Is anyone doing things impressive?

[EliteGuy3]

On November 15, 2016 at 8:54 PM, Ultimate Steve said:

Bradley Whistance did an SSTO to Eve and back.

Yes, you read that correctly. SSTO TO EVE AND BACK.

No, seriously.

OK, THAT WAS AMAZING! That's the first time I've even seen a STOCK SSTO to Eve

[Norcalplanner]

On 11/15/2016 at 7:43 PM, Starman4308 said:

*6.4x Mun isn't quite as bad as stock Tylo, but it isn't too far from stock Tylo either.

I shudder to think of what a 6.4x Tylo would be like. Establishing a base on that would be EPIC.

[Ultimate Steve]

42 minutes ago, Norcalplanner said:

I shudder to think of what a 6.4x Tylo would be like. Establishing a base on that would be EPIC.

Well, if you want to go super lightweight, then you can theoretically make a super lightweight Tylo lander, if you minimalize a lot. Normally when people think of Tylo landers they think of huge 20+ ton beasts when really you can get a Kerbal there and back for less than two tons (see my sig) and if you're really talented, as little as one ton. So in theory a minimalist 6.4x Tylo lander won't be tremendous, just huge. Never played with 6.4x before, so I may be wrong, but a lander might be doable in less than 20 tons.

[Starman4308]

28 minutes ago, Norcalplanner said:

I shudder to think of what a 6.4x Tylo would be like. Establishing a base on that would be EPIC.

On tinkering about in the VAB with MechJeb, I am surprised to find that a trimodal LV-N running a hydrolox mixture can plausibly take off and land on Tylo without refueling. Nothing else really quite cuts it; pure hydrogen nuclear-thermal rockets have poor TWR and very low propellant density, and while the electrical engines from Near Future seemed promising, that lasted right up until I included reactors powerful enough to run those engines.

[Norcalplanner]

3 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Well, if you want to go super lightweight, then you can theoretically make a super lightweight Tylo lander, if you minimalize a lot. Normally when people think of Tylo landers they think of huge 20+ ton beasts when really you can get a Kerbal there and back for less than two tons (see my sig) and if you're really talented, as little as one ton. So in theory a minimalist 6.4x Tylo lander won't be tremendous, just huge. Never played with 6.4x before, so I may be wrong, but a lander might be doable in less than 20 tons.

My quick back-of-the envelope calculation says that a craft would need need 7,500 m/s or so of delta V to land on Tylo, and then another 7,500 m/s to get back into orbit.  Probably next to impossible with stock parts, but could be doable with a staged lander using RO or SMURFF.

[NSEP]

I made large reusable VTOL SSTO's that dont look ridicilous and stupid.

A smaller one:

 The smallest one: