Triskelion Station Mk. II

[Saltpeter]

Dissatisfied with the wobbliness of the Triskelion Mk. V, I attempted to make a single-launch version of the entire ship.

It worked. Since it is not a station by nature, this new vessel will simply be called The Triskelion. I elected to use the ten-tank biohazard trefoil design to make the launch more stable and to make room for the enormous quantity of booster rockets needed to lift it into orbit. Not only was I able to launch the entire generation ship as a whole unit, but I was able to take over half capacity of fuel with me. Jebediah Kerman himself manned the historic mission. He will dock with Triskelion Mk. V, where command of the mission will be passed over to Donory Kerman. When that is done, the Triskelion ship will fill its fuel banks with whatever it can from the Triskelion Mk. V, and the Mk. V will deorbit. Preparation is not yet done. As per the parameters of the mission, the ship must be outfitted with probes, landers, and rovers. A fuel depot will be necessary as a proper station for the Triskelion to report to.

The gravity turn took 8 minutes.

As an added benefit, as a single ship, ground control's computers have a much, much easier time keeping track of the ship's parts.

[Camaron]

http://www./download/t2svnal1p3epk3o/Titan_Twelve.rar

Link to the Titan Twelve's Craft File.

There it is!

Due to its enormous launch weight, ti works best with later-on gravity turns. I get decent results beginning to curve at around 15 km. One other thing, the innermost boosters drop first so watch their fuel, not the outer columns. Then two of the 3 outers, then the last outers, then the mids, and last the small boosters on the ends of the ship's tanks.

[Saltpeter]

The Triskelion has docked with the newly launched refueling depot. In the spirit of naming things after shapes, KSP officials have dubbed it Hexaflexagon Station. A small modification has been made to the original design; Universal Docking Ports have been added to the south ends of Hexaflexagon's tanks, for the addition of extra tanks in the future. The entire capacity of Hexaflexagon station in its current form is less than that of two Triskelions, and its monopropellant capacity is even less than one Triskelion. But those modifications are for another time. Now the probes, landers, and rovers need to be delivered to the Triskelion.

[Saltpeter]

Donory and Jebediah in the same room together. The tabloids will be buzzing for sure!

Since the Triskelion Mk. V had no engines, it was forced to use nearly all of its monopropellant to make it to Hexaflexagon. Crew and Xenon have been transferred, and now the Mk. V can make its way back to Kerbin.

[Saltpeter]

The tabloids buzzed so hard the Triskelion nearly tore the docking port clean off the Hexaflexagon. The ship was forced to redock in a different configuration. But now the fuel can be transferred over to the Triskelion, and the supply launches can begin. Today is a great day do be a space explorer!

[Saltpeter]

In the interest of good sense, I've decided to strike the last of the mission specifications. There is nothing that belongs on the backside of the ship except for engines, so there is no need to make the engines modular. Since the Triskelion itself is not intended for landing, it doesn't require any engines other than the highly efficient atomic thermal engines. It is very much a starship, and not an airship.

[Saltpeter]

Detail of science probe docked next to its big sister, the Xenon module. D'awwwwww.

[Camaron]

By the way, there's a Titan Thirteen coming soon. Eight wings vs Six, 3x 14400's high on all eight wings, and weighs in at 2,208 tons. Launchpad parts count is high enough that I am waiting on a new computer part before I start repeatedly test-launching something that big (20-30 minutes each to test fire single launches is too much for me when I have an i7 4820K coming one day from now). It already has proven flight-worthy. The Final Ship's part count is just 185. I actually had to steal a build technique from Whackjob to keep the thing intact. (It's so wide that struts don't reach from the center to the outer tanks). Currently has Six of the large mono cans, and total fuel capacity is just over 170,000

Nice renaming. It sounds right at home with "Triskelion."

Also, I can probably stack more mono on the new ship if that's an issue. For me it would have been overkill, because I never have mono controls on a heavyweight ship, I leave docking maneuvers to the smaller guys.

Also, I like your Ionic Science Probes.

[Saltpeter]

As a generation ship, the Triskelion has to be equipped to supply itself and all of its equipment, such as the probes. With 5 probes, 2 landers, a reusable moon lander, at least two rovers, each with multiple trips planned, and its own RCS arrays, it requires a considerable amount of spare fuel of many kinds, especially monoprop. When I formulate the itinerary for the Triskelion's interplanetary mission, you'll see why all that monoprop is needed.

I only now just realized that when I was told I was channeling my inner Whackjob, that that was a reference to a person, and I wasn't just being called crazy. The only KSP people I'm familiar with are Scott Manley and Danny2462.

I should have put more inline stabilizers on the Triskelion. I'm tempted to relaunch it. Since it's now a single-launch ship, it's much easier to revise the Triskelion than before.

[Saltpeter]

A new Triskelion has been docked with Hexaflexagon Station, this time piloted by astronautic celebrity, Bob Kerman! This Triskelion has a greater monopropellant capacity, large ports on the north ends of the tanks, and three times as many inline stabilizers for control.

Amateur astronomers are reporting being able to see Hexaflexagon Station and the two Triskelions with the naked eye. Jebediah and Donory Kerman have been making silly poses from the Kerbinward window in the central habitat module. The photographs taken from Kerbin are so clear they have been described by cryptozoologists as definitive proof of the Sasquerbal.

Edited April 16, 2014 by Saltpeter

[Camaron]

Yep. Those SAS modules can make-or-break your ability to maneuver a ship. The big ones are lighter than the small ones for some reason.

