He3000 ton lifter STOCK!

[He_162]

The largest lifter I have made to date (in terms of payload) but the smallest lifter I have made to take more than 1000 tons to orbit (in terms of part count)
<700 parts (with dummy cargo) (648 parts)
>17% weight to orbit
<7 kerbucks per ton
(cheapest $/ton of any rocket on KerbalX that doesn't use asparagus staging)

If anyone designs a "engine" stage for the fuel tank that serves as a dummy payload, you can do a grand tour with this.

~Payload and first stage were modified (original had 3 stages, this version has two stages, this is due to a corruption of my craft files, that caused me to have to rebuild the entire rocket from scratch, hence the delay in the release of my 1,500 ton, and 3000 ton lifters.)

I apologize for this delay, it has taken me half a year to learn the proper game mechanics to develop this rocket, and I am proud to show it to you guys! Just keep in mind what you see in the pictures is only very slightly different from the actual rocket (taller dummy cargo, and only two stages vs 3 (some outer engine clusters are detachable in the previous version, but I didn't see more than a 1% increase in efficiency, so I just got rid of it to lower part count), so it's not noticeably different.)

Edited October 21, 2017 by He_162

[Majorjim!]

Damn... Thats a lot of fuel! Even if not used for a grand tour that will serve as an excellent orbital fuel depot. Great work mate!

[He_162]

11 hours ago, Majorjim! said:

Damn... Thats a lot of fuel! Even if not used for a grand tour that will serve as an excellent orbital fuel depot. Great work mate!

Thanks! It took a little while, and I had a lot of difficulties, but I think I can scale this down to create multiple smaller, more efficient rockets as well, or I could scale it up to possible become reusable!

[PaperAviator]

Try attaching parachutes to the lower stages. A mostly recoverable 3000 ton lifter!

[He_162]

1 hour ago, PaperAviator said:

Try attaching parachutes to the lower stages. A mostly recoverable 3000 ton lifter!

I didn't add nosecones to keep the total weight down, and keep the costs low.

AS a result, it takes 34% of it's weight to orbit, and costs 6.7 kerbucks per ton to launch, provided you fit 3000 tons of cargo on there. This is a very incredible craft, that has taken me over a year to complete.

[Majorjim!]

34% is amazing!

 I don't think peeps realise just what a feat of engineering this is! Someone has to make this into a huge grand tour vehicle.

[linuxgurugamer]

What version of KSP was this designed for?

[Azimech]

12 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

What version of KSP was this designed for?

Version 1.3.1.

[He_162]

3 hours ago, Majorjim! said:

34% is amazing!

 I don't think peeps realise just what a feat of engineering this is! Someone has to make this into a huge grand tour vehicle.

I would agree, I don't think people do much looking into percentage of weight to orbit as a measure of efficiency.

3 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

What version of KSP was this designed for?

Azimech is not correct, it's actually 1.3.0, but i'll see if it works in 1.3.1.

3 hours ago, Azimech said:

Version 1.3.1.

0.0.1 off, sir!

I think I have finalized the OP, it states what it needs to, and showcases my rocket well enough now, I'll work on a better "look" for my future craft uploads here, and by better look, I mean I want to make it easy to read and sum up what my stuff is about in a few short bullets.

[linuxgurugamer]

5 minutes ago, He_162 said:

I would agree, I don't think people do much looking into percentage of weight to orbit as a measure of efficiency.

Azimech is not correct, it's actually 1.3.0, but i'll see if it works in 1.3.1.

0.0.1 off, sir!

I think I have finalized the OP, it states what it needs to, and showcases my rocket well enough now, I'll work on a better "look" for my future craft uploads here, and by better look, I mean I want to make it easy to read and sum up what my stuff is about in a few short bullets.

It did work in 1.3.1

Very nice, but will it work with nosecones?

[He_162]

Just now, linuxgurugamer said:

It did work in 1.3.1

Very nice, but will it work with nosecones?

To keep the cost per ton below 7 funds, I didn't add nosecones, but if you want to add them, go ahead!

With lifters this large, you don't need to worry much about aerodynamics, because any efforts at increasing it's aerodynamics are lost in the increase in weight and cost of the rocket, forcing you to build it larger, and thus use more engines, which cost lots of $$$.

So to keep costs low, and efficiency high, I did not use nosecones.

[linuxgurugamer]

11 hours ago, He_162 said:

To keep the cost per ton below 7 funds, I didn't add nosecones, but if you want to add them, go ahead!

With lifters this large, you don't need to worry much about aerodynamics, because any efforts at increasing it's aerodynamics are lost in the increase in weight and cost of the rocket, forcing you to build it larger, and thus use more engines, which cost lots of $$$.

So to keep costs low, and efficiency high, I did not use nosecones.

Worked well with nosecones, didn’t cost much in dV

[Planetace]

Looks at Oberth

Its time for you to be used...

Edited October 16, 2017 by Planetace

[He_162]

8 hours ago, Galacticvoyager said:

Looks at Oberth

Its time for you to be used...

7kT isn't much, I've already developed one in the WIP section of the forum, I've just been too lazy to post it in it's own thread.

[Mr. Peabody]

Does that rocket melt your computer or what?

[He_162]

1 hour ago, The Dunatian said:

Does that rocket melt your computer or what?

It's only 648 parts, I have lifters with over 1,700+.

[Planetace]

5 hours ago, The Dunatian said:

Does that rocket melt your computer or what?

He_162 is the only KSP player with the capability of running craft with 2000 parts, and the patience. Its kinda annoying, really.