Modular craft and cargobays

[KerikBalm]

So, my latest project has been to finally make use of the cargobay and in particular the ramp that were provided for us... I had previously neglected them, but no more... they open up possibilities I had previously not considered.

I made a craft that can handle a variety of 1.25m and 2.5 rovers and payloads... just non-functional mass to deliver from point a to point B

My plan was to move things around laythe.... mobile habs/research bases/fuel depots/ISRU equipment... one craft to move all these things as just different rover payloads.

The craft I plan use to move all of these modules carries only LF, has no nukes... its only got 6 panthers and 2 wheesleys (panthers for TWR and efficient cruiser, wheesleys for backing up/turning on the ground)... not a spaceplane... can't get to orbit on laythe, I doubt it can even get out of the atmosphere on its own.

I could make an ISRU rover payload able to function while still attached to the SSTO... so that its more like an ISRU "module" that give capabilities to the craft, instead of just serving as just a payload that does nothing for the craft.

The fuel truck rovers could also be loaded in to give the plane more range, obviously.

Then I thought... what else can I put in the cargobay that could add to or change the capabilities to my craft?

A rover with vertical lift jets/rockets to improve the STOL capabilities of the craft seemed obvious enough... but that's sort of a gray area, its not a binary success condition (I never tried for full VTOL capabilty, and I don't think the docking connections are stong enough for vertical descent via parachutes on the payload)

Then my next question was: can I turn it into a SSTO(laythe) with another payload? A binary outcome... success or failure...

Indeed I could:

http://imgur.com/a/WBME2

(sorry, there was a problem with the upload, it froze and I closed the window and the pics of the craft atrually making orbit weren't uploaded, this mainly just shows the loading and unloading procedure)

Then on top of that... once in space, I can drop the rapiers, and drop in a LV-N cluster to go many many places.

Sure it would be much more efficient to just have a crew compartment detach from the plane to the various other modules... no need to bring the whole plane with all its deadweight atmospheric equipment... and I'm not sure why I'd ever want my latest Laythe SSTO to ever leave laythe and go somewhere else... but... at least now I've designed some modules for it to give me that option... so I'm sending it to laythe with a rapier module on board.

The wings are fuel tanks... so I don't even want to drop them for use in space... if only there were a practical way I could make the panthers detachable

Has anyone else designed multiple "modules" for a single craft to change its capabilites?

I'm not talking about docking things in space, that stay in space... thats easy enough... but I found doing it for stuff on the surface to be much harder

[AbacusWizard]

Neat idea! I like the concept of a slot into which different modules could be plugged so the same ship can serve several different purposes. In the past I've just used external docking ports (on orbital atomic tugs, mostly) but your use of the cargo ramp allows that idea to be extended to atmospheric flight as well, which is cool.

[Jetski]

I did a fair amount of this over in the Ultimate Challenge section - not for flying much, although I had a Laythe spaceplane module and a Duna Heat shield/parachute module I would plug into it.  THe idea was to have a single command module and plug it into a variety of lander bodies and flyers for various missions.  I like the idea

[KerikBalm]

Well, I kept the main fuselage (changing the rear landing gear for the medium size, changing the advanced nose cone for a shielded docking port), and changed the wings and engines (and associated tanks since the main fusalage carries no fuel, aside from 100 monoprop in the cockpit if I want), and made it into an SSTO on kerbin... so the rapier module is not so useful for that variant(its redundant)... I might just send both variants to laythe, given the SSTO variant needs more space for takeoff, and has no in flight electric generation, can't reverse under its own power (I may try to make a "tow truck rover"... although the fuel truck and ISRU rovers have claws and could pull, I doubt they'd be strong enough).

For the panther variant, I made updated "strap on" SSTOs for 1.05, and SSTO'd it with external rapier pods (that decouple with pylons that leave nothing on the parent craft, and are fully functional spaceplanes that I can recover). Inside the cargobay was a space only(as opposed to the other modules designed to be changed out on the surface) LV-N module that could get it to laythe (about 2,300 dV in orbit). It would double as an orbital pusher-tug once at laythe.

The -panther + rapier variant could use the same LV-N module to get to Laythe... but now I've got an different quandary.

Neither one is well suited for towing by an orbital tug (the nose mounted shielded docking port on the second isn't such a great option because its not inline with the CoM.... though I have some tugs that could overcome this if I carefully set the thrust limiters on some of the LV-Ns out on booms). So I basically have to use their cargobay for the LV-N module to get them to Laythe.

Even if I do tow them with thrust-adjusted-engines-on-booms-tugs, then they deliver two modules to the surface of laythe.

My ideas for an air-transportable laythe base calls for at least 9 modules on the surface... how do I deliver the other 7?

Module function...........2.5m size...........1.25m size

+Crew capacity..............+........................+

+Fuel capacity................+........................+

+ISRU ability...................+.........................+

+science abilities...........+(with lab)..........+(without lab)

+ SSTO capability..........+

+ STOL capability.........? (lift jets and parachutes and such)

Independently operating payloads 

*Tow truck

*Laythe submarine-rover (I'm somewhat tempted to make my mk3 spaceplanes capable of water takeoff and landings for this, but I really expect a lot of trouble if I try to attempt a water-recovery of a payload, I already have a mk2 seaplane SSTO for laythe anyway)

Even if I drop all the 1.25m sizes, the tow truck, and independently operating payloads. I'm not sure what I'll do to get all these modules to Laythe... disposable rockets, an aeroshell, and parachutes?

 

Does anyone have ideas for additional modules?

Does anyone have a good idea for the bulk transport of modules, designed to fit in a single large mk3 cargobay, to laythe orbit?

I'd really like to move them all at once rather than organize several different departure burns, and several different capture maneuvers, several rendezvous with tugs/refueling stuff in kerbin's SOI, etc.

In theory, once I get the -panther+rapier version to laythe, I can ferry modules from orbit down to the surface with it... (though I'll need a claw tug with well balanced RCS to move the rover-payloads into the cargobay in space) but I'm really coming up blank for idea on how to get these payloads to laythe with a single craft.