1.0.5 Solid to the Mun

[DancesWithSquirrels]

Yes, yes, I'm _far_ from the first to do this. But heck, was it fun to do it myself! Based on the British Interplanetary Society solid fuel moon rocket design, complete with a bit of RCS for fine adjustments and pretty much all attitude control out of the atmosphere.

Here's the album.

Edited June 25, 2020 by DancesWithSquirrels
Better image and Imgur album insertion

[WillThe84th]

I was doing a career mode game in a 5x Kerbol system, and I was running out of funds, so I made an all solid booster that would bring a kerbal into orbit. I had some issues with reentry because of the lack of fine precision thrusting.

[DancesWithSquirrels]

1 minute ago, WillThe84th said:

I was doing a career mode game in a 5x Kerbol system, and I was running out of funds, so I made an all solid booster that would bring a kerbal into orbit. I had some issues with reentry because of the lack of fine precision thrusting.

The fixed dV per stage is a bit clumsy, but I found it possible to get the orbital changes I wanted by either changing the altitude of the burn (adjustment a la Oberth efficiency) or to accept a bit of normal or radial dV thrown away to get the prograde/retrograde I wanted. 

[WillThe84th]

2 minutes ago, DancesWithSquirrels said:

The fixed dV per stage is a bit clumsy, but I found it possible to get the orbital changes I wanted by either changing the altitude of the burn (adjustment a la Oberth efficiency) or to accept a bit of normal or radial dV thrown away to get the prograde/retrograde I wanted. 

 It's a bit harder in a circular orbit, and besides, this was before I had sepratrons.

The kerbal made it home safely, if you were wondering.

Edited April 13, 2016 by WillThe84th

[DancesWithSquirrels]

1 minute ago, WillThe84th said:

 It's a bit harder in a circular orbit, and besides, this was before I had sepratrons.

The other method I've seen (Scott Manly did this) is to set your reentry or adjustment boosters to a low thrust, watch what you're doing in the map mode, and start tumbling the ship when you get close - the rest of the dV will average out close to zero.

[Stratzenblitz75]

Ahh, SRBs are quite fun indeed!

Some tips I've learned in my SRB adventures:

1: Seperatrons are great for fine-tuning. All you have to know is how much Delta-V they give your ship, and then you create a maneuver node with exactly that much delta-V (Adding radial or normal components as necessary)

2: You can fine tune interplanetary transfers by timing the ejection burn. A split-second change in when you start your burn can influence your ejection angle, and thus, your solar trajectory. With enough quick-loading and quick-saving, you can find the exact timing that will give you an encounter.

3: You don't have to do a powered landing. On airless bodies with low gravity such as the Mun, or Eeloo, you can build a lithobraking landing system that can take hits of up to 100 m/s. On planets with atmospheres such as Eve or Duna, you can use wings.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Well done
 

[hoojiwana]

I don't know if I have the patience for planning out an all SRB mission, nicely done.

Moved thread to Mission Reports.

[DancesWithSquirrels]

27 minutes ago, hoojiwana said:

I don't know if I have the patience for planning out an all SRB mission, nicely done.

Moved thread to Mission Reports.

Aha! I knew there was somewhere more appropriate!