How do you get a bunch of kerbals around?

[`digitaL.braVo]

So I have a space station in orbit and I realized I brought too many engineers (damn guys keep finding problems to "fix" yknow?) I'm looking for an idea I can put on top of a rocket that is capable of docking with my station and reentry safely after exchanging crew. Or, more broadly, what sort of craft do  you use to get lots of kerbals into orbit quickly?

Here's my station for the sake of showing it off

[Foxster]

How many crew do you want to move at a time?

[`digitaL.braVo]

3 minutes ago, Foxster said:

How many crew do you want to move at a time?

Right now I have a need for 6 crew but this isn't the first time I've had this need (and it has been larger like 12+ before.) Again just looking for ideas on how you fellas move large numbers of kerbonauts without largely wasted mass.

 

Cheers.

[Foxster]

Is there a cost restriction i.e. do you want to keep the cost down by making the craft re-reusable? 

[Andetch]

I use a few vehicles - depending on my mood. (Yay, opportunity for self promotion!)

https://kerbalx.com/Andetch/Tourists  -  Take the nosecone off and replace it with a docking port. Depending on how high your station is, and how good you are at launching into an orbital RV you can get rid of the SRB and go SSTO. Seats quite a few Kerbals... 

https://kerbalx.com/Andetch/Andetch-Shuttle-Type-X-Sloh-kly-mah  -  If you have time (it takes about 30 minutes to get into orbit) and skill you could take this Shuttle up. It seats 6, can dock (but as the port is on the nose it can be hard to align) and you could even get rid of the payload and replace it with cabins to seat extra people.

Or, if you wanna really have fun, send up some structural panels with external command seats on it, get all your engineers into the seats, then use one of them to push it (using their EVA thrusters) into an atmospheric capture velocity (PP around 35 - 45 KM) and hope that you got the panels and seats in the right place to shield them from the heat, and then if in 1.4 they can all parachute back safely on their 'chutes, or alternately you could just put a 'chute onto the structural panels! 

[Foxster]

I'd say you need a proper Rocket Ship...

[`digitaL.braVo]

7 hours ago, Foxster said:

Is there a cost restriction i.e. do you want to keep the cost down by making the craft re-reusable? 

I forgot to explain the limitations! (Silly of me) I play in full sandbox with nothing too particular. I like to keep the limitation of "make it as reusable as possible" not for any particular reason beyond my own attachment to the challenge. As a baseline: before I deorbited the last space station I sent up a rocket with 4x command pods on it and EVA'd the kerbonauts to it. Then used RCS to deorbit the pods. Worked fine but felt a bit ridiculous. I guess an overly-large craft would be a "turn off." I also don't want to install too many mods to achieve it. I'm mostly stock parts with a space station pack, real chutes, etc. I run 1.3.1 if that matters?

7 hours ago, Andetch said:

I use a few vehicles - depending on my mood. (Yay, opportunity for self promotion!)

https://kerbalx.com/Andetch/Tourists  -  Take the nosecone off and replace it with a docking port. Depending on how high your station is, and how good you are at launching into an orbital RV you can get rid of the SRB and go SSTO. Seats quite a few Kerbals... 

https://kerbalx.com/Andetch/Andetch-Shuttle-Type-X-Sloh-kly-mah  -  If you have time (it takes about 30 minutes to get into orbit) and skill you could take this Shuttle up. It seats 6, can dock (but as the port is on the nose it can be hard to align) and you could even get rid of the payload and replace it with cabins to seat extra people.

Or, if you wanna really have fun, send up some structural panels with external command seats on it, get all your engineers into the seats, then use one of them to push it (using their EVA thrusters) into an atmospheric capture velocity (PP around 35 - 45 KM) and hope that you got the panels and seats in the right place to shield them from the heat, and then if in 1.4 they can all parachute back safely on their 'chutes, or alternately you could just put a 'chute onto the structural panels! 

These are both interesting. Since I didn't place any restrictions they certainly look like they would achieve my goal, however, they both seem quite a bit larger than necessary! Like I said I'm looking for inspiration as much as craft files so keep the suggestions going!

7 hours ago, Foxster said:

I'd say you need a proper Rocket Ship...

This is very interesting... How does it dock and/or return to Kerbin?

[Foxster]

1 hour ago, `digitaL.braVo said:

This is very interesting... How does it dock and/or return to Kerbin?

It's not really the best craft for this perhaps, more of form-over-function, but it does work well. 

Docking is at the nose and return is a combination of chutes and using the last of the fuel near the ground. 

[AeroGav]

This is overall the best spaceplane i've built so far,   tested in 1.4.2.  https://kerbalx.com/AeroGav/MK1-Griffon-Deep-Space-Crew-Shuttle

11 Seats and 3000dv in low kerbin orbit.   Has an inline clamp o tron  and twin reaction wheels,  but it wouldn't be particularly easy to dock to a station.   Since i'm bad at docking,  i'd probably put some kind of tender in orbit next to the station, some non aerodynamic thing with docking ports and 4 way rcs blocks to move the crew the last 100m from the station to the airplane.

