What should I do with this?

[ArmchairGravy]

So I've put together a mothership:

The original plan was to drop those bottom grey tanks and cruise off with the two orange, dropping them as I burn fuel. The bottom LV-N would add some TWR on the initial burn stage. However, I was able to get orbital with that bottom onion stage of Skippers intact but empty (the center of the onion is 95% full). Now I'm thinking of trucking the whole mess to Minmus, fill the thing with my Kethane refinery, and then drop pairs of greys, then the oranges. I would have the dead weight of the Skippers, though. What do you think? I'm saving a duplicate copy of the game right here so I can muck about with this, but would like to know the community's opinion.

Edited February 26, 2014 by ArmchairGravy

[LordFjord]

I would send a refuel craft, fill up the grey tanks and use the skippers as the initial burn to wherever you want to send this thing.

You probably planned to have enough dV to get there without this stage, so you would have plenty of excess fuel to go further or as safety buffer.

[Superfluous J]

I will never understand the concept of building a ship and launching it, and THEN deciding where to go. I start with the goal and build the ship to achieve that goal.

Anyway, if you don't fire the skippers but fill that guy up at Minmus, I bet you could Oberth yourself to Moho with some good planning and execution.

[Keymaster89]

I will never understand the concept of building a ship and launching it, and THEN deciding where to go. I start with the goal and build the ship to achieve that goal.

Anyway, if you don't fire the skippers but fill that guy up at Minmus, I bet you could Oberth yourself to Moho with some good planning and execution.

Someone just like to build cool things and then test what the results are able of... don't be so schematic, anything that move in this game is useful, u don't have to start with a required dV... when i first tryied to land on Minmus, i build the lander, launched and tested and only then i discovered that i was short on fuel. Then after some tests, i made it, but i also discovered that my new lander was also able to land on Mun!

to the OP: i think u should use those skippers... refuel 'em use them for the burn, and then trow away the empty cans... but make sure to disable crossfeed with the orange before, or u'll use all the fuel of the nukes...

Also, control your burn carefully, 7 skippers on the back of such long ship apply so much trust... the risk is to have an orbital accordion...

Edited February 26, 2014 by Keymaster89

[ArmchairGravy]

I will never understand the concept of building a ship and launching it, and THEN deciding where to go. I start with the goal and build the ship to achieve that goal.

Anyway, if you don't fire the skippers but fill that guy up at Minmus, I bet you could Oberth yourself to Moho with some good planning and execution.

The original plan was to take the oranges to Dres, but since it assembled with the greys intact I may go elsewhere. Just the oranges should be more than enough for a Dres return.

Thanks all for your feedback!

[Kasuha]

The extra fuel space is good even though it means you're carrying some extra engines. Fill them up and drop them as you empty them. When you drop the last one, you'll be left with a fully fueled ship you originally intended to start with, but at a very different place already.

[Kryxal]

I'd agree, since the greys are up, why not use them? After that, of course, is the question of HOW to make your initial burn ... do you use the nukes, do you use the skippers, do you get fancy by breaking orbit for a low Kerbin periapsis and do a Skipper burn THERE, or something else entirely?

[Kasuha]

If you want to squeeze as much dv as possible from it, use nukes. And probably drop your periapsis down to Kerbin and burn for escape at the periapsis. Don't bring the apoapsis down, though.