Do you use SpaceShuttles??

[xzxvrx]

Space shuttles look awesome and you feel like a boss when flying one,especially when it is stock ans has functional doors. They are a real design challenge.

If you are interested, here is the thread for my best one yet- http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/62909-Kerbal-Transportation-System-%28Space-shuttle%29-Construction (ignore the inactivity, I am hoping to resume construction tonight), I am probably going to make it available for dowload, but the only real problem is the high part count.

[Aragosnat]

I prefur SSTO's or disposable rockets. As they are possable to build without mods.

[SuperWeegee4000]

I would if I could.

[Giggleplex777]

I've used Space Shuttles for:

Launching Jool Probes;

Sending Crew to space stations;

Launching Duna rovers;

Launching Eve landers and orbiters;

Launching satellite clusters;

Being used as a orbital lab;

And sending memorials to orbit.

[CalculusWarrior]

Giggleplex, that shuttle is amazing. Congrats!

Meself, I've built a little Dream Chaser-esque crew transport vehicle which generally is used to transport crew to interplanetary starships:

Edited February 1, 2014 by CalculusWarrior

[Javster]

I usually use a plane with a huge KW Rocketry booster underneath. That is my shuttle.

[jfull]

I use stuff like this for transferring crew to and from orbit.

Easy to launch, easy to land

[Woopert]

Giggleplex does indeed prove that space shuttles can serve a purpose. They're just too complicated for me to use practically. Though I play with them all the time.

CalculusWarrior, that Dream Chaser style craft is awesome. The Dream Chaser is awesome in real life and it's nice when KSP'ers try making. I usually have a lot of trouble when I try to make them.

[SkyHook]

There are two kinds of people that don't use shuttles:

1. Those who can't build one.

2. Those who are pragmatic enough to realize that a shuttle is a rube goldberg (for now).

I am not either of those people. Even realizing that there is very little practical reason to build a shuttle, I still fly them all the time. As an endgame player, I have built more rockets than I care to admit. They are boring, easy, and not reusable. The ascent is the same, and I ended up tending to mechjeb more often than actually playing the game. Building my shuttles allowed me to both have the engineering challenge I was looking for and involve me in the process of flight much more than I had ever been. Oh, and who says shuttles are difficult to build? You just have to think outside of the box (and maybe use a plugin or two)! I suspect that once the economy becomes a thing, shuttles will start to spring up in droves.

Eurobird:

Ursa Shuttle:

[lammatt]

making a shuttle is not that hard

but making a shuttle that can take some meaningful cargo (~5-10t) to geostationary height is another story.

Edited February 2, 2014 by lammatt

[SkyHook]

making a shuttle is not that hard

but making a shuttle that can take some meaningful cargo (~5-10t) to geostationary height is another story.

Shuttles were NEVER meant to go that far. The shuttles were meant to go to Low Earth Orbit - well below geostationary height. Any higher, and the return speeds would be too high for the shuttle to survive. In KSP, we can consider LKO to be about 500km. Even as an experienced shuttle builder, LKO is as far as I go. Any farther, and I turn to traditional designs. Your comment about geostationary shuttles is not a very strong argument against shuttles, nor is it a reasonable expectation.

[Captain Sierra]

making a shuttle is not that hard

but making a shuttle that can take some meaningful cargo (~5-10t) to geostationary height is another story.

Pshh.

I put 40 tons in LKO!

Then again, this is achieved by slapping a giant KW booster on the back of a plane, or using B9 and Klockheed Martian Space Shuttle Engines.

[lammatt]

Pshh.

I put 40 tons in LKO!

Then again, this is achieved by slapping a giant KW booster on the back of a plane, or using B9 and Klockheed Martian Space Shuttle Engines.

try again with stock engine and ferram

and come back

for a 40t, you basically need the large cargo bay. (the HL one in the B9 pack maybe)

and to fly that stably and land softly, you need rather huge lifting surface

and since you have large lifting surface on the shuttle, your booster pack cant be too far behind,

and this is where it's troublesome,

you have to pack you external fuel tanks around the center of mass in order to keep it around the same position during the whole ascend

and if you take into account doing pancake is not a very good idea with ferram...

if you think it's as easy as you think,

please post a pic or two and give me some insight how to...

===============

well...second thought....

i didnt realize not everyone's playing with ferram

and i didnt realize you can spam lifting surfaces on the boosters to make the center of lift stay back... (i mistakenly thought aesthetics was important to everyone)

Edited February 2, 2014 by lammatt

[SkyHook]

Pshh.

I put 40 tons in LKO!

Then again, this is achieved by slapping a giant KW booster on the back of a plane, or using B9 and Klockheed Martian Space Shuttle Engines.

Pics of the craft?

[Guest]

Shuttles are really cool. Unfortunately they're also complicated. My most recent attempt at building a "nasa-style" shuttle, failed horribly. Designing the orbiter was the easy part, since I didn't actually add cargo functionality. Then came the launcher, which took forever. It actually got into orbit and back, but there was way too many on-the-fly balancing actions. Not to mention adding working cargo bays would be a whole other ordeal, and looking back it had far more parts.

Of course, mods make things better, namely B9/Shuttle Engines. I'm planning on making a shuttle with these, I just have to get memory packs up and working (since I also have KW, AIES, kethane, etc on my modded save, which will kill my computer if I don't take action to reduce memory).

