Interstellar and interplanetary ship exchange

[iDan122]

Share your Interplanetony ships! They must be stock or with mods, post pics and craft files for parts ONLY! It is so that people can decide themselves what to launch their parts with.

If your ship is stock, indicate that. If mods are used, provide a list of required mods and warn people.

Edited April 27, 2013 by iDan122

[blackout11c]

Challenge Accepted:cool:

[Mekris28]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25236-My-go-to-Interplanetary-ship-lander Check out my thread for my best Interplanetary probe/lander! It is quite minimalistic, using only 120 parts and still managing to get to Jool's moons.

[soranno]

hihi, I`ve long had a fascination with making something that could operate long term in deep space, while maintaining some utility and aesthetic quality. After 3 or 4 moderately unsuccessful designs I finally put this ship into service.

I`ve named it Higeta, and it is the first of this class of cruiser I have deployed. The ship itself is stock, however operates with accessories like engineer etc, and on the mission shown in these images is transporting HOME colony modules to duna. As well as that, its landing craft was fitted with kethane extraction capabilites on this occasion.

First, the Higeta commencing its burn for Duna in LKO.

A closer view, showing more clearly the structural elements, lander and, on this occasion, kethane detection probes mounted. During this mission, the two probes fitted were used to provide a landing beacon at the duna pyramid, and then to locate an equatorial kethane deposit on ike.

Finally a wider angle view, most of the key features of the ship`s construction can be seen.

The ship makes orbit with ease, and has a part count low enough such that even after delivering all cargo, probes and landing craft, there is minimal frame rate reduction.

All in all I was very pleased with its performance, and I`m delighted at last to have a deep space ship with an aesthetic I enjoy in operation. I will probably put up one more, and operate the two for a while before deciding what direction to go in next.

I doubt my design will be as appealing to anyone else, but I`d be happy to post a craft file if anyone wanted to take a look. I`ll just have to pull off the accessories and such first.

Edited April 24, 2013 by soranno
grammar

[iDan122]

hihi, I`ve long had a fascination with making something that could operate long term in deep space, while maintaining some utility and aesthetic quality. After 3 or 4 moderately unsuccessful designs I finally put this ship into service.

I`ve named it Higeta, and it is the first of this class of cruiser I have deployed. The ship itself is stock, however operates with accessories like engineer etc, and on the mission shown in these images is transporting HOME colony modules to duna. As well as that, its landing craft was fitted with kethane extraction capabilites on this occasion.

First, the Higeta commencing its burn for Duna in LKO.

-snip-

A closer view, showing more clearly the structural elements, lander and, on this occasion, kethane detection probes mounted. During this mission, the two probes fitted were used to provide a landing beacon at the duna pyramid, and then to locate an equatorial kethane deposit on ike.

-snip-

Finally a wider angle view, most of the key features of the ship`s construction can be seen.

-snip-

The ship makes orbit with ease, and has a part count low enough such that even after delivering all cargo, probes and landing craft, there is minimal frame rate reduction.

All in all I was very pleased with its performance, and I`m delighted at last to have a deep space ship with an aesthetic I enjoy in operation. I will probably put up one more, and operate the two for a while before deciding what direction to go in next.

I doubt my design will be as appealing to anyone else, but I`d be happy to post a craft file if anyone wanted to take a look. I`ll just have to pull off the accessories and such first.

Really nice ship soranno,only a little more detail, did you launch it whole or you built it in orbit?

Edited April 26, 2013 by Ascensiam
mother of image quoting

[Akalaël]

I made this ship last night, never gone anywhere with it yet

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/deep-space-ship/

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/tnaker-for-deep-space-ship/

The first link leads to the Core of the space ship, very hard to put into orbit, the second link leeds to the tankers of the space ship. Once assembled in orbit, I got a 250 tons vessel...

I'm not pretty sure of the delta-V I can get from it, MechJeb is confiused by the docking ports.

