HELP!!!! Rocket Go Boom

[gigaforce90]

So I have been working on a Apollo type rocket (modeled after the Apokee design that was here on the forum's I feel bad that I don't remember the poster's name) to get my kerbals to the mun and back safely, everything was going great... My earth departure stage had just enough fuel to get into a near perfect Munar encounter and the CSM has plenty of fuel to do all the things that it needs to do to get the kerbals back safely to Kerbin. Any way after a few of theses missions going off with out a hitch I decided to put a munar rover to my MEM, so i did a very minamalistic design and weighs next to nothing and really shouldn't affect the rocket what so ever but now when I try to launch the damn thing it just blows up on the launch pad for no reason. The first thing to go wrong on the mission log is the stack seperator that connects the descent stage and ascent stage of my MEM is "coming into contact with" the fuel tank for the descent stage and everything goes to hell which is suppose to happen, so i dont really understand why its failing so bad if anyone has a suggestion that would be very helpful.

Before attaching the rover

After attaching the rover

so as you can see i didnt really change anything except remove a few struts (that i feel were unnecessary anyway) to keep them from clipping into the rover.

[Stochasty]

What this probably means is that your rocket has too much thrust, and the weight above the stack separator is crushing it when you launch. Usually, the fix is to add more struts (spacetape fixes everything!).

If that's not the case, then this is probably the result of some funky attachment bug. Try going back to the VAB, removing that separator, and then reattaching it.

[ThatBum]

There's probably some sort of structural failure going on around the CSM/LM connection. That's some pretty serious strut usage there, it shouldn't need that much reinforcement.

Your CSM doesn't need that much fuel and a nuclear engine just to get back from the Mun. If you're using the CSM engine to get to the Mun, that's not right. Apollo used the third stage for the trans-Lunar injection from Earth orbit, and got rid of it when that was done.

I did a similar thing and it worked with a X200-8 fuel tank (half the size of your CSM's one) and the Lv-909, with fuel to spare.

Edit: Here's mine, it's sort of based of Scott Manley's KlonePollo. The launch vehicle is a standard thing reused for interplanetary launches, don't need that much power in the third stage to get to the Mun.

Edited April 19, 2013 by ThatBum

[Malaugrym]

@ThatBum: What causes the part multiplier and angle snap buttons to show as numbers?

[ThatBum]

It's a mod...but unfortunately its forum post was eaten.

Edit: Found it! https://www.dropbox.com/s/mnic1xho557pp34/EdTools.zip

[EndlessWaves]

The first thing to go wrong on the mission log is the stack seperator that connects the descent stage and ascent stage of my MEM is "coming into contact with" the fuel tank for the descent stage and everything goes to hell which is suppose to happen, so i dont really understand why its failing so bad if anyone has a suggestion that would be very helpful.

I can't see the whole rocket but I'm guessing you've got too much weight in one spot. How heavy is your payload roughly?

[Ruedii]

Usually when complex rockets blow up on me it's because the stage auto-order didn't line up properly. Try checking all your stages. (I know it's a lot of work.)

[jwenting]

either that or bits hit other bits they shouldn't when dropping a stage (usually boosters or struts hitting the next (central) stage rather than breaking away cleanly).

Had a rather spectacular case of that yesterday where everything except the orbital stage broke away cleanly (despite proper staging) and THEN exploded a few seconds later, leaving me with Bob in his Mun lander floating around in mid air about 10km up

[Halsfury]

@ Gigaforce

I see your problem, your using the 2m separator between your Lander and your Command module, if you were to use the 1m version your separator would actually "rest" on the docking port for the lander.

I've never found a use for the large 2m separator but I'm sure that there are some and there will certainly be more in future, also you can cut down on the struts by placing them in A frame shapes once or twice every stage and finally one set connecting the last radially mounted stage to the side of the inner rocket body

Other than that the Euler XIV payload which you have there is pretty advanced, making 2 stage landers which are small enough to fit into a Saturn V type mission in this game is no easy task, I only just built my first a few days ago, mainly because it's actually safer than a 1 stage plus you can keep a record of your landings by using a probe body on the descent stage

Also recently I landed my first successful J type mission (My saturn V with a rover stuck to the descent stage) thats the next challenge

[zarakon]

Rocket Go Boom

Working as intended!