To Orbit...

[Fellow314]

I'm almost certain I've seen that Star Clipper before,  I now remember where I got the fuel tank configuration from.

 

The designs are mainly driven by the fact that I, a player of computer games, think NASA, multi-million dollar organisation that put a man on the moon, got the space shuttle wrong.

[silent_prtoagonist]

3 hours ago, Fellow314 said:

The designs are mainly driven by the fact that I, a player of computer games, think NASA, multi-million dollar organisation that put a man on the moon, got the space shuttle wrong.

To be fair a pretty large portion of the spaceflight industry agrees with you.  

[septemberWaves]

At a glance, the space shuttle appears to be a compilation of several ideas that shouldn't work, all held together by the metaphorical duct tape that is scientists' inherent tendency to ask "why not?". A constantly changing center of mass, a center of thrust which drastically changes mid-flight, powerful SRBs on a crewed vehicle, the list of aspects of the NASA space shuttle that are generally considered a bad idea is a rather long list.

All that considered, it's possible that it could've been cheaper to use a design like the vehicles in this thread, wherein the center of mass and thrust stays pretty consistent throughout the flight (meaning there would be no need to manufacture the incredibly expensive high-gimbal engines that NASA's shuttles used, amongst other things) but I can only imagine that there must have been engineering constraints to prevent such a design at the time.

[Fellow314]

 

Three kerbals to orbit.

You have to manually move the fuel at the front tank out as the clipping seems to interfere with the fuel flow.  Keeps the weight in the front on the way up though.

For those, like me who use Mechjeb, for some reason Jeb can't handle the first portion of the ascent, it gets all wobbly.

 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rv8wzhxbtvuppzv/MIN V M_J.craft?dl=0

 

 

http://imgur.com/a/uX7eW

 

My thanks for all the kind comments.  I'm not sure what to say

[Fellow314]

 

For putting three Kerbals into orbit.

 

Unfortunately, without mods, there's no real way to recover the plane.

 

 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cxw1z4u5c888uzk/K15 3 Drop plane NMJ.craft?dl=0

http://imgur.com/a/ERZgq

 

 

Edited August 24, 2016 by Fellow314

[septemberWaves]

@Fellow314 I take it that the little shuttle that dropped from the cargo bay is supposed to be recoverable. But I do have to ask, where are the landing gear? And for that matter, where do the other two kerbals sit?

[Fellow314]

2 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

@Fellow314 I take it that the little shuttle that dropped from the cargo bay is supposed to be recoverable. But I do have to ask, where are the landing gear? And for that matter, where do the other two kerbals sit?

There's some light clipping involved for the landing gear.  I just like to slide them back into the fuselage for neatness :

 

 

There's some ludicrous clipping for the passengers.  They're sort of sitting in a fuel tank.  It's perfectly safe!!

 

[Rath]

I love aircraft-launched orbiters.  They just look cool.

[TheWanderer05]

1 minute ago, Rath said:

I love aircraft-launched orbiters.  They just look cool.

I agree. As cool and cost-efficient as they are, they are too difficult to maintain without mods which is certainly... unfortunate. If only ships would stay loaded outside of the 22.5km or whatever distance it is where they are just removed from existence.

[Fellow314]

4 minutes ago, TheWanderer05 said:

I agree. As cool and cost-efficient as they are, they are too difficult to maintain without mods which is certainly... unfortunate. If only ships would stay loaded outside of the 22.5km or whatever distance it is where they are just removed from existence.

 

It is doable, but it's a proper hassle.

[Fellow314]

I've been unable to make an orange tank lifting spaceplane I was happy with ever since I stopped being able to slap a thousand air intakes on any old thing and jet into orbit.  This, the unimaginatively titled LKOLFLV (Mk I) is it.

 

If anyone does decide to fly it...

Comes with a tug for hauling cargo out of the bay and lifting the cargo up to about a 250K orbit.  It's best to dock this at the back of the bay for re-entry - make sure both docking ports line up

Keep the nose up for re-entry - over 40 degrees, use the RCS to keep it there.  The cockpit heats up a bit, but it should be fine - ETA - there are a pair of air-brakes hidden at the back, use them or risk running out of runway to land on.

