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A different way to land on the Mun.


lolstock

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I got a little bored with typical Mun-landers (also after my computer decided it didn't want to run EPL) and this was the result. It doesn't have a name, but the SPS abbreviation comes from "small personal shuttle". This line of crafts was originally designated as space station escape craft (and plane capability after reentry), but due to plentiful dV I began to use it as an SSTO for single crew transfer to my space stations. In it's new form (Mark 4), it has been bundled with a vertical launcher (not unlike the X-37) and a transfer stage, giving it a total of 10k dV, plus a large amount more for atmospheric flight. I obviously decided to land it on the Mun. Take a look in the following album (which is slightly pic-heavy sorry)!

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Mods used:

Procedural Parts

Procedural Fairings

MJ

Burn Together (I launched four of these to my space station in formation... if I can figure out how to do video recording I'll upload it! It was one of the coolest things I've done - diamond formation all the way from runway to space station.)

KW Rocketry

Flight profile:

Auto launch with MJ. G-turn start 1km end at 80km.

Desired Orbital height - 250km.

As apoapsis hits 250km, discard fairings and launch stage.

Ignite transfer stage (the launch stage had some dV left, but we ditched it to raise our transfer stage dV for Mun landing. the transfer stage is used fro landing on the moon.)

Go to the mun and do whatever you want.

Leave mun.

Place periapsis in atmosphere. (I did 34km)

Enter like the Space Shuttle. I pointed my nose at ~8 degrees above prograde upon entering the atmosphere, and barely even touched it. Worked out fine.

Land. (too bad I cocked that one up though.)

Craft File: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pmegko6t65nnjcp/SPS-4m.craft?dl=0

Edited by lolstock
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Hey that's actually pretty awesome, I don't know if I've seen anyone land a rocket on the mun and take off with a plane. You should try to make a version that would work in RSS! You'd probably need another rocket stage behind the spaceplane though unless you made it way bigger. But that kinda defeats the purpose of a personal spaceplane.

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Thank you! Yeah I've been slowly making an RSS one, but the lander stage is like 5m across which... complicates things.

And I've never seen the Lunex before that thing is awesome. Maybe I can make that one in RSS ha. It's so convenient to be able to land with a plane when you get back to Kerbin.

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Interesting design! Having an airplane really gives you options for return. I don't think these will balance the inconvienence of a plane in an interplanetary mission, but it sure makes things simpler when you go to the Mün or to Minmus.

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