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Nertea could neither confirm nor deny plans for linear aerospikes in KSP2. So, I want to ask the community.

Journey to the Center of the Thing Prologue Billions of years of nothing. Straight-up nothing. A few asteroid impacts here and there, but they were lost in the heavily dimpled face of Dres. Perhaps the most interesting thing to hit it would be a car, thanks to a private space company. Gray. Desolate. Rings arcing across a deep back sky, the most interesting feature to remain for millions of years. For billions of years, Dres whirled around a distant sun, almost undisturbed, until an alien race particularly good at leaving trash on other planets made it the focus of their attention. Chapter 1: Anomalies “Another one?” “Looks big. Should we take the rover?” The orbital scans had been acting up for months. Ever since they arrived, the polar observation satellites had been reporting anomalies everywhere. Everywhere on the supposedly empty surface of the dwarf planet Dres. (Well, except for that sports car.) And mission control back on Kerbin wanted them to find out what was going on. Because people in charge like picking on people they are in charge of, Arcturo I Commander Jebediah Kerman had been tasked with figuring everything out. Like most people in charge being picked on by higher-ups, he picked on someone lower than him to help. Specifically, Head Scientist Bob Kerman. “Perhaps. We’ll get Mission Control to weigh in. You’ve tried debugging the sats?” Jeb asked. “I’ve tried debugging the sats.” Bob replied. “You’ve tried a hard reboot.” “I’ve tried a hard reboot.” “What we have yet to try is to go where they’re telling us to.” “There are too many locations- we can’t ever hope to visit them all, not within the expected lifetime of Arcturo, anyway.” “Maybe something’s interfering with the signal? Maybe they’re getting a false reading from something?” “Like what, something at the center-” Bob cut off. “What?” Jeb asked. “I need to see the lab. Now.” Bob’s voice was chock-full of urgency. “What? What did I say?” Bob didn’t respond. He had ran out of the office and down the hallway. “You know I outrank you, right?” Jeb shouted. Bob’s reply was distant: “Not that you care!” “Fair point.” Jeb sighed to himself. Bob wasn’t seen all that night. The other research scientists said he was in the lab with “one of those conspiracy theory boards” and papers scattered everywhere. Jeb placed Bob’s dinner by the bulkhead and rapped gently on the sealed door. “Whatcha doing, buddy?” he called through the thick metal. There was no reply. “Um- come out when you feel like it, I guess. Just eat your food.” Jeb’s words hung in the air, unanswered, as he left the meal behind and headed back into the base. He could only speculate on Bob’s shenanigans, and it wasn’t the first time he’d had to do so. <><><> beep beep be- *SLAM* Jeb peered upward at the ceiling, and unfortunately, directly up Bob’s nostril. “I know what the anomaly is.” Bob’s voice was ragged, tired, clearly showing he had been up all night. Yet full of excitement that made a kid on Christmas Day look absolutely depressed. “Grug. Flzmp.” Jeb flumped back onto his pillow. It was too early to be early in the morning. “Jeb, this is important- you’ve got to listen!” “Who let you into the coffee again, Bob?” Not again, Jeb thought. “No one. Isn’t adrenaline wonderful? But that’s besides the point, look at the map!” Jeb was slowly coming to. As he shook off the shackles of sleep, he noticed Bob had dragged in a painter’s stand. A map projection of Dres was resting on it. The stand looked like it had been jury-rigged out of various pieces of scrap lying around, which wasn’t far from the truth. “Whazzat?” Jeb was still one-fourth asleep. “Look! The patterns! And the frequency, too-” Jeb cut him off. “As your commander, it is my duty to leave the knowing and understanding things to people lower ranking than me, or whatever.” “But- but- look!” “I am looking, and I almost wish I hadn’t. S’plain.” As Jeb woke more fully, he noticed various scientific instruments and papers had been brought in and his commander’s desk pushed into the hall. “See, see- right here, they’re all the same distance apart, and here, a reduced signal, corresponding with higher elevation, and here-” Bob’s arms were waving frantically, spreading the smell of unwashed kerbal everywhere. “Just tell me what it is already, OK?” “Well, isn’t it obvious? From the data here, we see-” Jeb sighed. This was going to take a while. He decided to let Bob rant. He was shaken out of his stupor when Bob said: “-at the center of Dres.” <><><> Arcturo I revolved around a central hub, shaped like a dome. Most of the time it was a cafeteria, but it could be rearranged into practically anything with its cleverly designed modular tables and chairs. (One of the more popular