Eve SSTO is impossible!

[CavemanNinja]

So, in order for this to work, you need a massive ion glider that can carry enough of a payload to haul it all to orbit.

Whackjob, get in here!

[RuBisCO]

I don't think Ion gliders even work anymore, I tried building one one it got an ISP of ~50 on the runway.

[GoSlash27]

I don't think Ion gliders even work anymore, I tried building one one it got an ISP of ~50 on the runway.

Ion gliders definitely still work. Now whether they will get you to orbit without infinigliding... has yet to be seen.

Best,

-Slashy

[RocketPilot573]

I do believe there MAY be a way to do this... It involves a Jet engine and a few hundred air scoops....

EDIT: Nvm! Those air scoops are wayyy heavier than I thought...

Edited August 6, 2014 by RocketPilot573

[RuBisCO]

Ion gliders definitely still work. Now whether they will get you to orbit without infinigliding... has yet to be seen.

Best,

-Slashy

Well then what am I doing wrong for it produces almost no thrust and an ISP of ~52?

[NBZ]

I have an idea, but to know if it will work, I have to know how much Delta-V would be needed to reach low Eve orbit when starting from 10 km. I don't know how to do the math. Can anyone help?

[TheKutKu]

An isp of 52? it is impossible, ion engine has a 4200 isp even at sea level. I think you read it wrong or it's a glitch.

[EdFred]

I do believe there MAY be a way to do this... It involves a Jet engine and a few hundred air scoops....

EDIT: Nvm! Those air scoops are wayyy heavier than I thought...

And jet engines don't work on Eve.

[RocketPilot573]

And jet engines don't work on Eve.

That's not what I was getting at... Jet Engines work anywhere! It's the air intakes that cant make air anywhere except Kerbin and Laythe. If you close intakes while they're full of air, they keep that air until a jet engine consumes them. I've gotten 400 m/s out of a jet powered craft in space.

All of the intakes hold ".2" "air," except the radial air scoop which holds "1." However, at Kerbin sea level it will only fill to about ".3." The only way to fill it is to transfer the air to an open intake (which will endlessly refilled at sea level) into a closed air scoop. This would take a while, but doable. Unfortunately, I found that the air scoops are actually really heavy (at least, when you have a few hundred of them), which means the hard delta-v limit for an air powered single stage is probably very low...

The 400 m/s ship I spoke of only had the air-scoops filled to .3 each (I didn't do the air transfer thing), so it probably could have gotten about 1200 m/s, but obviously that's no where near an Eve SSTO.

Edited August 6, 2014 by RocketPilot573

[rtxoff]

Also it would be not better then an infiglider in terms of exploiting the physics.

[James_Eh]

Wow. I have perfected a technique that gets a SSTO rocket (no wings, no control surfaces, no ions, no air-breathers) into an 80X80 LKO orbit with 3600 m/s dV left. But despite the fact that I think I can do better, I can't improve upon that. I figure it's not even worth testing on Eve until it is over 5 km/s.

This is awesome. Talk about a challenge that will take up even more time than the Jool-5... And the best part is, it's only a few minutes from one test to another.

Also, has there ever been a challenge about max dV at LKO (insert altitude here) stock only, chem + LV-N only? Should I make one up? Seems like a reasonable progression from the discussions here.

[GoSlash27]

Well then what am I doing wrong for it produces almost no thrust and an ISP of ~52?

I wouldn't be able to tell without a craft file or at least a pic. Are you sure you have enough electricity? Maybe one of your add-ons has broken your ION drive?

I'm running KSP 24 stock and just posted an ion glider in another challenge that made over 2 km/sec like 15 minutes ago, so I know they still work.

Best,

-Slashy

Edited August 7, 2014 by GoSlash27

[GoSlash27]

Wow. I have perfected a technique that gets a SSTO rocket (no wings, no control surfaces, no ions, no air-breathers) into an 80X80 LKO orbit with 3600 m/s dV left. But despite the fact that I think I can do better, I can't improve upon that. I figure it's not even worth testing on Eve until it is over 5 km/s.

This is awesome. Talk about a challenge that will take up even more time than the Jool-5... And the best part is, it's only a few minutes from one test to another.

Also, has there ever been a challenge about max dV at LKO (insert altitude here) stock only, chem + LV-N only? Should I make one up? Seems like a reasonable progression from the discussions here.

Certainly couldn't hurt. How about max DV at LKO in an SSTO, any way you can do it (without cheating)? *edit* and without jet engines, of course...

-Slashy

[RuBisCO]

I wouldn't be able to tell without a craft file or at least a pic. Are you sure you have enough electricity? Maybe one of your add-ons has broken your ION drive?

I'm running KSP 24 stock and just posted an ion glider in another challenge that made over 2 km/sec like 15 minutes ago, so I know they still work.

Best,

-Slashy

No I figured it out... sort of... one of my mods makes ion engines have horrible ISP and no thrust in atmosphere, which one, I don't know, I don't care, it can't be done.

[TheKutKu]

I'm still trying to do it with a nuclear-powered SSTO helicopter...

Results soon.

[cantab]

No I figured it out... sort of... one of my mods makes ion engines have horrible ISP and no thrust in atmosphere, which one, I don't know, I don't care, it can't be done.

Near Future? I know its ion drives are nigh-useless in atmosphere, maybe it makes the PB-ION the same.