My roundtrip ships for download.

[Vanamonde]

Some folks have asked for the craft files for my reuseable interplanetary ships, and I feel they've now been tested thoroughly enough for others to use.

First, this is the Mk91c Locomotive class, which can haul cargoes to Duna, Eve, and Dres, and then return to Kerbin. (Pictured here laden with a payload, because it looks cooler this way.)

The ship has several docking access points for attaching cargoes or bringing refuelling vessels to the ship,

and affords good visibility for the pilot.

It is self-illuminated for ease of finding and docking with the ship during cargo and fuelling operations.

The ship has room for a crew of up to 5, or can be operated robotically with no crew aboard. It has been tested with cargoes in the 50 to 85 ton range. Aerobraking will not dislodge cargo modules, even on the side-mounts.

The ship launches as a single piece (no orbital assembly, that is),

and to achieve orbit, burn until your apoapsis has been set at 100,000m or more, then coast to that height while pumping the remaining fuel from the booster stacks into the ship itself, and then eject the boosters,

and circularize the orbit with the fuel-efficient LV-Ns. The ship will arrive at orbit with nearly dry tanks, and will need to be refueled.

Mass fuelled but uncargoed: 231.67 tons

Part count: 99

Craft file: obsolete

For more distant worlds, I use the IP-8 Comet class. It has flown ~70 ton cargoes to Tylo, Moho, Eeloo and returned to Kerbin.

As a scaled up version of the Locomotive, the Comet offers the same features of crew 0 to 5, major cargo attachment point at the nose, 4 cargo attachment points midships, and docking rings at rear and top for fuelling and small craft carrying,

and of course, self-illumination.

The Comet must be assembled in orbit from the three segments of drive, cargo, and bridge.

Since it is the most ungainly piece, launch the drive section first and dock the other segments to it. The drive section has a power/guidance module docked to the rear, and so is a controllable ship during launch and rendezvous. (The staging sequence ejects SRBs, then drop tanks, then large boosters.)

Like the Locomotive class, you will need to burn to set an apoapsis around 120,000m with the Mainsail boosters, transfer fuel from the boosters to the ship while coasting to apoapsis, then eject the boosters,

and circularize orbit on the LV-Ns. Then leave the drive section orbiting while you launch the cargo section.

The cargo section also has a guidance/power module docked to its rear port, and flies to orbit on 2 sets of asparagus-arranged boosters.

To be honest, the cargo section is a little squirrelly to fly on ascent, but fortunately you only need to fly it as a separate ship once, on its way to the drive section,

and it is manageable while docking. After attaching the cargo section, undock the cargo section's guidance module and (to reduce space junk) de-orbit it using its RCS.

Return once more to the KSC and launch the bridge section.

***IMPORTANT*** So as to leave the rear docking port free to attach to the rest of the ship, the bridge section launches and flies backwards (relative to the cockpit). You will therefore need, before launching, to "control from here" the uppermost docking ring, or SAS gets confused and your controls will be backwards. However, once that's done, the bridge section flies quite sedately to rendezvous and docking.

The ship is now fully assembled, but there is some tidying up to do before flight operations. The bridge's launch engine and the drive section's control module should be undocked and de-orbited. Each is cabable of de-orbiting under its own power.

The only unavoidable space junk generation occurs when you discard the decouplers which bear the RCS thrusters for the sub-assemblies.

Incidentally, as an aid in aligning the segments during assembly, you will see that these decouplers on each segment carry antennas. These are provided solely as a visual aid to assist in aligning the segments during docking.

Mass fuelled but uncargoed: 368.45 tons

Part count: 137

Craft file drive:

http://www./download/qg2eysl9w084a9o/IP-8d_Drive.craft

Craft file cargo:

http://www./download/15ql9i6iw5oaqyj/IP-8c_Cargo.craft

Craft file bridge:

obsolete

I hope these are useful and fly well for folks.

Edited October 11, 2014 by Vanamonde

[KatzOhki]

These look pretty cool, I like orbital assembled ships.

[Oddbin]

How are these ships with oscillations when accelerating? Have you taken them in system at all?

[Mr.Rocket]

do these have landers so i can land on other planets?

[Vanamonde]

How are these ships with oscillations when accelerating?

There can be a minor swing, but they hold course during a burn. As a note of caution, though, the new SAS system does not tolerate unbalanced loads well, which is why you'll see that all the side-mounted cargo consists of pairs of identical sub-vehicles.

Have you taken them in system at all?

This thread is a continuation of a discussion from another thread, though in retrospect I don't know why I assumed people would know that. But as I explain in the other thread, the Mk91 has made roundtrips to Dres, Eve twice, and Duna 3 times, and the IP-8 has been to and come back from Tylo, Moho, and Eeloo twice. Each trip was not just the ship itself, but a delivery of 50 to 85 tons of payload.

do these have landers so i can land on other planets?

The craft files I posted include nothing but the ships themselves, since the idea of a reuseable delivery mothership is that you can pile on whatever you want for the objectives of your mission. As these examples show, that includes satellites, rover delivery sub-vehicles, and station components. I do have lander designs that I use myself, but they're not ready to be offered to other players because I don't like to post anything until it's as perfect as I can make it, and I haven't tested them thoroughly in 21 (with the new SAS parts, I mean).

[Vanamonde]

For those who missed my previous threads and posts, here's some advertizing for my ships:

An earlier version of the Mk91 delivering 8 rovers to the Duna/Ike system,

Early Mk91 arrives at Dres,

for the first manned landing there.

Mk91c arriving at Eve,

on a mission which included some rovers.

An IP-8 arrives at Eeloo,

and lands the first explorers on the most distant planet.

IP-8 aerobraking at Jool

for an arrival at Tylo.

IP-8 reaches Moho,

and deploys a small station and stuff.

Edited September 6, 2013 by Vanamonde

[Jivaii]

I've got a modification in mind for your craft, I'll load a picture up once I get it done.

Having issues getting any of my heavy lifters to lift 210 tons up using stock only parts =/

Edited September 28, 2013 by Jivaii