Party Barge

[CrashTestDanny]

Yesterday, I was ready how Cupcake beat me to the punch with a smaller, slicker, and just all-around cooler looking miner than the one I put out there. How can I possibly keep up with such a creative genius?!? And then as I read on, I was inspired by something Cupcake said... "huge behemoths which take the gods very own firecrackers to get into orbit!"

I happened to have a few of those 5m firecrackers laying around... those might do the trick!

And so I set out to launch something truly massive. Now, I know others have built some big stuff and one dude even won the Internet for his unique ringed station design, but I'm not setting out to compete with any of those - I just wanted to launch something really big using some of the gods' very own firecrackers that Cupcake mentioned, maybe have some fun in the process... So without further ado, allow me to present to you The Party Barge!

The photos are entirely of the Party Barge Mk-1, a vessel truly worthy of her name, but with room for improvement (like almost every ship I've ever seen). The photographer got so excited that he transmitted his pics , then docked with Party Barge Mk-1 just before she left Kerbin bound for Duna! We currently have an opening for a new photographer if anyone is interested. Party Barge Mk-2 has been fine-tuned a little to provide more fuel, fewer parts, and a bit more streamlining (although no fairings). Both ships are built on SpaceY tanks and use PorkJet's habitats. Mk-1 uses Procedural Fairings as well. I hope you have as big a party flying them as we have. Both versions have ample fuel and ore storage to take you anywhere you want to go and both launch very cleanly. Both have a generous supply of docking ports and use Rune's modular drive pods and a variation of his Cupola-based light tug for manipulating small parts that have no remote control module. Mk-1 is everything you would expect a Party Barge to be. Big. Bulky. Handles like a small moon. Even with a dozen of so of SpaceY's largest reaction wheel pairs, you need to not be in a hurry to get to your intended attitude. Mk-2 pulls everything in a little to decrease the moment of inertia, but also eliminates most of those reaction wheels in favor of vernor engines around the extremities to provide more torque. You'll use a little fuel doing it, but Mk-2 can turn around quite a bit quicker, allowing you to keep your options open longer.

Both models are available with your choice of flags emblazoned all over their tanks and come in your choice of a stylish black and while paint job or the spectacular white and black color scheme. Whichever you choose, you and your friends will have a great time and look good doing it on a Party Barge!

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Party Barge Mk-1 Craft File

Party Barge Mk-2 Craft File

Oh wait! Did I forget to mention the launch vehicle? This massive grouping of rockets is built almost entirely with SpaceY components beginning with their breathtakingly large F51 tanks, holding 22k units of LF each, topped with conical tanks from Munar Industries, and stacked up on top of two R7 Super-Ratite and six R5 Multi-Ratite engine clusters making a total of 44 R1 Ratite engines giving whichever Party Barge you choose a whopping 144.8MN of thrust. Enough to lift you and your friends to orbit fast. The LV itself carries enough fuel to raise your Party Barge to LKO, but we've cross-fed the contents of the Barge's tanks into the final stage of the LV, so that when you arrive in LKO, you will have 2k + delta-V. Enough to get to Duna where you can launch a mining ship like Big John (or Cupcake's cute little Pickaxe if you want to be at it a while) and refill your tanks for the next leg in your adventure. If you ever complete drain those two stacks on top of the R7 Super Ratite engines, you can stage them off and use the four nuke drive pods for orbital maneuvering, but I just leave them attached and keep refueling them with my mining and refining operations. That way when we decide to move, we get there. FAST!

Please help yourself to a Party Barge or two!

Danny. I wonder if anyone reads these things...

[Rath]

Looks cool

[Rune]

Hehe, I tought I spied some repurposed R-SUV hardware... good! That is exactly why I put it up.

And boy is that a big booster. You certainly don't think small!

Rune. Psss, the Cuppola pod already had a probe core, under the Jr. port... just in case you didn't notice, though you probably added the bigger one for the autopilot.

[CrashTestDanny]

Yeah - I pulled the QBE out and added one with some sass... Been meaning to ask why you use the QBE so much? I prefer the okto if I don't need torque and one of the cores with torque when I do need torque... I guess it's for people who haven't gotten that far on the tech tree yet?

I'm working on something to take on the stock heavy lift challenge, but I keep hitting problems when my part count gets too high...