[SSTO] [Interplanetary] [x-33] [LongSword]

[Andrew2070]

Greetings!

This is basically my initial first post to the K.S.P Community, however I have been playing since 2014. (0.90).

I currently am running version 1.0.5 of the game due to the greater capacity of mods available at this iteration.

Anyhow, I have a thing for aesthetically pleasing yet functional spacecraft capable of tremendous feats!

 

Presently I have been working on a SSTO that can travel from Kerbin to a Station/Cruiser, refuel and undock, then head off to another planet.

You might be intrigued by cruiser in the line above, I am still working out kinks in it, but essentially it is a giant flying space battleship.

However, what I was aiming for was a cruiser that can ferry two SSTO's to another planet, and use them to bring ore back for refueling.

 

Craft Name: [x33] LongSword

Game Version Used: 1.0.5

Modifications Used: TweakScale, O.P.T, K.W Rocketry, adjustable landing gear.

Short Description(s):

A highly maneuverable, reinforced SSTO capable of withstanding maximum G-Force for prolonged periods of time.

The LongSword is able to travel at a max speed of 336 m/s in atmosphere (Kerbin, Without oxidizer after burners).

The LongSword has been able to orbitally insert itself and land on the following planets: Kerbin, Duna, Eve.

The craft has an onboard system of mining/extracting ore and utilizing it to recreate liquid fuel + oxygen.

The process takes around 130 days (can be fast forwarded) to fill up all of it's empty tanks and extra ore.

It can also survive speeds of 1200 m/s in kerbin atmosphere during re-entry without being destroyed.

Not to mention the fact that it can fly without ONE wing or stabilizer. (Not both at same time though).

 

Thus this little flying triangle is capable of lifting the heaviest loads to kerbin orbit and beyond!

However it does require refueling in space before voyage, (Farthest it can go with refueling in orbit = Duna).

If docked to another vessel, then the odds are limitless but I only had enough time to make for Eve.

 

Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/pCJBj

Future Implementations:

Robotic Arm with the Magic Smoke Industries, Infernal Robotics:
Basically wanted an arm to tug satellites out of orbit and destroy them in re-entry as my longsword safely returns to KSC.

The arm would also allow me to grip onto asteroids as a Kerbin Defense mission!

The reason I don't like to use BD-Armory anymore is because it's not fun to roleplay anymore. (For those that blow up sattelites with guns).

I mean I can go spend hours making a fleet of ships then blow them up for my own satisfaction.

I think it's pointless to arm ships in orbit because despite sci fi movies, missiles in space have to retrograde (flip back and fire engines) if you're faster than a target.

Meaning it looks funny if you attack Kerbin with weapons because the missile you launch forward, turns backwards and then flips over again.

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2016 by Andrew2070
~Formatting.

[The Optimist]

This ship is outdated

[Majorjim!]

36 minutes ago, The Optimist said:

This ship is outdated

Dude.. Anyone reading the OP can see that. Andrew2070 makes this very clear in his post and anyone using that version can use his craft. What is your point? 

@Andrew2070 It looks awesome! 

 And never fear, those mods will soon be updated.

:-)

 

[JadeOfMaar]

This is a wonderful concept, man. This plane can rightfully get far with a pair of 2.5m Rapiers and the role of a tanker. You may want to make a thread in the Welcome Aboard subforum so we can properly greet you. Lastly, mods are easy (they're already up to date for KSP 1.1.3). The hard part is the aero system changes since your version of the game.

[Andrew2070]

Thanks!

Well I mentioned I play a previous iteration so the mods are possibly outdated for succeeding iterations.

Rapiers are amazing, I refuse to use a pair of normal engines and an additional pair of oxidizing engines.

Basically this guy is insane in terms of lifting payload from Kerbin to orbit, and possibly even deploy sattelites around Mun.

It's not exactly designed to drop cargo such as rovers or sattelites, but I mean in the future I might design some space for it.

PS: I'll think about the welcome post and may make one when I get time!

 

Anyhow, I may have exaggerated a bit, the duna missions seem pretty difficult and I am still trying to fix some issues.

