Contract Solutions (stock plus Fine Print Mod)

[psyper]

I thought about doing a thread on what different and interesting ships that we use to solve the different contracts - SSTO's to rescue kerbals, mun bases, space stations etc.

Each post will basically be a showcase of each ship you use for each type of mission - so if you rescue kerbals with a particular ship then state what the mission is and what ship you used for it and how/why you come up with it if you like.

PS I use the Fine Print Mod so I'm not really sure where the stock contracts end and the Fine Print ones start!!

[Alshain]

How to rescue a Kerbal as cheap as I could figure out. (this is an SSTO)

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[psyper]

Build a new planetary base for this agency that can support eight kerbals on the surface of the mun

Build a land base that has power, an antenna, and a docking port.

Have a facility supporting at least eight kerbals.

Have a viewing cupola at the facility.

Have a research lab at the facility.

Cost around: 35,370 just for the base itself without taking in account of the launcher, fuel and transport to Mun!

Testing it out on the runway before launching it - it has a sr docking port at one end for the rocket launch and transport and another docking port on top for a ship to deploy it.

Edited September 2, 2014 by psyper

[psyper]

How to rescue a Kerbal as cheap as I could figure out. (this is an SSTO)

Snipped by my own first post!

Thats small!! I'm surprised it got in to orbit!

[Redd]

I didn't exactly go for cost-efficient, but more for time efficient Kerbal rescues and ended up with a few of these in orbit. In retrospect, it's a bit of a silly solution. lol

[psyper]

Perform aerial surveys of kerbin at an altitude of x to y

&

Chart source of data anomaly near site x on Kerbin with a rover.

I've got loads of these so decided that a dedicated ship would be ideal - it had to stow a rover with it. I am terrible at planes so went for a vtol which has just air breathing engines. It has a top speed of over 2km/s and atmosphere ceiling of around 25km. It can pretty much circumnavigate kerbin while picking off aerial surveys and dropping the rover in to landing zones for closer inspections. I'm my save I see all these contracts as black ops (putting all those satellites in orbit - spy sats from suspicious companies that don't really exist - but they pay the rent so..).

Oh did i mention the sinister red lights - yeah that just screams dropping in to the middle of nowhere with nightvision goggles on.

Both craft and buggy support two people and the buggy is stowed underneath with enough clearance to drop from the craft and for the magnetics to kick in and then the landing legs can be raised and drop the ship on to the buggy. Occasionally the terrain is a little uneven but turning on the jets at a low power is enough to raise the ship for the docking ports to engage.

Ship fully fuelled and buggy costs

86,368.0

I even managed to send one version of this on 3 contracts (two aerial and one buggy) and get it home to ksc with some fuel and plenty of snacks left over! I'm planning on keeping one going by returning it to base after each mission and refuelling it via KAS and send it on its next mission keeping tally of its costs and income. However, I do have a funny engine problem where one would randomly start malfunctioning - I've ruled out intake air starvation as its low atmosphere and seems to be the same engine each time... oh hum.

[psyper]

I didn't exactly go for cost-efficient, but more for time efficient Kerbal rescues and ended up with a few of these in orbit. In retrospect, it's a bit of a silly solution. lol

Thats actually quite a cool solution - tie it in with a spacestation contract and you have rescue pods ready and waiting. I did a similar thing with satellites - I had 4 contracts to put 4 different satellites in to orbit so just created one rocket with 4 sats sticking out the sides (I'll post that later)

[merendel]

How to rescue a Kerbal as cheap as I could figure out. (this is an SSTO)

Rofl seriously Dr Strangelove and major Kong were the first thing that poped into my head when I saw that.

and for those that dont get the reference here is a youtube link so you can educate yourselves

[Redd]

Thats actually quite a cool solution - tie it in with a spacestation contract and you have rescue pods ready and waiting. I did a similar thing with satellites - I had 4 contracts to put 4 different satellites in to orbit so just created one rocket with 4 sats sticking out the sides (I'll post that later)

I haven't seen any space station contracts, so I think that may have just crossed that invisible line into Fine Print Mod heheh. Waiting to see that four-satelite craft, that VTOL plane looks pretty awesome!

