Laythe airport?

[Xyphos]

I wanna build an interplanetary airport on Laythe, any suggestions or ideas on how I should do this?

[Thomassino]

Find a good flat place, fly there as many spaceplanes as possible and a command tower

Edit: maybe use KIS to place lights to shape your runway

[spudman2]

Try to find a smooth, flat, large, and preferably level piece of land near Laythe's equator. Having it be level would be nice, but I think it's less important than smooth, flat, and large. You can scout out large islands in map view, and probably send an airbreathing scout jet to get a closer look. After you've picked a location for a base, next mission would be to send a stationary mining+refining rig, and a rover with fuel tanks and a claw to transfer the fuel. Make sure the mining rig can house a Kerbal; skilled engineers can really speed the whole process up. Then I would send a SSTO fuel tanker airplane so that you can send fuel up to orbit. Next, an orbital fuel station to hold all this delicious fuel and make it easy to get to. Lastly, I'd send a science lab just because, and anything else you think you'd might want. If you don't want to spend huge amounts of Space-o's building rockets to transfer out to Jool, you could make a nuclear-powered tug that flies back "empty", picks up the next base module, and flies out to Jool after refueling.

[colmo]

Kerbal Konstructs allows the placement of runways and buildings in-game. Launching new vessels from a base in Laythe (which KK can do, just not advised on bodies other than Kerbin) is likely to be...'exciting'.

[1greywind]

It is possible to manage even with stock and new aerodynamic. Make airstrip from large plates, or rectangular wing segments. Airplane on Laythe will need somewhat ~100 meters of runway to make easy landing. It is well within VAB building space. But if you will be satisfied with VTOL base things are even easier:

I've made this for 0.90 and it will work for 1.0.4; even launch vehicle will work (go straight up below mach 1 until 30000 meters and then to orbit); but you'll need multiple passes of aerobreaking in Jool system on arrival: Laythe->Jool->Laythe, old style "going down on 8 km/s" will not work:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/93085-Laythe-Expeditionary-Base-%28flying-floating-VTOL-ship-with-flight-deck%29

[Wjolcz]

Go for polar caps. That's the place I am going to use for my jet drone landings/take-offs.

Edit: be creative about your Control Tower. If I was going to create a whole airport I would use a MK3 plane with vtol capabilities and use it's VTOL engines to flip it vertical. Bam! You got yourself a tower that is always ready to be relocated!

Edited July 19, 2015 by Veeltch

[Xyphos]

Heh, some good ideas here.

[cantab]

I think what I'd do is first scout out an airstrip. A flat stretch of land that's as long as you're willing to look for, preferably near the equator, though if you don't want to spend ages searching there are the ice caps. As mentioned it's OK if it has an overall slope as long as there aren't lots of small bumps. Then I'd mark that out with some simple, low-part-count markers. Probe core, light, RTG, that's it.

Then place some infrastructure nearby, but watch the part count. I think I'd put a combined control tower and fuel depot near the runway, and keep a fuel truck on site, but have everything else a few kilometres away.

[BurnPrograde]

Line your runway with EVA flags, they'll show up on map mode, be visible in the dark and can be seen further than lights

[Levelord]

This was an idea I had in 0.9 when I had a fleet of VTOLs...

Allow me to show you a tour of my new prototype Laythe marine colony.

This is the colony, designed to be modular. It has a marine science module, a landing platform and several housing bays.

On the landing platform we perform routine maintenance of VTOL SSTO aircraft and refuel them as needed.

Here is the single housing module

And the quad housing module for more colonists. It's designed to resemble a small village.

Here is the science bay where Laythe's water, atmosphere and other relevant experiments are carried out.

Another angle of the layout. Feels quite cosy.

[X-SR71]

I'd like to add: don't forget a resource extractor/converter for fuel. A good location of ore might affect the position of the airport.

[samstarman5]

This was an idea I had in 0.9 when I had a fleet of VTOLs...

Is that shallow water or is that structure actually floating?

[Moh1336]

Am I the only one looking at these things thinking: Why can't I be this creative?

[Rath]

Is that shallow water or is that structure actually floating?

Its floating just like solid steel plates do in KSP

[Gargamel]

Its floating just like solid steel plates do in KSP

Ahhh yes, Kerbal Physics. Right on then.

[Evanitis]

Those VTOL bases are beyond awesome...