Colonizing Laythe... with an air force

[Jhawk1099]

So my next mission I have planned it to land a load of refuelable planes on Laythe and making my own "air force" to police the waters where the kracken may lye. I was wondering if anyone has done something similar or if you guys have any general advice. A little bit more detail: I plan to have at least 4 small drones 2 manned fighters and one largeish bomber. These would all use jets (Laythe has o2 in Its atm right? ) and be refueled by an isru with grabbers around it (docking on the ground is awful). So yeah any advice/ ideas are greatly appreciated

[bewing]

Yes, Laythe has an O2 atmosphere.

But your plan sounds workable and fun.  I don't really advise the military approach to kraken -- they are far too powerful.

 

 

Edited February 19, 2016 by bewing

[Evanitis]

3 hours ago, Jhawk1099 said:

I was wondering if anyone has done something similar

I'm tempted to link some of my own Laythe-project, but others did much more impressive missions. Mr Alpaca even caught a kraken. I'd fail to express how awesome the project below is. I'd rep it a hundred times if I could, instead I just link the thread it resides. It's the most awesome KSP video I even seen - I'm not sure if only because I'm an SSTO-plane fan. But probably not.

On 2016. 02. 14. at 11:18 PM, EvermoreAlpaca said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qa9aWBvw0k

The biggest Laythe SSTO yet!  564 kerbals, submarines/jets/assorted other toys.  A bit on the long side but I think y'all will enjoy it.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Evanitis

[EvermoreAlpaca]

Laythe is a fantastically fun destination, and I have done several missions there, it is certainly my favourite vacation spot.

 Laythe has an interesting atmospheric curve, that allows you to continue running air breathing engines until quite close to space.  As a result, it is very easy to pick up a lot of speed in the upper Laythian atmosphere.  As long as you are well shielded from heat you can either cruise long distances in atmosphere, or reach space for far less fuel than it takes to do so on kerbin.

If you are planning on landing big planes on the surface of laythe, I would recommend you add landing gear near the rear of your craft to prevent tailstrikes while landing on the dunes.

In terms of getting to Laythe, the Kerbin->Eve->Kerbin->Kerbin-> Jool route is ludicrously awesome.  You can get to Laythe with as little as 1100 m/s dV from LKO.

 

Edited February 19, 2016 by EvermoreAlpaca

[AbacusWizard]

A few versions ago I made a nice little Laythe colony with a surface outpost (complete with a very sporty rover and a lovely view of Jool on the horizon), an orbital station (with plenty of fuel), and a spaceplane to travel between the two. I haven't been back to Laythe since the atmospheric simulation was overhauled, though, so any advice I could give you is liable to crash horribly.

 

One bit of non-atmospheric advice I can give you, though, is to make everything as modular and interchangeable as possible. I found it very useful to have a small fleet of identical interplanetary tugs that would work equally well for hauling a spaceplane or a surface outpost to Laythe or a capsule of passengers back to Kerbin, and various fuel depots that could refuel anything nearby that needed it. (With the new ISRU system, I wouldn't even have to keep sending new fuel depots from Kerbin!)

[LordKael]

I would recommend carefully considering how you set up your ISRU for maximum efficiency. I tend to favor using a body with no atmosphere for my "gas station" outposts, as landing/take off tends to be cheaper for vehicles without wings. If you're planning a jet powered AKAF(Anti-Kraken Air Force) then I would choose a spot near the shore, so that you can land on the water and coast in. Definitely the most reliable landing on Laythe.

[Floker]

I'll start something similar too but with 1 mining plane, 1 scouting drone (to identify landing spots) 1 SSTO (for return) and 2 ground bases. I want to land on every island possible.

I've been there once before on a short scouting mission. Flying is really fun but landing is not. So here is my advise: Make sure your planes are able to land on tough terrain at speeds <60 m/s. Also exercise it on Kerbin.

I don't know how big your planes are. Mine has about 60 t before refueling so it actually was a design issue to make it not break apart as soon as it hits the ground.

My experience in this matter is: Lift is far more important than struts. Also keep in mind that Laythe's atmosphere is a bit thinner than Kerbin's so you will need more lift there. My solution to this problem is a mk3 biplane I like it.

