Umami

It could be cool having motherships that can land on larger bodies but also somewhat effective in space... now when NERVA only using fuel and not oxygen. Pick and choose how much fuel you would need for specific burns. See Ore is overpowered thread. That way you wouldnt have to haul around or balance tanks pending on the next burn. EDIT: I did miss the first row of that tread. But still. Balancing tank should be simpler.. hmm, maybe not.

Just started to try this thing out. Never tried any mining mods before so I am completely new to this thing. Frankly I didn't see the reason rovers before now. This is my what I am currently working with. It has four drills and one refinery so it does it all by itself. It can land on the Mun with the supplied fuel from the launch and afte that it drills its own of course. Grappling thingie to refuel other crafts. I try to go for an all-in-one solution.

Started to work on my XKM again. I figured that it should be XKM-10 now since 1.0. It took some remodeling to make the concept work with all the new stuff. I still have a few details to sort out but in general it seems to be working. There is a slight decrease in lift capability but it still gets 36T (100km) as it is now. I think I can get it to 40T. The older version landed on the engine nozzles but that all ends in big explosions now. But with the new heavy landing gear that is not needed. The animation for is looks real neat when the gears are folded between the nozzles. As you can see in one of the pictures I will need to secure the engines better. It is not an exploding problem but still.

I would be interested in joining if possible. Not so much into making things efficient as making things simple and nice looking. I have been playing for about a year now and I have zoned in on big chemical SSTOs, the rocket kinds. I tend to build everything else around them. I have no idea though how the multiplayer mod works.

Slightly smaller than my contribution. Great work.

Thank you guys for the feedback. I am happy to report that Mk.2 is now completed. Not just better but in my opinion also prettier.

This is pure awesome.

I never thought of that, thank you. It would make it come closer to my original design idea as well as a little more efficient. I checked the stats between S3 and Mk3 and S3 have 79.0 fuel/ton and Mk3 have 80.4 fuel/ton. Not a big difference but still.

Thanks for the tip. I might try the 4 x Engine Cluster. Same as you got, right? Would require some redesign. I did a quick test by just switching my KR-2L with the 2 sets of engine clusters and that almost worked. With a more optimal trajectory I think that would do it. The reason it didn't was that I increased the cargo weight to 20T each, so double. Requires a little more tweaking and instead of making it lighter it will lift more stuff. With the extra power from the clusters it might be worthwhile looking into upgrading the cargo hold to full size.

After some very appreciated feedback I now finished Mk.2 XKM-1-C Mk.2 "Crichton" ​ DOWNLOAD: XKM-1-C (Mk.2) (stock) STATS: Cargo Size: Dual bays (CRG50+CRG25) Cargo Capacity: (2 x 18.5 tons) Crew Capacity: Unmanned Engine Cluster: 2 x (S3 KS25x4), 4 x (NERVA) Parts: 158 Launch Weight: 507,000 tons (no cargo) Range: Mun Launch Cost: ~300,000 Return Value: launch cost -fuel INFORMATION: The vessel that I normally use is a mechjeb version. It functions perfectly well without it but landing is a bit tricky (slept through flight school). Just slap a MechJeb module if you are like me. Liftoff: The NERVAs have a tendency to explode a little bit if run at 100%. Around 95% seams to be OK (MechJeb usually sorts that out for me). So no maxing throttle otherwise it goes boom. This is now fixed in Mk2, just punch it. Reaching Orbit: Much closer to the limits than Mk1. Use the main engines as little as possible. Not enough dV to get to RV point otherwise. This is tested and I RVed with my station at 200km orbit with maximum load and got safely back on Kerbin. Landing: It has a whole bunch of radial chutes, and two four drogue chutes. That brings the speed down to 13.5m/s 24m/s. The rest is up to the engines. Make sure that you switched on the big engines before this. They can easily take care of the rest. Don't land too hard. The two main engines is also the landing gear. Action Groups: Well, I built this in my career mode. I dont have a fully upgraded VAB yet so the only Action Group I use is "Breaks" which toggles the main engines and "Gears" that opens the cargo bays. Feel free to make your own. Mk.2 Updates: It now has lights and a bigger docking port. The weight of the vessel caused minor issues when docked and the bigger port gives a little more stability. Mk1 had some fuel flow issues which is solved on Mk2. It also have 50% larger cargo bays than Mk1, a redesigned engine cluster and mostly Mk3 fuel storage. SUMMARY: A big SSTO (no space plane) that brings modules and stuff all the way to the Mun LKO at an end cost of ~30,000 Kredits. Don't know the cost yet, but the fuel cost anyway. /I have created another version of this that brings fuel to my Station. I have not used that enough to suss out the little undesired quirks yet but it is on my little yellow notes of things to do.

