutted to the wings or hull in any way. I have just one ACU, no SAS or ASAS modules. What causes this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EanLMNfHaEE&feature=youtu.be

I think i already managed to fix the problem with the craft falling apart - the linked setup is already stable in 2.5, but I am attaching it for your purposes. Please bear in mind it uses a handful of mods: 1. Your own pack. 2. B9(duh) 3. Protractor 4. DEMV DROP 4 5. KW Rocketry 6. KSPX maybe 7. KAS http://www.2shared.com/file/FnFZRhD6/Space_Cargo_I_7_Engines Now i just have to find out if i can get it in orbit

I will post the craft file of the following SSTO I am trying to build later tonight. The problem with v. 2.4(didn't even notice there is 2.5 already) - The setup is basically this: Cockpit -> S2/HL Adapter -> LFO Large HL Fuel tank -> 3x HL Large cargo bays -> S2/HL Adapter inverted(tail section) -> 2.5m Nerva Engine. Note that this is the main section, but it is the one having problems. The SSTO flies ok with this setup, but without the cargo(a DEMV DROP with a RAT 4 Inside) and even empty is quite oversensitive, even with precise controls enabled. This is a design issue and i will resolve it on my own. But now the real issue: Due to CoM and CoL aligning issues I have tried changing the above to the following: Cockpit -> S2/HL Adapter -> 3x HL Large cargo bays -> LFO Large HL Fuel tank -> S2/HL Adapter inverted(tail section) -> 2.5m Nerva Engine No matter how I strut the whole thing, when getting dropped on the airstrip with the tank at the back, the tank and the whole tail section detaches itself from the front. The funny thing is - it stays strutted to the side HL extensions, so the only way to find out if this happened is when the doors on the bay don't close(because it is no longer part of the SSTO). Funnily enough i still have control over the NERVA attached at the back of the tail section. Now, i wonder - the craft went through several variations and updates. One of the major ones was the change in all of the strutting - from the KW Heavy Struts(220 000 strength mind you) to some black ones(look immensely better), called EAS 5 i think(no idea which mod they are from), which have like 2 500 strength or so. I don't really know any points of reference to compare these strength values to so I want to ask if you think the craft falls apart because of the type of struts or because of the way of strutting?

Hey guys. First of all - Bac9 and all devs of this great mod - thank you, bow down. I myself used to make models for other games such as Homeworld by starting from things I myself wanted to see. Now, I have a few questions, I hope someone can answer: 1. How do you hide your struts? I am unable to place them in between parts(say 2 fuel tanks mounted next to each other)? This is in case i still need struts, after instaling 2.4( running 2.3 now, no FAR). 2. Can someone recommend a mod, including some larger landing gear, I am having trouble taking off with the ridiculously small stock ones? 3. How do you place docking ports in the HL and M2(i think) cargo bays? I manage placing them, but off-center, even if it's 1 pixel, they just won't attach to the center node, they just rotate around it. I have tried attaching docking ports first, but then you can't attach the cargo bay itself. 4. Do you keep your docked loads in the cargo bays strutted in order to prevent catastrophic wobbling in flight? 5. Can we have some scaled down landing legs too? Let's say inline with 2.5m 6. Any plans for tail parts that are inline with the largest wings? Not that I mind using the stock Delta wings, but I can't fit the B9 ailerons on them and the B9 Delta wings are kinda thick and uncomely for a tail