Building a Moons of Jool Fleet (Work in porgress)

[Landge]

Rats I can't edit the title (Work in pROgress)

I've been working a bunch of overtime lately in RL and have not been able to keep up as much as I'd like or get my KSP fix on a regular basis.

My mission to Jool's moons has been sidetracked while I've been working on jet plane designs to use on Laythe. Most all failing miserably. :x

Currently the fleet is in 500,000m orbit over Kerbin waiting on me to hurry up already:

Jool is not in the right position for a transfer orbit just yet anyway.

(4) LR Fuel Tankers w/2 mini-rovers...

Will add one more for 5 total. One for each moon.

(1) Rover Outpost...

Bill, Jeb, and Bob with investigate any anomalies.

(1) Laythe Expedition Command Ship w/Base Lander...

It might look like the Kyonorthrus at first glance, but it is a total redesign. From the engines to the orbital station up to the base lander module mounted on top. No crayons and napkins were used this time. Only detailed engineering by top KSP engineers would do.

One of the KSP engineers "hit" on the idea while pla... er um... building a model out of a bunch of cardboard gift wrap tubes and toilet paper tubes, all taped together and tied with a string. While conducting the centrifuge test, spinning it wildly around over his head, The string broke and the model hit him in the head. Amazingly it stayed in one piece.

Conventional rovers will work, and I'm sending a few, but with Laythe being +-90% oceans with scattered islands and, air recon would be a huge benefit. Thought I'd give jets a try.

After I don't know how many times trying to get SSTO's into orbit, sub-orbital is the best I could do but every landing ended in crashing. :evil:

I gave up SSTOs.

I decided to just build a simple light jet, that's not capable of getting to orbit on it's own, and strap it to a rocket that does.

Based loosely on Brotoro's Boosting BirdDog plane & lander.

2 jets actually. I might send 2 of these. 4 planes might cover more territory.

Here is some random pics of my test flights of my Jet Transport Ship I dubbed Bird's Nest, with J-Birds 1 & 2...

The reworked version is currently in orbit waiting on fuel. The tanker pilot is way past his bedtime. Good night...

Edited May 21, 2013 by Landge

[Dictator Dan]

Holy cow, those ships look awesome. Im looking forward to you continuing this.

[Ruedii]

You might want to take a few landers to Laythe first. There aren't a lot of flat areas on Lathe to take off from. It might be prudent to search for one, or design something with VTOL capability.

A simple lander isn't that hard to get there. I presume the return trip wouldn't be too hard if you design the lander properly and leave the real return vessel in orbit.

As a note, if you only use the nuclear rockets once you are in orbit, it will dramatically increase your fuel-efficiency, and thus the delta-v capacity of the craft. You there is no real limit on how long your burns are and you can always aerobreak when you get to Jool so you don't need a lot of power to stop. (My solar escape probe had a power to weight ratio of under 0.1, although I should have probably put way less fuel on it.)

Edited May 20, 2013 by Ruedii
added information.

[Landge]

My Rover Outpost seen here...

is equiped to re-dock with the booster stage, in orbit, if needed. So Bill, Jeb, & Bob can visit multiple moons. Well maybe not Tylo, may have to save first and try. Action keys can toggle between the 4 aerospikes or 4 LV-N's, or both if required...

The rover comes equipted with 4 of the small radial rockets for VTOL assists.

The Bird's Nest lander/fuel depot has a single puddle engine for slowing down descent. Since the J-Bird jets are not able to return to space, I didn't design the Bird's Nest to return either. Those crew members will have to catch a ride in a separate lander.

The Main Base is intended to be permanent and drop the rockets after landing by applying minimal thrust before releasing them.

I might have to add a KPT: Kerbal Personnel Transport...

or a Long Range Extended Stay Orbital Hotel w/ Lander...

to ferry Kerbalnauts to and from the surface.

Edited May 20, 2013 by Landge

[The solid fuel chemist]

congratulations on making it to the last page! i award this thread the title of "the ultimate dead thread"