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The delivery rocket making a fine-tune burn on its way to Jool.
Right as the spacecraft entered Jool’s SOI, Laythe was set as the target and the spacecraft went straight there.
Description
Since the E-40 Impulse electric plane worked so well on Kerbin, the higher-ups at the KSC decided to send it to Laythe for surface exploration and transporting science station equipment. After all, none of our active SSTO models on that moon can carry those (yet). The delivery rocket itself was copied off the one used to deliver the Earhart Junior aerial probe to Laythe.
Hopefully, this craft doesn’t blow up upon re-entry. It shouldn’t, since SSTOs have parts with similar heat resistance and so far they haven’t blown up.
A stock rocket called E-40 Impulse (LAYTHE VARIANT). Built with 359 of the finest parts, its root part is Mark1Cockpit.
Built in the VAB in KSP version 1.12.4.
Details
- Type: VAB
- Class: aircraft
- Part Count: 359
- Pure Stock
- KSP: 1.12.4
I’m not sure this is what people mean when they use the expression going down in flames.
Either way, as predicted, the plane survived re-entry - but now I had to get the plane under control before it crashed in the water.
A couple of things I had to do between re-entry and when I finally regained controls:
- The blade angle was still at 0 degrees the entire trip (I didn’t change it when I mounted the plane itself to the rocket), so I had to press and hold H to adjust it before I could hope for those engines to be of any use.
- I was nosediving at quite a concerning rate, and my attempt to pitch up wasn’t doing anything. So, I hit the reverse thrust button in order to increase the rate that my vertical velocity rose (as in got closer to zero from a negative value). Of course, I switched the engine direction back to normal before my vertical velocity hit 0 - and even then, I needed a bit more time to regain control.
In the end, I managed to fly in a somewhat more stable manner.
The plane and the fully-assembled delivery rocket in the VAB.
- It was basically the E-40 itself slapped onto the rocket used to deliver the E-39 Earhart Junior.
- I didn’t include the heat shields this time since I was confident that the plane would survive re-entry. Turns out, I was right. And to be honest, I probably didn’t even need it for the drone either - but better safe than sorry, especially after Eve.
ADVICE
- ALWAYS Quicksave before the Laythe re-entry phase. That way, if you screw up the heat shield ejection phase, you won’t be depressed having to waste time and money doing this entire mission all over again (probably to fail again).
- (If you have an orbital eccentricity less than 1) NEVER make your re-entry on the dark side of the moon. ALWAYS the sunny side.
- Make sure Laythe, or at least your staging area, has reliable CommNet coverage before landing and/or flying.
- Plot your re-entry burn so that you’ll end up either on land or as close to dry land as possible.
- DO NOT FORGET to set your blade-angle from zero to whatever you need to get your plane moving, or else your engines will be useless.
Landing Advice
- After you land the plane, (unless you’re all done with it) press and hold N to return the blade angles back to 0 before taking off again.
- Also, extend the solar panels to speed up the recharge (since the plane is so far away from the sun). DO NOT FORGET to retract them before taking off.
