Kerbal Space Program - Von Braun Mars Mission - RSS

A showcase of one of the cornerstones of the STS, the Nuclear (NERVA) shuttle. The 'Space Transportation System' was proposed by NASA after Apollo, to continue pushing the manned space frontier. It consisted of four major spacecraft: an orbital tug, a re-usable LEO spaceplane (the Space Shuttle), a modular permanent manned space station module, and the gigantic NERVA shuttles. These were to be used to shuttle payloads from LEO to geosync, the moon, and other planets. They were entirely reusable ferries, and were built to be modular and cluster-able for various missions. For the trip to Mars, Von Braun envisioned a pair of shuttles, traveling in convoy. Each would be able to support twice it's crew so that if there was a failure with either spacecraft, both crews could return safely in the other. The same redundancy was used in the Mars Excursion Module, in an emergency, both crews could return from the surface of Mars in the same ascent module. The added bonus of having two ships in convoy meant that for cruise, they could be strapped together at the nose and spun up to simulate 1/3 g (Mars gravity) while en-route. Sadly the only part of the STS to survive congressional budget restraints was the Space Shuttle, and therefore it inherited the STS name. For more info on this project, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Transportation_System http://www.astronautix.com/craft/vonn1969.htm and the beautiful artwork that inspired my craft in KSP http://drell-7.deviantart.com/gallery/34148119/Argosy