On that note...I decided to try making an interstellar ion craft.
First, the landing iony part.
By the way, I fully support the development of a radially-mounted ion engine.
Next, a rocket to get it into orbit.
And finally, a cute little booster to hopefully help that stage out.
(Because the big white ones are a bit overused.)
The Ion Interplanetary I, or III, is being piloted by one Donlan Kerman. Looking at it on the launch pad...it's smaller than many of my rockets, but I've been told I overengineer, so that's not a bad thing.
It launches well.
Not ten seconds in, the boosters start to overheat, the bars climbing at almost the same rate as the solid-fuel gauges rise. The rocket tilts a bit west (why do they always do that?)
A bit under six thousand meters and thirty seconds, I eject that first stage and go onto the liquid fuel rocket. I promptly correct my courst with a combination of reaction wheel and thrust vectoring, then begin a nice little gravity turn.
Rocket fuel runs out all of a sudden at a bit under 40 kilometers, with the apoapsis a bit under 50. Well, only one solution, really.
Man, those things might not have much thrust, but they sure look cool.
Sadly, drag is slowing me down and lowering my apoapsis faster than my little engine that evidently can't (in a gravity well) can do the opposite. Oh well...
Those look pretty cool.
Aw.
A picture before splashdown, showing all slow-down systems being nominal.
A picture after splashdown, showing all systems...um...un-nominal.
Huh.
Well, I don't have time to design the IIII right now, but when I do, some notes.
1. Bigger rocket booster.
2. Radial-decoupling solid boosters. (More/Bigger?)
3. Parachutes. More parachutes.
4. Also more ion engines.
5. We're gonna need a bigger lander-can (to put all this crap on).
