drewscriver

The way I thought of it was that undocking and redocking doesn't disqualify a mission from achieving a K-prize, so long as the entire craft is back together at the end (excepting any payload), however, only portions of the flight where the entire craft is assembled are eligible for K-prize achievements. So with the Changeling, if I had undocked the fuselage in LKO, I could have gone haring off over the entire Kerbin system, come back and landed, but as far as the entire spaceplane goes, it would only count as a LKO flight. This was why I elected to submit a minimus cargo delivery, rather than a Mun landing with the detached fuselage. Not quite enough delta V with the wings on, not to mention I can only get the cargo out in zero-g

Thanks, guys, I'm really happy to see folks getting a kick out of it. Originally, I was just trying to figure out a decent way to implement a stock docking bay, and I ended up going a bit overboard...

Impressive craft, Mesklin, and clever approach to modularity and part reuse Thanks! Even if it's not a dropship, I'm glad you approve. I just wish I had the skills and the software to do it justice

Thanks, Rune, I'm glad you like it, and I did not know that particular trick! I'll have to go back and tweak the design accordingly. As-is, flameout warning is vital; with the forward engine positioning to help with the COM, the Changeling is basically using an anti-stabojet design. Interesting thought on the legs, Cranium, when I get some time, I might have a look at using legs instead of the radial Ant thusters to open the wing nacelles. It wouldn't get rid of the need for bendy pylons and the rear docking ports, I think, but you wouldn't have to worry about fuel for the rockets. One tricky bit, though, is that the nacelles bend at slightly different angles, depending on which end of the pylon ends up pivoting...

boolybooly, Thanks! Though now I'm going to have to find a new secret lair mutters darkly. You are correct, sir - structural pylons FTW - another trick I picked up from pa1983. It is satisfying to loft an orange tank, though by now I have a small constellation of them from all the testing. You may have noticed that there are two around minimus? I actually completed the initial design under .21, but was still working out a few bugs when the update hit, so I reflew it under .22 Interesting craft, pinolallo. I've eschewed part mods so far (though infernal robotics would have made this sooo much easier), but it's interesting to see I'm not the first one who has kicked around the idea, though our implementations differ. I guess I've always seen stock parts as a bit of a challenge that force creative thinking.

This was a bit more of 'coming back from space', but one of my SSTO flights suffered a little bit of a connectivity problem on re-entry.

I finally finished testing, and released my most ambitious and versatile SSTO yet, the Changeling. More details (and download) in the spacecraft exchange post: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/56700-The-Changeling

I finally took the wraps off of my latest ship, the Changeling

Thanks! I'm glad you like it. Umm, yes? Heh, getting the fuselage right was actually the hardest section; the wings were relatively simple, except getting the rear docking ports positioned so they would connect under both possible pylon-bending cases was... an exercise in patience.

Some nice looking craft!

The bouncers were giving me some hard looks and muttering darkly about docking, but I think I convinced them that there was no funny business going on. Meet the Changeling: capable of many things, but for the K-prize, we'll keep the wings on, and stick to a simple cargo run. The K-prize flight was done with the mk1z; the most recent version is mk2d, which adds parachutes, SCIENCE! and improved landing leg positioning (at the cost of a couple of tons). For a more complete description of the Changeling's capabilities, as well as a download link, please check out the full post on the spacecraft exchange.

