Slightly Dangerous - Caligari's Kerbal Craft (Updated June 6th)

[Caligari]

Hey, all! With the success of my SSTO to the Mün and back, I figured I'd make a little craft thread for myself with a couple of my designs to share! So fresh from my hangar to yours, the Slightly Dangerous collection!

 

Design Philosophy:

When it comes to my designs, I try to keep them pretty much stock, (And since 1.1 incorporates the Asteroid Day parts, as of 1.1, all my craft released will be stock), easy to use (Since I've got more design time than actual flying time, to be honest) and with a balance of function and style.

I come up with a role that I want filled, make it pretty, then figure out how to make it work properly, preferably with as many possible options crammed into a small, attractive package. These craft were designed with Career mode in mind, so science gathering equipment is included on some craft.

This being said, I've spent way more time in the VAB and SPH than I have actually off-world, so I can't say my designs are perfect for all environments, but now that I've started to get some nice designs ready, I'll be testing them out! Feel free to test 'em out along with me!

Update #1: More craft can be found here!

Update #2: Hot from the space-oven, more craft here!

(Mini) Update #3: Small update for a tiny rover, see it right here!

Hayha SSTO Spaceplane

 

The Hayha spaceplane is what brought me to the site (I wanted to get some feedback for the design) and I'm sure it'll be a mainstay in my saves just because I find the thing so attractive! Named for the famed Finnish sniper, this craft was designed as an omni-purpose single stage craft, both able to be flown on Kerbin and out into the Kerbolar system. I've managed to successfully get this thing to the Mün and back (Not without refuelling itself on the Mün, mind you) and with the ISRU converter onboard, it can get into Münar orbit with around 4500 dV left after landing and refuelling, which should be enough to get pretty much anywhere.

There may be more efficient flyers out there, there may be more efficient resource gatherers with a better payload capacity, but my goal was to have what amounted to a relatively small jet aircraft that could be used to shuttle Kerbals pretty much anywhere I wanted to put them. This being the purpose behind the design, it lacks any real science gathering gear, but any of the Science gathering craft parts could be added to the cargo bay. In the atmosphere, it can feel a bit sluggish when it's full of fuel, but the hidden Nuclear engines can both give a boost of pep and burn off excess fuel if you're not going into orbit. (Or you can remove fuel in the SPH, I guess, if you think simply not carrying fuel is better than using rockets.)

Note: There is a PB-NUK Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator located right where the drill attaches to the ISRU Converter, so if you don't have it unlocked in your save, you may want to remove it so you can use the craft sooner.

You can find the craft file here.

Update: Since posting this, I've managed to get the Hayha to hop from Minmus to Ike then to Duna and land back on Kerbin in one piece! I'd say the design is proving to be pretty decent!

 

Grey Ghost Rover

 

Named both for the Rolls Royce Silver Spur and the Gray Ghost from the old Batman: The Animated Series episode, "Beware the Gray Ghost", the Grey Ghost rover was designed to be sent to celestial bodies ahead of Kerbonauts to collect science from different biomes then return to a lander/base so that it can be brought back to Kerbin.

My first really "Successful" design, this predates the Hayha by a few months. This rover was designed once I noticed that the Modular Girder Segment had an absurd crash tolerance compared to other parts. Much like the Hayha, my goal was to put as much as I could in a small package, so it contains practically all the scientific gathering parts, the exception being the SC-9001 Science Jr. It even includes a drill and hidden radiators, along with a small docking port, meant to be used to gather ore to be converted by a base with ISRU (Or, La Caravane below). The majority of the surfaces of the rover are covered in solar panels protected by a roll-cage built out of the Girder Segments, giving this thing amazing electrical gathering potential. Two separate probe cores present on the rover allow it to control the rocket launching it while also being able to view the angles of driving as though it was an aircraft.

While mainly designed as an unmanned rover, it does have a single seat hidden inside it. Additionally, it boasts two protected landing gear on the roof, allowing it to self right in case of rollover, even if the landing gear would be destroyed at the speed in normal conditions. Despite the protective girder segments, solar panel and wheel destruction are still a very real danger in high speed rollovers, so don't be too reckless in your driving or else you may end up just rolling the thing end over end to get around!

Get your very own right here.

Update: With the 1.1 update wrecking how the wheels clip into the body, the rover no longer works as-is in 1.1.x, so you'll either have to drag the wheels out of the body or use a different rover (Sure, it got broken right after it gets a shout-out from @castille7 in a Spacecraft Friday post...Thanks for the shout out, by the way!)

La Caravane Rover

 

Named for the fact that it looks like a caravan, a song by the band Caravan Palace, and since it was designed to be attached to the back of the Grey Ghost, La Caravane acts as a supplemental craft, providing additional battery life, drills, a full sized Convert-o-tron and personnel storage (Including a mobile processing lab), allowing the craft to perform as a mobile base of operations. Of note are the two grabbing units attached to the craft, which are located at different heights. This was done to allow the large supply of ore it carries and the full sized ISRU unit to be used to refuel craft that either lack a method of refuelling or to speed up the refuelling process.

