Asparagus staging with Orbital assmbly

[kinnison]

Is it possible to assemble a craft in orbit, and get the Child parts to connect properly to the parent part for proper asparagus staging?

Pictures below. The basics are is I have a top connector, that i attach the red tanks to, then a bottom connector to keep them in place, the radial tanks are staged by the top and bottom connectors in 3 sets of pairs.

When I tested the whole craft on the pad, the center axial tank was drained first (Actually the tanks with the fuel lines drained first in proper asparagus order) by the Radially attached engines, and it wasn't until the center axial tank was drained did I finally get the Radial Red tanks to start being used

If i assembled it in orbit would it properly work? or is this something impossible without placing fuel lines while in orbit from the radial tanks to the center tank

[Pecan]

Not in stock KSP - there's no way to attach fuel lines 'after the fact'. The KAS (Kerbal Attachment System) mod allows you to add them during EVA - and other things.

If the centre tank is draining first then your fuel lines are on the wrong way around anyway. The point of asparagus is to use and stage the radial tanks first, leaving the centre one fully-fuelled to the end.

[SRV Ron]

That's an excessive amount of mass on the LV-N given their efficiency.

I would suggest having the upper stage dockable to the lower 7 tanks sent as a drop tank assembly to a core of fewer LV-N for better overall efficiency for interplanetary flight.

[RedDevilEA]

You might be able to attach six tanks around a seventh with docking ports. If each tank is connected to the two next to it, you might be able to disable cross feed to create an asparagus effect. Make sure you have time between stages, though, because it might take some time to detach the empty tanks.

[Vanamonde]

There's a logic to the order in which fuel tanks drain. If you really applied serious planning, you could probably come up with a way to get it to do what you want without fuel lines. But it would be an extremely tricky project, and I really don't think there's much need for it. Staging is usually only needed during the furious fuel consumption of launching from planets, so I think you'd be vastly over-complicating your mission to make it possible while already spaceborne. What is more reasonable is to attach additional fuel tanks to a drive core, and just drop the tanks when empty, manually moving the fuel around if necessary. After all, T/W and acceleration are not very important when you're already in space, so you can get away with many tanks feeding into one or just a few engines.

[Kasuha]

These two elements will allow you to create asparagus staging in orbit and then normally stage it.

[KerikBalm]

There's a logic to the order in which fuel tanks drain. If you really applied serious planning, you could probably come up with a way to get it to do what you want without fuel lines. But it would be an extremely tricky project, and I really don't think there's much need for it. Staging is usually only needed during the furious fuel consumption of launching from planets, so I think you'd be vastly over-complicating your mission to make it possible while already spaceborne. What is more reasonable is to attach additional fuel tanks to a drive core, and just drop the tanks when empty, manually moving the fuel around if necessary. After all, T/W and acceleration are not very important when you're already in space, so you can get away with many tanks feeding into one or just a few engines.

[Vanamonde]

but what about if you want to build a massive lander... say for Eve?

Trying to make something large enough to re-attain orbit, which can survive impact with the ground upon landing, withstand Eve's gravity after landing, and which is held together by docking ports and no struts because you assembled it in space? That sounds like a task the Greek gods would require of someone who had ticked them off.