Robotroadkill's rockets

[robotroadkill]

I\'d like to thank all the creative people here who took the time to make and share the awesome add-ons I used, and the game developers for making such a creative and fun game. Here are some of my creations. Many of them are from older versions of the game using obsolete add-on packs, so I don\'t have .craft files for them even on my own computer. If you are curious about a certain rocket, I would be happy to try to share. Clearly these aren\'t the most efficient ways to get satellites into orbit, but I prefer to make rockets with certain aesthetics (eg. payload must be hidden within the rocket), and in some cases, the point is to see just how far I can go with a rocket design.

Death Shuttle. This aptly named machine is only good for one thing: killing kerbals.

Courier I. This rocket can leave a satellite behind (in orbit) and return safely, although it looks a bit goofy on arrival.

Buzzbomb. The boys always take a one-way trip on this one. Too bad the only thing around to blow up is the VAB.

Bombardier. Again, with no nearby enemies, a short-range bomber and a bored crew can be dangerous. This one also is only outfitted for suicide missions.

Juggernaut. Why, you ask? Why not! Anyway, it gets the command module into orbit.

The Bejeezus. The Bejeezus is a crime against nature. It\'s primary objective is to burn fuel, secondary is to get a payload into orbit. Crew is expendable.

At 59m high, you can rest assured that Bejeezus is a slap in the face to all that is reasonable and good on Kearth. 10 of SundayPunch\'s high thrust engines and 8 of Novasilisko\'s boosters get this atrocity off the ground. Throttle down on the LFEs before simultaneously igniting all 18 of those candles.

The 2nd stage is 6 2m barrels with medium berthas, just thrusting and thrusting and thrusting...

3rd stage puts you in orbit with an embarrassing amount of fuel left over. Jettison it once you\'ve achieved orbit. In fact, haul up some Kerbal garbage to dump in space while you\'re at it. I was able to get my best orbit yet with this rig, eccentricity of .001 (Perigee @46134m and 2338.1m/s)

This shot\'s just nice to look at.

Jettison some more perfectly good pieces of ship, exposing the precious cargo from within the capsule.

Once you get rotating, let go of the satellite. Congratulations! Now the kerbal government can spy on its citizens even more effectively!

Get rid of everything else you don\'t need to return safely to earth. This tiny tank and engine pack make a nice return-home package.

Burn, baby burn. In the opposite direction of travel, of course.

Upon landing in water with full chutes, be sure to explode violently! It\'s the only way to be sure.

I\'m considering this one a success anyway. Forgot to take a screenshot of mission stats.

New rocket and mission report: Foreloader

The item of interest in this rocket is that the payload, rather than the command module, forms the nose of the rocket

It reaches a stable, circular orbit with fuel to spare

Blow away the nose fairing panels to reveal the satellite. Begin rotating the ship before deploying

Blow away the fuselage fairings to reveal the command module nestled between two bulkheads

Decouple the command module from the bulkheads

carefully motor away from all the space junk you just dumped, for a retro-burn and return to Terra Firma.

New rocket and mission report: Heavy Sattelifter

This beast can (in theory) lift a 3-sectioned sattelite into orbit. I\'m close, but there\'s no fuel for error.

8 boosters get this hunk lurching off the ground. perhaps the engines should also be fired, but with minimal throttle.

keep a moderate throttle through the ascent, after jettisoning the boosters

Upper stage boosters (yeah, yeah, I know) help get some horizontal velocity going

Fuselage fairings and the 2nd stage deploy simultaneously, revealing the 3-part satellite

Releast the satellite after rotating (because that\'s the way it happens on tv)

Final return stage allows you to return in time to watch the first tv shows beamed down by the satellite you just launched.

In this flight, I didn\'t actually achieve an orbit. I was about 100 m/s away from that. With some better flying (rotating from 90 degrees a bit sooner) I may be able to achieve orbit with this ship.

[sirmonkey]

nice rockets.. i tried a few times building one similar to the juggernaut but i always got carried away with it and never got it to fly..

i also have one similar to your courier I..

it has 2 pods which if/when they implement the ability to put satellites into space it should be able to carry 2 satellites..

[robotroadkill]

Thanks! this game is great.

it has 2 pods which if/when they implement the ability to put satellites into space it should be able to carry 2 satellites..

At the moment you can, but it's really no different than leaving behind other junk from your ship while you're in orbit. The 'satellite' (with floating SAS module just behind it) in the picture of Courier I was made by NovaSilisko, and it is concealed by two hollow decouplers. I just started my ship rotating, decoupled the satellite, then waited until the remainder of the ship was far away to do a retro-burn to return to earth.

[sirmonkey]

ahh.. didn't see that SAS there.. was trying to figure out how you were able to fit a satellite in there.

[bdc]

Awesome rockets. Courier I actually looks pretty slick IMO.

[robotroadkill]

Thanks!