The Race to Publish the First KSP 1.0 Compatible Spaceplane SSTO

[inigma]

Just wondering if anyone's accomplished this yet.

[Redshift OTF]

I actually think my 0.90 Mk3 Skylon could do it if I filled up the empty fuel tanks. It needs the extra DeltaV to go from 1200 m/s to orbital speeds. Too late tonight to try it...

[DerpenWolf]

Working on a Nerva-Turbo jet SSTO atm, should be ready by the end of the day!

[Solarapple]

Just finished one. Will upload album soon.

EDIT: Here yah go!

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Edited April 27, 2015 by Solarapple

[Kagame]

Congrats on the non-explosiony re-entry. I have yet to make any sort of spaceplane SSTO, but that's mostly because I can't figure out how much delta-V I'd need. I keep overestimating the amount of LF and underestimating the amount of LFO...

Heck, I haven't managed any sort of SSTO because I took a wrong turn on the tech tree. XD

Starting a new "slightly cheating" (200 starting science, all towards the basics and one 90 science upgrade to aero) career that should make that easier.

[Rune]

Oh, I have a couple. The point is, I'm going for White Dart 1.0 as my first release, and that needs a lot more tinkering before I'm happy.

Rune. It goes well, though I don't really have the time for now.

[Amishacker]

Just wondering if anyone's accomplished this yet.

thus far,

and I'm scraping the bottom of my tanks at 28km

Inlet drag is a very significant damper on airhogging; enough so that airhogging yields more drag than thrust at some equilibrium I have not yet found.

I have found that using minimal intakes (perhaps 1:1 with engines) can dramatically increase airspeed.

Based on the config files for air-breathing engines, power drops off gently for basic jets at .5 atmo, turbos dramatically at .16atm, and even rapiers slowly starve after .08. Comments in those files indicate this is as-intended, but it puts a serious damper on the thrust ceiling for anything with intakes. Hitting 30km is now a little tricky.

This feels like a very significantly different paradigm, and I'm very skeptical anything works until I fly it.

Solarapple: how far does the wee guna do get without infinite fuel?

[panzer1b]

heres mine, made it to laythe and ran outta xenon or well i had some after attaining orbit, but it ended up being like under 1000dV, impossible to return home even if i abused gravity slingshots to no end!

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i ran out of dV, so its not QUITE roundtrip capable, but the concept of ion SSTO still works to a certain degree.

ofc i cannot call this thing legit, given that the 1.25m service bay thingy has:

3 RTGs

1 octo2

21 xenon tanks with 700 capacity

15 ion engines

Abusing the drag shielding to its maximum.

[Guest]

Just wondering if anyone's accomplished this yet.

I don't think it's very hard, since the drag is lower and the jet engines way stronger.

[Spartwo]

I came back like this:/

[Guest]

Did you burn a kerbal? wait that's not legit!

[Radam]

SSTO with cargo!

[Shalashalska]

I don't think it's very hard, since the drag is lower and the jet engines way stronger.

It's a lot easier to get to 20km and 1km/s, but after that, you need to switch to rockets. None of the jets work past 25km or so, and at a bit past 1 km/s, parts start overheating and exploding. In the end, it is much harder to make SSTO's.

[Trios]

It's a lot easier to get to 20km and 1km/s, but after that, you need to switch to rockets. None of the jets work past 25km or so, and at a bit past 1 km/s, parts start overheating and exploding. In the end, it is much harder to make SSTO's.

Just was playing around with the fun new physics model, I wasn't really sure this would work, but it did. Circular 80km orbit with enough juice left to deorbit; I had a dorsal stabilizer, but it...uh...had an unfortunate smelting accident at high velocity.

[Alias72]

I have built a working SSTO. The only problem is that my strakes keep exploding so I need to mess with my ascent profile to keep my alt/speed higher.

[Roflcopterkklol]

God damn... even if an SSTO can be made in 1.0 it will be 100% useless, there is no way an SSTO is going beyond LKO that is certain and one will never carry a payload.

why did they nerf jet engines so much in the upper atmosphere? 1200m/s is the fastest you can possibly get a jet to go, you can not get one faster it blows up and going higher than 20km kills the engines.

With FAR in 0.90 you could do 2400m/s with jet engines at 30+km.....

Did they even test jets?

because i am feeling like they did not test jet engines at all, even the animations are broken, the heating animation doesnt happen until the engines burn out and turn off and then they never cool down they just keep glowing red.

Annoyed about this, SSTO's were the only thing i liked about KSP, now they are low kerbin orbit only rapier engine only hunks of crap.

[Vdragon]

God damn... even if an SSTO can be made in 1.0 it will be 100% useless, there is no way an SSTO is going beyond LKO that is certain and one will never carry a payload.

http://i.imgur.com/cTMfUNA.jpg why did they nerf jet engines so much in the upper atmosphere? 1200m/s is the fastest you can possibly get a jet to go, you can not get one faster it blows up and going higher than 20km kills the engines.

With FAR in 0.90 you could do 2400m/s with jet engines at 30+km.....

Did they even test jets?

because i am feeling like they did not test jet engines at all, even the animations are broken, the heating animation doesnt happen until the engines burn out and turn off and then they never cool down they just keep glowing red.

Annoyed about this, SSTO's were the only thing i liked about KSP, now they are low kerbin orbit only rapier engine only hunks of crap.

