Is a side-mount payload possible?

[llamatoes]

As far as I can tell, no, as ASAS does not compensate for a really off center of mass, and the engines we have to work with have quite Gimbal ranges.

As far as I can tell, making a shuttle make orbit is a task for those with more skill than me (I can dock, land, design a jet that can circumnavigate kerbin, and travel interplanetary). The lift factors make this really hard.

Feel free to post designs you come up with!

[EndlessWaves]

An off-centre rocket does require wasting lots of propellant sideways to keep it balanced, it's probably possible stock with sufficient RCS but very inefficient.

On the other hand if what you're really after is an asymmetric rocket then that's perfectly possible, as long as your mass and thrust distribution stay the same (i.e. you need to drain fuel from the shuttle at the same percentage rate as from the outer fuel tanks).

[llamatoes]

Thats not really what I mean, I may try to have an-auto gravity turn

[Flixxbeatz]

it is actually possible in-game. just ask me.

[Zephram Kerman]

Several months ago, I got pretty close to a flyable space shuttle with stock parts. The only reason it was impossible (at the time) was for lack of tilting parts, which we can now do. I should revisit the idea sometime, but it's far down on my list right now.

Anyway, the trick to it is to angle the SSME nozzles outwards a bit, so that their thrust vector is through the CoM. The tricky part is that CoM keeps moving around as parts jettison. So it might be necessary to alter the engine gimbal range.

[llamatoes]

Well, if Gimbals were wider, and ASAS would go away from center of mass would make it quite easier

[Giggleplex777]

I lost the thread, but I made a rocket just like the SDHLV:

Can put a small probe lander on the moon.

[llamatoes]

Dayum son, Although I can see you did mount the engines to the side.

[Giggleplex777]

Dayum son, Although I can see you did mount the engines to the side.

Isn't that how the SDHLV is supposed to look like? Well, at least it has pretty much the same flight sequence as the SDHLV though.

Edited April 19, 2013 by Giggleplex777

[llamatoes]

That is how it works, thats what I mean.