Gargantuan Tanker

[attosecond]

New version with 288 fewer parts and more launch stabilizers! For your re-supply needs: lift > 725 tons of fuel/oxidizer to your station at 250km!

A NovaPunch-based lifter for those who don’t want to cheat their fuel into orbit, but also don’t want to fly 20 missions to get the job done. This lifter can deliver 728 tons of fuel/oxidizer to a 250km orbit, with enough left over to de-orbit the craft. That’s more than 22 Rockomax Jumbo-64 tanks worth! Oh, and there’s also 18.6 kg of RCS propellant (2 tanks with 2325 liters each).

Lifts > 930 tons of fuel/ox to a 100km orbit, and 850 tons to 250km (more than 26 Rockmax Jumbo-64s). If you want to save some fuel for a de-orbit burn, the net fuel delivery (at 250km) totals 728 tons.

WARNING: not for the feint-of-hardware! On the pad this craft has 1000 parts (down from 1288 in the previous version). Once in orbit the part count is a much more manageable 70 parts. No bad ratings for the large part count! It says “gargantuan†right in the title. While I did my utmost to keep the part count low, the primary goal is to lift as much fuel into orbit with a single craft as possible. If you’d rather have a smoother game play experience during the early launch stages, this is not the ship for you. On the other hand, if you’re bored and frustrated trying to get enough fuel into orbit to meet your needs, give this lifter a try.

Mods required:

NovaPunch

[W.A] Perfectrons 2

Key bindings:

1) Toggle center Matriarch 5m engine

2) Toggle outer Matriarch engines

3) Toggle solar panels

4) Toggle all torque wheels

Flight instructions: (for instructions with pictures, click here)

0) I HIGHLY recommend you upgrade your NovaPunch to release 2.03 or newer–at least update your NovaPunch SAS wheels, as the new wheels have more torque and allow you to stay at max throttle much longer. Ultimately, the leads to more fuel in orbit.

1) Max the throttle, turn on SAS, and launch.

2) Watch the fuel status of your stages on the left of the screen. When a set of engines is out of fuel, press the space bar to separate them.

3) Follow any ascent path that pleases you.

4) Once you’re down to the inner ring of liquid boosters start paying attention to the G-force gauge on your navball. Throttle back to keep the G-forces at or below the max green level for the remainder of your ascent. For those with MechJeb or Engineer Assistant, this translates to an acceleration limit of 20 m/s^2 or less.

4) Press 3 to deploy the solar panels once you clear 70km altitude.

5) Press 2 disable the outer ring of Matriarch engines, and circularize. The RCS really isn’t needed until you dock, although your maneuvers will be faster if you turn it on.

6) Just before docking I like to disable all the torque wheels so they don’t fight with the monster wheels on my station. If you want to do this, press 4. Press 4 again after you undock to get your wheels back.

Enjoy!

Download here

Some images:

Liftoff!

Gravity turn

Buckets of fuel in orbit!

Edited October 18, 2013 by attosecond
UPDATED! Now with 288 fewer parts.

[attosecond]

For those who also like to use Orbital Construction, I'm working on a Gargantuan lifter to put 875 tons of RocketParts into orbit. I have most of the lifter completed--just need to add solid boosters. Even using only liquid boosters, I can still lift the entire 875 ton payload (35 medium modules of RocketParts, aka 350000 parts) to a 100km orbit (with 10m/s of DeltaV left in the gas tank).

Check it out:

Edited October 18, 2013 by attosecond

[attosecond]

Got my RocketParts lifter working. See this thread.

[attosecond]

Everyone flying this, update your NovaPunch! Release 2.03 includes updated SAS wheels with double the torque--this means the craft can run at much higher accelerations during late stages of the ascent. You still need to keep an eye on the G-force gauge on your navball and make sure it stays in the green or at the top of the green, but the ship doesn't start pushing that limit until you're down to six liquid boosters remaining. If you use MechJeb or Engineer Assistant to monitor your flight vitals, keep your acceleration at or below 20 m/s^2. With the new wheels I was able to put 947 tons of fuel/ox into a 100km orbit.

Edited October 18, 2013 by attosecond