KerbalX

ES-44 Friede is a popular Mun/Minmus tourism shuttle featuring retro-futuristic rocketship appearance. It’s designed to comfortably ferry 4 passengers (+1 pilot/guide) from LKO to Mun/Minmus surface and back to LKO. Can also serve as interorbital transport vessel. Its name means Peace in German and comes directly from the moon rocket in the 1929 Fritz Lang silent film Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon).

Comes with EL-8R 40t-class SSTO reusable lifter.
Flight instructions at the bottom.

Album contains 22 pictures.

Key Features

• 1950s retro-futuristic rocketship look
• >2800m/s vacuum dV (ore is to be converted en-route)
• Self-sufficient: continous ISRU capability
• Custom and reliable landing supports
• Careful placement of components
• Fully reusable
• 90 parts (ship) + 67 parts (lifter)

Design Notes

• Yes, she is the little sister of my interplanetary ship Johnny. It took me a long time to optimize and now I’m finally satisfied. Flexible and self-sufficient, I really like it.
• Vanilla game will show a 2061m/s vacuum dV which is not correct, because ore is regarded as dead weight. It should be converted into rocket fuel en-route, which weights exactly the same (good job Squad for a 1:1 conversion!)
• After quite some trials and frustrations, I think this kind of landing support is way better than any landing legs (despite being slightly heavier), which are very easy to break or bounce, especially after time wraps. As for the reusable lifter, this is the only option I find feasible without using bearings or mods. It looks not bad, btw.
• I learned about this landing gear pod trick from the KSP Crew Dragon - V2 [1.6.1] by McFlyever
• Some seemingly inefficient design choices are meant to lower tech requirement.
• I tried my best to fairly use the spaces inside the Friede, but the rear fuel section may seem overclipped. My idea is that the rear section should be one single large fuel container, and its tail fins should be thick and also contain fuel. It passes my being reasonable standards as such.
• The 4 thrust vector control engines on the Friede are pretty much just back-up engines. KSP magical reaction wheels are powerful enough in most cases. They can, however, save a too fast descent from ending up badly.

Flight Instructions

• Engage SAS, liftoff, conduct gravity turn, reach 45deg pitch @ 12000m.
• Lock prograde from now on until circularization.
• Push AP to 75km, cutoff engines and coast.
• Once out of atmosphere, stage to jettison fairings, circularize at AP.
• Once 75x75km orbit is achieved, stage to release the ship.
• If done correctly, now there should be ~700m/s dV left for lifter recovery.

Lifter Recovery

• Quicksave. It may require quite a few trials to achieve a pin-point landing.
• Burn PE to 40km ~1/6 Kerbin equator further than target zone. (Caution: may be inaccurate!)
• Engage brakes and lock retrograde during reentry, keep engines shut down.
• There should be >600m/s dV before touchdown, and the terminal speed should be <200m/s.
• Try to kill the speed rapidly and as near the ground as possible.
• Engage RCS and lock radial-out in the last seconds, enjoy a successful soft landing.

Friede Ship Notes

• Remember to convert the ore en-route (AG5, plus AG3 for solar panels. AG9 for fuel cells when on the ground.)
• Use thrust vector control engines only when necessary to reduce dV loss (although not much).
• Please check action groups page for control setups.

Wish you enjoy and happy landings!

Description

A stock rocket called ES-44 Friede. Built with 159 of the finest parts, its root part is crewCabin.

Built in the VAB in KSP version 1.7.0.

Details

• Type: VAB
• Class: ship
• Part Count: 159
• Pure Stock