 

1, 2 and 3 are linked to the banks of motors at the bottom, best to turn a couple off for fine maneuvering

7 & 8 toggle the motors on the tug.

Fire up the engines before releasing the clamps otherwise she goes a bit sideways.

http://imgur.com/a/69QnP

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ja6w975arq51h4l/LKOLFLV NMJ.craft?dl=0

Edited September 6, 2016 by Fellow314

[septemberWaves]

I think the newest shuttle is my favourite one in this thread.

[Rath]

I usually just play sandbox with a spreadsheet for teh cash monies, so I'm fine with the deleting launchers.

[Zamolxes77]

Very impressive designs, some are very cute and some kinda defeat the purpose of ... "cheapness". Any craft that loses parts, in long run is more expensive than a true SSTO, albeit there is a upper limit mass for said SSTO. Putting 4 kerbals in orbit, sure, putting 60 tons in orbit, not so much. 

I have this for orbital ops: rescue, tourists, crew shuffling, etc.

Six crew or 5 crew + pilot, up to the spaceflight Director !

Next is a tiny 2 crew shuttle using non rapier technology, wins in cute department ! - I don't use it much, too tiny.

Wanna send two lovebirds on a honey-moon voyage to Minmus, on the cheap ? This is your bird:

Surely, it might lack in comfort and be a little cramped, but as the saying goes, "what happens on Minmus stays on Minmus !"

<UPDATE>

This is about as cheapest I can get a crew of 4 into orbit. 

In 100/100 LKO with 75 monoprop left for docking maneuvers and some dV.

We're coming in for a landing folks !

Almost home with 135 m/s left in the tanks ! 

View from the SPH, with CoM, CoL and total dV

And ... the cost of the trip? Well it all comes to the gran total of <drumroll> 682 funds, fuel plus monoprop. Everything else comes back, hopefully in one piece :). I hope the cost of fuel is correct in the menu LOL, forgot to recover the craft and write the difference.

[Fellow314]

1 hour ago, Zamolxes77 said:

. Any craft that loses parts, in long run is more expensive than a true SSTO,

 

The above really isn't always true, in KSP or in real life.

[septemberWaves]

6 hours ago, Fellow314 said:

The above really isn't always true, in KSP or in real life.

It's generally going to be far more expensive to launch a small satellite on a dedicated satellite-launching SSTO than it is to make a tiny, cheap rocket that can launch the satellite quickly and effectively. I've actually found that with launching payloads that are less than 2 tonnes, the fuel cost of a spaceplane often outweighs the total cost of an expendable rocket. And actually, because such payloads are so tiny and usually have their own propulsion system, I usually end up with a single-stage rocket that I can stick a couple of parachutes to beneath the fairing, and separate stages once the intended apoapsis is reached to let the probe circularize and then recover the rocket for quite a reasonable percentage of the launch cost. Much cheaper than a spaceplane.

For more massive payloads though, SSTOs are probably the way to go with regards to cost. Spaceplanes are cheap for heavy payloads as long as you can design them well enough, and if the payload can't fit in the cargo bay then a rocket SSTO is still an option usually.

[Fellow314]

Speaking of SSTOs...

 

I was trying to build a dreamcatcher, but suffered project creep...

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ntws7eepxvptb9u/Dreamhopper.craft?dl=0

 

It lacks delta v really, but it's good to lift six crew to about a 150K orbit.

 

I'll write some instructions if anyone wants any

Edited September 16, 2016 by Fellow314

[Fellow314]

Okay, this is weird.

The above craft made orbit with reasonable ease when I built it.  Now it won't at all.

 

Investigation continues...

 

ETA - how odd.  A failed attempt to install stockalike Mk 2 expansion mod seems to have been the culprit, somehow it changed the physics of the craft.  Removed the mod and she flies once more

Edited September 16, 2016 by Fellow314

[BeeGeenie]

Those form-fitted booster stage designs are incredible! Very stylish.