How-to: Heavier lift, ascent and circularisation stages & asparagus staging explained

[Comwarrior]

A Not so quick video explaining heavier stages and asparagus staging, how to build and how it works.

Disclaimer:

No kerbals were harmed in the production of this video.

[Dispatcher]

Interesting tutorial. Thanks for putting it up. I never realized that the single white staging icon units can be individually manipulated, I knew the green ones are linked and assumed all were linked. You commented on what the mainsail engine can lift (about 2 orange tanks, IIRC). In my testing of the engines, a single mainsail can actually lift over 143 tons at launch. If half the launch mass is non fuel tonnage (engine, dry tanks, payload), a single mainsail can propel the craft up to nearly 11000 meters, at about 80% throttle. The fuel required to do so happens to be nearly 2 orange tanks worth, in this case about half the total lifted starting mass.

When possible in the tech tree, I always use asparagus staging for my heavy launch vehicles. In the current game, it does provide a dV advantage, whether one drops tanks with engines or just drops tanks (if the TWR allows it).

Edited March 30, 2014 by Dispatcher
Grammar.