Need a heavy lifter!!

[RealDarko]

Can someone recommend a heavy rocket capable of carrying heavy lifts? If Is posible to include the rocket ready to load even better, stock will be better If is possible. And If is a familiy of rockets even better so is possible to launch from small to very large payloads to space.

Thanks a lot!

[Freshmeat]

1) How heavy is heavy? I consider 50t heavy, but others will set that at 200t.

2) Try the spacecraft exchange part of the forum.

Edited October 30, 2016 by Freshmeat

[TheRagingIrishman]

@RealDarko SpaceY and SpaceY extended add 3.75, 5, and 7.5 meter rockets to the game. 

 

[Jonfliesgoats]

I have a reliable fifty ton lifter, but it's earlyish tech.  It has a cost to orbit of 3000/ton before you add in the cost of your payload itself.

what parts do you have available and what troubles are you having with your rocket?

[katateochi]

Here's a bunch on KerbalX -  stock lifters with 'heavy' in their name, from the last two KSP versions and sorted by download count.
You might want to change the search filters to find others to suit your needs.

[RealDarko]

Unlocked mode, so all parts available, for weight, I need something that can life a lander capable of reaching and returning to Duna, Minmus the Mun and the internal planets. Also probes capable of reaching the other bodies.

 

Thanks for the link to KerbalX, looks like a great site!!

[KerikBalm]

Heck, for Minmus you can SSTO there and back, no need for a lifter.

For mun, you can get there and back in a single stage from LKO for well under 10 tons.

For duna, you should probably go Apollo style, but it doesn't take much. Just off the top of my head, I'd say less than 15 tons.

For the "internal planets", I assume you mean inner planets... as in Eve and Moho.... If all you want is a flyby, that's fine.

To land on and return? Well, lets just say that if you need help just getting to Mun/Minmus/Duna and back, Eve and Moho returns are going to be too difficult.

 

[Jonfliesgoats]

How are you budgeting your delta v?  Perhaps a little bit of adjustment in your design and mission plan could relieve you from lugging so much mass skywards?

Edited October 30, 2016 by Jonfliesgoats

[Vanamonde]

This exchange of spacecraft has been moved to Spacecraft Exchange. 

[He_162]

I have a good lifter, not quite sure the maximum tons to orbit, but it's quite a bit, I'd try 150- 200 for you.
https://kerbalx.com/He_162/He964

Then I also have a 510 ton lifter, but it's hard to fly, so it has to be a really serious cargo.

https://kerbalx.com/He_162/He965

[AeroGav]

16 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

 

For duna, you should probably go Apollo style, but it doesn't take much. Just off the top of my head, I'd say less than 15 tons.

 

23 Ton craft that can go to the surface of Duna and back again 

https://kerbalx.com/AeroGav/WhippyNerv-IIi

The version i linked is improved from this video, has RCS and a docking adapter.

A larger ship with room for 6 Kerbals,  docking and mining capability 

https://kerbalx.com/AeroGav/Nostromo

36 Kerbal passenger liner https://kerbalx.com/AeroGav/Kerboliner-Stretch-36-Super

 

[KerikBalm]

1 hour ago, AeroGav said:

23 Ton craft that can go to the surface of Duna and back again

and what was the mass in LKO? since he's asking for a lifter to get a payload to LKO, and that payload should be able to go to Duna and back.

Also, he's clearly new at this, so the lander should be relatively easy to land, and have good dV margins.

Horizontal landings on Duna are quite difficult. Ideally for a person that isn't very experienced, you'd want a craft with drogue chutes (because they can deploy sooner), and main chutes.... and of course some rockets for a soft landing since landing just on chutes takes a lot of mass.

[Freshmeat]

14 hours ago, He_162 said:

I have a good lifter, not quite sure the maximum tons to orbit, but it's quite a bit, I'd try 150- 200 for you.
https://kerbalx.com/He_162/He964

Then I also have a 510 ton lifter, but it's hard to fly, so it has to be a really serious cargo.

https://kerbalx.com/He_162/He965

The He-965 look absolutely ridiculously overpowered. Must try to replicate BTW why not asparagus the outer orange stacks separately? Drain too fast to make it possible, or loosing to much engine power early?

[AeroGav]

1 hour ago, KerikBalm said:

and what was the mass in LKO? since he's asking for a lifter to get a payload to LKO, and that payload should be able to go to Duna and back.

Also, he's clearly new at this, so the lander should be relatively easy to land, and have good dV margins.

Horizontal landings on Duna are quite difficult. Ideally for a person that isn't very experienced, you'd want a craft with drogue chutes (because they can deploy sooner), and main chutes.... and of course some rockets for a soft landing since landing just on chutes takes a lot of mass.

