![ksp spaceplan engine ksp spaceplan engine](https://live.staticflickr.com/272/19385468863_88e75dc301_b.jpg)
So, SSTOs on other bodies (Minmus, Mun, Laythe, etc) can be useful for moving all kinds of stuff from surface outposts to orbital stations repeatedly if you make the SSTO reusable, and if it's not reusable, what's the point? Second, while the term "SSTO" is typically applied to hybrid open-/closed-cycle spaceplanes that can can make the surface-orbit round trip at Kerbin, you can apply it to any lander that can make a in one-stage round trip (down and back). I've used SSTOs to get Kerbals and supplies (TAC-LS) up to an LKO station, and bring Kerbals and science back down.
![ksp spaceplan engine ksp spaceplan engine](https://kerbalstates.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/x9sstocrewshuttle5.png)
I'd like to a points.įirst, SSTOs can also deliver 'non-structural' payloads (resource in tanks, science, and Kerbals) to and from orbit. The answers above are great: SF is correct that SSTOs are largely for fun and challenge, and Philipp points out that it can deliver small payloads to orbit. Also, having more engines means you will have to design a craft with a larger aerodynamic cross-section. That means when you compare the TWR of rapiers with that of a combination of jet- and rocket engines, you need to add the mass of the rocket engines to that of the jet engines and vice versa. Dedicated engines for one flight phase are just dead weight in the other. Regarding the rapier: While it looks quite mediocre on paper in both of its roles as a jet engine or a rocket engine, the ability to fulfill both roles in one part can make more than up for it.
![ksp spaceplan engine ksp spaceplan engine](https://i.imgur.com/cpte2RS.png)
A more ambitioned mission might require to dock several sections in orbit, which you can all launch per SSTO. When you unlocked the Mk3 spaceplane parts, you can even transport rockomax-scale parts into orbit in cargo bays, so manned missions which get into low-kerbin orbit through SSTO become an option. Fulfilling the mission then costs you nothing except the price of the satellite itself and a bit of spare-change for fuel. Use your spaceplane to get it into orbit, release the satellite, maneuver the satellite into the desired orbit and deorbit the spaceplane so it returns to the space center. When you have a "satellite in Kerbin orbit" contract, add a cargo bay to your spaceplane and place a satellite in it which has a small fuel tank and thruster so it can maneuver itself into place. That means getting the payload into orbit costs you nothing except fuel.Ī common use-case for SSTOs is as delivery vehicle for satellites. The point of a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle is that it can return back to the space center in one piece, where you can recover it for 100% of the initial cost (Maybe a better acronym would be SSTOAB - single-stage-to-orbit-and-back).
#KSP SPACEPLAN ENGINE PLUS#
Plus there's few things in the game looking more impressive than a mighty, big spaceplane docked to a space station. But they are a game of their own, a separate challenge, something fun to do next to all that standard work. You can visit all the planets, complete the science tree and win many challenges without ever visiting the SPH or upgrading it. In short, spaceplanes only marginally fit into the "big picture". But it takes skill and patience to build a spaceplane that handles well on climb, reaches orbit reliably and in non-excessive time, can carry a non-token payload, handles well on reentry and landing, looks nice and maybe even doesn't cost a fortune. Tourists, satellites, maybe site surveys after a suborbital fight. Sure, the "official" goal of them is completing contracts.
#KSP SPACEPLAN ENGINE INSTALL#
After a while you'll want to install MechJeb simply to avoid the tedium of launch process. The value of spaceplanes lies in the difficulty curve of building and flying them. This goes even worse for the two sandbox modes where money is non-issue. While you can theoretically operate them on cost of fuel alone (providing you don't crash), if you take profits "per hour of gameplay" from completing contracts with unrecoverable or partially recoverable launchers to profits you can achieve in the same (real) time with spaceplanes, the balance goes way towards rockets - you can finish three contracts earning 70% value from each in the time it takes you to complete one contract earning 98% of its value with a spaceplane. The primary purpose of spaceplanes is fun and challenge.