Krackit

The Odysseus Rover (Laythe and Eve missions) Odysseus I - Laythe Odysseus II - Eve This tough sucker can land anywhere, although an atmosphere is recommended for the easiest of deployments!

I know what you mean. So many new parts yet I cant for the life of me make something that works well!

I'd say that is pretty spectacular itself, not to mention your shield actually is protecting the other stages a lot better than mine was!

Thanks! They do serve a practical purpose though, even if it isnt necessarily actually for heat shielding. The drag helps with high speed entries and aerobraking

After having plenty of fun with munar expeditions and sending small rovers to various planets, I decided to make larger rovers that work specifically for bodies with atmospheres (although they have the capability to land on planets without atmospheres, its just slightly harder as the ASAS detaches with the heat shield). Behold the Odysseus Rover! I decided to test the rover's delivery system by going all the way to Laythe.. Go big or go home right? Once that was down I thought it'd be nice to do an easy mission to Eve! (Got there in about 25 days, my fastest transfer yet) The rover delivery system is pretty straight forward; There is a large heat shield for aerobraking, a powered descent stage that can be detached at safe parachuting speeds, parachutes (when activated the heat shield drops off), and then one final light powered descent stage that can slow parachute descents in thin atmospheres like Duna or Laythe. Here is a more detailed album, and the download here.

I found that building outwards rather than upwards helps my bigger rockets fly fairly stable, and once it gets to the proper height for turning, enough weight has been shed that it can gently fall to the side without taking ages.

The Corvus Heavy Bomber Instructions and DL here!

Sure thing, but I have zero leisure time for the next couple days, so it might take a bit. If you want to do it yourself, just slap on tons of missile bodies with random fins on them (to allow the missiles fall randomly and spread out) down the very centre fuel tanks then clump them into one stage. Easy peasy! And it should take off nicely still because the payload wont come close to the weight of the Mk. I's fuel tanks! I would also try to avoid placing too many near the front because it is already a little unbalanced.

Actually they were originally there because I had it using aerospike engines, but a bit of careful tweaking here and there allowed me to switch to plain ole' atmospheric engines.. Ill give it a try! As for the bombs... Coming right up! Edit: I just replaced all the rocket tanks in the middle with jet fuel and actually could complete a landing! I kept the wing tanks the same though because we don't want those losing fuel mid flight... no sir! But maybe ill try.. Edit 2: I replaced all of them and it flies beautifully, plus i forgot the engines are super efficient so less fuel isn't that big of a sacrifice for speed and maneuverability! Ill upload the Mk-II.

I'm glad you think so! The rocket fuel carries way more, although it is a bit heavier. It lets me fly to far away lands! (totally for exploratory purposes, not bombing or anything sinister like that...)

Corvus Heavy Bomber I decided to build a fairly large aircraft that was still capable of flight, unlike oh so many failed creations of the past (let us have a moment of silence in remembrance of the dozens of brave test pilots who met their immanent demise..) What ensued was the usual slapping as many bits together as possible, adding as much power as possible, then refining it down into a (somewhat) practical, yet elegant thing of beauty. Behold the Corvus! I haven't attempted it yet, but I'm fairly certain it can make it across the ocean. It is loaded with fuel and it can carry a decent payload underneath, provided it isn't placed too far forward. It is not overly maneuverable (for obvious reasons) however it is quite stable. It is front heavy though so it cannot climb steeply and the SAS doesn't keep it level for long. Now even though it flew nicely, it took a pretty unique modification to get the nose up in the end.. Four JellyCubes missiles were strapped on the front half to provide last minute thrust upwards. Steps are as such: 1. Engage engines, brake on the runway for no more than 5 seconds (you'll know if you wait too long...) 2. Keep it straight as it accelerates down the runway, hopefully reaching ~90m/s by the end. 3. Just before it rolls off the end of the runway, engage the missiles (the next stage), and keep the nose slightly up. 4. Watch that the tail doesn't make contact with the ground, once you are certain that you're clear, eject the missiles. (they will have reverse thrust to counter the upward thrust, making them fall off without a problem0 That's all there is to it! Steps are: 1. Keep nose up, do NOT descend too quickly! 2. Try to slow as much as possible without losing altitude. 3. Pray 4. If step 3 succeeds and you touch down without all the bright and shiny flashes (often followed closely with catastrophic unresponsiveness of craft), engage the parachute. EASY PEASY!* *note: author is not held responsible for any catastrophic failures during landing, nor for the fact that he has never successfully landed the craft himself yet still released it to the public Wowwie! What a nice guy, adding this free bonus picture without posting the craft file containing the bombs!* *note: author will post craft file of carpet bomber upon request The Corvus Mk-II is ready to fly! The only difference is that it is far lighter (swapped out rocket fuel for jet fuel as per suggestion) AND as a special bonus, you can LAND it! For real! Intact even! (all instructions for use still apply, although you are able to engage the lift rockets before hitting the end to take off without a problem!) The only mod used is the JellyCubes Modular Missile pack. Thanks and enjoy!

I usually link up the stages with struts from one stage, past the decoupler, to the next stage. It usually helps me and makes a fancy looking cage around the engine!

you need to do but the } is a ].. Voila!

"Here is an idea; upon seeing a new picture from Nova, I've noticed that the green planet is a gas giant. For the Kethane plugin why not add a balloon?"

Just the weight of the pieces. Without them at the front the thing just flips backwards when trying to hover. It took tons of slapping on random bits to balance it! Im sure there was an easier way, but it works