Maximum Delta-V rocket

[Redrobin]

If you mean in a single stage, from the ground, more than 11k is a difficult prospect - in fact more than 5k is a serious challenge. Once you're in space though, you have infinite delta-V available since there's no TWR requirements (other than your patience) - you can literally stick an ion engine on the back of 500 xenon tanks and have like 18247074502 m/s of delta-V.

Actually, ion engines have an upper limit. It is around 30km/s, but I am not sure.

[Whackjob]

Such Whackjob bait! This thread makes me want to build and launch a rocket with a hundred thousand delta V.

[Captain Sierra]

So I see this thread in the forum homepage. I see that Whackjob has made the last post. My computer starts begging for mercy from whatever monstrosity he may be showing off. This is what I got:

Such Whackjob bait! This thread makes me want to build and launch a rocket with a hundred thousand delta V.

Whack, I am saddened. You have not posted some hilarious, epic, jaw dropping picture.

[merendel]

Best I get stock without useing additional drop tanks along the way is around 8-9k not counting whatever launcher I set it on top of to get it up there. I can eke out a few k more if I further asparigus stage the orbital parts but going much beyond that and I start geting down into the TWR's that approach an Ion engine and thats just not worth the time. Heck my fuel tanker, which is little more than 100 tons of fuel siting on top of 4 nerva's is damn near unbearable with its .2 G's of acceleration.

[Dangerous_Beans]

Actually, ion engines have an upper limit. It is around 30km/s, but I am not sure.

for a single stage it's about 36km/s.

with an OKTO2, 1 ion engine, and 2 OX4L 1x6 panels (which is about the lightest probe i could think of), 1 fuel tank will give you ~7km/s. 10 tanks give you ~25km/s, 100 ~34km/s, 1,000 ~35.9km/s, 10,000 36.055km/s.

of course it's worth pointing out that xenon tanks have a crappy mass fraction of .58 (a jumbo has .888). it's only the ISP of the ion engine that allows it to get that high.

[magnemoe]

Actually, ion engines have an upper limit. It is around 30km/s, but I am not sure.

Yes, you can probably solve part of with with parallel staged ions, this require you to move xenon towards the central tanks and dropping the outer tank and engine stacks.

This is the upper stage on an nuclear asparagus.

[Whackjob]

So I see this thread in the forum homepage. I see that Whackjob has made the last post. My computer starts begging for mercy from whatever monstrosity he may be showing off. This is what I got:

Whack, I am saddened. You have not posted some hilarious, epic, jaw dropping picture.

How does that do for you? Not really on topic, though...

[Xaiier]

But TWR in space DOES matter! Consider a situation where you have so little TWR that in the time it takes you to do your transfer burn, looping around Kerbin multiple times, the planet you are heading to has moved! Granted, thats a rather extreme case, but the point stands. Performing super low TWR maneuvers is not only tedious, but it currently surpasses our capability to plot trajectories that far in advance. I can't see a single reason why someone would prefer a lower TWR craft, as it is clearly possible to make ships that can go to anywhere in the current solar system that don't have horrendous TWR.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

Guys, why do you build so big?

In my opinion everything that has more than 11.000m/s of dV takes more fuel to take more fuel to take more fuel into Orbit.

Why dont you assemble your ships, tanks and payloads in Orbit?

With this strategy you can go everywhere without almost any effort.

This does not include Whackjob, that guy just loves to build

[cantab]

I don't think that actually saves anything. It lets you use smaller and more manageable individual launches, but if you want the same interplanetary ship you've got to get the same total mass into orbit. Maybe more, considering the weight of docking ports and the dV you'll need to rendezvous.

[Captain Sierra]

http://i.imgur.com/hSGAukP.png

How does that do for you? Not really on topic, though...

BETTER!

Thank you Whack. You made my day this time.

[MalfunctionM1Ke]

I don't think that actually saves anything. It lets you use smaller and more manageable individual launches, but if you want the same interplanetary ship you've got to get the same total mass into orbit. Maybe more, considering the weight of docking ports and the dV you'll need to rendezvous.

Well, I think it saves you something but I am not able to proof it.

At least I can say that it saves you from playing the game at 1 Frame per second

[Bobnova]

Guys, why do you build so big?

In my opinion everything that has more than 11.000m/s of dV takes more fuel to take more fuel to take more fuel into Orbit.

Why dont you assemble your ships, tanks and payloads in Orbit?

With this strategy you can go everywhere without almost any effort.

This does not include Whackjob, that guy just loves to build

Assembling in orbit is more annoying for me than the delicate launch process for a monster.

It's easy enough to turn it around too

In my opinion assembling something in orbit with multiple launches is much more of a pain in the rear and takes far longer than doing it in a single launch.

[Comrade Jenkens]

Just made a quick and simple launch vehicle with 10k dV. That's the largest you can really go with a realistic looking rockets but asparagus can probably get double that.

[John FX]

I have a career probe now with about 15kDv, it`s in my Sig.

It will do a powered landing on Kerbin if you do it before the ion engine kicks in. Good for flyby of pretty much anywhere and return.

[Alex_Leonardo]

[maccollo]

Why dont you assemble your ships, tanks and payloads in Orbit?

Because orbital assembly is really really boring, and unless you are doing some kind of mass Kerbal exodus there is no destination in the Kerbol system that requires multiple launches... Maybe Eve.

With this strategy you can go everywhere without almost any effort.

That's the problem. Orbital assembly replaces the challenge of engineering a mission to work with a single launch with the tedium of just doing launch after launch, docking after docking until you have enough crap in orbit to make it work anyway. Might aswell use infinite fuel and skip the whole orbital assembly process.

Just my opinion

Edited March 7, 2014 by maccollo

[Jouni]

I find setting up asparagus staging so tedious that I'd rather launch ten or twenty smaller rockets and dock the payloads than build a custom launcher for a large payload.

[MarkedOne]

@Alex_Leonardo: this is RIDICULOUSLY great!

[magnemoe]

This don't work anymore, tested it and it can not lift from pad.

[mellojoe]

I don't know what my max is.

But I just designed a lander that has 9k delta-V in a small package. I'm trying to decide what to do with it. Maybe as part of a Moho mission? Maybe to the Jool system for a 5-tour of Jool? I don't know. But its a cool little thing. Jebediah wants to take it somewhere cool ... but where?

[sanoj688]

LOL I need to try this.

[Redrobin]

LOL I need to try this.

It only worked in .18.1

[Tidus Klein]

My max was 20,000 and that was on an interplanetary super ship, That I never finished

[thunderstar]

there is no limit, while most of my rockets get to 12-17 km/s i desgined some that can go up to 30km/s or more