[Silisko Edition] Munar resupply rocket

[DonLorenzo]

Hi guys,

I spent the last couple of days designing a rocket and I thought you might like a go at playing with it. I wanted to build a mun lander with a little oomph; more than just the bare minimum to land and get back. In ideal conditions this rocket can land just under 7 tanks of fuel on the moon, one of which is part of a crew return stage that has enough fuel to return home with even the clumsiest pilot at the helm.

The kerbin ascent stage is quite a thrill to control, one wrong button or throttle setting during ascent and it WILL go up in flames. It\'s built on the limit of what the structural integrity engineers would consider insanity. I tried to adapt this rocket into a solar explorer by removing the landing legs and the ASAS module and that made the whole thing just explode on the pad. I don\'t know why or how, but it illustrates just how much this thing is just barely holding together.

Stages:

First stage: Core ascent stage with 8 radially attached liquid boosters, which have 8 solid boosters attached to them

Second stage: Second set of 8 solid boosters attached radially to the liquid boosters

Third \'stage\': Radial liquid boosters are separated, leaving the central stack with just under two full tanks for orbital insertion. If you don\'t quite make it there\'s enough fuel in the munar insertion stage for some extra orbital insertion. The ship is a pain to fly in this configuration.

Fourth stage: Long burn munar insertion stage. 6 tanks and an engine. Also serves as lunar descent stage if fuel lasts

Fifth stage: Munar descent stage. 4 tanks with landing engines on them, one central double tank that can\'t be drained. This is the minimum mission payload. My best landing so far drains only a quarter out of the descent tanks, leaving 4 full tanks behind in the lander

Sixth stage: Munar ascent stage (RCS only). A bit of RP here, soft ascent using only RCS as to not damage the payload which might be volatile

Seventh stage: Kerbin return stage. One fuel tank and a small thruster

Eighth stage: Pod + parachute. Fuel permitting a powered landing is also possible.

Screenshots and .craft included below

Enjoy!

Edit: Observant viewers might notice the ascent in the screenshots is all over the place. That\'s because that was an ascent-screenshot-only mission