What defines your spacecraft style?

[royying]

big delta wing on spaceplane

[max_creative]

These questions: 

is it really big? 

Is it really explody? 

Can its job be done by something about a third of its size? 

Is it super impractical? 

And my entire fleet of cruiser (and massive pile of junk in the ocean) sorta had small influences from @ShadowZone. For example: put the thermal panels and electrical systems inside a cargo bay. Or use a mk1-2 pod with the entire crew module detachable with docking ports.

[spacebrick3]

I tend towards asparagus staging with Mainsails and huge clusters of orange tanks for my launchers (as you can tell, I play mostly sandbox), and all my vehicles (excluding some planes) have some basic features:

RTGs (usually four, mounted downwards on Cubic Octagonal Struts)

Batteries

Science (for the defs)

Habitation Module (if crewed)

Propulsion

[Jarin]

My space program is typically defined by building and lifting everything from Minmus (EPL), because I hate gravity wells. (Read: I suck at efficient LKO lifting)

Other than that, everything gets probe cores and solar panels, due to way too many derps causing lost vehicles. Fully 75% of these have been Jeb's fault, I would note. I have "command pod" subassemblies for most sizes of vehicle with self-contained control and power systems.

[dantedarkstar]

High/over-powered solid rocket motor ascent vehicles, that go into orbit in a literal blaze of glory. TWR 2-3 at launchpad (usually around 2.3) and growing (sometimes getting to around 10 before stage burnout). Playing with FAR, I found out that "hot" (turning into fireball usually around 10km above ground) ascent vehicles use up less dV total than "cool" ones (those that don't produce hot plasma sheath on their way into space). Quite specific to fly, because is you don't (sometimes aggresively) help gravity with the turn, you end up with 200-500km apoapsis and not enough fuel in the last mini-stage to raise periapsis up to space.

[The Aziz]

Whatever works. Seriously, only thing I could think of is poodle/terrier on second to last stage and that's it. 

[Superfluous J]

Function > Form

[awfulhumanbeing]

They never fly higher than LKO.

[JoeNapalm]

A picture is worth a thousand words:

 

-Jn-

[p1t1o]

Usually a nice tall, slender stack with something on top encrusted in every tool, sensor, experiment, antenna and other miscellania so that it looks like I dropped a lollipop into a hoover bag. Fair that over and add some fins to the bottom and that describes probably 2/3 of my vehicles, from 1.25 to 3.75.

The universal storage science experiments are very nice, so my vehicles almost always have a black-and-white-striped cylindrical section somewhere.

My spaceplanes always end up looking like an SR71.

 

I also like:

solid first stages (also RATO ftw)

liquid fuelled side boosters w/asparagus

elaborate fairings/interstage stuff (comeon, everybody love the "k-tschhhhhh" when stuff is voluntarily ejected from your ship.)

[qromodynmc]

I always try to keep it realistic looking when i design sstos. Mostly they look like real life planes.

[stenole]

If it doesn't wobble, it wasn't designed by me.

[Moose Rocket Science]

Reusable and Stable with KJR.

[DChurchill]

20 minutes ago, stenole said:

If it doesn't wobble, it wasn't designed by me.

Struts. Struts are your friend.

[NotaKlutz-42516]

On ‎2‎/‎21‎/‎2016 at 7:11 PM, FishInferno said:

You can never use the Vector engine too much.  Never.

I've used the vector engine many times. Needless to say, I tend to get carried away with it sometimes.

[OV-102]

81 degree swept delta wings 

[awfulhumanbeing]

On 21.02.2016 at 3:15 AM, Just Jim said:

Shuttle landers with big reverse "raptor" wings... I've been building these for a while now, and I love the look.

Oh would you submit the craft on the picture?

As of me, tons of intakes. Literally, frikin tons.

[teag2]

It's either overpowered or it doesn't fly.

[Just Jim]

24 minutes ago, awfulhumanbeing said:

Oh would you submit the craft on the picture?

