Arrow Queen - Interplanetary VTOL SSTO

[Janus92]

 

The Arrow Queen, an Interplanetary VTOL SSTO (Breaking Ground required)

The Arrow Queen is a Mk2 style spaceplane, designed for VTOL and delivers 6 kerbals and up to 2020m/s delta-V in orbit. This is enough to land on Mun (with a suicide burn, but margins are maximum 100m/s), Duna (no parachutes necessary, just aerobrake and use retrograde nuclear thrust, margins around 500m/s) or Minmus before continuing into the rest of the universe. It also includes an ISRU unit for some (slow) refuelling.

For VTOL, it features 6 rotating hover engines that are stowed away into mk2 cargobays for horizontal flight. It was a lot of work balancing CoM, CoL, CoT together into a functional spaceplane. But I think the result is quite well balanced.

Download

The craft was the result of an experiment with a VTOL SSTO, and through many iterations it reached the current status. Feel free to improve its design anytime!

 

Its deltawing shape means it's highly aerodynamic:

 

As nuclear engines provide all of the delta-V from 30km+, reaching orbit is not easy. Here's a screenshot during a 3 minute burn to Mun (acceleration of around 4m/s, so patience is required):

 

As delta-V for Mun is marginal, I recommend flying straight into Mun and doing a suicide burn (THANK YOU, MECHJEB). Don't start the landing burn too late:

 

Once you have landed, it's ISRU time! (Take enough food for 60 days at least)

 

Landing on Duna seen from the cockpit (after some serious aerobraking, retrograde nuclear thrust is the easiest, like on the Mun):

https://imgur.com/1UrtT

 

 

Also check out it's lighter, and easier (non-nuclear) sister for LKO operation, The Arrowmaker:

Download Arrowmaker

Edited May 28, 2020 by Janus92
correction, Duna also landable. Pics added

[Jamie Logan]

Brilliant!

The solar panel/radiator/mining rig looks just like one I made a while ago

[Janus92]

On 6/6/2020 at 3:23 AM, Jamie Logan said:

Brilliant!

The solar panel/radiator/mining rig looks just like one I made a while ago

Actually your ship mostly inspired mine! That awesome solar panel setup and the functionality of your ship was THE inspiration for mine. I wanted to scale it up to Mk2 sizes though! :)

I also used your movable-engine-system for mine.

[FleshJeb]

I'm ordinarily very uptight about raw performance, but this is too pretty and functional not to appreciate. Very well done; your aesthetic choices are top-notch.

[Janus92]

Thanks! Decent performance and aesthetics are difficult too combine sometimes!

[redivh]

I have Breaking Ground installed but when I load this craft it says unknown part modules, do I need any mods?

Edited January 5, 2021 by redivh
This doesn't seem to be a problem for loading the craft.

[redivh]

 

Great spaceplane! I followed all the instructions but I can’t seem to get 2020 delta-v remaining once I reach orbit. (I only have 1871 delta-v) Should I be doing something different?

[Janus92]

On 1/5/2021 at 2:11 AM, redivh said:

 

Great spaceplane! I followed all the instructions but I can’t seem to get 2020 delta-v remaining once I reach orbit. (I only have 1871 delta-v) Should I be doing something different?

Hmm, hard to say, and also it's been a while since I've flown the craft. I just know that the delta-V is really sensitive to the flight profile being flown on ascent. I think I followed a pretty flat ascent, and waited all the way to engine cut-off to switch the engines. Training often helps in finding out what works!