KASASpace

Well, KASA's problem is that most of our designers don't take into account looks and all that. We do however have a corvette on the drawing board. It would be heavily armed for it's size, but don't tell Hanland that...........

Hello, RAM/SCRAMJET!

Or perhaps a sort of catapult like on aircraft carriers, but it would be a big one.

I know this has probably been made a hundred times now, but I want to show you guys my idea. So, you have a runway at the Spaceport. This is only for landing, however. Initial takeoff is done with a sort of maglev track which accelerates the craft to 300 m/s. Now, this is way faster than necessary speed for a ramjet or a scramjet. So very little moving parts in initial ascent engines. Make them like the Sabre engines, only ram/scram jets. This would mean those same engines could eventually be used as the upper stage, probably either RP-1 or Methane as fuel. Primarily because they are awesome. Possible cargo to LEO over 10 tons. Launch Sequence(revised): 1. Acceleration by something, perhaps a sled with rockets and then rams onboard, to about 300 m/s 2. start of ramjet 3. Exiting of launch track 4. Midair refueling 5. Scramjet activates 6. Runout of air between 50 and 60 km 7. biprop engine begins, scram cut-off an instant later 8. MECO 9. perform mission 10. Return to Earth The bonus here is that if you build enough of them, you can get a HUGE amount of launches per year, making the SSTO an effective cheap launcher, not to mention not having to actually, you know, LAUNCH! From a launch pad extremely slowly, wasting huge amounts of precious fuel.

That's kinda the point.

I don't know at all

Wait! I JUST GOT AN EPIPHANY! OR AN IDEA! WHATEVER! This could be applied to a lot of things, maybe reduce the range of physics to 500 m? Also, maybe you could have this used on stations? Like so: Say you launched a space station into orbit. Say there were a minimum of 45 parts (not counting struts or fuel lines) on each. When docked, you can right click a command pod or probe and rename it to whatever and select the option "become structure." A warning thing could pop up, explaining it. Then the ship would be on rails, and would have to be in orbit with no decay (over 70km for Kerbin at the moment). A special module would be required. Most parts would not undergo physics but could function, like transferring fuel or electricity. Only open docking ports would have physics on at all times when within 2.5 kilometers. When something hits greater than 1 m/s, all parts in the blast radius of 5m would be taken out of physics. If they would effect there neighboring parts, they are taken out too. If a part is shot off into the black, then it gets set on rails and is called debris. Kerbals could transfer because only hit boxes would be checked by the engine. There you go. And also a limit to size, like 1000 parts or something.

Exactly. It would make launching cost more for just about anything. And parts to make it fly better would cost money, and it could be done over time throughout the cycle to 0.30.

This has been said by some one else, and if it hasn't, then I'm the first to suggest it. Multiple throttles.

Well, how about another connection point below where the engines go? Like on the fairings in KW rocketry, just going down? And then when a part such as a decoupler was placed underneath, then a fairing would swallow the whole thing including the stack coupler.

As you guys know already, 0.22 was the science update, and 0.23 to me at least was the tweakables update. So, how about in 0.24 or 0.25 we have some more aerodynamics, but then add them over time. Small increments can lead to big things. So, maybe in 0.24 there could be a focus on something other than aerodynamics, but some small tweaks could be made. This could be like just the command pods and probe cores in 0.24, the fuel tanks 0.25, the engines in 0.26, some structural pieces like adapters, decouplers, and separators in 0.27. And others like parachutes and all the science parts in 0.28. So it could be a sub-feature included in a string of updates. But I humbly request, your awesomeness SQUAD, to consider this proposal. Also, in 0.23, it feels like the aerodynamics had a big upgrade! The control surfaces are a lot slower, like they fight against the atmosphere. Really cool! Thanks, KASA CEO

Well, the desing of the shuttle called for capability to return some pretty heavy cargo. I wouldn't want that "precious" stuff to land in Siberia or the Ocean. Then it would take months of work just to get the cargo back to the home country. Not effective for time, and not to mention the craft itself. SO thus crossr-range popped up, which also allowed for less accurate landings to be chosen, thus, longer return windows. There you go, wings explained.

If only NASA thought of it...............

I have yet another suggestion. Instead of using a space plane for anything, I would use a normal rocket. Cancel the shuttle. Build a cheaper better faster vehicle and use it heavily. Man-rate the Atlas V, use it for getting capsules into space, then use paragilders on the decent capsule for cross-range, and can land using skids. Similar to original Gemini goal of getting a paraglider on it.

Well, the USAF made the wings bigger and actually made THE WHOLE THING BIGGER. They wanted to get to polar orbits from the Cape, for Kerbol's sake! That adds quite a considerable amount of D-v. Plus, humans wouldn't be where we were today if we didn't explore. Columbus accidentally discovered the New World. And he had to explore for that. If it weren't for him, perhaps this forum might not exist at all. And the USAF wanted bigger wings and cargo space. So, there you have it. But they backed down, leaving NASA with a vry big, heavy, expensive vehicle, that was the only thing they got.

