Orbit Portal Showroom [Show me your OPT Spaceplanes!]

[gilflo]

Hello guys

I introduce the  StratoMaX : This RSS Stratolauncher is able to launch 315T or more at a speed of more than 5500m/s (around mach 17) at its ceiling of 48500m. Playing RSS Earth we need 7600m/s to reach orbit

This is a 1600T plane with OPT MK2 central cockpit and 20 OPT J61 TurboRamjet "Starwaster" engines (diameter 2m50) , giving a TWR >3 at the 48500m ceiling

Here is the monster

Screen of the engines

Many many wings, winglest and stabilizers as we need to pilot this thing at 48500m with a nearly 0 m/s vertical speed before launching. 

Here is the Martian Shuttle, with 2 ejectable rockets, that allow the shuttle to reach orbit with nearly its full 16000DV range. The 4 engines Shutlle are working on LF taken in the stratolauncher tanks to help for climb, but they switch off long before reaching the ceiling.

At launch, they are relight in Closed Cycle and run with the 2 RS 25 from RealScaleBoosters taking their fuel from the lower ejectable tanks so that the Martian Shuttle range can be maximum at orbit

There is a rover with 2 seats in the cargo hold and it is ejected during Martian ground approach and it lands with its own parachutes. Mars approach is performed retrograde, parachutes get out when speed is lowered under 800m/s by engines around 25000m.. Then approach is completed with engines and chutes in retrograde. Near the ground 2 back landing struts are supposed to help the back touch and give an impulse to lower the shuttle on the ground on the gear....Touchy but it works!

The 2 big RS 25 and the big tanks are the only thing abandoned in space

Screen of the Martian Shuttle mounted on the back of the StratoMaX. The 2 big rockets are strut to the shuttle via a center pilar and 2 Staging docking ports, the first one to launch the Shuttle, the second one to leave the rockets...

Once the Shuttle is in parking orbit, the StratoMaX, having flown along South American coast from Kourou to launch in orbital plan, has got just enough fuel to make a right turn to reach the coast and land somewhere in the land as it is not possible to have more than 1 airport...

The StratoMaX can also land on the sea very well; if necessary.

Edited October 21, 2019 by gilflo

[grisby_2133]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering what do you all mean when you say, "1.5x" scale and "1.7x" scale?  Are you referring to the versions of KSP?  Do different versions of KSP have different scales?  Or are you using a mod to scale the Kerbal universe by some factor?

Thanks, and sorry to diverge the topic slightly!

[JadeOfMaar]

2 hours ago, grisby_2133 said:

Or are you using a mod to scale the Kerbal universe by some factor?

Yep. Scaling the universe. (And it's 2.5x and 2.7x, not 1.5 and 1.7.) Stock scale, where Kerbin is 1/10 or 1/11 the size of Earth, is too small. You realize that when you become an advanced player and don't like it anymore how easy it is to make SSTOs and get to and from places with stock parts or you don't like it anymore how little "room to run" you have when you want to accelerate with hypersonic jet engines, or aerobrake at length with reentry devices. Scaling the universe is mostly done through Sigma Dimensions but some planet mods exist where the planets are written to be large by default and do not need Sigma Dimensions.

The major scale factors are:

• 2.5x (what many of us wish KSP was by default. Surprise: stock parts are actually balanced for this one. They're OP for stock scale, making SSTOs so easy.)
• 2.7x "quarter real scale"
• 3.2x (stock parts are nearly unplayable without re-balance mods at this point. some of these are SMURFF, FAR, KRnD.)
• 6.4x
• 10x "real scale" (the scale of the "Real Solar System" mod which bring the real solar system to KSP)
• 10.625x "true real scale" (where Kerbin's radius is much more precise and nearly spot on with Earth's radius)

gilflo is a 10x person. I'm a 2.7x person.

The slight derail is fine. You asked a question. I answered.

[qwe9000]

@JadeOfMaarDoes it have to be a spaceplane? Can it be a spaceship or a spacecraft?
If it can be a spaceship I'll post some of my OPT spaceships

Edited October 23, 2019 by qwe9000

[JadeOfMaar]

@qwe9000 Nope. It doesn't have to be a spaceplane. I've posted things other than planes here.

[grisby_2133]

Ok, I have lurked too long.

I've been playing KSP for a number of years now, but I'm kind of getting back into it with all the hype surrounding KSP2!

I've always loved the OPT parts, they always inspired me (in part because I've also always loved atmospheric flight).

So without further ado, my largest two OPT creations: the Modular Bird of Prey, and the biggest, the Big Bird of Prey.

