Relandable Rockets (Like SpaceX)

[WalebKassa]

I just got bored and remembered something. Creating reuseable/landable rockets would save some cash in Career Mode. (Using landing gears, and parachutes.)

I started doing this and I did save a good ammount of money. Usually, players just let them fall to Kerbin and explode!

Not anymore for me! 'Reusing/Recovering" Fuel tank and engines are a great way to go!

Anybody else do this yet?

[Ogre420]

Stage recovery mod...

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/78226-112-stagerecovery-recover-funds-from-dropped-stages-v164-050216/

[=BB= Misophist]

Originally posted by RoofCatA:

so you need more expensive ships just to save money? ;/

Not quite. I really like it for early game, when saving one of those used up boosters will give you a (for that point in the game) decent amount of cash

[CATAO]

Rocket returning to home http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=731502655

[Magnaheim]

I launch all my big stuff with SSTOs, usually costing 400k+ per launch, and I recover most of it on landing...usually.
But of course smaller launches, probably anything 200k and under, I don't even bother.

[andylaugel]

I generally just bite the bullet and accept the cost of losing boosters to put something big into orbit. But often what I do launch stays in operation indefinately. A spaceplane though did help a lot with getting kerbals (trainees & tourists) in and out of orbit for cheap. Here is a screenshot of how that works:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=727244969
That said, I did once design a single stage to orbit that could put a reasonably massive payload into LKO and land again. Here are some pics of that experiment:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=591183416
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=591184168
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=591184472
The problem with Insanity is that it is just cheaper to launch with disposable boosters, unless you can land KSC with great accuracy--something that is very difficult to do without wings.

[Magnaheim]

Originally posted by andylaugel:

... unless you can land KSC with great accuracy--something that is very difficult to do without wings.

I have yet to master the landing this career, in fact, my last SSTO landing blew up half of it, because I forgot to keep fuel for the final landing.

BUT, I designed it similar to one I found online, and someone told me exactly how to bring it back to KSC, and it worked last career mode quite a few times. I would circular orbit 70-74km, then do a retroburn of like 60-70ms, just after I pass that big crater. Re-entry slowing then puts me right near KSC, some precision wiggling in atmosphere, with a couple bumps of thrust left helps me aim for the water just past KSC, and bam 90%+ recovery. I have yet to get such accuracy with any other rocket tho. :/

[Azunai]

i find that techique questionable (at best). you need much larger rockets to get stuff to orbit in a single stage that can be recovered, and you have to babysit the descending rocket and land it, which is about the most boring and uninteresting task i could imagine in this game.

it may be fun and interesting the first 1-2 times you do it, afterwards it's just work. and it doesn't save you nearly enough to warrant the extra time you spend and the tedium of doing it.

also, you can make more money by using vastly more efficient disposable rockets and simply running more contracts in the time you save by not having to recover the lifter rocket system.

same for SSTO planes, really, but at least they are somewhat challenging to design properly, so the point where they start feeling pointless comes a lot later.

[CATAO]

for me it saves about 130k of money, the mamoth itself costs about 40k alone. the rocket have payload of about 18 tonnes.

[Azunai]

surely there must by a typo. you don't need a mammoth to get an 18 ton payload to oribt. a "quick and dirty" lifter with a mainsail, 2 jumbo tanks and maybe a few thumper or kickback boosters would get the job done. that's more like 30-40k for the lifter. so that's sort of the upper limit of what you can save by using an SSTO instead.

if you use a mammoth for that job, chances are that the fuel price alone is close to the cost of the whole disposable lifter. and that completely ignores the problem that you will realistically only recover something like 90% of the hardware cost (it's quite hard to land a rocket exactly on the runway, but it's reasonable to land it somewhere within maybe 100-200km of the space center)

[CATAO]

i usually land about 3 - 15 km from space center everytime. usually get 97.5% of recovery

[Magnaheim]

Originally posted by CATAO:

for me it saves about 130k of money, the mamoth itself costs about 40k alone. the rocket have payload of about 18 tonnes.

Ok, since this discussion is getting serious, I would like to see a pic of this SSTO of yours plz.

[CATAO]

i never said it was an SSTO.
im on my work now, cant open the game, but it is the one on the last screenshot https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=731502655 its not aways an SSTO, sometimes i put some boosters on it when i have to lift some heavy cargo.

with 4 kickback boosters i have put a 40 ton cargo at LKO.

when i went home i can show the build screen.

and its easy to land at ksc with this rocket, target your flag at ksc, just retroburn to 15km above and aim antitarget, activate the airbrakes sometimes and the elevons in his foot do the job

[Azunai]

Originally posted by CATAO:

i usually land about 3 - 15 km from space center everytime. usually get 97.5% of recovery

that's very impressive if you can pull that off consistently!

i never mastered that whole landing unguided stuff in atmossphre precisely. i'm somewhat good at getting planes to the KSC; but that's really not that hard. you just have to get the trajectory somewhere withing about 100km and use the wings to brake harder or to glide closer. a rocket or capsule needs a lot more precise "aiming".

still, you could trim down that rocket quite a bit. most of that fuel and engines is really just used to lift itself.

[Magnaheim]

Thanks both for the pics, and yeah, I call mine an SSTO, but if it falls a little short, I add boosters.

[CATAO]

the payload, the jaburu, a hub for sets of nervs, 30 tons empty
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=732706684

the empty rocket https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=732706827

the full rocket, 17k fuel https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=732706754

full rocket with payload, https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=732706994

the 4 extra kickbaks are nedded, i can achieve lko with some spare fuel to dock in the space station and deorbit

the total launch cost is about 17k of fuel plus 2,5% of 130k plus 4 kickbacks = about 33k

the jaburu cant fly by itself yet, i need to put the engines in orbit