The Hermes Kraken-Drive Light Spacecraft

[mythic_fci]

After months of top-secret research by the military, the results can finally be revealed to the general public...

The Hermes Light Spacecraft!

Now, you may think "Pfft, forget it.". BUT! This light spaceship has a new experimental technology in it - The Kraken Drive.

It is powered by the Archer Mk.IV class kraken drive. Refinement after refinement has given it a guaranteed reliability rate of 95 %. It has a top recorded speed of 6Gs acceleration, but most of the time it only uses 1-3 Gs of power. The reason for this fluctuation in speed is unknown.

The Archer Mk.IV is similar to many other K-Drive designs in mode of operation. At speeds of below 750m/s, it will use a prolonged hover above surface with ascent speeds ranging in the 1-5m/s range. Beware that unless the craft's speed is close to 0m/s, spontaneous dis-assembly is guaranteed.Once above this speed, however, the drive will auto-switch into a new mode. This is where the real acceleration begins: it will immediately switch to having 1-6Gs of acceleration without using ANY types of fuel, giving it the ability to do Kerbol-escape.

Weighing in at 59 parts total, including the conventional launcher, it's good for low-medium spec computers. Even with prolonged research into the 2 distinct modes of operation of this drive, however, the low-speed mode of the drive would take days to get to auto-switch velocity, which is the reason for the (very) light launch vehicle.

This is what the entire thing looks like on the launch pad.

Skipping ahead a bit here. Perform gravity turn at about 10km to 45 degrees. The side boosters, which use a very simple type of asparagus staging, will drop off from 15km-20km, depending on how (in)efficient your launch profile is. Don't worry, you have plenty of delta-v in the launch stage alone.

Alright, here's the tricky bit. As soon as your nav-ball says "Orbital Velocity - 800m/s" or higher, you have 2 choices. You can use the rest of the fuel in the booster to circularize, or you can continue your ascent on the K-Drive, as now it will use fast-acceleration mode.

This is the spacecraft in action. Note the G-readout on the nav-ball says 1G, even though I'm not on a planet or firing any engines.

And... Kerbin escape! You can go anywhere now, as long as your K-Drive doesn't spontaneously dissasemble.

I decided, because the flight show was only a demonstration flight, to turn the thing around and go home. Be careful using the K-Drive to deorbit; if you hit 750m/s hope your capsule and parachute haven't exploded and that you are on Kerbin-return trajectory. There are conventional liquid-fuel engines on this thing, for emergencies where the K-Drive is down and for fine circularization. However, it only has the delta-v for Kerbin orbital use.

To Kerbin escape and back, all in 10 minutes. No time warp.

Here's the download link for the Hermes: http://www./download/f25rfao9z34b32m/Hermes_K-Drive_Ship.zip

Just shove it into your ships folder and fly =D

Action groups are: 01-Activate the K-Drive

Also, because I'm in a good mood, I'll give you the subassembly of the Archer drive, so you can screw around with it.

The action groups are exactly the same. Put it in your subassemblies folder and roll <=D

Link for subassembly: http://www./download/yacg2yc4e7g2g5g/Warp_Drive_Subassembly.zip

Before I forget, some credits:

Thanks to Comrade Jenkins, the original designer who came up with the idea of the K-Drive. He is the reason this ship exists.

Also, thanks to Levelord, the designer of one of the first 1m K-Drives in service today. I took his main idea and made my own drive based on it with improvements.

Edited March 2, 2014 by FCISuperGuy

[128MB]

Sorry fo noob question, what is k-drive?

[mythic_fci]

Sorry fo noob question, what is k-drive?

It's basically a drive powered on game bugs. It has a basic assembly of a small part, landing legs, a metal plate, and a larger part. The landing legs push against the larger part and the plate when clipped, causing buggy calculations to send the thing skyward.

[Woopert]

Very nice! But one question, where it says 1-5 m/s, shouldn't that be 1-5 m/s per second? It sounds like acceleration is what is being measured here.