When I designed them I was still stinging from the accuracy of MechJeb's orbit-matching code destroying some ships.  (MechJeb had matched orbits so perfectly, that during the final stage of the Hohmann transfer, it decelerated *right through* my station!  If the station had been tiny, it probably would have literally just kissed its center of mass!)

Since then, I learned how to match orbits and dock manually (so much faster and fuel-efficient than using MechJeb anyway!)

Long story short, the distinguishing features of these two are that the front half can decouple from the rear, serving as a sort of shuttle or life-boat in the case of emergency.

Here's a view of the shroud hiding the docking ports underneath.  You can see this was before I discovered auto-strutting.  Each half has adequate RCS placement to give it good control during docking, even with the bridge detached.

Getting two craft of this mass docked took quite a bit of patience!

The big one on top has two docking ports, one in the neck near the bridge, and another one on the bottom of the crew quarters.  (Love those flat-attachable docking ports!  Whatever happened to those, were they from OPT?)

The smaller ("modular") one used Mk3 cargo bay which opened on the ventral/bottom side.  The larger one used OPT cargo bays, and it sure could hold a lot of cargo!

Look at those Dark Matter Drives!!  The original vision for OPT I think really embraced the idea of "OP" and I always loved it!  I don't really have time to crank science in career or use tiny low-ISP engines.

Really a pretty good-sized ship!

The crew lives underneath the cargo area, and Big Bird of Prey has room for 22 Kerbals in addition to the huge cargo area!

With such a broad wing area, (plus lifting-body fuselage parts) it had plenty of lift...the challenge was the disposable take-off gear, and of course the wings on the bridge section act as canards in this design.  Pretty good control, but the framerate on my laptop is slow enough that I wouldn't want to try reentry/landing.

Oh, I almost forgot...perhaps due to my irritation at MechJeb having destroyed so much hard work, I also added two tiny one-man lifeboats with a tiny amount of LFO and a parachute for a hopefully-safe getaway for two lucky Kerbals if needed.

Ok, now on to some other favorite OPT craft!  I give you...the Ignitor Shuttle!

This happened after I discovered the "Candle Drives" in some other mod...it takes off and lands vertically, no parachute.

There's a little hatch on the underside to get you in and out.

Can't get too much of this!

Finally, there's this tiny little shuttle I made after I discovered what fun it is to fine-tune parts to fit perfectly together using TweakScale...this is the Micro Moth shuttle for two:

It's perfectly balanced and flies like a dream in-atmosphere.

There's a docking port on the underside (because on top the tail surfaces would be in the way).

Then I had a couple of free hours and had a blast designing strange things around the Phoenix Concept cockpit...I had also discovered this mod called "TCA" which happens to help in control of engine arrangements like this, using my now-favorite candle engines...

The underside has the mandatory docking port, which actually was a pretty good fit... this being a "puller" design... the landing legs are shamelessly cropped into the body.  (In situations where a real engineer would be able to find a solution to the problem, I have never had a problem with cropping parts into each other.)

Thanks everyone for inspiring me.

And thanks for keeping the OPT parts alive!!!

[qwe9000]

@JadeOfMaarThanks! I have recently built a giant spaceship and OPT parts. I'll start photography later.

[JadeOfMaar]

6 hours ago, grisby_2133 said:

This happened after I discovered the "Candle Drives" in some other mod...it takes off and lands vertically, no parachute.

Those are USI Karborundum Torch Drives.

I really like the Bird of Prey designs. They look difficult to manage yet you can manage them.

[grisby_2133]

Thanks, @JadeOfMaar I always liked that design.

And in the SSTO flying wing thread I just posted this set of OPT wings with a few extra parts hanging on:

 

[gilflo]

Hello OPT guys

Here is my Mission to Mars in RSS mod (without FAR), part 1 with Martian shuttle launch from the Straolauncher StratoMaX, and part 2 landing on Mars

I must say that OPT mod is perfectly adapted for RSS, the jet engines being efficient enough to build huge stratolaunchers and hybrid engines being adapted for longhaul spaceflight.

SSTO is quite challenging as on Kerbal system with stock engines: You reach orbit and back but to fly further you must think different, with Stratolanching or Rocket vertical launching like NASA SpaceShuttle

[CatmanFS]

Here is my Raptor SSTO, uses 4 j60D engines and a vector for vertical landing on the surface. Can enter into a 100k orbit of kerbin with around 5k delta-v left over and has a full mining setup in the service bays.

 

[AG-cs]

 

Passenger ship (luxury class)

Edited November 13, 2019 by AG-cs

[The Dressian Exploder]

Oooh fancy!

[JadeOfMaar]

"Spaceplane Orion" is the name of the anime version and what nearly all of the involved OPT parts came from! Mine is "Orion JL" (due to my first making an "Orion J" featuring no Humpback parts).

