Alternatives for atomic interplanetary travel?

[AletzN1]

it's "weird",not wierd ._.

anyway,lv-n all the way

.________. , godammit.

[Moar Boosters]

This was for a non-asparagus, non-atomic mission to Tylo. It uses a single skipper engine.

[InterCity]

I don't use LV-N, because i have KW rocketry and Kethane. Their engines are just the golden middle path that i need. They for example have a rockomax engine with 200 KN thrust and just a little bit lower Isp than LV-N.

Also, the kethane engine is pretty efficient, however, kethane is rare

[Spartwo]

Lv-N for medium ships.

Skipper for large ships.

Ion for mini ships.

LV-909 for small ships.

Whichever gives the best TWR-D/v ratio.

[RSwordsman]

Usually LV-N for me, and if the ship is big enough I'll cluster 2 or 3 of them. I love the nukes!

[Zephram Kerman]

LV-N for most interplanetary vessels, unless they are very small, then I use ions. In either case, my landers never have LV-N, mainly to avoid the dead weight.

LV-N in KSP is perfectly safe, even if you crash it into the ground, there is no pollution, no contamination.

Even in reality, while I am in no way suggesting that radioactive contamination is laughing matter, its danger is often grossly overestimated. Whenever it's about anything nuclear people turn completely irrational nuts.

Thank you for saying it. What really bugs me is our historical disasters were more failures of incompetent leadership and government than technology.

[SlyReaper]

Ion engines. Because who needs free time really?

[Aragosnat]

Ion engines. Because who needs free time really?

lol Yeah. Who needs to eat.

[Scotius]

lol Yeah. Who needs to eat.

With ions and MechJeb as a co-pilot you can eat, shower and even make a fast shop run

[kzauner]

lol Yeah. Who needs to eat.

Exactly thats what ION-Engines are good for (I use them on light probes). Fire them up, glance at the burn-time and go for a lunch.

[Dangerous_Beans]

mostly i use NovaPunch parts, but for stock i use LV-909s or the 48-7s where not using the nukes.

currently i have 5 ships about to leave for Duna using LV-909s, as part of a personal challenge. no nukes, no fuel lines, no 2.5m parts, and no payload over 10t on the launchpad.

so 909s for the interplanetary stage, 48-7s for the landers, and also a 909s for the final stage of the launcher.

[Guest]

LV-N's normally, LV-909's for earlier in career mode.

[celem]

I very often use Skippers. Yes you carry a lot more fuel. But sure I can do that.

Clustered 48-7S i try to avoid, since spamming those is a bit OP. Its highly effecive though for getting a decent TWR on huge interplanetary payloads

Edited January 2, 2014 by celem

[uui8457]

I seem to use the skipper most often, it's obligatory in my launch stage and I usually have the central bit of it still full of fuel when I'm in orbit (A.K.A. halfway to anywhere) so that is naturally my engine of choice since it's got the good balance between ISP and thrust.

[Merinsan]

Exactly thats what ION-Engines are good for (I use them on light probes). Fire them up, glance at the burn-time and go for a lunch.

I've done that before, but since they changed the SAS, I no longer trust the ship to stay on course.

I almost exclusively use the nukes. I did use something else on my first Duna mission in career mode. If forced I'd use a poodle or LV-909, depending on the ship. Aerospike and skipper are also good engines, but it's always the highest ISP.

[Stargate525]

Thank you for saying it. What really bugs me is our historical disasters were more failures of incompetent leadership and government than technology.

And in the case of our worst one, the engineers going 'I wonder how we can test our last failsafe' without first going 'what do we do if the failsafe we're testing fails?'

Sometimes I wonder if the kerbals are in fact better caretakers of nuclear energy than we are. >.<

[Horn Brain]

I like to overbuild my launch vehicles so that I can get the bulk of my IP burn done quickly with the Skipper (or sometimes one of the 30 or 45). Other than that, it's always the LV-N for space travel except for small probes, where the low mass of the 48-7S is king.

[Random Account]

I usually use 4-8 LV-1R engines for interplanetar probes, since on my probes it gives them a similar burn time and delta-V as atomic engines. I know you can get more delta-V from 2 of them or a 1 LV-1 engine, but the burns can take hours for those designs.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Random Account

[G'th]

Why not Zoidberg?

[rkman]

So most of us use the LV-N Atomic Rocket Motor for interplanetary travel however, there has to be alternatives for the engine!

maybe the LV-909? or the LV-T45?

Depends on the mass of the craft, unless you want less delta-V as an "alternative".

[TheBadAstronomer]

I use the LV-909 as a backup engine, although I do have craft that use it as a main engine. One example is the ChemRock 9000+ Deep Space Probe. That thing had so much delta-v, I could land on Moho! You should really check his out his work here.

[Decho]

I use the LV-N for most interplanetary burns, except for probes where I typically use the ickle Rockomax engine. I never fire LV-Ns withinan atmosphere though, and I also avoid firing them within 120km of Kerbin and 10km of manned units when pointing engine towards them (180degrees, also means I can't have LV-Ns in front of any manned parts of a ship).

[SRV Ron]

The 48-7S is 3/5 the power of the LV-909 with far less weight and better efficiency. It is the best alternative to the far more massive, 2.25 ton, low power but twice as efficient LV-N. Which is beat depends on how much fuel mass is taken along.

[Fleb]

The 48-7S is 3/5 the power of the LV-909 with far less weight and better efficiency. It is the best alternative to the far more massive, 2.25 ton, low power but twice as efficient LV-N. Which is beat depends on how much fuel mass is taken along.

Using Kerbal Engineer an FL-T800 and a nuke gives 7047d/v and 0.91 TWR, the 48-7s gave 6994d/v and 0.67 TWR, and the LV-909 6158d/v with 1.02 TWR. Never realised the 48-7s was that much better than the lv-909 for smaller fuel loads. On an FL-T400 it beats everything.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Fleb

[Van Disaster]

2.5m Nervas ( the Fatman ones ). If they aren't big enough then whatever actually is big enough, or some extra kick rocket motors of some sort.

IE, whatever works.