Ladies, Gentlekerbs and Jebediah , from the designer of Dragonshy, presenting Pegasus Carriageworks and Discount Haberdashery's latest craft: the Changeling Clocking in at up to 125 tons and 856 parts on takeoff (including sample cargo), the Changeling can haul a Rockomax Jumbo-64 tank into 100x100 orbit without breaking a sweat. Upon reaching your desired orbit, simply undock and pivot the wing nacelles open to reveal the generous internal cargo bay. If this is a straightforward orbital cargo run, just drop off your cargo, close the bay and fly back down. Otherwise, you can undock the still-fully-fueled fuselage from the aero section, and set out on a longer journey. At this stage, the fuselage functions as a transfer vessel, capable of landing on low-gravity, non-atmospheric bodies. When you've run out of SCIENCE! and/or snacks, simply return, pick up your wings, and proceed to land on Kerbin. For a fuller demonstration of the Changeling's capabilities, please refer to the following: Interested? Download Here On the proper care and feeding of your new Changeling (the long version). - Action groups - 1 - Outermost Turbojet engine pair 2 - Middle Turbojet engine pair 3 - Inner Turbojet engine pair 4 - Tail Turbojet engine 5 - Main Atomic engines 6 - Vertical descent engines 7 - Landing gear (excluding legs) 8 - Nacelle opening Ant thrusters 9 - Toggle lower atmosphere intakes (8 fuselage mounted intakes) 0 - Toggle high altitude intakes (all the others) the Abort group is configured as well If you need to use the deorbit engines on the aero section, I'm afraid you'll have to turn them on manually via right-click - I simply didn't have enough action groups left. Flight guidelines: - Pre-launch - Stage once - this should be the only time you have to stage, unless you will be landing via parachute. Hit 0 to close unnecessary intakes to reduce drag Hit 5 & 6 to shut down rockets. - Ascent to orbit - For an overall profile, check out pa1983's great post on cargo spaceplanes. I learned a lot from him, and have basically adopted the ascent profile he outlines for all my flights. The Changeling has more intakes-per-engine, so it's ceiling is a little higher, but the basic principles are the same. Additionally, his Laythe base delivery video was one of my big inspirations when starting work on SSTOs (way back when I first made the Chalice). Anyway, as far as the Changeling goes, once you've completed pre-launch, throttle up, and take off! With a full load of 36+ tons, the Changeling should be able to lift off at about 75 m/s - just a bit past the SPH. Pitch to 45 degrees and sit back and watch the altimeter rise. At around 15,000 feet, you will start to run low on intake air - hit 0 to open up the high altitude intakes. In the 18,000 - 27,000 range, begin to gradually drop the nose, so you moderate your vertical velocity, and begin to build speed. At around 28,000 be prepared to level out. Your goal is to kill your vertical velocity so you can linger in the 32,000 - 34,000 meter range, and build speed. I find the most effective way to do this is to toggle back and forth to the map view and monitor the apoapsis. The vertical speed indicator, and especially the altitude, are lagging indicators. The apoapsis reflects your change in vertical velocity more directly - to use it, you want to adjust your attitude so that the apoapsis continually stays just a few seconds ahead of the aircraft. Once your velocity reaches 2,000 m/s or above, you can relax your vigilance on your altitude, and let the craft begin to ascend. As the air thins, it should continue to pick up speed, as well. At 35,000 feet or above, you will begin to run out of intake air again. When the craft first begins to yaw, immediately hit '1' to shutdown the outermost turbojets (you can delay this slightly by throttling down, but it's ultimately easier to kill engines). Continue to ascend, and you should again begin to gain both altitude and speed. After you've shut down the two most outermost engines, the Changeling becomes more flameout-friendly, as from now on, the engine that seems to cut out first is the central, rearmost one. Monitor it, and kill additional pairs of engines as necessary. When you're down to the last three engines or so, the Changeling keeps gaining altitude, but the jets begin to loose the battle on acceleration. It may be more efficient to continue to ascend on jets, but I usually just kick on the rockets at this point and nose up past 20 degrees. On reaching 44,000 feet, your final engine will probably flame out - shut it down, and don't forget to hit '9' and '0' to close intakes. From here on, you should be able to coast into orbit, though you may need the occasional boost from the atomics to counteract atmospheric drag. - In orbit - Now you should be in orbit, hopefully with a good chunk of fuel left (low-to-medium orbits, should be fully supplied by the aero stage, leaving the fuselage resources at 100% ). Anyhow, onto the good stuff! To get at your cargo, open the wing nacelles via undocking the connecting ports (I recommend saving first, just in case). I tried to undock via action groups, but it isn't working for some reason, so you'll have to do it manually. There are 5 connections - two clamp-o-tron jr ports in the rear, two standard clamp-o-trons at the front, and one clamp-o-tron jr. underneath. To get at them, I recommend using the Chase camera - all of the others typically have wonky orientations, and don't like to go inside of the craft. Once the nacelles are undocked, make sure all other engines are shut off, then enable the nacelle thrusters by hitting 8. It may take a little practice to know how much to throttle, and for how long. The Changeling uses the structural pylons as hinges. Unfortunately, they can potentially bend at either end, so their motion is unpredictable. To accommodate this, the Changeling has attachment points for both possible situations, though this means that the wings will not open symmetrically when the two pylons bend differently. At this point, the rear clamp-o-tron jr. ports should have engaged, and the craft is probably spinning / wobbling a bit. I'm afraid you'll have to wait for it to damp down on its own. I recommend leaving SAS OFF for the most part. Judicious SAS use will arrest the spin, but leaving them on often makes the wobble worse, as the reaction wheels are at the far end of the wobbling, flexible booms, and KSP isn't expecting the changed craft geometry. I