Meet the 2,200-Ton Titan Thirteen Fuel Lifter

[Camaron]

Now that my new PC is built, I could reliably test-fly my latest ship. I had anticipated many, many failed launches at this scale, but I surprised myself.

Launch one - missing one fuel link. Went to VAB and added missing link.

Launch two - detached stage 5 too soon. Blew up the whole ship at 45km because I'm stupid. Prematurely dropping boosters = runaway missiles...

Launch three - Success! No change from launch two except a little less stupidity on my part.

The Titan Thirteen (Named for being the thirteenth Titan, not just to sound cool) Though it definitely does sound cool.

A one-launch super-heavy Fuel Station Ship, carrying 170,000 units of fuel to an altitude of 500,000M-and-change.

Consists of only 203 parts, so if you can handle a 1,012-part launcher, you can get a fairly lag-free Fuel Depot into orbit for all your excessive fuel needs!

I'll upload the craft file and generalized flight instructions if you want it.

Here's a launch album.

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Edited May 6, 2014 by Camaron

[CaptainGiblets]

So.Many.Struts.

Anyway back to the topic, great lifter, reminds me of Whackjob:wink:

[Camaron]

I actually stole one of whackjob's signature methods. The rest of the struts are necessary to ward off the "SAS-Wobble-Kraken", as I call it.

There's a strut binding the lower-level girders that was straight out of his own recent big project.

If you look REEEALLY closely at the full-res version of the third-to-last photo, you can see the strut inside the lower girders. That's Whackjob's own trick.

[TeeGee]

=0

WOW. This is amazing.

[GusTurbo]

And to think, people were worried that SLS parts would be the end of asparagus!

[Camaron]

Nah. Just much, much bigger asparagus.

The outer portions go right up to the VAB wall. Making it any bigger in stock KSP without a Spacepilot plugged in would have been very difficult.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Camaron

[Camaron]

Come to think of it, Andromeda IV will definitely be bigger than the VAB. Anyone have a good recommendation for a VAB-expanding / Super VAB mod? I don't normally use any mod, but I can't build any bigger with the default VAB.

I mean.... this is Andromeda III -

[KvickFlygarn87]

Mother of all that is holy, that thing is GIGANTIC! +rep for you good sir!

[Remkeau]

looks dangerous to approach though, with all those boosters floating around the station

[Redshift OTF]

So let me get this straight, that lifts 2,200 tons into orbit? Woah.

[Camaron]

I have debris persistence set to 0. That trash goes away afterward. I know it's a bit unrealistic, but it also clears up lag and memory. You could always add separatrons if you wanted realistic removal. Or just leave them attached. Or, if you like ultra-realism/challenges, build a Claw-based de-orbit ship that can forcibly throw away the trash. That might actually be kind of fun and interesting to build a proper multi-pass trash-clearing ship. Or even attach chutes. Recover all excess.

So let me get this straight, that lifts 2,200 tons into orbit? Woah.

Well, actually before tossing the launch boosters off, it's something like 2,900. But since they're essentially spent, and intended to be temporary, it doesn't make sense to count them. In the photographed Demonstration launch, two things happened. The photo showing the single-tank bottom boosters coming off in upper atmosphere is actually from my second (not third) launch attempt. I forgot to drop them entirely in the launch that was completed until the next stage was depleted. Who knows how mucn DV I lost from the extra 122 tons. Second, there was still around 5,000 fuel left in the boosters. I had the ship where I wanted it and just tossed the negligible (on the scale of Titan) remains.

It was a very interesting challenge to learn how to effectively lift something of this monstrous scale. The new ARM update's physics has been infinitely indispensable to the attempt. I tried to fly an 1100-tonner in the previous version but it would never stay intact. Not only did I have to build several other generations of Titan to become familiar with the nuances, but in the last one, I even had to swipe a whackjob technique.

Andromeda is only third-gen right now, because although it's even bigger, it's empty after launch. It's meant to be a storage depot which Titan can fill, with multiple passes. Andromeda III pictured earlier holds 589K Fuel, but only achieved its current orbit holding around 10,000. The idea is to essentially fuse the resources of several Titans into a single immense storage facility.

While Titan has reached a point where I am satisfied, (who would be disappointed with 2,000 tons of fuel in one launch + a half-million orbit?) I feel I can still do more with Andromeda.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Camaron

[Redshift OTF]

I like your thinking! I have made some crazy lifters in the past, (there are some examples in the link in my signature), and I'm working on one that can lift a dead load of 3000 tons.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Redshift OTF

[Stealth_Eagle]

Now, how can I modify this to carry parts of my mothership up?

Eagle

[Camaron]

Here's an extraordinarily High res image of Titan 13 followed by it's craft file. I just had to try out the new 4K monitor!

