Eagle MkIII. Now upgraded with sexiness and a surface base!

[Rune]

This has been previewed elsewhere, so it may not surprise you folks much, but I am very proud of it, so here you (finally) go. A not very faithful replica of the Eagle moon lander from Space:1999. It looks too sci-fi to work, but I cheat nothing: all clipping is strictly aesthetic, (no fuel tank is inside another fuel tank, no stacked engines, just two sets of rockets and a moderate delta-v goal). In fact, this is the third time I go about making a similar replica. I remember the first one, back them docking was kinda new and there were no structural panels. Or reaction wheels, which made balancing it... interesting . The new model, however, is light years beyond it, and actually manages to both look much cooler and actually do useful work by some (admittedly broad) definitions. Look at it fly, ain't it gorgeous?

But other than looking good, what does it do, you say? Well, it builds this:

That's Farside base, assembled from two launches, a single Eagle with a pressurised rover (standard payload on the provided file) to scout the place and start things up, and an extra module pack launch that the Eagle lowered to the surface to build the 4-module outpost. In total, I burned through a couple of orange tanks to land the whole thing and assemble it, but the Eagle design has been certified to land 20mT on the surface of Mun directly from the launchpad, then going back up to either munar or LKO orbit to be refuelled (and good luck fitting more than 20mT of payload on the bay).

So, what about the base then? Well, it's a modification of my earlier surface base so everything fits in a much tighter package. In fact, I hid everything under the fairings of one of my 50mT "Longstrider" General Lifters, and with careful flying I was able to launch the base to Mun in a single go, without refuelling or using tugs or anything (it arrived to lunar orbit with fumes, but the Eagle and a supply station awaited there to replenish consumables). If you wanted to take it further, an eagle could grab the whole thing by the rear and add nuke-like isp to ferry the modules to other, further away moons with similar gravity to Mun. One of this packs is en route to Moho in my save, actually...

There you have it, a hab module, a fuel dump, a lab module, and the hub that connects it all together, plus the construction rover and two passageways to connect the stuff in a cool way (I recommend using KAS and editing the grab-able parts to include the landing gear so you can get rid of the excess after construction, if you don't know how ask and I will tell you). The possible configurations are pretty much endless if you mix and match modules, and I recommend tinkering with the mix of modules you put in the launcher: right now a 6-hub bundle is going to Minmus to see about building an hexagonal node I can stick habs and fuel modules to, in order to create what I hope will be a very cool base near the monolith. I will tell you guys when it's built!

A final, important note on the payload bay:

As you can see, half an orange tank with Sr. docking ports capping it just about fits in there, docking on both sides on load for an incredibly rigid connection. It is good to stick to that size (lab modules are the same length, incidentally), and if you have troubles adjusting your custom modules to fit, remember the smallest probes are great fine length adjusters by turning part clipping on and sinking them in parts. Another tip is to make them slightly shorter, and building them so they hang form the top one: gravity will let it fall slightly on the pad upon loading, and the other port will dock. Right now in the file you download, the bay has a pressurised rover with full science complement that is actually only joined through the cupola to the Eagle, and the rear Sr. docking port engages on the pad. So if you don't want to mess with building, you can skip this section, not grab the Base Pack file, and use the Eagle as a rover delivery ship with one use. That's boring IMO, though, but you can check it out that way and see if you want to do more with it.

Also, the downwards-facing central docking port (standard size) can become a bit unstable if you hang very heavy things just form there (it's medium size and those are notoriously wobbly), so if you don't use KAS struts or something similar to secure cargo, take care with how you sling your loads, and prefer to have something only connected to one of the horizontal docking ports rather than hanging from just the middle unless it's a very light load: the Eagle can take very unbalanced loads thanks to excess control authority, but if a heavy payload is swinging all around the payload bay, you are going to have a very "interesting" landing. Take especial care to disable all torque-producing sources in the bay so the don't contribute to instabilities!

Doable, though, I've landed development versions with >20º swings every second or so around the vertical axis when the engines where full on because the docking port was unstrutted and I had forgot to turn off the torque generators on the payload... certainly interesting! I have taken great care to mitigate the effect as much I could for release, though, so now you should get very smooth rides with all kinds of payloads. The side docking ports are actually universal, BTW not just Sr, you can also dock medium ports in there so you have more flexibility in securing your payload firm.

Docking cargo, as you can't see, isn't the easiest thing to do, but the ship is quite agile and balanced on RCS, so that is left as an exercise to the reader, so the reader gets very good at flying with a bit of effort

Launch notes:

To launch, you use a conventional rocket, so no big surprises there, you can look at the album. The core should be ditched at almost-orbital velocities, to finish circularization on the nukes. All in-space maneuvering and the beginning of the landing should be performed on nukes. In fact, for Mun, nukes have enough T/W to do the whole landing, but terminal hover and touchdown are best done the proper way, with the high T/W chemical engines. Be sure to switch control to the conveniently placed docking port on top so the navball makes sense for VTOL flight to ease things, and check out the action groups to know how to handle all of the systems (landing gear, for example, is not mapped to G to prevent RUDs caused by payloads extending legs).

