On Thu, 01 Mar 2007 21:30:27 -0600, kT wrote:

I've been simulating single stage to orbit (SSTO) launch to low earth
orbit (LEO) in orbiter space flight simulator for a little while now.

In order to increase this payload, the obvious solution is converting
the rocket itself into payload. In this scheme the engine is removed
from the vehicle (roughly 20 percent of empty weight) and returned to
Earth in a cleverly designed nose cone engine carrier, and the tankage,
the oxygen, hydrogen, pressurization, residual fuel tanks and the RCS -
reaction control system, is then immediately pressed into service as
payload for infrastructure in constructing the space station or orbital
spaceport itself. Thus, the usable payload fraction is then increased by
a factor of seven (7) or so, dependent upon the amount of equipment or
infrastructure necessary to successfully reenter and recover a seven
thousand pound space shuttle main engine (SSME) from low earth orbit.

As long as you are thinking outside the box and sacrificing much of
your SSTO vehicle, why not use it as fuel? Build the fuel tanks and
sacrificial structure out of diamond. Pulverize the no longer needed
diamond structural material and feed it into the combustion chamber.
You can consume small amounts of Aluminum as well, but it is much
harder to pulverize or powder. You could use carbon fiber or
nanotubes as well, but the fantasy engineering becomes more difficult.