Hi
I've Been building spaceplanes for awhile but now i'm trying to get a spacestation into orbit.
My question is How ?
The station weighs in at about 80 to 90 tons and i want it up in one go.
Is it possible? What Should i consider?
Anyone got any rockets i could download and learn from?
I don't like the way stations look With all the dockingports when you break it up into smaler pieces.
I hope i can get some guidence.
Thanks for reading.
Last edited by Edberg; 13th May 2013 at 09:10. Reason: Poorly describing title
I was picturing something else with that thread title...
It is possible, but you will need to learn how to big large launchers.
1) First of all, remove any unnecessary weight from your payload.
2) Take your payload, add a stage underneath it that should be capable of circularizing its orbit. This will be your upper stage. It doesn't need to have lots of thrust because you are only going to use it when you are out of the atmosphere.
3) Next, add another stage underneath it. This stage will probably have to be 3 or 4 times the size of your payload. It will need a lot of thrust to lift its own mass, plus the payload.
4) Next, add another stage underneath it. This stage will probably have to be 3 or 4 times the size of the previous stagepayload. It will need a lot of thrust to lift its own mass, plus the stage above it, and the payload.
5) Next, add another stage underneath it. This stage will probably have to be 3 or 4 times the size of the previous stagepayload. It will need a lot of thrust to lift its own mass, plus the stage above it, and the payload.
6) Next, add another stage underneath it. This stage will probably have to be 3 or 4 times the size of the previous stagepayload. It will need a lot of thrust to lift its own mass, plus the stage above it, and the payload.
...
And so on, until you have a rocket capable of lifting your payload to orbit.
Originally Posted by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Are you trying to launch a space PLANE or space STATION ?
if its a 90 tonne space station thats easy, very easy in fact.
If you want to launch that 90 Tonne space STATION with a space PLANE, thats an engineering challenge I have not attempted lol.
I don't think any kind spaceplane can launch a 90 ton space station unless you use insane sized parts from mods
It's best to use a rocket, Spaceplanes have never been good with huge payloads
It's a station I'm trying to get up there with a rocket lifter. What engines would you use?
Typically, you want to use the biggest engines you have on the lower stages, and the smaller ones on the upper stages.
Last edited by HoY; 13th May 2013 at 09:35.
A couple of caveats -
Your station will have to be roughly symmetrical. If not, it's going to be a nightmare putting rockets underneath it and actually getting it to orbit.
Your station will have to be fairly rigid. If not, it's going to flop over and fall apart en route. Unfortunately this usually means struts, which tend to look ugly in the end.
Your station will have to be sufficiently strong to support itself under acceleration.
Once you've got a suitable station, a relatively simple rocket can get it into orbit. You might be surprised at how few parts it takes.
Something like an LV-T45 attached to an X32 fuel tank makes a reasonable last stage. It will have far less delta-v than a similar stage using an LV-N, but the gain in TWR is nice if you have to use it to finish circularizing your orbit.
Around that, use 4 stacks of X32 fuel tanks with mainsails on the bottom. Add as much fuel as you can before you push the thrust to weight ratio very far below 2. Use fuel lines to connect the stacks of mainsails and the central stage, asparagus style.
Keep adding layers of X32/Mainsail stacks, using as much fuel as you can and keeping your TWR at around 2 for each stage. Connect it all to make an asparagus pattern and you're golden. You ought to be able to get sufficient delta-v to reach orbit with 3 layers of boosters without having to fly the thing perfectly.
Yes these launchers are a save bet and will almost always work fine.
if you want to build your own launcher I reccomend Kerbal Engineer Redux. You need around 4500 dv to get into orbit, but I find 4800 better, so you have a margin for errors. Also try asparus-staging, this will keep your launchers relatively small and efficient. I also like to use clustered engines over mainsails, since they are more reliable (don´t overheat)(and look cool).
Main sails don't overheat if you put the small grey tank between them and the orange tanks...
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