Heavy Lifter Lover

[PacThePhoenix]

*UPDATED PAYLOADS*

This is something that I've been experimenting with for a while. The title pretty much explains it; build a launcher for a heavy payload and recover the lifter. I'm very curious to see what you can all come up with as I really quite enjoy reusable launchers. I'm almost certain everyone will do better than me .

 

Normal Mode: 50t payload into LKO. No asparagus staging. Recover main stage.

Hard Mode: 100t payload into LKO. No asparagus staging. Recover all stages. Lowest budget possible.

Rocket Scientist Mode: 150t payload into LKO. No asparagus staging. Recover all parts. Lowest budget possible. No external boosters. Ascent time <5 minutes.

God Mode: Impress me.

Edited February 13, 2016 by PacThePhoenix

[RA3236]

Hmm... Impress you....

*devises cunning plan*

[Jarin]

I... am not good at this, but I fully intend to steal liberally from entries in this thread. *waits*

[Temstar]

I'm really proud to get this working, so I try to flaunt it every chance I get:

Hurricane Trio Block III:

 

Spoiler

Whole stack on the launch pad, 942.350 tons

Gravity turn reaching 45 degree at 10km.

Circularisation burn

Payload release, payload is 146.795 tons

External Tank deorbit burn.

External tank, high alpha reentry.

External Tank, just before touch down.

External Tank, safely stopped on the runway ready to be recovered.
 

Aurora 1 approaching KSC.

Aurora 1 ready to be recovered.

Aurora 2, approaching KSC for an evening landing.

Aurora 2 on the runway ready to be recovered.

Aurora 3, approaching KSC in the dead of the night.

Aurora 3, ready to be recovered.

 

[Nefrums]

I guess all the entries in the reusable categories of the  Stock Payload Fraction Challenge: 1.0.5 Edition qualify for this challenge:

His is my two best:

 

 

 

[PacThePhoenix]

Clearly, I am not very good at this whole challenge-making thing and will probably have to increase the mass of the payloads . I am very impressed by Temstar's and Nefrums' designs. I am actually quite jealous that I can't make anything close to as awesome as what I've seen thus far. I'll probably be attempting a design inspired by what you guys have posted (yes, I'm so bad at building rockets that I have to get other people to make them for me :P). Any suggestions as to how to make this more of a challenge? XD

Edited February 12, 2016 by PacThePhoenix

[Just Jim]

16 hours ago, Nefrums said:

I guess all the entries in the reusable categories of the  Stock Payload Fraction Challenge: 1.0.5 Edition qualify for this challenge:

His is my two best:

 

 

 

In the first picture, I see you have reverse nosecones on the rapiers.  Cool, I sometimes do that with extra intakes.  But am I also seeing batteries on the back two rapiers?  Don't they overheat back there? 

[RA3236]

4 hours ago, Just Jim said:

In the first picture, I see you have reverse nosecones on the rapiers.  Cool, I sometimes do that with extra intakes.  But am I also seeing batteries on the back two rapiers?  Don't they overheat back there? 

Really the nose cones should be overheating too  

[Nefrums]

As the rapiers actually have have 4 exhausts, tiny sized parts placed after them are not git by the exhaust.  Thou gimbal have to be disabled.

 

[Evanitis]

Oooow, giving me the excuse to repost my beauty - I love you already. It's currently only eligible for the 'normal' difficulty, but adjusting it for a 'hard' run will be a fun challenge.

And the flawless version of that botched landing in the above album.

[PacThePhoenix]

2 hours ago, Evanitis said:

Oooow, giving me the excuse to repost my beauty - I love you already. It's currently only eligible for the 'normal' difficulty, but adjusting it for a 'hard' run will be a fun challenge.

And the flawless version of that botched landing in the above album.

Very interesting design . Quite humorous with all of those parts exploding. Yea, I think it could be a fun challenge to convert it to carry a heavier payload. I see you took the payload to the Mun, very nice, but cutting down on the fuel capacity should help bring a larger payload into LKO. You actually gave me and idea for another challenge that I'll be sharing sometime .

