What's your "workhorse"?

[Brofessional]

120 tons to LKO.

I have 4 other flavors of it with lower part-counts for 80t, 45t, 25t, and 10t.

[Brapness]

In career mode the only thing you could call a workhorse would be either my unmanned Kerputnik Probes, which fetched me a hell of a lot of science points, or my Obelisk lifter, which was designed before I had the skipper or mainsail engines or fuel pipes. I wanted to launch 3.5m ships - i.e a three man orbiter, a mun mission and a station (useless for science I know but I like them), but lacked the large rocket parts so I built this. Capable of 12-15 tonnes into orbit.

Outside of Career mode I have a standard interplanetary stage called 'Samson-II' (the Samson-I had a tendency to explode as it staged). Capable of return missions all the way out to Jool. There's a modified version with RCS and thus slightly less range.

To be honest though probably my 'Workhorse' would have to be Pegasus, which is presently on a Grand Tour.

[SRV Ron]

Some good all purpose boosters;

From Career Mode;

A shorter range probe launcher;

Sandbox designs, Stock;

With LV-N payload stage using drop tanks;

Successful Mods from Nova Punch;

interplanetary Probe launcher;

Experimental heavy lifter;

Successful universal probes. Early design;

Later design;

Career Mode design;

Edited November 4, 2013 by SRV Ron

[Alchemist]

My workhorses for interplanetary flights are Radon spacecraft (can get to Moho and back) and Nika launch vehicle (115 t to LKO - designed for this ship and other similar-sized payloads).

[Seret]

Definitely my Space Tractors:

They assemble stations and spacecraft in orbit, they boost other ships out of LKO on the way to other places, they work as mini-tankers for resupplying remote fuel depots, they even have a seat so they can go rescue stranded kerbals. Endlessly useful.

Edited November 10, 2013 by Seret

[Hodo]

I have three real work horses.

SP-400

Carries up to 72 tons into orbit and it is an SSTO.

SVO-9

This is my interplanetary exploration vehicle. So far it has been to Duna and Ike, and is on its way back now in my sandbox mode.

SVO-10

Its basically a freight van it just transports kethane from the mun kethane mining facility to the orbital refinery and refueling station.

The replacement for the SVO-10, the SVO-11

Edited November 4, 2013 by Hodo

[Boris_T_Roach]

My workhorse is a series of lifters designed to take sections of interplanetary craft up into LKO, assemble and crew them then they can fly away to other worlds

All are based around a common core of 2 jumbo tanks and a mainsail engine, suroounded by any number of jumbo fuel tanks which are plumbed into the core section, this allows the core to be still fully fueled when

the outer boosters are empty and get dumped

Lightweight loads have 3 boosters and a couple of SRBs, the usual configuration is 4 outer boosters, heavyweight loads such as the Mk 5 nuclear drive unit have 6 outer boosters, with 12 SRBs for that initial kick upto 5 000 meters

Each of the outer boosters has seperation motors to drive them clear as the core section emerges..... this is where most explosions occur

The drive unit has 3 more boosters fitted for an extra kick into orbit... and helps avoid those annoying falling back into the atmosphere orbits that alway end so badly

Time for a picture

Boris

Made from standard parts except for the mechjeb boxes

[SkyeAuroline]

This is the second-latest in my Borealis rocket series, and the current standard. With a Duna/Eve/Laythe universal lander, the rocket gets ~10,500 delta-V; probably not enough for Laythe (though I've not yet tried), but enough that I've run several one-way flights to both of the former. Cut-down version without the SRB clusters acts as a short-range satellite deployment system. Standard overengineering and poor optimizing, but it works!

[Mulbin]

Ihave a few 100% stock workhorses... it depends what sort of work it is.

I have a workhorse jet and orbital shuttle...

For light orbital payloads I tend to use my stock replica Atlas...

For large payloads I tend to adapt my stock Saturn V...

I don't have workhorses for long rand missions though, I tend to build for each mission.

[I_Killed_Jeb]

Ihave a few 100% stock workhorses... it depends what sort of work it is.

I have a workhorse jet and orbital shuttle...

I don't have workhorses for long rand missions though, I tend to build for each mission.

very creative stuff!

[Mulbin]

IF we are talking about the space craft themselves, rather than the launch vehicles though I definitely have one main goto...

Like Daiya I'm a fan of the Apollo CSM.

Here is my version... again I only use stock parts as I enjoy the challenge.

[Woopert]

Pictured here are my interplanetary capable CSM and the lander that goes with it. So far they have gone to Minmus and Duna (both round trip).

Here what was supposed to be the the original "workhorse," a utility/multi-purpose space craft capable of towing up cargo and also serving as a method of transporting crew to the space station. Pictured is a test of the cargo area with a dummy satellite (the cargo area is under the split from the engines)

I usually use stock parts but the RCS thrusters on the lander are from RLA Stockalike. (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/24593-WIP-RLA-Roemy-Lemdun-Atomics-Stockalike-0-8-released)

[Supernovy]

I have one non-launcher workhorse, a command module called the MML Orbiter.

Originally designed for a target-orbit-rendezvous Mun mission, it has since become the standard orbiter for LKO and beyond.

