Intrepid. Stage-And-A-Half Shuttle.

[Rune]

So, my DC-3 was almost useful enough to use on a career save, with the exception that you had to install something like Flight Manager For Reusable Stages to recover the very expensive booster. Well, there is a simple solution to the problem: don't use a booster! At first thought, that would mean a SSTO, but SSTOs have lots of tankage and poor payload fractions, meaning a big unwieldy spaceship with very little margins. But ET's are cheap! So for a mere 25k√, you can now put ~20mT payloads into a 100km circular orbit, with dV to spare and reusing all the really expensive pieces of equipment. That's 1,200√/mT! Presenting, the Intrepid stage-and-a-half shuttle:

Good-looking ship, ain't she? And she has what it takes to get the job done. With three Vectors as the main powerplant, it is downright snappy getting off the launchpad, making orbit on less than 3.5km/s of dV with a really fast launch profile that will get you into orbit in about 5 minutes, circularization burn included. And don't worry about an incredibly efficient gravity turn, I usually fly her quite steep because the TWR curve is more of a cliff, and still I make orbit comfortably thanks to ridiculously low gravity losses. If you go too shallow, in fact, chances are the high TWR will burn you to a crisp... Anyhow, once in orbit, you have about half a km/s left in the tanks, so more than enough to make any imaginable rendezvous in medium orbits, and the powerful Vernor RCS means it is quite maneuverable. Power comes form a fuel cell, but don't worry about it because I slaved it to the "stage" action groups, so you can't forget to turn it on on takeoff.

And yes, as usual, I took care to build this for everyone, only this time I think I outdid myself: 80 parts on the pad, 51 on orbit: even with a potato computer, this will run smoothly. And you can move it close to your huge stations without making the slideshow much worse! And with respect to coming back, as long as you take care to distribute any remaining fuel evenly between the front an rear tanks, and hit a good descent corridor, it is not even that hard. Well, it is a bit hard if you are coming back with a full payload bay, but the amazing thing is that you can actually make that work in the first place with so little wing (proof is in the album, but it was a hairy descent, I went subsonic with KSC in sight and ended up touching down at something like 170m/s, almost running out of runway ). With an empty payload bay (a much more sensible option), it can actually fly on the four Junos on the back (barely), just in case you are missing KSC by a few kilometers (happens to the best of us).

And once you are in orbit, the fact that this is a rocketship of decent mass ratio is actually a very good thing. With half the payload space dedicated to fuel, and the other half to, say, a crew habitat, you will make orbit with enough dV to get to freaking Mun afterwards, so a multipurpose ship indeed... and I'm running out of things to say about it ATM, so without further ado, I leave you with the usual Imgur album and the DL link. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! I always try to answer them as best I can, and the feedback is more than welcome.  

IMGUR ALBUM:

 

DOWNLOAD:

http://www./download/8luv3317q0zdk58/Intrepid.craft

 

Rune. Sometimes, simplicity really pays off.

 

[Iago]

Very nice, Rune!

[Temstar]

Hey Rune, you'll be interested to know this was a shuttle concept too:


Man those shuttle proposals are a gold mine for KSP rocket designers.

[Rune]

14 minutes ago, Iago said:

Very nice, Rune!

Thanks!

7 minutes ago, Temstar said:

Hey Rune, you'll be interested to know this was a shuttle concept too:


Man those shuttle proposals are a gold mine for KSP rocket designers.

Indeed it is, indeed it is. I didn't place the tanks quite like the StarClipper had them, and the rocket itself looks a bit more like a shuttle with the single vertical stabilizer, but yeah, I was totally going after a replica of the functional aspects of that shuttle proposal form Lockheed. You caught me!

 

Rune. Stealing from the best.

Edited December 27, 2015 by Rune

[mythic_fci]

All hail the great Master of the Spaceplane, Rune!

 

Great job! You've done it again... Time to throw that modified DC3 out the window and replace it with this beauty

[Interplanetary Engineer]

Well, you beat me there. I worked on a very similar concept a while ago, but I just aimed too high with the payload fraction. Good job as always though, keep up the great work!

[Somtaaw]

I like it, one of the greatest difficulties I seem to have is in my lifter's, designing payloads is fun and all, but designing a good re-usable lifter is bloody hard. Although it looks like your link is a bit broken atm?

 

On the subject of landing hot, and almost running out of runway, have you considered throwing on some of the airbrakes for a final speed loss, or some internally mounted, forward facing Vernor's?

[Rune]

4 hours ago, Interplanetary Engineer said:

Well, you beat me there. I worked on a very similar concept a while ago, but I just aimed too high with the payload fraction. Good job as always though, keep up the great work!

Thanks! KER helps a lot when figuring out how much stuff you can bring up. I never build without it!

2 hours ago, Somtaaw said:

I like it, one of the greatest difficulties I seem to have is in my lifter's, designing payloads is fun and all, but designing a good re-usable lifter is bloody hard. Although it looks like your link is a bit broken atm?

