Spaceplane lifters: who says you need a cargo bay?

[SkyRender]

One of the sticking points of stock KSP is the lack of any sort of cargo bay part, meaning you can't really carry loads up into orbit with a craft that's otherwise 100% reusable.

So I decided to fix that problem with a bit of Kerbal ingenuity.

It's just crazy enough to work. That payload, incidentally, is about 4.5T. Not massive, but also not exactly tiny either.

And indeed, it would work perfectly if not for one little problem: the plane's center of lift is completely off upon re-entry and it spins like a top. But that's an engineering issue; it can be resolved with some clever parts placement. I think I may be onto something here.

[stevism]

goodluck fixing the com issue...curious how it looks in the end

[spudman2]

Just stick parachutes all over it.

[Themohawkninja]

You might be better off with a pseudo-cargo bay like that of my cargo SSTO:

The only cargo-hauling mission it's ever done was hauling an ion powered Moho probe into LKO, but it landed back on the runway with enough fuel for a powered landing.

[Nicok]

Does anyone know a mod with 1.25m cargo bay ? To fit 0.625m probes inside.

regards.

[Aragosnat]

What spudman2 suggested would certainly work. But, Themohawkninja certainly has the better one. No worries about re-entery with cockpit attached to docking port. Another possiblity would be to have the cargo piggy back on the plane. Still might have the CoM issue before (going up) or after (going down) transfering payload.

[jmiki8]

I usually build the door-less cargo bay around the CoM, so when I release the payload, the CoM barely changes.

[Woopert]

I remember someone did a space shuttle design with a cargo bay like that. When I returned to KSP from my hiatus, I designed some cargo capable lander as one of my first designs. Pics below, it wasn't a very good design

[kiwiak]

How about putting some fuel tank in cockpit section, and than using some mod for auto-repumping fuel to keep ballance?

[xzxvrx]

If you want a small cargo bay, just use the flexibility of radial decouplers and structural panels, and use small rockets so open/close them, and use jr docking ports to keep them closed. Or if you want a huge one you can just make actual hinges.

[Raikoutrio]

I tried to build a space shuttle with a working cargo bay. It failed miserably. I tried to make a space shuttle without a cargo bay, and it failed. And i said to myself "I really want a cargo bay, and since i don't like part packs, I'll have to come up with something crazy!"

And this was born: the Skyrend 2s

Here it is carrying an interplanetary ion probe at the lower end of it's mass limit. I have put on a hitchhiker and it fits in the space but since it would certainly explode and kill 5 kerbals i decided not to try. Also, it will try to murder you on reentry unless you know the secret, and i don't.

Edited February 4, 2014 by Raikoutrio

[boxman]

And if you dont mind spending days you could even make your own cargo bay by using structural panels or winge parts and then make a hinge out of cubical struts and docking ports or a bunch of radial decouplers stacked to get a flexible hinge like thing.

[katateochi]

I do like your approach OP. You could also make a cargo bay out of structural panels or wings, and the advantage is they can be as big as you like.

I made this SSTO while doing a stock aircraft only career;

It can take around 20 tons of payload to LKO, no doors so the payload just slides out the back.

I had to take the roof off to take bulkier cargo.

Now I'm using mods again so I will probably use infernal robotics to add hinges to the roof. The only downside of these bays is added part count, but using wing parts means it counts for more lift.

This craft was really reliable, I've done many trips with it now and it lands surprisingly well. It has a load of reactions wheels to help deal with the change in mass and keep it steady during reentry.