My first working SSTO on a mission to Minmus

[Prillmeister]

Hello guys!

This will be my first post here at the forum but I've been hanging around this lovely place for months now

I finally have something worth sharing (in my opinion) and something that I'm very proud of, presenting "Seagull", my first spaceplane able to reach orbit.

It's build primarily out of stock parts, the only "un-stock" is the winch-system in the cargobay which I got from the "Kerbal Attachment-mod". I wanted a plane able to load from the bottom, at the runway, for a mission to Minmus. I have from a previous (real) mission a space station at Minmus and thought it needed a rover and some other things.

So I got in to rover-building and measured it up so that it would fit in a Mk3 cargobay and then I drove it to the grass behind the runway and got to SSTO-building. Man, that was a hard thing.

My first attempt (the Seagull1) actually got alltitude, but just barely. In Seagull2 I used verner-engines on the nose and engine to counteract what I later realised was the plane stalling. So after much tweaking, reading, learning, watching and trying I ended up with "Seagull3". My pride and joy! It flies like a dream actually, it has great lift and reacts great to all controlls.

The enginge-setup is 4 RAM-intakes per turbojet-engine and 1 engine per 10 tons. Since this little thing weighs in at 120 tons fully fueled with payload it got 12 engines. At the back I have a replaceable Skipper.

Mission-details:

1. Load rover in to cargobay
   
2. LIFTOFF
   
3. Get in to orbit
   
4. Rendevouz with newly-built spacestation
   
5. Replace Skipper with LV-N
   
6. Put on the "vertical landing-engines"
   
7. Strut that .....
   
8. Burn those LV-N, destination Minmus
   
9. Get in to orbit around Minmus and await window for a de-orbit burn
   
10. DE-ORBIT
    
11. Land near space station vertically
    
12. Deploy rover, get science and move 3 Kerbals to the Spacestation
    
13. Leave Minidou Kerman onboard, LIFTOFF
    
14. Get in to orbit and make a burn for Kerbin
    
15. Rendevouz with Kerbin-space station
    
16. De-strut the lander-engines and put them back on the station, replace LV-N with Skipper
    
17. De-orbit
    
18. Land that ..... on runway
    
19. ?????
    
20. PROFIT
    

Here are my pictures, hope you ENJOY!

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Edited February 14, 2015 by Prillmeister
Accidently wrote Eve instead of Minmus

[Kieve]

Hm, not sure if you've got enough intakes there...

Can't say it's exactly the prettiest SSTO I've seen, but function > form and it certainly did get the job done. The replaceable engine system is clever too.

On that note... re: the screenshot about "I got back more money than it costs," you really didn't. Your plane came back down with a different engine pod, remember - check the hangar and see what it costs sending your 'Gull up with the LVN trio. Also figure in the cost of fuel, the Mk3 engine-delivery rocket, and whatever it cost to build the rover you left behind. Not trying to rain on your parade, just saying it's not quite so cut & dried.

All in all, nicely executed, even with the rogue engine plotting its escape. You mentioned the station starting to wobble like crazy when you docked with it - betting you had both RCS and SAS active at the time? Shut them both down, at least until things stabilize, then just switch SAS back on and see if it stays settled down. Generally I leave RCS off except when I actually need it for maneuvers (otherwise you're constantly 'leaking' mono the whole mission), and let SAS do the stabilizing as much as possible.

[Prillmeister]

Hm, not sure if you've got enough intakes there... http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f321/Kieve/PWI/tigers/trouble.gif

Can't say it's exactly the prettiest SSTO I've seen, but function > form and it certainly did get the job done. The replaceable engine system is clever too.

On that note... re: the screenshot about "I got back more money than it costs," you really didn't. Your plane came back down with a different engine pod, remember - check the hangar and see what it costs sending your 'Gull up with the LVN trio. Also figure in the cost of fuel, the Mk3 engine-delivery rocket, and whatever it cost to build the rover you left behind. Not trying to rain on your parade, just saying it's not quite so cut & dried.

All in all, nicely executed, even with the rogue engine plotting its escape. You mentioned the station starting to wobble like crazy when you docked with it - betting you had both RCS and SAS active at the time? Shut them both down, at least until things stabilize, then just switch SAS back on and see if it stays settled down. Generally I leave RCS off except when I actually need it for maneuvers (otherwise you're constantly 'leaking' mono the whole mission), and let SAS do the stabilizing as much as possible.

Yeah, it looks a little bit sketchy but I like it in a strange way!

About the money, yeah I know there's a (kinda huge) difference in cost between Skipper and LV-N. 23k to be exact and I got 19k more when landing so technically I "lost" 4 grand right there. I do not know what the fuel is worth but I think a fully tapped off Seagull would be more than 4k + I lost my tailfin (not the most expensive of things, though). Since my engine-replacement method turned out great, the plan was to leave the LV-N at my space-station for future missions and land with the Skipper but the universe wanted different. But with that in mind, I can't really add the cost for my Mk3-delivery vessel. If so, I need to count for my Mun-mining vessel, the Fuel-delivery vessel and the entire space station because without them I wouldn't be able to complete my mission to Minmus One can argue money and costs all night, let us not that The main thing here I think is that I managed to squeez in a contract for science around Minmus and it generated 80k in funds.

About my space station going crazy, dancing like it had disco fever, I thing you're spot on. I do have RCS-thrusters on it and probably the RCS turned on when I docked the Seagull. Won't be doing that mistake again + Jeb had to EVA and strut that bad boy tightly together!

Thank you for taking your time to comment, though! There are many hours behind this and I love getting some response!

Edited February 15, 2015 by Prillmeister