/sci/ - Science & Math

How can I further optimise this SSTO? It still underperforms, and has atrocious re-entry stability.

The high dry mass gives it a pretty limited range (circularises with roughly 2,500 m/s of delta V).
The high wet mass means it struggles to reach the critical speed needed for Rapier engines to be effective.
Using nuclear engines means I have to do a very long burn to land on the Mun (wasting so much fuel I can't leave), and I can't reduce the amount of oxidiser or spare any for landing because the nuclear engines aren't enough to circularise.
Using Whiplash+Rapier increases in-atmosphere performance, but it comes at a severe cost to the speed I exit the atmosphere with, which eliminates the benefits of improved TWR and reduced fuel consumption (and yes, I do remember to add more air intake).

Besides the terrible re-entry performance, this would at least work excellently departing from a Minmus fuelling station (uses a fuel hose instead of docking thanks to a mod).