Well it would be an RL-10, so as to say it would produce more than double the thrust as well. So, one Pod underneath the vertical stabilizer, then fuel tanks on the sides. Still smaller than both combined. But thanks, anyways. I forgot it was meters.

I revise my opinion a little bit. Use composites, a better TPS, and aerospikes on the Orbiter. Make the wings smaller, make the whole thing smaller than it was, stupid USAF backing down last second! Build fleet with decent turnarounds due to better TPS and simpler construction method. Make 20 to 30 launches in a year. Boo-yah. And also use a more common fuel, probably RP-1 or Ethyl Alcohol, in conjunction with LRBs. Launch Profile: 1. Takeoff 2. Max q, SSME throttle down 3. Throttle up 4. Booster sep 5. MECO 6. OMS orbital insertion 7. Whatever the mission is.... 8. return

Or maybe mass produced reusable engines being used on not reusable fuel tanks! BALLOONS! I'm crazy, get over it! BALLOONS! Disposable launchers waste resources, adn think outside the box, composite tanks have been done, balloon tanks ahve been done. THe only thing the Atlas booster used in the 60s needed for SSTO was an Aerospike. There, I said it. It doesn't have to be reusable, but an SSTO could be cheaper all the less. An aerospike can operate at all levels of atmosphere and have very little Isp losses, ideal for SSTOs. The Atlas got rid of the booster engines cause of weight and the wrong nozzle shape. EASY AS CAKE! But no gov has figured this out yet.

I wish I only knew the entire quote, but it was Michael Collins. "exploration is an imperative" As humans, it IS OUR VERY NATURE TO EXPLORE. OUR NATURE TO TRY AND UNDERSTAND, IT IS OUR NATURE TO ATTEMPT THE IMPOSSIBLE, TO ACCEPT RISKS, TOW WORK TOGETHER. Congress is a con to all of humanity, we need some progress, and quick!

Have you played KSP? Do you use the LV-N? No? Well, then, shut up.

Well, that said, the actual tanks would be smaller than the orbiter fuel pods themselves. You see, 22 ft3 is basically a three dimensional area that is less than 5ft by 5ft by 5ft. So, yeah. I did say composites, too. Think about it.

Thanks, mine had a hashtag on it and then I removed it, worked out fine!

I will edit them in once I figure out how to. Thank you very much, sir?

Well, if you get 17.5 science from the atmosphere with the materials lab, and 7 from the goo, and 5 from crew crew reports and 9 from surface samples, then you could get pretty far by doing it correctly and efficiently. I hadn't even landed on the Mun and brought back the science and got too the science techs that cost 90, and got some of them too.

The following is what occurred on one of my Muna flybys. It is told in story format. Part I: LaunchBob Kerman was sitting in his capsule on the launchpad. He was waiting for what he dreaded, LAUNCHING. After that it was mostly okay, but this time he was on a flyby to the Mun. Last time he did a flyby around the Mun was to get some high altitude science reports, now he needs some low altitude ones. He sure wished there were more snacks packed, and when he started wondering if he had remembered to refill the gas on this thing, the engines fired. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! The engines were powerful, and the asparagus rocket was efficient at what it did, but Bob was no where near those results when it came to launching..... "WHAT DO I DO? HOLY CRAP! GET ME OUT! AGHHHHHH!" "Calm down, Bob, you're fine, but if you keep overreacting your vitals will quicken and you might just die," the Cap-com skillfully explained, however futile. Orbit was achieved rather perfectly, and then the burn for the Mun began, a free return was difficult to get as we wanted a low periapsis over the Mun. There wasn't a hitch. Yet. Part II: The MunThe plan was for Bob to actually enter orbit around the Mun and get some low altitude science. He performed well, but screamed a lot. Then the lot for the return was staged, and a problem was noticed, Bob was in a retro-grade orbit, not good. So instead of burning retrograde relative to Kerbin, Bob had to burn prograde. He did so valiantly, but something was noticed during some of his EVAs...... Part III: Eventful ReturnsAs Bob was spacewalking, he noticed a peculiar lack of something. "Umm, Mission Kontrol, I have a problem. Those engineers forgot the parachutes again!" Bob shivered at the thought of Muna 1b, where he had to use the engine to brake. "You've done this before, Bob. You can handle it." "Okay....." Reentry was initiated and Bob was coming in extremely fast. He had a couple hundred m/s to slow down, and only 6 km to do it, and just an LV-909........ Which was more than enough. He landed without a hitch, but we lost the stage, though. . Part IV: RecollectionsIt was a good mission, and over 200 science points were found. Due to the Muna program, many techs have been unlocked, and many Kerbals have made the ultimate sacrifice, not eating snacks, to reach this goal. Many other Kerbals got stranded on the Mun, even with asparagus staging.