"Adler" Launch Vehicle Series

[boosters++]

This orbiter and there launch vehicles were inspired by my desire to make a kind of Soyuz-Apollo hybrid program, with a unified look, that would also be similarly functional and have a nice progression for different mission profiles. The relevant mods I used were HGR, Tantares, TweakScale, Procedural Fairings, and Procedural Tanks.

Here is the Adler orbiter itself, with 1161m/s dV in its tanks. Plenty of juice for transferring between different stations around Kerbin, and for Munar orbital insertion and escape. It also carries TAC supplies for about three 24h days - long enough for all kinds of missions in the Kerbin system.

Here is the Adler 1A, a 2-stage launcher designed for Kerbin orbit/station servicing, putting the orbiter into an initial orbit of 75-100km:

The Adler 1B is the Munar configuration, with a longer first stage fuel tank, six radial boosters, and a lander inside the extended fairing, Apollo-style. This puts the lunar transfer stage, lander, and orbiter into a 75km orbit with just enough fuel for the Munar transfer burn. The orbiter brakes into orbit and returns, like the Apollo missions:

Here is the Adler and Pioneer Mun Lander en-route to the Mun:

More Pioneer lander action:

Only two Kerbals can fit in the lander, so who took the following photo? Clearly the Mun landing is a hoax.

The Adler 1C is similar to the B configuration, but the lander has been removed, and the escape tower replaced with a docking claw (the abort function is set to decouple the orbiter and activate its engine - not the safest, but better than nothing). This configuration is for asteroid intercept and redirection:

This configuration works for putting small asteroids in Munar orbit (I mined this one for a disappointing amount of ore with the USI asteroid utilization mod):

Finally, here is the Kythera Transit Vehicle doing an Eve flyby with an attached Adler orbiter. The Kythera is launched separately by a heavy lifter, then the Adler 1A provides the crew. After the flyby, a transfer burn in solar orbit allows the Kythera to intercept Kerbin, and the Adler undocks to return the crew to Earth (similar to the planned Apollo Venus Flyby, but two launches instead of one, and no "wet workshop"). Interplanetary missions get a lot more tense when using TAC:

Thanks for checking these out.

Edited November 6, 2014 by boosters++

[mike9606]

Heh, that's pretty cool. I have a question though. How do you get to use the Soy-Juice decoupler without it spawning the wires?

[boosters++]

Thanks! The wires are still there - you can just see them in the asteroid shot. I originally tried building the Adler with the Deadly Reentry decoupler, but I decided the wire/SJ decoupler combo looked appropriate for a vacuum-operating vehicle.

[mike9606]

Thanks! The wires are still there - you can just see them in the asteroid shot. I originally tried building the Adler with the Deadly Reentry decoupler, but I decided the wire/SJ decoupler combo looked appropriate for a vacuum-operating vehicle.

Huh, well how do you keep the wires from sticking down past the engine?

[boosters++]

Huh, well how do you keep the wires from sticking down past the engine?

With that small HGR tank, they 'connect' just about in the middle, so it looks like they are plugged into the antenna plate.

[ultramarinestudios]

Man these look cool! is it possible to upload the craft files so i could use them. its getting a bid boring with the stock command pods

[boosters++]

Man these look cool! is it possible to upload the craft files so i could use them. its getting a bid boring with the stock command pods

Totally missed this, sorry!

Sadly I don't have the craft files for these particular launcher anymore, but if you download the mods I used (listed in my original post), I'm sure you can put something at least as cool together.