By the way, for anyone who can bankroll it, and has enough eyesight clarity to actually use it, I recommend the Dell 23.8". It runs on magic and makes pixels out of babies' hair. I got mine for $670 on ebay, which is staggeringly lower than I ever expected to be getting a 4K screen!

http://www./download/k3gbzc6ga65tl8h/Titan_Thirteen.rar

....and here's Andromeda-M, named for its just-over-a-million Liquid Fuel storage capacity.

Edited May 25, 2014 by Camaron

[rtxoff]

omg, that's insane

[snipekill1997]

For the love of GOD what was the launcher for that thing!

[Camaron]

Well the Titan's launcher is shown in the lead thread. Did you mean Andromeda? Keep in mind Andromeda, unlike Titan, reaches orbit nearly emptied, so it's actually a little lighter as a payload.

[snipekill1997]

Well the Titan's launcher is shown in the lead thread. Did you mean Andromeda? Keep in mind Andromeda, unlike Titan, reaches orbit nearly emptied, so it's actually a little lighter as a payload.

That is what I meant. I know it is empty on its way up, but I cannot imagine a launcher for the Andromeda that would not take five hours of lagging to get into orbit.

[Camaron]

Well, I'm running a 4820K, so I have a pretty nice edge when it comes to handling heavy partcounts.

Andromeda M with the launcher is 930 parts...which still puts me at 1.5 frames.

Anyway here are some photos of the Andromeda M's Launch engines. Operated normally, it can circularize an orbit at 350,000-400,000km. But fly it as an SSTO and it can still reach low orbit. That's what I did here to give you a great view of the engines since I cant zoom out far enough to show this to you from inside the VAB.

(I also may have inadvertently created the biggest SSTO ever built.)

Remember that all these pics are in 4K resolution, so you can click the gear in the upper right corner of the photos to get to the true supersize images for the most detailed view.

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[randomness5555]

All dem debris... Docking safely with this thing must be like running an assualt course.

[Rainbowtrout]

All dem debris... Docking safely with this thing must be like running an assualt course.

Probably best to arm the ship with some debris clearers

Anyway, these ships are great! Also, I noticed that your PC is running at a good speed (Your mission timer is green) with that ship. How much did your entire setup cost?

[Camaron]

Well, as an ebay dealer, I've always got my eye out for cost-effective and profitable PC parts. My CPU was an open-box from newegg at $260.

i7 4820K - Newegg, $260.

MSI GTX 660TI - Ebay, around 1-1.5 years ago @ $230. That wouldn't be a great price now, but it was pretty great at the time.

MSI X79A-GD45 Plus - Ebay, 4 months ago @ $117 in auction. Originally tested 66 Xeon chips I had bought, but I decided to use it to replace my old Junk-parts system based on a Lenovo S20. Those 66 Xeons netted me a five-digit profit yield, so that's why I suddenly upped my rig so dramatically.

UP2414Q 4K Monitor - Ebay, $670. Just got it three days ago..

Ultra Black Edition Case (U12-40670) - Actually a very old discontinued model. I just really liked the looks of it - Ebay, $90.

16GB DDR3 Corsair - Newegg, retail price $170-ish

CX600M PSU - Ebay $80

2x WD 1TB RE2 in Raid 0 - Ebay, over two years ago. Don't remember what they cost me.

It wouldn't be fair not to count the Logitech illuminated keyboard and Performance MX Mouse, which cost around $80 each but are both over four years old. Logitech stuff just never dies!

All dem debris... Docking safely with this thing must be like running an assualt course.

Well, I keep my debris persistence off. But even so, I usually put a big ship like this into a spin before ejecting its boosters, so they end up going quite far away.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Camaron

[thescientist]

This craft mean two thing. First: if you need it, check you ISP, they should be over 3-4 at least. If they aren't, it's a good idea to change them. Second: your VAB is bigger inside. It's a TARDIS model 86?

Anyway great job. My laptop is crying with terror just looking at the photos:)

[Camaron]

This craft mean two thing. First: if you need it, check you ISP, they should be over 3-4 at least. If they aren't, it's a good idea to change them. Second: your VAB is bigger inside. It's a TARDIS model 86?

Anyway great job. My laptop is crying with terror just looking at the photos:)

Thanks!

However, I'm using the standard VAB. The root part of the Andromeda is actually one of the middle tanks. Once the top was built, I shoved the whole contraption right through the roof. Despite that, the engines were still nearly on the floor.

I'd love to have access to a bigger VAB! (Anyone have a hint on how I might achieve that?

[Camaron]

This ship will get it's own thread when I'm ready to offer stats, a download link and a launch album.

This is the Titan XV (15).

At its full weight it is over 3,300 tons, costs just over 9 million to launch and starts with 1,494 parts, but drops to a very useable 246 after fully deployed to orbit.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Camaron