[Showcase] Non Asparagus Launch Vehicles

[jfx]

Asparagus lower stage + boosters

Orbital insertion stage is assisted by Mün insertion stage;

[karolus10]

I often found handy using 2x mainsail for first stage, only drawback of this solution are quite long rockets (VAB start to be small).

[trippytripp]

Not quite, look at the heavy variants of some major rockets, such as the Delta IV heavy, it's a center stage, with two essentially center stages strapped to the side, sure there's no fuel lines leading to the center but it still works quite well in reality.

Exactly. The fuel lines DO make it un-authentic. But sadly the burn time for a lot of my common booster cores are longer than that of my core stage.

Edited June 15, 2013 by trippytripp

[magnemoe]

Many of my current lifters are balloon assisted SSTO rockets. Balloon lift to 10 km, rocket uses 3.500m/s dV to reach orbit, uses the balloons again to land soft.

[Rune]

I almost never use the "classic" asparagus, but I do make heavy use of parallel stages and crossfeeding (which are the proper terms). I don't think it's the same thing. See, in the classical asparagus, every booster is the same. What I do is that each stage is about twice the mass of the one before. So I start with a core (that gets to almost-orbi or orbit), then put two copies around crossfeeding into it. And finally, another two with double the fuel, since they don't have payload on top. You maintain a very uniform T/W peaking on liftoff that slowly goes down as you stage, the first stage drops just before starting gravity turn, and you make orbit with only two staging events and a big tank. Easy to fly.

If the job to do is huge, then I can add another stage just by copying the last set of boosters and adding four on the corners, which turns the whole thing into a four stage to orbit filling the 3 by 3 matrix. And all stages have a mass ratio of about three, which is where the rocket equation gives you the most bang for your buck. That is important. If, however, I'm carrying a light payload, I just use two stages for a three-core body and use the payload's engines to make orbit.

I do use mainsails, but the core is usually a cluster of more efficient engines, since I have them burning from the pad to orbit. The payload/upper stage is the one that has the nice in-space nukes, and is the one that goes on top with nice clearance. Something like this (a big lifter, note the 3 by 3 arrangement with mainsails. If I have a bigger payload, I just assemble it in space:

Rune. Apply struts liberally.

[Sabor]

[Henri von Braun]

@Sabor, I looked at the flags in your signature, and , wow! Would there be a place to download them?

BTW, nice shuttle , I never seem to be able to make one like that.

P.S : Sorry for interrupting the thread. I just couldn't stop myself.

[MDBenson]

Sabor: do you have a .craft file for that 'Shuttle' stack? It looks awesome

This gives me an excuse to post this:

Uses AIES (you'd never guess, right?) and the Lionhead MEM (inside the fairing). I've proven so far in tests that it'll get to Mun. Haven't landed it yet but circum-orbited the rock and came back. I know it's asparagus staged in that shot but I disconnected the fuel lines later in the design stage.

[mellojoe]

Here's the Enterprise Menorah. It was a test bed for proving that building sideways is sometimes better than building vertical. This was a proof-of-concept launch and successfully hit orbit on the first try. The darn thing was very stable on launch, but the final stage has extremely hard to control once all the other tanks had been dropped. The kerbin science team learned quite a bit and are looking forward to a Menorah 2.0

[jwenting]

What part do people use to create those Soyuz-style side rockets? Is it the airplane tail?

and how do they get engines to connect to them... They clip into the stage they're attached to, blocking the connector.

[MDBenson]

Yeah you use the aeroplane tail cone, surface attach it then rotate it until it sits at that angle. I think you also have to rotate the engine back to vertical below it as well.

EDIT. You pick the stock tail cone, flip it so it's vertical with the attach node facing down and you can just attach it like that and the base node is vertically down.

Edited June 15, 2013 by MDBenson

[AustralianFries]

EDIT. You pick the stock tail cone, flip it so it's vertical with the attach node facing down and you can just attach it like that and the base node is vertically down.

Yes, this is what I do.

[Johnno]

I too dislike asparagus staging, I tend to stick with pretty simple mainsail + red tanks configurations (normally two stages of center + 4 around). Recently I built a much heavier version and managed to bring up 124 tons to orbit.

[Giggleplex777]

Let's see what I have...

Mostly non-asparagus, but if you combine interstage crossfeed with (complex) 0.5 staging, you get a super efficient rocket:

40 tonnes to 73km orbit with a payload fraction of 16.21%.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Giggleplex777

[AmpsterMan]

Let's see what I have...

-snip-

40 tonnes to 73km orbit with a payload fraction of 16.21%.

I knew it would be a matter of time before you showed up and just beat us all in this thread XD.

[MR4Y]

FAR sorta eliminates the need for asparagus staging. My standard 2-side tanks asparagus staging rocket was able to reach Minmus with 25% fuel on the second stage left.

[Festivefire]

I usually use one or two orange tanks (depending on fuel needs for the payload), and 2 or four radial boosters, comprised of an orange tank and mainsail, just set up to all fall off at once, and feeding into the center stage. i find that all but the heaviest of payloads really don't need the extra delta v provided by asparagus, and you just end up having to de-orbit a 3/4 full tank from the launch booster.

[AmpsterMan]

FAR sorta eliminates the need for asparagus staging. My standard 2-side tanks asparagus staging rocket was able to reach Minmus with 25% fuel on the second stage left.

Does FAR work with KW Rocketry?

[Giggleplex777]

Sometimes you really have to sacrifice efficiency for aesthetics.

I made the Vulkan-Hercules today and it can't get heavy stuff to orbit for crap.

[AmpsterMan]

Another launcher, this is the manned version of the previous launcher I showed. I don't like to use SRBs on manned rockets

[Themohawkninja]

Okay, I have Wikipedia'd asparagus staging, and Googling it simply linked me to KSP forum threads... so what is asparagus staging?

Also, I saw somebody mention onion staging once, so what's that (if anything)?

[AmpsterMan]

Okay, I have Wikipedia'd asparagus staging, and Googling it simply linked me to KSP forum threads... so what is asparagus staging?

Also, I saw somebody mention onion staging once, so what's that (if anything)?

here is an image

Basically it just gives you more delta-v for the same amount of engines and tanks. I think I have found estimates to be up to 20% more than traditional serial (think Saturn 5 and Apollo)

While this is good, I have had some personal experience with serial and parallel staging showing that while it generally gives you less delta-v, the increased TWR in the lower atmosphere (as long as you don't go faster than Terminal Velocity) means you might need less Delta-v to reach orbit anyway. Though this is usually not more than ten percent in my experience. Still, the increased TWR gets you into orbit a lot faster so it is more "Time Efficient" if that is important to you.

Edited June 16, 2013 by AmpsterMan

[Themohawkninja]

here is an image

So, are all three asparagus, or is only the bottom one?

[AmpsterMan]

So, are all three asparagus, or is only the bottom one?

Only the bottom one.

[Themohawkninja]

Ah, now I understand, thanks.

The design I use for getting pretty much all of my small (<10 t) LKO things into orbit is my Titan-Mule rocket whose first stage looks similar to the OP's, however it only has four radial engines, and one center LV-45 (the gimbal capable one). It's controlled by toggling the four radial engines, and is fueled by two orange tanks worth. The second stage (stack decoupled) is one 720 volume tank, and a skipper engine.

P.S. I didn't use the orange tanks, simply to keep the entire ship the same color/design.