Galactic Sailor: The Next Leap Forward
Following the Success of the Sailor Series and the Venture Series of Transportation, a cheaper alternative was drawn up to continue to cut down costs for space travel.
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Galactic Sailor: A Vision
After the five interstellar missions to Sera were complete, there was an obvious lack of money in the Kerbelian National Space Committee's balance. This is mainly due to the large sum of money that the Neidon Venture costed, as well as the frequent supply trips that it needed to perform to ensure our brave kerbalauts were safe. The Titan Sailor and Astra Sailor could not make the trip, mainly because the Astra Sailor couldn't survive a trip using GravTech's Wormhole Method, and the Titan Sailor was based out of Duna, making it take far too long. So, The Kerbelian Government Contracted the two largest Aerospace Companies in Kerbelia, those being Nicholas Space Productions and Kerbal Mechanical Labs to create a cheap, yet better spacecraft then was previously available. And this time, the spacecraft would be a spaceplane, as it was a long overdue design that was supposed to originally be on the Astra Sailor. And with this, it would be able to take off of any area, not just a specificied area like Duna.
Galactic Sailor: Research and Development
With a contract secured, the two companies went straight to work on how this could even work. Nicholas Space Productions, who had experience in this field, was already researching a jet engine called the NA-"G.CJ." for their sub-company Arrow's fighter jets. However, it became so powerful that they decided to not only put it on normal fighter jets, but on Spacecraft. This engine uses the technology of GravTech, mainly by splitting Antimatter with infused fuel of any kind. In other words, it is a dynamic hybrid engine that can work with any fuel anywhere. It also has an extremely high ISP and thrust, making it perfect for its use case of orbital flight without chemical rockets. Along side NSP, KML designed the frame and worked with Arrow Aerospace on the Avionics systems. In the end, the spacecraft ended up looking amazing, and could carry as much as you could fit in it. An early mock up is shown in the subsequent picture. Furthermore, if you are authorized, you can view the classified information regarding the engine.
Galactic Sailor: Test Flight 1
With a full first prototype completed, it was time to test it to see if it actually worked. As it got off the runway, it started to pick up speed fast. And we're talking about 200 m/s fast. So, it had to be throttled back due to the pure power of these engines, but it quickly made its way up to the high atmosphere with no issues at all. Once here, the engine switched from pure atmospheric intake to a mixture of air and fuel, causing it to go 5x faster, nearly reaching orbital speeds. Once in space, it was switched to a "fuel mode only," and it got into orbit with enough fuel to tour the entire Kerbol System twice. Since it was the first test run of this ship, there was no cargo onboard, so it made its way back to Kerbin. And, since this was a plane, it was able to easily descend back to Kerbin and ignite its engines into a "jet-mode" to coast back to the NSP Site Runway A where it was examined. During examination, tiles on its heatshield were knocked off, and it had wind tears in the back rudders, meaning it needed reinforcements all around and another pair of rudders underneath for optimal stability. Finally, its avionics were damaged due to High G Forces during takeoff and landing, so they were also improved and reinforced.
Galactic Sailor: Government Use Case
Now that the Galactic Sailor finally lived up to its name, it was time to send up cargo to finalize its legacy. Kerbelia requested it take up a 100 ton fuel tank to orbit, drop it off, then return to Kerbin unscathed to be fully operational and to pass flight regulations for commercial use cases. So, it did just that. It had the exact same flight profile as the last flight, and it was not damaged when it came back. After this, the Kerbelian Government used this as a platform to resupply the giant space station in orbit of Sera, and to help set up Mintropolis and more. Also, it should be able to land on Sera and supply a future colony there. Only time will tell if that is to actually happen though, and we will keep you updated if it does occur. Godspeed Men!
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