* Comparison pic features the visually more accurate version featuring more Tweakscale and no boarding ramp. This is not flight-tested.

After a lot of testing this one has been proven ready for service. The wings (140%) and engines (150%) are Tweakscaled and larger than default. I chose to add the J boarding ramp so kerbals would be able to board/depart without using ladders. By consequence, this makes it a low rider and (in addition to being very long) it needs to reach the runway's edge for liftoff. It weighs 256 tons too but handles well at 70m/s (for the touchdown).

With the J-60 (not the J-60D) it can SSTO in JNSQ, which is fine for me, but I wanted it to operate involving the J-60D like the anime version, but its TWR is too low to be viable. The anime plane's center engine is effectively J body sized, not Mk2 sized. Scaling the J-60 to meet it would make the engine take up way too much space.

My Orion JL it's not great at holding its AoA during reentry so it can easily flip out and expose the J-60 engine which will all too easily melt off by JNSQ's reentry heat.

 

[Stone Blue]

@AG-cs wow... SWEET use of OPT parts for such a kewl creative craft. Nice to see OPT parts used on moar than just atmospheric SSTOs. :thumbs_up:

@JadeOfMaar That is so kewl, that you found that movie. And even moar kewl to find that, at least that one design, actually *flies*, in KSP. Makes one wonder who the artist/creator was, and if they had an actual background in aeronautical/aerospace design.

Edited November 15, 2019 by Stone Blue

[JadeOfMaar]

@Stone Blue Heh. ikr? I was encouraged at one point to possibly make parts for the Swordfish from Cowboy Bebop but there's no way in hell that would be stable in KSP. On another note, I scaled the J-60 to 200% to better fit the J body and better resemble the anime craft. While it would very likely deliver performance like the anime craft, it unfortunately swelled to a mass of 37 tons, and would drag the CoM too far back as all the fuel mass and the bulk of lift surfaces were now ahead of it.

6 hours ago, Stone Blue said:

Makes one wonder who the artist/creator was, and if they had an actual background in aeronautical/aerospace design.

Now I wonder, too.

It even had a mount under the cockpit (like a fish's beard like bits) to hold the front landing gear. I easily replicated that with a Mk2 adapter and OPT Mk2 nose. But I clipped a big S Elevon in it to add Yaw control to prevent any yaw induced hell due to itself and other Mk2 parts aligned vertically (like the Mk2 intakes and noses on the Humpback adapters). I feel guilty for that but play-ability matters more.

@AG-cs always doing epic designs like that. And I noticed the custom-painted ARI-73 engines.

Edited November 15, 2019 by JadeOfMaar

[Stone Blue]

4 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

... it unfortunately swelled to a mass of 37 tons...

... OwO... ooff

 

4 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

@AG-cs always doing epic designs like that. And I noticed the custom-painted ARI-73 engines.

Jade, *RECRUIT THE GUILTY PARTY, IMMEDIATELY!!*

[AG-cs]

19 hours ago, Stone Blue said:

@AG-cs wow... SWEET use of OPT parts for such a kewl creative craft. Nice to see OPT parts used on moar than just atmospheric SSTOs. :thumbs_up:

Thanks! I am glad you like it. My fav mod is the OPT and as I love sci-fi so that's why I built such ships. I am planning to use less mods and I rather use OPT because you can almost build everything with it. This craft on my last picture is not the finished version.

[AG-cs]

13 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

@AG-cs always doing epic designs like that. And I noticed the custom-painted ARI-73 engines.

Yes I usually use that style. The ARI-73 is my fav (this poor guy is so white for me). 

Thanks!

[AG-cs]

Cunitz 2.0

I can save this type from the  game of 1.3.1, which made me glad because this type is the one of the best flight ability space shuttle what I could built. The flight in the air and also in the space is very balanced with it.

I have added a little craft and also a shuttle to it.

The main task of the Cunitz 2.0 is to transport tourists. Its move to orbit around the target and with the little craft I can make come true the wishies of the kerbal tourists.

This space shuttle got her name from Maria Cunitz who was a famous astronomer from Poland.

Edited November 16, 2019 by AG-cs

[AG-cs]

On 11/15/2019 at 6:59 AM, JadeOfMaar said:

 

Very nice. I like these arcs.   

[JadeOfMaar]

With its simple codename "Hump" I created something that resembles and performs like the Avatar Cockpit Revival shuttle here...

But I wanted something that could clearly and with less struggle, deliver payload to JNSQ LKO if I wanted it to. I also wanted it to be able to carry more payload so it has been well tested with 60 tons of Ammonia. So with the simple codename "Hump" this appeared.

