Kerbolitto

Wilbur ? Orville ? xD

I meant a conventionnal wing arrangement such as airliners, with center of mass / lift near the middle of the fuselage, so the flight characteristics don't vary too much due to the payload of fuel quantities.

Nice wings ! And yes its hard to assemble something that would be good at everything .. I had to put 2 canards on mine, but I wanted it to be easy to fly and do every STS missions from the star, regardless of the weight of the payloads or dV requirements. I think it's almost impossible to design a long shuttle with vast cargo volume, good dV & decent TWR, and be able to land / take off at every level of fuel & payload without using plane wings : /

Today I managed my very first (efficient) Kerbin Eve Kerbin Kerbin transfer to Jool using around 1300m/s and only 40 years of lifetime . This craft has no real purpose, I used the Skipper as a transfer stage, above is a apollo-style lander with 3100m/s on the lower stage and 2700 on the ascent module. I may visit Vallhenge since I'm here !

Those speeds looks ok ! You could try to put another set of heavy landing wheels at the very back of the shuttle so you don't have to land perfectly flat, and that's even more braking power. I designed my shuttle with the main goal of landing heavy payloads and the only way to achieve that was to use large swept wings, otherwise the mass would mess up too much if I'd use a shuttle-like arrangement, and the craft would sink because it lacked maneuvrability. That's a compromise : /

If I may, I'd say that you might need more than a regular shuttle wing. Maybe your spacecraft is sinking at low speed due to insufficient l/d ratio, also did you tune your control surfaces so they don't interfere into each other ? I found out that inclined stabilators can sometimes cause troubles if they are activated by different inputs (say yaw & roll).

What happenned during landing ?

Yeah I just thought you could pick any rank :p Don't bother yourself there's no problem, this challenge made me fly again since 3 months, which is already good enough for me !

So you basically plated all the shuttle's belly with surface controls ? xD

I did not compete for the points I designed this outpost some days ago and I just saw that it could fit into your challenge. It was just a good opportunity to deploy it instead of scrapping the project ! After watching the objectives, I'd say that rank 1 should be good, it's a manned spacecraft but there are multiples probes on board. Rank 2 does not qualify as I did not launched the RoundSats independantly. Rank 3 nop, no DRO. Rank 4 just for fun ! =D

Well you're not far from that, I'd say each (ssto)booster can put 70-80t. in orbit

Thanks ! That's 401 parts if I remember, which is "okay" but all those fairings made things quite laggy.. !

I've finished to fly this mission which should qualify as rank 4 ! There's a mission report downhere because I took loooots of pictures, also here is a selection of what happenned !

I've designed this base for fun a few days ago and I was surprised to see it could compete on InSight challenge (rank 4 - unlimited !). As usual I've tried to come up with creative ideas and various modules to assemble a good-looking outpost, hope you'll enjoy it, too ! This outpost is made of 3 large habitations modules, one extended lab with full science experiments, a workshop with a drill and electricity storage, and a "power tube" with 8 large solar arrays. It also comes with a heavy rover to make some science on the field ! Overall this base is packed with 55 Kerbals and is designed for long-term stay. Here's how I deployed it : Chapter 1 : Launch The outpost is contained inside multiple fairings, above a descent stage, which itself sits above a Rhino transfer stage. There are 6 heavy lifters around this central core providing a high thrust (1.5G) and more than 3k dV so it's also a SSTO of some sort. Chapter 2 : On way to Duna ! Chapter 3 : Deploying stuff around, preparing to land Heres RoundSat 1 which is released just after capture. SurveyScan and main Relay is also detached. Chapter 4 : Ready to land ! Not seen on those pictures : RoundSat2 was detached just before retroburning the mothership to allow a sufficient communication along the descent. Chapter 5 : Undocking all the goodies Because Scarab would have lots of troubles to assemble the base on a slope, I had to persuade the whole craft to get low enough to reach a plane surface. Good thing I put a massive tank for those Thuds ! Scarab is set up under a module before it detach. Central core is installed a little away from the craft to allow easy modules installation. Now for the most fragile modules of all, not sure if the airbrakes helped but they sure looks professionnal. Final module is the workshop. Chapter 6 : Base is online and ready to partyyyyyyyy--- make science ! Someone said champagne ?!

Awesome ! Global temperatures suddenly had a spike around the equator xD

Same here, @EvermoreAlpaca if you were hitchhikking around Joool I would have room in one of my 2 shuttles I'm not a big fan of the extreme low mass but this is very nicely done, also can't wait for the next Tutorial on orbital mechanics !