It features three RCS thrusters and a small RCS tank for propulsion and docking, with a standard docking port on its underside (which makes the actual docking manoeuvres a little tricky) and 400 units of electric charge storage for reaction wheel use or limited transmission. It also features two sepratron motors for abort, deorbit or atmospheric deacceleration, but I usually use them to get free of transfer stages for re-entry.

Although it only has one parachute for all the equipment on board, dumping monopropellent can reduce the touchdown speed for an even safer landing. The 'MML' stands for Manned Mun Lander, which leads to interesting nomenclature such as the Duna version above being called the MML Duna Lander.

[Urban_K]

It's the Kirius-M.

Favourite because it's made to be adaptable and modular and compatible (moving between sections without using letting go of the mobility enhancers) with landers and space stations. Can be used as shuttle to the space stations, carrier of landers or stacks of probes and independent long duration missions.

[Commander Zoom]

Mulbin: That's a very odd shuttle, but I like it. (How does the pilot get in and out - is the hatch clear, in back?) And your CSM is, of course, a work of art.

Like others, I have a CSM-alike that I use a lot. You can see the early version(s) in this image, with two of them docked to a hub / docking target:

And the most recent, slimmed-down / purely for orbital operations design docked to my space station as Crew Return Vehicles (lifeboats), here:

For boosters, I use the excellent Zenith rocket family for all manned launches, and a "Comet" booster (my own creation) for lofting small probes into orbit, where their transfer stage takes over the job of sending them to other worlds.

[Umlüx]

my trusty KERES 1 standard lifter. 15 tons to LKO.

and my Kerberos 2 Crew Shuttle. for rotating spacestation crew and other manned things.

[doggie015]

Mine is a simple 6+1 asparagus staged mainsail launcher with two Rockomax Jumbo-64 tanks and one Rockomax X200-32 fuel tank connected to the mainsail. I can either stage them having the outers all go at once or two at a time. It gets about 100 tons to LKO and quite often the centre stage has fuel to space to I whack on a 2.5m RCS tank and some RCS thrusters to use it as a departure stage for interplanetary missions. I once modified it with a docking port and jettison-able engine (That took a few iterations to get right!) to use as a one-launch refuelling depot.

Edited November 5, 2013 by doggie015

[fatfluffycat]

My new version of the SLS, 60 tons to LKO

[jwenting]

At the moment, my general purpose vehicle is the aptly named (but not very imaginative) Explorer C:

Which has so far completed landings on the Mun (3 times, return missions), Minmus (return mission), Eve (twice), Duna, Ike, and Laythe, and one more sits in a very low orbit around Tylo.

Not return capable on interplanetary flights as is, maybe if I make the booster larger I can get it so it can return from the moons...

[Whackjob]

I've grown quite fond of these boosters:

They've become so reliable for me that I find myself just pasting them on things I want to put into orbit. A little truss and girder action to bind it all together, then off to the launchpad it goes!

[briansun1]

everything from the orange tanks down is my normal launcher I use for everything can get about 50 tones to orbit

Edited November 15, 2013 by briansun1

[1D-1()T]

Mine is simple, but effective.

Orange Tank

Mainsail

Large Decoupler

Orange Tank, with 8 radial orange tanks

A mainsail on each of them

And a sh*t load of struts.

[Dante80]

Here is my workhorse, a 20tn space tug sporting ion engines. Slow, but hauls 150+tn parts very efficiently, and part count is low-ish (about 25 in total)...C:

There are two reasons for using ion thrusters instead of nuclear propulsion.

1. With a 30-40tn payload and a mean isp of 5000s you get about 8,000 of dv. Enough for almost anything, from rescue missions to station assembly and interplanetary expeditions.

2. With a little tweaking of module and RCS block positions, you easily get the same mixed and dry Center of Mass point. If the payload is balanced with an additional RCS block (while assembling as one piece in the VAB), you can ALWAYS translate with RCS perfectly with no wobble or rotation, thus making docking a pleasure instead of a chore.

Edited November 17, 2013 by Dante80

[Anton P. Nym]

My pick depends upon what's meant by "workhorse".

On the right of this shot is one of my cis-Munar cargo tugs, probably the most-used design in my fleet. Butt-ugly, but with huge torque and RCS reserves so it's nimble as heck and it's ridiculously fuel-efficient.

For most launched, the easy winner is the Popcorn probe; as you can see above I put 8 of them on a truss at a time; I use them for landing practice on Kerbin and mapping the Mun and Minmus, and I'm about to inject two of those trusses into trans-Jool orbit.

Alas for the most used candidate I don't have a picture of my heavy supply ferry; it's 8 Rockomax-64s and a -32 (plus some SRBs to help 'em off the pad) lifting a Rockomax-64 full of fuel and a big drum of RCS into low orbit. I dock one to each of my three stations for refuelling the cis-Munar cargo tugs and other flights; when empty of KerLOX I use the remaining monopropellant to de-orbit the empty ferry and launch another to take its place.

-- Steve

[Sufficient Anonymity]

For flights carrying small things (eg Kerbals, small communications satellites etc) into LKO, I tend to use SSTOs.

The smallest of these just carries four kerbals...

...though for heavier cargoes I have a progression of three other craft.