Deep Space Explorer DSE-02 William Klark

[panarchist]

I'd like to introduce the Deep Space Explorer William Klark:

 

Craft file can be found on KerbalX.  It requires the PSA Greenhouse, which can be found on Spacedock.  It also needs a whole laundry list of mods if you're going to download it:

Mods Required:
USI-UKS
USI-LS
USI-FTT
USI Orion
KSO (Space Station parts)
KIS
KPBS
DarkSide Technologies
DeepFreeze Continued
Kerbodyne Plus
PSA Greenhouse
RemoteTech
Tweakscale
kOS (for 1 part)
PSI Greenhouse

Mods Strongly Recommended:
OSE Workshop
Extraplanetary Launchpads
Kerbal Joint Reinforcement
Modular Fuel Tanks

Ship Details:

 

DSE-02 William Klark

Parts: 115 (122 with Conventional "Booster")
Mass: 1,501,670kg (1501.67 tons - over 3 million tons with booster)
Crew Complement: 24 design load, but can have up to 36 "regular" crew members plus up to 24 additional frozen crew
Maximum Accommodations: 81

Propulsion: Korion Nuclear Pulsed Propulsion 
Propulsion Fuel / Reaction Mass: NPU-500 nuclear shaped charges (10,000 units)
ISP: 15,000s
Power: (2) USI/General Atomiks 1.25m Fission Reactors - total capacity 460EC/s
Secondary Propulsion / Attitude Control: (8) Kerbodyne R-D HLRX4 Thrusters

Electric Charge: 14,080
Supplies: 88,600kg
Machinery: 493,290kg
Fertilizer: 40,300kg
Material Kits: 131,200kg
Specialized Parts: 42,336kg
Liquid Fuel: 144,000kg (677,000kg with Booster)
Oxidizer: 176,000kg (826,000kg with Booster)
Enriched Uranium: 14,195kg
NPU-500: 100,000kg

So, what's this all about, anyway?

Well, my main game since 0.18 has been a sandbox game (since that pre-dated the current career mode), and while that game save is long gone, I've been working on another sandbox game which has a progression from early spaceflight to bases on the Mun and Duna, and eventually exploration of Jool and parts unknown.  I game on a MacBook Pro, so now that we finally have 64-bit, I've been able to load up a ridiculous number of mods, and I've really enjoyed looking at Cercani (The Other Worlds mod for Kopernicus).  I didn't want to use an Alcubierre warp drive to get there, though, and the other options out there weren't really what I was looking for.  Then @RoverDude published his nuclear rockets mod (ok, technically I think it's still in development), and I fell in love - since I am totally obsessed over the Orion program from the 60s.

I also loaded up the Outer Planets mod, so I have Other Worlds and Outer Planets both integrated in and waiting for Kerbals to visit.  So I started trying to design a "realistic" deep space ship to journey to Cercani.  I'm not 100% sure, but based on armchair calculations, I think I can get the DSE-02 to Cercani in under 2 kerbin-years.  So that's the mission, and the goal: to load up Jeb, Bob, Bill, Valentine, and 20 of their fellow Kerbonauts and journey father than any Kerbal has ever gone before - and in the meantime, the successors to the DSE-02 can visit Jool, Sarnus, Urlum, Neidon, and Plock.  I haven't seen a lot of large deep space ship designs out there (when I say "a lot", I mean more than 20), and none that looked the way I would design one, so I thought I'd share it with folks in case they wanted to fly it.

The DSE-02 uses something like 14 mods at minimum, including one I just uploaded to Spacedock with a greenhouse.  Technically, it should also have the following patch put somewhere that Module Manager can see it:

// OKS Workshop mod

//Add OSE Workshop capabilities to the OKS Workshop

@UmbraSpaceIndustries:AFTER[UmbraSpaceIndustries] //Edit USI after USI has been processed
@PART[OKS_Workshop]:NEEDS[Workshop] //Edit the part OKS_Workshop if OSE Workshop is installed
//The Workshop OKS Module is smaller, less efficient than the Fabricator
{
  MODULE
  {
    name = OseModuleWorkshop
    ConversionRate = 1.0 // How much of a parts mass needs to be processed until it is done
    ProductivityFactor = 0.05 // How much units of the resource a processed per second
    UpkeepResource = ElectricCharge // This resource will be consumed 1 per second during processing
    InputResource = MaterialKits // This resource will be used to process the items
    MinimumCrew = 1 // Amount of Kerbals needed for the Workshop to work
    MaxPartVolume = 1000.0
    Animate = true
  }
  MODULE
  {
    name = OseModuleRecycler
    ConversionRate = 0.15 // How much of a parts mass will be recycled
    ProductivityFactor = 0.1 // How much units of the resource a processed per second
    UpkeepResource = ElectricCharge // This resource will be consumed 1 per second during processing
    OutputResource = MaterialKits // This resource will be created 
    MinimumCrew = 1 // Amount of Kerbals needed for the Recycler to work
  }
	RESOURCE
	{
		name = ExoticMinerals
		amount = 0
		maxAmount = 200
		isTweakable = True
	}	
	RESOURCE
	{
		name = RareMetals
		amount = 0
		maxAmount = 200
		isTweakable = True
	}	
  
}

This MM patch allows the OKS workshop near the bow to act as an OSE worksohp for parts up to a volume of 1,000.  I didn't feel the UKS Fabricator matched the style I was aiming for on this ship.  Note that using this patch is kind of subverting RoverDude's intent re: part balance in UKS, so use at your own risk and discretion.

The intent of the design is for a crew of 24, who live in the spinning centrifuge habitats, and work in the workshop, shipyard, command centers, and the Kerbitat near the stern (which is supposed to be the "engineering" section of the ship.  Probably 4 pilots, 8 scientists, and 12 engineers.  Once the ship is underway, the crew would enter the DeepFreeze units and hibernate for a good portion of the 2 year journey to Cercani.  They'd need to be woken up though, so perhaps a couple crew members would stay awake for the trip in case anything happened.

The ship uses Tweakscale on a couple of parts, most notably the inflatable heat shield on the front, which serves as a whipple shield to prevent cosmic dust from damaging the ship, and also allows aerobraking.

I may end up doing some YouTube videos or something of the trip, though I'm not sure how to do that and have them be interesting.  We'll see.  Anyway, enjoy, and I hope that I've posted something that was at least worth the read.  Hope you're all building some awesome spaceships/stations/spaceplanes out there!

EDIT - Oh, I forgot!  There are 2 main reasons I'm using the Kerbodyne Plus mod (other than "because it's awesome"). First, there are some excellent hypergolic RCS units with some real kick, which DSE-02 needs to turn in any reasonable amount of time.  Second, launching a Nuclear Pulse Propulsion rocket from the surface isn't politically tenable on Earth, and perhaps not on Kerbin either.  For Orion in the 1960s, an idea was floated to build a gigantic Nova booster to loft it to an altitude where it (Orion) could be safely lit off.  I've taken that approach here, and have a Kerbodyne Plus "Behemoth" cluster at the bottom to get things off the ground.  Otherwise the ship pogoes on the launch pad when the first NPU-500 detonates, and it destroys the launchpad. (while realistic, not desirable)

Edited June 14, 2016 by panarchist
Forgot something

[panarchist]

That first pic in the Imgur album doesn't appear to be refreshing - DSE-02 is over a million kilograms, not tons.  (It's 1.5 million kg / 1,500 metric tons, or twice that much with the first stage booster attached)

Edit - finally updated.

Edited June 14, 2016 by panarchist

[phoenix_ca]

Neat. Gives me a few ideas for my own interplanetary ship that I intend to make eventually. (Though I'm kinda drooling over the Hermes from The Martian so it'll probably resemble that more.)

I guess you're probably glad time dilation isn't a thing in KSP.

Edited June 14, 2016 by phoenix_ca

[panarchist]

Time dilation would be fine - the DSE doesn't travel fast enough for it to be a factor.  Cercani is very far out - a bit more than 1 light-day.  Top "speed" for the Klark is still less than 1% of the speed of light.