Those issues being the fact that for some reason my intakes have suddenly refused to give me air on Duna's Surface/low atmosphere.

 

One of my SSTO's were meant to drop a rover on the surface of Duna and return to orbit without having to touch down on surface.

However due to a harsh g-forces the vessel went into a flat spin and impacted at around 100m/s, both crew members survived.

The kerbins waited anxiously for this new SSTO (LongSword) to fly down and pick them up (Remote Controlled).

However it landed 1.5 KM away from the crash site and required the Kerbals to hover & fly there with EVA fuel.

One kerbal lost control of their E.V.A suit and ended up shattering the visor of her helmet, ultimately suffocating to death.

The other kerbal who just miraculously happened to be the pilot of the previous mission managed to survive the journey.

Upon arriving and refueling the LongSword, he attempted take off to find that the engines were air deprived from intakes.

In investigation, the kerbal found it strange that the intake's while open were not receiving air, making lift-off difficult.

 

(Basically there is no intake air in this second journey, and without it I cannot get high enough without using oxidizer)

(Thus it is making it very difficult to get into orbit even with filled fuel tanks) (I'm scared to burn till they empty, had to abort).

I mean it can make orbit but it won't have enough to burn for circulization with the cruiser, requiring another mission.

I'll have to address this by adding two external intakes, or maybe a few extra aerodynamic intakes.

 

~Cheers!

[Andrew2070]

My Next Idea is to replace the onboard resource convertor/extractor with robotic arms.

That way I can build a rover that converts ore to fuel and can be docked through an arm, allowing for fuel transfer.

Still debating if this is resourceful because it would require two launches to bring back one ship.

 

[Andrew2070]

I actually never got off Eve. Landed safely in one piece but never took off and my flag fell as well so um not coming here again.

Bill/Jeb are stranded, anyone got ideas to get them back?

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Andrew2070 said:

I actually never got off Eve. Landed safely in one piece but never took off and my flag fell as well so um not coming here again.

Bill/Jeb are stranded, anyone got ideas to get them back?

Oh dear.. They could be there for some time. Time to build or download an Eve capable ascender!

[Andrew2070]

Well, that would be quite hard since the escape velocity requires lots of engine power, and a larger engine requires lots of fuel to get out of kerbin.

Anyhow, what I have done now is managed to get close enough to a sattelite to grab it with my robotic arm.

(Yes it folds up neatly and can fit inside the same bay as the drills)

http://imgur.com/a/0oDQy

Edited September 25, 2016 by Andrew2070

[JadeOfMaar]

10 hours ago, Andrew2070 said:

Thanks!

Well I mentioned I play a previous iteration so the mods are possibly outdated for succeeding iterations.

Rapiers are amazing, I refuse to use a pair of normal engines and an additional pair of oxidizing engines.

Basically this guy is insane in terms of lifting payload from Kerbin to orbit, and possibly even deploy sattelites around Mun.

It's not exactly designed to drop cargo such as rovers or sattelites, but I mean in the future I might design some space for it.

PS: I'll think about the welcome post and may make one when I get time!

 

Anyhow, I may have exaggerated a bit, the duna missions seem pretty difficult and I am still trying to fix some issues.

Those issues being the fact that for some reason my intakes have suddenly refused to give me air on Duna's Surface/low atmosphere.

 

One of my SSTO's were meant to drop a rover on the surface of Duna and return to orbit without having to touch down on surface.

However due to a harsh g-forces the vessel went into a flat spin and impacted at around 100m/s, both crew members survived.

The kerbins waited anxiously for this new SSTO (LongSword) to fly down and pick them up (Remote Controlled).

However it landed 1.5 KM away from the crash site and required the Kerbals to hover & fly there with EVA fuel.

One kerbal lost control of their E.V.A suit and ended up shattering the visor of her helmet, ultimately suffocating to death.

The other kerbal who just miraculously happened to be the pilot of the previous mission managed to survive the journey.

Upon arriving and refueling the LongSword, he attempted take off to find that the engines were air deprived from intakes.