22 tons takeoff weight and about 14 tons in LKO.   I don't think horizontal landings are all that hard if the ship is designed right.   That means it needs enough wing area to have a stall speed under 30 m/s on Kerbin when lightly loaded, some vernier lift engines to use for upward lift, and a good arrangement of landing gear. The landing gear part is the most difficult for me, because i don't  have any knowledge of automobile suspension/handling,  how to tweak spring and damper rates to minimise bouncing,  or how best to place the wheels to increase stability.  I just use my experience of kerbal aerodynamics to try and keep the impact energy down.

You can also quicksave just above the surface if you do think it'll take a few goes.  The crashes are always entertaining, but once i've found the pitch angle and landing speed that works i can pull it off 10 times out of 10

[KerikBalm]

Well in my experience, finding an acceptable place to land can be a challenge itself. I also have rear mounted chutes to deploy right on touchdown for braking, because wheel brakes can really screw things up.

but even using chutes, ive had trouble id i place them behind and below the CoM because then it pulls the nose down, which is bad for wheel stability.

I'll post a couple pics later from a landing on a modded planet with Duna-like landing conditions (Atmo is ~66% thicker, gravity is ~40% higher)

[RealDarko]

Guy some amazing rockets!! But how can you merge two ships? Everytime I try to merge my landers os stations parts, cannot be attached inside the clamshell capsules, so I cannot merge both ships. I get the green balls inside the clamshells, but I cannot attach my ship there, even If it has attacheable points, I never can get it to attach both ships there (I can on any other part, but not inside the capsule). Also, how I can avoid the "scaffold" inside the clamshell capsule? It seems my ships are glued to the scaffold, and once I deploy the clamshells the scaffold is still there with my part attached to it.

P.S. Is there any mod that uses some kind of rope to attach your kerbals during EVA? I lost a Kerbal once out there cause those guys are never attached to their capsules.

Edited October 31, 2016 by RealDarko

[Shikashi]

@Freshmeat Once brought a near 300t station part to minmus, not near endgame, did it with a huge amount of skippers and a cloak of SRBs

[Gilph]

Search for the Kestrel lifters on kerbalx.  I use them all the time.  can usually add or remove tanks to get them just right for your crafts.

[septemberWaves]

My Raven IV 724 (below) can take up to an orange tank to orbit with ease, and can dock a payload to something in orbit if the payload has no independent control. It is pretty heavily modded, but it looks very good and is very reliable, especially when using MechJeb's ascent guidance. If you want to try it out I can provide a download link and mod list.

Later today I plan to finalize the design of the Raven V, which should be able to take at least 75 tonnes to orbit if my estimates are correct. If not, I'll make a couple of variants, which I may also provide download links for if wanted (I'm going to do so anyway in my main thread anyway, but not until later when I have more completed designs).

Edited October 31, 2016 by eloquentJane

[RealDarko]

I apreciatte your help guys, but I'm lost with my clamshell problem.

[septemberWaves]

The fairings can be a pain at times. If you right click on the fairing base, there is an option to turn off the interstage nodes (the green attachment points) and interstage truss (the scaffold that appears inside the fairing).

If you want to merge two rockets, you need to ensure that the rocket that you have loaded in the VAB initially has a free attachment point where you want to attach the new one (for a launch vehicle, this will usually mean there should be a free attachment node inside the fairing). The one that you load in to merge with the existing rocket (by going to the "open" tab and clicking "merge") must have a part with a free attachment point as the root part. For example, if you make a lander and then make a command pod, and you want to attach the lander to the command pod by its docking port, the root part of the lander must be that docking port. Otherwise, you cannot attach it directly when you merge it with the command pod. Similarly, if you have saved a launch vehicle as a subassembly (which I highly recommend doing when you have a reliable design that you're happy with), you'll want the root part to be the fairing base, because that's where you attach a payload from.

[eagle92lightning]

I suggest for even manned missions two of the big kerbodyne fuel tanks and 1 mammoth liquid fuel rocket engine and two or more kickback srb's. It will give the most powerful rocket ever to exist the SLS or space launch system.

On ‎10‎/‎31‎/‎2016 at 6:26 AM, Freshmeat said:

The He-965 look absolutely ridiculously overpowered. Must try to replicate BTW why not asparagus the outer orange stacks separately? Drain too fast to make it possible, or loosing to much engine power early?

I you want realistic game play I wouldn't use asparagus staging it doesn't work with real physics.

[He_162]

On 10/31/2016 at 5:26 AM, Freshmeat said:

The He-965 look absolutely ridiculously overpowered. Must try to replicate BTW why not asparagus the outer orange stacks separately? Drain too fast to make it possible, or loosing to much engine power early?

It loses too much engine power, it needs a 1.5 t/w ratio to get into orbit, and losing 8 vectors is a drastic loss of thrust.

I also like the Korolev cross.

Edited November 3, 2016 by He_162

[He_162]

I just made this new heavy lifter, it's reusable too, and very easy to fly!

 

It weighs 651 tons when fully loaded, and it can land the first stage on any fuel load, or altitude from space (provided you got it there with over 1200 m/s of fuel).