New Ideas

[technus]

I had been thinking about the real human space programs. mainly about NASA (as far as I know, they are the most active) and how the last space shuttle retired recently. I thought about the concept (reusable cargo ship) and that makes sense. The method that they used does not.

space shuttle

My proof is that I (and I’m not the only one) tried to make the space shuttle in KSP (not the cargo bay, just the basic design) and it was NOT easy. First of all. the boosters are on the front (bottom) and so the shuttle flies upside down. Second. Because of this, the engines are at an angle, making the shuttle harder to fly. (I’m not sure if they can rotate or not, I don’t know anyone who worked on it). And last. If NASA went through the trouble of saving even the skeleton of the SRBs (solid boosters) or the fuel tank, they would save MILLIONS of dollars on every launch. The majority (sort of) of the shuttle isn’t reused. To give credit where it’s due, the shuttle is the most reusable spaceship we have right now. But there has to be a better way.

I started working in KSP, and this is my result.

The thing got into space with fuel to spare (not much though)

mission control tricked bill into checking out the engine:D (*note* this is MUCH smaller than the real space shuttle)

just heading back home...

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand…

SUCCESS!!!

please comment on any thoughts you had while reading this (only the ones related to it please).

[Vanamonde]

How does it handle with no control surfaces in the vertical plane?

[Konnor]

If NASA went through the trouble of saving even the skeleton of the SRBs

They did. SRBs had parachutes and were recovered after launch. The only thing that could not be reused was the fuel tank, which is, as far as I know, not the most complicated or expensive part of a mission.

[Geschosskopf]

They did. SRBs had parachutes and were recovered after launch. The only thing that could not be reused was the fuel tank, which is, as far as I know, not the most complicated or expensive part of a mission

Actually, they never reused any SRBs. After being burned, then smashed into the water (they didn't have enough chutes to land softly), then immersed in salt water, they were in no state to be refurbished. Thus, the whole reusable SRB thing was shelved very early in the program, and Challenger blowing up put the final kibosh on any attempt to re-engineer it. And IIRC, because of this, at some point they took the chutes out of the SRBs to save weight for more payload.

The tank was also originally intended for reuse. There were all sorts of plans to use them as orbital fuel stations or even modify them into space station components. This is why they were originally painted white. But all this proved to be impractical so they gave up on it, decided the tank was expendable, and stopped painting it, again to save weight.