[Stock] VTOL SSTO with capabilities to land on any planet an return to orbit

[Broco]

Inspired by Levelords really awesome spaceplane which is capable to land and return from Kerbin and Laythe (tried it - it works) I wanted to build a spaceplane which is capable of doing so on ANY planet (except Jool and Eve) or moon but I terribly failed. I manage to get into orbit from Kerbin but landing on Kerbin and returning to orbit (after refueling of course) was too hard for me.

So long story short:

Rules:

1. The craft must be capable of landing on any planet (except Jool and Eve) or moon and return to orbit on its own (single stage), no decoupling allowed.

2. Just stock parts. No mods allowed.

3. All engines allowed.

4. The ship is allowed to refuel in orbit and dock to other ships once in space to get transported to other planets/moons. The landing (including leaving the stable orbit) and return to stable orbit must be performed alone however.

5. Must be a manned craft.

6. Pictures or videos are mandatory.

7. If it looks cool you are my hero.

8. No parachutes aka 100% reusable.

If this was achieved before I'm very sorry, didn't find exactly this task in the current version.

Edited April 25, 2013 by Broco

[tavert]

Eve is a killer, no oxygen so SSTO is basically impossible. I think several people have tried rocket-planes with drop tanks before, but none successfully yet as far as I'm aware.

[Broco]

Ok, forget about Eve...

[M5000]

8. No parachutes aka 100% reusable.

Parachutes do not make a craft one-use-only, if it's a manned craft, the Kerbal on board can re-pack the chutes for later use...

[Climberfx]

If you gonna change the rules to make this challenge possible, change it in the first topic announcement.

But i will say that your "Space Plane SSTO VTOL" will need to be all Rocket. No Jets. And will need to land basically vertical. So, it will convert into an Rocket Only SSTO with wings.

[Broco]

Parachutes do not make a craft one-use-only, if it's a manned craft, the Kerbal on board can re-pack the chutes for later use...

He can? Didn't even know that until now :-D

If you gonna change the rules to make this challenge possible, change it in the first topic announcement.

But i will say that your "Space Plane SSTO VTOL" will need to be all Rocket. No Jets. And will need to land basically vertical. So, it will convert into an Rocket Only SSTO with wings.

Done, sorry.

[Climberfx]

Cool...

Not even MechJeb is allowed?

This will be hard, and i think the models will be more rockets then planes, because the no atmosphere situations...

And probably Rocket only, if is possible.

Because i don't know yet how to accomplish this Challenge.

But, good luck all!

I will not say impossible, but is near that.

Until one guy do it.

Edited April 25, 2013 by Climberfx

[tavert]

Tylo will also be very difficult to do single-stage, and any wings will be purely decorative. Scott Manley had a great little lander at the end of his "Tylo or Bust" series (

) that did the trick, but it's not very spaceplane-y.

[Chozo Nomad]

Macey Dean Has gotten pretty close to an interplanetary SSTO. He just couldn't get it back.

[foamyesque]

Wait, refueling is allowed and you don't need to make it land on Eve?

Tylo'd be the hardest, I suspect. All the other vacuum planets have low enough dV-to-orbit requirements that you ought to be able to land and lift off with anything that can SSTO from Kerbin. Laythe and Duna allow parachute assistance to chop the landing dV requirements way down.

I'd probably build a larger-scale version of this:

'cause spaceplanes are fun and all but rockets are just plain more efficient on 99% of the things in the game.

[tavert]

Something like Stochasty's Nukjet (

) might work, though you'd need to fit it for vertical landing on airless bodies.

[bsalis]

I already did this for another challenge. See post #33 and #34...

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25204-Kerbal-Grasshopper-%28VTVL%29?p=317152&viewfull=1#post317152

I havn't taken it interplanetary, but this should get it pretty much anywhere...

Edited April 26, 2013 by bsalis

[Climberfx]

Hey guys, you are aware that for Tylo you will need around 6000 m/s of dV in the ship? 3000 m/s for land, plus 3000 m/s to 100 km orbit.

So, nether these posts have that yet...

I just test, and retest, and check again. Mechjeb, and manually. in sort of high to be more precise...

Need a little less then 6000 m/s but i round that for maneuvers.

I don't like to take nothing from anyone, but lets do the Challenge Right!