Well, that might be good enough

Its not that hard to put a lot of mass in orbit, my main problem with large outposts is the number of parts on screen :p

Thanks ! Im currently designing a large outpost but I wonder if I can stuff it all under one fairing (it has 7/8 modules). I'll finish it first and see if there's a way to pack all that, and maybe post an entry

Hey there, I may try to participate at rank 4 stock, how many launches to LKO is permitted ?

Thank you =) I got lots of ideas for Dres landbase, I'd like to create a foldable multi purpose rover but I lack experience with axis and hinges ... We'll see

Many thanks ! This is the most compact design I created to deploy a land base and also probably the most effective Without all the cosmetic parts on Altair it could be improve a lot ! That's right I forgot to include those points ... ! >< Kerbin Orbit Rendezvous +8 Accurate Altair +7 Fuel Cells +2 (you can barely spot one on Altair EXT landing and deployment 2nd pic where Altair lands near the Arch : they are on the innerside of the lateral white fuel tanks just above the fairing, there's a cell on each side) Descent Module +4 Kerbin Departure Stage +3 Altair Orbital Insertion +3 Surface Sample +8 ----> 35 That should be it ? Should I count the rover ?

Thank you Altair EXT is 79 parts 24t. and 1600+ dV with no cargo. The augmented version I used to move the MAV + Orion is 33t. with 2200+ dV. Once the modules of the base were docked my fps was a bit better, but I had to get rid of 2 empty Altairs !

I finished 4 Mun Base yesterday, there's more than 50 pics so I put everything in a report here : I hope you'll like it I had lots of fun to get a flexible outpost design, as I wanted something very compact, light, with few parts and most important : easy to pilot (and also shiny !). As usual I spent lots of time in the SPH, to get the most out of my previous Altair, and also to find creative solutions to move modules around and I think that the Utility Rover is a great success ! Here's a few pics ! General Score : 48 Mun Base Score : 105

Constellation Challenge : Mission 4 Mun Base Hey there, I participated to the Constellation Challenge and here's what I did to complete the 4th mission : Mun Base The general idea is to recreate Constellation Program using similar spacecrafts : Ares 1, Ares 5, Orion capsule, Altair lander etc .. Part 1 : Com Network Equatorial network using 5 relays + 1 on a polar orbit, also Ore concentration of the LZ near a Mun Arch I simply sent a mothership with 4 tiny Relays, 1 relay + M700, and the injector stage which is also relay capable. Nothing special to see ! Part 2 : Ares 5 / Altair EXT / Payload : CentralCore Ares 5 Ext version : 1st stage 5 Vectors + 2 SRBs getting rid of SRBs Stage 2 : Mainsail with lots of fuel Altair EXT alone : Altair EXT is a larger version, it uses the same engine (Skiff) and the same fuel tanks arrangement, main difference is that it can hold a large cargo (larger than 2.5m) and has more dV at the expense of thrust. Notable feature : the cargo delivery system is very simple and reliable ! Altair EXT landing and deployment : After undocking the cargo, 2 Twitch are used to put back Altair EXT in vertical position. Part 3 : Altair EXT Payload : Rovers Part 4 : Altair EXT Payload : Lab Module 1st picture of the UtilityRover : all modules are built upon the same chassis, the rover is able to dock at ground level, then it deploys the forward geat and lifts the module. This system use just a few parts, is reliable and easy to use (weight is almost in the middle of the rover). Part 5 : Altair EXT Payload : Hab & Science Module Modules are unpacked and moved around one at a time. Altair EXT empty, thrown on surorbital to crash somewhere. Part 6 : Altair EXT Payload : EnergyPack + MAV (I forgot to take more pics of this craft alone!) Part 7 : Ares 1 launch, Orion docking to MAV Part 8 : First steps on the Mun, base deployement The outpost is complete, crew is disembarking. EnergyPack ignition ! Outpost is finally online ! Part 9 : What to do on the Mun ? Tomby laughs in the face of Science. Nalan checks the drill which is used to recover a surface sample. Smile at the camera ! Sunset. Café de l'Arche is open. Part 10 : SurfaceSamplotron ! SurfaceSamplotron detach from the base once its ore tank is filled up. Now docking to its lander. Slow descent on Kerbin's surface. SurfaceSamplotron is upside down and hot happy. Part 11 : Time to get back home The HG-5 is just here to aim carefully. Staging is very colorfull. Part 12 : Leaving the Mun MAV stay docked to Orion to provide the passengers more confort during the return trip. MAV set to its demise while Orion is decelerating.