How do you construct interplanetary ships?

[ZAIZAI]

This was my Duna mission. Sent up the interplanetary stage with lab but no fuel into LKO, fuelled it up and attached landers in orbit and then went for Duna. Pretty good mission, two landings on Duna and one on Ike on the way back. Would have been simpler to build smaller missions and send three separate but what would be the fun in that?

[LostElement]

It does depend. I prefer to construct them in space. It's much more fun.

[Boris_T_Roach]

My latest career mode interplanetary ships was built in orbit by 3 launches.

A Mk7 nuclear drive section goes up first, followed by the lander/crew unit and finally a jumbo 64 fuel tank gets attatched.

This ship is destined for a mission to Ike and back as can be seen by the extra small fuel tanks on the lander, for longer missions , an additional set of docking ports and hitchhiker pods get added for more fuel tanks/rovers and more room for the 7 kerbal crew to live in.

The only reason they get built in orbit is because until the SLS parts came along, that was all I could lift reliably into a 130km LKO... and besides... once you've got something that works well, why bother changing the design?

Boris

[Tery215]

I think cores should be sent second or third.

I try to place only a single or maybe 2 or three nuke engines, with more fuel tanks than nuke engines. Also, disposable RCS tanks for the docking module.

All tug-tanks should be disposable for weight-saving.

[Tortoise]

It depends on the design of it.

If it's something small like this (my space motel), I'd launch it in one piece:

But I built this in space(space station):

I find docking fun.

[chrise6102]

This is the one I'm using currently to get to Duna. It's a bit overkill for the task (the T-800 tanks are still around half-full when they get back to Kerbin).

I'm also playing around with a more efficient version that detaches most of the rockomax tanks and two of the four nuke engines once fuel is low (since by then the nuclear engines are quite a chunk of the remaining weight).

Can all be launched in one piece using only rockomax parts.

[Mystique]

Both approaches to huge vessel constructions are good as long as you don't need to consider budget

I tend to launch as big ships as possible to avoid docking port wobbliness in future:

And dock them with another huge things if needed:

Only smaller pieces of this thing were docked, most was launched from Kerbin:

Well, sometimes low orbit is also a good way to disassemble things:

[quietsamurai98]

I personally have had trouble with the whole Launch to LKO process, so I installed a stock-alike rescale mod and created the XXXL Lifter.

Image:

[sal_vager]

This doesn't go in Gameplay Questions, if anything it goes in the SC due to all the craft pics.

[SRV Ron]

This is the one I'm using currently to get to Duna. It's a bit overkill for the task (the T-800 tanks are still around half-full when they get back to Kerbin).

I'm also playing around with a more efficient version that detaches most of the rockomax tanks and two of the four nuke engines once fuel is low (since by then the nuclear engines are quite a chunk of the remaining weight).

Can all be launched in one piece using only rockomax parts.

Consider modifying with some additional fuel and take this ship to explore the Jool system. Take advantage of aerobraking to conserve fuel to enter orbit in the system. From there, you can plan on using the moons to slingshot around the system, then escape for your return to Kerbal.

[Rune]

My "biggerer, betterer" mammoths are the Medusa class, capable of tugging pretty much anything anywhere:

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Completely modular, the fuel load and engine number can be modified depending on mission design before departure or adjusted on the fly to achieve staged designs for uber-performance. The heatshield is there to look nice (can be ditched), and payloads/laders are hung either on the back (the big unwieldy ones), or on the sides for small payloads (usually SSTO shuttles).

Rune. And some day I promise to take one of these somewhere. There's a Moho launch window coming up finally!

[Camaron]

This reminds me I need to build a new big interplanetary for 0.23.5. I've been so distracted playing with my awesome new Ion crafts.

My usual approach is to build Gigantic, degenerative, but empty ships, then fuel them in space with my insanely oversize Fuel ships.

[Redshift OTF]

You could always lift an interplanetary craft into orbit empty of fuel and then refuel it.

[Blue]

I build my largest interplanetary ships as a single transport unit (which is launched with its tanks dry and then refueled), and then rendezvous the payload(s) into position for departure.

The Philadelphia family of interplanetary ships is about as old as my ownership of a copy of KSP (since late 2011). It has no real maximum payload weight, as long as whatever it is, is balanced. On the launch pad, it weighs a little more than 45 tons empty.

Fully fueled, it has 12000m/s of deltaV when carrying only itself, and 2500m/s when carrying a 100 ton payload.

This is a Philadelpha-V carrying a Tylo lander.

An important feature of its high payload capacity was being able to do quadruple-large port docking.

[Camaron]

You could always lift an interplanetary craft into orbit empty of fuel and then refuel it.

That's literally what I just said.

[theend3r]

Two of my asparagus mothership tugs, overengineered to the max. None of them are assebled in orbit, since the new ARM parts made it possible to lift kilotons of payload to orbit (e.g. this lifter, although I use my own design). The second design is easy to handle, has a good acceleration but is a bit more difficult to get into orbit. Both of them end up as a single tank in the end so I never carry anything useless.

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[Redshift OTF]

That's literally what I just said.

Oops, didn't see. Still it deserves to be said twice!

[ThatNoob]

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This is *supposed* to bring 6 crew and my version of a service module to Duna.

Then again so far it only goes to Minmus because i can't plan my mission correctly.

Needs to be docked together Piece by Piece....

So i HyperEdited it into space.

[Unimatrix]

My pride and joy, Voyager

And the launch:

[Turd]

http://s24.postimg.org/ttgt079dx/screenshot0.png

What the heck are those boosters (grey, white and black) in this picture? I've been looking for the mod that contains them for a while... KW? NovaPunch? I really don't want to have to download all the packs and install separate version of the game just to find them.

[Yamacrane]

What the heck are those boosters (grey, white and black) in this picture? I've been looking for the mod that contains them for a while... KW? NovaPunch? I really don't want to have to download all the packs and install separate version of the game just to find them.

It's the KW pack, those boosters are some of the most powerful things in the pack

[Random Tank]

What the heck are those boosters (grey, white and black) in this picture? I've been looking for the mod that contains them for a while... KW? NovaPunch? I really don't want to have to download all the packs and install separate version of the game just to find them.

Yeah, it's the Thor SRB out of KW: 1590kN of thrust, 5600 units of fuel, I think normal SRB efficieny, weigh 45.5 tons; Gotta love 'em!

Lol, Yamacrane, you not unlocked the bigger 3.75m tanks yet or something? Or do you just like the black ones that much?

[Yamacrane]

oh, i was talking about the SRB, not the black tanks. But I do like the look of them.

[Halsfury]

After some Apollo like missions to atmosphere less places around the solar system, I realized that the Kerbal X could be modified to land on places with an atmosphere, the best thing about it is it is deadly reentry compatible for Duna missions so long as you take a shallow descent path Ap at roughly 50km and Pe at 1km deadly reentry effects are uncommon on Duna

The Nuclear tug I left in orbit has all the fuel for the return and also has all the RCS for docking, once docking is accomplished fuel gets transferred out of the lander and into the Tug and the lander is jettisoned, the whole thing is only 40 tons I think

[Legendary Emu]

This is what my interplanetary ships would like like

IF I HAD ONE!!!