It features 8x Mk2 intake pods (I made the OPT Mk2 nose surface attachable), 2 of which are in the cockpit to make up for its broken intake feature. It features 2x J-60D and 2x Tweakscaled J-92 engines and hence, mostly relies on scramjet mode for the upper ascent TWR. Due to this reliance and the gluttony for air (of the enlarged scramjets) it's forced to take harsher burns from JNSQ's reentry fire and the cockpit is more often than not, brought to the edge of melting.

Earlier images showing less of the Mk2 intake pods.

Edited November 29, 2019 by JadeOfMaar

[gilflo]

Hello guys

Here is my Mercury Shuttle. 508T full weight with more than 26000DV to join Mercury low Orbit from my ISS station

In the hold, there's a Mercury lander able to make the return trip from low orbit and a Mercury rover for a single trip. On the top a survey Satellite to draw a map of Mercury

All this happens in RSS

The Mercury lander is in the back hold which is open for the pic. Technically it never opens and does not need to.

Here is the ISS station, more than 1000T launch 5 parts and assembled in space

You can see a Mercury Shuttle prototype connected

The StratoMaX is the launcher on top of which the Mercury Shuttle is connected to be launched at 48500m and continue to orbit on its own. Its weight for launch is around 1650T. The Mercury Shuttle weight for launch is around 185 T, only 15% fuel needed to join the ISS Space station to refuel before leaving to Mercury.

The StratoMax is filled with 70% fuel and is able to land back on Earth, and if not he is able to land on sea. 20 J61 engines between 2.5 and 3m

StratoMax with Mercury Shuttle on top

Here is a launch test: speed reached for launch is between 4500m/s and 5500m/s. After 5000m/s the StratoMaX is not always able to fly back to base because of the too great distance

As you can see FMRS is wrong, the StratoMaX is not taken in account because the StratoMaX engine as f1st Stage and Mercury Shuttle Engines as 2nd stage as the root piece is the Mercury shuttle

 

 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by gilflo

[DeadJohn]

Here's the Javelin-class Modular Shuttle.

Configurations available for cargo, science, and crew transfer, and combination (cargo+science, cargo+crew, science+crew) by swapping one or both center cargo modules for an OPT J Mobile Lab or Crew Tank.

Built and tested with the JNSQ planet pack (2.7x scale), and Cryogenic Engines mod (which changes OPT engines to run on LH2, generally improving TWR and decreasing total DV)

Performance

Wet mass before cargo: 61 tons
Maximum recommended payload: 36 tons (Jumbo-64 fuel tank)
Maximum Kerbin circular orbit with payload: 600 km
(Science and Crew configurations, without heavy cargo, will likely reach Mun and Minmus, but has yet to be tested)

Handling

Takeoff and landing are very forgiving. This is one of the few spaceplanes I've built that don't need canards. Takeoff is easy because LH2 fuel weighs so little. I land at around 60 m/s and haven't encountered a stall yet.

Ascent profile with maximum load needs careful throttle management to balance electricity usage, intake air, and cockpit heating. Activate Warpjets, liftoff at 80 m/s, do a steep climb to 10 km, as warpjets spool up reduce climb to 15 degrees, reduce throttle to 2/3, climb to 20 km, further reduce climb rate and throttle. Warpjets will flame out at 38 km, continue using ARI-73 to reach orbit.

With lighter loads, ascent is much easier, with nose overheating being the main concern. There's much less need to vary the climb rate, as compared to the 36 ton maximum payload.

Descent is easy despite reentry speeds than can exceed over 4000 m/s (due to JNSQ's scale). SAS radial out, assisted by ample RCS to stay nose high, rapidly bleeds off speed.

Engines: 2x OPT-E Warpjet "S.U.R.G.E.". 2x OPT-E S.C.O.O.P. Rocket ARI-73.

Additional Commentary

Mk2 Expansion Parts:

Mk2 Hypersonic Nosecone: for heat resistance and built-in RCS thrusters on front of warpjets
Mk2 Nosecap: on tail, for heat resistance and RCS
NUK-3 Aerospace Fission Reactor: to power warpjets

B9 Procedural Wings: used for cosmetic reasons, to fill in small gaps between the OPT J body and the Mk2 Hypersonic Nosecone

I tested several different designs while adjusting to the way Cryogenic Engines changes the behavior of OPT engines. Early attempts with other engines required many more fuel tanks to hold all the LH2 needed. The large Warpjets helped to actually reduce craft size; the first 3000 m/s of acceleration consume no fuel.

[JadeOfMaar]

@DeadJohn This plane is absolute sorcery. Short of adding an OP thermal control system I haven't made an OPT spaceplane that can comfortably cruise at 3km/s in JNSQ.