Mk2 Shuttle Mission Ideas

[Corona Industries]

I just developed my first shuttle. After a lot of hard work and calculations, it is done. Unfortunately, it is made from Mk2 parts. I cant pu many things inside that cargo bay. It has 2 CRG-08 bays. I am asking you, Kerbal-killers, to help me get ideas for funny and interesting shuttle missions. I already have interplanetary probes waiting for transfer window, but I think that wont be enough for me to feel like I used the shuttle as much as I can. Shuttle has enough delta-V to lift anything that can fit inside those cargo bays.

Thank you in advance!

[KerikBalm]

sadly, the mk2 cargobays are quite small, and the most you can really do are small probes, or ungainly mun and minmus landers.

In theory you could assemble a space station composed of 1.25m modules.

Is this an STS style shuttle, or a SSTO spaceplane?

I only find mk2 cargobays to be good for probes, to get more utility, you'll want mk3 cargobays at least:

And when the mk3 bay is too limiting, use payload fairing with spaceplanes:

Edited May 28, 2016 by KerikBalm

[Corona Industries]

I built that shuttle in career mode and Mk3 parts are not yet available to me. It is STS style shuttle.

My problem was exactly that. I do not know what can I fit inside those small bays. Hopefully, someone will get an idea.

Have anyone ever used those cargo bays, and for what?

[cantab]

Congrats on the build!

The Mk2 bay fits 1.25m parts and has some room for radially-attached bits, but not much. That said you can do a lot in that form factor. For landers, consider one that lands "sideways". Example (might not actually fit a Mk2 bay but it shows the idea). For rovers, using the extendable landing gear may help, for example this concept. (Pre 1.1.x wheel behaviour, so might not work now). Alternatively, you could just equip the shuttle orbiter to go and land places itself.

For a station, I don't think I'd do the full construction with a Mk2 shuttle, but rather launch a 2.5m station core on a rocket and use the shuttle for crew and additional modules.

[KerikBalm]

back in 1.02... or was it 1.04, I had a grapple module that I stuck in a mk2 cargobay, to grapple and deorbit parts for the recovery contracts... I even did an A-class asteroid once.

I'm not sure how well it would handle reentry now

This very early career ad-hoc station (intended originally as a single use fuel depot to deorbit when all mun stuff had been research/tech tree was all unlocked, and the fuel depot was nearly empty) of mine has two "modules" attached to it, which could have been carried up in a mk2 bay. First its ox-stats weren't sufficient, and it had very little EC storage... so I added on those 4 extendable panels you see.

Then I unlocked the 1.25m docking port, so I put on an additional adaptor to allow me to refuel it from the ISRU ship I had launched with a 1.25m docking port.

Your shuttle could be used for little payloads like this

[Pecan]

4 hours ago, Corona Industries said:

,,,help me get ideas for funny and interesting shuttle missions....

In real life the strength of the shuttle was not that it can put things into space/orbit or even that it is reusable but that it could capture and move or retrieve things from space.  Consider modular payloads (such as a science package) that a space-only transfer vehicle can carry outside LKO and that is handed back to the shuttle for return to Kerbin surface.

In KSP there's even less point to a shuttle design but if bay width is your problem you might like to consider the Infernal Robotics mod.  This adds moving parts to the game and lets you build things that unfold from the bay to form rovers, base-modules, etc.

[royying]

I think the mk2 series need a XL size cargo bay like the Airbus Beluga

[Xyphos]

Mk2 cargo bays are too small to do anything with besides launching tiny space probes, and housing misc parts for space planes such as torque wheels, extra batteries, and spare mono propellant.

real shuttle launches use the Mk3 parts, you can really haul some interesting things up there in them.

it's also worth noting that Mk2 cargo bays can be attached vertically, to hold the small drilling equipment on extra-planetary landers, so they can land almost dry, refuel and launch back to kerbin.

[The_Rocketeer]

Mk2 shuttle bays are great for small, single purpose satellites such as those you need for resource scanners or mods like ScanSat and RemoteTech. You can easily fit probe landers with a lot of dV inside them too (radius 0.5-1).

They're also excellent storage containers for other mods like KIS or USI LS that don't ruin the lines of your boat.

Aerodynamically, having a Mk2 bay could be the best or only way to return modules or small (up to radius 1) parts to the surface without having them burn up in the atmosphere during re-entry.

Beyond the scope of shuttles, potentially the bay parts are also docking bays for RCS-only service/tractor pods for larger ships. I've seen them used as VTOL engine bays. You can even use the open doors as landing legs.

All this being said, I think the general mantra of KSP is to build a thing that does a job, rather than to build a thing and then come up with jobs for it.

Edited May 28, 2016 by The_Rocketeer

[magnemoe]

The most obvious use of MK2 planes are kerbal transports. Take kerbals to mun / minmus shuttles or interplanetary ships, rescue kerbals in low orbits is another.
Probe launches is another, science around kerbin including atmospheric science is another.
If you use KIS you can deliver spare parts. 
 

[mk1980]

i don't think there's much use for cargo shuttles in career at all. you could just launch the payload directly with a rocket that is cheaper than the disposable components you use for the shuttle launch. basically, it boils down to "it's not worth launching a 20 ton shuttle that delivers a 5 ton payload when it's cheaper to directly deliver the 5 ton payload".

mk2 shuttles are nice for crew missions (tourists for example), though. the mk2 passenger cabin weighs less than the hitchhiker and an mk2 shuttle survives reentry without heatshields and lands without chutes, so mk2 shuttles can be lighter than pods of similar crew capacity and have a better recovery value.

[AeroGav]

You can pack in a small ion powered upper stage, like so -

In orbit around Moho,  the Kerbal takes a seat in the lander section..

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time..