Show me your assembled-in-orbit motherships

[Callmedave]

Im planning on undertaking a Duna-Lander-return mission with an in-orbit assembled craft, with a lander craft, fuel tank, tug, with a return to kerbin (probably part of the lander)

I would like to see your interplanetary craft that you have assembled in orbit, along with the pros and cons of your designs.

Im running this in career so may pack a science lab and visit Dunas moon in the same mission for extra science!

I have a fairly nifty little Minmus lander science! module, that i think could be adapted for a Duna landing and take-off.

[Kasuha]

This is what I used to use for flying around the system. Each fuel tank is individually droppable, there's a small RCS probe tug to move parts around and the unit with engines is a lander and interplanetary engine in one. With exception of Eve, Laythe, and Tylo, it can go to any body in the system, land (leaving the tug and fuel tanks in orbit), and return to Kerbin. There are two drogues and four main chutes on top of LV-Ns so it can land on Duna easily (with just a bit of thrust to brake before touchdown) and LV-Ns are good enough to get it back to orbit.

To get to Duna and back, you need only to send it with one tank, not three.

Pros: simple design, relatively easy to extend, many parts can be added (later I made Tylo and Laythe landers and a rover unit that can be sent down with the lander as well.

Cons:

- relatively small thrust, interplanetary transfers take long and require corrections (can be fixed by adding extra interplanetary engine modules)

- space for two Kerbals only (but you can add habitat module with more place)

- no science parts (but you can add science modules easily)

I did the Jool-5 challenge with this design.

Edited April 28, 2014 by Kasuha

[rtxoff]

nice design, looks very efficient...

[Callmedave]

Thanks, i had a similar idea in my head,

Looks nice,

I will start work on a design soon.

Ive got this crazy idea of using boosters to take off from Duna, I know its not efficient as im wasting fuel just getting them to Duna surface, but ive never seen it done before and i like the idea.

Edited April 28, 2014 by Callmedave

[DrMonte]

Duna is not so far far away. Don't be overexcited by extremely huge ships.

Orange tank in space is never an efficient design. Though beauty is never about efficiency.

[Callmedave]

Duna is not so far far away. Don't be overexcited by extremely huge ships.

Orange tank in space is never an efficient design. Though beauty is never about efficiency.

I know, I got a science probe to orbit Duna with terrible phase timing and plenty of fuel left over, But i want to undertake the mission using this method.

[SSSPutnik]

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OK, maybe over the top. Two landers and two tugs. Tylo capable.

Take you anywhere.

#12 shows completed ship.

[Red Iron Crown]

SSSputnik, that ship is gorgeous! Are those Lackluster Labs parts?

[Dkmdlb]

I give you the Rothbard II:

4 probes, 4 landers, crew of 7. It burned all the fuel in the rear tank to get to Jool. My only complaint was that the high part count made it difficult to operate. But once the probes were deployed, it was much more manageable. If I had to do it all again, I'd bring a lot less fuel. I had probably 33% too much.

[SSSPutnik]

SSSputnik, that ship is gorgeous! Are those Lackluster Labs parts?

Thanks. Yes, KW, LLL and stock.

[ArmchairGravy]

This is what I used for my manned Jool mission: Project Big Pig

I have become a firm believer in orbital assembly of modular components. Habitat/science module, lander module, and drive/fuel modules. Mix and match for the mission. Since I recently installed ScanSat I'm also working on a probe module. Going with modular assembly has enabled me to do missions I would never be able to do without it.

[theend3r]

Ok, I didn't want to post at first, since Kasuha's ship is pretty much ideal for the OP but since you started pulling out the big guns...

Two of my asparagus mothership tugs, overengineered to the max. None of them are assembled 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 first orange design used to be assembled from three parts and seeing as it has both a lander and an unflippable rover attached, it should qualify.

