Self-refuelling interplanetary ship - possible?

[Black Dog]

Well i agree, that self refueling ships don't have to be that big. Built one myself that was capable of flying through the whole solar system. Basicly a Rhino (for jumpstarts from the surface) under a Mk3 Liquid fuselage with a Ring of Mk2 liquids and Nukes around it (to give it a bigger diameter for landings). Works really well and i was even able to get it back up from Duna. Served me well from Moho to Eeloo.

Due to the long journey and parts count i decided to not bring a lot of science equippement.

[xtoro]

Well i agree, that self refueling ships don't have to be that big. Built one myself that was capable of flying through the whole solar system. Basicly a Rhino (for jumpstarts from the surface) under a Mk3 Liquid fuselage with a Ring of Mk2 liquids and Nukes around it (to give it a bigger diameter for landings). Works really well and i was even able to get it back up from Duna. Served me well from Moho to Eeloo.

Due to the long journey and parts count i decided to not bring a lot of science equippement.

Can you post a pic? I'm really interested in how you could have landed and orbited again without losing stages along the way, mainly Eve and Tylo. Eve and Tylo are the reasons I have 3 landers on the Avalon.

[Boots]

Docking ports are not fragile and they don't cause kraken attacks. If you have kraken problems, they're probably caused by the Ritual of Kraken Summoning (also known as part clipping). If you design your ships properly, docking ports won't be the weakest link, even if the total mass of the ship is thousands of tonnes.

(In this ship, seven large docking ports held the 1800-tonne Kerbin escape stage and the 750-tonne transfer stage/payload together just fine. The weakest link were the structural parts in the midsection.)

Sorry to be dense, but what is the "proper design" at work in this ship that makes it work? is it the same as the three-point connection method discussed above?

[Mesklin]

Start mass (fully fueled) - 140t (139 parts). Crew - 6 brave kerbals (2 pilots, 2 engineers and 2 scientists). Full set of science equipment (mobile lab included) and full set of drilling equipment. Almost any bodies in kerbal system are reachable, with landing of course (except Tylo and Eve).

Moho

Drilling equipment

Mun

Gilly

Moho orbit (landing preparation)

Edited June 5, 2015 by Mesklin

[Wanderfound]

It's not only a matter of Kraken attacks but also long parts bending, and when you have a long burn and things start wobbling it gets worse and worse...

To avoid wobbles, don't push, pull:

:

[Jouni]

Sorry to be dense, but what is the "proper design" at work in this ship that makes it work? is it the same as the three-point connection method discussed above?

Essentially the same. There is a 7-point connection with large docking ports. The docking ports are attached to rigid 10 m wide thrust plates and spaced out far enough to make the overall connection rigid.