Is Refuelling a SSTO in orbit Cheating?

[kangaroo3505]

I mean If you do refuel is it even considered an ssto? Just wandering

[linuxgurugamer]

1 minute ago, kangaroo3505 said:

I mean If you do refuel is it even considered an ssto? Just wandering

SSTO is Single Stage To Orbit.  Nothing in that description prevents refueling IN ORBIT.  It’s already there.

[KerikBalm]

Not cheating at all, and still SSTO.

My SSTOs don't leave kerbin orbit. They stage to go beyond it.

Edited April 1, 2022 by KerikBalm

[MythicalHeFF]

I’ve refueled SSTOs in orbit a few times

[miklkit]

Or just fly to Minmus and refuel there. 

[darthgently]

22 hours ago, kangaroo3505 said:

I mean If you do refuel is it even considered an ssto? Just wandering

Yes, it is still an SSTO.

SSTO = Single Stage To Orbit.  If you refuel after achieving orbit it still only took a single stage, without refueling, to get to that orbit.

[Gargamel]

And lets get even more pedantic..    It doesn't have to be a spaceplane to be a SSTO.   It just has to achieve orbit using only one stage.   One could make a (some what weak) argument that mode switching engines might constitute 2 different stages. 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Gargamel

[KerikBalm]

1 hour ago, Gargamel said:

 One could make a (some what weak) argument that mode switching engines might constitute 2 different stages. 

I wouldn't accept that argument, as nothing is discarded.

It's not like a rocket (such as an eve SSTO) that uses vectors/a mammoth initially, and then LV-Ns once in thinner air can't be a SSTO, even though it used 2 different engine types.

That's not what is meant by the term stage in rocketry afaik.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Define “cheating”.

To some people, just getting into orbit without needing more than one stage or boosters is cheating because what sort of unfathomable sorcery would be needed to pull off such an impossible feat; to others, using rocket engines that can do more than just on/off and which can be started more than once and in places other than the launchpad, and don’t have to worry about propellant ullaging and boiloff to boot, is cheating because real rockets don’t work like that.

Play KSP the way you want to, don’t let others tell you what’s acceptable or not.

Oh, and by definition an SSTO just has to get to orbit in a single stage- a Kerbal with a jetpack is an SSTO on Minmus. Going anywhere after that is irrelevant, so whether you need to refuel in orbit (as is planned for Starship going to the Moon/Mars) or can fly to somewhere like Minmus to refuel, or can just go anywhere at all using magic Kraken drives exploiting the weirdness in the game’s physics systems, doesn’t matter in the slightest bit. Making an SSTO is the hard bit, anything else after that is a bonus.

[KerikBalm]

3 hours ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

Ro some people, just getting into orbit without needing more than one stage or boosters is cheating because what sort of unfathomable sorcery would be needed to pull off such an impossible feat

[Sarcasm]

Confirmed, playing stock KSP is cheating.

At a minimum, you must play at a 3x scale to not cheat, preferably 6x or higher, and RP-1 or RO or whatever it is called to. And FAR...

All that, otherwise it is cheating

[/Sarcasm]

[Maria Sirona]

Short answer: No.

Long one: Not at all.

[Jcklemme]

On 4/4/2022 at 1:53 PM, KerikBalm said:

[Sarcasm]

Confirmed, playing stock KSP is cheating.

At a minimum, you must play at a 3x scale to not cheat, preferably 6x or higher, and RP-1 or RO or whatever it is called to. And FAR...

All that, otherwise it is cheating

[/Sarcasm]

FAR is cheating.  It makes it WAY easier to build planes and space planes.