Basic career-mode necessities pack

[Barking Sands]

I'm hoping that this thread will eventually house a collection of small and practical spacecraft to serve as a beginner's portfolio of VAB/SPH templates for a career-mode game. Not sure what kind of naming scheme to go with, as many of my craft may need to be renamed if they're to be sorted (in order to cut down on the snide little double entendre -- you know how it is).

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Ballistic Noisemaker MK-I (Formerly RSS MA Mk-I)

First and foremost, we have a tier-3 tech single-seater to low orbit at well under 20 meters and 18 tons:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6pplx5ixtcmumwi/Ballistic%20Noisemaker%20MK-I.craft

This craft requires the tech levels: Engineering 101, Basic Rocketry, General Rocketry, and Advanced Rocketry (Tier 3). Consists of standard Mk-1 command capsule, LV-909 lightweight engine, RT-10 solid fuel booster, and BACC solid fuel booster. Fins optional.

Only useful for low orbits and returns or suborbital "ballistic" trajectories. Since the craft can't be returned from orbit without a pilot, it isn't ideal for putting Kerbals into orbit in order to transfer them to another station.

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XMP Starbug MK-VI (No relation to Red Dwarf)

This is my experimental prototype of the premiere landing craft/ore extractor build (maximum tech level required). No ISRU converter, no antennas, no surface scanners, no parachutes, not even a launch vehicle. Thumbnail just shows a cocoon (procedural fairing).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3czm8yuxi04ibtn/XMP%20Starbug%20Mk-VI.craft?dl=0

The XMP Starbug's current issues (other than its lackluster features due to its tiny size for the mission profile) include launching difficulties due to its inverted state at launch. Controlled by a SAS drone core, the starting navball will show the retrograde angle during the entire launch sequence, so either attach a command & control unit on the launch vehicle, or prepare for inverted controls. After detaching the fairings and staging, the lander will be rotated 180 degrees so that the prograde is visible on the navball. Also, the Mk-55 radial engines will not activate during staging, so control group 1 is used to manually activate the engines.

Control group 2 toggles the solar panels, 3 toggles the ladder, and 4 toggles the ore drills. The landing can is unmanned by default, but is designed to contain a single engineer to enhance the drilling efficiency. Not recommended to launch the vehicle manned as the pod is inverted and will subject the occupant to negative Gs.

Edited May 10, 2015 by Barking Sands