Of Jetpacks and SSTOs

[Three1415]

I have been lurking on these forums for quite awhile now, waiting to debut with something I consider remarkable; and, at last, I present to you [*trumpet fanfare*]:

A Jetpack

I have found that I am terrible at naming things, but regardless, I have created, through much stacking of toroidal tanks, a jetpack in the style of a Manned Maneuvering Unit.

In terms of general specifications, the craft's propulsion consists of a single Basic Jet. Between its the outer intake and SAS module lie seven toroidal tanks and two Oscar-Bs (with a duplicate set on the other side), providing a total of 163 units of liquid fuel, enough to run the Basic Jet for approximately twenty-seven minutes; with a top speed of, at ~1500 meters, 210 m/s, this craft can traverse essentially any reasonable distance from KSC in an extremely short time. As is evident, it seats (literally) one Kerbal; in addition, four circular intakes provide a plentiful supply of oxygen; power is provided by four RTGs clipped into the engine body; and two standard SAS modules ensure stability. As (at least with my piloting skills) the craft is essentially impossible to land, a MK16 parachute (regular size) is clipped into the upper frame; this, as well as about 1/3 throttle applied at ~100 meters, is sufficient for a safe landing at about 6 m/s. After deployment and landing, the seated Kerbal can repack the parachute, though it may be necessary to zoom into the body of the craft to access it; the craft is 62 parts in total.

Pressing the 1 key toggles the engine; 2 deploys the parachute. Hovering is achieved at approximately 35 kilo-newtons of thrust, or about 40% throttle.

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Given the fuel capacity of the craft, I was prepared to challenge someone to rework the fuel lines, refill the tanks with oxidizer, and convert this jetpack into an SSTO, until I realized that I was not going to pass up that opportunity. Thus, I introduce to you

The SSTOpack

(I mean, really? What do you even call this sort of thing?)

After about an hour and a half clipping yet more parts (without the Alt + F12 option, mind you), adding more engines, and reworking the fuel lines, I at last created a fully functional SSTO that far surpassed my expectations.

Specifications:

Propulsion: 1 Turbojet Engine (for atmospheric travel), and 1 LV-909 (for orbital adjustments)

Propellant: 163 units liquid fuel, 179 units oxidizer (to compensate for jet fuel usage)

Powerplant: 4 RTGs

Control: Two SAS modules

Intakes: 3 ram air intakes, 4 circular intakes

Capacity: 1 Kerbal

Part Count:74

Wet Mass: 5.2 tons.

Landing Gear: 1 Regular MK 16 parachute.

Action Groups: 1: Toggle Turbojet

2: Toggle LV-909

3: Deploy parachute

This small apparatus can, from launch at KSC, achieve a 150 km x 150 km orbit with approximately 60 units of liquid fuel left to spare, giving it access to all of LKO, with its outer operational bounds at approximately Kerbin-synchronous orbit, if not beyond. The launch profile is as follows: Simply fly straight up to a height of ~12 km, then conduct a gravity turn, with direct of travel between 15 and 20 degrees above the horizon; continue gaining speed and slowly decrease throttle after about 25 km; with proper management, the turbojet can remain operational to 45 km, at which point one should cut it, toggle to the LV-909, and conduct a requisite burn at the apoapsis, which should be between 75 or 80 km; re-entry is just as simple, and enough liquid fuel should remain to traverse the majority of Kerbin after re-entry, as I had to do after missing the KSC (as I always do) after re-entry in the album below:

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Much like the standard jetpack, a safe landing is achieved at about 6 m/s; throttle up to about 1/3 at ~100 meters above the terrain to slow your velocity after deploying the parachute.

The abundance of struts within the design wards of Xactar's wiggle horse, which I find otherwise attacks during flight. Also, the clipped parts have some strange effects during impacts; sometimes an unfortunate Jebediah Kerman is ejected at approximately a kilometer per second, and sometimes one simply bounces for no reason (Danny2462 would be intrigued ).

As I am rather new to this (evidenced by all of my 1 post), how does one go about sharing craft files, assuming that anyone wants to fiddle around with this?

Also, I do wonder if I have broken some kind of record for smallest SSTO by volume; certainly I hope that I have . My apologies in (how does one word this? "Retreat?") for the walls of text; any feedback or criticism is welcome.

Edited June 6, 2014 by Three1415
Grammar suffers somewhat at 3:30 A.M :P.

[Wallygator]

An interesting approach. I like it. I usually steer away from clipping, but you've made something look rather cool. Nice one.

[Climberfx]

Cool Man. I love the idea. Looks like a turbo mega jetpack to little Kerbals!

[The Error]

Jeb... I found your ride.

This is cool. How'd you pack enough fuel for an SSTO into that little package?

[Tangle]

To post it, there are a few good sites: Dropbox, Mediafire, Google Drive, or Curse.

[DaveVato]

Three1415, very cool! Did you ever post the craft files for these?

[Nik_601]

Good job! I like your jetpacks, especially, SSTOpack:)

Btw,i have my own jetpack too, but it uses monopropellant

[Fikakillen]

Nice one, cant wait for the .CRAFT file!

[Volcanix]

Jeb... I found your ride.

This is cool. How'd you pack enough fuel for an SSTO into that little package?

I guess part clipping.

[SelectHalfling0]

This. Is. Jeb-Worthy.