Space Butterfly

[Liudeius]

Made for a Youtuber desperately in need of help getting to Mun. (On a side note, Minmus is easier. It has lower gravity and as of 0.21.1, Mun is a bumpy hell-scape where the concept of a "flat landing surface" does not exist. I have added an SAS unit to the lander though, I’ve landed it on surfaces so steep that it slides down them, but remains upright.)

This is a "Space Butterfly" ship (for version 0.21.1) capable of a round trip to either Kerbin moon, or one way interplanetary trip (Duna and Eve confirmed, though I assume with patience and gravity assist it can get anywhere).

Space Butterfly (Short-Range): http://pastebin.com/9L0q6T7E

Space Butterfly (Long-Range): http://pastebin.com/qYvE6epN

(Copy into text document, change the suffix to .craft, then place the file in KSP>Saves>*player name*>Ships>VAB.)

Warning: Do not orbit this like a normal rocket. It uses jet engines and has unstable aerodynamic surfaces, see below for launch instructions.

Differences between Short-Range (S) and Long-Range (L):

- (S) transit stage uses a T45, while (L) transit stage uses a nuclear engine. This makes (S) faster and easier for a trip to Mun or Minmus, but (L) has better range.

- (L) has more parachutes for safe landings on planets with a thinner atmosphere.

- "0" key on (S) is mapped the same as the abort sequence, "0" key on (L) activates the parachutes, but doesn't separate the command capsule.

- Slightly different wing structures.

Key Mapping:

- "1," Solar panels (do not open in atmosphere)

- "2," Ladder

- "3," Science Equiment (opposite to the Ladder)

- "4" or "u," Lights.

- Abort, activate parachute and decouple command pod.

Orbit instructions:

1) Pre-launch

Note that the ship has already been rotated, north is to the left, 90 degrees is straight forward.

Immediately enable SAS, this should not be turned off during ascent and can be left on the entire trip.

Turn thrust to max and fire the engines, but do not release the support struts, jet engines require time to power up.

Open resources in the top right corner and look at the "Liquid Fuel" measurement. Once the number in parentheses hits 2.50, you can launch.

2) First Stage - Atmospheric Ascent

Leave thrust at 100%, do not steer, and do not time accelerate. The space craft will go straight up and any attempt to change its course could result in the wings catching air, sending you into a spin.

Watch the Resources menu again, this time pay attention to the number before the / for "Intake Air." Around 0.60, activate RCS (but do not turn). Once it drops to 0.20-0.30, press the stage button to decouple the jet engines. If the number drops much lower, you risk the engines blowing out, sending you into a spin, if the number is much higher, you risk being hit by the jet engines when they decouple.

3) Second Stage - Reaching Space

Give the debris of the first stage a moment to clear, then stage again to activate the next set of engines, don't wait long, just enough that you can confirm it hasn't hit you.

Once clear of the debris, begin a slow turn to a 45 degree angle of ascent (slow meaning 5-10 seconds). Once you have maneuvered to 45, stage again to activate the solid boosters.

(Do all the following while paying attention to your solid boosters. Once they have burnt out, you should stage again to decouple them so you are not dragging around dead weight. To stage you must switch out of the map.)

At this point, you will maintain your heading using the map. Press "m" then click the grey arrow in the middle of the bottom of the screen. Look at the apoapsis on your map, and try to keep the time to apoapsis between 40 and 50 second by pitching down from 45 degrees towards the horizon on your nav-ball (Do not cross the blue-orange boundary on the nav-ball). Once the number goes above 50 seconds, and you have already angled to the horizon (below), continue thrusting along this trajectory until your apoapsis is above 80,000 m but below 100,000 m (over estimate slightly, you will lose about 1000 m from upper atmosphere air resistance).

Once your apoapsis is high enough, press "x" to cut your power, you will not thrust again until near the apoapsis.

4) Third Stage - Establishing an Orbit

Note: Depending on how efficiently you have burned, you may have enough fuel left in the second stage for a full burn into orbit. You will only need a few seconds of fuel. If you only have a little fuel remaining, and don't think it's enough, go ahead and stage to the one-thruster stage, this will ensure you are given an accurate burn time prediction by the maneuver node.

Set a maneuver node at the apoapsis (left click) and drag the prograde vector (the empty yellow circle) until a periaphsis appears on the opposite side of Kerbin. Adjust the node until the periapsis is about the same altitude as the apoapsis (minimum 80,000 m).

(This example is a bit high, it's not extremely important, but unnecessarily high orbits waste fuel.)

Turn to the blue indicator on your nav-ball, and begin burning once the node timer reaches the appropriate number (you should burn evenly on each side of the node, so if you need a 6 second burn, start at T - 3, if you need a 40 second burn, start at T - 20).

As your actual orbit nears your planned orbit, lower your thrust power to ensure an accurate burn (ideally your orbit should be a perfect circle between 80,000 m and 100,000 m after this).

5) If you aren't already in the one-thruster stage, stage so only the core thruster and the lander remain. And press "1"

From here on, the Space Butterfly flies like any other rocket. If you are using the short range version, you should have plenty of fuel for a Munar or Minmus landing (I returned to Kerbin with nearly half a lander tank left). If you are using the long range version, remember that most inter-planetary burns will be longer than 4 minutes, so plan your burns accordingly (ex: for a 4 minute burn, start 2 minutes before the node). You can use physical time acceleration to shorten the burn (alt+"," or ".")

The long range version is only designed to work for the return trip from Mun and Minmus, interplanetary travel should be assumed to be one way.

Remember to use the transit stage to do as much of the landing deceleration as possible, the lander has spare fuel, but it's better to be safe.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Liudeius

[littlebattler]

cute~ didn'texpect a butterfly probe

[SpacecraftX]

Jesse cox does seriously need help. He is awful and the other guy is ok but not great. He is not to helpful to Jesse. I am right aren't I you meant Jesse cox? I assumed that because of the name of the craft.

[Liudeius]

Jesse cox does seriously need help. He is awful and the other guy is ok but not great. He is not to helpful to Jesse. I am right aren't I you meant Jesse cox? I assumed that because of the name of the craft.

Yeah, unfortunately I didn't realize he batch recorded the KSP series and considering that freakout probably isn't revisting.