Exo's Rubberband and Duct Tape Emporium. SSTOS, Weird Space Ships, and more!

[Exothermos]

Oh, I'm sure I will! I haven't had time to even play the game this week, so I have yet to fiddle with them. Based on the stuff I've seen in videos they do seem to be a little "easy mode". But I haven't been averse to spamming intakes to get results, and I will use these parts with similar abandon. I'm really looking forward to reducing complexity and part count on future designs, and I'm probably going to retrofit older designs as well.

That's an interesting point about the nuke / jet versus runaway weight issues when using the rapiers. When I saw the ISP numbers it seemed likely that Rapiers will be best for LKO missions. Here, total weight and fuel efficiency isn't terribly important. Interplanetary stuff probably will stick to jets / nukes. However it might make sense to switch out some engines in large designs for the rapiers if it is weight saving. For instance on the aeon I could, perhaps, drop the set of aerospikes and a set of jets to be replaced by one set of Rapiers.

We'll see! It's a new frontier and, I think, a new hay day for SSTOs!

Edited December 18, 2013 by Exothermos

[Exothermos]

NEW Assegai Cargo SSTO Added to the Front Page OP!

Here is the 4-SSTO Megadump Post for safe keeping:

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It's another SSTO mega dump! 12/8/2013

To celebrate the current Thread of the Month status, here is about a third of the SSTOs I have in the works (yes, really). These are fully vetted and tested and ready to cra... uh FLY. All these ships have the ability to land in "rough field" conditions. In other words, you don't have to aim at the KSC if you are coming home, and you can easily land on Laythe's small islands.

The first two accomplish this mission with lots of lift. These are mostly meant for Laythe, where fuel saving is important, but they work very well in service around Kerbin too.

The Alouette is a single-man straigt forward SSTO.

Performance is completely over the top, but who is going to complain about that? Rotation speeds are very low for such a high performer (around 35 m/s fully loaded, and even lower when light on fuel) which will allow some soft, well controlled landings on rough terrain.

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The Avocet is a 1+1 mini-shuttle capable of slow conventional landings, as well as vertical landings if that's your flavor of 'adventure' (terror).

It's not quite the hotrod that the Alouette is, but performance is still a few steps beyond "adequate".

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The next two SSTOs were designed with the same aesthetic and design considerations as the crafts in my Tiny SSTO Pack. However, unlike those ships, they are capable of vertical takeoffs and Landings on Kerbin and Laythe. This allows them to land out "in the bush" without too much hassle.

The Plucky Puck is a cute little Egg-shaped SSTO with lots of rocket fuel for it's size.

It seats one Kerbal who can take it to high orbiting space stations with ease.

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The Tiny Taxi is a 5-Kerbal VTOL space shuttle.

It needs full power for vertical takeoff, so don't try anything brave when fully loaded, Maverick.

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And that's it for now! On the way are a couple of larger designs based solely around "looking cool", a few one-trick-ponies with very specific missions, some purely functional stuff, some heavy revisions of older designs to simplify and increase performance, as well as a couple of new heavy lifters of the 10-engined, 400 part variety! Stay tuned!

Because They're pretty; Gratuitous re-entry shots taken during testing.

[KissSh0t]

The Plucky Pluck is best SSTO because Plucky Pluck...

[Exothermos]

Check out my new Pretty, Pointy, and Pretty Pointless Party Pack!

Here is the Old Assegai Post:

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Assegai Cargo SSTO 12/26/2013

We are reaching the final days of this thread's 'Thread of the Month' status, and in celebration I would like to present the Assegai Cargo SSTO.

My main goal in constructing this ship was to haul a decent sized cargo to Low Kerbin Orbit in the quickest, friendliest, and most authoritative way possible with an SSTO spaceplane. This meant using lots of engines! The new RAPIER engine was the coup de gras that made this ship easy to use. In pursuit of this goal, efficiency was thrown out the window. Instead, a rather overbuilt and oversized SSTO with lots of 'oomph' is the result. It is, however, simple as pie to get to orbit, and has lots of Dv left when orbit is achieved. With the payload provided, 1000km+ orbits are easy to attain.

The Assegai screams to orbit like a much smaller SSTO, even when loaded with any payload that fits in the bay. A generic small space station node is included in the download.

Reentry is stable and predictable.

From a payload fraction point of view, there are much more efficient designs on these forums, but this ship is about efficiency as much as a v8 muscle-car is. Much like that muscle-car, this ship is about raw power, having fun, and looking good. If that jiggles your gibbets then try it out!

