You could make a mfd that handles the user interface for now;
Yeah, I might end up going this route. It's a little lame that you have to separately enable the MFD module in settings, but it could do for now.
...with something like 40 tons worth of payload to due east already, I don't feel like this vehicle is begging for a few more tons of payload.
Yeah, it's probably OK for the moment.
I also have a different upgrade in my pocket, which is to subcool the propellants to jack up the density.
kocmolyf, can you publish the specs of your Skyhammer (fuel capacity, empty weight, dimensions, main thrust and ISP)? Or these data are still "classified"? ;-)
Sure, although it's a bit complicated with all of the various propellant tanks. I'll give you the overview:
Orbiter inert mass: 99967 kg
Orbiter internal main propellant: 77057 kg CH4, 269589 kg O2
Orbiter internal OMS propellant: 6191 kg CH4, 20940 kg O2
Drop tank inert mass: 30382 kg
Drop tank propellant: 371036 kg CH4, 1297923 kg O2
Main engines: 30476 kN thrust, 380 s Isp (vacuum)
OMS engines: 125 kN thrust, 363 s Isp
---------- Post added at 01:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:09 AM ----------
Better analysis reveals: actually lateral and vertical translation are quite sensitive to center-of-gravity movement. Oh well, I'll just tack on the extra dimension in the lookup table.