Preparations for 0.17: Possible designs for interplanetary craft, landers etc.

[Excalibur]

With 0.17 not too far away I thought I'd start designing craft which will help me reach the new planets to be added.

I found this new fuel transfer plugin, and it gave me an idea.

After quite a bit of experimentation I finally managed to launch this tanker into a 125km LKO.

At lift-off it masses over 1200 tons and can deliver over 200 tons to LKO (including a 30,000 litre fuel tank).

Next I set about designing an efficient SSTO lander able to operate in a variety of different atmospheres with efficiency due to it's cluster of aerospike engines.

Launching East from KSC, it can attain LKO with over 75% of it's total fuel remaining and complete almost any mission within Kerbin space. It also contains living quarters for thirteen Kerbonauts. However, only eight​ can use the woefully underpowered escape system! Mass approx. 80 tons fully fuelled.

As a test for 0.17, I first launched the tanker into a 125km LKO. Then the Atlas Lander took to the skies for it's first test mission. Once in orbit the lander rendezvoused with the tanker and topped off it's fuel and RCS tanks before completing a direct injection to Minmus. You can't see in the screenshots, but sat there on the surface of Minmus it's tanks are still 90% full. I plan to launch a network of tankers around the upcoming Kerbol System and use this lander as my primary manned interplanetary craft.

Post your preparations here and lets see what people come up with!

EDIT: More than willing to post .craft files for these two, they do use a myriad of mods though be warned.

EDIT II: Here's the link for the mods that I use. 460MB RAR file.

EDIT III:

After I discovered the fuel flow rate bug with a certain part used in the Atlas Lander I had to go back and redesign it so it was much more balanced. The result; two versatile SSTO rocket shuttles. I present;

Using only four aerospike engines with small verniers in compliment, the MkII can attain LKO and return to KSC for a powered landing using only about 50% of it's total fuel load. Therefore I think it should be capable of visiting any planet in the Kerbol System with strategically placed tanker support.

It has several airbrakes clustered around it's nose to ensure a tail-first final descent. Without these the drag and mass of the engines prevents assuming a retrograde attitude with hilarious results.

The Titan isn't as efficient as the Atlas MkII; it can reach LKO and land at KSC with approximately 40% fuel remaining. Mainly a design exercise and for those who think 'bigger is better'.

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Edited August 12, 2012 by Excalibur

[combat squirrel]

craft please!

[Excalibur]

craft please!

Okay be prepared to download quite a large number of mods. I'll RAR my parts/plugins folder and upload to Dropbox if you like?

EDIT: Uploading now, 450MB takes quite a while with a mighty upload speed of 53KB/s.

The forum won't let me upload .craft files though - it says they're an invalid file type. Putting them on Dropbox for now, but does anyone know a way around this?

Edited August 8, 2012 by Excalibur

[james_h1023]

I approve

Nice job.

[animalcross]

I agree, we must prepare for the new planets coming. Scince Nova is supposed to be working on it, I assume his "A Kerbals Guide to our Solar System" thread applies here, so I'd better start getting and Eve-capable craft ready. Hopefully they give us solar sails or something, cause I am gonna go mad with that old fuel tank.

[elmeerkat]

In .17 are the other planets going to have atmosphere? if so, you could make your lander even more efficient by giving it some wings so that you can glide in on atmospheric planets and powered landings on moons.

[Rage Baneblade]

For what reason does the lander support 13 Kerbals?

Wouldn't a more efficient usage of the space be for more fuel?

But very neat designs regardless

[Tim_Barrett]

All I can say is that trying this with stock will be the ultimate challenge, which is great.

[Skyro]

Aren't we supposed to be trying to design interplanetary rockets too? Because I have one, but I'm too lazy to take a pic, so I'll do it tomorrow, and plus it's almost 2 in the morning, so see ya!

[Excalibur]

For what reason does the lander support 13 Kerbals?

Wouldn't a more efficient usage of the space be for more fuel?

But very neat designs regardless

The DYJ crew tanks used actually contain fuel themselves, not too heavy either. I had versatility in mind when I decided to add two of them. There's plenty of scope for improvement in the design though - it tends to weathervane the wrong way when descending quickly through an atmosphere amongst other issues.

I agree with Tim's earlier point that doing it stock will be the ultimate challenge though. Will deffo have to attempt that at some point!

[Shedao]

Already posted pictures and data of my crafts in this challenge:

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/15985-Interplanetary-Vessels-and-Motherships

But I guess here is a better place for discussing the actual missions to new planets.

My original plan contained two crafts. One would land on the new planet and later achieve a low orbit. The second would function as a return craft grab the lander and set course to Kerbin. Unfortunately my poor orbital rendezvous skills made that plan impossible. Alternatively the lander will now hold only one Kerbal and the return craft holds two and an empty seat so the pilot from the lander can set over to the return craft.

