the XKM project

[Umami]

The XKM Project is finally ready for a release. I give you XKM-7F (the Tourist).

KSP 0.25 Compatible

A heavy SSTO capable of reaching 200km orbit on her own with some wiggle room. After refueling at a station she gets enough dV to travel around quite freely in the Kerbol system. The main vessel can go down to the surface of Duna (only one I tried it on), but to save fuel on multi-visit trips it can separate the control module and land with that, leaving the main engine cluster in orbit.

XKM-7F (the Tourist)

craft file: XKM-7F (stock)

craft file: XKM-7F (mechJeb)

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Action Groups:

1. Toggle KR-2L

2. Toggle LV-N Atomic Rocket

3. Toggle Gimbal (KR-2L)

4. Toggle Rockomax 48-7S (Pod)

5. Undock Pod

9. Toggle Mk2 Light (Pod)

0. Toggle Mk1 Light (Pod)

Career Mode:

The XKM-7F does cost a fair bit. Somewhere around 350,000 funds. But with that price tag you get to fly around the Kerbol system in style. If you have a SSTO refueling craft once you get "the Tourist" in orbit you have very low flight costs. Fully capable of landing safely back on Kerbin if needed.

Background:

The first idea to start developing this was after I got into the SSTOs in the world (the real one). My favorite of them all is the Japanese Kankoh-Maru which has since been the inspiration of the project. I am not looking at this as a replica. It is inspiration for some functional sci-fi-looking stock vessels.

This is the first version out of the XKM project that I am proud to share with you. It will not be the last. Development continues as usual in the XKM workshop.

Where the project is headed now I don't really know. I have an idea of add-on's to the existing version, maybe a dock-able dV/twr boosters for the XKM-Pod or try to incorporate a rover in this. I would be more than happy for some ideas/feedback on the project.

I will post the development log from the project shortly but if you are interested you can look in the Work-in-Progress [WIP] Design Thread now as I used that to get feedback on development before there was a release-worthy version.

Edited December 13, 2014 by Umami
"What's next" section

[Claw]

I was following your progress on the other thread. This came out great!

[Umami]

It doesn't look to be that much different in between 7E and 7F but I completely remade the main body to reduce part count and to make fuel flow better. Turned out that inside the 7E there was old lunch boxes and pictures of weird looking green chicks with really big eyes.

[Umami]

XKM-5 series.

I started to toy around with the concept that no engines visible on the outside of the craft and after lots of different designs I got one that worked. Main problems was overheat causing the main engine cluster to explode. Tried out versions with landing gear but the weight was too much so that has not been an option for later versions.

At that point I had gone through 4 different designs and was now up to no. 5 so this became XKM-5. It was a hybrid SSTO with the main power from aerospikes and support from turbojets. The design worked really well when it came to getting into LKO. The vision grew a little and I wanted to reach the stars. This is why XKM-5 series is the only one with air breathing engines inside the main vessel. The XKM-5 series had 8 TurboJet engines, 16 Aerospike rockets and 8 LV-N rockets. I did explor the KR-2L option but overheats resulting in explosions and the first death of Jeb made me put that idea on the shelf for now. The turbojets on the 5-series forced a power-up on them for about 10 sec. before igniting the other engines so the TWR came above 1. That was a bit frustrating when doing test launch after test launch.

For the 5-series the LOSS (Lift-Off Support System) was born. There has been very little development since but as the XKM engineering crew is now focused on the further development of the XKM-7F there might be a LOSS that works with the 7-series soon.

The 5-series

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Edited June 3, 2014 by Umami

[The Destroyer]

This is... beautiful! Damn amazing!

[Umami]

This is... beautiful! Damn amazing!

Thanks, lots of design ideas came from the Work-in-Progress [WIP] Design Thread. It has been really helpful to figure things out. That whole thread is worth going through for all builders.

