sardia

I think I can cheap out a bit more here, replace the command module with a probe core, that should lighten the top stage. Indeed, I neglected to put a heat shield. I don't believe the hitch hiker is known for its heat tolerance, so I'll add that. Normally I just turn my engine stage as the shield but that's not the case here. The throttled srb stage lifts me high enough that the second stage has a twr of 1.1. There's 3900 delta v in the first two stages, minus the atmospheric inefficiencies. Note how ker engineer is set to atmospheric delta v, while mech jeb is not. Slashy noted earlier that a rocket doesn't need steering fins, just gimbal and SAS. So I ditched them to save cost. Not sure if the last stage can escape the moon and go home. I might just send a proper rescue craft once it gets to lko.

The engine doesn't calculate atmospheric drag on parts unless you focus on them. It just autodeletes items that get too close to a planet without actually calculating it. It's a neat trick if your ship is going to burn up on your next PE, you can switch to the space center, and timewarp past the atmospheric stage, which buys you more time to raise your orbit above the atmosphere. You have to plan ahead a bit though.

Didn't Slashy and Co. already crunch the numbers on this? SSTO Spaceplane for crew/tiny cargo to LKO, and rockets for everything else?

This is a the rocket I built for a 4 man rescue attempt + moon landing. Can I make this any cheaper or more efficient? There's up to 4 kerbals I can rescue, all orbiting kerbal and the moon. In addition, I have a moon landing contract as well. I did the trick where I used a decoupler main stage as a cheap radial first stage. I don't suppose I should just strap on another stage of boosters? Google+v2 Imgur

I also vouch for the kis and kas system more. It lets you salvage almost perfect missions. And let's you upgrade ships.

It's not worthy it. It's like 1000$ per thousand fuel. And only liquid fuel is worthy. Ore,oxidizer and mono are almost worthless.

http://www.science20.com/hammock_physicist/swimming_through_empty_space This is the only known pure electric drive I've heard of. It relies on the fact that true space is non-euclidean, and results in a degenerative breast stroke type motion to move around.

What if we used wings and srb to push us into a fast gravity turn? Then we could be at 20000 and 1000m/s+

Say we went with a light payload, like a small sat. What do we gain over ditching just engines into the ocean vs a srb?

Would using Jet Engines as a first stage yield benefits beyond what a SSTO would, or does it suffer from the same problems as SSTO? It would definitely take longer, and the savings wouldn't be as good. Has anyone tried it recently?

It's better to have a refueling station in LKO instead of minmus orbit? The delta v savings outweigh the free delta v you got from burning to minmus and refueling there? It's so little delta v to burn into the solar system. Can you explain?

The kr 2 combined engine and fuel tank needs radiators it you asparagus stage 4 tanks of fuel.

Ditch the decoupler. Instead, use the ground to decoupler the track from the cockpit.

The mining comment got me thinking on a tangent, so I took out a miner worth 100,000$, and brought along a 10,000 fuel tank. Couple tips, ore and oxidizer are almost worthless, just mine the liquid fuel. It's worth 80% of the value, so 10,000 tank gets me 8000 at 100% return. So theortically, if you were poor, you could restart your space program selling fuel mined from Kerbin, 8-16k at a time.

Sell your reputation for cash.

Go slower, and add fuel to compensate.

Ah, there was a central booster, so it's really a 5 pack. What's the point of the central adapter than? To provide occlusion? Why not just do a central SRB surrounded by SRBs and have that central SRB decoupled?

I tried attaching the 4x SRBs to the adapter you used, and to a science module radially, but it was super noodly and fell apart. Can you elaborate on how it's suppose to look? How did you get it so strong?

Were your changes ever incorporated? It doesn't look like it.

Curse this optimization thread. I was browsing through my oldest rockets to find the one that works best for my payload when I started to notice how outdated they allk were. Unshielded unoccluded cores, struts everywhere, half a dozen fins per stage... I ended up getting lost redesigning all the rockets that I never launched my polar satellite.

I dunno how fair it is to strip out all those "unneeded" parts. With a low TWR, are fins entirely unneeded? And yes, I meant KSP.

Use the KAS attachment system mod, so you can attach them after you get to space, and stow them away when you go back. Fun times.

I'm not sure what this implies for our space program. Am I just too tired to get it? What's the cheapest and reliable way to get a payload to space via rockets?

If you have the spare delta v/fuel, go slower. The benefit to this solution is it requires no design changes. (as you go slower, there's less flip inducing drag on your nose) which buys you more altitude, which reduces drag, which gets you faster, which gets you higher, which gets you less drag...

Slashy, I noticed you used tilted adapters and nose cones, is that to get it to align with the mk3 body? Aka, does that reduce the drag you were talking about?