Stocket Pocket Rocket

[sal_vager]

Land on the Mun and return with this all-stock ship, using only 16 fuel tanks.

As promised, here is my smallest Mun capable stock ship so far, it\'ll get you there, land and return.

I don\'t think I can make it any lighter without new stock parts.

Just like with my previous ship the Micro Mun Lander, it uses a daisychain fuel tank system to achieve it\'s high efficiency, but even so, fuel is tight so take it easy once you\'re out of the atmosphere

A full Imgur gallery can be found here : http://imgur.com/a/pC8s6#0

Have fun.

The Stocket Pocket Rocket

Hit the big red button!

Liftoff!

Climbing

Second booster separation

Shooting for the moon

Leaving Kerbin behind

Adjusting course at the Mun

I\'ll land there

Safely down

Taking off again

Time for the TransKerbin burn

I need practice at getting back

Back in Kerbins orbit, the Mun is tiny now

Predawn light over the KSC

Detaching the final stage, I had completely forgotten to jettison the wings

Heading for a splashdown in the morning light

The sun just dipped below the horizon, I\'ll get to see a second dawn

[closette]

Very frugal!

And not for beginners. I crashed on the Mun, since I am kind of a klutz with WASD controls and 'need' an advanced SAS module to smooth maneuvers out. Or perhaps a single RCS tank + thruster block would have helped me with the landing (and provided a tad more inertia fo pre-landing maneuvers).

Still, a very efficient design, and one of the fastest launches to trans-munar injections I\'ve done.

If you add an SAS or ASAS unit and an RCS to the lander, would that make a big dent in your fuel budget, I wonder? (You can leave the SAS stuff behind on the Mun if it helps).

[sal_vager]

I just thought I\'d switch the ASAS to the lander for you and found that it\'d not saved the 16th tank from earlier testing, I was trying to land with 15 just to see if i could.

I have replaced it with the proper file just in case it\'s not my mind going, really sorry about that, and have also moved the ASAS for you, cant say if it\'ll return to Kerbin though as now it\'ll have more weight to bring back, that\'s also why I don\'t have an RCS, too much weight.

I\'m glad you like the rocket as well, it uses my daisychain fueltank idea to be so efficient.

Let me know if you can return with the ASAS on the lander

[closette]

Hey don\'t do it just for me! This is your thread, and it\'s good to post a few versions of a spacecraft for people to try. Just like real world engineering.

The original ascent profile (speed vs height) was close to ideal in terms of fuel efficiency (in fact I throttled back a bit until first stage separation).

I\'ll give the SAS version a whirl later today, and hope others do the same.

[sal_vager]

Feel free to pop out the 16th tank if you think it\'s too much

I\'m not a good pilot either and have no idea when it comes to ascent profiles, If you think you can manage with only 15 then go for it, when I tried it I felt I could land but never return ( I crashed ) and that was with minimal throttle out of atmosphere and a fair bit of luck with my Munar orbit.

Actually it might just be possible to do the trip on 15 tanks, I stripped down the ship and will try it myself tomorrow, I swapped out the engines for the leaner type, removed the chutes, struts and ( gulp ) the ASAS, I\'m afraid its going to be manual all the way with this one.

[closette]

Tried the SAS version, easier to fly and land but sure enough, ran out of fuel for return. I think it still needs an RCS tank+thruster block just below the command pod (but above the stack decoupler), if anything as a 'get out of trouble and get home' option.

Also, your lander fins are attached to radial decouplers, which are heavy in themselves (mass = 0.4 each) If you attached them, say, to the ASAS module directly, you would save some mass, but I appreciate that would be a design change because you need the fins low enough to touch the surface first.

It is fun to jettison the fins though! (Image attached).

[sal_vager]

I\'ll have to try the ASAS version as well, you might be able to save a little fuel if you keep to half a pip on the throttle gauge when coming back, thats what I did as I thought I\'d run out too, and dumping the wings is a good idea.

An RCS will add another kilo which i don\'t think I can afford fuel wise but I might be wrong, I don\'t rate it much as a control system ( until we need it for docking ) but if you\'re going to use it just for thrust would it offset it\'s own weight?

Also I just tested it, you\'ll explode and die if you hit land with an RCS tank on your capsule, meaning you\'ll need another decoupler, and another 0.8 kilo of weight. ( can\'t rely on hitting water )

You\'re right about the radial decouplers, far too heavy but unavoidable as without the wings it\'s too easy to bust the engine or tip over, 3 is the minimum I can get away with, they have struts as well because the decouplers themselves are too flimsy.

The wings themselves are really only a stopgap for landing legs, as soon as there are stock legs the wings are gone.

What can I say? It\'s a frugal, efficient rocket that needs careful flying, not bad for such a piddly amount of fuel and a ship that others would class as a light orbiter

I\'m testing a true 15 tank design, no ASAS though, it\'s been hard work but I can get into a stable orbit with 1.5 tanks left in the main ship, plus the full tank on the lander, it might be possible to do the trip and return with a lot of luck, but it\'s the challenge that makes it fun.

[closette]

Yep, water landings are necessary if you have empty RCS tanks attached, but if you have a little RCS fuel you can retrofire just before landing on ground, a la Soyuz.

Very nice craft design overall, agreed. I just had a go with 2 RCS tanks+ASAS and ran out of fuel at the Mun but made it back home after aborting the landing. I may try 2 RCS tanks and no ASAS. Yes at least in Munar gravity 2 RCS tanks + 6 thruster blocks + pod have no trouble climbing to orbit.

[sal_vager]

I just had to have one more go

I think I have cracked it, I\'m currently orbiting with more fuel than the first ship, despite launching with only 15 tanks, so I should have enough to land on the Mun with more fuel left in the lander.

And I have ASAS for the entire flight, still no RCS though.

No struts either, they only added 0.15, I should have brought them

I\'ll have a shot at the Mun and see what fuel is left, then that\'s it for me tonight, I running on an autosave so can\'t upload the ship just yet, I\'d be happy to let you be the first to land this ship if you don\'t mind waiting a bit for me to sort the file out.

Edit: I messed up the burn, and found myself on a collision course with the Mun with no possibility of avoiding it, but I did have a fair bit of fuel left.

This ship should be It, even changing the engines I doubt I\'ll get much more out of it but I\'ll still give it a go.

Also I had to give it 'feet' so it wouldn\'t blow up on the launchpad, shame it looks so strange now.

Good luck

Edit 2: I had an idea, couldn\'t sleep, had to try it.

Almost 2 full tanks remaining ( plus a full lander ) and I\'m in a stable orbit, thats even more than the previous ship, just dump the unneeded engines ( and excess weight ) as soon as your apoapsis goes over 70k

Munar orbit transfer will take another tankful, leaving almost a whole tank for orbital corrections and Munar de-orbit, I had only 2/3rd of a tank left with the Stocket Pocket Rocket.

You might even have enough to land on the fuel tanks, if they can take the strain I can ditch the wings completely.

Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating, someone needs to actually fly this thing

I\'ll be away for a few days with no internet, if only there was a pilot available to test it out

Edit 3:

The Stocket Pocket Rocket has changed so much it\'s now a whole new ship, it\'s time to tidy it up and take it to the Mun, see you in the next thread.

Ugly but light on it\'s feet

Lots of fuel left