NO OXIDANT! SSTO on turboramjet + nuclear alone! (V1.0.2)

[Mister Dilsby]

I wasn't sure if it could be done, so I tried to do it.

The Nooxie 4A is as far as I know the first SSTO spaceplane in V1.0.2 to orbit without oxidant.

Engines: Twin turbo ramjets, singe LV-N

Crew: One

Takeoff Mass: 12.7t

Cargo: Minimal (single 1.25 meter bay)

Ascent profile is to climb to ~8500m at mach 1-2, then punch the throttle and accelerate to max speed in a 30-40 degree climb, shooting through the 'danger zone' before anything burns up. I turn on the LV-N at about 18km and turn off the jets when they run out of air.

I think I could optimize to a more efficient ascent profile, by reducing the angle of the high speed climb phase. Will wait to do that until temp gauges no longer cause a system crash

Next experiments will be to scale it up: with two LV-Ns and three or four turbojets, will I be able to carry some cargo?

Album below of one round trip to and from the KSC runway. Enjoy!

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[Chris_2]

Cool! Oxidizer is overrated anyways...

[Rune]

Have you looked at the SSTO thread lately? I'll give you a hint: I posted this there yesterday.

It's still not the first one, I'm sure, but hey, the timing was right. I see you get a much smaller dV in orbit... still, I have a hunch I am weighted by 0.90 experience, and perhaps the way I'm doing it is not the most efficient way to carry liquid fuel... you seem to be getting higher TWR out of a single nuke than I could, I couldn't get her out of the atmosphere on a single nuke, even though I was punching out of it at >1km/s on the jets.

Rune. And it looked so cool, the single nuke model with the nozzle between the jets...

Edited May 6, 2015 by Rune

[iVG]

I've not tried nukes on SSTO yet, but my craft happily ferries 3t to orbit with dV to spare. Also where is the cargo bay?

[Mister Dilsby]

Well, if someone had to beat me I'm glad it was you Rune! Sorry I missed yours, the forum is very crowded these days

Single nuke works in my craft because it's so light, of course. I am at <0.7 TWR when I shut off the jets (1200 m/s, 24km) and it just makes it with careful flying. I'll look into scaling up around the Mk2 airframe and see if I can get more dV in orbit.

- - - Updated - - -

Also where is the cargo bay?

Easy to miss, and about as useful as the boot on a Maserati. 1.25m bay immediately abaft the cockpit.

Edited May 6, 2015 by Kuzzter

[iVG]

As far as I can see it has 0 payload and 0 dV left to de orbit :/

EDIT: Forgot about the nuke using LF only now, sweet you can try to ferry some payloads to orbit and rate it's cargo capabilities!

[Mister Dilsby]

iVG, my ship is a proof-of-concept to demonstrate LH2-only SSTO in the new version. It was never meant to demonstrate cargo capability. Looking at Rune's ship I think it is possible to carry a couple of tons with a two-nuke, two-jet craft. I'll work on that next. Once I get there, then maybe we can all whip out our orange tanks and compare how full they are, OK?

[iVG]

How do you get the nukes to work with hydrogen, @Kuzzter ?

[Mister Dilsby]

How do you get the nukes to work with hydrogen, @Kuzzter ?

It's what they run on in stock. v0.90 nukes consumed H2 and O2, post V1 they consume only LH2.

[iVG]

Ah right, I know what you mean. It's liquid fuel, not liquid hydrogen. I thought there is a mod for that.

[Rune]

Well, if someone had to beat me I'm glad it was you Rune! Sorry I missed yours, the forum is very crowded these days

Single nuke works in my craft because it's so light, of course. I am at <0.7 TWR when I shut off the jets (1200 m/s, 24km) and it just makes it with careful flying. I'll look into scaling up around the Mk2 airframe and see if I can get more dV in orbit.

- - - Updated - - -

Easy to miss, and about as useful as the boot on a Maserati. 1.25m bay immediately abaft the cockpit.

Then I'll be the first to also give you the good news: even having two nukes in my design, I let the nukes take over with a mere 0.55 TWR. You have some room to expand there! Granted, I did the most inefficient climb to orbit you can imagine, leaving almost a km/s inthe atmosphere as gravity and drag losses but... think what this puppy can do when refueled. Almost 5km/s!!

Rune. No probs man, just think very, very long and hard about claiming a "first" in KSP... I never have! Lots of crazy kerbals out there!

[Radam]

And lots that arent on the forums.

I have brought 24t craft to orbit with 2 rapiers and a nuke, 17t in the end altho i have used like 400 units of oxidant.

Its actually 300 units of oxidiser and 1900ms left in lko. 2 kerbals and has a docking port, maybe said port is a bit inefficiently packed...

Edited May 6, 2015 by Radam

[Mister Dilsby]

No probs man, just think very, very long and hard about claiming a "first" in KSP... I never have! Lots of crazy kerbals out there!

Noted. But hey, at least this brought some of those very cool designs to the forum where we all can see 'em!