[mythic_fci]

Very nice! But one question, where it says 1-5 m/s, shouldn't that be 1-5 m/s per second? It sounds like acceleration is what is being measured here.

Well, from my knowledge, 1-5m/s means that the ship accelerates at 1-5 meters per second. Feel free to correct me, though. I'm not an aerospace engineer =D

[Accelerando]

Well, from my knowledge, 1-5m/s means that the ship accelerates at 1-5 meters per second. Feel free to correct me, though. I'm not an aerospace engineer =D

1-5m/s is velocity, arr! Distance over time, while acceleration is the accumulation of velocity or speed over time.

Sweet little ship!

[mythic_fci]

1-5m/s is velocity, arr! Distance over time, while acceleration is the accumulation of velocity or speed over time.

Sweet little ship!

Hold on, wait a second...

I think I saw you on KMP... I was FCI...

Well, this thing uses the same drive as the plane you saw on KMP. Try it out =D

Back on topic, sorry for the mistake. Time to dust off the pages of my physics textbook...

[Woopert]

Well, from my knowledge, 1-5m/s means that the ship accelerates at 1-5 meters per second. Feel free to correct me, though. I'm not an aerospace engineer =D

Right, but acceleration means in this case that every second, 1-5 meters per second is added to the overall velocity.

Going to try this soon

[mythic_fci]

Right, but acceleration means in this case that every second, 1-5 meters per second is added to the overall velocity.

Going to try this soon

Regardless, it has a constant VELOCITY of 1-5m/s. Will fix OP soon. Thanks!

[William Freeman]

The links aren't working. Please fix.

[daemonCaptrix]

Your K-drive is by far the most reliable one I've found.

DCSV Trident. Weighs 84.1t, and uses only two Archer Mk.IVs.

There's also a version with a bridge.

[Spartwo]

There's also a version with a bridge.

http://i.imgur.com/KNDK72o.png

I'm having horrible visions of kerbals being sucked out through the side:P

[KissSh0t]

I'm going to dissect you're design because I still can't figure out how to make one : T

[mythic_fci]

Your K-drive is by far the most reliable one I've found.

-imgsnip-

DCSV Trident. Weighs 84.1t, and uses only two Archer Mk.IVs.

-imgsnip-

-imgsnip

There's also a version with a bridge.

-imgsnip-

My drive in a warship?! A BEAUTIFUL WARSHIP TOO?! Amazing! How's the reliability rate?

[daemonCaptrix]

My drive in a warship?! A BEAUTIFUL WARSHIP TOO?! Amazing! How's the reliability rate?

Thanks!

It never explodes unless I use it below 750 m/s. It's a bit tough to keep a handle on, but MechJeb can stabilize it for interplanetary voyages. Very reliable!

Edited March 12, 2014 by daemonCaptrix

[War Eagle 1]

I have been testing you K-drive in an attempt to make a fighter. Here are some problems I run into

1. its just flops (meaning it just won't work) I turn it on and the ship is like "what am I suppose to do now?"

2. Spin cycle. Sometime it will accelerate, but deciders to act like a gyro ball. Even your ship does this. I turn it on and I watch as it spins upward and to the left

3. One time success. There are times when I can get it to work (rarely) and after I do, I turn it off to see if it will still work. 95% of the time it doesn't. If it does work again it fails the 3rd test 100% of the time.

4. failure after missiles launch. When I first downloaded it, it work much better, but after I would shoot a missile, it always would fail

5. Acting like there is drag. Also when I first starting using it, it would act like it was in atmosphere (I think it is suppose to do that but not 100% sure). So to fix this I added struts, once the struts were added, everything started going down hill.

It started off ok and ever sense it has been going down hill. IDK what is causing my success rate to drop like a rock.

Also I play on a Mac so IDK weather its because of differences in game tips that is causing this or what. If any one on a mac is having major success, please let me know