Michaelo90

Perfect, thank you! Another mod to the "bare minimum, needs to be stock" list

True, the panels do have a low max temp. I guess heat is transfering from the tank in front of the cargo bay, through the ISRU and the ore tank, to the gigantors. The problem isn't the explosion risk, it's that the panels barely produce any electricity when they're hot. I guess I need some radiators.

What about overheating parts when they have no drag with the right-click menu? I have two gigantors mounted on a 2.5m ore tank inside a mk 3 cargo bay, and they seem to slightly overheat at the end of reentry, when all other parts have lost their heat bars. They never seem to overheat on ascent, even when going so fast the rest of the plane explodes. The gigantors are never close to exploding, but they seem to lose a lot of efficiency. Does anyone know what causes this and how to fix it?

Yes, this really needs to happen, such a waste of an action group. Toggles for starting/stopping the drill (it only has toggle for deploy/retract) and each mode for the ISRU would be nice too.

What real life craft are you comparing to? There are no real life SSTO's, rocket or spaceplane type. If any are ever made, I can almost guarantee that they will be cheaper in the long run than the expendable rockets we use now.

Well, the 2,5m nosecone is known to be draggy compared to a 1,25m nosecone with adapter. As for the fairing, a pointy one should be among the least draggy. However, they can get quite heavy, which would be an even bigger problem on eve than on kerbin. You can see how it can't keep up in the beginning, before the speeds are enough to make aerodynamics matter. That's because of the extra weight. You can also see is the very end that the fairing one eventually caught up (after running out of fuel and tipping over).

I guess an ion-powered command chair would be able to do this, depending on exactly how low that orbit is.

I tried landing a spaceplane on the Minmus flats once. A bit bumpy but it worked with rcs. Braking was... not really possible

It may not be an economical design if you just get it to space and leave it there, but if you save some of the fuel and slap on some parachutes you could deorbit and land it to get most of your money back.

So what? It's still less draggy than any nosecone.

Yep, it definitely needs to lose some weight. The 2 man lander can is even heavier per kerbal though, it weighs more than the hitchhiker for half the crew capacity! Of course it's a pod with much more capability but still, it's way too heavy too.

When I got the spacey mod I made an SSTO rocket that could launch a 1000t payload into orbit (2000t in orbit with launcher+payload, 6000t on the pad), with enough fuel left to deorbit and do a semi-powered landing. I don't think I ever actually landed it from orbit though, I did some launch pad landing tests but i think something exploded on reentry and 1000t payload seemed overkill so I didn't bother to fix it.

I just found Doing Kerman waiting to be hired. Sadly I can't justify spending 131k for an extra scientist in early hard career I hope he's still there when I have more money.

This is perfect, you have won the thread!

Actually, it will, if you can get to orbital speed without burning up. But realistically, no

Can you try removing the bottom nosecones from the top radials and the top nosecones from the bottom radials, put decouplers on the top radials and attach the bottom radials to that? I think that would reduce the drag.

Nice flag forest

Has anyone got this to work with 1.0.2? I can only make it drop one nuke that gives no propulsion and then it stops. Edit: I tried it with 0.90 and it works, I think the problem in 1.0 is because of the bottom attachment nodes of the magazines. In 1.0, I have to use non-strict attachment in the f12 menu to get them to attach and it doesn't work, in 0.90 the attachment and the engine works. I'm starting to understand why they thought it was too powerful, I made a 665t ship with the biggest bombs and 12 bombs later my apoapsis was beyond Eeloo

I tested this with a 2,5 m rocket with both a skipper and a mod 1,25 m engine, with the skipper thrust limited to the same sea level thrust. The 1,25 m version reached 26 km while the skipper version reached 31 km, despite being 1t heavier, so having the right engine size seems to matter a LOT.

My supercompact 11000t launch weight SSTO is having some problems... Almost all of those pieces are 140t SpaceY tanks, in some explosions, some have flown over 8 km high or over 20 km from the launchpad

When you do a semi-powered landing test of your latest SSTO and it tips over and the explosion sends the biggest SpaceY tanks (23t dry weight) 1,5 km up in the air. When there is nothing left on your fuel meters and you still have two orange tanks worth of fuel left. I've done both of those with my new SSTO Edit: When you can pull your launch clamps out of the ground. Yes, that happened too

The engine flamed out at the same height for me with just one shock cone. Air hogging isn't possible.

Nice mod! I feel like the quadroodle engine needs a buff though, it's heavier and has less thrust than the poodle, and the isp difference is way too small to make up for it. I think it should be buffed to at least 500 kN.

You can remove the oxidizer from any tank by rightclicking it and dragging the oxidizer slider.

Nothing in the objectives says that the ore you put on Gilly actually has to come from Eve. I wonder if you can land on Eve, mine 2850 ore, convert it to fuel, and then go to Gilly and mine 2850 ore there to complete.