Gossamer Albatross

[Hotel26]

I've built a prototype of a VTOL ion-drive "hover-raft" for lo-grav environments up to and including Duna.

Gossamer Albatross 1.0

It's dual purpose is local tourism as well as commuter flights over about a 30-degree radius of the reference body's circumference.  It could serve for rescue too.  "Hover-raft" and "mono-prop commuter" are two nicknames for it.

Unfortunately, I think I've reached the limits of my VAB capability with this project, so I'd like to open a competition.  (Maybe something similar has been done before?  Please let me know and provide a link and thank you!)

Otherwise, I'd like to propose a challenge.  Take a look at the craft file above.  I want an 8-seater (6 or above).  VTOL.  Stays aloft on ion-power alone.  Is only fueled with xenon and mono-prop.  Is fun to fly and OK to require plenty of advance flight planning.  You may use monoprop, e.g. OMS, to propel to speed or to initiate/augment ascent.  It *must* be equipped with a refueling "spoon" (similar to that included in 1.0 above): a standard-size dock facing downwards for mating with a fuel-truck rover.

Mono-prop is used for initial acceleration and final deceleration and the usual attitude adjustments.  After that it should have at least 30 minutes duration aloft on ion-power.

The v1.0 posted here needs weight reduction and I wanted to remove the stack bi-couplers and replace the retract landing gear with lighter-weight fixed gear.

One last comment: "form follows function".  I don't care how ugly the result is (check out my effort!!) as long as it is fun to fly and good for exploration, tourism and medium-distance commuting.

Apologies to resorting to hoping other people would spend their own valuable time, energy and expertise working on this but I know that a) I am at the limit of what I can do with the VAB, and b ) there are rocket craftsmen out there who might revel in a challenge like this and enjoy producing something that I believe will be very useful and fun to a lot of others.

Want to take a crack at it?  Be my guest!  Please post your work back in this topic and get some recognition/kudos for your ability!

Edited January 9, 2016 by Hotel26

[Hotel26]

[Rocket In My Pocket]

The images aren't showing up properly. Looks like they are from your google drive?

Try using Imgur in the future, it tends to play nice with the new forum.

Here's the pic of the craft he's trying to post for anyone who wants to see it:

Edited January 8, 2016 by Rocket In My Pocket

[Dfthu]

Looks cool. What's the Dv?

[Hotel26]

An update on this: I tried a bit harder and discovered my major malfunction was that, if one wants to mount more Dawn engines, one should use the 1x1 rover plates and more of them to make the base, since each one provides a mounting point.

Result is that I got 9x Dawn engines on it which means I can hover on the Mun with two-thirds and one-tick throttle.  Should therefore work on Duna, too.  But the fuel draw is much more than I thought, so the duration looks like 30+ minutes...  not 3+ hours.

 

@Dfthu, Dv dunno truthfully.  I suppose it's 9x Dawns running for 30 minutes except I have 2x OMS Puffers on the stern for horizontal propulsion.  Use them once to accelerate and again at the destination to slow up.  I have 500 units of MP available so that might be enough with the Puffers to get you into orbit and even rendez-vous.  (I ain't suggesting anybody try that, though!)

@Rocket In My Pocket: sincere thanks for posting the second link which is the photo.  I'll use Imgur from now on and thanks.  The first link (first post) was the craft file of my 1.0 which sucked.  The Google Drive link for that is:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByXEkzQMfWSJei1jRVczQ290T2c
just for anyone who wants to play with it.

I won't post my 2.0 in case anyone out there does want to build their own vehicle, but I'll post it eventually.

Incidentally, I got my "airline mentality" in gear and put 24 seats onto Albatross 2.0.  That'll make the headlines around the Kerbol system if one goes down in a mishap... 

Have fun!

[Hotel26]

I'll publish 2.0 of my Gossamer Albatross.  This machine is superb fun to fly and I've never seen so much of the Mun "up close and personal" as I have in the few test flights of the Albatross that I've conducted so far.

[ imgur]eM4DU[/imgur]

I've put some materials into a folder on Google Drive for anyone who wants to download it and splice it into a quicksave.sfs and go straight to flying it.  https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByXEkzQMfWSJNm1ud2JFamhJNm8

(In the Read Me, I forgot to mention that the solar panels are on 1 and the toggle for the OMS Puffers are on 2...)

I look forward to any feedback, suggestions or better versions!

Edited January 17, 2016 by Hotel26
Correct imgur insertion