[Tiakatt]

Not yet! But it's definitely something I hope to do later as I finish out my tech tree and branch out to bigger/different projects.

[katateochi]

I'd tried to make a shuttle a while back and failed miserably. Since the addition of tweakables I had another go and I've got one that can take about 18tons to LKO (complete with mostly pointless launch tower).

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It uses 3 Bearcat engines from NovaPunch mounted on Infernal robotic hinges so they can be adjusted during flight and two smaller engines from KW rocketry for the orbital maneuvering engines. Main tank is KW and the boosters are NovaP. The rest is B9 with an InfernalRobotic made cargo arm and some KAS gear.

It can take 18 tons to orbit but its not exactly the most fuel efficient way of doing so. I've got an SSTO which can take 20 tons to orbit on much less fuel, the advantage of the shuttle is it is faster to reach LKO than the SSTO. A rocket is probably in-between the SSTO and shuttle in terms for fuel consumption but is the faster option (and more flexible in terms of payload size).

The nice thing about the shuttle is being able to land it back at KSC without engines or parachutes, but for what is basically a reusable set of fairings its a bit inefficient, but it was a fun challenge to make. I want to make one that can take bulkier cargo but I still need to unlock some of the extra tech nodes for KW to get the larger tanks.

Building this really brought home to me why the shuttle flies upside down during its ascent; its much easier to counter balance the weight of the external fuel tank. It also kinda confirmed why NASA has retired the shuttle program too!

[Fastfishy2]

shuttles, whether plane or not, are not in my sphere of technology. i use rockets, especially since my program is now shifting to inter-planetary studies.

[Tripzter]

I would if i didnt have to use mods to make them useful. In stock, space shuttles are useless since you dont have any mechanical arms to move stuff in and out of the cargobay. Basically the only reason to use a space shuttle is to run the fuel tanks/rcs and people from and to the station. Not much useful for anything else. Sure you can attach something to the belly but still not as much fun as being able to deploy stuff out of the cargobay with a mechanical arm.

[Guest]

Without stock cargo bays they're pretty pointless, IMO. I like winged SSTOs for ferrying crew around, though.

[acc]

oh yes, i do. and i think space shuttles are much underestimated. a shuttle launch is much faster than a SSTO and can take more payload.

if interested, check my signature for space shuttle tutorials, i published the first of a series

[Madrias]

Shuttles, no, spaceplanes, yes. The shuttle is particularly difficult to build, and even if you've built a good one, it's got bad flight tendancies in the air. Mine always wanted to roll over. Found myself building SSTO's because compared to the shuttle, they were a piece of cake to build and fly.

That being said, I can understand enjoying the challenge. SSTO is a challenge for a lot of people, though I've found that once you get the basics in mind, SSTO is easy. Shuttles, even once you know the basics, are intolerably difficult for me to control.

[SkyHook]

Shuttles, no, spaceplanes, yes. The shuttle is particularly difficult to build, and even if you've built a good one, it's got bad flight tendancies in the air. Mine always wanted to roll over. Found myself building SSTO's because compared to the shuttle, they were a piece of cake to build and fly.

That being said, I can understand enjoying the challenge. SSTO is a challenge for a lot of people, though I've found that once you get the basics in mind, SSTO is easy. Shuttles, even once you know the basics, are intolerably difficult for me to control.

Here are some basics you might not know:

1. It is NOT your job to balance the stack on ascent. That is the job of plugins and specially-built engines. Humans cannot sense a changing CoM and CoT, so don't wreck yourself trying to do it.

2. Try not to make any corrections during deorbit and reentry. Less is more when it comes to control.

Hope this helps!

[Madrias]

Here are some basics you might not know:

1. It is NOT your job to balance the stack on ascent. That is the job of plugins and specially-built engines. Humans cannot sense a changing CoM and CoT, so don't wreck yourself trying to do it.

2. Try not to make any corrections during deorbit and reentry. Less is more when it comes to control.

Hope this helps!

1: I'd forgotten about Mechjeb actually being useful for "point in the right direction" instead of "Fly my rocket for me" mode.

2: I'm usually at my most touchy-feely on re-entry, trying to minimize the likelyhood of flipping over and out of control. I'll have to consider riding it out till there's enough air to hold it.

While I can't sense a changing Center of Mass, Lift, or Thrust, I can, however, almost build an SSTO half asleep. As mentioned, shuttles may carry more, and may be able to beat my SkyHawk's time to orbit (roughly 10 minutes from runway to space. It's designed for a 45 degree ascent profile), but they take me much more time in the assembly hangar.

I figure I'll try a shuttle again soon enough, I just need to relax and be confident in my new attempts. And make sure my Center of Thrust stays reasonably the same through my ascent stages.

[Ferrit]

Shuttles are my 'go to' for small payload, crew rotation and resupply missions, so often the core of a large vehicle will be sent up on a standard rocket but then engine pods and other additional parts sent up separately via shuttle or similar. I'm rather a fan of constructing things in LKO so the extra challenge is welcome. Though anything that has to fly in both space and atmosphere, with and without cargo, is a pain to develop once that work is done the design can often tweaked for multiple roles.