[Saltpeter]

The new Triskelion isn't particularly maneuverable either, but it's enough. It has enough maneuverability for approach, docking and long transfer burns, and that's most of its function. High-precision flight is for the probes and landers.

And now I'm thinking I forgot to put lights on the Triskelion. I may have to launch another one. But I'll deorbit the old one first.

Jebediah, Bob, and Donory in the same room. Only the greatest of science could happen from this winning combo!

[Saltpeter]

Jebediah Kerman has gone missing. During the transfer from the old Triskelion to the new one, contact with Jebediah was lost as he entered one of the Hitchhiker modules. Donory and Bob are doing their best to solve this mystery.

KSP scientists are sure he'll show up somewhere. If the crew can't find him in space, ground control will look for him on the ground and get him back up there.

[Saltpeter]

Jebediah has been located. He's in the laboratory module. He appears to have turned off his camera, and refuses to communicate. Bob Kerman had this to say:

"Fine, stay there, Jeb. See if I care."

shortly before EVAing to an unoccupied Hitchhiker module for some alone time.

The next, and hopefully final, revision of the Triskelion will be piloted by newcomer and secretary of the Donory Kerman fanclub, Sigsey Kerman.

[Saltpeter]

The newest Triskelion docked at Hexaflexagon Station. With lights for the important places and twice as many SAS modules as the last one, this is the one, the final form of ship that will make history! This configuration is known by KSP scientists as "Looks-like-a-single-giant-ship".

Jebediah has agreed to leave the lab module, so that he isn't on it when it comes time to deorbit the old Triskelion.

[Saltpeter]

The old Triskelion deorbits for the final time. Time to continue bringing up probes!

[Camaron]

How are you running quad-LV-N's? They melt when I do that.

[Saltpeter]

They go very close to overheat for me, but they haven't yet. 99% max throttle is easily enough to keep them from overheating.

[Saltpeter]

The full complement of probes for the mission. The Advanced Science Probes will be slower than the small ones, but they have Science Jr. and Mystery Goo included. They will be used primarily for orbiting small moons. The small probes will be used for close encounters and potentially for landing, such as on Gilly. As the smallest objects on the vessel, they are also the only expendable objects, and may be used for permanent touchdown on large or atmospheric bodies. I will be sending up a module that contains several independently maneuverable parachutes that can be attached via docking port to probes if it's expected they won't be coming back.

The next phase is to test a reusable moon lander on the Mun. The setup will be simple, lander attached to rocket, get Mun orbit, land lander, get lander back without losing any parts in the process. It has to be a single-stage lander. If it can work on Mun, I can get it to work on any moon in the Kerbolar system.

[Saltpeter]

The lander test, 60km over the Mun. If I can make a safe landing and get back to this vessel without losing any parts, the test is a success.

[Saltpeter]

So the lander made it, but there are three problems:

1. Not enough fuel to get back to 60k.

2. Since there's no control system on the vessel, it's now considered debris and isn't being tracked.

3. I put two good kerbs on the Mun with no way to get home.

But now we know, and we can remedy this by making a better lander!

[Saltpeter]

This time I have over half capacity of fuel left! It should be enough to get into orbit, and the monoprop can take me the rest of the way. 20 km in the distance you can find the other lander. Since this is doable with the Mun, the lander is viable with all bodies as large as or smaller than the Mun. Tylo and Laythe require specialized vehicles that I will not be bringing with me on this trip. Vall is too large to try. Duna's atmosphere makes using the lander nonviable there. Kerbin is Kerbin. Moho and Eeloo are potential options, and Dres will definitely be viable. So those are restrictions for this mission as far as celestial bodies go. This lander is going to be the largest reusable object on the Triskelion.

[Camaron]

Now wait just a minute!. I feel like you've made a bad engine choice here. I feel the 48-7S (the tiny round engine) would be more suitable- 50 better ISP and 50% more thrust, while only 10% heavier. Also, you should only need one generator on that ship. If you don't have the "weightless" cubic strut for engine mounting, the JR. Dock can be used like a mounting point, too. If you optimize the ship in these ways, I'm betting you could cut that second tank back off of it, and make your trip a LOT lighter.

Here's a very similar lander I built to show you what I mean:

http://imgur.com/a/CJVAZ

With six of the 48-7S engines, I've used one of the fuel tanks to land on the moon from a 60k orbit and return to it afterward.

I used much smaller RCS tanks as well. your RCS should not be running at any time except docking, really, so I didn't use a speck of the 120 this craft had. (It's a landing demo, not a docking demo). One Generator keeps the craft alive just fine because engines generate power anytime they're running anyway. Weight savings and efficiency are vital for a good lander.

Also, on the side, I recommend NEVER putting your RCS equipment on a diagonal to your control source if it can be helped - lots of Monoprop will get wasted bursting at a 45 degree angle to the intended movements, and conflicting with itself.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Camaron

[Saltpeter]

The decision to use a Senior as mounting point on the lander is final. The Triskelion doesn't have any Jr. ports, and all of its standard ports are radial. As the largest object attached to the Triskelion, the lander has most to benefit from the Senior ports on the north ends of the tanks, where it will have the least effect on the ship's rotation while thrusting.

Both issues regarding the RCS were resolved last night.

Early on in the design process I was trying to find a way to get those engines on the lander while still justifying a ladderless lander. But since the existing lander has legs, I guess it's a simple matter now.

[Saltpeter]

Never mind, I see what you mean by Jr. as mounting point.