AnalogAddict

Thanks for watching! Yes, please to make sense, this challenge must involve as many trips to orbit without refueling

Get to orbit as many times as you can using your SSTO Space Planes without refueling! Guidelines: You may use Mechanical Jeb for flameout assist, Kerbal Engineer, or equivalent information providing mods. Please no engine modifications or mods that provide such engines. Since Mechanical Jeb is allowed for assistance, maintain a 2:1 intake:jet ratio, please no "air-hogging". Your craft must be a space plane. My proof of concept: I can get to orbit three times with this craft. Note** Final Landing performed without ASAS further demonstrating capability. Leaderboards: Number of orbits. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/44759-The-Courier-SpacePlane-To-orbit-three-times-w-o-refueling%21

Thank you zarniw00p. In my experiences I haven't built large SSTOs that had great results while re-entering or landing. Since my view of large SSTOs is they are to be used for payloads, not interplanetary travel, I have not ventured into developing one that had a large reservoir for delta-v post orbit. I would say there is a diminishing return on smaller and larger SSTOs, medium sized as I have classed this craft seems to have the most success in a variety of tasks. For instance, this plane: Laythe Nuke-SP SSTO was named due to its ability to be refueled in orbit and travel to Laythe. As a culmination of effort, this spaceplane performs well with empty fuel tanks as well - however the nuke has a tendency to fall off if the plane has more than half fuel. Its smaller than the craft this post is about, and can get to orbit with half this craft's delta-v. No matter which way you go, it takes a load of work to get a good functional space plane that is versatile.

Add some sets of SRB's to that booster stage from the images, that should give you the extra oomph that you need to get to orbit. My refueler looks dangerously similar to these. I use Mainsails on the 6 outer boosters, and the new Skipper on the center stage. No fuel lines and the Skipper only fires after the initial booster stage is jettisoned. That usually gets to orbit with more fuel than the one orange tank can hold, I end up piloting an unwieldy rocket with its upper stage still attached.

I haven't been to Duna since the remodel, I think this sounds like a good reason to get my lazy bum out there.

An SSTO of mine can get to Duna, land, and go back to orbit of its own volition. Getting the ship back to Kerbin will require a small amount of fuel, which if you were wanting to attach a plane to a transfer stage then that shouldn't be a problem. Bare .craft below, add docking ports, rcs, small payloads, and whatnot to your liking. Just adding a docking port is your best bet, that'll let you refuel the craft in LKO then begin the burn towards Duna. That should provide you enough fuel to burn to Duna, land, re-orbit and return without the need for fut http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/44759-The-Courier-SpacePlane-To-orbit-three-times-w-o-refueling%21

If Alt+L doesn't float your boat, you can separate the decoupler into its own staging group (by clicking the + sign near staging groups and dragging desired item to the blank group) and move it above all other stage groups. That will give you some buffer against accidentally hitting the space bar.

/nod Impressive.

Thank you, Febin, its pretty difficult to screw up. Even without SAS on I haven't lost control yet using it. A friend of mine who doesn't play KSP got this thing to orbit by firing all engines from the runway and literally flying straight up out of the atmosphere. He then turned and circularized after a slight suggestion about how to orbit... amazingly enough, the craft made it to stable orbit.

Capable of so many things. Link to my forum post, video after this link.

Mine can get to Laythe, and return, or land and reorbit around laythe to rendezvous with some parent craft. It can also get to Kerbin orbit three times without refueling. 48 parts. 21 tons. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/44759-SPv4a-Courier-Go-to-orbit-three-times-w-o-refueling%21

The Nobunaga Interceptor - a tiny spaceplane. Download Link: Nobunaga Interceptor Features: 1.3km delta-v after circularization at 80km. Ability to reach orbit twice Clamp-o-tron Jr. for interfacing Balanced flight Flight Profile: Full load takeoff @ 135m/s 1. Full throttle @ 45 degrees until 13km. 2. Pitch down to 10~15 degrees (monitor vertical speed indicator), continue 10 degrees beyond 20km. 3. Speed should approach 1600m/s by 21~22km. 4. Set throttle 1/2 and engage nuke @22km (Action group #1 or staging) while pitching up to 30 degrees 5. Work throttle to just below 1/8 by 26km, 6. Disable jets/close intakes anywhere from 26~28km (Action group #2) and throttle back to full. 7. Maintain some distance from apoapsis 8. Begin to pitch towards prograde as apoapsis approaches 50km 9. Circularize at desired altitude. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Courier spaceplane is capable of +3.4km/s delta-v after stable 80x80km orbit. From the runway to anywhere ... and back? Video available here. Getting to orbit three times without refueling. ** Note: SAS OFF for final landing Image Album. Download the .craft: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33011069/Ships/SP%20v4a%20stock.craft As configured: Designed specifically for the video, this plane is in its bare form. The spacecraft is easily adaptable to hold docking ports, small payloads, RCS, and why not a couple chairs. 47 Parts stock 21 Tons The Courier can make it from the Runway @ KSC to Laythe, land on Laythe, and return to Laythe orbit to potentially rendezvous with some orbital module... quite a distance she can go. Flight Plan for stock: - Stage to initiate Turbo Jets *Note if you use action group (2) to start, the intakes will close. - Pitch up @ 90m/s, set pitch 45 degrees. - Maintain 45 degree pitch until 13km, then pitch down to 30 degrees (monitor vertical speed indicator: desired ~50m/s by 17~18km) - As velocity increases, pitch down in 5 degree increments to massage your vertical speed. Desire speed 1300m/s - At 21000km, stage or (1) action key to fire the dual LV-Ns, reduce throttle to 33%, pitch up to 45 degrees and using the indicator bring your vertical velocity above 100m/s, slowly reduce throttle to prevent flameout until about 26km the plane should be at 16% throttle. - Press action group (2) to disable jets and close intakes. - Burn at 45 degrees until your apoapsis is near 50km and begin pitching down to burn directly prograde. Set desired apoapsis. - Circularize. The video shows a more aggressive series approaches, if you aren't afriad of Mech Jeb and its nice flameout prevention, you can perform them as well. That being said, a stock flight is still capable of 3400m/s delta-v after circularization at 80km or even better, I'm not the best pilot.

