[Stock 0.19.1] Lossless three-ton fun to Laythe

[3_bit]

Here is my luxury vehicle to laythe on a test flight. Note that I only added a Kethane Scanner because all of the engines are independant and can fly individually. The "comms relay" is destined for equatorial orbit above the base while the kethane one is destined for a Polar Orbit. I might make another 6 ton vehicle with Kethane supplies, and send a 6-ton 1-man rocket after it.

[3_bit]

A better view of the crew compartment and how it splits up:

[3_bit]

Do I have any competitors? I want to see designs!

[Ninety-Three]

I'm putting something together, but it involves a whole lot of docking, which I'm not good at, so it'll be a while. To give you an idea, here's a shot including my station core over on the left.

I'm making my plan up as I go, which is why I went with the highly modular core there. I'm going to try to fill all of those slots, get bored around six, and send the thing to Jool on a massive ion drive (the liquid fuel is saved for refueling landers). I'm planning two rovers with one-way landing, a land-and-return crew delivery ship that can pick up rovers, and a whole bunch of ion satelites. If I was any good with planes, I'd work one in somehow. Rover planes?

Edited May 10, 2013 by Ninety-Three

[3_bit]

I think you'll need mechjeb to do those burns while in solar orbit....

[3_bit]

my dilemma is how to get 4 people up in one launch. I already ran ALL the numbers, and my ship has over 2500 m/s delta-v. I'm planning on doing 3 more launches with their own ion-transfer vessels. One will carry Kethane supplies, one a ship for transfers, and a final to carry the light reusable launcher, so I could theoretically launch ships BACK to kerbin.

EDIT: now that I realize it, I could do all the launches and carry 1 kerbal. Then I could unite all 4 at the landing site.

[Ninety-Three]

Double post due to html submit weirdness.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Ninety-Three

[Ninety-Three]

I think you'll need mechjeb to do those burns while in solar orbit....

What makes you say that?

[3_bit]

Ion engines? With my 6 ton baby it will be fast, but with that thing.... I hope you brought books.

[Ninety-Three]

Oh yes, I'm definitely planning to turn it on and leave it on in the background, but why MechJeb? Do heavily docked stations oscillate too much for ASAS?

[3_bit]

No, it's just that you should note that you'll be burning off-prograde very fast without a system actively reorienting you to prograde.

<currently testing laythe universal transfer vehicle>

[3_bit]

It turns out I'm going to need to completely rebuild my design. It keeps shuddering, which throws my Kerbals off their ladders. I somehow ran my delta-v calculations wrong (I was using metric tons, is that wrong?) and I got ~4 times the delta-v I had calculated. I guess that's an epic win on my part. I think I can even get a reusable launcher to Laythe, as well as a Kethane Mining system. As you can tell from my previous pictures, I have plans to make such a system. I am giving myself 4 total launches to have my whole base built, with each launch including a full transfer system. Launch 1: Base, rover, 2 landers, 2 orbital probes (all needed for the challenge) launch 2: Kethane system & the transfer unit will double as an orbital storage array. launch 3: Cargo vessel and reusable launcher, cargo vessel will be running on Xenon, dockable with the orbital station. the reusable launcher will have some radial Xenon tanks from KSPX. Worth noting is that ALL of my launch/transfer vehicles are completely stock-fueled and propelled; I don't want to be called a cheater.Launch 4 will probably be a few various pieces of equipment, notably a pod for the station, as well as a tiny RCS maneuvering vehicle. Pics to be out of the whole base before the end of the week. Additionally, the reusable launcher will be the VTOL launcher. It's cargo capacity is far lower, but I can use it to shuttle astronauts to the Laythe Transfer Vehicle (LTV(from launch 3)) using the station pod.

I've never actually been to Laythe, so this should be fun.

[KwirkyJ]

At length, I have my mission assembled in LKO. A total of six launches from Kerbin for the various components: the probe cluster (~3.2 tonnes), the habitation and base (~3.5 tonnes), a rover lander (~2.2 tonnes), two FL-T400 tanks, and one LV-N, all strung together. The nuclear engine should provide 2-2.4km/s delta-V, along with an extra ~1.5 km/s provided with an inline ion in the probe cluster. Each was lifted by the GOPRx3AMS II, meriting the 'I Like Crazy' badge; what can I say, I like the incredible efficiency it allows. (Also so far have the 'Flawless Record,' 'No Taksies Backsies,' 'To The Bitter End,' 'The More The Merrier,' 'I Can Do This On My Own,' and 'We Were Told To Comb The Desert')

There are a few other flights elsewhere in the system I wish to reach their destinations before disembarking from Kerbin orbit, so I have yet to commence the mission proper.

[3_bit]

What are those colored tanks in your science tab?

[KwirkyJ]

What are those colored tanks in your science tab?

Those would be dedicated weights. Probably retextured RCS tank meshes, they are a relic from several versions previous. I have retained only a small collection of the entire pack, but those visible are 1, 5, 10, and 50 tonne each. The two trapezoidal things following those are 0.1 and 0.5 tonne weights as well. Handy things for testing lifting capacity of your rockets (short of doing so with mathematics). I believe I rediscovered them on spaceport where someone had redistributed the otherwise archaic package. I did tweak the cfgs slightly, however, to use the Part module rather than the Strut module, not that it makes much practical difference....

I actually did not understand your question at first, and was about to expound on the fuel tanks attached to my rover. Hooray for exhaustive re-reading!