 

On the subject of landing hot, and almost running out of runway, have you considered throwing on some of the airbrakes for a final speed loss, or some internally mounted, forward facing Vernor's?

Glad you like it. And nope, the link is "fine", all that happens is that it's hosted on mediafire, so the link is borked by the forum's software to remove the offending domain name. Just add back the domain name back in your address bar and it should still work (a domain name is how you've always know webpages, i.e the "google.com" in http://www.google.com/blablabla).

Also, FWIW, by "hairy descent", I didn't mean that you can't lose enough speed, anything with wings can loose speed fast if you know how to pilot it and have sufficient control authority (which is why I rarely put airbrakes on stuff, never use them). The problem is you don't want to slow down before it's absolutely necessary with this thing loaded. With the full bay, wing loading (mass/lift) is very high, meaning it needs a high speed in order to maintain level flight. Since it is also a bit draggy, and the Junos don't give enough thrust to speed up with a full bay... just like the shuttle, you want to save energy until the last second and flare just before the runway to ensure you are going fast enough to arrest your vertical motion before touching the runway. With an empty bay, though, wing loading is much smaller, so you will have no troubles gliding for a long time, and you can even maintain level flight with the Junos.

 

Rune. Wait till you see the next VTHL booster I'm working on...

[pTrevTrevs]

So... I'm gonna steal this concept for my own use. Hopefully you won't mind that. 

[ScriptKitt3h]

On 12/27/2015 at 11:11 AM, Temstar said:

Hey Rune, you'll be interested to know this was a shuttle concept too:


Man those shuttle proposals are a gold mine for KSP rocket designers.

I'm gonna have to take that old Lockheed concept and try my hand at it- a multi-engine-type shuttle of similar design using Vectors for the SSMEs and LV-Ns as orbital engines would be a neat way to shuttle light cargo and large crews up in a single go.

[Rune]

23 hours ago, pTrevTrevs said:

So... I'm gonna steal this concept for my own use. Hopefully you won't mind that. 

Of course not! Steal away. And if you need to pick under the hood for anything, feel free to do so.

18 hours ago, ScriptKitt3h said:

I'm gonna have to take that old Lockheed concept and try my hand at it- a multi-engine-type shuttle of similar design using Vectors for the SSMEs and LV-Ns as orbital engines would be a neat way to shuttle light cargo and large crews up in a single go.

Good luck with it! I'm not going to do much the concept going forward. Honestly, for lifting payloads to LKO that can fit a Mk3 bay, I have cheaper things that can lift more.

 

Rune. Did I just hint at something there?

[ScriptKitt3h]

22 minutes ago, Rune said:

Good luck with it! I'm not going to do much the concept going forward. Honestly, for lifting payloads to LKO that can fit a Mk3 bay, I have cheaper things that can lift more.

 

Rune. Did I just hint at something there?

I believe you just did.

However, I'm hoping to make at least a launch-to-stable munar orbit shuttle via that concept of LV-Ns and Vectors used in conjunction, since the Vectors are great for shuttles in general, and the LV-Ns are great for orbital flight (as long as you're patient :P). But yeah, sometimes rule of cool isn't always in line with cost-effectiveness. 

[ryan234abc]

Hey again.

This is certainly a unique craft of yours - I'm used to Single Stage crafts after all - but it was a pleasant surprise to see this. Admittedly, I've always had a thing for external tanks that don't have their own engines, they show a great ability to control the intention to add ' MOAR BOOSTERS'. Since I only recently TRULY mastered matching orbits and intercepting for docking a few days ago, a career game has suddenly become a possibility for me, so this couldn't have come at a better time. Don't have much time to try it RIGHT NOW, but I'll be sure to get round to it - I can't wait to try this out!

As a side note, do you have any low tech-tree craft? I don't doubt my ability to make huge mk3 crafts, but it's been a while since I've had to use quality and not quantity. After all, gotta deal with funds, science etc.

Much appreciated

Ryan 

Oh and also. Question about signatures. I wanna get a picture into my signature, but can't through imgur, copy paste or anything. Any suggestions?

EDIT: Nvm, did it. I'm stupid at the best of times.

 

Edited February 23, 2016 by ryan234abc
Question added

[Mister Dilsby]

Whoops, the recent posts brought me here to realize I named a ship the same name as the name you named a ship. Unintentional of course.

[Rune]

2 hours ago, ryan234abc said:

Hey again.

This is certainly a unique craft of yours - I'm used to Single Stage crafts after all - but it was a pleasant surprise to see this. Admittedly, I've always had a thing for external tanks that don't have their own engines, they show a great ability to control the intention to add ' MOAR BOOSTERS'. Since I only recently TRULY mastered matching orbits and intercepting for docking a few days ago, a career game has suddenly become a possibility for me, so this couldn't have come at a better time. Don't have much time to try it RIGHT NOW, but I'll be sure to get round to it - I can't wait to try this out!

