solidgeoff

Made a The Martian inspired Duna Base

Looks good to me. You shouldn't have any issues with the action groups. does the craft have any way to restore electric power? Also, depending on your goals, all those liquid fuel tanks may be excessive, if you're just trying to get to space and back. Some of the B9 parts have good "empty" fuselage parts.

Feel free to post a picture for further critique, Darkeldar.

Just curious, since it seems we've got some people who know programming well, do you think changing the game over from tree to a more complex system would be a relatively easy thing to do for KSP? Or would it take a complete overhaul of the system? Currently, it seems struts seem to help most issues. For me, the thing I'd love to see if the ability to grab a complex object (composed of several parts), and flip it over and use a node on the underside.

I'm scratching my head over why you're shutting down the oxidizer flow at the beginning. If you're running your sabres on airbreathing mode, they shouldn't draw from the oxidizer. I usually put a LF only tank somewhere on the ship. The previously mentioned drop tanks always work well on a decoupler. To answer your action group question directly, you can absolutely switch from air breathing to rocket mode at 20km. Use the "Toggle engine mode" option, and make sure to group them all under the same action group. Afterwards, hitting the same button will toggle them back to air breathing. Sometimes, I have a spaceplane that has both turbofans and sabres. In that case, I will put "toggle engine" for the turbofans (turning them on or off) in the same action group as the "toggle engine mode" for the sabres. in this scenario, my turbofans turn off and the sabres switch to rocket mode. Finally, I often will put engines on an action group that shuts them off in case of some emergency, like a flameout. I might put them all on "toggle engine" on action group 9 or something. Hope that helps. In sum, you only need one action group to change from air breathing to rocket mode.

I figure the easiest way to go about it would be to "fling" the objects high enough so they crash back into the Mun and obliterate. maybe make a small rocket with a KAS attachment, and do a small launch and let it go at whatever height smashes things. and of course brake yourself on the way back down. Also, maybe send a rocket at a high speed at it and the explosion will send everything flying.

Thanks Hodo. I had a long weekend away and I wasn't able to respond. Your suggestions are definitely good. I have a lot of RCS to counter the problem this thread was originally about. mostly, they are for keeping the thing level at the 20,000m altitude area. Nuke reactors are a good idea. I'll have to try that one out. I guess overall, I don't have too many issues with part counts. My computer can handle quite a bit, and i dont like extendables because they break up in the atmosphere, and I always take forever to land. what might be better for me is using one of the solar panels from Bobcat, the big radial mounted ones, since clearly im not apposed to mods. However, my solar panels spread is clearly not ideal. Finally, here is a pic of the payload I took up. I sent it on a Dres-and-back mission. On a not-spaceplane note, I was proud of using the stretchy-tanks to fill in that empty space around the nuclear engine, as well as using them as landing gear. Also two mini-satellites that are in orbit around Dres right now. though, I would recommend attaching actual landing gear to them, as the landing was a bit rough.

Those Mark 55s in space are giving me a heart attack, but I'd love to see some pictures or footage of your flight on Laythe!

Thanks for everyone's help. Here's an updated craft I made yesterday. It can take 18 tons up into orbit with a nice margin of error. I still struggle with flying at high altitudes and thrust differences. Fortunately, thing go well if I just switch to rocket mode as things get hairy, and then the plane will fly stable up to orbit.

Ah man, I love those spaceplanes. Yeah, I think my biggest issue right now is how the two engines are set up on the wings. I can still go high and fast enough that when i switch to rocket mode, i can get into orbit (with a small payload), but i feel like every change I make just makes it worse. I'm sure we all know that feeling. And yeah, even the slightest roll in one direction or the other dramatically changes the thrust im getting. Though a successful ship, i might have to start back at the drawing board. Thanks for your help.

Wow thanks for the quick and thorough response Hodo. I'll definitely try out some of those recommendations. I'd love to keep the engines out to the side, to keep it looking kinda-sorta like the skylon, but I'll definitely get rid of the air intakes you mentioned, since i went with a "more is better" approach. And aesthetics, for that matter. Is there a difference between the "DSI Diverterless supersonic Inlet" (the ones I have now, the low-profile ones), and the other two?

The spaceplane I'm working on performs generally pretty well, getting into orbit and such, but during the ascent, I find uneven thrust between the two larger Sabre engines in the middle. The one on the right will have a thrust of 500, and the left will have 480 (the numbers change with the atmosphere, but the ratio stays more or less the same). This causes the plane to shift to the left. RCS does a fine job compensating, but the higher I go, the more significant the difference, and it shifts more and more. Notably, when I switch to rocket mode, the thrust becomes even amongst the engines. I'm assuming it's some kind of air-intake thing. For those of you who don't use this mod, the big Sabre engines are in the middle and they have the ability to switch from air-breathing jet engines to rocket fuel engines with an action group. Any thoughts? Picture below. I'm happy to include more if needed.

http://i.imgur.com/zhzhTr6.jpg http://i.imgur.com/QZpcTAz.jpg this is the biggest, with a cargo container in the middle. on a later version, i didnt bother with the pylon engines under the wings. http://i.imgur.com/wqmF83o.jpg This one is probably my most successful. the atomic engines allow it to deposit a lander to the Mun and then take it back to Kerbin.

Seeing the Dunarise for the first time.

Probably seeing the Marsrise for the first time.