[0.16][STOCK] Triton 03 Mun Rocket

[pebble_garden]

This rocket has plenty of delta-v, with sufficient fuel in the lander for more demanding Munar operations, or that extra margin of descent safety for new pilots.

In all my flights it has proven very stable, and handles well.

It has been tested in both vanilla 0.16 and with the unofficial fuel-consumpution bug hotfix.

Flight profile:

1. On the pad: throttle to one stop short of full. Engage ASAS. Launch.

2. Jettison SRBs on burnout and continue ascent with stage 1.

3. 10km alt: begin gentle pitch-over to 45 degree climb on 90 degree heading, ending around 14-15 km altitude.

4. Throttle to idle when apoapsis reaches 85km.

5. Use coast period to rotate ship to 5 degree below horizon, anticipating level attitude upon reaching apoapsis. Use one notch of throttle briefly for steering authority if needed. Otherwise just take it slow.

6. At T-45 seconds to apoapsis, use remaining stage 1 fuel in orbital burn. Throttle to idle. Jettison stage 1.

7. Cancel any spin incurred during jettison. Engage stage-lock. Continue stage 2 burn when stabilized.

8. Engine to idle when orbit is circularized.

9. Burn prograde when Trans-Munar Injection point reached. Reduce throttle as apoapsis nears Munar orbit.

10. Engine to idle when trajectory shows entry into Munar sphere of influence, perimun altitude of your choice.

11. Coast to Munar encounter.

12. Retroburn to enter Munar orbit, using the last of stage 2's fuel. Disengage stage-lock and jettison when empty. Re-engage stage-lock and continue Munar Orbital Insertion burn on lander fuel.

13. Lower gear and land as desired. Keep touchdown velocity below 5 m/sec.

14. Take off using remainder of descent engine fuel. With stage-lock disengaged, jettison descent fuel pods when depleted. Re-engage stage-lock and continue Munar ejection burn.

15. Fly backwards along the Mun's orbit until the trajectory shows escape to Kerbin's sphere of influence. Coast until that point.

16. Once in Kerbin's SOI, continue retroburn until periapsis is about 17-20km above Kerbin's surface.

17. Coast to reentry point. Release stage-lock and jettison remaining stage.

18. Passive aerobrake and reentry. Release chute about 3km above surface.

Edited September 11, 2012 by pebble_garden

[AmpsterMan]

That is a very nice, simple, and effective 1 man lander. Me likes

[pebble_garden]

That is a very nice, simple, and effective 1 man lander. Me likes

Thanks, I'm proud of my strut work in this design, and the arrangement of the stages.

[Rawific]

Looks good. I personally like 1 manned capsules the best, mainly because they are easier to work with.

[pebble_garden]

Looks good. I personally like 1 manned capsules the best, mainly because they are easier to work with.

I agree, the three-seat capsules require such huge launch vehicles and I feel the new, larger rocket parts aren't as well-tuned as the smaller ones. Especially with the fuel-consumption bug hotfix, which is pretty harsh on delta-v.

[AmpsterMan]

I agree, the three-seat capsules require such huge launch vehicles and I feel the new, larger rocket parts aren't as well-tuned as the smaller ones. Especially with the fuel-consumption bug hotfix, which is pretty harsh on delta-v.

Between the fuel bug and the new three seat lander, it was enough to turn me off from trying to get to the Mun until recently. Instead I just focused on space planes. Still, if you have any three seat landers, it would be awesome if you would share them. I really enjoy your stuff.

[Accelerando]

I actually prefer the three-seat landers, partly because they feel less lonely and partly because I feel that I get better propellant efficiencies when I launch bigger payloads (I almost never use the larger rocket engines, also). My latest 3-person, 1-crewtank, no-aerospikes reusable Mun lander gets 30.6 tons of payload into initial Kerbin orbit with an ascent stage using 106 tons of propellant, for a ratio of 3.46 tons propellant/ton payload. The smallest 1-person rocket I've sent to the Mun (using no turbojets, and using aerospikes) requires slightly more than 10 tons of propellant to boost a somewhat less than 2.3 ton vehicle into Kerbin orbit  a propellant/payload ratio approaching 4.5. Not so bad, I suppose, but it could be better.

Pretty sweet rocket! I bet it could go for a mild sundive with some fancy piloting.

Edited September 12, 2012 by Accelerando

[Annoyingorbits]

trust me mate, that tutorial makes no sense to new-to-rocket-science people like me, a simpler tut please? like the ones here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/16346-Stock-0-16-Guard13007-Industries

[Accelerando]

1 hour and 58 minutes later, the deed is done. With my shoddy piloting, I had to make many bielliptic burns to get the rocket as close to the sun as I could, ending at a final altitude of around 2900Mm/2.9 million km.

[pebble_garden]

trust me mate, that tutorial makes no sense to new-to-rocket-science people like me, a simpler tut please? like the ones here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/16346-Stock-0-16-Guard13007-Industries

To which tutorial do you refer? My mission profile for the rocket? It was not intended as a tutorial, only a schedule of events to follow when flying this particular rocket.

However, I did make a number of very thorough tutorials which may satisfy your request, found here.

[pebble_garden]

1 hour and 58 minutes later, the deed is done.

Well done, sir. Bravo!

[Commander Zoom]

Very nice! A simple, elegant design that looks great. I'd probably complicate it just a bit by adding another pair of legs to the outrigger pods, sticking out to the sides, or adjust the angle of the four you have to more of a "stretched X" configuration ( >oOo< ), but that's just me.

[generalred256]

Dang! That thing looks as if it could be an interplanetary vessel if the final stage had a larger engine.

Very nice job. That has to be the largest single man lander I have ever seen xD

[pebble_garden]

Dang! That thing looks as if it could be an interplanetary vessel if the final stage had a larger engine.

Very nice job. That has to be the largest single man lander I have ever seen xD

I admit it's a little beefy, but my goal was to make a more robust lander that could 1. help new KSP players land with confidence. or 2. give accomplished players a vehicle with extra legs.

Also, I wish I had a bit finer granularity in choice of fuel tank sizes. As it is the small ones aren't quite up to the task (with the fuel bug fix) and the big ones are too massive for minimal ships. In my experience, anyway.

[Annoyingorbits]

To which tutorial do you refer? My mission profile for the rocket? It was not intended as a tutorial, only a schedule of events to follow when flying this particular rocket.

However, I did make a number of very thorough tutorials which may satisfy your request, found here.

the tutorial for the gardner MCC LV. PS: thanks for the link, it helped me with orbits and munar encounters etc.

[pebble_garden]

PS: thanks for the link, it helped me with orbits and munar encounters etc.

Yay! I'm so glad I could help.