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0.23 MUNSHINE LIFTERS -5-165 tons to orbit, including low-tech Career Mode versions!

Wayfare

By Wayfare
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Wayfare

Wayfare

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Awesome rockets for awesome people!

Introduction

Wayfare AE&KA is proud to announce the 0.23 release of the Munshine lifter family! Expanded with another three designs, the Munshine family now features a total of nine lifters. Amazing advancements in the "structural skeleton" technology that was pioneered on the Munshine VII (formerly Munshine X) have allowed the family to grow to an amazing 165-ton payload capacity in case you really, really need to put that much stuff into orbit at once. We've gone ahead and re-organized the naming convention too. Where the Munshine lifters were previously named in the order they were designed, and beginning with V for historical reasons, they are now ordered by payload capacity for ease of use. All Munshine lifters are also provided as subassembly files with their payload rating in the description.

Design credits go to Giggleplex777 for Munshines II, III, VII, VIII and IX, as well as his work on fine-tuning the designs of the family as a whole. Test Pilot Gojira is thanked for flying these monsters many times in the family's history, though he was sadly not able to test the current release yet.

We've also added a pack of "Low Tech" (LT) versions for our Career-minded customers! These versions require you to have researched Flight Control, Specialized Control, Advanced Construction and Very Heavy Rocketry.

Download

Munshine Lifters - all Munshine lifters in one pack, featuring both a VAB and a Subassemblies folder to merge into your saved game.

Munshine LT Lifters - all Munshine lifters teched down for Career Mode, supplied as both VAB and Subassemblies files.

Pretty pictures!

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Key Features

Serial staging - Shunning the complicated fuel routing and staging of asparagus designs, Munshine lifters stage serially from the bottom up. With the exception of the Munshine IX, none of them even use side boosters.

Sleek looks - Tall, elegant lines result in some of the prettiest rockets around.

Low part counts - The simple design philosophy of the Munshine family yields amazingly low part counts. Even the Munshine IX comes in at less than 200 parts!

Proven in the field - All Munshine lifters have been tested thoroughly by the Wayfare AE&KA crew up to their payload rating (and sometimes a little over) to stable, circular orbits of 80km.

User's manual

They're lifters! Build your payloads on top of them, or attach the lifters underneath using the Subassemblies menu. Strut thoroughly and launch.

Munshine lifters are designed to perform aggressive yet smooth gravity turns. Begin your gravity turn at 5000 meters to 10 degrees off vertical. Aim to be halfway to 45 degrees by the time you reach 250 m/s velocity; 45 degrees at 500 m/s; halfway between there and horizontal at 800 m/s; and horizontal around 1200 m/s. The lighter lifters (I through V) can turn a little sooner, the heavier ones (VI and up) a little later.

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Wayfare

Wayfare

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Nice! But for the next release cycle could you include a text file with the lift capabilities?

Can do - the lift capacities are also in the craft descriptions though, which are easily seen in-game through the subassemblies menu :)

They're generally quite solid when you have a shaky top with spindly bits that need to be space taped to something that won't come off during staging.

Yup, the heavier lifters in particular have a wide upper stage that makes a great platform for strutting your payload, and it stays like that all that way to orbit.

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LameLefty

LameLefty

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Love to see these but a note for folks, like me, who are trying to use them in Career Mode. Even the smallest of these uses the Rockomax-64 large orange tank and the large circular probe core; so you pretty much have to have almost completed the Tech Tree to use 'em.

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Wayfare

Wayfare

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I'm guessing the answer is no, but is there any chance you still have the 0.22 versions available to download? I haven't updated my game yet.

Yes we do! The download link for the old series is still active and these should work fine in 0.22, though you'll need to subassemblerize them yourself. This pack also doesn't include the 5, 125 and 165-ton lifters.

Love to see these but a note for folks, like me, who are trying to use them in Career Mode. Even the smallest of these uses the Rockomax-64 large orange tank and the large circular probe core; so you pretty much have to have almost completed the Tech Tree to use 'em.

True, these lifters are built mainly with Sandbox play in mind. I've actually been thinking about constructing low-tech versions omitting some of the stuff that's higher up in the tree like the big nosecones, probe cores and some of the structural parts. Given that Mainsails are a key component in many of these lifters, getting rid of the Jumbo tanks wouldn't help much (and the additional strutting required would really balloon the parts count). I probably should have stripped the large probe cores off the subassemblies though. Might update that Soon.

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LameLefty

LameLefty

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True, these lifters are built mainly with Sandbox play in mind. I've actually been thinking about constructing low-tech versions omitting some of the stuff that's higher up in the tree like the big nosecones, probe cores and some of the structural parts. Given that Mainsails are a key component in many of these lifters, getting rid of the Jumbo tanks wouldn't help much (and the additional strutting required would really balloon the parts count). I probably should have stripped the large probe cores off the subassemblies though. Might update that Soon.

Great news! I'll look for the update. Since the tech tree of my new 0.23 save will be done soon I'll be able to make use of these as I build out the solar system infrastructure with stations, bases and kethane mines. :)

I should note that I love your MOMS series too, and looking forward to using them once my current tech tree is complete.

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BigD145

BigD145

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True, these lifters are built mainly with Sandbox play in mind. I've actually been thinking about constructing low-tech versions omitting some of the stuff that's higher up in the tree like the big nosecones, probe cores and some of the structural parts. Given that Mainsails are a key component in many of these lifters, getting rid of the Jumbo tanks wouldn't help much (and the additional strutting required would really balloon the parts count). I probably should have stripped the large probe cores off the subassemblies though. Might update that Soon.

Yeah, the core and the nosecones are the most expensive part, science-wise, of the designs mostly because they are at the end of completely different branches from the mainsails.

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