SRB uses.

[ryan234abc]

Lately I have begun to use SRB's (solid rocket boosters) for more than just assisting launches. Mainly, I have been using Fleas to kill speed and place myself on sub-orbital trajectories. I have found the precision rewarding when it pays off, and SRB's can be used, detached and forgotten. My question today is : how do YOU use SRB's, for purposes other than launching? Don't forget to +rep anything you like posted here!

[KerbMav]

To help with launching.

And maybe as a real stage if it helps with the part limit.

[Wjolcz]

I used SRBs to land a big, Antonov-like plane on the smaller island runway. It was super easy to setup with KER. Did a flyby as slow as I could, rememberd the numbers and set the SRBs to have the dV of the lowest speed I could achieve while approaching the runway. Fired the boosters, the caps covering them went flying and stopped way before the control tower.

Big puff of smoke

Taxiing to the hangars

Edited July 3, 2015 by Veeltch

[ryan234abc]

I used SRBs to land a big, Antonov-like plane on the smaller island runway.

Very nice! Its hard to incorporate SRB's into planes. I like this a lot!

[Sharpy]

Oh, the early game... Test Flea on escape trajectory from Kerbin. Test Radial Decoupler on escape trajectory from Kerbin. And just Hammer at my disposal.

Then: Test BACC in atmospheric flight of Kerbin (specific altitude, speed).

Oh, yeah.

30 parts limit. 10 BACC first stage, decoupler. 7 BACC 2nd stage, decoupler. 4 BACC 3rd stage, decoupler. 1 BACC 4th stage, Decoupler. 1 Flea, 1 Stayputnik, 2 Radial Decouplers.

It almost reached Sun low orbit.

[Feradose]

I use sepratrons (theyre SRB too!) to help me get rid of my SRB cluster stages/boosters (when the smallest cluster is six kickbacks you need the sepratrons).

Maybe using sepratrons to help with munar probe landing, as its ruggedized body is resistant up to 75m/s.

[Chaos_Klaus]

I generally don't bring SRBs to space. Their Isp is so low that they are just too heavy for the little delta v they give. Lower stages get too large because of that. The one thing SRBs are good at is producing lots of thrust for cheap. I almost never launch something without SRBs.

[tutike2000]

- Fleas when your Separatrons just aren't big enough.

- Suborbital tourist cash grinding.

- Deorbiting lifter stages that end up having too much fuel in them

[322997am]

I stopped using srbs at one point in career. They are just to unreliable. 90%of my launch crashes were with srbs running. Asparagus staging can throttle down in an emergency.

[Caelib]

SRBs aren't efficient for anything but a first stage, but if you don't care about efficiency then OK

[Temeter]

I'm playing Real Solar System and always use them on the first stage. I prefer to make an oversized and underpowered lower stage, which is assisted by some SRBs that detach as soon as the T/W ratio of the mid section is enough to fly. Basically the scummy exploiting real rocket systems like the Ariane 5 or SLS do.

[Kuu Lightwing]

I'm playing Real Solar System and always use them on the first stage. I prefer to make an oversized and underpowered lower stage, which is assisted by some SRBs that detach as soon as the T/W ratio of the mid section is enough to fly. Basically the scummy exploiting real rocket systems like the Ariane 5 or SLS do.

Hey, I do that for heavy lifters in stock!

[RAINCRAFTER]

I Put SRBs in the side Boosters on my Voyager Replica.

And I once tried to get to orbit and back with just SRBs.

(I failed.)

[Temeter]

Hey, I do that for heavy lifters in stock!

Jep, most of that Stuff translates very well into stock. Which is ofc one of KSP strengths anyway.

[Kuu Lightwing]

I Put SRBs in the side Boosters on my Voyager Replica.

And I once tried to get to orbit and back with just SRBs.

(I failed.)

There was a reddit challenge to land on the mun with only solid fuel. I did it, but it was before 1.0, though...

Apparently I did it twice: http://imgur.com/a/Polbt

Edited July 3, 2015 by Kuu Lightwing

[clivman]

Why does everyone on the forum call it a SRB? If you don't use it as a booster its a Solid Rocket Motor(SRM)

[Temeter]

Why does everyone on the forum call it a SRB? If you don't use it as a booster its a Solid Rocket Motor(SRM)

All SRMs are SRBs or Sepratrons by design, though, people just don't care.

[jkool702]

Why does everyone on the forum call it a SRB? If you don't use it as a booster its a Solid Rocket Motor(SRM)

because MOAR BOOSTERS sounds better than more solid rocket motors

[Goddess Bhavani]

Besides, any mention of SRMs would quickly lead to a massive exchange of fire from huge robotic war machines from the 31st Century spewing pulse laser blasts and salvoes of SRM-6s streaking off their shoulder racks.

[stibbons]

Almost all of my launches, especially the smaller missions, use exclusively SRBs for the first stage. A satellite booster will have a single LFO stack with 2 or 4 radial SRBs, and they'll use SRB power to get up to around 10km altitude. I'll even stagger them - a Mun satellite might have a launch vehicle with two radial SRBs throttled back to 50% and two throttled back to 25%, staged to detach each pair when they're out of fuel. That can easily get you to 20km with some practice, and needs not much fuel to get to orbit after that.

[KerikBalm]

I moved to 100% recoverable launchers... ie, basically SSTOs...

But not everything was an SSTO. Some payloads I could only manage a vertical launch, or needed more thrust on launch.

So I used them as RATO packs.

I didn't take a screen shot of the launcher on the runway... but here are the RATO packs (it was a vertical, tail sitting launch) left on the runway...

I used the runway because if I used the launchpad, they wouldn't land on it, as I pitch forward after lighting them.

This thing would not be able to launch vertically from kerbin without them:

Its a duna lander/ascent vehicle... winged for the ability to land in a more precise spot, also the cross formed by the wings at the back provides a stable base to make it less likely to tip over (It lands as a tail sitter).

100% recovery of launcher parts... it just wouldn't work without the SRBs.

The RATO packs need to be exhuasted and jettissoned so that they land on the runway, and do so before they are out of physics range. Liquid fuel engines would have lots of engine mass per unit fuel mass to achieve this high thrust, but small ∆V task.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

I never brought SRB's to Orbit but I found it very interesting to use them for a large way into Space as they are really really cheap compared to their Performances (But also really heavy).

Check out the Ares Rocket Family.

Edited July 3, 2015 by MalfunctionM1Ke

[mkabla]

[Space.exe]

Well sometimes i use them to get out of a planets SOI to go back to kerbin!

[SaturnianBlue]

I clip them into tanks to make big solid rocket boosters and just used them as well, boosters. Nice for small rocket central stages, and sometimes, if you know the delta v values well, as a orbital kick motor (think Star 48 IRL)