As a side note, do you have any low tech-tree craft? I don't doubt my ability to make huge mk3 crafts, but it's been a while since I've had to use quality and not quantity. After all, gotta deal with funds, science etc.

Much appreciated

Ryan 

Oh and also. Question about signatures. I wanna get a picture into my signature, but can't through imgur, copy paste or anything. Any suggestions?

EDIT: Nvm, did it. I'm stupid at the best of times.

 

Actually, I've done quite a few shuttle and shuttle proposal replicas... from my "KTS", which used actual "three-segment boosters" to get a good thrust profile, to bay-opening creations before we had cargo bays, to my MAKS replica, I am actually running out of things to replicate in that arena.

It's just that they usually pale in capabilities to my SSTOs, so they don't last very long on my page! Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this one, it is a very easy and fun ship, and if you are learning to dock and such, doing a few orbital assemblies on it willl be a lot of fun, it has a powerful RCS system and the conveniently-sized docking port, not to mention the bay is small enough that you will have to bring stuff in small-ish pieces.

The point about low-tech ships is appreciated, tough. I have kind of a full up-to-date lineup right now (or as soon as I bother to re-upload things and clean up my thread), and not any big projects on the horizon (i.e: I'm happy with my ships and forsee little need for new ones in my save), and early career is something that I don't offer anything for currently. And those are simple things where maybe my build style could work? Anyhow, I might give it a visit in the future.

2 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

Whoops, the recent posts brought me here to realize I named a ship the same name as the name you named a ship. Unintentional of course.

Of course! Happens to everyone. After all, this ship predates yours by quite a bit, and you clearly didn't know of it. Besides, off the top of my head I think I can remember at lest another couple "Intrepids" out here, and at least one was a shuttle. It must be one of those cool-sounding names.

 

Rune. Man, digging into my imgur account brings back KSP memories.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Rune

[ryan234abc]

20 hours ago, Rune said:

The point about low-tech ships is appreciated, tough. I have kind of a full up-to-date lineup right now (or as soon as I bother to re-upload things and clean up my thread), and not any big projects on the horizon (i.e: I'm happy with my ships and forsee little need for new ones in my save), and early career is something that I don't offer anything for currently. And those are simple things where maybe my build style could work?

You have a knack for fitting a lot of stuff onto a small area. Your subassembly pack proves that, and the fact that you always have handy little gadgets in the cargo bays of your SSTOs. Truth be told, early career saves don't really need too much fancy gear - by the time you need things as complicated as SSTOs you've unlocked all the parts. I've always just wondered what you'd come out with on a smaller scale - all due respect, but most of your craft are mk3/mk2. If I had to pick which of your releases I like the best, besides the Eagle/Trident, I'd choose the subassembly pack. I love the little ingenious gadgets, and the K-22 (was that the name of the little shuttle?) was amazing! I guess I just like efficiency, and by that I mean getting a lot of quality for little quantity. Still, I wouldn't tell you to change what you're doing right now - big and beautiful (add a dash of ingenious ship-naming) is what makes you, YOU.

Still, the Trident is my life.

Edited February 24, 2016 by ryan234abc
Learn to spell, Ryan!

[MaxwellsDemon]

The download link doesn't work for me.   

[Rune]

3 hours ago, ryan234abc said:

You have a knack for fitting a lot of stuff onto a small area. Your subassembly pack proves that, and the fact that you always have handy little gadgets in the cargo bays of your SSTOs. Truth be told, early career saves don't really need too much fancy gear - by the time you need things as complicated as SSTOs you've unlocked all the parts. I've always just wondered what you'd come out with on a smaller scale - all due respect, but most of your craft are mk3/mk2. If I had to pick which of your releases I like the best, besides the Eagle/Trident, I'd choose the subassembly pack. I love the little ingenious gadgets, and the K-22 (was that the name of the little shuttle?) was amazing! I guess I just like efficiency, and by that I mean getting a lot of quality for little quantity. Still, I wouldn't tell you to change what you're doing right now - big and beautiful (add a dash of ingenious ship-naming) is what makes you, YOU.

Still, the Trident is my life.

I am flattered! Have you seen the Orca? It's in my release thread, and I'm afraid it is a Trident-killer, it does everything only better... Just like when the Eagle died, it was a bittersweet moment to realize what I had built.

As to the small, simple stuff... Yeah, it's that kind of thing that I love to build. Just so I can pick a bunch of small, simple things, and get them together to create a 350 part thing of glory. The stacks for my Jool mission are almost ready!

So yeah, when that is on its way, I will probably want to take a break from Mk2/Mk3 stuff, because beautiful as it is, I do tend to overuse it as you say. As series of simple science vessels to get the tech to build my stuff might be nice...

2 hours ago, MaxwellsDemon said:

The download link doesn't work for me.   

It's from the pre-mediafire-ban days. The link itself is fine, but the forums censors it taking out the domain name. I have a hunch you will be able to figure out how to un-bork it if you put your mind to it.

 

Rune. Hint: A domain name is something like "google.com", and goes after "www." in an URL.