[tater]

I sent this station part up with rescue pods. There was an inverted quad with a nosecone on top, hence the separators in the bottom of the pods (because I like rockets to look at least sorta like a rocket). I will later attach it to my station hub, and refill the pod storage if needed. This are minimalistic pods, without enough fuel to really rescue on their own. Replacements will be brought from the station to the kerbals via a tug docked at the station. Unmodded, so far.

[SpacedCowboy]

psyper, your Lander Hopper 1 is one sweet ship. Just wanted to let you know that I am sooo stealing that design!

[juanml82]

Here's my mobile base, scaling the Mun's crater to dock with another existing similar module

Here's a mobile base (the same of the previous picture) with two smallish rovers to complete rover contracts on the Mun and the booster to land it. The same rovers can be used on Kerbin, it's just a matter of using a booster to put them in a suborbital trajectory and adjusting the landing. The rover's 48-7s is enough to reach suborbital altitudes at Minmus and return to a Kethane/Karbonite refueling station, but I don't think it has enough delta-v for recovery in the Mun, let alone Kerbin

Here's half of my ever growing Minmus base, featuring an ion powered light utility vehicle docked to the base, a KAS stuff delivery rover and a larger ion lander/rover which isn't really economical. Not pictured: one of the smallish rovers from the previous pic and the kethane/karbonite combo miner/converter

I recently developed this as a general purpose rover/lander with the capability to do science, but it seems overkill for just the rover contracts

This is a combination of karbonite/kethane mining rig, base and karbonite tug. The mining base doesn't have empty fuel tanks for storing karbonite or kethane, so it requires docking (good luck with that) or using KAS pipes to extract and convert the stuff. I'm not entirely sure that would be a lag/bug free experience though

This is my Kerbal rescuer, which I also use for the aerial survey contracts. I can't possibly complete a single aerial survey contract in one go, though. It has two turbojets and four 48-7s and gets to orbit rather fast for a spaceplane

I've been toying with SP+ for satellites, space stations and bases. Instead of a proper station, use a spaceplane with crew cabins. Instead of a base, land that same thing and then take it off again. But I haven't been too successful. I can put satellites in orbit using the cargo bay. My passenger planes do reach Kerbin orbit, but they tend to require refueling to go elsewhere. And I don't really stand the long ascend times of heavier spaceplanes, so I'm going to retort to using rockets with stacked hitchhiker modules for those missions.

[magnemoe]

I didn't exactly go for cost-efficient, but more for time efficient Kerbal rescues and ended up with a few of these in orbit. In retrospect, it's a bit of a silly solution. lol

http://i.imgur.com/aEqR75W.jpg

Not so bad, I use something simlar however I use an 48-7S two life belt fuel tank, power and mechjeb, lift up too 4 with an ssto plane, fewer if I also test some components.

Rocket launches like you do also work well, I would however have used less fuel, an 45 liter tank and a 48-7S is more than enough, im a bit low on fuel but do it to stack more in the fuel cargo bay.

[Alshain]

Snipped by my own first post!

Thats small!! I'm surprised it got in to orbit!

It barely did and that was using NEAR so I'm not sure it would in stock.

[psyper]

*snip*

Those bases are looking pretty cool but I saw this and the perspective makes the kerbal seem really big - couldn't help thinking that either the kerbal is having fun playing with his toy minmus base on minmus or he's just looking at it thinking - is this a minmus base for ants!?

Edited September 3, 2014 by psyper

[psyper]

psyper, your Lander Hopper 1 is one sweet ship. Just wanted to let you know that I am sooo stealing that design!

