In which I build a mission

[ejhawman]

I'd like to show the KSP community my process for making a mission. Fair warning, this will be image intensive.

Right now, I have a sandbox save and a science save; I haven't started a career save yet, which will probably change how I do things, as I swill be subject to budget constraints. For now, I simply build away, looking only at KER to see if I have the right dV, TWR, and possibly weight limits.

Most of my missions are built around retrieving science from some distant biome. My objective is generally to return as much science as possible by returning the instruments to Kerbin, or putting the results in the hands of a Kerbal who will return. For this, I rely on a standard science package:

The default configuration uses a docking port to attatch to the ascent vehicle; once the package has done its work, it gets blasted back to orbit of its target to change out the ascent stage for a return booster. 1.0 has forced me to develop an extended configuration for reentry to the Kerbin atmosphere:

The heat shield has to provide a heat shadow for the delicate instruments. (I suppose I should also put everything in a cargo bay, for good measure, but so far I've gotten by without it.) The fairing on top mostly just has to provide a balloon to keep the package righted during reentry; only the parachute needs to be inside. For a trip to Gilly, Duna, Dres, or Eeloo, I can carry these integrated into a liftoff package capable of getting from the target surface to recovery on Kerbin.

For the heavier Joolian moons, I will send the reentry attachments with the return booster. Let's try, for instance, a Tylo lander. For the ascent stage, I find this to be adequate.

A reaction wheel keeps the craft stable during the late stage burn (it tends to get unbalanced as the fuel runs out.) A small asparagus cluster gets me as much dV as I need, with generous padding. All stages have LV-909s to keep TWR up.

This is what has to get to the surface. I need another 3500 m/s to get safely down to the ground. For this I use another asparagus cluster, this time with 2.5 m tanks. A single Skipper gives enough TWR for Tylo.

This much has to go on top of an interplanetary transfer stage. This starts with a Mk 3 LF tank with four smaller LF tanks to serve as mounting points for the nuke engines.

This, in turn, needs further asparagus staging for enough dV for transfer from Kerbin to Jool, minor trajectory adjustments, deceleration at Jool (alas, direct aerobraking in the Joolian atmosphere is now instant death) and insertion to Tylo orbit.

All that goes onto a lifter made of Kerbodyne parts, using Mammoth engine clusters.

In contrast to the four-way symmetry asparagus staging of the upper stages, the lifter uses six-way symmetry, onion staged. The outer onion layer tends to bang destructively against active tanks when staging away, so I need sepratrons to help. But mere sepratrons are pitifully weak for these huge tanks; so I use SRBs.

All of this for a haul of science from Tylo. For landing on Laythe, I am testing this ascent vehicle: Land configuration -

Water confuguration: (structural fuselages make good pontoons)

I have also gooten good results with this clunky looking thing:

All of these can get to Kerbin orbit by themselves, so they should work on Laythe.

[Columbia]

Interesting ship configurations! Good work