Tips:

1)Keep ASAS on at all times (it's stable, but has a long moment arm for controls. It's best to not let things get too out-of-line)

2)Flight Dynamics: Rotate at 95km/sec. Initial climb: 50+ degrees to 15km. Begin slow leveling procedure to 29k. Acceleration plateau from 29km to 36km. Shut down engines as needed. When RAPIERs switch modes, close intakes and rotate to 75 degrees until 80km apogee is attained. Burn for orbital insertion at apoapsis.

3)Depending on the mass of your payload, the ship may experience a nose-down tendency in the hypersonic flight zone around 29km. ASAS can handle it, but if it is causing trouble turning off the first bank of engines (group 1) compensates for this tendency, and this is right around the time that engine shutdowns become necessary anyway.

4) This ship is nearly 500 parts with a complicated payload. Turn down your physics if need be.

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Edited March 10, 2014 by Exothermos

[guz667]

I am not always a huge fan of SSTOs because I don't find them terribly useful, but boy! These are pretty and really cool (and on counts carry more than one Kerbal). I may have to acquire some and see what happens!

[Exothermos]

Yeah, there isn't really an argument regarding the usefulness of SSTOs. With no monetary system in the game reusable vehicles are not really worth designing. From a pure efficiency standpoint, as well as ease of piloting, rockets win. In fact, even if money WERE taken into account, I am sure that rockets would still be more cost-effective (as long as engines could be recovered).

That said, there is something about a plane that can lob it's self to orbit that just sparks my imagination. And so the designs will continue to flow

[Exothermos]

Check out my new "Do You Even Lift?" Pack

Here is the Older "Pretty, Pointy, and Pretty Pointless Pack" Post:

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Pretty, Pointy, and Pretty Pointless Party Pack 3/9/2014

I have a tendency to design lots of SSTOs that look pretty darned cool, but don't really DO enough to deserve their own release. I have decided to put them all together in one download for those who wish to mess around with them.

All these SSTOs are straight forward 'get to orbit' style crafts whose sole purpose is to do so looking great. There are 8 total planes, four of which are new designs, and 4 are older designs rebuilt to take advantage of RAPIER technology.

First on deck is the largest ship in the pack,The Arete.

It is designed to look like an amalgam of the proposals for the x-30 SSTO competition.

Because of it's odd under-surface shape, I was not able to put landing gear near the Center of Mass without things looking ridiculous.

This results in a take-off run that uses the whole runway. It's no biggie, just throttle up to 75% or so and apply gentle back pressure, and she will lift-off gently once the runway ends. Otherwise, all flight dynamics are predictable and straight-forward.

Next is The Adder, another ship designed with cues from real-world counterparts.

This basic wedge design echoes the design of the x-34 hypersonic wave rider prototype.

It is very responsive and performs well in all regimes.

The Atlantis is a small Space Shuttle lookalike in SSTO form.

Those who want less exotic looking designs should find something to like in this ship. Performance is very good in all regimes, and is capable of 250km rendezvous.

The final New design is The Agama.

It is a simple, smaller SSTO designed around RAPIER engines. It is a little less "airhoggy" than the other designs, but still has plenty of fuel in orbit.

The remaining 4 designs should be familiar to those who follow this thread.

The Arrow received RAPIERs instead of aerospikes for a pleasing jump in performance. This is an early design for me and I left many of the quirks in for nostalgia's sake.

The Accipiter also received a RAPIER, and it has completely transformed the aircraft. I always thought it looked cool, but now it performs too.

The Agilus had an engine swap. It now sports 2 Turbojets and 1 Nuke, instead of 2 nukes and one Jet. This has also greatly improved the craft.

The Accel has had some wing re-arrangement to reduce its weird ultra-stability in the roll axis. It is somewhat improved.

There is also a bonus SSTO that followers of the SSTO Showcase Thread may recognize. Have fun!

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Edited May 22, 2014 by Exothermos
Grammar 'n stuff

[Blue]

O Grand Master Exothermal The Magnificent

May you live long!

I beseech thee for wisdom:

I have created this small SSTO after much trying, and have managed to put it into orbit, as well as build it sturdy and true, so that it may also fly well and land, in-atmosphere. I call it the Hawk.

What advice can you give me for scaling it up to carry 3 kerbals? I would like to keep it as compact as possible, but as you can see with the Hawk, it uses a Rapier and has very few intersected parts. (The RCS tank, battery, a light, the rudder, and a small probe is hidden inside one fuel tank.) I would like to use a Rapier on this larger successor as well.

[Mesklin]

What advice can you give me for scaling it up to carry 3 kerbals?

You can place 2 Mk1 pod on both sides of body, like on pictures

Second variant I like more, it also has additional fuel

[NKL]

Heyhey, NOW I understand why you even needed the plane-engine pod ! Aurochs rochs !

