My first working shuttle orbiter

[Trekky0623]

Took a long time to make this. The shuttle really is an incredibly complex machine.

The main problems I faced were balance issues. I'm attaching a huge craft to the side of a rocket or fuel tank, so obviously there are going to be some balance issues. After experimenting with SRBs a little, I scrapped them deeming them too complicated to add to an already complex project. So instead, the orbiter is attached to the side of a rocket. Another thing about balance is that as the external fuel tank uses fuel, the weight balance changes, meaning we have to change the net force on the craft. Normally, I'd reduce the power on the rocket the shuttle is riding on. However, this is Kerbal and we can't do that, so instead there are side mounted rockets that are ejected as the external fuel tank uses fuel. I think I was able to get it balanced without making it too complex.

All right, enough talk. Here she is:

The back, showing the rockets that will be discarded.

So the point of this was to show that you can make a simple orbiter in Kerbal Space Program without resorting to ridiculously huge contraptions. I might post a video later.

Edited August 11, 2012 by sal_vager
Multiposting

[sal_vager]

Trekky0623, in future if you want to add more stuff to your original post, remember you can edit it, the edit button is just below and to the right of each of your posts

[Trekky0623]

Trekky0623, in future if you want to add more stuff to your original post, remember you can edit it, the edit button is just below and to the right of each of your posts

Sorry. It told me I could only have five images the first time, so I split them up that way.