As of me, tons of intakes. Literally, frikin tons.

Submit the craft?  I'm not sure I understand... do you mean so other players can download it?   I'm afraid I have to say no. Like some of the other fan-fiction authors, I've made it a policy to not give away my Emiko Station ships.  If I was to start now, it could open a can of worms I'd rather not have to deal with.  I hope you understand.

However, having said that, I've posted tons of raptor pictures in my story.  Feel free to copy it and design your own version.  

[awfulhumanbeing]

Just now, Just Jim said:

Submit the craft?  I'm not sure I understand... do you mean so other players can download it?   I'm afraid I have to say no. Like some of the other fan-fiction authors, I've made it a policy to not give away my Emiko Station ships.  If I was to start now, it could open a can of worms I'd rather not have to deal with.  I hope you understand.

However, having said that, I've posted tons of raptor pictures in my story.  Feel free to copy it and design your own version.  

Boy thats a shame. Actually i'll try to redo your stuff. Well here is a picture of my X-Wing X-Panded SSTO. You can call him Sam.

Since I dont want to offtop, here's another thing: They try to look somewhat futuristic but end up crashing the game.

EDIT: AHHAHAHAHA!! I've got this thing flying!

Edited May 31, 2016 by awfulhumanbeing

[AviosAdku]

First ... Whoa @awfulhumanbeing, I've seen some impressive things people have made fly, if that's a SSTO then ... wow. Impressive work, cargo carrier is it?

Anyway, the reason I'm here.
A lot of the time I tend to build spacecraft with a "long term" use in mind (read: reusable and multi-mission). As a result, most of my orbital craft are somewhat expensive single staged monsters (not counting lifters, I'll get to them) designed around more generalised mission parameters and rather large Dv margins. Also, Mk 2 aircraft parts show up a lot.

Above is an example of this: one of my Sunglider crew vessels (a 3P model to be precise, in fact it was the prototype for the entire series), while not "technically" reused, it is a good example of the philosophy. While each Sunglider is set up for a specific mission, this adaptation usually only applies to what I put in the bay for the 3U model, the "airframe" is the same for every flight with the only variation between models being what is in place of the 4 crew cabin. The baseline design was built to be able to conduct most potential crewed missions in the Kerbin System, able to land on Mun or Minmus, re-enter in a controlled way and be recovered intact (maximising returns from recovery). As a result it was built with generous fuel margins and a very "jack of all trades" set of trade-offs: it's a tailsitter so landing on a slope can get quite hairy but at the same time it isn't a brilliant glider at low speed/altitude (it lands under parachute for a reason: save the hassle and let me land anywhere when returning), however it's a versatile design able to take on a lot of different missions (satellite launches, surface surveys, rescues, etc.), it also means I know how it handles on re-entry (very well in fact, almost automatic, just set AoA at interface and wait until the flames end). Finally, it is built for theoretically infinite re-entries with high thermal tolerance and no ablative shielding.

Launchers however ... let's just say I focus on standard spacecraft, not lifters. Typically they amount to a custom assemblage of tankage and engines wrapped around a bulky payload. Picture above is the most egregious example recently, the ~300t AV-1 Karashi exploration vessel (my biggest thing since 1.0.5, not sure before that).

That basically sums up my style

 

Edited July 5, 2016 by AkuAerospace
Removed "sign off"

[awfulhumanbeing]

Yep, @AkuAerospace, it is an SSTO, I'm even more amazed than anybody else. Cargo carrier? Not that much. With a bit of modifying it could though deliver 2,5m payloads. Namely, moving the RCS tank to the back so it doesn't obstruct the cargo ramp, and offsetting the Mk2 fuselages out so they don't intersect with the payload bay. Feel free to do it yourself: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/140896-really-huge-ssto/#comment-2610101

Once again, no flooding, so:

The Big-S tail fins look awesome, and are used at most of the craft.

 

[Bev7787]

Simple, elegant, gets the job done, modular. That is all