[Exothermos]

O Grand Master Exothermal The Magnificent

May you live long!

I beseech thee for wisdom:

I have created this small SSTO after much trying, and have managed to put it into orbit, as well as build it sturdy and true, so that it may also fly well and land, in-atmosphere. I call it the Hawk.

http://i.imgur.com/hV336nF.jpg

What advice can you give me for scaling it up to carry 3 kerbals? I would like to keep it as compact as possible, but as you can see with the Hawk, it uses a Rapier and has very few intersected parts. (The RCS tank, battery, a light, the rudder, and a small probe is hidden inside one fuel tank.) I would like to use a Rapier on this larger successor as well.

Haha, this made me laugh!

Mesklin's solutions are pretty great, actually. They avoid too much clipping / intersecting. Also take a look at what I did with the Tiny Taxi, you can cram a lot kerbal-carrying capacity with the little lander cans.

The cans are very light, but the method I used is completely "clippy" and seems "cheaty" if you are clipping through fuel cans (It never really bothered me as anyone can see!).

on a simple little SSTO it would look like this, I guess

Heyhey, NOW I understand why you even needed the plane-engine pod ! Aurochs rochs !

Thanks! glad you like it. Yeah that ugly little bonus plane came about after crashing the early iterations of the Aurochs over and over. I just wanted to get to space! . The point of the pods was I was trying to cram as much engine power and intakes into as small of a space as possible. I wanted to avoid the huge ballooning of dimensions and parts that happens when you are designing a heavy lift SSTO. Being able to tweak the fuel ratios in the tanks also helps tremendously. THANKS SQUAD! When you concentrate all the important bits (by clipping the *#%$ out of everything) you can then just add wing surfaces until the plane performs. A nice bonus is that it looks pretty darned cool too!

BTW I am on a little break from SSTO design, as I am delving deep into all these beautiful environemental mods that have been released lately. They are encouraging me to actually play the game and revisit a lot of the bodies. The SPH will soon beckon, i'm sure.

[Blue]

Took your advice, and modified the Hawk into the Super-Hawk. Thanks, Mesklin and Exo!

(I pretend the lengthened fuel tank is actually representative of a larger command pod and that all three kerbals are still up at the front, and the enlarged engine space at the back is where the extra fuel goes.)

I also tried a variant connecting the engine to the fuel tank via a docking port. I hoped to make the engines interchangeable/swappable using a Claw and a Nuke engine w/ docking port, but the wings are too close together to let the engine pop in or out reliably. If I made the wings a little farther apart it might work, but I don't think it's a high enough priority for me to experiment with that.

Just an idea, throwing it out there.

Edited May 22, 2014 by Blue

[Exothermos]

Check out my new "Replicraft Pack" on the first page.

Here is the Older "Do You Even Lift?" Post:

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"BRO, DO YOU EVEN LIFT?" 5/3/2014

Here are 3 SSTO space planes for lifting your junk to space!

2 of them are really pretty, the third is, well... unconventional.

First up is the Aurochs.

It is a heavy-lift SSTO capable of orbiting one big jumbo-64 tank (and maybe a little more, but not much.)

It will take a long slog to get to orbit with an orange can, I've not given it a silly amount of engines, so the part count is relatively low for a large craft. However, that does result in a shallow climb up to the speed run plateau at 30k.

To load your cargo grab the top Beam at the arrow. The lid will pop-off for easier placement. Reattach with no symmetry, and surface-attach mode (the circle).

This design was mostly an exercise in aesthetics, but it resulted in a useful spaceplane.

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Next is the Ankaa.

It was designed around lifting the FL-T800, but can lift anything unclipped that will fit in the bay.. Here it is during a dead-weight test.

I've also lifted other things with it. I won't attest to the feasibility of my payloads, but the plane works great! X)

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Finally, here is the Avant.

So yeah, it looks like that... The cargo is before the cockpit. I just wanted to try something weird.

But it works really well! and will lift a small amount. Here is another dead weight payload test.

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Thanks for looking.

Let me know if you have any questions on how to fly them and Enjoy!

[O-Doc]

Good to see you back and building. My Erinyes was heavily influenced by your designs.

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[Vagani]

These are great keep it up

[Exothermos]

My Erinyes was heavily influenced by your designs.

That would explain why I LOVE it. It kinda reminds me of this blast from the past:

[Redrobin]

Could we get some new planes?

[Exothermos]

Haven't had time lately. My 0.25 install is barely touched!

...soon

I've come to the sad realization that 0.25 broke every plane i made. Some will need small fixes, Others are gonners. Oh well, time for fresh stuff!

[Guest Space Cowboy]

Have you got "#5" in your signature flying in 1.0 Exo? Would like to fly it if possible.