While the original iteration of La Caravane was made up of girders like the Grey Ghost, it left much to be desired in the looks department and made the part count skyrocket, due to the size of it and the subsequent number of girders. This was alleviated by the use of a Mk 3 Cargo bay, which gave it a much sleeker look while maintaining its relative sturdiness.

Note that while in the screenshots there are large flags on the side of the craft, the .craft file will not include these flag parts, as they would be an additional dependency, they can be found here.

Need a mobile base that looks a bit like a caravan with huge claws coming out of it? Well, grab one here.

 

Edited June 6, 2016 by Caligari
Updated some info and linked to new craft

[Majorjim!]

Great and original looking craft! La Caravane Rover is crazy looking with those panels out! And I really like the look of the Grey ghost rover.

[Caligari]

19 hours ago, Majorjim said:

Great and original looking craft! La Caravane Rover is crazy looking with those panels out! And I really like the look of the Grey ghost rover.

Thanks a bunch! The Grey Ghost's looks may be nice, but where it shines is its resilience. I sent an earlier version of the craft (Basically the same but with the M1 rover wheels)  to the Mün months ago and held down W while I watched some Netflix to see what would happen. A half hour later, it was rolling end over end thanks to the reaction wheels, the wheels had torn off, most of the solar panels had smashed and yet, it was still going! Really speaks to the strengths of monocoque design.

I'm still wondering if I should've changed up the Hayha's startup sequence to be a bit simpler, but I've just gotten used to the t-x-space-1-z dance and wanted it to be truly single stage in terms of both in-game staging and actual design. My real weakness is my lack of piloting time at this point, haha.

[Caligari]

April showers may bring May flowers, but they also bring a new set of spacecraft...I guess! I finally have been able to put together a couple new craft to share, so I figured it's time to put 'em up!

October Sky Rover

 

With 1.1.x making wheels collide with the body and blocking them, I returned to an old idea of mine: "What if we put the wheels inside the craft, protected by a cage all around?"

An idea I had to abandon due to the limits of my laptop running the 32 bit version of the game. But with a reason to make the craft and the ability to not set my motherboard on fire by making it, I finally completed the October Sky. Basically, it's a mobile base made in the same style of the Grey Ghost. La Caravane above was only really developed because I couldn't make this thing in 1.0.5. While it's admittedly slow and heavy, I think it came out absolutely GORGEOUS! And the rocket boosters bring it close to 40m/s on Kerbin, so it's only really slow in turns. Even if you use up all your fuel going fast, there are reserves for the Vernor thrusters which will help you flip the craft if it ends up upside down! Want a solar powered armoured personnel carrier? Get yours here!

Ecclesiarch MMU

 

I've got a confession to make: I've yet to put together a modular space station. I keep coming up with ideas, but I don't want to have my framerate drop to around 2fps when I stare at its majesty. So, while trying to come up with a station, I designed this nifty little MMU to attach to it! Honestly, it was just a test to see if it could be done in a way I found aesthetically pleasing, but after seeing it give Jeb a halo like he's in some Eastern Orthodox iconography, I just HAD to make it work.

It's got a good deal of dV, decent battery life, a mini docking port on top and a Dawn engine on the bottom! Great to go pick up Kerbals and bring 'em to a space station when your SSTO runs out of fuel in orbit. They come two in a pack and are ready to be attached to a 2.5m rocket of your choice to take them up out of the atmosphere! Get yours here!

 

Speaking of SSTOs...

 

Bulldog SSTO

This thing...Well, it's not the most functional nor the most efficient, but it never was meant to be. I wanted to see if I could get an alien/sci-fi looking design not only in the air, but into orbit and back a la K-Prize. I had to stick science gathering stuff in the clamp-o-tron's compartment just so that I didn't feel like it did nothing. This being said, it's relatively easy to fly; you can follow the ascent path that the Hayha has laid out on the download page, just switching out the 400m/s mark for 425m/s and you've gotta make sure it doesn't flip when you tilt up to escape the atmosphere. Yeah, I managed to get such a weird looking design to work pretty decently well, I'm kind of impressed! Mind you, the thing doesn't like being pitched upwards too quickly at low speeds and doesn't play nice with physics warp, so just keep that in mind if you're flying around in it!

Perhaps the most unique thing about this craft is after a few re-entries with it, I figured out that while it really wants to go in aft-first, I could use it to my advantage. One reversed drone core later, you switch on the control surfaces of the Big-S tail fins I used for cosmetics and the thing glides down quite nicely! Want to pretend you're invading other planets? Get yours here!

 

 

 

[Caligari]

Whew, just finished a fresh batch of monstrosities to share! Feel free to PM me with feedback/ideas; I'm always willing to lend an ear to constructive criticism!

With that out of the way, here's what I've got for you guys this week:

Rover - TR-O

 

Thinking back on what made my Grey Ghost rover fun, I realized that while October Rain fit more stuff in it than the Grey Ghost, the fact that it was so big and clunky was a pretty big turn off, especially when it was much less fun to drive, so I thought long and hard about how I could design something that not only was about the same size and weight of the Grey Ghost, but it had to go fast, stay in control and look pretty cool while doing it.

