Sky Vagrant's Space Vehicles

[Sky Vagrant]

Before I get started, please be aware that I play KSP on the Xbox so I can't share my craft files. If that changes in the future, I'll try to update this thread.

Shelby Gemini

I was excited for the Making History expansion (which very recently became available on Xbox) because I love the Gemini program. So I had to make a cool ship for the coolest looking space capsule. The Gemini was called “America’s Sports Car” so mine is the Shelby version (car people will get this).

 

 

I built this to transport Kerbals from Kerbin to Duna. It’s very maneuverable, but it’s built for looks and speed rather than range. No heat shields, so just intended for use in space. It has a side-facing Mk2 Clamp-O-Tron for docking because it looks better and because the capsule doesn’t have monopropellant.

Specs

• TWR of 1.04 (not bad for Nervs)
• dV of 2202m/s in vacuum
• Wet weight of 17.6 tonnes (4.3 tonnes of liquid fuel)
• 29 parts
• Length 13.2m
• Width 3.1m

[Sky Vagrant]

Shaihulud

 

This is the big one! Literally! I spent a couple weeks designing, testing, and retesting this to get it right. I wanted it to do everything and it pretty much does. It's a three-Kerbal lander so it can bring a pilot, scientist, and an engineer to Duna to repack chutes, reset science, and mine before hoping to another biome (the pilot is there to be the commander and feel important). I built it around a dV requirement to launch from Duna and land on Ike - which is does pretty easily. It can also hop between any two Duna locations (assuming there is some ore available). It can even return safely and land on Kerbin (that's where I tested it).

 

 

It's also equipped with all the science gathering instruments except the telescope. It has the big drills and ISRU with both solar panels and fuel cell arrays for electricity. After extensive testing, I decided to toggle the center and four outer engines separate which worked out great when I got to Duna and five engines was too much for fine control on landing.

 

 

Specs

• TWR of 7 on Duna surface
• dV of 3242 m/s in vacuum using Wolfhound engines (Isp 412s) - luckily Making History came out for the Xbox while I was designing this!
• Wet weight of 87 tonnes (48 tonnes Lf/Ox)
• 8 drogue parachutes and 8 main parachutes
• 20 radiator panels for reentry and mining; six closest radiators activate/deactivate with drill control groups
• Electric storage 16,165
• Part count 141
• Width 9.9
• Length 13.1

 

It does have a few weak areas. I needed to use Vernor RCS thrusters and it is hard to be precise with those, so I modified my station at Duna to make docking easier (on the plus side, no monopropellant to deal with). It tests to flip around to face prograde on reentry so I had to add airbrakes. It doesn't have much ore carrying capacity. And finally, since I tested on Kerbin I thought it could operate all the mining equipment simultaneously, but out at Duna I turn one drill off since the solars don't charge as efficiently.

I liked what I built so much I sent two of them to Duna! The second ship is named Muaddib (both names are Dune references).

Who is on EVA from these vessels? That will be the subject of a later video...

Edited April 27, 2019 by Sky Vagrant
Trying to embed youtube

[Sky Vagrant]

 By the way, that was my first KSP vid, so please let me know what you think. I do plan to do more.

Edited April 27, 2019 by Sky Vagrant
Trying to embed youtube

[Sky Vagrant]

OG Landspeeder

 

I built the craft on the left to mimic the Hotwheels toy on the right. The toy is based on original concept art for Luke's landspeeder in Star Wars. My son gave it to me for Christmas and I just think it is the coolest.

 

I'm not a great aircraft pilot in KSC, but I think it is particularly difficult to control. But still fun!

Specs

• Vertical takeoff and landing
• About a minute of flight time
• Wet weight of 3.9 tonnes (2.6 tonnes dry)
• Four "Spark" engines for hover (plus four "Ants" for balance)
• Two "Spider" engines for forward thrust
• 77 parts
• Length 6.9m
• Width 7.0m

[Sky Vagrant]

Uplifter Single Stage Rocket (USSR) and the Kerbal-to-Ground-and-Back (KGB) Mun Lander

I built the lander first to look like a Soviet-style machine and then decided to build a vehicle to put it into orbit. I started off with a cargo bay and was planing to put a space plane on top of an expendable launcher, but in testing it out I discovered that I was able to get to orbit! I don't really know why it works as an SSTO, but I'm sure it's not very realistic. It can deliver about 8.5t to orbit.

Here's a video of the mission:

For some reason the Onion module on the USSR kept turning black. I thought it had something to do with atmospheric heating, but it didn't happen when the KGB Onion module reentered. Weird.

And here's a version of the video with commentary instead of silly text and music:

Spoiler

 

Specs

• USSR Stats (without KGB payload):
  • Wet Weight: 323.5t
  • Part Count: 107
  • Length 41.2m
  • Width 15.3m
• KGB Transfer Stage dV: 1036 m/s
• KGB Descent Stage dV: 1256 m/s
• KGB Ascent Stage dV:  1396 m/s
• KGB Stats (without Transfer Stage):
  • Wet Weight: 4.5t
  • Part Count: 37
  • Length 3.2m
  • Width 2.7m

[Sky Vagrant]

Rocketship Nemo II

This was a fun and challenging to make. It's "Nemo II" because version one needed major fixes.

Specs

• TWR of 4.88 on Bop's surface
• dV of 3093 m/s in vacuum using three Vector engines
• Wet weight of 102 tonnes (with full ore and fuel)
• One big drill that deploys and ore capacity of 1500 units
• Part count 60
• Width 7.5
• Length 19.3

Here are a couple more shots that look better on Imgur than they do in the video:

Edited April 17, 2020 by Sky Vagrant

[KerbalAstronomer]

I love your spacecraft, Shaihulud particulary !

[Sky Vagrant]

1 hour ago, KerbalAstronomer said:

I love your spacecraft, Shaihulud particulary !

Thanks!! Shaihulud is probably the best thing I’ve built in KSP. I’ve had a lot of fun with the more cosmetic designs, but Shaihulud is extremely capable so I use it all the time (and it’s still cool looking).