usually only turn SAS on for brief periods, until the wobble has died down, at which point you can leave it on for station-keeping. Be very careful with the wings open. Remember, the whole bendy pylon thing is basically a glitch, and in this state, the Changeling is extremely vulnerable to the KSP physics engine. Do not time warp, unless you want your craft converted into a debris field as soon as the warp ends. Moving out of physics range before closing them isn't a very good idea either, so be very careful when switching between craft. Likewise with saving/loading. Save before hand, do your stuff, and only save again once the dust has settled. While the wing nacelles are open, you can detach any payload you may have in the cargo bay. If this was just a cargo run, things are simple - just undock your cargo, and boost away a bit. Then go to the rear of the craft, undock whichever clamp-o-tron jr. ports engaged, and the wing nacelles will swing closed and re-dock automatically. They may swing back and forth a bit, but they'll eventually settle down. If this is an orbital cargo run, congratulations, you're almost done. Skip down to the Deorbiting section. If this isn't a cargo run, now is when you decouple the main clamp-o-tron sr. port, and start voyaging. Once you've moved away a little bit, be sure to switch back to the wings briefly and close them - leaving physics range when the wings are not in their neutral state is a recipe for trouble. - Planetoid landing - If you're going to land, you'll want to use the atomics as much as possible. I'm not an expert at landing, but what worked for me was killing the orbital velocity and then bringing it in nearly vertical at the end. When you're down to 1000 meters or so off the deck, use one last burst of the atomics to kill your vertical velocity and then rotate around so the belly faces what will be your takeoff prograde. After that, drop the nose down until you're horizontal and engage the vertical engines for the very last portion of landing. There is a clamp-o-tron jr. docking port on the top that you can use to 'control from here' if you prefer that viewpoint. Taking off again is pretty simple - use a quick burst of the vertical engines to get some clearance from the surface, and then nose up and kick on the atomics. If you didn't land pointed in the right direction, you'll have to do some more maneuvering, but it should be doable. Now head back to wherever you stashed the wings (or the wings of another changeling - they interchange just fine). I suspect it's Duna capable, but I haven't tested it yet, so no guarantees. - Redocking - Redocking is probably the trickiest part of working with the changeling. As discussed earlier, opening the wings usually results in a lot of wobble, SAS doesn't help much, and time warping is a no-no. So again, patience, and after the wobble works itself out, and you can move in to dock (it is a little wobbly rotating, but not nearly as much as opening the booms). A couple of things to note; this is docking together two reasonably large craft, so even with all the RCS thrusters, it's not all that easy. Also, orientation matters - the side docking ports will not engage the fuselage if it is off by more than a few degrees. On the plus side, the craft weight and thrusters are arranged so that it is well-balanced, and translation maneuvers do not induce undesired rotation. Warning - the moment you succeed in docking, KSP physics will flip out on the aero section. I'm not sure about the exact cause, but I think the nacelle positions are reset to neutral, but they are still docked to the tail, which immediately wrenches them away and the causes them to swing back and forth violently. Don't panic, turn SAS off, and let it calm down. Now is a good time for a cup of coffee or a bathroom break. You can speed the process up slightly by waiting until both wing nacelles are swinging inwards and briefly activating the nacelle opening thrusters to kill a little bit of momentum. Once it calms down, undock the rear clamp-o-tron jr. ports, watch the wings close, and pat yourself on the back. Congratulations! You've just accomplished a rather tricky task (and probably a cool mission in the middle). - Deorbiting - In the event you are unable to re-dock with the aero section, it has its own guidance and deorbit thrusters plus a small reserve of fuel, so it is capable of self-deorbiting. Actually landing In this configuration is challenging, but possible - you may spin out during re-entry, but after regaining control it is flyable (barely). In this state, it flexes quite a lot, and at low speeds the wing nacelles may start to oscillate - turn SAS off if it starts to shake itself apart. Similarly, the fuselage can land independently as well via parachute, if it is not heavily laden. Make sure it is level when the parachutes catch the air just above the ground, and briefly use the landing rockets to kill velocity on touchdown (given the current strength of the landing struts, it should touch down at 5 m/s or less). If you have reconnected the two pieces, it should fly in pretty normally. COG should remain ahead of COL, and if it does spin out, it's not too hard to get back under control. Just be careful that the wings don't fall off in high-G maneuvers. It also does not play nicely with time acceleration. In straight and level flight, I've gone up to x3 and very briefly x4, but it looked like the wings were going to come off at any instant. Under normal acceleration, it still flexes a fair amount, and at low speeds the nacelles can start to oscillate up and down - if this happens, the best approach I've found is to just turn off SAS for a bit. On landing, be sure to use the landing gear group '7' to deploy the landing gear, instead of using 'g', or you will deploy the landing struts as well. Note - the nacelle opening thrusters and the de-orbit thrusters on the aero section share a private fuel supply. This is intended so you can't accidentally drain your ability to open the nacelles, as well as providing an emergency deorbit buffer. If you're running on fumes, however, you can transfer this fuel back into the main tanks for a small emergency reserve. - Are we done yet? - ... right. So that was a ton of writing, but it pales in comparison to all the time I spent building and flying this thing. Anyhow, I'm pretty happy with the results, and I hope you enjoy it as well. Download Link Happy Flying! Sincerely, Drewscriver