IMGUR ALBUM:

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DOWNLOADS:

Eagle MkIII

Eagle Base Pack

Rune. Who will give this complex build a try? Please post screenies here if you do!

Edited June 11, 2014 by Rune

[Dodgey]

That looks really good, nice work.

[Cupcake...]

Love the dropship! Great work.

Cupcake...

[BlackSheep]

Impressive work, realy nice design of the Dropship

may i ask how you deploy that baseparts on the mun?

Your dropship delivers them horizontal - but in the pictures your modules are standing upright (verticaly) how do you manage that?

best regards

[Rune]

Thanks guys! I knew you would appreciate a good old chemical VTOL cupcake. Even if this one has two main axis of thrust (high T/W chemical and low T/W nuclear), I'm sure you can appreciate the balance achieved on each of the two axis: those reaction wheels are there to handle unbalanced payloads, you don't really need them with an empty bay.

Rune. I will probably add more pictures of the Minmus base build, too, so you can get a better feel for base configurations.

[ndiver]

A really cool package, i will try it. The different elements appear to be really well designed when i see your pictures

[Comrade Jenkens]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Rune again.

You have my rep in spirit.

[Rune]

Glad to see you guys are liking it!

Impressive work, realy nice design of the Dropship

may i ask how you deploy that baseparts on the mun?

Your dropship delivers them horizontal - but in the pictures your modules are standing upright (verticaly) how do you manage that?

best regards

Hey, I didn't see that! Well, it varies, but it is a very good question. The big ones are delivered horizontal, yes, and you can see them in the album. The habs, though, didn't make much sense to drop horizontally (read: I had no idea how to erect them afterwards) so they have a docking port on top to hang in the bay so once you drop them, it's just liftoff and lowering the legs to move the construction rover underneath. The only tricky part is the node and the connecting tubes. Those I have found out, is best to assemble in orbit and drop together. Look at this overloaded beast of burden ferrying modules around the kerbin system to give you an idea of how to pack things (notice the tubes sticking out on both sides):

Note how you could attach drop tanks on the rear to give this however much range you want, that's intentional. But the important thing is, you drop the ship with everything on the bay in there. First you drop the rover, that can right itself on RCS and I think that is self-evident (it's also a nice tug to move the tubes around in orbit). Then you drop the cupola node with the two connector tubes, and chances are it will roll the wrong way and end up belly up. But don't worry! The cupola has the highest torque rating in the game, and there are additional reaction wheels on the tubes, so righting it up is pretty much trivial. You have to take much more care not to tip the other modules, those are a pain in the ass to right up. Though it can be done, using both the pressurised rover and the construction one (use one as a wall, push with the other, it works). Of course, this is all at Mun-like gravity conditions, but considering you only have the delta-v to drop modules and go back to orbit there,or at similar places... I will figure out something for Duna if there are enough requests

You have my rep in spirit.

Haha, that happens a lot to me too!

A really cool package, i will try it. The different elements appear to be really well designed when i see your pictures

Thanks! And if you get positive results, feel free to drop a screenie here so we can see your exploits!

Rune. The guys at R-SUV like postcards every now and then.

Edited June 12, 2014 by Rune

[Rune]

I've been fiddling around with this a bit, and you know what? The launcher may be an optional thing after all... Keep you posted!

Rune. Airbreathers are so OP.

[ScriptKitt3h]

I've been fiddling around with this a bit, and you know what? The launcher may be an optional thing after all... Keep you posted!

Rune. Airbreathers are so OP.

Darn, you somehow read my mind, since I've been working on a SSTO dropship....

Time to see who completes first!

[Rune]

Darn, you somehow read my mind, since I've been working on a SSTO dropship....

Time to see who completes first!

I'm kind of in final testing (KER is useless for this kind of thing), so good luck indeed

Edit: Well, it makes orbit. I had to sip into the payload's fuel on the final nuclear burn for the last 200m/s or so, but that's less than 200 units of liquid fuel/oxi. And surprisingly even on fuel/oxi levels, I run out of both at the same time before allowing fuel from form the payload (did I tell you that's a thing? the docking ports draw fuel correctly, even tough they are universal!). Then again, that is the old maximum payload, and then some, so it should handle everything the old one did, only this time for Kerbin and Laythe too.

Rune. The only thing on your side is my laziness in uploading things ^^'

Edited June 22, 2014 by Rune

[WooDzor]

^^ AWYEAH

[inigma]

This would look great on the SSI DMP Server. Want to put it up there?

[ScriptKitt3h]

I'm kind of in final testing (KER is useless for this kind of thing), so good luck indeed

http://i.imgur.com/qMowK6t.png

Edit: Well, it makes orbit. I had to sip into the payload's fuel on the final nuclear burn for the last 200m/s or so, but that's less than 200 units of liquid fuel/oxi. And surprisingly even on fuel/oxi levels, I run out of both at the same time before allowing fuel from form the payload (did I tell you that's a thing? the docking ports draw fuel correctly, even tough they are universal!). Then again, that is the old maximum payload, and then some, so it should handle everything the old one did, only this time for Kerbin and Laythe too.

Rune. The only thing on your side is my laziness in uploading things ^^'

Oh well... at least once we both upload we can race 'em.