Speedy Mun Rocket, Perfect For Rescue Missions

[WestSayid]

This thing will get you to the Mun in a hurry!

Craft file: http://www.box.com/s/e1cb3a963e3780f4f80e

Study the staging for a little bit before you launch it. There are a few liftoff stages that go off in sequence. You shouldn\'t start turning your ship until the central, tricoupled engine falls out.

The cross section is very efficient. Basically every square inch is covered by an engine of some kind. Because of this your engines will burn very hot but you shouldn\'t overheat.

Some pictures from the maiden voyage.

Sitting on the launchpad.

SRB separation:

Liquid booster separation:

Central stack cuts off and decouples at 1:12. We are already at 15 km.

Heading for a pro-Mun (CCW) parking orbit:

A few minutes later, Munrise! Munar injection stacks turn on:

Captured and about to burn retro:

Beautiful orbit, sets us down right over that crater:

Brief retroburn later - we still have about 4 full tanks-worth of fuel below the Lander itself:

Lunar descent stage turns on. We kill horizontal velocity:

JEB! WHAT DID YOU DO! WE NEEDED THOSE WINGLETS!!!!

Jeb: '*KRRRRH* This is Keargle, we are going for a landing anway!!'

0.2 m/s! But the rocket tips over...

Jeb is scared?!?!

Time to launch a rescue mission for the rescue mission....

[Bluejayek]

Cool rocket. Think it might be easier for you to land if you replace the final stage engine with the tiny one and add some landing struts? probably will prevent tipping and the rocket disintegrating on you

[Panichio]

12 hours isn\'t exactly very 'speedy', but cool rocket nonetheless.

[Bluejayek]

Out of curiosity what is the fastest you have been able to launch a munar return mission in?

My own first successful mission was ~9 hours to the surface, and 15 hours to return.

seems to me the only way to make a truly speedy rocket would be to make one that had a huge ammount of extra fuel, such that you could burn directly at the moon in a ballistic trajectory (ignoring hohmann transfer orbits entirely), flip over at halfway, and burn down for touchdown.... I hate to think what such a ship would look like on the launchpad though.

[sjwt]

seems to me the only way to make a truly speedy rocket would be to make one that had a huge ammount of extra fuel, such that you could burn directly at the moon in a ballistic trajectory (ignoring hohmann transfer orbits entirely), flip over at halfway, and burn down for touchdown.... I hate to think what such a ship would look like on the launchpad though.

You mean their is another way??

[Ninja possum32]

Like the rocket ;D

[Randox]

You don\'t need a very big rocket to get strait to the Mun. Example:

An interesting design you have there. Those engines have got to be close to blowing each other up.

[WestSayid]

The mission I showed wasn\'t very fast because I tried munar orbital injection.

[Bluejayek]

You mean their is another way??

I was rather unclear! What I meant was a continuous burn, rather then a munar transfer burn, and then a landing burn. You\'d accelerate from takeoff until the halfway point, at which point youd be going like a bat out of hell, and then you\'d flip over, start decelerating, and hope you did your calculations correctly

When I said 'Ballistic' what I merely meant was that you are going for a straight shot, rather then doing orbital maneurvers. Butchering of terminology, I know, I\'ll try harder.