So: I built a Space Shuttle

[foamyesque]

Without using custom-purpose mods. Mods used: FAR, MechJeb, pWings.

EDIT: Newer, bigger version here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/45231-So-I-built-a-Space-Shuttle?p=585990&viewfull=1#post585990

Need to work on that last piece.

Edited August 11, 2013 by foamyesque

[Fiddlestyx]

But can it carry payloads into orbit?

[foamyesque]

But can it carry payloads into orbit?

Not at present. I've been thinking about how to do that, but I suspect I'll need a cargo bay part to make FAR happy.

[BostLabs]

But can it carry payloads into orbit?

Oh come on. Can't you give him points for what he did? It won't blend an iPhone either. LOL!

Nice job Foamy! Looks like you angled the rear engines on 3 different axis?

I like the last bit.

Edited August 8, 2013 by BostLabs

[Templar Knight]

Awesome! I've tried to make a space shuttle a couple times, but failed horribly. lol

[Rhyunix]

Not that bad! I also have tried... and failed

[mellojoe]

How is this?

I tried to do it without using engines on the Orange Tank, but it kept flipping uncontrollably. Is FAR that much of a difference that it keeps it stable? Is this possible without FAR?

[Fiddlestyx]

Oh come on. Can't you give him points for what he did?

I meant no disrespect to the OP (or any towards you), I was just curious if it could as I have been trying unsuccessfully to make a stock shuttle that can carry payloads.

[Apollo1391]

How is this?

I tried to do it without using engines on the Orange Tank, but it kept flipping uncontrollably. Is FAR that much of a difference that it keeps it stable? Is this possible without FAR?

same thing happens to me

[NinpoFox]

That thing is really cool. Keep up the good work.

[BostLabs]

I meant no disrespect to the OP (or any towards you), I was just curious if it could as I have been trying unsuccessfully to make a stock shuttle that can carry payloads.

Ahh! I see, I misunderstood. Hard to tell snarky comments from legitimate questions sometimes.

No harm, no foul. I'm sorry for jumping you. Carry on.

[Merinsan]

I've tried this before, and consistently failed, thus you must be some kind of freaky genius.

Well done!

[foamyesque]

Oh come on. Can't you give him points for what he did? It won't blend an iPhone either. LOL!

Nice job Foamy! Looks like you angled the rear engines on 3 different axis?

I like the last bit.

Yeah, there's three sets of rear engines: The lower two large radials, mirror symmetry, the upper large radial, 1x symmetry, and the two red radials in the middle. The two sets of large radials are heavily angled, and given how they were placed may not be identical, but they're close; they're all around 15 or 20 degrees off axis, if I recall correctly. The red radials are inline with the CoM to act as an orbital manouvering system post-tank jettison, since without the tank shifting the CoM up and out the large radials can only thrust at about 5% before they saturate the pod's control authority and cause a spin. In addition, MJ does not handle angled engines well for orbit manouvering.

How is this?

I tried to do it without using engines on the Orange Tank, but it kept flipping uncontrollably. Is FAR that much of a difference that it keeps it stable? Is this possible without FAR?

I haven't flown without FAR on in quite some time, so I'm not sure. FAR's biggest contributions aren't to launch stability, I don't think; it is mostly in reducing the overall dV to orbit and better glider dynamics that affect this ship, I believe.

Getting the thrust to go directly through the CoM of the asymmetrical stack was the trick, and it took a fair bit of trial and error to nail the configuration down. Simply moving the solid boosters up or down can make it flip uncontrollably.

[foamyesque]

I meant no disrespect to the OP (or any towards you), I was just curious if it could as I have been trying unsuccessfully to make a stock shuttle that can carry payloads.

That thing is really cool. Keep up the good work.

Well, after my successful proof of concept earlier, I upscaled. Took some more mod parts, though: The blue tub is an Ioncross Waste Recycler, I've got a B9 cargo bay (and RCS tank near the back), and I upscaled two things: a Rockomax BACC booster to have eight times the fuel (x2 larger in each dimension, makes it 2.5m) and quadruple the thrust (hence a longer burn time); and C7's small landing gear (also doubled) became large landing gear.

