KerbalX

Description

KSS Kessel is a stock ship containing a deployable submersible for exploring Kerbin’s oceans.

Part count: 332.

Birthing:

All of the heavy landing gear beneath the ship are jettisoned with the first stage. You can simply throttle up the engines and drive the vessel down the runway to the water. Use the brakes and reverse engines to keep speed low when getting close to shore.

Once in the water, get going between 5-10 m/s and stage to jettison the gear.

Alternatively, I use the Vessel Mover mod to bring the ship close to shore, then drive it in the rest of the way. This is a lot less tedious.

Sailing:

Sailing is straightforward: 1 puts it in forward, 2 puts it in reverse. 6 shuts down engines and generates electricity through the fuel cell arrays.

Note that it veers slightly to the left for some reason.

Submarine:

Open the bottom hatch to deploy the submarine. By default it is slightly buoyant, so it floats on the surface. Use 4 to engage forward engines and angle down to dive. Bring it back up beneath the submarine bay on the ship, and let it float upwards back to the docking port to re-dock with the ship.

WARNING: Crew Transfer

Getting crew out of the Mk3 Passenger module is dicey. For some reason they often spawn down in the bowels of the ship and get permanently stuck. To handle this, I use the Crew Transfer mod to move them to the cupola modules to get them on deck.
Built in the SPH in KSP version 1.1.3.

Details

• Type: SPH
• Class: ship
• Part Count: 332
• Pure Stock