Share some SSTO drone ideas? :)

[eddiew]

Hey all,

I couldn't find a thread for this, but having tried a few designs out over the weekend, I've been amazed by how far you can get something with a dual-mode engine to go when you're not lugging a cockpit and life support and all the etcs that a crew needs to stay alive, so I'm interested to see what's out there along similar lines!

In my head, a 'drone' is:

a) unmanned

capable of atmospheric flight (not necessarily HOTOL)

c) single stage to orbit (or beyond)

d) able to return to base at mission end

I imagine y'all can come up with much better, but I'll kick off with three basics of my own. The little ones were purely to carry newly-invented gravioli detectors, the big one will lift a small satellite, or a probe lander out to Mun/Minmus. All of them have over 1.1 TWR, and basically just go where you point them. I used sabre engines from B9 because they are just a tiny bit better than rapiers, and work really darn well for this job. These guys (and girls) all fly under FAR and typically breathe air up to 30-40km and mach 5.

The Honeybee is a great satellite for inclined orbits around Kerbin, while Hornet can basically go anywhere in the SOI. Queen Bee is a small but effective lifter, unhampered by a heavy cockpit. A second prototype is in testing which doubles the cargo bay - enough to fit a 1-kerbal mun lander... Crazy efficient.

(They're like 10-20 parts each minus the misc, you probably don't need craft files to reverse engineer them, though I'll happily provide them if requested.)

Feel free to share stock and modded drones, but please let us know what you used to make them Very interested to see what the community has come up with along these lines!

Edited February 16, 2015 by eddiew

[Rune]

Hey all,

I couldn't find a thread for this, but having tried a few designs out over the weekend, I've been amazed by how far you can get something with a dual-mode engine to go when you're not lugging a cockpit and life support and all the etcs that a crew needs to stay alive, so I'm interested to see what's out there along similar lines!

In my head, a 'drone' is:

a) unmanned

capable of atmospheric flight (not necessarily HOTOL)

c) single stage to orbit (or beyond)

d) able to return to base at mission end

I imagine y'all can come up with much better, but I'll kick off with three basics of my own. The little ones were purely to carry newly-invented gravioli detectors, the big one will lift a small satellite, or a probe lander out to Mun/Minmus. All of them have over 1.1 TWR, and basically just go where you point them. I used sabre engines from B9 because they are just a tiny bit better than rapiers, and work really darn well for this job. These guys (and girls) all fly under FAR and typically breathe air up to 30-40km and mach 5.

http://foxwoodstudios.co.uk/kerbal/drones.jpg

The Honeybee is a great satellite for inclined orbits around Kerbin, while Hornet can basically go anywhere in the SOI. Queen Bee is a small but effective lifter, unhampered by a heavy cockpit. A second prototype is in testing which doubles the cargo bay - enough to fit a 1-kerbal mun lander... Crazy efficient.

(They're like 10-20 parts each minus the misc, you probably don't need craft files to reverse engineer them, though I'll happily provide them if requested.)

Feel free to share stock and modded drones, but please let us know what you used to make them Very interested to see what the community has come up with along these lines!

Well, the closest I have to this is my Skylon replica:

Also crazy efficient, but for a stock replica: upwards of 50% of GLOW makes orbit, and cargo is 25%.

Rune. And it has the insane takeoff speed of the RL design.

[eddiew]

That's pretty neat, and a whopping big payload ratio Do you get issues with flameout what with the engines way out to the sides?

[Rune]

That's pretty neat, and a whopping big payload ratio Do you get issues with flameout what with the engines way out to the sides?

You can get rid of 90% of the flameout asymmetry by taking care to put the intakes and the engines in sequence (one engine, then the intakes assigned to that engine, then the second engine, then its intakes, and so on if you have more than two). That way each group of intakes prioritizes one engine and you can ride them as they lose thrust without throttling down (there is a slight assymetry as they empty the common pool the first time, but it short of goes away). But I don't think I even did this here: the RAPIERS are set to switch automatically, and the huge TWR means I am still going very fast when they do. But by all means, go to the R-SUV link in my sig, DL a couple of SSTOs (this one is there, and also more efficient designs like the Dao), and check out yourself how I did it!

Rune. My personal best payload fraction is 33% of GLOW as payload in LKO. Not counting the cockpit, and inside a bay.

[Tankbuster32]

Here you go:

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[Van Disaster]

Way back in probably 0.20 I had this thing, which I think I should remake. Seems massively overpowered mind you.

[Yakuzi]

This is one of my single stage to orbit spaceplane from 0.24. This unmanned SSTO is stable, agile and can get up to an 100km circular orbit with heaps of fuel to spare. I had another version which had a cargobay instead of a fuel-tank at the front, so it could deliver small satellites into orbit. I'm considering to redo it for 0.90 but can't be bothered installing B9 as it nerfes the stock jet engines so extremely (though realistically). Hope this is somewhat helpful/inspirational eddiew

Mods used: B9, Procedural Wings

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[Van Disaster]

0.90 version in early flight testing. Should be a vast increase in payload if I can get it balanced...

Edited February 2, 2015 by Van Disaster

[Sufficient Anonymity]

Like @Rune, I'm a big fan of Skylon-esque SSTO drones - currently got a trio of them in career - the S1 and S2 are Mk2 sized, being crew transport and light cargo transport respectively, and the S3 is based around the Mk3 and will lug a full orange tank into orbit. All are drone controlled, and utterly terrifying to land.

