fermun

Am I correct in assuming that the establish orbit mission just needs the orbit established then I can immediately deorbit and land?

GAH! I toyed around with the jet fuel so much on my contract craft, I was so certain it was due to piloting that prevented me from actually hitting escape velocity with just 9 tanks of rocket and 3 tanks of jet fuel, but after 10 attempts where every time I tried I was ending with an apoapsis just barely past Minmus, I decided to just go with something I knew would work. I should\'ve known someone would figure out a better way to pilot to get there.

I think something is off on my balance, I had $12500, I spent $11450, and had an income of $14000, I think I should have a current balance of $15050 not $13050.

This is only my second turn, and I don\'t have salvage tech yet. Explosive decoupling does let me make some pretty small rockets though. When I get a bit further in and I am able to afford larger rockets, I\'ll have to look at switching to salvaged rockets instead of explosively decoupled rockets. I\'d agree with issarlk from my experience so far though.

Explosively decoupling SRBs is a lot of fun, I\'m glad that\'s not bugged. That\'s how I plan to do as many missions as I can.

I have been working up a similar game to this myself for another forum, and as I was worrying over the balance I decided to check if anyone else was running something similar. I decided to enter, I hope that my space program is soon one of the richer ones.

Sorry for the double post, but I modified my ship design because I realized wobbliness was likely losing me some efficiency. I also made a variant where my crew survives both on the way up and on the way down, so first, allowing the crew to die on landing I reached 347.6 m/s Allowing the crew to survive the landing, I reached 346.5 m/s. This is the same design but with a decoupler and parachute. It might be possible to swap things around a bit and squeeze maybe another 1m/s out of things but I\'m pretty close to the limit of this design, I think.

I had basically the same idea you did. They died landing, but hit 339.8 m/s on the way up. 115 engines on nacelles, 13 fuel tanks. There\'s a smidgen of fuel left, I might be able to swap one large tank for one small tank. Here\'s what it looks like swapping a large tank for a small tank. 344.7 m/s but craft falls apart at 10 seconds just as the fuel runs out.

It is temperamental, but assuming you don't mess up switching stages and blow yourself up, it gets to orbit every time. If it starts acting up too badly, you can just cut all power, jettison a stage and start on the next. You have to fight it the whole way up, but proper piloting leaves you with a little bit more than 1 tank of fuel for each of the 4 engines on the 4th stage, whereas in that attempt I only had half a tank per engine. Each stage is just barely enough to accelerate so you hit orbit having only pulled 2 Gs acceleration the whole way up. If I had piloted it better and had more time, I think I could have done it.

Challenge accepted, I have about 6 hours I can use to attempt this, checking every half hour or so. Since this is a really long mission to do properly, I'm going to attempt to burn my way there instead of using the most efficient path, I'll just turn up the throttle. As such I need a big ship. Roc Heavy Lifter Mk. 4 on launch pad. Apokee Dawn again! Perikee Launch pad down there! A bit past half way there. 10,000K Turning around took a lot of work, but headed down again! Passing 10,000K again. I burned a bunch more fuel to get the speed up because I realized it would take forever to get back down otherwise. Half a tank left. Roughly looks like I should be headed for a high orbit, though it may take a hell of a retrograde burn to slow it down to keep from shooting off into space. Fuel will be tight. Oh my, this does not look good. DROPPING FAST! TOO FAST! Not nearly enough fuel to slow this down. Well, dropping down on the dark side. Hit the dark side. Everyone dead.

Roc Heavy Lifter Mk. 4! If you thought the previous build was too small, more boosters have been added to make it a little bit larger! The change is 4 more boosters that fire on the first liquid engine stage. This makes the initial booster stage less wobbly, increasing its top speed slightly then really adds a lot of extra speed and lift to the first stage of liquid engines. Stage 2 now runs out of fuel 2km higher, giving you that much more fuel and speed to work with. A straight vertical burn at maximum throttle the whole time now reaches a speed of 7230m/s, running out of fuel at 1375K Total rocket is now 52 fuel tanks 26 liquid engines 40 solid boosters I've begun reaching problems when I add more to this, but this is the last stable rocket I've made on this theme. edit: This uses couplers and fins and nose cones from addons. Fins made by Jaanus: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=416.0 Couplers and nose cones made by Sunday Punch: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=79.0

What's with the 24 fuel tanks and 6 boosters you jettison at launch? Are those just there to keep it from falling over on the pad before ignition?

You also get a better top speed if you expend your fuel flying sideways once you get to around 25km altitude. It doesn't matter what direction you are going if you're past escape velocity (so long as you don't pass through the atmosphere), and it is a lot more energy to bring all your fuel straight up. This guy explains it:

I have video evidence of it being able to reach the sky in such a way that it never has to fall back down! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYoOrdIiOwc

I am trying to build a big rocket, here is where I am at so far with it: It has 6 stages with engines on it, though there are more stages for jettisoning crap. Each liquid engine has 2 fuel tanks for it. Stage 1: 24 boosters Stage 2: 16 liquid, 8 boosters Stage 3: 4 liquid, 4 boosters Stage 4: 4 liquid, Stage 5: 1 liquid Stage 6: 1 liquid Total rocket is: capsule + parachute 6 SAS modules 52 fuel tanks 26 liquid engines 36 solid boosters 4 big fins Various couplers and decouplers Yes, this flies. Separating the stage of 16 liquid rockets and starting up the next stage requires a bit of a wait or the explosion will kill the boys. I think that I can fit more on it, but I'm getting close to the limit on what can actually be controlled as I fly it. Here's a video of it taking off and getting into orbit. Flying straight up with maximum burn the whole time, the top speed is 7131 m/s, so it is pretty fast as well. This uses couplers and fins and nosecones from addons. Fins made by Jaanus: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=416.0 Couplers and nosecones made by Sunday Punch: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=79.0