Fly Me To The Moon(Technically a Shuttle in LEO)

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Here we go.... Shuttle Endeavour

Done

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Small payload but good testing subject since I was not ready to dock the thing into a space station.

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Anyone???

 

[Lemniscate Biscuit]

Anyone???

I don't judge shuttles. Mooncrasher does that. Sorry

 

[Pink]

No DLC? That's always fun.
In your case, there's aesthetic and technical aspects that could be improved.
By the way, you didn't post a screenshot from landing or right before touchdown. Please fix that next time.

How heavy was that payload? 10% of that 442t entire mass would imply a minimum of approx 45t. With those tanks, it looks like your payload was about 20t? Not heavy enough for that rocket mass.
So either you need to make the payload bigger, or the rocket lighter, or some combination of both.

It looks like you still have lots of your main tank left before landing, about 20%?
And is the other tank for the cargo door or something else?
In any case, extra fuel is worse than useless, it hurts your performance. You could drain some tanks in the buildscreen so you start with a lighter shuttle, gaining efficiency. Or you can swap that extra fuel for more payload.

It's nice that you tried to have a proper hinge, but it's not necessary, and if your shuttle has a "pop-off" door instead that can re-attach, it might look nicer and have extra space for more payload.

Your distribution of parachutes and RCS is not very aesthetic or aerodynamic, I would try clipping or hiding them. Overall you should make your shuttle sleeker, and try make it lighter by finding unnecessary things to delete.

There's no pictures of it, but I suspect your boosters run out of fuel close to the same time as the first stage. That's inefficient, better if the boosters run out well before the first stage does.

Also, your shuttle might require a greater TWR if it detatches from the first stage at close to 1000 m/s. Maybe three valiants?

I suspect that with the appropriate modifications, you could make your shuttle, first stage and booster a lot lighter.

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

No DLC? That's always fun.
In your case, there's aesthetic and technical aspects that could be improved.
By the way, you didn't post a screenshot from landing or right before touchdown. Please fix that next time.

How heavy was that payload? 10% of that 442t entire mass would imply a minimum of approx 45t. With those tanks, it looks like your payload was about 20t? Not heavy enough for that rocket mass.
So either you need to make the payload bigger, or the rocket lighter, or some combination of both.
View attachment 108530
It looks like you still have lots of your main tank left before landing, about 20%?
And is the other tank for the cargo door or something else?
In any case, extra fuel is worse than useless, it hurts your performance. You could drain some tanks in the buildscreen so you start with a lighter shuttle, gaining efficiency. Or you can swap that extra fuel for more payload.

It's nice that you tried to have a proper hinge, but it's not necessary, and if your shuttle has a "pop-off" door instead that can re-attach, it might look nicer and have extra space for more payload.

Your distribution of parachutes and RCS is not very aesthetic or aerodynamic, I would try clipping or hiding them. Overall you should make your shuttle sleeker, and try make it lighter by finding unnecessary things to delete.

There's no pictures of it, but I suspect your boosters run out of fuel close to the same time as the first stage. That's inefficient, better if the boosters run out well before the first stage does.

Also, your shuttle might require a greater TWR if it detatches from the first stage at close to 1000 m/s. Maybe three valiants?

I suspect that with the appropriate modifications, you could make your shuttle, first stage and booster a lot lighter.

1. I tried to launch the a shuttle of 376.52 tons with three Valiants, no payload

Made it to orbit. Should I probably add more fuel to the orbiter?
2. IDK what to do with the thing, yes the other fuel is cargo door, BP edited

 

[Pink]

Made it to orbit. Should I probably add more fuel to the orbiter?

The best way to find out is by putting on payloads and increasing their size until you find the one that's too big.

2. IDK what to do with the thing, yes the other fuel is cargo door, BP edited

Try drain whatever fuel you don't need in the door, probably isn't a hude concern though.

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Here you go.

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Here you go.
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Oh, I think the payload was a bit lighter than 10%.......

 

[Pink]

Looks like it is. Keep trying!
From a quite glance at your newest submission, theres a bunch you can experiment with to see how heavy your payload can get, and what unnecessary things you can take off.

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Here is the final version, payload was a bit more than expected, this is how far I can go with it....

You can see that I clipped a extra shit 6 wide in there.

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Here is the final version, payload was a bit more than expected, this is how far I can go with it....
View attachment 109202 View attachment 109201 View attachment 109200 View attachment 109199 View attachment 109198 View attachment 109197 View attachment 109196 View attachment 109195 View attachment 109194 View attachment 109193 View attachment 109192
You can see that I clipped a extra shit 6 wide in there.

Did a check, way more then 10%

 

[Pink]

So it's technically capable.
Issue is that the payload is clipped, and that the shuttle doesn't look as good as it could.

I recommend two things:
1. Rework the shuttle and its rocket, so that it is lighter. Then you won't need as much payload, and that means you don't need to clip the payload.
1.1 You may want to get rid of the hinge to give you more payload space if you can't make the shuttle and rocket light enough.
2. Make it look better. A vague request, but definitely possible.

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

So it's technically capable.
Issue is that the payload is clipped, and that the shuttle doesn't look as good as it could.

I recommend two things:
1. Rework the shuttle and its rocket, so that it is lighter. Then you won't need as much payload, and that means you don't need to clip the payload.
1.1 You may want to get rid of the hinge to give you more payload space if you can't make the shuttle and rocket light enough.
2. Make it look better. A vague request, but definitely possible.

So??

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Here we go....rocket changed, shuttle lighter, heavier and longer payload

There you go

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Mooncrasher, can you look at this please?

 

[Pink]

The main issue is that if I haven't made a mistake, your payload still isn't 10% of the lift-off mass. If you think I make a mistake, please provide the numbers and the blueprint.

Other things that aren't necessarily issues:

Well, I know you could still definitely make it look better.... and also without using flat textures, it's not necessary to make a good looking shuttle. Flat textures is a personal choice, though, so I won't pester you about that. I'd still like it if you make the shuttle look nicer.

Your TWR is 1.18 with those 4 hawks? If you make the booster wider, you can fit an extra hawk. Extra TWR is good in this case, will reduce your gravity losses so you can save fuel and lighten the rocket. This could help you reach your payload goal without more payload.

If I guessed your shuttle mass correctly, you only need like 6 parachutes if you put on some landing legs.

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

The main issue is that if I haven't made a mistake, your payload still isn't 10% of the lift-off mass. If you think I make a mistake, please provide the numbers and the blueprint.

Other things that aren't necessarily issues:

Well, I know you could still definitely make it look better.... and also without using flat textures, it's not necessary to make a good looking shuttle. Flat textures is a personal choice, though, so I won't pester you about that. I'd still like it if you make the shuttle look nicer.

Your TWR is 1.18 with those 4 hawks? If you make the booster wider, you can fit an extra hawk. Extra TWR is good in this case, will reduce your gravity losses so you can save fuel and lighten the rocket. This could help you reach your payload goal without more payload.

If I guessed your shuttle mass correctly, you only need like 6 parachutes if you put on some landing legs.

Bigger then the last payload and heavy by around 4 tons

 

[Pink]

It's still clipped, so...
I recommend you increase the TWR of the boosters so you can try lightening the whole rocket.

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

It's still clipped, so...
I recommend you increase the TWR of the boosters so you can try lightening the whole rocket.

Did and it worked a bit more faster than expected.......

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Mooncrasher so......?

 

[Pink]

Make an unclipped submission.

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Make an unclipped submission.

Sure

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Make an unclipped submission.

Apparently, it wont let me shove a probe without getting it clipped.....

So there you go

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

Pink, sorry if I disturb