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[sluissa]

Otherwise, why land on your wheels at all?  There's multiple parachutes available, combine a few (especially the BIG one for slowing down from orbit, then little ones to slow inside 500m) and just set the craft down lightly.  Yeah, a little bit 'cheaty' for a spaceplane to parachute landing, but you know what they say.  The simplest option is usually the best.

I do it because I like the challenge. Trying to hold an unstable aircraft, stable, with limited or no fuel, and managing to aim it at a target, and land it there. Forget all of the difficulties of space travel, landing a space plane on a runway is pretty much the hardest thing in this game.


Having only one(technically 2 or 3, I guess, but I've never found the other KSP base and the new dirt runway is so close it might as well just be considered part of the main base) runways and no requirement for spashdown recovery efforts and no current ability or need to reuse parts does kind of defeat the benefit of spaceplanes in KSP. The whole point of a spaceplane as in the Space Shuttle program was to have a giant reusable part that could potentially land in dozens of places around the world(in reality only three were ever used, but dozens were prepared)

Also, you'd need a lot of heavy duty parachutes if you wanted to simply parachute something like the space shuttle to the ground. More weight, more points of failure. I feel some parts in KSP such as parachutes are currently too understated as far as mass goes.

In any case, I've digressed a bit, but the only real point of doing anything in KSP at the moment is for fun or the challenge. Don't knock on people who choose to land on wheels... or choose to land tail down without a parachute, or who choose just to go simple and splash a capsule.

[Girlinhat]

I'm not condemning someone for taking on a challenge.  It's just that, as it is, there's no need to preserve parts, so parachutes become easily overlooked as an easy way to keep parts safe.  If you're just looking for a way to land, it's a pretty legitimate way.  Unless you're landing on a planet without atmosphere.  There's a reason my Kerbins don't feel comfortable when I try to make Mun landings anymore...

[Twi]

Speaking of challenges, I got a spaceplane into space! (A spaceplane by the definition of silly people who don't like rocket planes. ))

It sadly wasn't SSTO. It was, however, at least somewhat reusable. And mostly stock. It has mechjeb, but it might well not need it! Stage one is actually remarkably stable. Stage two is... less so, but the final stage is alright. And of course, I don't think I'm that good a pilot.

So behold, the massive monster that is the Aether Regnum! (Sky King in Latin, Greek, or possibly a mix of both. I'm lazy.) ...With a new iteration of the Utsuho tailsitter plane strapped to the front.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was planning to use some mods (Damned Robotics, possibly others) to put this monster on a mobile ICBM-esque transport/launcher vehicle, but that has been put on hold for a number of reasons (lag, structural issues...well, pretty much lag and structural issues). These are probably ignorable/solvable issues, but fuck it I got into space already

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

_{I'm burning through the skies! Yeah! Two hundred degrees! That's why they call me Mister Farenheit!~}

Surprisingly, even without using Mechjeb, it's incredibly stable and relatively un-wobbly under ASAS, and gets up to a nice clip of 1000 m/s at 20 km or so. I could probably take it a little higher and faster if I was careful about it, but eh. The staging here is tricky enough as is- those jets produce way more power than those rockets, so they have to be shut down to avoid smashing into said engines. And since jets take a while to respond, you have to wait at least a bit and/or fire the rockets on full blast right when you decouple. This is the harrowing part in general, and seems to be the most unstable- of the three launches of this thing I've done, one had the jets smash the right two rockets, and I stopped instantly for fairly obvious reasons. One lost control after staging, and although it was eventually regained, it had used too much of the booster stage's fuel to get into space (although it came frustratingly close!). This is, as you might have guessed, the third launch, and although it was rather wobbly and needed Mechjeb assist, it did do its job well enough to...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

..get me up into a solid suborbital trajectory before I ditched it. We haven't seen the last of that booster, by the way.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Orbit was achieved! Not all that circular, kind of cutting it close there, but orbit nonetheless. As you can see, the booster was still in space, so I decided I may as well follow it down and see how it landed, now that the Utsuho itself was in a stable orbit.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Stupid rocket engines.

Back to the mission: After a few orbits, I brought the Utsuho back in. And probably wasted a bunch of rocket fuel trying to make sure I would land both in daylight and on land, but that's besides the point:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I will never get tired of things screaming towards the cold hard earth at several times the speed of sound. Never.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Perfect landing!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

...Or not. Close enough!

[Girlinhat]

The BEST thing about the post right above mine?  Jeb shows an appropriate mood for every picture.

[LordSlowpoke]

The BEST thing about the post right above mine?  Jeb shows an appropriate mood for every picture.

IT'S EVOLVING

[Twi]

The BEST thing about the post right above mine?  Jeb shows an appropriate mood for every picture.

IT'S EVOLVING

Nonsense. Jebediah Kerman is the apex of Kerbal evolution.

[Dutchling]

Got the Mun mapped (both normal and for Kethane) and got a Methane miner on the surface.

Now I just need to find a way to use that fuel. And get a miner down that actually has enough solar panels. Damn that thing eats power and barely produces any fuel at all :/.

[Girlinhat]

I've not done much Kethane mining (read: none) but  I did pick up the suggestion, to keep it as Kethane as long as possible, since it's less dense than fuel.  Your ideal interplanetary vessel would be huge kethane tanks and converters - this is more weight-efficient than hauling fuel.

Solar panels shouldn't be an issue though.  Just 8-way some XLs and get massive power at all times.

[Dutchling]

My current plans are slightly less grand than that I'm afraid.

A rover refueling depot is what I'm currently planning on making.

[Sirus]

I thought rovers didn't need fuel?

[Dutchling]

Right. Dammit. Stupid update ruined everything.

[Sirus]

Sorry, dude 

[Dutchling]

On the bright side, my rovers no longer explode all the time.

Mun base it is then.

[sluissa]

I've not done much Kethane mining (read: none) but  I did pick up the suggestion, to keep it as Kethane as long as possible, since it's less dense than fuel.  Your ideal interplanetary vessel would be huge kethane tanks and converters - this is more weight-efficient than hauling fuel.

Solar panels shouldn't be an issue though.  Just 8-way some XLs and get massive power at all times.

Kethane is less dense than fuel, but you also get less fuel from it than the kethane you convert. I think there is some significant loss there, so while you may be able to transport more volume and have it weigh less, the end result might be that you end up with less fuel at the end than if you'd used the same amount of weight on pure fuel.

[jocan2003]

I've not done much Kethane mining (read: none) but  I did pick up the suggestion, to keep it as Kethane as long as possible, since it's less dense than fuel.  Your ideal interplanetary vessel would be huge kethane tanks and converters - this is more weight-efficient than hauling fuel.

Solar panels shouldn't be an issue though.  Just 8-way some XLs and get massive power at all times.

Kethane is less dense than fuel, but you also get less fuel from it than the kethane you convert. I think there is some significant loss there, so while you may be able to transport more volume and have it weigh less, the end result might be that you end up with less fuel at the end than if you'd used the same amount of weight on pure fuel.

Dont forget more trip to your mine, best way is to refine on site unless you can use kethane for space travel wich you cannot.

Dont forget you need 10 ket for 1 liquid fuel and 10 more for 1oxidizer wich is a total of 20 kethane for a 1-1 fuel/oxidizer. I wont go in maths but i can assure you its more efficient to refine on site and transport fuel by yourself. Because in the long term/end you will loose some *mass* during the convertion just there its mass you moved for nothing since you lost it wich again in the end is useless DeltaV spent to bring that mass there only to be lost in the convertion. Also more trip you have to make to acheive the same amount of fuel converted its more trip spending deltaV to move your ship.