How to make something like a Saturn V have a lot of thrust?

[Pds314]

The Saturn V's F-1 engines had a lift-off thrust of 6770 kiloNewtons. That isn't between them, that is each!

so 34 MegaNewtons of thrust to lift a 2.3 Kilotonne spacecraft may not be overkill, but I'm not sure there is a good way to replicate it in KSP.

For example, if we use 7 of the new quad-engine boosters, The diameter is wider than that of the Saturn V, but the thrust would be only 22.4 MegaNewtons.

The problem is that the Saturn V was 10 meters wide. (and you thought 5-meter nodes were huge!) and had a thrust/node of 528.90625. That is better than any liquid-fueled rocket in KSP stock. (Bi-engine booster with built-in fuel: 500, Mainsail: 375, Quad-engine booster: 355.56, KR-2L advanced engine: 277.78, LV-T30: 225, R48-7S: 120) Additionally, circles don't stack 100% efficiently For example, one can only fit 7 1.25-meter nodes in a 3.75-meter node, despite 3.75-meter nodes having fully 9 times the area. At the very best, one can achieve 90.7% efficiency or so. This means that replicating the thrust of a Saturn V requires a significantly lwider rocket than even a Saturn V.

Is there any way, with engine clipping, that this can be done without overheating everything?

Also, if one considers the SpaceX vehicles, this gets even more problematic. Not only are they using virtually the same node size as KSP ARM engines and tanks (3.66 meter), but they still have managed to squeeze 9 Merlin 1-Ds into a single 3.66-meter node for a lift-off thrust of 5.85 MegaNewtons (Granted, it is at 282s ASL Isp, so its not terribly efficient). We can put just 3200 in a slightly larger space. KSP engines just don't seem to be designed for high thrust per area, do they?

Edited April 10, 2014 by Pds314

[stupid_chris]

You don't need as much thrust in KSP because things are scaled down.

If you need even more thrust, you might want to try the stock rebalance project (link in my sig), the quad SLS engine has thrust bumped to 4000kN. Apart from that, The best solution to bump your TWR as of right now is to either use said part clipping, SRBs (it's the thing they're there for, boosting TWR), or using asparagus staging.

Also, moving to gameplay question.

EDIT: Specialist ಠ_ಠ

[Pds314]

You don't need as much thrust in KSP because things are scaled down.

If you need even more thrust, you might want to try the stock rebalance project (link in my sig), the quad SLS engine has thrust bumped to 4000kN. Apart from that, The best solution to bump your TWR as of right now is to either use said part clipping, SRBs (it's the thing they're there for, boosting TWR), or using asparagus staging.

Also, moving to gameplay question.

EDIT: Specialist ಠ_ಠ

You still need just as much thrust per weight.

Also, I'm using mods, specifically RSS and FAR.

[Captain_Party]

Well then you want to get KW Rocketry, RealFuels and possibly AIES or NovaPunch. You're not going to be able to get into orbit with stock parts with out building huge monstrosities. Check out maccolo for instance.

CP, it'd be worth getting 'em mods

[cantab]

Well here's an arrangement I quickly knocked up. It's rough around the edges but worked. 37.5 MN of thrust under an 11.25 m wide rocket. The engine bases clip but not the bells, which I feel makes it less cheaty, and the engines don't overheat - one gets halfway, the others don't show any overheat bar.

Looks-wise, of course, it's more akin to the Russian N-1. I think if you want Saturn V looks and Saturn V performance you'll have to turn to mod engines.