[SkyHook]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/28510-The-Shuttle-Discussion-Forum%21/page8?highlight=shuttle+discussion

The thread above was created with the specific intent of being a place to discuss shuttles, their design, and troubleshooting them. Feel free to hop on over and post your designs there as well!

[Captain Sierra]

Wow, never seen that done before without custom mods. I can make a shuttle but I can't do a launch that is realistic. There is no way I can get mine to launch with just a giant fuel tank and some SRBs.

[Merinsan]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/28510-The-Shuttle-Discussion-Forum%21/page8?highlight=shuttle+discussion

The thread above was created with the specific intent of being a place to discuss shuttles, their design, and troubleshooting them. Feel free to hop on over and post your designs there as well!

Too bad it got closed for being necroed.

[katateochi]

Good job with the shuttle man. I've been trying that recently and it's not gone well, my problem is maintaining balance once the SRB's shut off. What's your trick for that?

[esinohio]

I thought the design was very creative! Using those one man pods in the body was clever. Like a small mini "crew deck" of sorts. How was the decent? Easy to control? From the pictures it looks like it's smooth as silk.

[foamyesque]

Good job with the shuttle man. I've been trying that recently and it's not gone well, my problem is maintaining balance once the SRB's shut off. What's your trick for that?

Very, very careful positioning of the main fuel tank and main shuttle engines. It's aided by how I built the tank stack; the decoupler for it is on the middle orange tank, then I added the top and bottom ones. This results in the top tank and the bottom tank draining simultaneously, before the middle tank does, keeping the tank's CoM essentially the same. It moves forward towards the orbiter as the tank lightens, but that's within the gimbal range of the Poodles to compensate for.

EDIT:

The balance is precise enough that going from 2 red radials to 4 red radials for my OMS (which I'd like to do for the big shuttle, to aid my TWR post-booster shutdown) pulls the thrust vector far enough out that it becomes uncontrollable at points. Likewise, orientation-- I'm using gravity to assist stabilization. Changing the orientation by 180 degrees results in a failure to reach orbit.

I thought the design was very creative! Using those one man pods in the body was clever. Like a small mini "crew deck" of sorts. How was the decent? Easy to control? From the pictures it looks like it's smooth as silk.

I basically just told MJ to hold a 90 heading and 45 pitch and let it drop. Put the nose down at around 700m/s and switched to gliding. I had some hairy moments dropping through Mach 1 and not as much pitch-up authority as I wanted-- it was pretty twitchy in roll and yaw but very stable in pitch-- but I managed.

Now I'm going to try dropping the big'un.

Edited August 11, 2013 by foamyesque

[MarkusA380]

Mods... MODS.... HAAAAATEEEEE!!!!!

Why does everyone use mods?

Its like being proud of cheating...

[foamyesque]

Alrighty!

After some wing redesigns (turned out the last one couldn't pitch up) and a reworking of the OMS (and the necessary rebalancing!) I present to you an entire Space Shuttle mission from liftoff to landing.

[mellojoe]

*applaud*

BRILLIANT!

Now, tell me, my good man, what in Hades is this:

and where, oh where, in all of Kerbin, did you find such a thing?

[AlamoVampire]

to enhance what SQUAD has yet to give us or in some cases to make it so we can actually do things we other wise could not do. like for me, I use mechjeb to dock, other wise i would just be a fuel wasting ballistic missile sending poor kerbonauts to orbit eternally

[foamyesque]

*applaud*

BRILLIANT!

Now, tell me, my good man, what in Hades is this:

and where, oh where, in all of Kerbin, did you find such a thing?

Which specific "this" are you referring to? The antenna and dish are from RemoteTech. The wings on the orbiter are DJY's procedural wings. The blue-coloured thing is an Ioncross Waste Management system. The cargo bay comes from B9. The landing gear are a personal rescaling of the stock landing gear.