Need a Laythe water capable ship

[strider3]

I'm wondering if any of you have created a craft that can:

Depart low Laythe orbit and land on water.

Recover all available science while splashed down on a Laythe water biome.

Carry a scientist (and not require a Pilot).

Return to low Laythe orbit from the water.

My construction skills are not adequate for me to try and make a craft with these capabilities. I have the dry land science handled with another craft but...water landings are not something I've been able to figure out.

Would anyone care to share a craft with me?

[Vanamonde]

I tried for 3 days but finally had to concede defeat.

[Pds314]

On 10/11/2020 at 3:23 PM, strider3 said:

I'm wondering if any of you have created a craft that can:

Depart low Laythe orbit and land on water.

Recover all available science while splashed down on a Laythe water biome.

Carry a scientist (and not require a Pilot).

Return to low Laythe orbit from the water.

My construction skills are not adequate for me to try and make a craft with these capabilities. I have the dry land science handled with another craft but...water landings are not something I've been able to figure out.

Would anyone care to share a craft with me?

Does it need to be single stage?

[Azimech]

I have a stock SSTO helicopter. Could be modified to just use a scientist instead of a pilot. But you need an additional stage to launch it from Kerbin and get it to Laythe and back. If you're running career mode some parts might me above your tech tree.

[strider3]

On 10/15/2020 at 10:24 PM, Pds314 said:

Does it need to be single stage?

 

4 hours ago, Azimech said:

I have a stock SSTO helicopter. Could be modified to just use a scientist instead of a pilot. But you need an additional stage to launch it from Kerbin and get it to Laythe and back. If you're running career mode some parts might me above your tech tree.

@Azimech, @Pds314 All I need help with is a water capable lander that can go from Laythe orbit, land on water, gather all science at that biome and back to orbit again until all water biome science has been gathered. It should have a remote guidance unit so a pilot does not need to be aboard...just the scientist. Do not worry about how it gets to Laythe, I just need to be able to attach it to a multi-stage lifter on Kerbin. It does need to be a single stage as far as the actual lander. It will be brought to Laythe on a large rocket with lots of fuel (for multiple landings on Laythe) and a pod for the scientist to use on the return to Kerbin...I do not envision the lander returning to Kerbin. It will refuel in Laythe orbit after every water landing before the next Laythe water landing to keep the fuel requirements/mass of the lander itself at a minimum...so it needs one docking port. It will transfer all gathered science and the scientist to the orbiting refueler, which will return both to Kerbin via Jool. I have an orbiting refueling station at Kerbin and a mining/refueling operation on Dres (with orbiting tankers) so I have options for getting the lander and it's transporter to Laythe and the transporter back to Kerbin using multiple transfers. It does not need to be able to land on solid ground...I have a separate lander for that. My tech tree is fully complete.

Edited October 18, 2020 by strider3

[IronMaiden]

This is a water landing and takeoff SSTO I made a while ago. It can SSTO on Kerbin too, so it's more than capable for Laythe. I've found the best way to do it is to use wing incidence or flaps to create a lot of low speed lift without having to pitch. I.e. your plane can be flat in the water (lowest drag) and still create a lot of lift because you have wings or control surfaces that are angled up into the airflow to create lift. The way this works is you start your engines, begin accelerating and then deploy your flaps (or have wing incidence), these create some lift and get your plane a little further out of the water. This means less drag, which means you can go faster, which means more lift, less drag, more speed, more lift, etc.. until you're out of the water. Only then do you pitch up, if you try to pitch up out of the water you're just jamming your tail down into the water and killing your speed, you need to LIFT out of the water. Once airborne I retracted the flaps for less drag so I could accelerate to orbit. This was a while ago, if I were to make something like this again I'd just use wing incidence and maybe a couple flaps.

 

[Guest]

^
This is clever. I love it!

[king of nowhere]

I have this work-in-progress that's supposed to be an Eve ssto that can release a smaller rover. it's not good enough for eve yet, and it may never be, but it's already fully functional for Kerbin and Laythe

this is the main craft

rear view. the nerv engines are good for deep space manuevers with low consumption, and can use the wings as fuel tanks. the vector are for taking off

those propellers are used in the low part of the atmosphere. On eve the design can get a bit above 13 km. on kerbin it flies much worse, but it can at least take off. I'm not 100% sure this thing can fly with propellers on laythe; but one thing i did test is that those propellers are enough to move forward the seaborne spaceplane. you can't take off from the sea, but you can use the propellers to reach land. once in rocket flying, the cargo bays are closed to reduce drag from propeller blades

it is made for Eve, so it would need more solar panels for laythe.

and this is the cargo bay. it can contain the smaller rover. the robotic arm can pick it up and put it down in a very graceful way. it also has isru capacity (though i just noticed i forgot to put back the convert-o-tron).

I've never made a successful reentry from orbit, but then again, i also never made a successful reentry with any kind of spaceplane, or a safe landing with any kind of plane, so i put it down to lack of piloting skills and not necessarily to a flawed design

and this is helicopterover. I already tested it and it is fully operational. it can fly as helicopter, its 3 rtg are enough to stay in the air indefinitely even at night (though not at top propeller power) and it can perform all manners of science experiments. On laythe's thin atmosphere it only works at low altitude, but that's enough to go around the oceans. the wheels are for smaller, more precise movements over land, like when you want to go back into the cargo bay or to scan some surface features. the parachute is because i don't trust myself to land an helicopter. it has a crew of 2, suggested a scientist and an engineer.

[Mikenike]

On 10/11/2020 at 5:23 PM, strider3 said:

I'm wondering if any of you have created a craft that can:

Depart low Laythe orbit and land on water.

Recover all available science while splashed down on a Laythe water biome.

Carry a scientist (and not require a Pilot).

Return to low Laythe orbit from the water.

My construction skills are not adequate for me to try and make a craft with these capabilities. I have the dry land science handled with another craft but...water landings are not something I've been able to figure out.

Would anyone care to share a craft with me?

Take a look at Matt Lwne, I think he did a video with something like that about a year ago.