Space Tourism comes to the Kerbal Space Center (VTOL SSTO & Space Hotel)

[psyper]

Elon Kerman and the Space K Korporation invites you to the very first Space Hotel aboard a Single Stage to Orbit passenger transfer craft!

Package includes a tour of the Kerbal Space Centre, a trip on the DreamCatcher - Space K's inaugural VTOL SSTO travelling up to The Sarah-Jane Space Hotel where you will spend 2-weeks travelling at over 5,000 miles an hour 50 miles above Kerbin. In the near future we will be offering this as a gateway to other planets - spend 6 months on Mun or Minmus, spend 4 years on a trip to Duna. Perhaps one day even Laythe. The Possibilities are endless. The skies await you.

I wanted to build a space hotel in LKO complete with a vehicle to get tourists from Kerbin and back. The Hotel is to provide ample room (Hitch-hiker Compartment for two tourists each) and no need for them to use their jetpacks in EVA. At the moment the stock game cannot transfer crew from one capsule to another so a ladder system was needed.

I tried countless times to create an SSTO which will take a hitch-hiker capsule in to low orbit, rendezvous with the hotel and to dock the hitch-hiker capsule to the station with the option of leaving it there so inter-planetary vessels can grab the capsule and take it to wherever it needs to go without the tourists having to even leave the capsule itself. The SSTO then refuels at the station and brings a hitch-hiker capsule back to Kerbal Space Centre where it can refuel and pick up more passengers and take off again. Originally I tried a space plane, over and over and over again. 99% of them ended up as a fireball near the end of the runway or splashing in to the ocean. One the rare occasions I do get one past the island the fuel changes the balance and it flat spins in to the water. Not going to space today. Eventually I hit upon creating a rocket/ssto design which will lift off vertically using jets and use rockets once the atmosphere gets too thin. After about 8 different redesigns I settled on the one you'll see below. This first one is call DreamCatcher and the hotel has room for another to be docked at the same time so I'm going to create a few more so they can be cycled (BlackCat & RabbitsFoot are currently under construction).

Beware this is going to be picture intensive, I was going to put these all in an album but I'll put some of the highlights on their own so I can go through the premier trip with you

Meet Tomler, Hans, Samlin, Nedfry & Sidfred Kerman. They have spent the week at the KSC and its late evening and time for the trip they have eagerly been waiting for (they took like two hundred photos of their tour in the KSC but I didn't think you'd want to see those!). The buggy has come to pick them and their luggage up outside their temporary living quarters ready to take them to the DreamCatcher waiting for them on the launch field outside. (yeah I know we need a better buggy!)

The DreamCatcher having a last minute refuelling and checklist before taking off. Theres one of the engineers doing a final inspection. In Hindsight I really should have renamed the SSTOL BEFORE launch NOT while in orbit but ho-hum.

The sun is setting and its time for one quick photo op before boarding. Really should've pressed F2!

With the sun setting and The Sarah-Jane Space Hotel approaching over the horizon behind us we have lift off!!

Moar Struts, Moar Boasters - now Moar Intakes! Pushing the Periapsis forward before making our gravity turn. I tend to keep it about 9 seconds ahead.

Love this game!

One of the jet engines started to sputter so they all were cut, rockets activated and the air intakes closed. ONWARD!

The hotel was behind us so we did a Hoffman Transfer and moved to a higher orbit to allow it to catch up.

Think our tourists are enjoying the view. Final approach to the hotel.

We have docked. From left to right: Starboard docking port for larger craft and future expansion. Next we have the two parking docking ports for the SSTOs to connect on to once they have dropped off their cargo/hitch-hiker compartments. The next two ports are where the Hitch-hicker compartments sit, these can be stacked but normally there is only 1 on each side. These are connect via ladders to the passenger quarters which is next (top middle). Behind those are the orange fuel storage tanks & liquid fuel only tanks to resupply the SSTO's and interplanetary craft that visit. At the centre of the image we have a large docking port for expansion and at the bottom centre we have the crew quarters and Cupola C&C for the station itself. Tourists can visit this via the ladder system for some stunning views of Kerbin and an insight to the workings of the station. At the far right is the port docking system - 4 normal docking ports and 1 central senior port for large craft. This is provided for servicing the station as well as any other visiting craft - two of the docking ports are accessible via the ladders (one of which has been extended!). In the dark on the senior port is the station tug (rcs and probe body) there in case anything needs moving around! The hotel was named after my Wife who put up with my Kerbal addiction and watches Murder She Wrote in the other room. You always has to name something in your latest game craze after your SO - it goes a long way (Had a planet called Sarah-Jane in OGame when I played it too!)

The back of the hotel showing the fuel tanks and DreamCatcher docked on its parking docking port.

The first brave tourist doing an EVA with the ladder system fully deployed.

The network of ladders enables you to get to both SSTO hitch-hiker compartment docks, the hotel living quarters, the staff and C&C systems and the two port docking ports. There are two living quarter modules connected to the Hotel with options to extend this further.

Solar Panels!

The crew transfer - a full complement of engineers who have just completed working on the hotel are coming back home on the DreamCatcher! Time to redock and bring them back down to Kerbin.

We have separation! Time to check 'control from here' (how many times have I fogotten to check that!) and then homeward bound.

bye bye! One day Mun we'll have a tourist base on you.. one day.

Deorbit Burn. Its just sunrise at the KSC but those city lights look cool.

Sunrise! The air intakes are open and once they start building up air we will switch from the rockets to the jet engines. Not liking that suicide burn countdown mechjeb :/

KSC in sight under the clouds. Keeping the target and my retrograde markers as close as possible for a perfect landing.

want to land near the passenger buggy and fuel tanker

Coming in. Just noticed how much fuel we're bringing back down. Perhaps next time we'll only take enough with a bit of a margin!

Landed. The engineers are finally home leaving the tourists in their place up at the hotel.

For now we'll have to land and take off on the grass field outside KSC until the nice people at the space centre builds us some landing platforms. (Kennedy Space Centre is currently doing something similar so you never know ... Squad?)

But for now there is a more civilized way to launch...

Now if only there was a way up and down from here!..

Many thanks for joining me on my little adventure - now for all the pictures:

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Edited July 12, 2014 by psyper