Anyone used the "Ant engine" before?

[RogueWraith909]

As the title says.. "Ant" liquid fuel engine... has anyone ever used it and if so what for?

I tried to build a super light probe core rocket but the ant is so weak it cannot lift it in atmo... even if I were to add more fuel tanks to fit more ant's on it'd just increase the mass... which defeats the object...

[TheXRuler]

the place where I use ants is when I need cheap small satellites. I like to do things like, gather 6 "put satellite in orbit x" contracts then launch them all at the same time on a lifter rocket and send them on their way. the tiny weight of this tiny engine means you need less fuel, and when the entire craft weighs .7 tons it feels stupid to put a .5 ton engine (LV909-Terrier) on the back. Also, like I said, it's cheap.

[ajburges]

New Ant is awesome! It has better ISP than the Spark. A simple probe can get over 2 km/s from the smallest LFO tank. All for less than 5 k funds. Accent stage will still be cheap due to the low mass.

Orbital engines typically should not be used in atmosphere. A TWR of .3 can give good burn times, but is woefully lacking for accent stage.

[Sharpy]

See my thread for example of use: precisely deorbiting landers into atmosphere. The tiniest fuel tank + Ant weigh less than the tiniest monopropellant tank + Place Anywhere RCS port and has better parameters too. And it can really nicely adjust the precise drop location.

[SAI Peregrinus]

It's perfect to put one facing up on top of your rocket for Gilly landings. Without the extra force pushing it into the ground landers tend to skip around and run off from the kerbal jumping off the ladder.

[jarmund]

I used it a lot for probes before, and with the new Isp, I'll use it even more. Excellent for small crafts that don't need a lot of thrust. Also good for landers destined for Gilly

[FancyMouse]

Even without consideration of Isp, I still use that for all my satellites for communication network, as there's no better tool for fine tuning the orbit.

[rofltehcat]

Great for satellites and even landers for vacuum targets with low gravity like Minmus. For light landers 1-2 of the Ants or the radially mounted variant have about equal dV as a Terrier engine while having less TWR. For landings there is such a thing as having too much TWR because it can make you hop around needlessly.

Has anyone figured out at what weight/fuel/dVrequired a Terrier starts getting better?

[KSK]

The Ant is too weak to get you off the launchpad but, as others have pointed out, is a great little engine for other purposes. The radial Ant is also a bit weak for a main lifter stage but does just fine as an upper stage if you really want.

I built this as a slightly snarky response to a thread complaining about the engine rebalance.

[kurja]

Used ants for a manned Dres lander, worked a treat.

[Ferdoni]

Put a Oscar-B fuel tankt under a probodobodyne OKTO, a Ant under the Oscar and you have 3000 deltaV!!! Super easy way to position mini probes or mini landers on outer planets

[MarvinKitFox]

ant is so weak it cannot lift it in atmo...

nonononoNONONO!

Ant is not for heavy lifting, nor for atmospheric work.

Think of it as the lighter/cheaper alternative to ion engines, without the worry of power systems.

Ant engine is for very lightweight probe, in space only.

[Andiron]

nope, 4 spider is better, combined with a spark

[Kuu Lightwing]

I use four of the Ant + 2xOscar "boosters" attached radially for my Minmus Science Lander. It has about 1k of Dv and operates off the Minmus Research Station.

[Idrryl]

Even without consideration of Isp, I still use that for all my satellites for communication network, as there's no better tool for fine tuning the orbit.

What about ion?

[Yukon0009]

Ions are still useful, just not as good if you're impatient.

[Chaos_Klaus]

nope, 4 spider is better, combined with a spark

Well that is a rather unusual combination of engines. Also it is comparing apples to oranges. The Spark has way more thrust, but is less efficient.

[SRV Ron]

Great engine for light probes to land on moons and other planets. Under pre 0.90, this cheap rocket on the left made Mun and Duna with the Stayputnik probe.

[FancyMouse]

What about ion?

Ion is too advanced for my early career satellite network. I'm using RemoteTech so have to set up a network as early as possible to enable any unmanned mission. And the max thrust is the same while you need big solar panel to feed the Ion (sure if it's just for fine-tuning you don't need big solar panels, but I also want satellites to be able to circularize its own orbit so I can batch launch, so...). Cost is another consideration but that's less important. Isp is not something I'm concerned about for this purpose.

After thinking through all these points, I still use Ant for the purpose of my communication satellites even after I get Ions.

[Tex_NL]

Put a Oscar-B fuel tankt under a probodobodyne OKTO, a Ant under the Oscar and you have 3000 deltaV!!! Super easy way to position mini probes or mini landers on outer planets

Exactly. Add the required science equipment and antenna and bring to orbit with a fully reusable SSTO cargo plane. Easy money.

[moogoob]

It's for when you need a very, very small and light engine. Satellites, probes, deorbiting, log-gravity landers and so on. I've been trying to use it more! The only bit I dislike about it is that it's the only inline engine with an attachment point but no built-in fairing.