The New Arrow and Longbow!

[Assault Bunny]

UPDATE: New versions added! See below.

Ladies and Gentle-Kerbals, I give you the latest version of the Arrow combined SSTO spaceplane and rover, and the Longbow interplanetary ring!

This MkIV model has had extensive work done to help it's flight profile and general aerodynamics (many thanks to Cruzan!), and now comes with two full sets of science gear mounted under the wings (except the atmo sensor package, couldn't find a good way to mount those). Not only is it a capable SSTO, once it arrives at it's destination it can make use of a vertical landing system which gracefully deposits it onto it's wheels. But that's not all! Once safely down, the front landing gear can be retracted to turn the craft into a rover! Now you can drive your ship around the surface of whatever planet or moon you land on (Eve not recommended), scoop up a full load of science from two different biomes, then find a nice area to take off and dock with the ship that got you there, the Longbow MkVI!

The Longbow interplanetary ring extends the Arrow's range from a low Kerbal orbit to anywhere in the solar system! Simply dock with the ring and let it take you to your destination, refuelling from it on the way! The MkIV has been updated to carry a science lab, and features a larger escape capsule than previous models to allow for the Arrow pilot and the science module crew to escape together, in case of unforeseen catastrophic Fun. Certainly not as glamorous, but with it's 6 ion engines it should get all three crew home safe (or at least to the nearest surface) from wherever they end up. Other features include the Arrow stabilisation system (landing struts that help hold it in place) and stock running lights (the extending ladders on the outside), and of course ample lighting to make docking and admiring the Arrow much easier, even in planetary shadow. Comes with mammoth but working launch vehicle!

Action groups! I'll list them together, since the Arrow and Longbow spend a lot of time as a single vehicle;

1: Toggle Arrow jet engines

2: Toggle Arrow rocket engines

3: Toggle Arrow front landing gear (to convert to Rover mode)

4: Toggle Arrow docking port shields

5: Toggle Arrow vertical landing system struts

6: Toggle Longbow landing struts (Arrow stabilisation system)

7: Toggle Longbow docking port shields, undock ports (for both Arrow and Longbow. Not fully tested, may require manual toggle)

8: Toggle Longbow solar panels and outside ladders

9: Toggle Longbow rocket engines

10: Toggle Arrow rover wheel motors and steering

ABORT: Launch LEV (Longbow Escape Vehicle), toggle LEV engines and solar panels

Arrow ascent profile! (again, MANY thanks to Cruzan)

• Begin climbing at 60 degrees
  
• @16km pitch down to 30 deg
  
• @21km pitch down to 15 deg
  
• @24km pitch down to 10 deg
  
• Cruise at 25.5-26km until 1600m/s
  
• Pitch up to 20 deg
  
• @27km Throttle down 3 ticks
  
• @29km Throttle down 2 more ticks
  
• @31km 3 more ticks
  
• @33km 2 more ticks Pitch to 10 deg.
  
• @35-36km turn on rocket engines Pitch to 0-10 degrees, keep vertical speed above 0.
  
• Watch Apoapsis. Once it hits 80-100km you can turn off your rocket engines and continue on jets. YOur apoapsis will fall, but thats okay just make sure it stays above 70km.
  
• If you flameout, reduce throttle to reignite. Keep pointed at your prograde marker.
  
• The jets cut out at about 60km or so, but feel free to turn them off sooner if you like.
  
• Circularize once you reach apoapsis and BOOM! Orbital.
  

I figured I'd make a new thread for these since the previous thread is pretty dead now. Several notes: When launching the Longbow, make sure to empty the crew pod and fill the science pod, and set it to control from the probe body. Also, despite my best efforts, occasional structural failures may happen with the launch vehicle. When this happens, revert to launch and not hanger, as it will want to go to the SPH (as I designed the main vehicle there). It is designed to be launched from the VAB. The Longbow has pretty terrible TWR, worse when loaded with the Arrow, but switching out to other engines would cripple it's range, so please be patient when burning.

I have left MechJeb on both the Arrow and the Longbow, so you'll need that installed first, but apart from that they are stock. (links in next post)

Here are totally stock versions of the Arrow and Longbow

Questions, comments, and words on praise are all appreciated More screenshots to come once I'm done eating

Edited January 30, 2014 by Assault Bunny

[Assault Bunny]

Here's the craft files (self facepalm)

Arrow MkIV and Longbow MkIV

[sal_vager]

Please upload fully stock versions, players can add MechJeb if they choose.

Also, moar pics of these two craft combined and in space!

[Assault Bunny]

Done, screenshots coming soon!

[Assault Bunny]

Screenshots!

http://imgur.com/a/vQJRh

I can't figure out how to do the embedded gallery thing I've seen on some posts, so it will remain like this till someone explains it to me As it is now, it shows the launch sequence of the Longbow (not all from the same try, many random fails happened), the Arrow taking off, then coming in to dock with the Longbow, and a few beauty shots scattered throughout

One thing to note; there is an occasional glitch where one of the docking ports doesn't engage, which throws off quite a few things. To fix it, undock, fly away a decent distance, then come in and dock again.

[sal_vager]

Such a cool craft

And embedded imgur galleries go like this without the extra spaces: [ imgur ]vQJRh[ /imgur ]

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[Assault Bunny]

After a few unfortunate instances of Mechjeb's rough handling, overtaxing the stabilisation struts to the point where things gave up and exploded, I gave in to another modification of the Arrow and Longbow that I'd been putting off since the early versions. Thus, I give you the Arrow MkV:

I strengthened the front section's connection to the rest of the ship (did a lot of flexing under rover manoeuvres), and added a third docking port. "Why?" I hear you not ask because you probably figured it out; to match the changes in the Longbow MkVII:

Yes, the Longbow and Arrow now have a three point connection, which stabilises the craft together nicely, in exchange for much more fiddly docking manoeuvres. Also undocking and going out forward is not really an option any more. On the upside, the connection is so stable I no longer need the stabilising landing struts on the Longbow, which has freed up hotkey 6 to toggle all the Arrow's air intakes. I also a added an adaptor piece behind the probe head to help the aesthetics The eagle eyed among you might notice the docking ports don't line up perfectly in the above screenshot. That's not because of a placement issue, it's just when I docked the two craft apparently locked together just before they could slide perfectly into place. As I'd already gotten the port bug and that was my second try, I let it go.

I also modified the launcher slightly, adding a little more fuel to the inner rockets to help balance out burn out times with the outside ones, a few separatrons to help prevent collisions during stage separation, and tweaked the staging. To test out the new models, I took them to Duna, where I successfully landed the Arrow with the vertical landing system!

Here it is roving about I suspect I may have used a bit much fuel on the landing, but that's more my lack of experience, as this was my first ever landing on Duna with any craft. The plan was to take it to a slope and take off again, then meet up with the Longbow again, re-dock, and fly back to Kerbin. But, I got hungry Point is, the new models are fit for interplanetary travel, even under Mechjeb's harsh stick-work.

Here's the files for the Arrow MkV and the Longbow MkVII. Both these craft include Mechjeb. I'll upload totally stock versions soon.

[Levelord]

I once tried to launch my massive Interplanetary ring using massive launch vehicles too. Made my PC lag a lot, so I took a minimalist approach to future iterations of my fleet. Turns out looking quite nice with that industrial feel to it. I also like how you came up with docking clamps to stabilize your docked spaceplane. I had a similar idea too!

[Assault Bunny]

I've got a beast of a machine, so the Longbow launcher doesn't lag much at all And again, while I do like your designs, they're just way too clippy for my tastes. I'm guessing that one has a lot of wiggle when rolling?

In any case, I think the Longbow and Arrow are pretty much done for now, until new stock parts are introduced, or something like life support gets put in. Sadly they both require such a high tech level (in terms of parts) that they're just about useless for career mode at this point. Here's hoping they expand the tech tree more!

Here are the totally stock versions of the Arrow MkV and Longbow MkVII.