I concur with capi3101, as you burn fuel and enter thinner atmosphere the g-forces and strain on your craft is increasing due to increasing TWR. If you maintain about 2, maybe 3 g's you should be fine.

That craft looks like its 18 tons. I've built something similar so I have somewhat of a frame of reference unless you're clipping fuel tanks into one another. Good job on going interplanetary on a budget! I like it.

Check the Showcase: Post your SSTOs here. Like you, OP, I have created several SSTOs that can get anywhere in the Kerbol system, but payload haulers, refuelers, and busses are foreign to me. Threads like these have helped me insurmountably with ideas and techniques for building planes that aren't my traditional style. Especially since you're wanting to do the work yourself.

Its personal preference on how you like to use your controller. I use pitch + yaw on one stick with translate forwards/backwards and roll on the other. when it comes to docking though nothing can beat the control of using both hands on the keyboard; WASDQE IJKLHN are invaluable for controlling all degrees of freedom in space.

For stock installs, you can mouse over your ap and pe which will give you a "time to" value. You can add these values to find your period, as Mr. Manley points out in his video, geosync period is 6 hours so for setting up three you want a period of 4 hours so you'll have an even distribution with 2 hours in between each craft. Getting precisely at a 4 and 6 hour period takes some time stock. Remember if you are 1 minute off (in terms of your period) you'll end up being 1 degree off over one orbit (period of 6h1m yields moving "backwards" in respect to your other craft given eastward orbit, period 5h59m moves "forwards". You can use this effect to your advantage though - should one of your craft be slightly out of alignment, just adjust its period by minuscule amounts and allow it to orbit to maximize your potential delta-v for future corrections.

It amazes me that you guys think a Kerbal should be able to plant a flag properly when we all know they simply can't. Its not "troll code" its "behaviour code" lol

I do this all the time to remove mods from my old crafts that I'd like to port to new versions of KSP. As long as you remove every iteration or instance of some mod then you'll be fine.

There might be folks who have placed engines below the CoM like you have and gotten it to orbit, however, I've noted this as a big no-no. I figure if you move those jets up to be flush with the fuselage then you shouldn't flip out in the upper atmosphere or at high speeds. I think the LV-T30 should be sufficient for such a small plane, in other words I'm not sure what you are getting at by saying it wasn't powerful enough.

Second this statement. The new A/SAS system is a vast improvement over the previous iteration. Space Planes are much more tame, and my big rockets controlled just like they did in .20. I'm very pleased with .21 personally.

Have you tried disabling the rear wheel's steering ability? That might assist you in "not-flipping", also having a low CoM will help your stabililty

That information is provided by mods such as Mechanical Jeb, Kerbal Flight Engineer, or the like. Here is a link containing all of those interesting mods as well as one additional, RemoteTech, but you don't have to install all of them. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/mechjeb-and-remotetech-for-all/

Parachutes will indeed make a craft rip apart, I suggest letting the atmosphere slow you down more before deploying the 'chutes (put your PE @ 35k on Eve, or something similar), or use a drogue 'chute or two off the top of your craft to keep it heads up and steadily decelerating before deploying the normal 'chutes. To address the ladders, they are retracted wherever you placed them in the VAB. You should be able to right click their small rendered form and click the "Extend Ladder" button.

I've had this issue with the Kerbals falling/clipping into the seat; however, my fix was simple. I merely drove the rover out from under the Kerbal. My seats were positioned right on the edge of the rover like yours OP, but my seats were on the front/rear instead of the sides. I'm sure you could throw him off of that rover by doing some g-force intensive maneuvers.