I can do you one better - I can provide the craft file when I get home. Its been renamed to Raptor since the build. She flies okay most of the time but can get a bit hairtrigger on sharp angles of attack. Also she seems to have a habit of one random engine cutting out for no reason (low level low speed flight) and it'll be the same random engine on every reload. It'll be fine for a few missions and then suddenly start playing up. If you can figure out what is causing it that would be awesome!

Its based on my SSTO from my old sandbox game:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/85713-Space-Tourism-comes-to-the-Kerbal-Space-Center-%28VTOL-SSTO-Space-Hotel%29

[Redd]

Not so bad, I use something simlar however I use an 48-7S two life belt fuel tank, power and mechjeb, lift up too 4 with an ssto plane, fewer if I also test some components.

Rocket launches like you do also work well, I would however have used less fuel, an 45 liter tank and a 48-7S is more than enough, im a bit low on fuel but do it to stack more in the fuel cargo bay.

Would love to see it! I'm terrible at efficient designs and terrible at anything that isn't a rocket that goes straight up. Would love to get some ideas on how to improve it.

[psyper]

Link to my craft page for Raptor 1 if anyone is still interested:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8S2KVucoU9cWG1vSDNVNHZ5VTQ&usp=sharing

[psyper]

I haven't seen any space station contracts, so I think that may have just crossed that invisible line into Fine Print Mod heheh. Waiting to see that four-satelite craft, that VTOL plane looks pretty awesome!

4 sats and the first part of a spacestation that was requested by fine print. Each of the satellites have one science equipment on them in the photo but that can be swapped out as the contract requires.

[SpacedCowboy]

Link to my craft page for Raptor 1 if anyone is still interested:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8S2KVucoU9cWG1vSDNVNHZ5VTQ&usp=sharing

Oh yeah, you know I'm interested! Thanks so much. I've been trying to duplicate it with mediocre success. Having a problem with the height of the rover off the ground, really hard to eyeball it to get it just right. Anyways, I've got the "real thing" to play with now. I'll mess around with it and see if I can figure out that engine problem. Thanks again!

[Vanamonde]

This exchange of spacecraft has been moved to the Spacecraft Exchange.

[psyper]

Oh yeah, you know I'm interested! Thanks so much. I've been trying to duplicate it with mediocre success. Having a problem with the height of the rover off the ground, really hard to eyeball it to get it just right. Anyways, I've got the "real thing" to play with now. I'll mess around with it and see if I can figure out that engine problem. Thanks again!

I'm tempted to install a robotics mod just so I can have the landing legs on a rail system - but depending on the terrain you either have to get the buggy underneath the docking port and wait for the magnetics to stop rocking it and then drop the ship on it OR you have to switch to the ship - set the thrust at 1/4, switch back to the buggy and wait for the thrust to raise the ship up a touch to move the buggy underneath and cut the power.

[Mesklin]

Low tech SSTO for rescue kerbals from orbit: 1 basic jet + four 47-8S, on orbit has ~500 m/s of dV. Fuel cost only 523 and craft cost is 18543

Edited September 4, 2014 by Mesklin

[psyper]

Testing engines the kerbal way:

strut some rockets to the side of it and let it go!

[StrandedonEarth]

Testing engines the kerbal way:

strut some rockets to the side of it and let it go!

http://i.imgur.com/kK901vQ.png

I used a similar system with a strap-on sub-assembly. Not going fast enough in the altitude window? MOAR BOOSTERS!

I recently kludged up the ....... hybrid offspring of a rover and a spaceplane, for those rover waypoint missions around Kerbin. It flew, and drove, well enough to complete the mission, and should be space-capable. Now if I can only figure out how to get it to Laythe!

Edit: And then there's this monstrosity, built to test the cluster engine and stack separator landed on the Mun. It needed more struts; that probably would have prevented a nasty spin every time I throttled up. I could compensate for it right up until landing (ever land while spinning around the vertical axis?), when it tipped over and broke the separator, but the main engine test was still successful. He's still there.

Edited September 5, 2014 by StrandedonEarth