[Sardu]

Tylo will also be very difficult to do single-stage, and any wings will be purely decorative. Scott Manley had a great little lander at the end of his "Tylo or Bust" series (

) that did the trick, but it's not very spaceplane-y.

yeah and scott used mods to do what he did in those vids...

[Sardu]

He can? Didn't even know that until now :-D

Done, sorry.

Its an assumption we can make if we want to ... in reality pilots are trained to use their 'chutes as a temporary means to make shelter when they dont expect hostiles..when they do then they are trained to dispose of it as readily as possible...they are not trained to repack the 'chute...

[Broco]

@ bsalis: Did you manage to land it on tylo and return to orbit?

Same with Kerbin/Laythe?

If so, post pics and you are the lucky winner. It looks awesome already, nicely done.

This challange is more like a proof-of-concept to me so if it's possible and you have done it, we need to know

[bsalis]

@ bsalis: Did you manage to land it on tylo and return to orbit?

Um, no. Did Levelords?

Tylo landing and re-orbit is a tall order.

IMO simply building a jet-based VTOL SSTO is significant achievement itself.

[Broco]

Um, no. Did Levelords?

I don't think so. He posted a pic from his craft on Duna (and I don't know how he did that with a jet engine) but he didn't build his craft to participate in this challenge, he just built a really awesome VTOL SSTO.

IMO simply building a jet-based VTOL SSTO is significant achievement itself.

Indeed, it is. But why don't go any further?

I know it's tough, maybe impossible but I'll try anything to achieve it.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Broco

[Hooligan Labs]

Define "land"?

Could I touch Tylo with my landing wheels while going 2000 km/s and still get credit?

[Broco]

Define "land"?

Could I touch Tylo with my landing wheels while going 2000 km/s and still get credit?

That would be to easy :-D

No, landing means standing still with the ability for EVA.

But I still would like to see you touching Tylo's surface with 2000 km/s (which is 2,000,000 m/s, which is ~0,67% of c).

Edited April 26, 2013 by Broco

[lump]

If this includes rockets then i have an SSTO that i've taken to Duna and back, with good enough piloting it can get back even from Duna's surface (i usually bring a lander/payload along), if it does have to be a plane then thats some trouble.

The largest of my interplanetary SSTOs, it can get to orbit with a 10 tonne payload and send it to most of the planets, stripped down it can get to Jool and back on a good day, but i carries enough fuel to fully refuel my smallest SSTO.

This SSTO is my most used, it creates less lag than the previous and can lift exactly half the payload much the same distance, as you can see i sent a

Duna colony off with it.

My new, very experimental SSTO, it is the smallest i can make it while still being able to go to the close planets and back, this is the SSTO the Goliath can refuel in one! if your planning on landing it without refueling it you may want to land on Gilly as the rest take a lot of fuel, risking a no return scenario, I'm trying to make a more pretty one of these due to the low part count letting me play around with it a lot.

[Hooligan Labs]

That would be to easy :-D

No, landing means standing still with the ability for EVA.

But I still would like to see you touching Tylo's surface with 2000 km/s (which is 2,000,000 m/s, which is ~0,67% of c).

Oops, I did not mean to imply near-relativistic effects.

[tavert]

yeah and scott used mods to do what he did in those vids...

Just MechJeb for that one. That design is absolutely flyable manually, the only thing I've ever seen land on Tylo and return to orbit without staging.

lump, if you refueled any of your SSTO's in Tylo orbit, would they be able to land and return? I'm pretty sure they'd have the delta-V to do it, but maybe not the TWR.

[Climberfx]

I'm just trying a almost 6000 m/s dV rocket SSTO on Tylo right now. Will need some more time...

If it success, i will post here...

[magnemoe]

Hey guys, you are aware that for Tylo you will need around 6000 m/s of dV in the ship? 3000 m/s for land, plus 3000 m/s to 100 km orbit.

So, nether these posts have that yet...

I just test, and retest, and check again. Mechjeb, and manually. in sort of high to be more precise...

Need a little less then 6000 m/s but i round that for maneuvers.

I don't like to take nothing from anyone, but lets do the Challenge Right!

Tylo would be an serious challenge. harder than Kerbin. However I wonder if an combination of nuclear and chemical engines would be an good idea. Use both nuclear and chemical for last part of landing. and first part of takeoff, run only nuclear the rest of the time.

And yes you do not need an TWR of 1 then starting to deorbit, just on the final part.