Jeb's guide to building an interplanetary transfer ship

[whitejj01]

For some interplanetary games, people like to have a habitat/ship that will house their kerbals for the long journey and assist them. Don't know what I'm talking about? Think about Hermes (from the Martian.) that's what I'm talking about. I know from experience that these things can be hard to build, but never fear! Jeb knows all, so I'll let him explain it.

 

hey everyone! Jeb here! I'm going to teach you the basics of building an interplanetary transfer craft. I would include images of the craft I'm about to describe, but my camera lens broke on the ascent.

The craft I've built(ordered from the catalog) as an example is a deadalus-class transfer habitat ship. It uses 4 giant solar panels and is propelled by 16 ion engines.

with ships like this, there are several things you should not do.

DON'T:

use the small docking ports, they'll make your ship less maneuverable.

 

use huge fuel tanks or huge liquid fuel engines. For the love of God, use ion engines.

note: nuclear engines are fine, but keep in mind that they don't gimbal at all and they're heavy as hell.

 

forget to have lots of antennae. At the very minimum, for going past the mun, you'll need one main antenna and one backup antenna.

 

DO:

Use large solar panels for going past the mun, or anywhere, really.

 

use radiator Systems, not panels, if you're going close to the sun (Moho or eve).

 

pack extra fuel if you can, just in case. This goes for pretty much any spaceship ever.

 

include a maneuvering system to move the ship. Trust me, this one's a pain in the S.A.S.(literally) if you forget it.

 

include a science lab. It makes doing science on long trips so much easier.

 

 

The daedalus class has a couple of different crew cabin types, because kerbals, like humans, require new scenery and room to roam. It has a lab, a hitch-hiker module(recreational space), 3 cupolas, and four mk2 crew cabins attached radially. It's main command module is a mk1-2 command pod. It has 2 airlocks, two large and two small docking ports, and one Vehicular airlock (basically a sheltered docking port). I recommend all of these for a ship like this.

 

Try to follow as many of these guidelines as possible, and in no time at all you'll have a fantastic interplanetary ship!

Jebediah Kerman, signing off!

 

Edited March 1, 2017 by whitejj01