First flight on an other world.

[Konvict]

Hello everyone,

Just thought I would keep a record of a particular mission I'm planning on here. Where I am now with KSP is I've just completed my first interplanetary mission at Duna and looking to visit another world. Techwise I am fully researched out on the tree thanks to my orbital stations around Mun and Minmus incorporating mobile processing labs, landers and a large refuelling tank. I am playing essentially stock with KER, Hyperedit for testing and a couple of visual mods, version 1.0.5 for stability.

Recently I've discovered the joy of SSTOs and had a great time designing different sized ones for various purposes. From a small 7 ton MK1 model that I use to rescue kerbals stuck in orbit, to my largest MK3 SSTO that I use to haul up entire satellites inits cargo bay.

So I thought the next natural progression for my space program is to fly a plane on another world and even better if its an SSTO that can land and then return to orbit. This is the mission I am planning now, which means I get to go to Laythe!

Day 1

Spoiler

 

First Decision Choice of SSTO:

This is a very simple, first contact, simple exploration type of mission. This is the vessel I have designed previously for a Kerbin SSTO which I plan to take to Laythe:

Currently the plane is capable of taking 6 kerbals to LKO. However I plan to remove the passenger module and add a cargo section to hold some science equipment which should save a little bit of weight. Only 2 kerbals will go on this historic voyage to land on Laythe but there many be more kerbals aboard the transfer stage or a orbital platform.

 

 

 

Day 2

I have tested the plane design above and found it sorely lacking. =/ Currently it cannot lift off before the runway ends and struggles to get into my target LKO of 75x75. I now realise that design may have been a prototype I was working on previously. Well not to fear, after considering some advice I have redesigned the Laythe SSTO based on the prototype concept and here it is!:

Going through the changes made:

• Larger Wings: There was not enough wing area on the previous design leading to the plane being unable to take of from the runway even at 190m/s. I thought about adding more normal wing parts to build a composite shape but decided to go with the Big-S delta wing and strake to reduce part count. The effective wing area has more than doubled and the plane now takes off at a much slower 130m/s.
• The Big-S parts can hold liquid fuel which conveniently allowed me to dispense with the Mk2 short rocket fuel fuselage! A good side effect of that is a shorter plane that is probably easier to land. Furthermore potential fuel tanks further forward allows better control of the CoM during the mission.
• Installs the science module in a cargo hold. Contains all possible scientific data recording equipment.
• Addition of a rear parachute to help with the landing, this should slow the plane quickly, tested on Kerbin and working well.
• Addition of a ladder so Jeb can get out and walk on a new world!
• Addition of RCS control jets and a small monopropellant tank. As I was adding this I realised I have no way to dock with the transfer vehicle. Perhaps I can use a grabbing claw but I'm hoping you guys can suggests some ideas.

That concludes the progress for this day. Next time I will try to make a video of this plane's performance and systems being testing on Kerbin. This will be a first for me so wish me luck!

 

Edited July 5, 2016 by Konvict
Update

[Geschosskopf]

That's a nice-looking plane.  I'm a bit worried about the placement of the main landing gear, however.  Laythe doesn't have much land at all, and what it's got isn't exactly smooth.  In fact, there are only a couple of places conveniently near the equator that work as airfields.  And even those places are relatively small and somewhat bumpy.  This makes it easy to drag the tail and/or wingtips of planes, and thereby become marooned, unless the landing gear is arranged to protect those areas.  It also puts a premium on slow landing speeds and strong brakes.  Just some things to keep in mind.

[Wallygator]

You might consider making a float plane. 

Otherwise, good luck! We're all counting on you! 

[Konvict]

Thanks for those tips Geschosskopf. I will redesigned the plane soon for the scientific payload so I can tweak the landing gears as well. I will also considering adding a parachute to the end between engines for extra deceleration.

Thanks for your support Wallygator! I'm rather inexperienced making a sea-planes even on Kerbin so for this particular mission I will try to stick to land vehicles. The couple of sea-planes I tried to fly landed fine but couldn't take off at all. After a certain speed it would spin out of control. Obviously I was making some design errors that I can look into later.

This current SSTO needed quite a high take off speed on Kerbin (around 120m/s if I remember right). I'm not sure what effect Laythe will have on this critical metric. Now I know the surface is quite bumpy either I will have to take my chances or try to aim for a very specific flat area of Laythe.