JWebb

How does the collider mesh of the NP payload faitrings look?

Hi, the lesson I learned from my rocket designs is: - keep it simple - reduce dead mass to a minimum. A consequence from that is not to use too many stages. The idea behind staging is to get rid of dead mass once tanks become empty. But every stage has its own dead mass consisting of decoupler and engines that compares to the dead mass of empty (!!) tanks. So it is worth to check the mass of each component and see whether an additional stage adds more Isp or not. You will soon end up having only a small number of bigger stages because the mass of decouplers + engines is significantly higher than the mass of an empty tank. That means you better can afford to carry several empty tanks with you for a while instead of having several small stages. This is basically what I used to design my 3-stage-to-Mun (and back) rocket.

Hi, flying to Mun and back is possible with stock-parts. I did it with my own rocket built with the stock parts before I became aware that there are mods... My lander was quite similar to the one shown here (using 4 wings as landing gear) but it had two tanks in order to be able to fly back and have the luxury of some spare fuel... But however I tested a couple of different lander designs and rockets. The best design was finally the lightest one. Anyway too many stages are not good for the delta v you need for getting to Mun. Actualy may rocket had a total of only three stages including the lander: 1. stage: 3 boosers, each consisting of: 5 x tanks, one wing, tri-coupler, 3 x the big engine. 2. stage: 3x4 tanks, 3 big engines combined at the top with one tri-coupler. The booster are connected at the lower end with each one side coupler. 3. stage (the lander): SAS, RCS tank, 4 RCS thruster, 2 x tank, 4 side coupler (triggered together with the final coupler releasing the capsule mounted as far down as possible at the bottom), 4 wings (attached to the side coupler), one small engine. Atop of that the capusle + chute.