Launcher help required

[Assault Bunny]

Inspiration struck recently and I've built a new Jool mission craft, partly based on my old .21 design. I call it the Esquilax! (bonus points if you get the reference and why it works for me)

The top section is the non-atmospheric lander. It comes with double everything science (expect pressure sensors and only one seismic) to get just above and landed science from all the Joolian moons (apart from Laythe), and return to the mothership for science processing and refueling.

It could of course land on Laythe, but not return after. That's what THIS is for!

This pile of weird can land on the watery moon, and even stays upright on the ocean (at least on Kerbin). It's primary thruster is a jet, taking advantage of Laythe's atmosphere to get it as high/fast as it can go. It then drops the jet stage and becomes a regular rocket, hopefully getting it back into orbit where it can rendezvous back with the mothership and latch back for processing. Then of course it returns to Kerbin (I hope, if I haven't wasted too much fuel) where the top lander and science pod parachute back down safely.

The problem I'm having is that I can't get the damn thing into orbit. The launcher can't attach to the jet engine, so I have to have it coming off the four nukes, but whatever I build it either crashes into itself when jettisoned and blows everything up, or it's just not powerful enough. Repeated failure tends to annoy me, so I've turned to the good people here. Little help please?

Craft file here: The Esquilax

[Remkeau]

Cool design. The engine fairings for the nuke get jettisoned with the force of a small supernova. Maybe angling your nukes differently or jettisoning them manually (one by one) will do the trick to prevent the fairings from slamming into your craft. I believe there is also a way to get the fairings to dissapear by reloading a quicksave when the seperator has been activated (but not the engine) but I am not sure about the details.

[xoknight]

Also, I don't think that lander has enough power or fuel to land on/take off from Tylo.

[Assault Bunny]

I think you misunderstand. The craft you see here does not have any Kerbin->Orbit launcher on it. I need all of this put into orbit, or even a Kerbin escape trajectory, without having to use any of it's fuel. The nuke engines are angled so that the fairings will only hit each other. I uploaded it without any kind of launcher for convenience of those attempting to build one.

As for a Tylo landing, I have no idea. If it turns out it can't, I'll have to either change the lander, or add a leave-behind probe.

[Captain_Party]

You could use a rapier, less efficient than a normal jet I think but it has an attach node on the bottom.

[Assault Bunny]

Don't have it unlocked. I mostly ignored the aerodynamics section in this career.

[KvickFlygarn87]

Here's a doubtful idea: Turn on clipping, place cube struts through the jet, attach stuff to that

[LethalDose]

If I had to get this... vessel into space, I would send the atmospheric lander up separately, and dock it to the rest of the vessel, then send it all off to Jool.

I have no idea HOW you're gonna get that thing into space though. Maybe strap SRB's to two sides, and then LRBs to the other two? And if you're willing to refuel in LKO before heading off to Jool, It may be a little easier to get some of those up to LKO. You may have more luck designing it has an SSTO instead of a staged vessel.

[Assault Bunny]

Here's a doubtful idea: Turn on clipping, place cube struts through the jet, attach stuff to that

That is doubtful, as it would likely render the jet engine unusable.

If I had to get this... vessel into space, I would send the atmospheric lander up separately, and dock it to the rest of the vessel, then send it all off to Jool.

I have no idea HOW you're gonna get that thing into space though. Maybe strap SRB's to two sides, and then LRBs to the other two? And if you're willing to refuel in LKO before heading off to Jool, It may be a little easier to get some of those up to LKO. You may have more luck designing it has an SSTO instead of a staged vessel.

Again we have issues with that, as without the struts holding it in place (see first image), it wobbles all over the place. Much less of a problem after it's return from Laythe, as everything below the pod will be gone.

I was having some luck attaching orange tanks and mainsails below the nukes, but they kept running out of fuel before I could get it into orbit.

[Assault Bunny]

Never mind

Managed to find one of my previous launcher attempts, and managed to get it to work. It now gets it into orbit, even with not the best piloting, with a little to spare. It even has retro-boosters to (hopefully) de-orbit the debris once spent.

Esquilax with launcher

[Assault Bunny]

Just an update; Launcher works great As long as you use the last of it's fuel to boost your AP, then drop it at AP while facing pro-grade, it de-orbits just fine.