mythic_fci

As long as you don't just rename a design and pass it as your own, or make a design that is (almost) exactly the same, it's alright. One of my shuttlecraft which is registered with Shuttlecraft Systems Inc. takes ideas from the SSI Jian shuttlecraft. However, several aspects were changed and the wing placement modified, making it eligible as a new craft.

This just redefined my definition of "minimal spaceship". *goes to tinker on his Quark Mk.I*

*has a heart attack* Sure! If you want, I can PM you a link to the final prototype of the Falcon IV. It's not yet fully refined, though. EDIT 1: The Quark Mk.I, the successor to the Falcon series of spaceplanes, is up here. It's also up on the SSI thread here.

The Challenger exploded on liftoff; the Columbia burned up on re-entry.

Yes, on my Falcon III post.

Rune checking out my ship?!?! My life is complete. *faints* Back on topic! The 95% reliability is across several instances of quickloads. It can easily survive many rapid deactivations and reactivations, and the legs rarely break. I took Levelord's promising K-Drive design and did a crapload of refinements. It uses only 2 legs, however. You're not alone in the thrust issue, however; it usually uses 2gs of acceleration though sometimes it's been recorded to use 6-8 (I dunno why).

It's up already.

Should work now, thanks for the tip.

Another post: The Falcon III It's a K-drive SSTO with a jet engine for ascents.

UPDATE 3/5/14 This plane is hereby obsolete (in my fleet). Here's the replacement (certified by Shuttlecraft Systems Inc. as a K-Drive Shuttle). UPDATE 3/4/14 The Falcon IV is in public testing! PM me to get the link to the final prototype. Please reply with good (and bad, if necessary) comments and your used flight path. UPDATE 3/3/14 This plane will be replaced soon by the Falcon IV, which is basically a fixed Falcon III with a visual facelift. It is awaiting certification by Shuttlecraft Systems Inc. as a K-Drive Shuttlecraft. THE FALCON III After the success of the Hermes K-Drive Light Spacecraft, the Design Bureau was tasked to design a new spaceplane - with a K-Drive built in. Introducing... The Falcon III! Much lighter and faster than it's two predecessors which were liquid-fueled conventional SSTOs (not posted), it has the Archer Mk. IV drive built in. It also has 2 liquid fueled engines for fine maneuvers (docking, precise landing, etc.) and a jet engine for conventional flight. --FLIGHT INSTRUCTIONS-- Right after takeoff, pitch up to 45 degrees. At about 10km altitude, pitch down to 20 degrees. At about 16km altitude pitch down to 10-15 degrees. Remember to airhog here; you WILL need the jet during landing. Once the jets cut out at about 30-35km, use Action Group 1 to activate the K-Drive and get you to orbit. **WARNING!** If you activate the drive below 750m/s, spontaneous dis-assembly is guaranteed. Do not do sharp turns while the drive is active. This can cause the drive to break and/or an uncontrollable spin. The jet engine is a tailstrike hazard. Be careful during takeoff and landing. The plane has a tendency to tip over and explode on braking. Press B to brake and let go if it tips a little. Do NOT click the button on screen to brake AT ALL COSTS. --IMAGES-- --ACTION GROUPS-- 01 - Toggle Kraken Drive 02 - Toggle jet engine and intakes 03 - Toggle rocket engines (liquid fuel) 04 - Toggle ladder --CREDITS-- COMRADE JENKINS - For creating the general idea of a K-Drive LEVELORD - For giving me the general design of a 1m K-Drive INIGMA - For giving me the idea to make an SSTO Spaceplane Download link is here. Download link for the drive's subassembly (so you can screw around with it) is here.

No idea. It's never been tested. EDIT 3/3/14 It still works, at least on my drive.

From our understanding, the K-Drives are powered not by joints themselves, but instead by the reaction when the suspension on the landing legs freaks out about being clipped into a bigger part. Hopefully that means it'll work =D

Regardless, it has a constant VELOCITY of 1-5m/s. Will fix OP soon. Thanks!

Hold on, wait a second... I think I saw you on KMP... I was FCI... Well, this thing uses the same drive as the plane you saw on KMP. Try it out =D Back on topic, sorry for the mistake. Time to dust off the pages of my physics textbook...

Will a K-Drive ship count? I have a 45 part ship that can easily go interstellar because of the drive.

Alrighty, here's something I posted on it's own thread... The Hermes Kraken-Drive Light Spacecraft At a mere 59 parts, it's potato computer friendly. The K-Drive is active here. This K-Drive isn't focused on power; rather, it was designed for reliability. The max speed of this K-Drive is 6Gs, but most of the time it'll use 1-3 Gs. Home sweet home. Yes, there are liquid engines for fine course corrections. As I said, this has it's own thread. Link: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/71215-The-Hermes-Kraken-Drive-Light-Spacecraft' The link for the Hermes is here: http://www./download/f2...Drive_Ship.zip The link for the subassembly of the drive is here (I named it the Archer class drive): http://www./download/ya...ubassembly.zip Credits: Comrade Jenkins for creating and designing the first K-Drives Levelord for giving the general idea of a 1m K-Drive.