[Evanitis]

26 minutes ago, PacThePhoenix said:

I see you took the payload to the Mun

for a gravity assist to get PE beyond Minmus and circularize there. It's kinda' the most useless place for a fuel-tank, but that mission in the STS challenge is scored by the height of orbit. Though I took the payload home (it was an optional objective), so it makes more sense. The craft can reach orbit in SSTO style too with a comfortable chunk of extra fuel (besides the same payload ofc) - though it's really not balanced for that. I'm also yet to thoroughly test if it's impossible to land it without staging the useless bits, or just very very hard.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Evanitis

[PacThePhoenix]

So I've been experimenting with some reusable launcher designs, and I've ran into quite the issue. I see that @Nefrums was able to recover the first two stages without any of the engines exploding during re-entry, however this is proving to be very challenging for me to accomplish. I have a few designs that shield the engines from the heating, but they are quite cumbersome and I'd prefer to have my engines re-enter head on. Is the re-entry heating turned down or is there something obvious that I'm missing?

[Nefrums]

Re entry heating is on normal.

There is a few things that can affect this.

1. Different engines have different heat tolerances.
2. Angle on reentry.
3. Drag of your booster.   I had to add lots of air brakes to prevent overheating.

[Temstar]

19 minutes ago, Nefrums said:

I had to add lots of air brakes to prevent overheating

This, this is the key. When you add airbrakes they take off some of the heat load off the part that's directly facing the re-entry plasma sheath, thus decreasing the peak heat load off that part.

Here's an example of mine, the part that's directly facing the re-entry plasma is a Mammoth engine:

[PacThePhoenix]

Thanks a ton @Nefrums and @Temstar! I had airbrakes on one of my designs that overheated, but after adding more the engines were a bit better off. I suspected that were the case, but I wasn't entirely certain. Just gotta add more airbrakes now .

[RA3236]

Hey, by asparagus does that mean no onion staging too?

[RA3236]

So...

 

[PacThePhoenix]

2 hours ago, RA3236 said:

Hey, by asparagus does that mean no onion staging too?

Uhh, I'm actually not exactly sure what onion staging is, but your design is perfectly valid. Really, I just didn't want people wrapping boosters all around a massive payload . Nicely done with 150t!

[RA3236]

3 hours ago, PacThePhoenix said:

Uhh, I'm actually not exactly sure what onion staging is, but your design is perfectly valid. Really, I just didn't want people wrapping boosters all around a massive payload . Nicely done with 150t!

That's what onion staging is: my design: booster fuel going to main engine

[PacThePhoenix]

3 minutes ago, RA3236 said:

That's what onion staging is: my design: booster fuel going to main engine

I'd say that's valid. I am aware that there are basically no real life rockets that can cross-feed fuel in such a way, but it's really all about reusability and not looking ridiculous .

[RA3236]

9 minutes ago, PacThePhoenix said:

I'd say that's valid. I am aware that there are basically no real life rockets that can cross-feed fuel in such a way, but it's really all about reusability and not looking ridiculous .

Really, If I had Stage Recovery I would have gotten at least hard level, minus losing the boosters from heat and lack of of parachutes.

[Evanitis]

1 hour ago, RA3236 said:

Really, If I had Stage Recovery I would have gotten at least hard level, minus losing the boosters from heat and lack of of parachutes.

Not that the op specified that the submissions should be stock, yet the participants up to this point only used such vessels. Besides, if there's a mod that doesn't fit the spirit of this challenge it's SR. It instantly makes everything fully reusable once you slap a 'chute or two on it.

It's just more fun to find a solution. I'm still marvelled by some of the above concepts.

Edited February 14, 2016 by Evanitis

[Jarin]

 

On 2/11/2016 at 1:23 AM, Nefrums said:

I guess all the entries in the reusable categories of the  Stock Payload Fraction Challenge: 1.0.5 Edition qualify for this challenge:

His is my two best:

*snipped for space*

Hey Nefrums, any chance of posting craft files for those?

[Nefrums]

7 hours ago, Jarin said:

 

Hey Nefrums, any chance of posting craft files for those?

I should have them lying around somewhere, I'll have a look when i get home.