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Pros:

Can go to Eeloo and back even with an inefficient transfer and still has fuel to spare

The weight of your payload doesn't matter

...may pack a science lab and visit Dunas moon in the same mission, have a fairly nifty little Minmus lander... - no problem

Efficient - the first has 8 stages (redocking required), the second has 6 stages (no redocking)

Cons:

Extremely heavy

Difficult to stage - needs docking to remove the middle parts, a pain during burns (the orange version, ARM version is easy)

Long burns (again, ARM version has pretty nice accel.)

The second design is easy to handle, has a good acceleration but is less efficient and a bit more difficult to get into orbit. Doubles up as a refueller.

Edited April 28, 2014 by theend3r

[TheOrqwithVagrant]

My very first in-orbit constructed mothership, the "KSV A Return to Order" (so named for being a focused effort following a particularly chaotic/anarchic era of Kerbin's space program). I can't even remember how long it took me to fully deck it out. Refuelling that beast was a project in itself - after docking multiple 500-ton refuellers to a 1000+ part ship at 3fps or so a few times, I am permanently a docking and rendez-vouz ninja. I don't think I'll ever build anything in KSP for which I'll have this much sentimental attachment. This was in 0.19, just in case anyone wonders. I haven't built anything of this "class" lately, as I'm playing with RSS/RO now, and building something of this magnitude with "Real-life" constraints will be challenging to say the least - I'm still re-learning the ropes.

[James_Eh]

I did the Jool-5 challenge with this design.

Where did you hide the other 17 orange tanks??

[KerikBalm]

Hmm, I don't have any pictures of the completed thing, but here is the SSTO launching part 1 of my duna mission:

part 2 was extra fuel (for repeated lander ascents) and a lab module. I then did similar launches to put together a laythe mission.

I'm not sure if my Eve mission counts (also no pictures), the massive lander was obviously 1 peice, launched by a massive asparagus launcher.

The core stage of the asparagus had docking ports, so I could jsut refuel it, instead of ejecting it and docking an IP stage - but the mission still required in orbit refueling before it could depart for Eve.

And there was another orbital rendevous where two separate ships again joined, but that was in orbit of eve, the Eve->Kerbin stage was launched as a separate ship altogether, and only met up with the return "ship" (actually a probe core with 2 command seats) at Eve.

But since then, I've developed heavier lifters, so far I haven't had motivation to do orbital assembly:

over 77 tons into orbit:

and the lifter still had 22 tons of rocket fuel remaining:

(the payload is slightly modded, the SSTO lifter is all stock)

I'm thinking about adding a 2nd, winged science lab to go down to laythe(the first one is intended as an extra hab space for RP reasons), so I may do an orbital rendevous ot add on to it (it seems a bit difficult to fit it into the payload space, and get the CoM right). Also, the command pod is detachable, and for mission #2, in addition to refueling it, it will need to be fitted with a new command pod (as I intend the original one to reenter, rather than using a separate ship to ferry the crew back to kerbin with science - note the gap between the command pod and the hitchiker lab- its because the command pod is meant to be swapped out for other stuff).

Its burns are also rather long, so I may fit some extra LV-Ns on to the aft docking port for mission #2 - currently that port is occupied by the laythe lander, but that will be left in Laythe orbit, and the ship thus will have 2 free docking ports to add stuff to for mission #2.

As I need to do a rendevous anyway to refuel it, I may just turn it into something that qualifies for this thread.

[technion]

I took this on a Jool 5 tour.

[technion]

Where did you hide the other 17 orange tanks??

With one LV-N on each of them? How the heck did you ever get the patience to fly that anywhere?

[Vanamonde]

I am in the process of updating these designs to use the ARM parts, but here are the well-tested versions.

[bsalis]

Sort of a mother-ship, I assembled these 4 vessels in LKO in order to ship 'em to Laythe together. One tug up front and three surface fuel tankers...

[RocketPilot573]

Here's my ship, currently heading for Eve and Gilly. With 3 big boosters strapped on the side it was able to get to Moho and back.