KSP 1.1
The S7 Mammoth series are the workhorses of the S-series. Designed to either bring 32 Kerbals as passenger into orbit (for school-excursions), or to bring a maximum of 15 tons of cargo into orbit, the S7 can do it all.
The Mammoth series come in three different types, the passenger version, with a 400 km maximum orbit, the Cargo MK II version, with a 300-600 km orbit, which is equiped with a 10 meter long cargo bay, and as such can bring longer loads into a Kerbin orbit than the S7's bigger brother, the S8 Mastodont. And finally the Cargo MK III which has a 7,5 meter long cargo bay and is as such on par with the S8 Mastodont, but holds more fuel than the MK II and as such has 2340 dV to burn in space (when empty and carrying no spare liquid fuel) as opposed to 2040 dV of fuel for the MK II.
Further advantages over the S8 Mastodont are more forgiving controls, and in general better manoeuvrability. It is a real pleasure to fly.
Take-off procedure is simple,
- Activate engines through staging, start accelerating.
- At 20 m/s, activate RATO's (Cargo version)
- Pitch up to 10 degrees when reaching 100 m/s, take-off at 110-140 m/s depending on type and loadout.
- Drop RATO's when depleted, built-in parachutes will allow for full recovery if ascent profile is correct.
- Continue ascent, pitch up to 15-17 degrees
- Switch RAPIER mode at 20-21 km with Custom key 1, close air-intakes with custom key 2. Continue ascent, adjust as desired.
De-orbiting isn't very difficult, and due to the forgiving nature of this craft, the descent-profile can be freely adjusted on the go.
A typical descent from 300 km orbit to KSC:
- Place periapsis so that when entering atmosphere, it lies at approx 30 km on the western part of the desert to the west of KSC.
- Prior to entering atmosphere, activate airbrakes, retract solar panels and activate fuel cells (Cargo only), heading: Prograde
- After entering atmosphere, adjust pitch to 5-10 degrees.
- Monitor periapsis and apoapsis closely, adjust pitch to assure desired descent-profile.
- Continue descent, when done correctly, a direct descent onto KSC is possible. Overshooting KSC should at all times be avoided due to the fuel guzzling nature of the RAPIERS, undershooting KSC can be easily resolved by activating RAPIERS in airbreating mode from an altitude of 28km and below. Enough spare liquid fuel should be available to overcome an undershoot distance of approx 1000 km or more. When overshooting the runway, fuel for approx 100-200 km should be available.
.zip contents:
S7 Mammoth MKII (passenger)
S7 Mammoth Cargo MKII
S7 Mammoth Cargo MKIII
Other craft in the S-series
S4 Apollo (taken out of service as per 1.1, it's superseded by the S5 Arrow)
S6 Axe (due to come online later)
S9 Beluga (due to come online later)