Well, from my knowledge, 1-5m/s means that the ship accelerates at 1-5 meters per second. Feel free to correct me, though. I'm not an aerospace engineer =D

It's basically a drive powered on game bugs. It has a basic assembly of a small part, landing legs, a metal plate, and a larger part. The landing legs push against the larger part and the plate when clipped, causing buggy calculations to send the thing skyward.

2 questions: 1. Can it be a rocket-SSTO, not a spaceplane-SSTO? I have a reliable VAB design. 2. Can it be an SSTA (Single Stage to Anywhere)? The design I'm talking about uses a Kraken-Drive.

Finally, I don't need to poke around with my clunky mouse to get that intercept done right.

Actually, in real life the N-1 was taller and larger; it's just that it never got off the ground (without crashing spectacularly) so the Saturn V is more commonly known as the largest rocket.

After months of top-secret research by the military, the results can finally be revealed to the general public... The Hermes Light Spacecraft! Now, you may think "Pfft, forget it.". BUT! This light spaceship has a new experimental technology in it - The Kraken Drive. It is powered by the Archer Mk.IV class kraken drive. Refinement after refinement has given it a guaranteed reliability rate of 95 %. It has a top recorded speed of 6Gs acceleration, but most of the time it only uses 1-3 Gs of power. The reason for this fluctuation in speed is unknown. The Archer Mk.IV is similar to many other K-Drive designs in mode of operation. At speeds of below 750m/s, it will use a prolonged hover above surface with ascent speeds ranging in the 1-5m/s range. Beware that unless the craft's speed is close to 0m/s, spontaneous dis-assembly is guaranteed.Once above this speed, however, the drive will auto-switch into a new mode. This is where the real acceleration begins: it will immediately switch to having 1-6Gs of acceleration without using ANY types of fuel, giving it the ability to do Kerbol-escape. Weighing in at 59 parts total, including the conventional launcher, it's good for low-medium spec computers. Even with prolonged research into the 2 distinct modes of operation of this drive, however, the low-speed mode of the drive would take days to get to auto-switch velocity, which is the reason for the (very) light launch vehicle. This is what the entire thing looks like on the launch pad. Skipping ahead a bit here. Perform gravity turn at about 10km to 45 degrees. The side boosters, which use a very simple type of asparagus staging, will drop off from 15km-20km, depending on how (in)efficient your launch profile is. Don't worry, you have plenty of delta-v in the launch stage alone. Alright, here's the tricky bit. As soon as your nav-ball says "Orbital Velocity - 800m/s" or higher, you have 2 choices. You can use the rest of the fuel in the booster to circularize, or you can continue your ascent on the K-Drive, as now it will use fast-acceleration mode. This is the spacecraft in action. Note the G-readout on the nav-ball says 1G, even though I'm not on a planet or firing any engines. And... Kerbin escape! You can go anywhere now, as long as your K-Drive doesn't spontaneously dissasemble. I decided, because the flight show was only a demonstration flight, to turn the thing around and go home. Be careful using the K-Drive to deorbit; if you hit 750m/s hope your capsule and parachute haven't exploded and that you are on Kerbin-return trajectory. There are conventional liquid-fuel engines on this thing, for emergencies where the K-Drive is down and for fine circularization. However, it only has the delta-v for Kerbin orbital use. To Kerbin escape and back, all in 10 minutes. No time warp. Here's the download link for the Hermes: http://www./download/f25rfao9z34b32m/Hermes_K-Drive_Ship.zip Just shove it into your ships folder and fly =D Action groups are: 01-Activate the K-Drive Also, because I'm in a good mood, I'll give you the subassembly of the Archer drive, so you can screw around with it. The action groups are exactly the same. Put it in your subassemblies folder and roll <=D Link for subassembly: http://www./download/yacg2yc4e7g2g5g/Warp_Drive_Subassembly.zip Before I forget, some credits: Thanks to Comrade Jenkins, the original designer who came up with the idea of the K-Drive. He is the reason this ship exists. Also, thanks to Levelord, the designer of one of the first 1m K-Drives in service today. I took his main idea and made my own drive based on it with improvements.

Permission to use a Kraken Drive instead of ions. Jk, Lol. Seriously, I have a 59 part ship which can literally fly anywhere in the kerbal solar system.

Which one, the Hermes space tester with launcher or the drive subassembly? EDIT: There is now a Hermes Mk. II (same k-drive, though). It has docking capability, improved parachute and redesigned launcher. If you're asking for the Hermes you're getting the Mk II. EDIT 2: There's now a forum thread for the Hermes and the drive. Link:http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/71215-The-Hermes-Kraken-Drive-Light-Spacecraft

Built a K-Drive shuttle. Nuff' said.