Idea UCGO/UMMU Compatible Crew/Cargo Delivery Spacecraft

[Zane]

Hey everyone.
So recently, I've been thinking that a smaller and more realistic spacecraft for delivering UCGO cargo and UMMU astronauts to a space station or somewhere would be nice. Such a spacecraft would be in the 30 mT range and would have two mission "modes"- an unpressurized cargo carrier mode, and a pressurized crew/cargo carrier mode.

So I came up with some concept models (untextured and not very detailed, of course) to further propagate my idea.

Carries up to 18 pieces of 1.3m^3 UCGO cargo. Universal Cargo Deck might also be possible.

A manned variant or maybe a pressurized cargo delivery and return variant. The shape and color of the windows sort of needs work.



So anyway, the reason I'm posting right now is that I'm wondering if there's anyone who might wanna assist with some of the artwork involved. I don't think the programming aspect will be much of a problem for me, but I'm not at all good at modeling, and I'm really horrible at texturing. Anyone interested?

 

[Ark]

Darnit, I was just about to wander in here and request a module to ferry UCGO cargoes up to orbit. :lol:

You're definitely on the right track.

 

[jedimaster1214]

What about on top of some ares V or other vertical heavy launcher? Velcro could work..... You do need a fairing of some sort to cover those cargos, dont want to lose those during ascent...

 

[Zane]

Darnit, I was just about to wander in here and request a module to ferry UCGO cargoes up to orbit. :lol:

You're definitely on the right track.

I'll continue working, then.

What about on top of some ares V or other vertical heavy launcher? Velcro could work..... You do need a fairing of some sort to cover those cargos, dont want to lose those during ascent...

Ares V sounds a bit too heavy for that.
The way I have the mass broken down currently is as follows:

SM Mass - 4.9 mT
SM Main Fuel Mass - 19.5 mT
SM RCS Fuel Mass - 1 mT

CM Mass - 8 mT
CM RCS Fuel Mass - .3 mT

Cargo Carrier Mass - 2.5 mT

So, that's 33.7 mT (plus pressurized cargo / people) for the manned variant, and 27.9 mT for the cargo one (plus cargo).

But... the 19.5 mT of fuel is there to reserve the possibility of sending the spacecraft toward the moon (so maybe an Ares V would be useful here) and having enough dV for a LOI burn and also TEI (in the case of the manned one). A simple earth-orbital mission would require much less dV and therefore, less fuel.

But anyway, now that we're on the topic of launchers, I think I want to make my own launcher for this, and maybe a whole family of launchers.

Maybe a baseline launcher would be a two stage configuration with a 500 mT first stage and a ~100 mT second stage, almost like the Saturn INT-19, but sans strap on SRMs.



But I still need someone with some art skills or else these spacecraft are gonna look like crap.

 

[mc_]

Nice idea. One of the spacecrafts really needed, not like a "cool stuff to fly once and forget".

Hope it will fly soon (both variants).

 

[Zane]

I'm working on a nice little system/environment simulation, so you can depressurize the cabin for EVAs, manage power (I intend to add some nice sun tracking solar panels eventually), enable/disable key systems, and more!

I'll post screenshots once I get it working.

 

[Kaito]

Copier!
This is pretty much exactly the project i'm working on, except for 30 metric tonnes, It's goal is 200.

So, yours will be good for small cargo's...mine will be good for larger payloads (120 UCGO cargos (I know the limit is 40, but there will be 3 sections in which the user can place cargos))

 

[Zane]

Copier!
This is pretty much exactly the project i'm working on, except for 30 metric tonnes, It's goal is 200.

So, yours will be good for small cargo's...mine will be good for larger payloads (120 UCGO cargos (I know the limit is 40, but there will be 3 sections in which the user can place cargos))

I was going for a bit more real-world feasibility on mine, though, since I wanted to be able to send it into orbit/eject it with current technology.

 

[Kaito]

Lol, I was just giving you a hard time. Glad to see i'm not the only one with this idea!

 

[Brycesv1]

this is exactly what i was looking for. u guys always seem to read my mind when i want something cool. lol