True dat's.

Managed as well to get multiple SSTO working, but everytime they had really few delta-v left.

I hope squad is planning to add actual statoreactors...

[Alias72]

Welcome to the world of realistic space-planes. are you beginning to understand why no one has built one yet? Sarcasm aside. It is entirely possible to build a reliable space-plane but you have to work on a scale larger than you're used to. I can get 1400m/s at 20-22 km with an appropriate ascent profile. My space-plane could carry an additional 1 ton satellite If I reworked it a bit. This plane weighs about 15 ton.

The payload gets much bigger as your plane gets bigger. Try designing something massive. I have seen a Mk 3 space-plane that carried an orange tank into orbit.

[Trios]

Jebediah: "Sweet! I made it into orbit with only 4 parts!!!"

Jebediah: "......."

Jebediah: "Uhhh...guys? I think I forgot a thing. Can someone come get me please??"

[Radam]

Well i did get an orange tank into orbit. If i move to pure LF and smaller cockpit i might get around 66t plane into orbit with about 36t of fuel. Going slow with a single nerva that means maybe 4000 dv?

[Exothermos]

This ugly thing is my first payload SSTO in 1.0

The best flight profile I can find in the 1.0 model is a rocket-like ascent. I pull to 45% and shallow out ever so slightly around the 15k mark. The Turbo Jets fart-out around 20k and they turn off. I switch modes around 24k meters and power to 70k apoapsis. I'm not entirely sure the turbojets are the right solution. It may be that more rapiers is more efficient.

After the orbital insertion burn, it is on fumes, but a reasonable small payload is deliverable to LKO.

Reentry is the most confounding part of the whole process. Sometimes things go well and the ship keeps its parts, sometimes not. The best solutions I've found is either skimming the upper atmosphere around the 50k mark for as long as possible to decelerate, or going with a very aggressive de-orbit burn and dropping steeply through the atmosphere. Anything in between is a part-eater. I'm convinced some of the aero parts are too weak. The strakes, and some wing panels stand out.

It's definitely a completely new process to learn.

EDIT: This little guy works too!

Edited April 29, 2015 by Exothermos

[eddiew]

Simple design, no real room for cargo due to fuel tanks and parachutes in the bay. 550 dv in orbit

Ascent

Mostly the problems people face are about walking the fine line between staying low enough to keep thrust, and high enough not to burn. Profile for this plane:

- rush to 15km at 30-45 degrees, as much as you can manage at a constant speed

- very gentle ascent from 15-20km, reaching 900-1000m/s by max altitude

- light the nuke at 22km and pull the nose up hard - you need to get out of the dense air asap now. 200m/s vertical or better recommended.

- rapiers to closed cycle at 27km and let them burn all the oxidiser

- apoapsis should now be well above 100km

- done right, the cabin temperature will have peaked around 1800. Close, but still safe.

Descent

- Airbrakes on the top side only help hold the nose up despite lowish pitch authority

- Engaging airbrakes at 60km will slow your descent massively before the 25km danger band, to the point you'll barely see a wisp of flame. They're a bit OP.

Would have liked forward canards, but... they explode during ascent. Landed in the rough this time due to badly overestimating how far it would glide. Blaming nuStock for this, since it's about as streamlined as you can get!

Edited April 29, 2015 by eddiew

[LordFjord]

I am still struggling with this, but goddamned it is FUN to learn it all again

Really enjoying this.

Anyone had luck with a LF only design?

In 0.90, I think I never even used a RAPIER, not even once.

I wonder how the new longrange SSTOs will look like, and if we ever will reach ~5k dV from LKO again.

[Roflcopterkklol]

I have one working annnnd... 69 tons to get me to LKO lol, and thats without a cargo bay.. i think im doing poorly.

Simple design, no real room for cargo due to fuel tanks and parachutes in the bay. 550 dv in orbit

Ascent

Mostly the problems people face are about walking the fine line between staying low enough to keep thrust, and high enough not to burn. Profile for this plane:

- rush to 15km at 30-45 degrees, whatever doesn't slow you do

- very gentle ascent from 15-20km, reaching 900-1000m/s by max altitude

- light the nuke at 22km and pull the nose up hard - you need to get out of the dense air asap now. 200m/s vertical or better recommended.

- rapiers to closed cycle at 27km and let them burn all the oxidiser

- apoapsis should now be well above 100km

- done right, the cabin temperature will have peaked around 1800. Close, but still safe.

Descent

- Airbrakes on the top side only help hold the nose up despite lowish pitch authority

- Engaging airbrakes at 60km will slow your descent massively before the 25km danger band, to the point you'll barely see a wisp of flame. They're a bit OP.

Would have liked forward canards, but... they explode during ascent. Landed in the rough this time due to badly overestimating how far it would glide. Blaming nuStock for this, since it's about as streamlined as you can get!

http://i.imgur.com/1Qc7nkJ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CwSNAQn.jpg

how did you get something so small to orbit?

i cant get anything with that little fuel out of the atmosphere never mind with a payload lol

Edited April 29, 2015 by Roflcopterkklol

[Trios]

how did you get something so small to orbit?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/117025-The-Race-to-Publish-the-First-KSP-1-0-Compatible-Spaceplane-SSTO?p=1878270&viewfull=1#post1878270

So small!

Gotta get your ascent profile just perfect; keep practicing!