Grasshopper: Air, Space, And Rove. All the way to Mun and back in a single stage!

[Rune]

So, the last thing the forum ate: the Grasshopper. Lots of kudos to Cupcake (you might find the design reminds you of his... which is quite normal, since he inspired this with his VTOL's). Here it is, ain't he gorgeous?

And it's very functional, too. Pretty easy to get to orbit, you just have to airhog a bit before using the nuke, but it is all explained on the video anyhow (the first one I did, BTW). And once in space... well, it has the delta-v to get to the Mun, land, and then get back to Kerbin. You also have an easy time landing it afterwards, since you can pop chutes for a hands-free descent. Just one thing to have in mind: brake under 100m/s before you hit 500 meters over the surface with the jet engines, or the chutes opening will rip it to pieces.

And while you are on the ground... well, it roves! Very stable, too, and it... well, it leans to where you are going when you are turn. It was completely unintentional, but now I love that feature. It reminds me of the tumbler from the batman movies. It also has a docking port and RCS, so you can refuel it at a depot. The docking port is also handy to correctly position the navball in the direction of thrust... and honestly, I don't know what to add. Have fun getting it places!

IMGUR ALBUM: (Commented Munar mission)

http://imgur.com/a/aMISS

DOWNLOAD:

http://www./?68pzeiczzx6kbia

Rune. Well, now I have to come up with new stuff... but I have a couple of things in the works, the inspiration has not completely run out.

[Mulbin]

This is really cool! Given me some ideas...

Is there anywhere else you can put the docking clamp? Or does it actually need one? If you replace it with a single drogue chute you should fix your chute problem.

[Rune]

This is really cool! Given me some ideas...

Is there anywhere else you can put the docking clamp? Or does it actually need one? If you replace it with a single drogue chute you should fix your chute problem.

Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

Well, the docking clamp is there so you get an accurate reading on the navball, so I wouldn't move it. Plus, docking capability is a must for me, I do that a lot and have fuel depots everywhere I go. And you have the excess fuel to brake (probably to land, even), so... now that it's out, I doubt I will mess up with the design further. But you can find other places for chutes, you could for example take out the circular intakes and substitute them with four drogues (better safe than sorry), then perhaps reduce the standard chutes to just two. It sounds like a good idea to do so, actually, for places like Duna. But I don't know if a single nuke is enough to get back to orbit there, so someone is going to have to try and tell me. See, I don't timewarp to get to the launch windows, and as a result, I have been playing the same savegame since 0.18 came out, and still haven't got to the Jool launch window (the first one that comes up). I just start other missions in the meantime, it looks more realistic to me, but it makes me a rookie in interplanetary travel.... there are a lot of built stacks waiting for their chance to go, though!

Rune. Let me know the results if you try it!