The flight of Argos: how to build and test a Grand Tour mothership (0.18-0.21).

[Rune]

Hi guys! This is by far my most complicated, long, and awesome build, the Argos. Just you look at that big bastard:

A ship worthy of a Grand Tour! Or at least that was the plan. That was always the plan. Ever since 0.18, three versions ago, and finally completed and tested from tail to toe, finally ready for the Jool transfer window on day... 41. Yeah, you heard right, day 41. I've been playing at this since 0.17 with the same save, and I am still in the second month of my space program. That's another story, and yes, I should timewarp more if I ever want to do serious interplanetary flight. But hey, pacing myself for the eventual release or something. But I have been busy in LKO. Particularly, because ever since I saw the first Grand Tour post (I forget by whom, so long ago!), I knew I was doing one of those, no matter the cost. Thus the design of this beast. A few technical details, so we both know what we are talking about:

- Tractor design. For stability, and structure, and reasons. Means you fly this with gimbals off (thanks for those reaction wheels!)

- 12x Nervas as main propulsion units. Each is a detachable pod so you can drop tanks and rearrange engines if need be.

- 10 orange tanks as main propellant tanks. (Launched in pairs)

- Hab space for six kerbs at the other end of the ship. More dockings ports that I ended up using.

- Standard suite of four hydrazine-powered probes. Equipped with chute and landing gear for planetary/low gravity descent.

- Two SSTO Razors, "Castor" and "Pollux" to conquer most of the planets and moons, with rescue capability (the Razors can fly unmanned).

- One Tylo-Class lander on the back, christened "Heracles". The yet-to-be-built-much-less-named Eve-Class lander will be waiting in Eve orbit, because it's huge, and by then we will need a refill anyway. Moho is really far away from Eeloo.

- A heatshield section. Because it looks right, mostly. And structural reasons.

- 900 and a few parts fully assembled. Not for the faint of heart.

- A total of 10 flights to assemble, and some hairy dockings. I'm not kidding, this is really not for the faint of heart. Do try this at home, kids, but don't blame me if you fail. I like to call it penta-dock:

So yeah, a minute of silence for the previous versions (no Sr. docking ports before 0.20, remember), and how they were silently scuttled when the design flaws became obvious:

"Which lander are we taking again?"

"What could possibly go wrong"

"I mean, it fits"

"Well, there's that. Ooops."

... seriously, a minute of silence. I've lost a lot of time at this, especially considering that everything was time-dilated up to x1/3 at the end. Green Jesus, what a pain. But it was worthy! And in the end, I think I earned my docking wings. She sure does look pretty now, and even the Tylo lander has grown on me:

So to Mun we go for the test run! We found out that it is perfectly stable to use without ASAS as long as you keep the load balanced, if not you will waste a ton of RCS, but no problem. Also, don't even bother with ASAS: sometimes it still gets fits, even in 0.21, and the best killrot for this beast is timewarping anyway.

Once the capture burn is complete, reassuring us on the reasonably small fuel consumption for the first km/s, we launch one of the Razors to visit the first celestial object in the Grand Tour. It may be a dry run, we may already have several bases and dozens of kerbals around, but it still feels great to plant a flag in a nice place.

Now that that is out of the way, the next stop is KSO for a final topping off of the tanks (flight number who-cares-at-this-point in the assembly of Argos), and if the time is right, dispatching one of the Razors for the flag on Minmus. I dunno about that one, the Jool window opens really soon, in a couple of days, but if not, the tiniest moon of Kerbin can always be visited on the return trip... because this thing is returning, to serve as an ever-lasting monument to the lag god. I give you my word on that!

More pictures of the assembly and ongoing mission and stuff in the imgur album, I will keep on updating as I go along. Also, I plan of posting the craft files, in case you want to take a stab at building this beauty yourself. Check my thread in a couple of days, because I am usually that lazy. For now... MOAR PICS!!!

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Rune. Ad astra per kaboom!

Edited August 2, 2013 by Rune

[Cashen]

This is an absolutely epic project and I can't wait to see more.

[Geschosskopf]

Ditto what Cashen said

[Rune]

Thanks guys! I thought that if I was going to do a Grand Tour, I was going for the whole shebang, as big and complicated as I could possibly make it. I fully expect not to be done with it for months! Now all I need is for my savegame to continue enduring version updates, and I will keep you informed as I go. Next update, the decision on the Minmus visit, the refuel, the craft files, and hopefully the departure burn.

[Rune]

The craft files are ready! At least for the mothership itself. Have fun lego-ing IN SPACE!

Go to this thread for them.

Rune. Imitation being the best form of flattery, and me liking flattery and all that.

[Rune]

So, after exams, a couple of trips, lots of parties and getting sidetracked by a host of other missions, I've finally got around to doing the refuelling and final refitting on KeoStationary orbit. The Argos is ready to go! T-11h for Jool window, and it's time to lower the periapsis in order to get some help from Oberth to leave. Oh, I also redesigned the Tylo lander, lighter with seats, and much more compact and with less parts. Right now, the ship clocks in at 850 parts with all it's bells and whistles. Let's see a couple of shots (the imgur album has been updated with many more):

Yup, I needed two tankers after a single Munar mission. Which is why I decided to make the Tylo lander significantly lighter.

I also moved a couple of engines pods, to substitute them for newer ones with fewer part count (this thing is the mother of all lags anyway)

But boy do the screenies look cool from KSO. This one shows one of the tankers detaching from the ship to deorbit itself (I think, either that or it's coming to dock).

The next post will be after TJI (Trans-Joolian Injection), and I will probably provide a crew roost to tell you which brave kerbals embark on this dangerous journey.

Rune. I'm thinking I will end this trip right about the time 1.0 comes out.

Edited September 26, 2013 by Rune