[soranno]

Thank you iDan! The ship is launched whole in this simple enough configuration:

It uses its own mainsail engine along with the side mounted ones after the first stage tanks are emptied and drop, and upon leaving the atmosphere that is disabled and the nuclear rockets activated.

I thought to then remove the mainsail maybe, but in the end I left it, as sometimes an emergency burn needs more than just the nuclear engines

Also it can launch just fine with the landing craft already in place, and probes/satellites, if one doesn`t feel like launching them up separately.

[OGBizzle]

Here is a ship i built about 4 months ago. I stopped playing and it never left Kerbin orbit.

Erebus Interplanetary Science Vessel

.Craft http://www./download.php?7l0b46h6rub0c3a

Gallery http://imgur.com/a/dvzcs#1

4x Atomic Engines (primary)

4x Aerospike Engines (secondary)

2x Long Range Probes

2x Short Range Probes

2x Landing Craft

Maximum Resources:

3,025 - Electric Charge

5,823 - Liquid Fuel

7,117 - Oxidizer

360 - Monopropellant

[willneu97]

Thank you iDan! The ship is launched whole in this simple enough configuration:

*snip*

It uses its own mainsail engine along with the side mounted ones after the first stage tanks are emptied and drop, and upon leaving the atmosphere that is disabled and the nuclear rockets activated.

I thought to then remove the mainsail maybe, but in the end I left it, as sometimes an emergency burn needs more than just the nuclear engines

Also it can launch just fine with the landing craft already in place, and probes/satellites, if one doesn`t feel like launching them up separately.

I would absolutely love to see the .craft file, if you're willing to give it out.

[iDan122]

Await and see my Supernova multi-part interplanetony ship. It should be able to go as far as eeloo, and carry up to 9 vehicles, total estimated component amount: 11

[Vanamonde]

Most KSP players seem to like to build fancy things, but I like to go with the simplist design that will do the job reliably. So while it may not be very pretty, I'm rather proud of this ship, because it has been once each to Mun, Minmus, Eve/Gilly, Dres, and three times to Duna/Ike, and back, delivering significant payloads to each of those destinations, while discarding nothing but fuel.

This is the service ribbon not for my whole space program, but for this one ship.

[soranno]

Here is the craft file for my Higeta.

http://www./download.php?2cmh4cd1nu0o4t0

I`ve edited it to remove all mod accessories like engineer/chatterer/protractor, as well as the lander and probes have no kethane components.

If you intend to try and launch it with a configuration similar to mine, using tanks with engines on docking ports, my only advice is to disable fuel crossfeed on those ports before take off

To further the discussion regarding design, rather than intending to be fancy or such, I`ve been thinking about ships in 3 ways. Firstly functionality, getting to wherever, secondly utility, in my case usually carrying home units, and lastly aesthetics. More recently I have moved to prioritize aesthetics almost as much as utility, with functionality being only a basic requirement. Not to say I can make anything that looks particularly nice, but where possible I try to keep my design to whatever feeling I have towards the ship. In this case it was all about the truss design creating a sort-of internal docking space for the lander, and the 4 pairs of nuclear engines.

[Temstar]

Here is my Thunderchild II with Eve stack assembled in LKO. The big craft on the nose is a 2 man Eve ascend craft. The rover will carry two crew down to Eve surface and drive to meet up with the Eve return craft. The nuke powered Gilly craft is broken into two sections with the tug section docked to starboard docking port while the little RCS lander is docked to the bottom of the Eve rover. The craft at the bottom is a LKO tanker rocket.

[soranno]

I`ve been meaning to try out some multi-docking port module designs such as that temstar. Do you find it adds to stability enough to make it worthwhile? I imagine an entire Eve ascent vehicle is weighty enough to show it clearly

[Temstar]

I reckon if the payload is greater than 25tons than multiple docking port is worth it. The Eve lander is a hair under 50 tons.