In investigation, the kerbal found it strange that the intake's while open were not receiving air, making lift-off difficult.

 

(Basically there is no intake air in this second journey, and without it I cannot get high enough without using oxidizer)

(Thus it is making it very difficult to get into orbit even with filled fuel tanks) (I'm scared to burn till they empty, had to abort).

I mean it can make orbit but it won't have enough to burn for circulization with the cruiser, requiring another mission.

I'll have to address this by adding two external intakes, or maybe a few extra aerodynamic intakes.

 

~Cheers!

I like the idea of dropping cargo mid-flight. I'd recommend having the cargo be fitted with sufficient parachutes to cushion its fall (and be staged to deploy with cargo release), and not be going fast enough that the chutes will break or the cargo collides with its carrier.

Not every planet that has atmosphere has Oxygen. Only Kerbin and Laythe have it so intakes (rather, stock jet engines) are useless on Duna. I like the learning experience and the tragedy in this (and that you don't get hell with that OPT cargo bay). It makes for a very attracting short story. But I'm worried for the glaring problem where your craft can get from Kerbin orbit to Duna's surface, but it can't get from Duna's surface to Duna orbit. At the least (or is it the best), you're going to need to add some LV-N Nerv (stock nuclear engine) to make use of the load of LiquidFuel that normally goes into the Rapiers' air-breathing mode. Since you're fully fueled but without Oxygen, it becomes dead weight.

Way back, when I first started in KSP 1.0.2~ I crashed my first flagship on the side of a Mun crater. The cockpit and 3, maybe 4 crew survived the crash. I had a base 26.5km away and the female pilot made that distance with just EVA fuel. A second kerbal came short and dry but could run the remaining 1.4km. The third kerbal didn't survive. Poor fella. Anyone else, I don't remember what happened.

[Andrew2070]

It can get into kerbin orbit easily at 330 m/s (which it can get to if pointed in one direction for about fifteen seconds).

The rapiers are pretty useful and I did manage to get off duna with intake air in the lower atmosphere (high pressure).

However its failing now, maybe because I landed on a mountain the pressure is less, who knows.

The moral of the story is to bring nuclear engines under the wings.

 

Anyhow, as for cargo well:

1. OPT cargo bay maybe small on this J series craft, but it's pretty useful.

2. I have drills and that ore convertor machine within it with ore tanks and rtg's.

3. I also built a robotic arm just incase I have to dock it with a smaller craft in orbit.

4. I drop cargo in two ways, #1 retrograde into atmos, deploy cargo, prograde, orbit, deploy paras on cargo.

5. #2 being where I burn retrograde and aerobrake into low atmosphere, deploy  cargo and it's shutes, then prograde out.

This basically reduces the need for an SSTO to land on Duna and deploy precious cargo.

Sort of like a dropship, do a flyby in atmosphere and drop whatever payload you have.

Saves fuel and speed.

 

I would never take this guy to the moon though, because it's far too lethal without an atmosphere to cushion landing.

Edited September 26, 2016 by Andrew2070

[Firemetal]

Hmm the ship's name is LongSword and your avatar is the master chief. I see a connection here!  

Very cool SSTO!

[Fellow314]

On 25/09/2016 at 8:43 AM, Andrew2070 said:

One of my SSTO's were meant to drop a rover on the surface of Duna and return to orbit without having to touch down on surface.

 

This is a fantastic idea!!  I may have to steal it, if you don't mind

[Andrew2070]

Go ahead!

TIP: Enter atmosphere/aerobrake to 400 m/s and kill engines before deploying. Then switch to it and activate parachutes, switch back to SSTO and re enter orbit.

[Andrew2070]

Greetings!

I am presenting my latest creation to the Kerbal Community!

This is the Mark 3 variant (Skipping Mark 2's intro cause it sucks) of my LongSword SSTO.

It has all the features of the previous generations plus more! With a decrease in part count!

 

Changes include: 2 New Engines, 6 New Intakes, Robotic Arm, More Struts.

Additional Changes: Less RTG (from 20 - 8), better lights, re-positioned tanks for better CoM/CoL, better Brake Torque (110).

