Hunting in orbit

[XB-70A]

 

Hi everyone,

 

As promise I tried to share more with you and come today with the Diane Mk I, a small, simple three stages spacecraft named after the Roman goddess of hunting. She is able to reach a 400 km circular orbit (well, in theory, as now she was only placed on a 200 x 200 orbit during the inaugural flight) to deliver two passengers with a good amount of Δv remaining. 

A linear Clamp-O-Tron is available for transferts. All stages a recoverable with Stage Recovery. But with a cost of 96198 at launch for just two free seats this little goddess is more a luxurious vehicle than a practical one.

 

An album of the inaugural flight can be found here : http://imgur.com/a/vMUKv

 

The main objective was to try a tailless craft at low and high speed in Kerbin atmosphere and the Z-axis conduct is decent.

Now two problems appear during this test flight. First a bug, unknown to me, displaced the canards, making the re-entry an incredible stressful experience with the craft crazily banking on the starboard. It has been corrected in the VAB after the flight. Second point is the FL-T800 tank was passing through the Mk1 cabin and touching the Mk1 Clamp-O-Tron, and it makes the last one the be off-centered from the fuselage and making the whole craft the wobble like I never seen before. Instead I replace it by two FL-T400, but didn't have the time to test it on a second flight.

If everything runs well I will be able to share Diane with you on the next Monday.

[Crocket]

Why didn't you use Artemis? IMHO, Artemis is a much nicer sounding name for a spacecraft than Diane.

[XB-70A]

9 minutes ago, Crocket said:

Why didn't you use Artemis? IMHO, Artemis is a much nicer sounding name for a spacecraft than Diane.

 

Well... here is the reason why :

 

Artemis is already part of my collection. For a short time I hesitate to call the newest of the ship Bios, the name of Artemis arc.

[Crocket]

1 hour ago, XB-70A said:

Artemis is already part of my collection. For a short time I hesitate to call the newest of the ship Bios, the name of Artemis arc.

Alright, that's fair.

Off-topic, those modded pods make me drool! Since I can't model or texture, I'm considering creating a simple mod that adds underwater science to the game. For example, if your kerbal splashes down in the sea and you go underwater, you can get an EVA report and surface sample from "just under the surface of Kerbin's Water". Thoughts?