arrangements was an arena, where dart-gun battles were held every Saturday. It was every kerbonaut’s goal to make sure no one back home found out, and also to someday be champion of the dart battle.) Currently, it was something like an auditorium, with Arcturo’s crew spread out in rows of chairs in front of a cluster of tables grouped into a stage. Bob was setting up his makeshift stand up there, with several sheets of scientific diagrams and a laser pointer. Jeb was up there as well, delving into the mysteries of the microphone and sound system. The crew’s seating choices had placed them as far away from each other as possible. Most sat clutching a warm drink or other morning food with a space blanket wrapped around themselves. After a few minute’s tinkering, the sound system sputtered to life. “Testing test- ahh!” The volume was intensely loud. Some might have said it rivaled a Saturn V launch. A quick adjustment decreased the volume to more of a Saturn 1B . Jeb realized the hub was small enough a microphone wasn’t really needed, and switched it off. “Ahem. Uh. Well. We are gathered here for an emergency meeting, I guess. Sorry about waking you up so early, but Bob’s got something important to say.” As Jeb sat back down, he walked by Bob and whispered into his ear. “Remember, you’ve already interpreted the data. Just tell them what it means. But don’t-” Bob didn’t hear the rest of the whispered sentence as he stood up and grabbed the laser pointer, overly enthusiastic to begin. “So you guys know the anomalies we’ve been seeing, right?” A brief chorus of agreement from the audience. “So uh, I had an idea today-” “Yesterday.” Jeb muttered as he sat down. “Right, yesterday, so I went to the lab and took measurements of all of the anomaly’s locations, signal strength, etc. and I got this chart here.” The laser pointer rested its sights on the map of Dres. Higher elevations were marked in red, and lower areas in blue. Thumbtacks had been placed in various locations and connected with string. “Um, one of the things I noticed was that they’re all an equal distance apart from their neighbors. And that the signals were weaker in higher elevations and stronger in low elevations.” Jeb noticed that the thumbtacks had been color coded to show signal strength. Anomalies didn’t really emit signals, they just bounced back interesting variations from the background that scientists took a look at and said, “Hey, that’s weird.” But these anomalies were signals themselves. “It’s not much variation, but it’s enough to suspect that something underground is causing this.” The crew began to mutter amongst themselves. “Something deep underground, and, since they are all around the planet, probably at the center of Dres.” “I don’t buy it. I still think the Mun landing was fake!” Dasmir, head of the fuel refinery, was a person who would make statements like that even if he had been the first kerbal on the Mun himself. “Dude, you’re literally standing on Dres.” That was Dasmir’s assistant. “Wait, guys, I’ve got an explanation for this. It’s-” Bob was cut off by more shouts and louder conversations from the crew. “All I’m saying is, the Mun landing’s photos-” “Come on, let’s not start that again, Dasmir-” “I think Kerbin is flat!” That quieted things a little. “Wait, really?” “Well, no-” The noise picked up again. “I just want to say it’s-” Bob struggled to be heard. Uh oh, thought Jeb. At least don’t let him say the A-word… “I know, I know, it seems unlikely, but it might be-” The shouting was growing louder, and the chaos escalated rapidly. A bottle of water soared over the audience to end up splashing on someone’s hot chocolate. Don’t say it, not now, they’re not ready, don’t say it! Bob’s devotion to science was too much. Yelling to be heard over the mess, he said, “Considering the data, it’s likely to suspect it’s-” I believe you, Bob, but this needs to be broken to them slowly- “Alien in origin.” He said it. Complete silence dominated the hub. Normally, there would have been an errant cough to break a silence like this, but even those were restrained. Jeb took advantage of the moment to regain control over the crowd. “Yes, alien. We don’t know anything about it except that it’s at the center of Dres, so I don’t want a million questions about it, alright?” One of the crew members hesitantly raised his hand. Jeb nodded, and the kerbal said “What do we do?” Jeb thought for a moment. “I think our first priority is to report it to Mission Control. Secretly, of course. Any other questions?” “If it’s at the center of Dres, how are we gonna get to it?” “I never said we were going to go to it-” Jeb suddenly was interrupted by Bob. “Well, Dres’ core cooled down about a billion years ago, so sufficient equipment could reach it.” Silence reigned once again, until someone fed up with its rulership said: “Isn’t there that drilling device en route to Jool?”