You could try to improve the docking maneuverability of the airplane but RCS ports add a lot of drag - if you must do this use one Vernier or linear RCS port for each axis,  mounted on the CG, not the draggy and melty 4-ways.

Even then ,  the inline clamp o tron makes it better as a thing to be docked to , rather than a thing doing the docking.    Yes, people put shielded clamp o trons on the front of spaceplanes but that adds even more drag.   You can overcome that drag with the raw power of a chemical fuelled ship where every engine is a rapier, but then running out of fuel becomes the issue.

 

SSTO rockets are a few minutes quicker to orbit than a space plane,  but it ultimately turns into a race against your fuel gauge the margins are so thin.  

 

 

[Andetch]

9 hours ago, AeroGav said:

This is overall the best spaceplane i've built so far,   tested in 1.4.2.  https://kerbalx.com/AeroGav/MK1-Griffon-Deep-Space-Crew-Shuttle

SSTO rockets are a few minutes quicker to orbit than a space plane,  but it ultimately turns into a race against your fuel gauge the margins are so thin.  

Voodoo Ray looked better

And I always prefer to operate with a finest margin for error I can get away with - makes me feel like I am playing a more realistic game. 

11 hours ago, `digitaL.braVo said:

These are both interesting. Since I didn't place any restrictions they certainly look like they would achieve my goal, however, they both seem quite a bit larger than necessary! Like I said I'm looking for inspiration as much as craft files so keep the suggestions going!

Big is okay though.... Although, if you just wanted a four seater, then the structural panels idea is by far the best!

[KerbolExplorer]

i may try something do you have the Making History DLC?

and also nice space station its very cool

Edited April 10, 2018 by KerbolExplorer

[`digitaL.braVo]

16 hours ago, Andetch said:

Voodoo Ray looked better

And I always prefer to operate with a finest margin for error I can get away with - makes me feel like I am playing a more realistic game. 

Big is okay though.... Although, if you just wanted a four seater, then the structural panels idea is by far the best!

I guess when I think of bigger I think of feasible... I don't like the term realistic because KSP sheds enough of that in normal operation as it is. Eventually big things just become unfeasible as far as their launch characteristics. They get into orbit... the way they do it is often silly.

1 hour ago, KerbolExplorer said:

i may try something do you have the Making History DLC?

and also nice space station its very cool

Unfortunately no. 1.3.1

 

I forgot to mention I ended up just stacking a chunk of a space station core with a Mk2-3 command pod and 2 pilots. Total free seats were 7 and it allowed me to dock and retrieve my busy-bodied engineers.

 

It wasn't a good solution but it worked where it needed to. Still looking for ideas! A plan to shuttle kerbonauts up and back quickly/easily would be nice.

Edited April 10, 2018 by `digitaL.braVo

[Andetch]

7 hours ago, `digitaL.braVo said:

I guess when I think of bigger I think of feasible... I don't like the term realistic because KSP sheds enough of that in normal operation as it is. Eventually big things just become unfeasible as far as their launch characteristics. They get into orbit... the way they do it is often silly.

Well, both of my craft that I linked to here do not use any silly techniques to get into orbit, they NEED a grav turn as straight up and turn takes too much DV. The Shuttle also requires a good understanding of thrust balancing to fly straight, but if you know what you're doing it can fly with SAS off - at least until around 25KM where you gotta turn the gimbal on! 

Then the other one would be a good way to shuttle Kerbals into LKO - it can SSTO there  without the SRB stage, can carry a good amount in one shot, and as it will SSTO the launch cost is only for fuel. When coming home it can fly back as a glider or as a capsule on a parachute. Have a try

[`digitaL.braVo]

20 minutes ago, Andetch said:

Well, both of my craft that I linked to here do not use any silly techniques to get into orbit, they NEED a grav turn as straight up and turn takes too much DV. The Shuttle also requires a good understanding of thrust balancing to fly straight, but if you know what you're doing it can fly with SAS off - at least until around 25KM where you gotta turn the gimbal on! 

Then the other one would be a good way to shuttle Kerbals into LKO - it can SSTO there  without the SRB stage, can carry a good amount in one shot, and as it will SSTO the launch cost is only for fuel. When coming home it can fly back as a glider or as a capsule on a parachute. Have a try

I think I may be giving this a shot!

[Andetch]

YAY! Someone is interested in something I said! That's the highlight of my KSP year! Hope it isn't the peak.....lol

[Thor Wotansen]

If you want, I could build a LKO optimized passenger SSTO spaceplane with crew capacity to whatever you need.  I do have a Mk2 crew SSTO on KerbalX that seats 6 and is quite economical.