Best way to launch large, boxy things with FAR

[Autochton]

I am seeking help with launching the sections of a ring-shaped space station I'm planning. It will go up in segments, 12 making up one ring, with the option of adding further rings to the structure later. Each segment is based on one of the big Lack Luster Labs 4x2 habitation modules, which means each segment is roughly 4m by 2m by 5m or so. They're not excessively heavy, as such. However, I use Ferram's Aerospace Research, which means that I can't just strap it to a sufficiently sized rocket and blast off and be done like in stock - I need to loft it with something a bit more aerodynamic! However, no cargo hold or fairing that I'm aware will actually fit around the fairly huge ring segments I ended up with. I want to target it for a 150 km equatorial orbit, but I'd be perfectly happy to just get them up and stable so I could use an orbital tug to boost them up all the way.

So now I'm considering if there is a way I could build some sort of fairing for it? Custom cargo hold? Something?

Edited June 20, 2013 by Autochton

[stupid_chris]

Fairing Factory allows you to create fairings of 5m in diameter if you wish to, so if you play around with it you should be able to do something that would work

EDIT:

This for example, is 5m wide and 5m high. Just create it as you wish and it should cover your module pretty well

Fairing Factory

Edited June 20, 2013 by stupid_chris

[Autochton]

Is that working as of 0.20.2? It includes a DLL, and some part folders in its download, but nothing in the way of instructions. Meanwhile, I can't seem to get KSP to start with the pack installed.

[Punk]

I can confirm that unpacking the whole folder into the legacy parts location does work. Not sure how to get the .cfg updated to work with the new location though.

[Autochton]

OK, thanks, yeah, a bit of experimentation proves that unpacking the part folders in the KSP/Parts dir works. 'Course, making a fairing big enough to fit the curst thing is another job entirely - my first one was nowhere near big enough!

Thanks for your help, stupid_chris and Punk!

[Geschosskopf]

@ Punk:

Thanks for the news on Fairing Factory. I couldn't get it to work for me in 0.20

@ Autochton:

Another option is to get the KW Rocketry mod. This comes with a selection of fairing parts of 3 different diameters so you can build your own around your payload, as well as some very nice fuel tanks and engines to lift everything with. I think the largest fairing is 3.75m diameter and there's only so long you can make them, so if your load is really blocky they won't help you that much. However, they work wonders on things that will fit inside them if you're using FAR. I don't launch without them these days for that very reason.

[Autochton]

@Geschosskopf:

That is a cool name. Also, the part in question is something like (I checked) 4m * 2.5m * 6.5m or so at the current point, and cannot be mounted along its long axis very well, since that's where the off-angle attachments to turn it into a ring are! I already checked against the B9 big cargo holds (S2W and HL) and they were hilariously too small for it.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking of trying to brute-force it up there - flat outer face forward, mounted on a bloody huge, powerful launcher with TWR to spare (I'm going to aim for ~3). After all, if I can get up out of the dense atmosphere, maybe I can loft it by a sufficiently big amount of delta-v. After all, it's not heavy, just unwieldy.

[Klajan]

You can get a lot of things into space even with FAR. You just need a large enough launcher.

Like I got this into Orbit:

Using this launcher:

Obviously it was a pain to do so and I would never recommend anyone to attempt anything close to this. It took me 10 launches until it finally got into an orbit... and what an orbit this is, I don´t want to mention here...

[stupid_chris]

There's an option to see the measures of what you're doing with Fairing Factory, just check it and stretch your thing to 5m and it should be enough! Alternatively you can beute force it up but that'll be heavy