KerbalX

Description

The very second Kerbalkind’s long range sensors discovered the existence, far in the moon of Tekto, of a weird yellow area that seemed to be some kind of geomagnetic anomaly, Jeb wanted to land there, Bob wanted to study it, Bill wanted to build a base there, and Valentina wanted to drive over it. Fortunately for our four brave Kerbonauts, the KSC had in mind sending a mobile base to Tekto anyways…

This mobile science base is designed to be simply dropped into Tekto’s atmosphere from orbit. It is loaded with a fully equiped laboratory, multiple KerbNet modes, housing for five Kerbals, a full set of integral and deployable science equipment, and enough spares to keep itself in good repair through a long exploration.
To survive the orbit drop, no parachute is included, counting instead on the ridiculosly low terminal speed in Tekto’s air plus a powerful VTOL array with about 15 seconds of fuel (testing showed that triple engines at 33% thrust limiter gave 1 second more of fuel and more gimbal range than a single rocket at full thrust).

TEKTO LANDING PROCEDURE
Set the control point upwards with AG4. Select surface reference. Activate SAS, radial out. WARNING: This craft doesn’t include RCS (RCS switch is patched into KerbNet access instead). If the landing zone is correct, continue with descent; otherwise, fine-tune it with horizontal flight (switch to frontal control point with AG3 as needed). Be sure to set the altimeter to ground insteaad of sea level, as terrain in Tekto can be quite elevated. Terminal speed on Tekto is in the low 40s. At about 500 meters, deploy the four landing legs to shield the craft (mainly the wheels) from impact. On final aproach, activate the VTOL thrusters. You have 15 seconds of fuel at full thrust with a TWR of 1.9, which should be enough to choose a good landing spot at an adequate speed. You are advised noit to spend all the F-Lox mix, as you might need it for the fuel cells later on.

ATMOSPHERIC FLIGHT
If the orbital drop was imprecise and the landing zone needs fine-tuning with horizontal flight (or just if Jeb wants to show off), the craft has double delta wings and two experimental jet engines, designed to be used in Tekto’s atmosphere, mixing its vaporised ethane with stored oxygen (instead of mixing atmospheric oxygen with stored fuel). The craft has about five minutes worth of oxygen, which should be enough for quite the distance flying at 20Km height.Each wing include a rear pushing and a front pulling engine. Activating the front (pulling) engine for emergency thrust should be used just as an extreme measure because of the extra fuel consumption and the risk of flat spin in case of asimetric flameout (such spins are unrecoverable without shutting of the jets and switching to the VTOL rockets).
(NOTE: that is just flavor text for a neat trick, inspired by James Glaze: the closed intakes store a wee bit of air, which can be used with regular fuel by a jet engine in an atmosphere with no oxygen; to simulate a tekto engine, a drain valve hack is used to continuosly fill it with air.)

ONCE LANDED
For movement after the drop the base includes an all-terrain drivetrain (including two deployable anti-tumble sidewheels). The drivetrain has FAR more braking power than the landing legs, should a stop on a hard slope be desired.
The base carries a full science set, including a research arm and EVA experiments kits that the Kerbals didn’t knew was of no use in Tekto. The base has a maximum power relay antenna, but does NOT carry any refueling nor mining equipment, and only limited electricity generation; it’s intended to work along a refueling vehicle of some sort.

NOTES
-The craft needs drain valves taking intake air to work. If you aren’t using the one version of KSP that had them, you need a mod like Air Intake Drain for the jets to work.
-The craft includes disabled infinifuel valves for testing and whatnot. For infinite fuel and oxydizer, select one or both of the valves attached to the dougnuts clipped inside either Mk3 plate and activate them draining resources.
ACTION GROUPS AND OTHER INFO

AG1: toggle whesley jets.
AG2: toggle cub rocket engines.
AG3: control forward.
AG4: control upwards.
AG5: SCIENCE!!
AG6: Collect science (in frontal cuppola).
AG7: External ladders.
AG8: Side wheels.
(…)
AG10: Toggle jets independent throttle.
Translate F/B: jets independent throttle.
Abort: Jets reverse thrust.
RCS: Kerbnet access (Rovemate drone).
RCS/1: Kerbnet access (Fly-by-wire hub).
RCS/2: Kerbnet access (Laboratory).
RCS/4: Kerbnet access (Survey scanner).
Gear: specifically does NOT control wheels.

Jet fuel time:
300 seconds with reverse thrusters at 0% thrust limit;
380 seconds with reverse thrusters shut off;
230 seconds with reverse thrusters at full power;

Rocket fuel time:
15 seconds with all thrusters at 33% thrust limit (full gimbal range);
10 seconds with all thrusters at full power.

A stock aircraft called SCIENCE!mobile. Built with 161 of the finest parts, its root part is mk3CargoBayM.

Built in the SPH in KSP version 1.12.2.

Details

• Type: SPH
• Class: lander
• Part Count: 161
• Pure Stock
• KSP: 1.12.2

AIR INTAKE MOD

You will need this mod for the craft to work correctly. Simply save the text below this paragraph is as a text file, name it Air Intake Drain.cfg and place it in your gamedata folder.

@RESOURCE_DEFINITION[IntakeAir]
{
@RESOURCE_DRAIN_DEFINITION
{
@isDrainable = true
@showDrainFX = true
drainFXPriority = 7
drainForceISP = 5
drainFXDefinition = gasDraining
}
}