Massive steady reusable heavy SSTO (rocket)

[Warzouz]

Air brake while ascending ? they cause massive drag..

I solved my problem with Joint Reinforcement. I'm fed up with those stupid docking ports. In beta 0.9, you could build stupid structures to reinforce you rocket. Now it's nearly impossible.

The problem wasn't the first stage SSTO-rocket but th wobbling created by the SAS/course correction and docking ports even struted 8 times each.

[cybersol]

I just fixed a rocket having similar problems because I only have clamp-o-tron juniors. The fix might have been magic, or it might be more general. Originally I had a strut cage around 3 sets of 4 modular girders transferring the load up the rocket. The middle set of 4 girders was offset 45* from the ends, and I was using 2 sets of 8 struts in an X pattern to transfer the load between the ends and the middle. It was all a wobbly mess when using of SAS, even just in stabilization mode. I was confused because these types of strut cages worked in earlier versions. In total frustration and because I was already hit part count limits, I ripped out all the struts. I then put the 3 sets of 4 modular girders all aligned at the same position rocket, and simply connected between the ends and the middle with 2 sets of 4 straight struts. I'm not sure why, but the radially symmetry in the direction of airflow total made it MUCH more stable!

Another thing that might work is fairings, but in my career save I don't have the bigger ones yet.

[Warzouz]

Woooh !

On reentry of the first stage, I had some oscillations, quite a lot (Even SAS or MJ wasn't able to suppress it. I supposed that it was due to atmospheric model.

NO, it's due to part joints even if perfectly symmetrical and reinforced with struts. With Joints reinforcement, reentry follow retrograde without any intervention. The rocket is steady.

[Warzouz]

One more update since I unlocked new pieces from my Mun exploration.

With the Joint Reinforcement Mod, I don't even need to set SAS on the launchpad.

Reentry is fine, except I get rotation when activating SAS (steady if it doesn't). It's like some winglets where reversed.

Edit :

I'm also wondering if I should put the engines at full power and checked how much I can lift off. For now I'm targeting specific payload tonnage.

Do you think if 3-way symmetry is viable for ascent ?

Edited May 15, 2015 by Warzouz