[soranno]

I may have to try it out on my next large ship design. Until now I`ve been making use of rear facing docking ports to effectively drag cargo rather than push it, which seems to allow for greater stability. However it requires balanced loading, and frequently disassembly/loading/reassembly in orbit. Although I do quite enjoy that as I love the process of docking and maneuvering in close proximity

[apoch1999]

yeah...i seem to have issues gettign HOME units anywhere but LKO.... ill have to look into some of these ....

Edited April 26, 2013 by apoch1999

[Assault Bunny]

I present the BNY-LNG-34R, my 3 sectioned, assembled in orbit interplanetary ship bound for Laythe. Also a failure. Why? Because no matter how many ion engines I slapped on, it wasn't enough. Looks pretty though.

Front on view:

And some more detailed shots from the side and back

Front section is the command section, containing the three pilot Kerbals plus 4 in the hitchhiker pod, with landing gear carefully hidden beneath the separation struts for the engines. In the middle is the probe section, holding 6 fully equipped probes intended to orbit Jool and each of it's moons. At the rear is the ion thruster array, which although cool looking, is close to useless.

Probe design is good, though thrusters are still an issue, seeing as lateral movement produces yaw.

[UNSpaceCommand]

I present the BNY-LNG-34R, my 3 sectioned, assembled in orbit interplanetary ship bound for Laythe. Also a failure. Why? Because no matter how many ion engines I slapped on, it wasn't enough. Looks pretty though.

Front on view:

And some more detailed shots from the side and back

Front section is the command section, containing the three pilot Kerbals plus 4 in the hitchhiker pod, with landing gear carefully hidden beneath the separation struts for the engines. In the middle is the probe section, holding 6 fully equipped probes intended to orbit Jool and each of it's moons. At the rear is the ion thruster array, which although cool looking, is close to useless.

Probe design is good, though thrusters are still an issue, seeing as lateral movement produces yaw.

Ion thrusters have good thrust to weight ration not to mention long duration burn but the problem with it is the amount of thrust is too small you might want to consider using more nuke engine while keeping these ion thrusters as back up when u need to do some minor orbit change. And if fuel is a problem get a docking port and more fuel tanks up front so u can refuel it

Edited April 27, 2013 by UNSpaceCommand

[sturmstiger]

Most KSP players seem to like to build fancy things, but I like to go with the simplist design that will do the job reliably. So while it may not be very pretty, I'm rather proud of this ship, because it has been once each to Mun, Minmus, Eve/Gilly, Dres, and three times to Duna/Ike, and back, delivering significant payloads to each of those destinations, while discarding nothing but fuel.

This is the service ribbon not for my whole space program, but for this one ship.

I really like this one. It's utilitarian and looks nice & realistic.

I also have a reusable interplanetary tug of a similar design for my Duna and Jool missions, which has enough delta v to deliver its payload & get back to LKO using full propulsive capture, to accommodate payload not designed for aerocapture heat or acceleration.

[soranno]

As planned I launched a second of my design, Higeta`s sister ship `Aydin`, tasked with transportation and establishment of a station to Duna orbit, it was every bit the orgy of orbital ballet and docking that I had imagined.

parked in LKO with all modules stowed, 9 in all to reassemble upon arrival at Duna Maybe I`m crazy to enjoy it this way hah!

[iDan122]

After many hard work, after 6 launches and 23 hours of work, I built the Supernova, the versatile interplanetary nuclear powered ship,

I present you the VINPS SuperNova! Alas!

It can probably go as far as Eeloo, it has 12 free docking ports, 15 emergency solar panels, powered by 4 Nuclear pulse engines.

It hasn't done any flights yet, although i will do that very soon. I will release the craft files and more images if i get enough feedback!

[soranno]

I like it, but I`d love to see more images perhaps of the engine section, and a closer shot of the docking arrays?

[Rosarium]

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/solar-rider-2/

Here you will find my interplanetary base.

[iDan122]

Here ya go!