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Here's the thing: Since KSP in stock does not constrain oxygen, food or air for Kerbals, you can basically stuff one Kerbal in a small capsule and send him on his way for millennia. So why are any of us building larger crew capacity vehicles at all? Or include more than one science lab? Unless you are a heartless monster and kill your crew left and right, you don't need more than a handful of Kerbals. Building a massive space station for 288 Kerbals (like I did for my Jool colonisation mission, see also the GIF below) is pointless, really. So, why do we do it?I am apparently not the only one, if I browse through a few screenshots and videos For me, it's basically role playing, when I think about it. But please tell me your reasons, I would like to know your thoughts on this one.

Named for it's uncanny ability to recover from situations that would cause most crafts to undergo rapid unplanned disassembly. The Phoenix CTS (Crew Transport Shuttle) may not be able to haul cargoes like the Firebird, it's bigger sibling, but it's increased range and speed make it ideal for scouting ahead to find Ore or transporting small amounts of Kerbals between bases in Duna's Sphere of Influence. Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/u503f5d8t72xl7y/Pheonix.craft?dl=0 Features: Crew transport capability: Space for one pilot and two passengers Vertical and horizontal flight modes: One Terrier on the back, one Aerospike on the bottom High speed: When flying horizontally, speeds of about 300 m/s can be reached in Duna's atmosphere Aerodynamic VTOL engines: The Aerospike is hidden in a service bay, which can open or close to make it more aerodynamic Frontal Clamp O Tron: Can dock far less awkwardly than the Firebird Descent Autopilot: With an experienced pilot, the Phoenix can be landed simply by setting the SAS to keep it retrograde and adjusting the throttle. A small kerbton of Vernors: Can do sick barrel roles with ease Action Groups: Toggles service bay, when it is closed it cannot VTOL, but it is more aerodynamic Toggles VTOL engine Toggles horizontal flight engine Toggles Fuel Cell Notes: I'm very happy with it's lifter, it looks good, gets it into orbit flawlessly and can do all but about 100 m/s of the Duna transfer burn It seems to need the Caps Lock precision control to dock, otherwise the Vernors are too strong and it just gets tossed around Still being tested. I wouldn't be surprised if the current version has issues turning in the atmosphere With about 2150 Delta V when using the Terrier, it could actually probably be used to ferry Kerbals between planets Unlike the Firebird, it doesn't come in pairs You could probably fit some science equipment or Ore scanners in the service bay, if you moved the monoprop.

Good news everyone! Do you have a hankerin for the good old days? Well now you can fly like they wanted to in the early 1960's Introducing the Farnsworth Dyna-soar. 1.1.3 friendly Back in the early 60's Boeing designed this neat rocket concept. Unfortunately, it never left the ground. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-20_Dyna-Soar Instead of the glider being attached to the side of the rocket like we are accustomed to seeing with the space shuttle, Boeing attached it to the top of the rocket. The space shuttle suffered from some inherent design flaws right off of the drawing board (due mainly to government budget cuts). The main one being that it has the thrust and mass are out of alignment. To compensate for this the designers mounted the SSME's (Space Shuttle Main Engines) at an angle so that the thrust could be brought inline with the center of mass. Unfortunately, this flight attitude brought the orbiter directly under the external tank. The orbiter was pretty fragile and could not handle much fod (foreign object debris)hitting it. The external tank was huge, covered in finicky insulation and was directly over the orbiter during assent. A great way for the orbiter to get hit with stuff... The External tank that was filled with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Those tanks had lines on them while it was on the pad to boil off some of those gasses that were in liquid form to control the pressure in the tanks. The result was the external tank would get cold enough sometimes for patches of ice to form on the tank out of condensing humidity in the air. Technicians would check for ice before launch but invariably, some would be missed. At launch by the time the shuttle cleared the launch tower it was already hurtling towards space at over 200 mph. Plenty fast enough for a piece of ice mingled with some foam from the external tank to break off and slice through the brittle carbon/carbon leading edge of the orbiter wing. This is the best guess as to what happened to the Columbia in 2003 ...Sorry for the history lesson... Anyways, The Dyna-Soar avoided all of these problems by mounding the glider on the top of the rocket. This however limited the size of the glider. It required the modified Titan rocket to have large fins on the bottom to compensate for the glider moving the center of lift too far up the rocket. So here is my take on the Dyna Soar All stages can take advantage of the "stage recovery" mod if you use it. The glider retains the last stage to use for orbital maneuvers, docking and solar energy. 150k orbits are achievable for crew rotation at your station. Final stage has a Clamp-0-Tron jr docking port to attach to the station. More fun than exploding! Perform your deorbit burn and then detach from the final stage. The glider should enter the athmosphere perpendicular and with the elevators deployed. There is no fuel you can move around. Once the air thickens up, the glider will drop to about 30 deg. attitude. The glider is not a "true" glider. It has two juno engines and 100 units of fuel so if you over or under-shoot your landing there is some adjustments that can be made. The glider flies very well and has an awesome glide slope. This does make it hard to burn off airspeed. Try to cross over the runway at well under 100 m/s and you shouldn't overshoot. Download here! https://kerbalx.com/Dr_Farnsworth/Dyna-Soar