Thinking back to my youth, I remembered those days on the track, watching my dad and his buddies design, build and drive Formula racers, I realized the open wheelbase concept and look of a Formula race car would work perfectly with the new wheel mechanics. Mind you, I wouldn't need downforce, so I switched out the rear spoiler and front fin for some I-Beam bumpers to protect the wheels from front end collisions and flips.

The only real problem is has is a slightly lower top speed than the Grey ghost; only at about 29.5m/s as opposed to 33.1m/s, but the degree of control this rover affords makes up for it.

Due to changes in the landing gear, the flipping mechanism does explode from time to time in both this rover and the Grey Ghost because it somehow ends up "overstressed". To counter this, I've put 2 additional landing legs in the rover so that if you do end up flipping, you should have a few reserve legs when a couple break. This being said, this rover is MUCH more stable than any other one I've made, so I doubt that you'll have much to worry about!

Want to give it a try? Find it right here!

Space Station/Interplanetary cruiser - Malleus

 

I had mentioned during the release of the Ecclesiarch that I hadn't actually put together a space station for myself as of yet. I decided to rectify it a little while ago and what I ended up with...isn't really as much of a space station as a giant mothership-esque monstrosity.

After my first preliminary model, which was pretty big, I knew I needed something bigger. Something that could incorporate two full size Mk III bays in it. Something that could act as its own interplanetary ecosystem, launching MMUs and drones to fill itself with the nearly 500 tons of oxidizer and liquid fuel it can hold. Something loaded with so many reaction wheels and RCS thrusters that it'd feel nimble in space, despite weighing in at 350 tons after getting into orbit. What I came up with...is this.

Malleus, the hammer.

48250 units of liquid fuel, 52250 units of oxidizer, 6 regular sized docking ports, 4 miniature ones and room for 12 kerbals. This thing can hold a LOT, act as the center of a station, refuel ships in orbit, or you can send it into a polar orbit of Minmus, run the survey scanner in the right cargo bay, send a drone out, fuel up and head wherever you want with over 6000 dV if you just fill up the liquid fuel. I'd recommend against doing any real landing with it, though. Those fins/wings are mostly for show/fuel storage and I'm sure it'd drop like a rock if you tried gliding with it.

Ready to fly an interplanetary spacecraft that's nearly 50 metres long? Get yours here!

Mining drone - Scarecrow

 

And here we have the first component that Malleus would really need. The Scarecrow, much like its namesake, should be associated with harvesting. This little drone is essentially drills and solar panels shoved into a small package and made to fit nicely in the storage bay. While I'm usually hesitant to include a  I've developed smaller ones and cheaper ones, but the main benefit of this one is that it looks a lot cleaner than the other ones, has static solar panels hidden inside the chassis so it won't run out of power if the larger panels are retracted, and can be refuelled more easily due to how the hidden fuel tanks are stacked.

Is it harvest time in space? Need a mining drone that fits snugly in a corner? Get yours here!

Lander/Rover - Chrysalid

 

My attempt at making a rover using the XL3 wheels and a cupola. While I've found that many larger rovers have the whole "Tube with big wheels" aesthetic, I never was really a fan of it, I noticed that by "shimmying" left and right, you were able to trick the XL3 wheels to go insane speeds, so I wanted a rover that could take advantage of that. I also wanted a rover that could incorporate a cupola, science lab and full sized ISRU converter and a claw. I even threw in some RCS and aerospike rockets so that you can biome-hop with it and land the rover itself. Mind you, I left the thing rather light on fuel, so while you can get into orbit with it on Minmus or the Mun, don't expect miracles from the limited fuel supply!

This thing actually has an interesting story behind the name. I named it because, like a chrysalis-bound insect, it can "grow" anything it needs to complete a mission. Solar panels and drills pop out of it, it can use the rockets and landing gear on the aft end to land, it can use the claw to dock with craft, I've even gotten it into Minmus orbit to rendezvous with craft before!

Want a rover that can evolve into whatever mission parameters you can figure out and can go over 80 m/s without using fuel and much faster if you want to use some? You can find it here!

[Caligari]

Micro-update! While I usually would wait to have a few craft to upload before making an update, I feel that given the number of people who liked this thing on KerbalX, I might as well share it on here too!

 

Mini Rover - Tochka

While experimenting on rover delivery systems for the TR-O, I decided to see how small I could make a science gathering rover. The result is Tochka. Russian for "dot" or "point", it's small enough to fit inside a Mk II bay or 2.5m bay, is made of 40 parts, weighs just over a ton and even has an ion engine that'll let it hover or jump in Munar gravity!

One of my fave points of this thing is that there are 2 reaction wheels, one that's SAS only, the other is used for self righting and manoeuvring with the ion engine and is turned on by hotkey 3, letting it be both controllable in any mode!

With a vacuum dV of ~1400, it could even get into orbit around smaller bodies with the little "jumping" engine!

Need a really small rover? Like REALLY small? You can find it here!