SSTO Cargo to Minimus

[Senri-Sei]

Alright, So I have an objective, and I'm open to suggestions for a way to achieve it.

I'm planning to build a modular station on one of Minimus' seas,and no way in Eve am I placing each piece atop a rocket and launching all my money into space. This is where a SSTMinimusO comes into play.

I'm not so good with the whole spaceplane thing, so I'm asking for any suggestions to help me get an SSTO into a low orbit of Minimus and back to Kerbin, lugging a module similar to the one below, (That one does not have all its surface attachments, just a guide) weighing in excess of 16 tons there.

...Any suggestions on how to fly said craft would also kinda help.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Senri-Sei
Answered

[Sirine]

What have you try? The fun of the game is to trial and error. And finally achieve something.

[Starhawk]

I'm not so good with the whole spaceplane thing, so I'm asking for any suggestions to help me get an SSTO into a low orbit of Minimus and back to Kerbin

Welcome to the forums!

Spaceplanes are complex and difficult to build. There is a learning curve as with all things in KSP. To start with, you should check out this basic spaceplane tutorial.

It's a bit old now, but contains all the important basic concepts.

From there, try checking out some of the threads that are devoted to spaceplanes to get some ideas from what others are doing.

Good luck.

Happy landings!

[Grumman]

For starters you should use one big ore tank, not three little ones. The way your module is set up right now, it's not going to be as stable as it appears.

[Pecan]

...no way in Eve am I placing each piece atop a rocket and launching all my money into space...

Why not?

A SSTO rocket is easier to build and fly than a SSTO spaceplane, although each launch will probably use more (cheap) fuel.

Why keep lifting and landing excess vacuum equipment to and from the surface of Kerbin, every time you want to go to Orbit?

Why keep dragging wings, landing gear and airbreathing engines all the way to Minmus and back?

They are separate operations, in different environments and deserve different equipment.

Launch never-landing space tugs in orbit with SSTO rockets. Use their space efficiency to transfer everything to Minmus (or wherever) and back. Refuel and reload with SSTO rockets; rinse, repeat.

The important point being that all the stuff that is only used in space only needs to be launched once. SSTO rockets or spaceplanes are your call depending on which you prefer to make and fly.

These myths that "SSTO" means spaceplane and "spaceplane" (neccessarily) means super-efficient are sad temptations to the uninitiated.

This SSTO will put a 100t+ payload in orbit. It is easy to build and fly and will launch and land using MJs standard settings, if you want it to.

Decoupler below payload.

3 stacks of

5 x S3-7200

S3 KS25x4

nosecones and fins to taste

Batteries and RGU on centre stack, SAS units and drogues on side-stacks. Has about 500m/s remaining once in 75km orbit, using MJ's default settings (just open Ascent Guidance, set 75km target orbit, click 'Engage Autopilot' and press space to go there), better if you fly it yourself.

Edited August 2, 2015 by Pecan

[Senri-Sei]

I'm in career, it's one of the few things I don't have yet. Same with the 2 mid sized cargo bays instead of the largest size, although It won't take much to get that one.

[LordFjord]

An SSTO spaceplane that is capable of hauling 16 tons to Minmus is no easy task. If you do not have much experiance with spaceplanes, I would suggest to start smaller.

Getting one to Minmus is hard enough already without any cargo.

I would guess that a spaceplane capable of doing that will be rather big - and big ones are hard to design.

In the end, you probably have the same goal as many: to create a stylish plane that can go anywhere with mining/refueling, am I right?

A quick search gave me this:

It doesn't go to Minmus but I guess if you replace the passengers and half the cargo with fuel, it could.

[Mic_n]

I'd suggest an SSTO to LKO and then disposable transit from there, it'll be a whole lot easier. I've made some pretty beefy SSTOs, but you don't really want to be sending them out away from Kerbin, it's a waste.

The problem with taking SSTOs (by which I, and the vast majority of people, mean a spaceplane..) much beyond LKO is that all the bits and pieces that you have on there for atmospheric flight are now superfluous, and dead weight.. and those jet engines are heavy. That means you have all this dead weight to accelerate and stop and you're burning waaaaayyy more fuel than you need to.

Get yourself up to LKO, open your bay and send a lightweight payload on its way. You'll need an engine to land on minmus anyway, so you can use that for your transfer as well.. what I've done in the past is strap a fuel tank to the TOP of my lander and pipe the fuel down to that to transfer across. Once you've used that fuel up you can stage away and dump that weight before landing.. although on minmus it's really not all that significant anyway.

[capi3101]

- Posted my original in the wrong thread, my bad -

I was going to suggest that you could try building your plane so that it could be refueled; in KSP these days, the amount of delta-V an SSTO spaceplane requires for the final ascent phase (after transition from jets to rockets and circularization) is roughly 1,800 m/s - which, if you were to refuel your plane in orbit, would easily be enough to do a transfer burn to either Mun or Minmus. I did have a successful spaceplane ferry doing that very job not too terribly long ago. Of course, it was hauling passengers...an eighteen tonne payload is going to be a tall order. And there's still the issue of actually getting the payload down to the surface from there. And there remains the fact that what everybody else has said - that it's inefficient as hell - is inescapably true...

If you're in stock air, plan for your your plane to have a takeoff mass of around 72 tonnes - it'll require five or six jets and about 1,000-1,200 kN of rocket thrust (so a Mainsail).

Edited August 3, 2015 by capi3101

[Nich]

I have a basic design down for an SSTO with 17.1t to Minimus. I have some more work to do because it becomes unstable when it is on empty but you can use the basic setup/engine ratios/fuel ratios to build your own

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/129374-Pro-SSTO-builder-pilot-Challenge?p=2116049&viewfull=1#post2116049

[AaronLS]

Few examples here in a similar thread about getting SSTO's beyond LKO that might be helpful. But as mentioned here and there, an SSTO beyond LKO is very inefficient.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/130345-SSTO-Troubles?p=2116957#post2116957

[Senri-Sei]

Alright I've seen some examples, had some ideas, and I think I know how I'm going to get my base together. I realise, with the way I'm building my craft, that I may very well be able to assemble my station in kerbin orbit, and have several of the modules that I'm strapping together be engines, especially since I wanted to have some fuel storage modules anyway. That should get me to minimus, especially now that I've gone and installed MJ.

[DCWarHound]

I have some guidelines if you need em.

Make sure your Jet engines have a TWR above 1 in the atmosphere and enough fuel to get up 40km or higher.

Make sure your rocket stage has a TWR above 1 in space and about 2500 Delta/V (make sure your jet engines don't eat your rocket stage fuel)

Refuel at a space station in LKO and then make your way to Minmus.Another approach is to put docking modules on rocket engines so you can switch them for more efficient engines at the space station (if you have kerbal attachment system,you can make them more stable by having an engineer add struts)