I'd like to see some of the coolest rockets anyone has designed! I'm new to KSP and I'd like to see cool thing other people have made just for an example to me of how creative you can get!

So, in looking at Air-Augmented ("ducted") rockets recently, and considering nuclear propulsion, this idea came to mind (I think I've read about it before- will post links for background when I have time) Basically, it combines the features of a nuclear thermal rocket (aka. 'NERVA' aa the most famous example) or a nuclear thermal turbojet, with a ramrocket (itself the hybrid of a Ramjet and an Air-Augmented Rocket). So, it looks something like this: air enters into intakes (and probably then a pre-cooler passing some heat to Liquid Hydrogen as a heat-sink: ala. "SABRE" intakes in real life) and enters a mixing chamber. Separately, Liquid Hydrogen is passed over a nuclear reactor's heat-exchanger, just like in NERVA or any similar design. The exhaust from the nuclear heat-exchanger then enters a mixing-chamber with the intake air, exactly like how any ducted rocket works (basically, ducted rockets mix the exhaust from a Combustion Chamber with intake air BEFORE ejecting it through a rocket nozzle- this is all there need be to such a design... If the air is pre-cooled first, heat management becomes easier and you can use more heat-resistant materials or a lightweight heat-vulnerable Aerospike Nozzle, without them melting, but this is not usually done...) However because there is Oxygen in the intake air, and the nuclear reactor exhaust is superheated Hydrogen, there is the possibility for Ramjet-style combustion. This is how a ramrocket normally works (the ONLY difference here is that instead of Hydrogen-rich combustion products from a conventional rocket combustion chamber entering the mixing/ secondary combustion chamber, you have 100% Hydrogen from a nuclear reactor's heat exchanger entering it instead...) This Hydrogen is afforded the opportunity to combust (this is also why you want pre-coolers: to allow compression and cooling of the intake airflow by Compressors to speeds/temperatures usable for a Ramjet even in very high speed/altitude flight), and you get additional energy from this Ramjet-style combustion, which gets you extra Thrust after you pass the exhaust through a rocket nozzle as with any ramrocket... Basically, it's a nuclear thermal turbojet, but with the addition of an integral ramjet for extra Thrust and higher Exhaust Velocity (which also means the whole thing is useful at higher speeds than a normal nuclear turbojet). The secondary combustion/mixing chamber could even be designed as a Scramjet: although that creates problems with no longer having any static thrust on the runway... (due to having low TWR, very high Effective ISP, and being optimal for high-speed atmospheric use: this is best used on a horizontal-takeoff spaceplane...) Other notables: - The airflow would be possible to close off at the point of the intake, or possibly also downstream, allowing for operation as a pure (but very heavy) nuclear thermal rocket once you leave the performance envelope for airbreathing propulsion. Thos is similar to the Rocket-Based Combined Cycle ("RBCC"- basically a ducted rocket, ramrocket, and closed-cycle rocket all in one...) propulsion system, except that the initial heat source is a nuclear reactor rather than a primary rocket combustion chamber. - This works best with lighter/more powerful next-gen nuclear reactors, like Molten Salt Reactors (not coincidentally, previous investigation into nuclear thermal turbojets looked at using MSR's for the reactor componemt...) - Nuclear Reactors with TODAY's tech actually eject COLDER exhaust than a rocket combustion chamber. The reason for their high ISP is due to using a pure exhaust of nothing but Hydrogen... This means that, if you further diluted this already-lower heat with colder-still atmospheric air, you would have exhaust temperatures very usable for an Aerospike Nozzle: these nozzles normally having tendency to melt without a lot of extra weight for heat-managenent.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1905226695 Here is my latest ssto small using a combination of mk2 and mk1 size parts a new sleek design with very large wings and high twr it is very easy to use but cant get much done besides basic science.

My SSTOs: Unnamed Laythe SSTO with 7 km/s of delta-v: Download here! My rockets: None worth uploading yet.

