Grace Mk1b - a sleek, light utility SSTO

[drewscriver]

Grace.

I didn't set out to create this craft.  I was working on a thrust pod for a mega lifter, but one of the wing configurations I came up with in the process quickly evolved into something more.  When all was said and done, I was quite smitten with the looks and gave it the first name that came to mind.  

While not groundbreaking in its capabilities, the Grace lives up to its name in more than just asthetics.  At just 58 parts, it's easy on the CPU.  Despite that, it can achieve a 100 x 100 with plenty of fuel to spare.  The RCS is also carefully balanced for minimal torque when translating, and CoM and DCoM lie very close together.  

It can easily adapt to other capabilities as well - the shown configuration is just a reference; the docking port, cargo bay and crew cabin can easily be swapped out with other modules as you like.  The only thing that needs to be done in that case is strutting the forward fuel tank to the fuselage. 

It's quite a forgiving flyer, though you do have to be careful of tailstrikes.  It can hold about a 10 degree AoA on re-entry, so you'll want a long, slow re-entry.

Incidentally, the trick I used to achieve the smooth lines of the rear nuclear engine are outlined here: 

 

Overall, this turned out to be one of my neatest builds.  Heck, it's even the Mk1b - just the second revision of the design!  That never happens to me.

Craft is available on KerbalX, if you're interested.  I hope you enjoy flying this plane as much as I enjoyed making it.

Edited February 18, 2016 by drewscriver

[Schetefan]

Hey drewscriver this is a really nice looking spaceplane and I just tried to get it into Orbit, but I was to stupid to do it, as I don't have experience with SSTOs. Could you give me some tipps on how I can get it to Space?

[legoclone09]

That thing is awesome! I gotta try it out for light payload deployment.

[drewscriver]

19 hours ago, Schetefan said:

Hey drewscriver this is a really nice looking spaceplane and I just tried to get it into Orbit, but I was to stupid to do it, as I don't have experience with SSTOs. Could you give me some tipps on how I can get it to Space?

Any particular part of the flight you're having difficulty with?  Not making it up, or going too fast and exploding?

I just swapped the crew cabin for a cargo bay and did a heavy lift as a test.

It took a little while, but I made a 100x100 orbit with 8 tons of cargo (the mothership still had 358 units of liquid fuel at this point).

Basic profile was as follows:

Run off the end of the runway, pitch up to fifteen degrees, drop to ten at 7,000

If you're heavily loaded, your speed may hit a wall in the low 300s at around 10,000 meters.

In this case, drop the nose to the horizon to accelerate until you reach at least 450 m/s, then pull up again.  First to ten degrees, and then fifteen degrees at 15,000

you should break 1,000 m/s around 20,000 and be approaching 20 degrees

Light the nuke when you hear the rapiers start to trail off, around 23,000.  

The rapiers will switch mode at 30,000.  If you're falling short, switch them over manually with action group 3.  Let them kick your apoapsis up for a bit 40 to 50 thousand, then gradually drop the nose prograde.  By the time you run out of oxidizer, your apoapsis should be in or near orbit.  Keep firing the nuke until you have your desired apoapsis.

If you have a particularly long ascent, you may have to pump fuel from the wings to the fuselage at some point, if not, do it in orbit.  Circularize as normal.

I hope this helps; please let me know if you still have troubles.

Edited February 21, 2016 by drewscriver

[Schetefan]

Thanks, got the grace flying, its a really nice ssto

[drewscriver]

Glad to hear that you got it working.  Welcome to the world of SSTO-ing.