does anybody use stage speration rockets?

[chaoko99]

Im curious on the matter, and if so, what advantages do they pose

(hint, I dont)

[TMS]

Increased awesomeness and clean separation.

[chaoko99]

Increased awesomeness and clean separation.

how does one set them up?

[El wonso]

I use them only when necessary.

[Stargate525]

I do on occasion.

If your radial boosters need to be strutted for stability, breaking those connections cancels any outward push the decoupler gives. I use the mini SRBs to get those boosters away from my main engine and avoid a collision.

Strapping a bunch to my final launch stage before the payload allows me to circularize with it and not leave it in orbit. That little bit of extra dV usually gets it into a skimming atmosphere encounter, and cleans up my orbits.

I also use them for my spaceplane abort sequences to get the cockpit away from the plane which is, usually, on a flat spin of death.

EDIT: Using them, put them on the same stage as the decoupler you want them to fire with. They'll fire and burn their entire duration without actually being on your vessel.

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

If you mean sepatrons, yeah... I use them all the time. Especially when I have to ditch some tanks/boosters while making a gravity turn during ascend so I don't damage the part that's supposed to go up.

[LameLefty]

Depending on your rocket designs and how/when they stage, the separation event may not separate the spent stage very quickly; sometimes there can be re-contact events or interference if the spent stage doesn't move away quickly enough. For instance, if your first stage gets you to high enough energy and you're coasting up to your apoapsis,you may want to maneuver a bit to get ready for the next burn. Separation motors will ensure that the spent stage drops back and away quickly enough to not get in the way and pose a collision risk.

[Joe32320]

Yes, either when I have a lower stage of 6 tanks around one in the middle and drop those 6 first (I can't be arsed to do the full bells and whistles asparagus staging most of the time), and they're long enough that they have a tendency to knock on the remaining tank, usually knocking something vital off like a mainsail engine.

Or if I build a module for construction in orbit and I have 2 docking ports at either end of the vessel yet want to make the rocket look vaguely aerodynamic, I use separtrons to blow the nose cone into space once I don't need it anymore.

[uui8457]

They sure add to the awesomeness, but other then that I don't find them particularly useful since the decouplers often have the force required.

[Cydonian Monk]

Primarilly I use them to deorbit the final, orbital stages of launch vehicles so as to reduce debris. Occasionally I use them if trsts show the discarded stage does get enough separation.

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

how does one set them up?

Here's how I use them:

Edited December 16, 2013 by Galileo Kerbonaut
better picture quality

[astropapi1]

Looks more epic that way.

[Moar Boosters]

how does one set them up?

Normally I just add 1 sepatron to the top of each strap-on booster facing the inner core. No fancy angling or anthing.

As long as the boosters are at the same level, or slightly below the main core this is the simplest and most reliable method, and looks pretty realistic.

If the main core is lower, they'll normally take out your middle engine, so a design like that normally needs a more complicated setup.

[Brotoro]

Yes. 3-2-1

[bigdad84]

I only use mine for separating the radial boosters. Allowing for a clean separation from the core stage. Pushing them away from the main stage before the chutes deploy.

[SofusRud]

They be my primary mode of propulsion, baby

[Firedtm]

I Use the mini SRB's every now and than

[Klingon Admiral]

I use spetrons mainly for two purposes:

1. Safe removal of radially mounted booster rockets.

2. Deorbiting of small upper stages after payload separation. This has somewhat declined in usefulness now that my small rockets are SSTO.

[AmpsterMan]

I use the separatrons for my abort sequences for my planes and manned rockets. I'm trying to fibd a way to make unmanned rockets self destruct with them

[Anton P. Nym]

Here's how I use the sepratrons:

1) making sure big radial boosters don't collide with the main stack; I have a couple of heavy-lift designs that use twin Rockomax 64s and they don't drift terribly quickly, so a little extra boost helps get them clear

2) de-orbiting insertion engines with sepratrons facing retrograde, cued to fire upon staging. I also use them to de-orbit my Popcorn miniprobes; a pair's enough to give over 180m/s delta-V on the wee things.

3) ejection motors on my spaceplanes' escape capsues, to get the cockpit and crew away cleanly

I've also toyed with using them as boosters on sample-return probe stages, but not really put them into practice for that.

-- Steve

[ComradeGoat]

Strapping a bunch to my final launch stage before the payload allows me to circularize with it and not leave it in orbit. That little bit of extra dV usually gets it into a skimming atmosphere encounter, and cleans up my orbits.

I've started doing this. Just made sure I'm pointing prograde after circularisation and *whoosh* - off it goes back to Kerbin.

[tntristan12]

Separatrons make for great escape towers, but besides that yeah... Sometimes I've needed to slap a few onto lower stages so they wouldn't slam into my rocket. Once I even used a Metric Crapton of the things to slow down a heavy fuel depot as I was landing it on Duna. In that case the separatrons made the difference between success and failure!

[SkipSpikowski]

I use them on my space shuttles because having 8 tons of SRB hit your wing is a bad thing.

[Themohawkninja]

I use them when I need to safely decouple orange tanks.

[HoHun]

I use them on the radial stages jettisoned in the gravity turn to ensure they don't hit the ship, which they did before I added outward-burning sepratrons.

For the lower radial stages, I use radial chutes to make sure the empty stages fall behind before they have a chance to hit the ship. Chutes stabilize and decelerate, while sepratrons make things more interesting ;-)