Dear Everyone, On the topic of SSTOs does more rapiers help provide more delta V? Cause more rapiers the faster you travel through the atmosphere and the more speed you can gain in the upper atmosphere, but then again if you are making that SSTO a interplanetary craft the more rapiers the more wasted delta V you will end up having, but then again the less rapiers the more fuel you have to burn at sea level to gain speed to climb effectively! So which is better, more fuel less rapiers or less fuel more Rapiers OR more fuel more rapiers, I hope this question can help me and possibly others in the future. Sincerely, Mk3 Maniac (P.S. if you chose to do the poll keep in mind that I look for which one gives the most Delta V>)

I have always enjoyed using solid rocket boosters strapped to the wings of a SSTO, just to give it a booster on the way up as well as giving it the most awesome look I have ever seen, any buyers?

Hello chaps, I've just got a new machine, a Cybertron Palladium with an i5-6600K CPU and the new GTX 1060 6GB graphics card. Now I can finally build crafts with more than 20 parts without 1 FPS! Now I can fulfill my dream of having my own space program. (Albeit not in real life ) Enter Cavalier Aerospace Systems A somewhat intentionally sarcastic name... First off, we can have fast planes, high flying planes, and long range planes, but if it doesn't look awesome, what's the point? In my space program, the most important flight characteristic is awesomeness! If it can hardly fly, and barely makes it to orbit, but it looks awesome, We have not failed! That should be our mission statement. We don't need mods here! (Except visual mods cause the stock water looks deplorable) Personally, I think SVE, EVE, and scatterer help KSP look a lot more realistic. Since they don't affect the actual craft files, I don't have to have broken crafts every time KSP updates. I apologize if it appears I have copied anyone's designs. I try to keep all my aircraft original, and solely of my own work. Of course, with the same parts, it is inevitable that two crafts designed for the same purpose may have similar appearances, as has been discussed to death in this forum. I do look to this forum for inspirations, however, even inspired designs have my own distinct (not always positive) touch! By the same token, feel free to use my ideas! They're not copyrighted or anything. As long as no one explicitly copies a plane EXACTLY and claims it as their own design, I officially say you can always use these pics as inspiration for your own new designs. So first off, the KS-12 Equinox: The Equinox is my first SSTO in 1.2, and really my first truly functional SSTO in general. I't was originally intended as a cargo shuttle, but after realizing the the space limits of the payload bay, I converted it to a 10 Kerbal passenger ship, a much more viable option for this craft. This is also one of my best looking planes if I do say so myself. The big wing strakes not only provide more fuel and streamline the profile of the airframe, but also give it a lot more lift and a more efficient glide ratio. The Equinox is powered by 4 Rapiers, mounted on 2 pairs of Mk.2 bicouplers. Once RCS, solar panels, and extra fuel were added, it became a bit trickier to make it to orbit. I haven't cracked it up on landing yet though! Still a WIP, I want to increase its range so it can be viable for docking and tourist ferrying missions. Another SSTO, yet to be named: Been working on this a few hours this afternoon, and it can get to orbit fairly well. It needs a bit of tweaking, but once this airframe is perfected, the 1200 units of LF in the wings should pay off big time! The fact that I can have the lift and fuel of the FAT-455 wings and yet still have a streamlined profile means this could be a promising prototype! The canards were deemed unnecessary once the COM was properly balanced with the COL. Surprisingly, this ship can still have fairly good pitch authority without canards at low speed despite the very far back COL. Actually more stable without them believe it or not. Main problem with this ship is slight lack of yaw stability. (Spun out of control once at high altitude) Haven't decided on a specific task for this plane, but I might even just take the passenger module out and keep it as a kool looking SSTO! Please let me know what you guys think of these! I'm fairly new to this, so I need a bit of fine tuning to get my the most performance out of my SSTOs. Any tips or suggestions appreciated! If you like one of my designs, you could even click the 'like this' button if you so choose. Or because pounding buttons is just so Kerbal. I'll be editing this first post as I build up posts here, so be sure to check here for any changes like espionage policies! When I have more time, (Watching the election news!) I'll be adding some other aircraft to this thread. More to come! -Jeb!