Overall Status: Flies far better than Mark 1 and 2, and is able to get to 120,000m altitude with Airbreathers (kerbin).

Screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/tvVqY

 

Comes with HyperDrive Ring a.k.a JumpRing.

 

 

 

Known Issues:

1. The ladders inside seem to overheat in re-entry to a scary level, but never reach maximum temperature.

2. It has unbalanced monopropellant, which is why you can't take more than 2000 mono-propellant.

3. Closing the bay doors while ladder/arm/drill are extended causes a near fatal explosion, that dismembers it.

4. Slightly unbalanced RCS in the back that I don't feel like fixing because it makes the engines look weird.

5. When airspeed drops below 60 m/s at high altitude, the longsword will go into flat spin until thrust/rcs is applied.

 

Enjoy!

Edited October 14, 2016 by Andrew2070

[Andrew2070]

New Mark 3 Version: 

http://imgur.com/a/tvVqY

 

[Vanamonde]

Looks like there was already a thread for this, and so, the two have been merged. 

[JadeOfMaar]

Oooooh. Now noticing the Jump Ring. I actually tried to design something with a similar purpose some time ago but it tried to be too flashy and ended up too heavy. It excluded Dark Drives, which is part of why it failed.

I assume the Ore you carry to space is to refuel the Jump Ring ship but if I may ask, why does your spaceplance carry so much Monopropellant? That's 8~13 tons (2000u ~ completely full in your screenshots). You could save quite a lot on weight and dV by developing your docking skills.

[Andrew2070]

12 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Oooooh. Now noticing the Jump Ring. I actually tried to design something with a similar purpose some time ago but it tried to be too flashy and ended up too heavy. It excluded Dark Drives, which is part of why it failed.

I assume the Ore you carry to space is to refuel the Jump Ring ship but if I may ask, why does your spaceplance carry so much Monopropellant? That's 8~13 tons (2000u ~ completely full in your screenshots). You could save quite a lot on weight and dV by developing your docking skills.

I honestly hate docking but I am pretty good at it.

Monopropellant tanks are cleverly disguised inside the actual vessel.

When I built the two new air breathing engines below the wings, I used monoprop tanks as a starting point.

Thus if you look carefully at the underside of the spacecraft just behind the intake under the wing is monopropellant.

The Mark 1-2 had two initial tanks disguised between the primary RAPIER engines and the J series Bi-Coupler.

However those tanks were only quarter filled, in the case of the screenshot I filled it up using ore conversion by mistake.

Basically It had 2 big RCS tanks half filled that I forgot about and I added two more to make the wings more balanced out.

I took those out later on after realizing the instability it caused me in climbing Laythe's atmosphere.

 

Anyhow, feedback much appreciated and sorry for making another thread on the similar but not equal craft

 

[JadeOfMaar]

Ahhh. Now I see the yellow stripe of the Mk2 monoprop tanks. You use it as ballast then? If you're willing to make the Longsword just a little longer you can insert the OPT Inline Docking Port part which fits Clamp-O-Tron Senior (and Junior too in the old version you're using) makes docking easier. It even contains an amazing 750 monoprop by itself, allowing you to replace the 2x 400 in the Mk2 tanks with more Mk2 LiquidFuel fuselage and solve your Oxidizer problem, and all without breaking your style.

Edited October 15, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[Andrew2070]

On 10/16/2016 at 1:42 AM, JadeOfMaar said:

Ahhh. Now I see the yellow stripe of the Mk2 monoprop tanks. You use it as ballast then? If you're willing to make the Longsword just a little longer you can insert the OPT Inline Docking Port part which fits Clamp-O-Tron Senior (and Junior too in the old version you're using) makes docking easier. It even contains an amazing 750 monoprop by itself, allowing you to replace the 2x 400 in the Mk2 tanks with more Mk2 LiquidFuel fuselage and solve your Oxidizer problem, and all without breaking your style.

Completely slipped my mind that the docking port was stitched for J series space craft.

Actually, I just tried it and the docking port is bugged so that it doesn't close...