[AbacusWizard]

Am I the only one who usually just puts parachutes on planes and doesn't worry about high-speed horizontal landings?

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

Waging war against the Kraken would be difficult... considering it sorta controls the whole universe

[Matuchkin]

22 hours ago, Jhawk1099 said:

So my next mission I have planned it to land a load of refuelable planes on Laythe and making my own "air force" to police the waters where the kracken may lye.

Guess you can call that...

...GUN-BOAT DIPLOMACY!

(aaaawwww yeaaaaaaaahh)

[bewing]

2 hours ago, AbacusWizard said:

Am I the only one who usually just puts parachutes on planes and doesn't worry about high-speed horizontal landings?

Heh. I think we all do that at the beginning. But after a gentle parachute descent, you can still smash your plane to bits if you land on a moderate slope (especially if you land in any other orientation than facing uphill). For me, horizontal landings seem to be actually a bit more reliable, on terrain that is only somewhat wavy. On steep terrain, you're probably dead either way, and on flats it's easy either way.

Edited February 20, 2016 by bewing

[Floker]

11 hours ago, AbacusWizard said:

Am I the only one who usually just puts parachutes on planes and doesn't worry about high-speed horizontal landings?

I tried this too when I became frustrated with my first planes. But in my opinion it wasn't that easy either. Also you'll need a whole crap load of chutes for bigger planes. With enough lift you can land almost anywhere if you keep the vertical velocity as low as possible.

And it's just so satisfying when you touch down

 

[1greywind]

Well, you can bring some decorative infrastructure with you: airport traffic control tower, VTOL landing pad, etc. Also you can consider to build floating airstrip - due to low gravity and reasonable pressure on sea level, landing speed can be very low.

Floating base are very picturesque:

 

[Jhawk1099]

20 hours ago, AbacusWizard said:

 I haven't been back to Laythe since the atmospheric simulation was overhauled, though, so any advice I could give you is liable to crash horribly.

One bit of non-atmospheric advice I can give you, though, is to make everything as modular and interchangeable as possible. I found it very useful to have a small fleet of identical interplanetary tugs that would work equally well for hauling a spaceplane or a surface outpost to Laythe or a capsule of passengers back to Kerbin, and various fuel depots that could refuel anything nearby that needed it. 

Well what is KSP without the crashes? And the way I plan to be able to refuel everything is to just have a grabber arm where I can just drive my plane up to it and re-fuel it there.

 

20 hours ago, LordKael said:

If you're planning a jet powered AKAF(Anti-Kraken Air Force) then I would choose a spot near the shore, so that you can land on the water and coast in. Definitely the most reliable landing on Laythe.

Do you have AKAF trademarked? Because that's great.

 

12 hours ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

Waging war against the Kraken would be difficult... considering it sorta controls the whole universe

No no no, full out war against the Kraken would be idiotic at best. This is just to police it a bit and maybe make it stop making things explode after I undock them

[LordKael]

34 minutes ago, Jhawk1099 said:

21 hours ago, LordKael said:

If you're planning a jet powered AKAF(Anti-Kraken Air Force) then I would choose a spot near the shore, so that you can land on the water and coast in. Definitely the most reliable landing on Laythe.

Do you have AKAF trademarked? Because that's great.

Go ahead and use it. Just name something after me

[Jhawk1099]

1 minute ago, LordKael said:

Go ahead and use it. Just name something after me

How do you pronounce Kael? is it like the weird rip off of spinach kale?

[LordKael]

Just now, Jhawk1099 said:

How do you pronounce Kael? is it like the weird rip off of spinach kale?

Everybody seems to have so much trouble with that part of my name... Kah-el. Two syllables, sounds like a name from Krypton. 

[RocketSquid]

13 hours ago, AbacusWizard said:

Am I the only one who usually just puts parachutes on planes and doesn't worry about high-speed horizontal landings?

I always do, unless they will be: A) landing on a runway all the time; B) never landing (1-way SSTO); or C) performing a water landing that they are well equipped for. I have also considered using USI's airbags.