My skill level is a bit varied - the furthest I've gone is the Mun and Minimus, but I did it in a SSTO.

Survived an attack by the Kraken during landing:

Instead of getting hung up on science-over-time, which we know can be abused by time-warping, have manned & powered science modules on a station act as a science multiplier. So you do your science missions as normal, but they would automatically yield extra science (5-10% more?). This takes time out of the equation, but still gives a benefit from the station.

Jeb is currently chilling in a Mun rover along with Bill and Bob after there was a... minor mishap bringing the lander down.

What about this? Rather than have a space station give back a set amount of science, or science over time, maybe it could act as a multiplier? Each manned research module would add a small % increase to the amount of science earned from related missions. Naturally, more research modules would increase the multiplier, but with diminishing returns.

Not a total failure, but still interesting, I think. So, I was testing out a new lander design, and it turns out I had a bit of a plumbing problem with the fuel. I didn't realize it at the time, though - all I noticed was that the craft was unbalanced and I couldn't run the landing engines at full throttle (, as I had paid close attention to balance ). Unfortunately, there's another issue resulting from the fuel mis-allocation; as shown in the picture - the front thrusters are just seconds away from cutting out, when the craft is still a ways from the ground. So I'm caught completely off guard when front thrust cuts out, but I still react quickly enough to drop the throttle before the imbalance flip the craft out completely (fortunately the fuel imbalance had the craft rear-heavy). I belatedly kick on RCS, and watch as the whole thing comes down, hard. The rear lands first, with the front pivoting down around it until it hits and... *pop* I watch as the command capsule begins tumbling down the slope, sans ship (did I mention that this was already a horrible landing, barely controlled into the side of a crater?) As I'm trying to control the capsule's acrobatics, I notice that, amazingly, the rest of the craft managed to land intact! I'd forgotten about the rover attached, which included a probe core. Thanks to it, RCS and SAS remained enabled, and the headless craft stuck the landing. Unfortunately, I detached the rover and rolled it down to the imprompteu capsule-base before I realized I could have jetpacked the kerbals up to the rover, boarded, and flown away. Now, there are no command modules attached, and I can't even rename it from being a rover. Worse, the slope is so steep, there's no way the rover can climb it, let alone reattach. So now I've got my first Mün rescue mission underway, including plans to salvage the craft - it is going to be an interesting challenge.

I'm pretty sure that one would be counted as a gatecrasher, as it would no longer be strictly stock

Congratulations! As you've discovered, VTOL SSTO are not easy to pull off at all. Definitely something to consider, if you enjoy working with atmospheric craft.

I'd completely overlooked that indicator before. I gave it a shot - it does work, but it's small and hard to read; I might want to look into a mod. Your outline was still a useful reference point, though I wasn't able to execute the flight profile nearly as cleanly. The Kosmos was quite easy to fly, though the bay doors gave me fits. Still, I got it working in the end, and lofted another tank of fuel up to my tug.

Huh. Do you use a mod to report your vertical speed, or do you just eyeball it? I don't have enough flight experience yet to just go by the existing readouts

Do they have to point forwards, or will they work if they are sideways / reversed?

Given your experience, what Ascent profile do you recommend for the Galaxy? Also, in the profile you list for the Kosmos, you have 16-22Km duplicated, but there are two different degrees listed, so it's a little confusing