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Pegasus SSTO - inspired by the McDonnell Douglas DC-X Delta Clipper


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The Pegasus Clipper is capable of transporting a crew of seven to LKO with 1km/sec of delta-V in reserve. The fully reusable single-stage to orbit craft launches and lands vertically.

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Download the .craft file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14176520/Pegasus%20Clipper%20C.craft

Required mods: NovaPunch and BobCat HOME

Recommended mod: TAC Fuel Balancer

Notes:

A 3.75m HOME fuel tank is tucked away in the hollow void above the engine. You can access that tank for refueling by zooming your viewpoint inside the tail of the ship, but it's easier to pump fuel into it with the Fuel Balancer mod.

An ASAS is installed in a similar void higher up. It can be swapped for an Avionics Package if smoother control during landing is desired.

Two RTGs are mounted inside the engine bay, just above the RCS monoprop bottles.

Action Group #1 toggles the engine.

Action Group #7 toggles the ladders.

With refueling in LKO, the craft can even reach Duna and return to Kerbin: http://imgur.com/a/rvkwl#0

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She's something of a gas-guzzler on long interplanetary flights, though.

Edited by RoboRay
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1km/s delta-v reserve... what is the isp of those mod rockets? 'Cause that sounds high. But it looks good. I might try to build something similar with stock parts, always liked the Delta-clipper concept.

Rune. I'm not calling you a cheat, BTW. I just like playing with vanilla performance.

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The engine is roughly balanced with the Mainsail. Thrust is a little higher at 1800, but the engine also weighs a lot more at 10 tons. Atmospheric Isp is even worse than the Mainsail at a terrible 265 seconds, but vacuum Isp is better at 375s.

That last one may be a tiny bit high, but considering that the LV-T30 is 370 secs and this engine is eight times as massive, it's not completely unreasonable.

As to the reserve fuel, the craft weighs in at 107 tons wet and 22 tons dry, so that's a little better than the usual 6:1 ratio I get with most of my rocket designs. While I'm giving up the gains from staging, I'm also never lifting any dead weight from upper stage motors, decouplers, or other redundant parts. No parachutes or other recovery equipment, either, which improves the delta-V by a measurable amount.

And remember, you do need to save enough fuel to land.

Edited by RoboRay
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I remember you posting the first iteration of this on Reddit and I fell in love with it. I was one of the few that liked the chutes. This looks to be a better version, and I'll try it first chance I get. One question. Will this achieve orbit and land back on Kerbin without need of refueling?

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  Rune said:
1km/s delta-v reserve... what is the isp of those mod rockets? 'Cause that sounds high. But it looks good. I might try to build something similar with stock parts, always liked the Delta-clipper concept.

Rune. I'm not calling you a cheat, BTW. I just like playing with vanilla performance.

Stock version.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25849-0-19-1-Falcon-Rocket-SSTO

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  Climberfx said:

Hehe, thanks, but I don't usually play with other people's crafts. I know, no reason not to do it. But I like the building part of this game so much, if I like a concept I usually reverse-engineer it and build my own thing.

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  Rune said:
Hehe, thanks, but I don't usually play with other people's crafts. I know, no reason not to do it. But I like the building part of this game so much, if I like a concept I usually reverse-engineer it and build my own thing.

I only use mine too. rsrsrsr.

But i like to see what others do, and show mine.

I see you guys are talking about a SSTO Rocket, so...

;)

By the way, i'm building another from the series STAR, for 5 Kerbin's, like these, but Hybrid.

I see the future of space travels in Rocket/Jet Ships. They are more efficient, economic and powerful. At least in the game. But they already are developing a jet to space travels, that show me they doing similar ways in real life...

By the way, your SSTO Rocket is very pretty and efficient Roboray!

:D

Edited by Climberfx
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I do the same thing... look at pictures of other people's designs and figure out how to incorporate the best aspects into my own designs. :)

  Quote
Will this achieve orbit and land back on Kerbin without need of refueling?

Yes, it has sufficient fuel to launch, make a rendezvous anywhere in LKO, deorbit and conduct a powered landing on Kerbin without taking on more fuel in-flight. You only need to refuel if you're taking it beyond LKO. I haven't really paid attention, but I'm probably consuming 300m/sec or so getting back down to the ground. The atmosphere will provide most of the necessary deceleration.

EDIT: Yeah, that's probably about right... maybe 100m/sec for the deorbit, less than 150m/sec to slow from terminal velocity a few hundred meters above the ground and another 50-75m/sec for actually setting it down. I'd plan to hold 500m/sec in reserve for the landing process, though, in case of problems.

Edited by RoboRay
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