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Details
- Type: SPH
- Class: ship
- Part Count: 481
- Pure Stock
AHTech Industries proudly presents:
The Eve Transportation System (ETS)
This latest entry in our Flying Eve
class of Eve exploration vessels is intended to facilitate recurring transport between Eves surface and low Eve orbit (LEO)
The craft consists of the carrier plane that can fly to every place on Eve on solar power and contains a fully independent refueling setup, and of the orbital module. Working together both parts of the ETS can carry 6 Kerbals with all their personal survival gear and science results from anywhere on Eves (solid) surface into low Eve orbit. Where the passengers can transfer to further transportation.
After both parts are joined and refueled the ETS can ascend to 10 km asl on solar power alone, from where it can fire its rocket engines and boost itself into a suborbital trajectory. There it can release the orbital module which can circularize into low Eve orbit before the carrier plane falls back too far into Eves atmosphere. The carrier plane can then re-enter the atmosphere and land on solar power. With an optimized ascend profile the orbital module has more than 300 m/s dV left in LEO for in-orbit maneuvering it also has a fully functional RCS system and 15 units of monopropellant for final docking maneuvers. After refueling in orbit the orbital module can re-enter Eves atmosphere and glide to a save landing, where it can be picked up by the carrier plane to repeat the process.
To ease docking of the two crafts the carrier plane is equipped with a movable docking port and a craft alignment system.
As a bonus feature the carrier plane is equipped with party lights to entertain the ground crew while waiting for the next mission.
The flight controls follow the AHTech standard:
The blade pitch (authority limiter) is controlled with the up / down translation controls (I / K)
The rotor torque limit is controlled with the forward / backward translation controls (H / N)
The ETS can fly on Kerbin, but just so! The window for positive rate of climb is very narrow. It does have enough power to get to Kerbin orbit under it own rocket power.
The bane of lesser systems: having no ore available on the spot where the craft landed. But for the ETS this is no problem: solar powered flight allows easy relocation to more productive regions.
Docking the orbital module to the carrier plane. It is recommended to park the carrier with its nose uphill, so that the orbital module can roll onto the docking port. The foremost KAL-1000 controls the height of the docking port, and the second the craft alignment system.
By setting the apropiate height and with careful nudging of the orbiter into alignment docking can be achieved.
The orbital module reached a stable orbit, while the carrier plane is still in the upper reaches of Eves atmosphere.
Jeb, Bill, and Valentina relaxing after a day of hard work.
Usage Notes:
Ascend to Orbit:
Wait until local noon to get maximum solar power. Disable the crossfeed on the docking port(s) to avoid draining the orbital module prematurely.
Take off with propeller power, ascend to 5 km can be fairly steep, flatten out the trajectory afterwards to avoid stalling. Manage the electricity consumption: reduce rotor torque when it isn’t needed to keep (close to) maximum RPM or if ECs are running out. Ascend to 10 km with propeller power. Best results are possible by switching off SAS, setting manual trim to up to 75% maximum nose-up, and adjusting blade pitch to get maximum airspeed (authority limiter at ca. 40 is a good value). When it doesn’t want to climb anymore (or you are tired of waiting) start the rocket engines, stop the rotors (set torque to 0 and engage brakes), feather the propellers (authority limiter to 150), and climb straight up (e.g. SAS to radial out in surface mode). Start pitch-over at about 30 km altitude, and follow a normal(-ish) but steep gravity turn. At burn-out of the carrier plane the time-to-apoapsis should be 1.5 to 2. minutes. Undock and switch to the orbital module. Circularize as fast as possible. Once in a stable orbit, switch back to the carrier plane, re-enter the atmosphere, tumble to lower atmosphere, and land.
