Triskelion Station Mk. II

[Syre]

Good god man. I am so impressed with this 'project'.

Good luck!

[Camaron]

Are you still in need of an SSTO Escape pod craft?

Because I built this thing. It can achieve orbit pretty effectively. It's Drone-driven. With some jet engine padding it can land like a feather. Its super-easily controlled, and stable. Has huge room for error - you can fly it like a ******ed dog and still get it in orbit. (Following basic Jet-powered SSTO rules, of course). Carries four Kerbals at a time, and consists of a subtle 63 parts.

Built with the assumption that it doesn't need to dock - just setpakc some kerbals to it and be on your way.

[Saltpeter]

I need a proper jet, not a rocket with jet engines. You've seen the pictures of what I'm trying to make.

[KeithStone]

Spacetruck for the win!!!! Your escape pod is rather nice as well.

[Camaron]

Oops.

Jeb complains that craft is not a Jet. Insists some minor changes be made to make craft qualify as a Jet.

Engineers make some small changes so that the craft is now a Jet.

[Saltpeter]

Oooooh. Can it land well?

[Camaron]

IT CAN! With the one design flaw that pops the lower two jets off on touchdown. :/

I've got a good idea on how to patch that up though.

I'll be honest. I threw this together and it somehow ended up being the most stable Jetcraft I've ever made. It's also the fastest cruiser, and very maneuverable. The craft gently coasted onto the runway. The broken jets was just a positioning issue.

This thing is mind-blowingly fast after the rocket fuel (for completing the orbit and deorbiting) is depleted!

I'm gonna mess around with this a while and get it nice and awesome. Mainly fix that jet-breaking landing profile.

Landing

Landed

Cruising toward KSC. Still accelerating hard at just over Mach 5, but my exit's coming up.

[Camaron]

New version cleared that problem right up. In the landing test I actually messed up a bit and landed quite hard, but nothing was damaged. It took the rough landing like a champ.

Cool angle

Coming in to land

Landed and unharmed

[Saltpeter]

That's fantastic. I'll have to give it a trial run once you've perfected it. It just might be the hero's chariot worthy of the Triskelion crew.

Wait a second. That jet doesn't jettison those pods, does it? I was hoping for the pods to parachute down after being jettisoned from the craft.

[Camaron]

Currently they don't jettison. The plane lands whole at this point. In fact I'm currently orbit-testing it. Didn't even revert after the test landing Just took right off. I had only spent a tiny bit of the jet fuel in the landing demo anyway.

And this thing can just go straight up to the upper atmosphere by brute force. No need to gradually glide to elevation.

[Saltpeter]

If you can make the jet so it jettisons the three pods and can still land well, I'll totally use it.

[Camaron]

I outdid myself on this one. This idea was new to me.

Self de-orbiting capsules.

[Saltpeter]

As much as I adore that idea, I need the capsules to be jettisoned at low altitude because I want them to land right on the KSC. Can I do that with that jet?

[Camaron]

Sort of. It's tricky though. Low throttle, still fly the plane afterward, etc. Very touchy and many catastrophic results in testing

Ill make something better for fly by drops reliably.

[Saltpeter]

Thanks! Sounds like the results I was getting with my own plane.

[Camaron]

I'm able to get a plane to safely drop three pods at KSC, but it's ugly, and it just seems to me that it would be way more logical to just land the plane in one piece. Who tears a perfectly good plane apart 200 feet over the runway anyway? That's just....backwards....

[Saltpeter]

Think of it as a bomber, but it drops kerbals instead of ordnance.

[Camaron]

Nah I figured something out. I think you'll like it.

The front (3 pods) detaches as a unit with its own wings and can guide itself where you want independently of the jet. Then when ready you break it apart and it all falls to earth.

...Except that the jet seems to unload and vanish if it goes too far.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Camaron

[Saltpeter]

Oooooooh! And the jet lands well?

I did notice that happening with the pods when I was testing my plane.

But you know what? If the plane unloads and vanishes, I'm fine with that. As long as it doesn't crash. We can pretend that it landed safely somewhere.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Saltpeter

[Saltpeter]

I have begun docking the kethane equipment to the Triskelion. I will also take the time to deorbit the old science probes. It was a spectacular lack of foresight that I forgot to add antennae to them, especially the ones without the non-reusable science modules. I will design a better probe for the next interplanetary mission at a later time.

[Saltpeter]

The Triskelion is now fully equipped for the mission, minus the storage facility. The storage facility is going to be another station in the same vein as Hexaflexagon. The refinery module alone is itself a small station, and the Triskelion is going to haul it, even though it doesn't really have to. KSP scientists had this to say:

"Oh, you think flying around a lot and hauling some kerbals is sooooo cool, do you? That's dumb! You're dumb! We're not satisfied until we've tortured that vehicle! Muahahahahaha!"

[Syre]

Man! That plane is awesome haha

[Saltpeter]

There is one last task that can be accomplished without bringing the kerbals home first: The delivery of the storage facility to Minmus orbit. The same design as Hexaflexagon Station will be used, with some minor changes:

1. Storage room for Xenon.

2. Extra storage for Monoprop.

3. Senior ports instead of XL universal ports.

Designs are underway for the new station.

[Camaron]

Actually, If you can wait a few days, I've already nearly finished what you would call Hexa - 2. All my new parts are here. I just have to backup my stuff and build the new system. It Is (Hexa 2) finished actually - I'd just add some mono tanks and Xenon and its good to go after the launcher is completed. This thing is absolutely spectacularly huge. And I just remembered its double-octagonal, not double-hexagonal. Already tested to be flyable.

As for making a pod-dropping plane, its looking like rear-dropping is a must as for plopping three pods in style. Frontal dropping is dangerous, and the glider takes too long and the main craft unloads.

Edit: Got the new plane into orbit.

It has bad flight stability (Working on that) But acheieved orbit with LOTS more of the space-worthy rocket fuel, meaning it can get where it needs to go, and can probably meet you from fairly high orbits. Not to mention you can always just juice it back up from one of the big ships - has a front dock. Also landed well and made easy work of the pod drop after deorbiting from a circularized 500km

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Latest Version on a Docking test at 160km. Also, it is radically more stable in-flight.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Camaron

[Camaron]

It's almost ready.