Now successfully tested with KSP 0.25.

I have used my rocket SSTO extensively in my career mode. Made for interplanetary trips around the Kerbol system. With the built in pod it can land on most of the moons. I put the whole thing down on Duna once.

at launch both engine types should be activated. you are completely right, nukes works best in space (vacuum) but they get a reasonable isp at around 500-1000m so it doesn't really matter that much. get the vessel up to about 8-9k meters and start the gravity turn. when Ap have reached 100k turn of the conventional rockets (KR-2L) and circularize with the nukes.

Looks good. I am currently looking into similar engine setup for my pod with the four 909

I am currently working on a dockable attachment to the XKM-Pod. First of if making it possible to land on Laythe but the goal of the attachment is to be able to land on Tylo. Maybe I set the goal a little high for this type of design but I want to know if it is possible. I will add XKM-Pod attachments as subassembly. Current status is testing on Kerbin and it is looking promising. The XKM-Pod lacks parachutes so landing successfully with attachement require some breaking just before the chutes on the attachment fully deploy. Otherwise the g-force is to great and everything ends in explosions. Work is being done on the pod itself to make it possible without an attachment to land on Laythe and the attachment will focus on Tylo. I have this idea to have the XKM project pull of Jool-5. Obviously it doesn't qualify with the rules of the official Jool-5 challenge but the concept would still be the same.

Is it stock or mechJeb? If it is mechJeb I guess that it have to be the same version of it. I just started a new sandbox and got the vessels from my google drive at that works fine. I use mechJeb 2.2.1. Does anyone else have problems with the craft file or have any idea why Spica has issues with it?

This is great. I really like to see more of combining different engine types. Maybe it is time for a sub-thread to the open source construction, the "engine-cluster edition". Again, awesome work.

XKM-7B After the 5-series I started to work on the 6-series. I never manage to get that series of the concrete due to design issues similar to what I had seen in the 1-4 series. I decided to start from scratch with the 7-series and the first working version was the 7B. I finally manage to build an in-house engine cluster with the KR-2L that didn't end in a big fireball. I also widen the base of the vessel to help with landing. The tricky thing with the 7-series had always been the symmetry. All the way up to 7E the 7-series is not round. By putting all the stuff needed inside it clutters up places to put the outer fuel tanks. I solved this by putting them in a 2-2-2 configuration. That solved one problem but caused others, especially fuel flow which have been the 7-series major problem until the 7F that has a different setup. The 7B is the vessel I have done most of my test flight with. Very useful in the further development of the 7-series. XKM-7B

Thanks, lots of design ideas came from the Work-in-Progress [WIP] Design Thread. It has been really helpful to figure things out. That whole thread is worth going through for all builders.

XKM-5 series. I started to toy around with the concept that no engines visible on the outside of the craft and after lots of different designs I got one that worked. Main problems was overheat causing the main engine cluster to explode. Tried out versions with landing gear but the weight was too much so that has not been an option for later versions. At that point I had gone through 4 different designs and was now up to no. 5 so this became XKM-5. It was a hybrid SSTO with the main power from aerospikes and support from turbojets. The design worked really well when it came to getting into LKO. The vision grew a little and I wanted to reach the stars. This is why XKM-5 series is the only one with air breathing engines inside the main vessel. The XKM-5 series had 8 TurboJet engines, 16 Aerospike rockets and 8 LV-N rockets. I did explor the KR-2L option but overheats resulting in explosions and the first death of Jeb made me put that idea on the shelf for now. The turbojets on the 5-series forced a power-up on them for about 10 sec. before igniting the other engines so the TWR came above 1. That was a bit frustrating when doing test launch after test launch. For the 5-series the LOSS (Lift-Off Support System) was born. There has been very little development since but as the XKM engineering crew is now focused on the further development of the XKM-7F there might be a LOSS that works with the 7-series soon. The 5-series

