Indignation short/medium range trans planetary craft.

[Jakalth]

Been a while since I've uploaded anything for you all to play around with.  But I finally have something actually worth uploading.

 

The: Indignation. <download link>

 

The Indignation is a short to medium range trans planetary craft designed for smaller missions between worlds.  It comes with mining and refining capabilities to keep it flying, twin Nerve engines for longevity and efficiency, a rear docking port from drop tanks and small cargo or for bringing it along with larger craft.  It has a crew capacity of 6, but only really needs two to be fully effective, a pilot and an engineer.  It's also equipped with 8 airbrakes and 4 parachute for atmospheric descent.  Here it is with it's launcher.

Spoiler

 

The Indignation has quite a few fold out parts, 6 radiator arrays, and 2 large solar panel arrays.  The IRSU and the two radiators that keep it cool are stored inside the cargo bay.  The large drill is tucked into the tail in such a way that it's mass is lined up with the Indignation's center line.  So the craft remains balanced in flight.

Spoiler

 

The craft performs best in the vacuum of space or in locations that have no atmosphere, like moons or the smaller planets.

Spoiler

 

Stats(not counting the Launcher)

Part count: 131

Weight: 43.3 tons

TWR around Kerbin: 0.28

Delta-V in vacuum: 3,768

Landing orientation: Vertical

Atmospheric landing: Yes

Does it fly: Not Really, flies like a bowling Ball.

Locations it can land easily and still take off again: Moho, Gilly, Mun, Minmus, Duna(with the fuel tanks not quite full), Ike, Dres, Vall, Pol, Bop, Eeloo

Locations it can land with a bit of challenge, but never lift off from: Kerbin, Laythe

Locations it might be able to land, but at very high risk: Eve

Locations it can NOT land: Tylo, Jool

 

The Indignation is like a normal lander in most regards.  Most of the time you will be making powered landings like you would with any other lander.  Keeping the nose pointed retrograde while landing, so coming down tail first.  The engines will be enough to land you in most locations with no need for the airbrakes or parachutes.

 

Duna landing:  Duna is a special place that requires it's own landing profile.  You start your entry like you would for any atmosphere lacking world.  Tail first.  Use the engines to slow yourself down as much as possible.  As you enter the atmosphere, deploy the airbrakes to help slow the craft down and conserve a little fuel.  Depending on where you land, you may or may not get any use out of the parachutes...  Even with the chutes deployed, the thin atmosphere of Duna means they are not enough to land with, you'll need to use the engines on the indignation to help with landing.  If you like, you can even just land using the engines alone, but at a slightly higher delta-V cost.

 

Kerbin/Laythe landing:  For atmospheric landing, treat the craft like a space plane with horrible aerodynamics.  As you start entering the atmosphere, deploy the airbrakes.  Point the craft to prograde so your flying in nose first, then using a little help from the RCS if needed, bring up the nose so that your pointed 10 - 15 degrees above prograde(nose up position).  The nose up position will help the craft slow down faster.  As the craft bites into the atmosphere, carefully manage the nose up orientation keeping it at or below 15 degrees up until your speed has dropped to at least 1,100m/s, preferably slower.  At this point, bring the nose down a little to keep the craft under control.  At some point, the craft will probably try to slide out of position, fight it.  The craft getting out of position and/or trying to flip inverted is not bad, but fighting it helps with braking and will slow down the craft a bit quicker.  In the thicker atmosphere, you can try flying the Indignation like a space plane, but it's aerodynamics are bad and it's not going to produce much lift.  Once you've got your speed down to a safe speed, deploy your chute and get the craft facing tail first.  Be sure to deploy the landing gear before landing as well.  It helps a little.

 

Eve landing: You should be able to land the craft the same as you would for Kerbin Laythe, but speed is going to be a huge issue here.  Eve has much higher gravity, and that relates to higher orbital speeds.  So finding a way to bleed off as much speed as possible is key if you dare to attempt an Eve landing with this craft.

 

To increase its range, I've included the fuel module from the defunct Octopus tug.  Adding one tank to the indignation should get you around 900 additional delta-V.  A second should give you another 600-700, and so on.  These fuel modules are simple and fairly cheap(they can be made cheaper by ditching the rcs and drone core) and are made to be docked with the craft in orbit.  Use them wisely and leave them in orbit when you try landing, unless you want to soften the landing zone with debree.

 

I hope you enjoy this craft.  It is the first craft I've been able to make that can fly between planets and I actually like the way it looks.  It has a bit of style instead of being fully utilitarian like my other trans planetary craft.

Edited January 29, 2016 by Jakalth

[Jakalth]

Hmmm, since I forgot to mention this, the craft is completely stock.  No modded parts what so ever are used on this craft.