Hello! Welcome to Buzzsaw Aerospace Korporation. Since 0.21, Buzzsaw Aerospace has been developing numerous aerospace concepts, and the first deemed ready for sale are available now! Craft Repository All "F" planes need BDArmory. C-2 'Skyliner' The C-2 Skyliner is a light transport and/or biz jet. It is fairly mauverable, and has about 40kms of Delta V, and a TWR of 0.63 on 4 J-20 Juno 0.625M Jet Engines. 1.1 Compatible! Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/9pp1uf7mr3qvr8y/C-2%20%27Skyliner%27.craft?dl=0 Pic - http://imgur.com/FfmH57c T-1 'Whoosh' The T-1 'Whoosh' advanced trainer is a very maneuverable jet, designed as a replacement for the Aeris 3A. Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/b6h5fxtonsd58mo/T-1%20%27Whoosh%27.craft?dl=0 Pic - http://imgur.com/sZgIgWR T-2 'Zipply' The T-2 Zipply is a basic jet trainer, the airplane that Kerbonauts use before they graduate to the T-1 (No, I don't know how that works either) 1.1 Compatible! Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ud6tlyovvajxh7/T-2%20%27Zipply%27.craft?dl=0 Pic - http://imgur.com/B4u23mq CF-5 'Jumbo Carrier' The cargo aircraft to accompany the C-3, the CF-5 (The board decided to skip C-4 for obvious reasons) is a heavy cargo jet WARNING : has a weird glitch with the roll surfaces. Also, DO NOT go above ~200m/s as it loses control. Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/7lm8a8dj4kikomg/CF-5%20%27Jumbo%20Carrier%27.craft?dl=0 SP-1 'Hyper Star' My first reasonable SSTO. Gets into orbit with about 650m/s left. Has trouble breaking Mach 1. Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/78m3kit74i41hzv/SP-1%20%27Hyper%20Star%27.craft?dl=0 CF-6 Flying Hype Freight Train Freight version of C-3 Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/1dvzni0gnp12wph/CF-6%20%27Flying%20Hype%20Freight%20Train%27.craft?dl=0 C-5 Xec The C-5 is a larger biz jet. It carries 6 passengers to the C-2's 4. Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/m39sph22beftcvk/C-5%20%27Xec%27.craft?dl=0 CX-8 Supersonic Transport The CX-8 is an experimental high-speed business jet. It carries only two passengers, but is much longer range than its predecessors. Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/26fbgyhlxyyygm4/CX-8B%20Supersonic%20Transport.craft?dl=0 L-3 'Konanza' The L-3 Konanza is a well-loved general aviation craft MODS: SXT, TweakScale Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ajym0z8goi01jqm/L-3%20%27Konanza%27.craft?dl=0 C-10 Flying Hypetrain II The replacement for the C-3, now with landability! Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/6wahui4f91pkth2/C-10%20%27Flying%20Hypetrain%20II%27.craft%20copy?dl=0 X-21B 'ITS FLYING!?!?' Okay, I don't even know what this is... Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/sn77qg8ndfpek22/X-21B%20%27ITS%20FLYING%21%27.craft%20copy?dl=0 F-3A 'Shortsword' My best fighter design to date. Carries 6 Sidewinders as-is, but I have used it in an A-10 type role of ground unit support (Tank vs. tank using AI. Don't ask) Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/r1lnmczeozosviu/F-3A%20%27Shortsword%27.craft%20copy?dl=0 F-5 'Thunder' A ground-attack plane for wrecking everything... Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/yqrn6p7lcu6zgwl/F-5%20%27Thunder%27%20%28GA%29.craft%20copy?dl=0 Air-to-air variant - https://www.dropbox.com/s/4kzo56rkypfuq8c/F-5%20%27Thunder%27%20%28Air%20To%20Air%29.craft%20copy?dl=0 Sky Reaper SSTO Spaceplane Line The Sky Reaper series of Mark II SSTO Spaceplanes serves general purpose LKO operations Download - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sk8wxutxcka6qg9/AABp-kYpj_cani820HCoZLx4a?dl=0 F-7 '86' I tried to make an F-86 replica. It didn't work. I made this. 1.1 Compatible! Download - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1c3wckewx0s7p4v/AAAy1VjoZgL5t3r7FQXmyufEa?dl= F-8 'Fly16' Yes, it's an F-16, don't ask. Download - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0to73h38x7tfk0t/AADGOIUe2d1qqLnfl7rFiYmDa?dl=0 Mods : ALG, BDA XH-1 A fully-serviceable, if basic, helicopter Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/jvpzrdsdd88whnx/XH-1.craft%20copy?dl=0 MODS : KAX P-4 'Korsair' F4U Corsair replica-ish. Download - https://www.dropbox.com/s/yrphdfsa2fabpok/P-4%20%27Korsair%27.craft%20copy?dl=0 MODS : KAX