[Mekan1k]

This is one of my single stage to orbit spaceplane from 0.24. This unmanned SSTO is stable, agile and can get up to an 100km circular orbit with heaps of fuel to spare. I had another version which had a cargobay instead of a fuel-tank at the front, so it could deliver small satellites into orbit. I'm considering to redo it for 0.90 but can't be bothered installing B9 as it nerfes the stock jet engines so extremely (though realistically). Hope this is somewhat helpful/inspirational eddiew

Mods used: B9, Procedural Wings

http://i.imgur.com/R3cuLZp.png

http://imgur.com/a/3f7cj

Please redo it! I would love to play with it!

[Speeding Mullet]

Well, the closest I have to this is my Skylon replica:

snip

Rune.

Snap - What an interesting engineering project to follow!

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[WhiteKnuckle]

And now for something a little bit different, a drone that tows spaceplanes to orbit:

Think of it as a booster stage, that just so happens to be a fully recoverable SSTO.

[bmyers831]

Yakuzi that plane is absolutely gorgeous. Great job!

[TheOneAndOnly Mr.E]

I have played kerbal space program since 30.juli 2011

And on my channel i am working on a space plane idea https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWLWUzjaPTheWQRbhlMPUKg

Maybe that will plant some idea?

[quasarrgames]

this is one of my single stage to orbit spaceplane from 0.24. This unmanned ssto is stable, agile and can get up to an 100km circular orbit with heaps of fuel to spare. I had another version which had a cargobay instead of a fuel-tank at the front, so it could deliver small satellites into orbit. I'm considering to redo it for 0.90 but can't be bothered installing b9 as it nerfes the stock jet engines so extremely (though realistically). Hope this is somewhat helpful/inspirational eddiew

mods used: B9, procedural wings

http://i.imgur.com/r3culzp.png

http://imgur.com/a/3f7cj

ohhhhhh noooooooooo

is too prettyyyy!!!!!!!

[eddiew]

Some lovely looking drones in here guys, keep it up!

I was a little bored last night, and kind of made this fun little thing that gets to orbit without using any rockets. Has no actual use nor purpose, but it was a fun demonstration of the efficiency you get when you leave the crew at home Turbojet pushes it to a 60km apoapsis with a bit of nursing. And I guess you could mount a small science package and go for a polar orbit...

Stock parts, flying with FAR.

[Flixxbeatz]

Dem spaceplanes. Kerbal Space Program pros all over in this thread!

Anyway here:

As for the skyon-ish replicas, tried making one, always had that "death roll" on the way back to kerbin...

[Yakuzi]

Yakuzi that plane is absolutely gorgeous. Great job!

ohhhhhh noooooooooo

is too prettyyyy!!!!!!!

Thanks!

Please redo it! I would love to play with it!

Now I guess I have no other option than to redo it I'll have a look if it's possible with the current B9 turbojet settings, no promises

EDIT: In the meantime, I also made this single (hybrid)engine spaceplane in 0.24. It is manned in the current setup, but could be easily converted to an unmanned craft:

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Mods used: B9 R4.0c, Procedural Wings

Edited February 14, 2015 by Yakuzi

[eddiew]

That is very sleek and .... looking... really need to get into B9.

Meantime... Nightmoth class drone! About the lightest thing that it's worth strapping a nuke to. In the middle is a full-size bomb-bay, and the whole thing has delta-v enough for Munar orbit and return, or Munlanding and dropping off a rover. Don't think it'll come back from that though, only so much a small critter can handle

I'm discovering it's actually really hard to scale drones up, because you don't have an obvious counterweight for the engines at the back... :S And yes, I clip my nervas because they are horrible otherwise.

Edited February 15, 2015 by eddiew

[eddiew]

Apparently I was wrong - you can get this thing onto Mun and back. But it wouldn't have been able to carry a rover, alas.

At 25 tons, this may be the smallest SSTO that can be dropped on Mun without a refuel? My gosh it's close though, you have to dedicate half the bomb bay to extra tanks, and you'll have to land at the Munar equator, without using the vernors, if you want to come back to KSC. If you don't care too much about where you land on Kerbin, you can be more varied with your Munar touchdowns

Probably have a much easier time with Minmus - launch when KSC is under the AN, and do your plane change at sea level, immediately 250 delta-v up on any conventional rocket.

FAR, stock parts except the lights which are from B9.

Edited February 16, 2015 by eddiew

[eddiew]

Revamped the Nightmoth using B9 sabre engines, tanks, intakes, and procedural wings. Left the stock body because I really wanted bomb-bay format for rover-drop options. Took ages to establish stability at high altitudes, but eventually got to a shape that will cruise at 25km until mach 5, and kicks to rockets just over 30.

Planning on a Mun visit, I gave this one 20 gravity scanners and an FL-400 tank in the cargo bay - and got to LKO with 3900m/s left... so I sent it to Eve instead. Pretty sure it can aerobrake into an eccentric orbit, gather a belly full of gravioli, then come home. Maybe. I actually have no idea; but that's the point of drones

[JonBar]

Although not a drone, this design could be converted to be, with a payload of some sort, or not.

This SSTO can lift off, achieve stable orbit, dock and land back onto the original body it lifted from. It can do this with all atmospheric bodies with the exception of Eve. Made to transport Kerbals with the intent of low part count and small size.

Edited March 2, 2015 by JonBar