[Umami]

XKM-7B

After the 5-series I started to work on the 6-series. I never manage to get that series of the concrete due to design issues similar to what I had seen in the 1-4 series. I decided to start from scratch with the 7-series and the first working version was the 7B. I finally manage to build an in-house engine cluster with the KR-2L that didn't end in a big fireball. I also widen the base of the vessel to help with landing.

The tricky thing with the 7-series had always been the symmetry. All the way up to 7E the 7-series is not round. By putting all the stuff needed inside it clutters up places to put the outer fuel tanks. I solved this by putting them in a 2-2-2 configuration. That solved one problem but caused others, especially fuel flow which have been the 7-series major problem until the 7F that has a different setup.

The 7B is the vessel I have done most of my test flight with. Very useful in the further development of the 7-series.

XKM-7B

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[9t3ndo]

finally it's out for download

really great craft, i following your progress too

[guz667]

Very cool, lovin' it! I like the solution you have to the awkwardness of the Mk3 cockpit, to double up. Very nice.

[Lohan2008]

very nice design, looks "sleek"

[jmiki8]

Lovely! The best thing is that it isn't the 129812315th rocket, but a new, interesting and unusual SSTO design!

[Spica]

So, when I download this rocket, i have all the necessary mods installed, and am in a sandbox save.

However, it says that the vessel contains locked or invalid parts.

Help would be greatly appreciated in solving this problem.

Thanks

Spica

[Umami]

So, when I download this rocket, i have all the necessary mods installed, and am in a sandbox save.

However, it says that the vessel contains locked or invalid parts.

Help would be greatly appreciated in solving this problem.

Thanks

Spica

Is it stock or mechJeb? If it is mechJeb I guess that it have to be the same version of it. I just started a new sandbox and got the vessels from my google drive at that works fine. I use mechJeb 2.2.1. Does anyone else have problems with the craft file or have any idea why Spica has issues with it?

[Spica]

I used the stock version, so i have no idea what is wrong...

Ill validate my game cache later today to see of I am missing any stock parts.

EDIT: SOLVED

While nuking mods, I accidentally deleted the NASAmission folder, which has the 3.75m parts.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Spica
PROBLEM SOLVED

[Exothermos]

Like others have stated, I really like how "new" this feels. Great Job!

[Umami]

I am currently working on a dockable attachment to the XKM-Pod. First of if making it possible to land on Laythe but the goal of the attachment is to be able to land on Tylo. Maybe I set the goal a little high for this type of design but I want to know if it is possible. I will add XKM-Pod attachments as subassembly. Current status is testing on Kerbin and it is looking promising. The XKM-Pod lacks parachutes so landing successfully with attachement require some breaking just before the chutes on the attachment fully deploy. Otherwise the g-force is to great and everything ends in explosions.

Work is being done on the pod itself to make it possible without an attachment to land on Laythe and the attachment will focus on Tylo. I have this idea to have the XKM project pull of Jool-5. Obviously it doesn't qualify with the rules of the official Jool-5 challenge but the concept would still be the same.

[MinorInconvenience]

Umami:

Your craft is truly a thing of beauty. However, I am having a great deal of trouble getting into orbit with it (I am a complete noob, sorry). It seems like I need to have both the rockets and nukes going to get anywhere, but I thought the nuke engines are best for space and not atmo. I didn't see it anywhere, but what is the ascent profile for this baby? When do you activate the various engines. Sorry if this is a stupid question. And anyone else who knows, please feel free to answer. Many thanks.

[Umami]

at launch both engine types should be activated. you are completely right, nukes works best in space (vacuum) but they get a reasonable isp at around 500-1000m so it doesn't really matter that much. get the vessel up to about 8-9k meters and start the gravity turn. when Ap have reached 100k turn of the conventional rockets (KR-2L) and circularize with the nukes.

[MinorInconvenience]

Thanks for the reply. I'm going to try it out tonight.

[Umami]

Now successfully tested with KSP 0.25.