It doesn't look to be that much different in between 7E and 7F but I completely remade the main body to reduce part count and to make fuel flow better. Turned out that inside the 7E there was old lunch boxes and pictures of weird looking green chicks with really big eyes.

The XKM Project is finally ready for a release. I give you XKM-7F (the Tourist). KSP 0.25 Compatible A heavy SSTO capable of reaching 200km orbit on her own with some wiggle room. After refueling at a station she gets enough dV to travel around quite freely in the Kerbol system. The main vessel can go down to the surface of Duna (only one I tried it on), but to save fuel on multi-visit trips it can separate the control module and land with that, leaving the main engine cluster in orbit. XKM-7F (the Tourist) craft file: XKM-7F (stock) craft file: XKM-7F (mechJeb) Action Groups: 1. Toggle KR-2L 2. Toggle LV-N Atomic Rocket 3. Toggle Gimbal (KR-2L) 4. Toggle Rockomax 48-7S (Pod) 5. Undock Pod 9. Toggle Mk2 Light (Pod) 0. Toggle Mk1 Light (Pod) Career Mode: The XKM-7F does cost a fair bit. Somewhere around 350,000 funds. But with that price tag you get to fly around the Kerbol system in style. If you have a SSTO refueling craft once you get "the Tourist" in orbit you have very low flight costs. Fully capable of landing safely back on Kerbin if needed. Background: The first idea to start developing this was after I got into the SSTOs in the world (the real one). My favorite of them all is the Japanese Kankoh-Maru which has since been the inspiration of the project. I am not looking at this as a replica. It is inspiration for some functional sci-fi-looking stock vessels. This is the first version out of the XKM project that I am proud to share with you. It will not be the last. Development continues as usual in the XKM workshop. Where the project is headed now I don't really know. I have an idea of add-on's to the existing version, maybe a dock-able dV/twr boosters for the XKM-Pod or try to incorporate a rover in this. I would be more than happy for some ideas/feedback on the project. I will post the development log from the project shortly but if you are interested you can look in the Work-in-Progress [WIP] Design Thread now as I used that to get feedback on development before there was a release-worthy version.

The XKM project is getting close to a finished product. I give you the XKM-7E. From a design point the 7-series is done. Just finished with a tiny test flight to the Mun and that went really well. Will do some more real testing tomorrow before I release the .craft file. The previous version was a test of the separation and I was happy with how that turned out. My major concern with the 7D was that its ugly. The main focus for 7E was to make the separation feature blend in to the rest of the vessel, and give the XKM-Pod enough dV to actually be useful. Now with the Pod I can tweak that without screwing up anything else. The inside of the XKM is getting... hmmm.. a bit messy. Had lots of fuel-flow issues so I don't want to touch that thing again. So some more test flights and some minor tweaks and I will release the XKM-7E. I really need to come up with a proper name for it now.

The XKM-7D is taking shape. Some tweaks to do still. The pod gets as it is now about 1600 dV. Power is supplied by four Rockomax 48-7S. I am not happy about that. I want it to have something like 2500 at least so there is still work to be done. But this is the concept. The separation feature did not add much weight to the whole thing so taking off from Kerbin is not an issue. The point of this is to get down to moons without have to bring down the whole thing. When finished the pod should be able to get down to the Mun and back. So from 100km orbit, down to the surface and back again. Any ideas to get some more dV without adding to much weight?

Thank you for link. Will give this a try. The vessel I will test it on is a very heavy all-chemical SSTO. This will def change amount of dV left after getting into orbit. More fine tuning. Finding that sweet spot will take a lifetime. This is how my optimizing for my vessel looks right now.