How many huge rockets do I need?

[Wolf Baginski]

There are several sets of 5m rocket parts out there  I have just been fiddling around making a Lander on a SpaceY base  and, with various other parts add-ons, there are several ways of assembling a monster rocket.

Start with the SpaceY pack. It's one of a set of packs by Necrobones which combine into an impressive set.

SpaceY Heavy Lifter Pack

Modular Rocket Systems

Fuel Tanks Plus

Zero-Point Inline Fairings

Color Coded Canisters

It comes together fairly well. As a test, I built a single-stage SpaceY rocket which flew to orbit and then made a controlled landing, finishing with 1000 units of fuel left. I am not sure I need the Color Coded Canisters mod, but I am not sure it seriously affects memory use. I could leave out the Zero-Point Inline Fairings, and that might be a better trade-off.

The next I came across is NovaPunch. It also goes up to 5m diameter, there is a long history, and it looks as though there is a wider range of styles. But perhaps it doesn't have the flexibility of memory use that Necrobones makes so simple.

Either way, there's an advantage to shorter and fatter rockets. They don't wobble so much. I put a Kerbin Station into orbit as a fuel depot, and it was a bit of a hairy ride with the tank diameters I had. It's up there, with the crew, but it would have looked foolhardy to have had crewed launches. Though limiting the acceleration did reduce the wobble.

I am also testing a short and fat lander, based on the smallest 5m tank. I have, for personal RL reasons, a dislike for long vertical ladders. It might be a good base for landing a large rover too. With 15.75 m for radial engines it can have a good TWR. ^[1] ​And it should land much better on slopes.

I know there's something out there for a booster in the style of the Soviet N1, and you could lift something really big into orbit. I keep trawling the Mod sites for interesting stuff, and I know I have missed stuff

So what else is there for the 5m Boosters. And has anyone done anything even bigger?

_{[1] Those multi-engine mounting places in the NecroBones range can be flipped to mount several small items. I shall have to try it, better than radial couplers and stuff.}

[Yukon0009]

I've done 6m in stock (but no pics). Used it to launch a megastation into orbit.

[Van Disaster]

I used NovaPunch 5m parts back in 0.22 days for a few launches - one was a 5 sat Jool launch - possibly the best rocket I've made I think -

and the others were just to lift heavy components for Kerbin system ISRU work, which could probably have been done ok with smaller parts anyway. KW has 5m parts now I think?

[smjjames]

Yeah, KWrocketry has some 5m parts too.

[Wolf Baginski]

I've given the wide lander a workout, a 5m diameter pancake tank with landing legs and radial motors around the rim. It worked well, but it is right at the far right of the science tree. Landing safely on a 12-degree slope on Mun. I was planning to use a booster stage for the return to Kerbin but it needs to be controllable to persist on the map. But there was enough fuel to get back to the KSC with a side-order of aero-braking from the highly elliptical Hohmann transfer.

I may have had a Kraken attack on landing, or run out of fuel at the last moment. I am not sure.