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A proposal was made to design a long-ranged interplanetary transport based on the venerable Julius platform. The A3-Julius was a military cargo transport (often nicknamed the Space Truck) used extensively during the Minmus-Mun Conflict. Even though the ship was unarmed, it's oversized manoeuvring pods gave it the thrust needed to side-slip in all directions. Thus, it could perform evasive manoeuvres needed to avoid enemy attacks. This, coupled with it's thick plating, gave it a reputation for reliability and survivability (albeit at the cost of delta V). fig 1: A3-Julius military transport The new ship will be named Jericho, and it's mission is to send a crew of four into the outer solar system. Prior missions have proven unsuccessful, as the attempted in-situ resource utilization ended in failure. Insufficient fuel for a return trip as well as a lack of vital resources resulting in a loss of life of all crew members. To correct these oversights, the Julius-class will feature a state of the art ore scanner, capable of pinpointing viable ore deposits from a distance of over 600 km. High-ISP nuclear engines will serve as the main propulsion systems, with lower-efficiency, higher thrust engines providing extra thrust when needed. Nuclear power will also be used to provide electricity in the sun-starved depths of the outer system. The ship will also feature an entirely self-contained mining and refinery system capable of refuelling it's tanks in under 2 weeks. This equipment will significantly dig into the ship's mass-budget, and as such multiple refuellings will be necessary to reach Jool. First at Minmus (where the ship will perform it's initial shakedown and extensive system's tests), then Dres, until finally refuelling at Pol when it arrives within the Jool system. While there, we expect to perform the first ever manned landing of Laythe. The lander (then unmanned) will be sent ahead of the Jericho and rendez-vous with it later. The ship's ventral engines provide an acceleration of 0.12 g with fuel and ore tanks at full capacity. At reduced capacity the engines can achieve 0.20 g, meaning it could theoretically perform a ventral landing on the Mun (though his has yet to be tested, as it would be pushing the safety margins to their limit). fig 2: the Jericho undergoing final tests before being mated to it's launch vehicle Since the orbital shipyards have yet to be repaired following the end of the war, the ship needed to be constructed on the ground, and then hauled into orbit on boosters. After careful planning, a modified Boreal-class lift vehicle was successful at performing the boost. The Boreal booster is capable of providing more than 13 million newtons of thrust at liftoff. Even this was not sufficient to lift the Julius, so modifications were made, adding 4 vector engines as well as 8 solid rocket engines to the first stage. fig 3: a Boreal-class booster in it's cradle prior to modifications fig 4: the Jericho escaping the atmosphere The vehicle boost was meant to be unmanned (due to the extreme G-forces that the vehicle would experience on ascent), Jeb insisted on coming along for the ride. The rest of the crew boarded via shuttle-capsules. Boarding was finished last night at 21:00 hours KCT. The ship is now ready to depart on your order. The injection burn will require around 1400 m/s. Upon departure the ship will be carrying a total of 4000 m/s (a significant excess and safety margin). God speed, and good luck. fig 5: the mission begins (( If the delta-V costs seem a bit high, it's because I'm playing on an up-scaled Kerbol system. Everything is 2.5x bigger than normal, resulting in some pretty big delta-V requirements. ))

Loosely based on the Russian Su-25 'Frogfoot' the KL-40 'Raptor' is a versatile ground attack aircraft https://photos.app.goo.gl/qdQ56Gaf8SbJG3aV6 https://photos.app.goo.gl/Pzypws9sD2m5EqjZ9 https://photos.app.goo.gl/4ucgpMq9fAFJWxFt7 https://photos.app.goo.gl/kfVHB9Ak7CvkJzydA https://photos.app.goo.gl/XESkgApG1rQsTtyo6 Next item coming soon