Probe Delivery Advice

[Qwarkk]

So I'm undergoing a mission to put a probe in orbit around every planet & moon in the system. 

Trouble is, I can't find design a delivery system for the probes that i like the look of. So 2 questions really:

Is there a mod which has a specific probe mount part? 

How do you guys launch probes, cargo bags / stacking with decouples / any other ideas?

I need inspiration

[wibou7]

Not sure what you are looking for exactly but... I usually make sure my probe get there with their fuel untouched. Since probes are usually very light-weight (Xenon is your friend), a single LV-N with one FT-800 1.25m fuel tank is usually enough to get anywhere. There is usually fuel left even after the orbit insertion burn so if something goes wrong, I can always use the probe delta-V to save the mission.

As for the whole rocket... Such a simple assembly can usually be put into orbit with some SRB-25 and a single orange tank with a MainSail. The payload simply sits on top.

 

 

[CitizenVeen]

9 hours ago, Qwarkk said:

So I'm undergoing a mission to put a probe in orbit around every planet & moon in the system. 

Trouble is, I can't find design a delivery system for the probes that i like the look of. So 2 questions really:

Is there a mod which has a specific probe mount part? 

How do you guys launch probes, cargo bags / stacking with decouples / any other ideas?

I need inspiration

You mean you don't like the look of eastheticly? Or you can't get enough delta-V to reach the planets you want?

And are you launching a new rocket for every body (planet or moon), or you want to get all of them in 1 single vessel, which drops a probe at every body ? (this could be very very hard).

If you mean aetheticly, get procedural fairings and procedural parts, procedural parts adds a special new part in many catagories (decouplers, fuel tanks, SRBs, etc), which is completely redesignable, size, looks, power, etc.

[Qwarkk]

3 minutes ago, CitizenVeen said:

You mean you don't like the look of eastheticly? Or you can't get enough delta-V to reach the planets you want?

And are you launching a new rocket for every body (planet or moon), or you want to get all of them in 1 single vessel, which drops a probe at every body ? (this could be very very hard).

If you mean aetheticly, get procedural fairings and procedural parts, procedural parts adds a special new part in many catagories (decouplers, fuel tanks, SRBs, etc), which is completely redesignable, size, looks, power, etc.

DV isn't an issue, just the aesthetics. I hate opening a fairing and seeing a stack of probes on top of each other. 

[CitizenVeen]

You can build something with modular girder segments (the structural parts), on which you can put multiple decouplers for probes.

I made something like this when I wanted to launch two huge satelites that could reach the entire Kerbol system at the same time (for the Remote Tech mob, check it out, it really adds to the game):

http://imgur.com/vKRPkhq

Also, you can mount 4-6 satalites on the multipoint-adapter (this thing), or add 2 togheter with a Modular Girder segment, for even more. Did that help?

 

[Geschosskopf]

2 hours ago, Qwarkk said:

DV isn't an issue, just the aesthetics. I hate opening a fairing and seeing a stack of probes on top of each other. 

What I do for multiple probes is use one of the 2.5m -to (several) 1.25m adaptors.  Turn this upside down, stick it on top of the rocket, and put the 0.625m decouplers on each attach point.  Then bring in your probes (which you built previously) as subassemblies and put them on the decouplers.  The build a fairing around that.  Here's an example.

Alternatively, if the probes are small enough, you can do like the SpaceX just did.  Attach the probes radially to a long central girder.

[Snark]

1 hour ago, Geschosskopf said:

Alternatively, if the probes are small enough, you can do like the SpaceX just did.  Attach the probes radially to a long central girder.

This.

One handy bit of geometry:  if your probes fit in a 1.25m footprint, you can mount them radially around a 0.625m central stack attached by radial decouplers, and they still fit inside the shadow of a 3.75m heatshield.  Four such probes will fit around the central shaft.  So for example, if you're heading to Jool, you can stack up 8 such probes (two sets of four, one above the other) fairly compactly, and use the big honkin' heatshield to aerocapture before separating off the probes.