N1-K3. Go to Mun soviet style! (It must be the season)

[Rune]

Hey guys! I already previewed this on the WIP thread, so as promised, here is the revised version of this soviet monstrosity of a launcher. Accurate almost to the last detail! And even though it's significantly above the limit I usually set myself, it's not really such monster and "only" has 400 parts on the pad. 400 parts exactly. For reasons. Also consider you drop >150 parts once you drop the first stage, if you have a potato computer. You just have to make it past the initial vertical climb!

"Accurate" means 30 engines at the first stage, and eight of the same kind of engines on the second stage standing in for the NK-15s (in this case, LV-T45s thrust-limited to 66%, which is weird since the original NK-15 and subsequents versions were for a long time the highest T/W kerosene engines on the planet). Then the third stage is powered by four radial engines, which stand up for the NK-21s, and that leaves the Blok G upper stage in an almost-orbital trajectory with it's single Poodle as a NK-19 equivalent. Time to ditch the fairings!

This is what goes on under that fairing, supported by the Blok G upper stage which looks completely wrong (much too short!), but it gets you into circular orbit and then into TMI, with a healthy margin to leave it on an impact trajectory before jettisoning it (it's pretty much the only inaccurate part, that and the Soyuz engines). Then with RCS you maneuver the rest of the stack out of the impact trajectory into a suitably close periapsis: the Soyuz-K3, the LK lander, and the Blok D braking stage. I know, this particular version of Soyuz isn't supposed to have solar panels, but batteries wouldn't give me that skirt that the real one had. Some work could be done there, for sure.

As per the original flight plan, the Blok D breaks the whole stack into lunar obit, and then a brave kerbonaut EVAs from the two-man special Soyuz version into the LK lander and detaches to perform the deorbit braking burn with the last of the Blok D's fuel, to touch down using just a bit of the fuel on the lander.

This is the tight part of the mission. If you mess up the landing and do anything other than a very, very good suicide burn with the lander after you ditch the Blok D to blow up in the surface (ending at a few hundred meters altitude tops when you kill your lateral velocity), and perhaps save a bit of fuel by touching down at 10-20m/s (the legs will hold! just keep yourself pointed upwards with as little lateral velocity as you can), then you won't have enough fuel to get back to orbit. And even then you might have to finish the orbital burn with RCS, but don't worry since the mere 15 units of monopropellant you have give you upwards of 100m/s delta-v (make sure you save it for this moment!). Check the action groups to find out how to lift off at the same time you ditch the landing gear, as in the real thing, and returning to Kerbin in the Soyuz is pretty much dirt simple, you have a healthy margin built in and loads of excess monopropellant.

...and that's pretty much it, all you need to know to put one guy up there on the Mun and show those apollo replicas out there, how [russian accent]"Soviet style being superiorly efficient"[/russian accent]. Have fun!

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Rune. Poyekhali!

Edited February 1, 2014 by Rune

[Darth Lazarus]

good job i should land your lander besides my LK and Flag. and it's avery nice N1 for only 400 parts

[Orionkermin]

Nice job! I'm always impressed at how well some people can make fairings out of structural panels.

[Redrobin]

How did you get it to be in such few parts?

[Rune]

Thank everyone! Glad you guys like it.

The parts thing, yeah, it's a bit of an obsession of mine. The more I play, the more try to minimize part count (mostly because playing becomes much more enjoyable). Its a lot of different tricks, really, but if I had to mention a few of the key ones, well, the first thing I have to disclose is that I build with the help of the Editor Extensions. It's awesome, and it unlocks a lot of building aids (commands and such like activating/deactivating surface attachment and up to x50 symmetry), and they mostly mean that my design have no cubic orthogonal struts to create attachment points. That saves some headaches and parts, and still the file is usable by anyone whether they use the mod or not.

But more importantly, I try to keep my designs simple. Why use a cluster of tanks if I can make do with just one? Ideally, I would only have a tank per stage. I also try not to use structural parts at all, and build my ship body with the fuel tanks, and even then, I try to put a single tank per engine, with perhaps another tank to fix the aesthetics (the first stage ). I also watch out to make the payloads as simple as I can make them: A 150part 25mT Apollo-like lander can look very cool, but it'll need such a complicated and big shroud, and such a big base, that it'll have a cascading effect on weight and part count throughout the rocket. Can't you make another one almost as cool, but with 25 parts and that fits inside a 2m radius?

That sounds way more simple than it sounds, of course, and it's an open-ended effort: the more you do it, the better you become at it, and the more you think you can improve. You may never get to say "I can't do better", but you will get better all the time... and your framerate will be happier

Rune. For example my STS replica is 75 parts. That's less than most SSTO's I've built!

[junie]

You sir are a space GOD! This rocks! I dont have a super computer (like Most) and low part count really helps. Love the Barricuda and Equinox (sorry fpr the poor spelling) Actually I love em all. Keep up the good work and THANK YOU. I await you next relese.

P.S. the Equinox Youtube vid is slammin!

[Woopert]

Amazing job! Your stuff is always great, Rune.

[panzerknoef]

Very very very nice, only one note I could possibly make: the landers landing gear doesn't stay at the surface. Otherwise, an awesome replica!!

[Orionkermin]

Very very very nice, only one note I could possibly make: the landers landing gear doesn't stay at the surface. Otherwise, an awesome replica!!

Yea I forgot to do that in my soviet style mission too. I wonder what the best way to simulate the LK's unique takeoff profile would be. (Taking the engine w you but leaving the legs still connected to eachother)

[Woopert]

Check this out, Mulbin did it here.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/26781-0-19-Duna-LK1-%28yes-Duna%21%29-Soyuz-inspired-Duna-return-CM-Lander-and-micro-buggy%21

It's from 0.19. though.

[Rune]

You sir are a space GOD! This rocks! I dont have a super computer (like Most) and low part count really helps. Love the Barricuda and Equinox (sorry fpr the poor spelling) Actually I love em all. Keep up the good work and THANK YOU. I await you next relese.

P.S. the Equinox Youtube vid is slammin!

I think you are confusing me with Cupcake? The honor is all mine, I assure you... but we are different builders! Anyhow, glad you also like this

Amazing job! Your stuff is always great, Rune.

Thanks! One does one's best.

Very very very nice, only one note I could possibly make: the landers landing gear doesn't stay at the surface. Otherwise, an awesome replica!!

Actually, it does . Note the landing gear, landing lights, and batteries are attached to a couple of radial decouplers (that you can't hardly see because of all that stuff). Through action group 8, you can both activate the lander engine and detach them at the same time for a super-efficient ascent with no extra mass... if you can survive the kick of the decouplers shaking you a little, that is . Make sure to deactivate the engine and throttle up first, of course.

Rune. In fact, you probably can't make orbit if you don't ditch them, it's that close.

[sal_vager]

Excellent rocket Rune, what you can do with just stock parts is really impressive

[panzerknoef]

Oh wow, in that case just a very good looking and awesome replica!!