Both designs use the same technology and only differ in the upper stages.

IP Lander:

98500 fuel units and a total weight of 512.9 tons

IP Return:

96100 fuel units and a total weight of 502.4 tons

Both crafts are capable of reaching an 27x27Mm orbit around Kerbol with the IP Lander having enough fuel in its upper stage to successfully land and take off from a Kerbin like planet (but a bit lower planetmass would be nice).

Now two additional pictures regarding the mission specific details of the two crafts:

The booster will be left as a sign of the Kerbal presence on the planet and is actually a strut with the empty mass of a real booster and can be carefully decoupled when the lander hits the ground.

Mods are Mechjeb 1.9 and Novapunch 1.2b. To use the empty booster on the lander you have to copy the folder from the small vanilla booster, rename it to "fakesolidbooster" and use the part.cfg attached to this post.

Edited August 9, 2012 by Shedao

[jfx]

The forum won't let me upload .craft files though - it says they're an invalid file type. Putting them on Dropbox for now, but does anyone know a way around this?

As .part files are just structured text files you can upload them to sites like pastebin.com whoever wants your craft can then create a new file in his ships folder and copy paste from there.

this or google drive or the plethora of other cloud drives.

[Shedao]

As .part files are just structured text files you can upload them to sites like pastebin.com whoever wants your craft can then create a new file in his ships folder and copy paste from there.

this or google drive or the plethora of other cloud drives.

Or you can make a .zip containing the craft file and upload it as an attachment.

[Oggula]

This is my stock+mechjeb interplanetary lander, the whole top 2 stages will land and take off. Tried making it larger but it tended to implode. https://www.yousendit.com/download/TEhYZXQ2V3JrUmxMWE1UQw

[verp]

How's that upload coming, OP? I'd really love to get a closer look at that.

[Tim_Barrett]

I just hope we can get to other planets with rockets that still look like rockets...

[Excalibur]

How's that upload coming, OP? I'd really love to get a closer look at that.

It's uploaded now, but I'm at a bbq so I'll find the link for you tomorrow.

Plus, rather embarrassingly the Atlas Lander is not the beast I thought it was. I've discovered a bug with the 3m to 7x1m connector. Even with seven engines attached fuel burns at the rate of one. Will upload a revised design tomorrow that doesn't cheat!

Thought the new aerospikes were rather more efficient than they actually are!

[UmbralRaptor]

I'm partial to direct ascent missions for simplicity, and stock as I'm unsure what mods will be working when 0.17 is released. With that in mind, the Des-Explorer series [working name] was designed with a mission ÃŽâ€V of 8-10 km/s. I expect this to be sufficient for most-all single-stop interplanetary trips. (.craft not included, as I'm still messing with the design, but I'll add it if anyone wants.)

Despite the horrible appearance it offers decent stability and maneuverability. GLOW is approximately 187 tonnes. I'd like to keep this below 200 tonnes, but I would also like to get 3 untouched tanks into a 70 km x 70 km orbit. Adding additional parachutes (on separate stages) might be useful for landing on the Mars analog, or the watery moon. Or Eve, if I don't mind the one-way trip. Surprisingly, I may need additional landing legs. Also, for taking off from Eve, a reworked final stage or two. (I expect the aerospike to be the only functional stock LFE at the bottom of its atmosphere)

[Cooly568]

I'm waiting! I'm waiting! I'm waiting!

[Excalibur]

Updated OP with dropbox link to the collection of mods I use. Enjoy.

[Cooly568]

No kidding you do have a lot of mods. Are you going to post the craft file?

[Excalibur]

Thought I already had. Silly me. I'll update the OP with them now. Be warned, as I stated above the Atlas in that configuration is a bit cheaty due to the fuel flow bug present when using the 3m to 7x1m engine mount.

I did use many more mods at one time, but with the release of 0.16 I considered many of them redundant. I also try to use only engines using the new specific impulse module as I think they're 'closer' to stock.

[Panichio]

I was thinking of using the orbital construction mod to help me out a little bit

[Excalibur]

I was thinking of using the orbital construction mod to help me out a little bit

I've never actually played around with that mod myself. Will have to take a look at it one day. Feels a little too 'cheaty' for me. That said I guess so is the fuel transfer plugin, with it's ability to magically move fuel up to 2km.

[animalcross]

In .17 are the other planets going to have atmosphere? if so, you could make your lander even more efficient by giving it some wings so that you can glide in on atmospheric planets and powered landings on moons.

Yeah, for know only Eve and "Kars" will have atmosphere if im correct. not sure about moons though. But the problem with wings is, unless its an unmanned probe, your gonna need alot of wings to carry return fuel from say Eve.