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SKRAM Presents our next generation ship, Advanced Super Heavy Lifter - MELISSA!

sjwt

By sjwt
in KSP1 The Spacecraft Exchange

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sjwt

sjwt

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“It is at times like this that I am reminded about why I got into aerospace to begin with, the severance package†- Clint Kerman, Chief Aerospace Engineer with SKRAM (Specialised Kerbal Rockets & Advanced Mechanics)

“Anyone can take an empty rocket to the Mun, how would you like to take a full one?†- John Kerman, Lead Production and Design Coordinator at SKRAM

“It seemed like a good idea at the time†- Tom Kerman, Production Manager at KIRP (Kerbal Industrial Rocket Productions)

'Why oh God, WHY?' - Bill Kerman - Flight Second-in-Command, KSP

'Late at night, as I lie down to sleep and before I dream, I have always had a vision of a golden field. Within the centre of that field I see a sprout and that sprout it starts to grow, slowly but surely it grows into a rocket. So large and powerful it grows that I am blinded by its power. This power, it humbles me .. .. .. today I saw that vision come true'- Jebediah Kerman - Flight Commander, KSP

'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!' - Bob Kerman - Command Module Pilot, KSP

“I am so sorry, this design was a joke, it was never meant to see the light of day, let alone be taken seriously, you can see that, can\'t you?†- Colin Kerman, Lead Designer from SKRAM; working under focus group KARP (Kerbal Advanced Research & Production)

“This baby flies though the air in the same way bricks don\'t†- Douglas Noel Kerman – Chief rocketry reviewer at Kerbal Rocketry Review Monthly

***

Base craft with 121 fuel tanks as a payload

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Further images

Base craft

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Showing the strutting of the payload to the craft, last stage still to be separated.

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Good day to all out their,

after having established a leading market position in the lifting of heavy payloads, weather they are bases, stations or even other craft; we at SKRAM have not been sitting idle by, letting other companies just catch up to us, no we have been pushing the boundary for all!

I am Proud to present the latest addiction to our fleet - Melissa; our very first ASHL(Advanced Super Heavy Lifter). Until now our good friends at KIRP have had to rely on our ineffectual DSHL(Dumb SHL) to do the lifting for us, and this is finally about to change.

It was during the Development of Mun base MCEsher that project HIVE(Hyper Injection, Velocity & Efficiency) was initiated, after it became clear that we were pushing the limits of our DSHL, and redesigning it once more was out of the question, we were seeking to produce a lifter that could take a payload of 200 units of mass out to a distance of 200kms, we have smashed that with a payload capacity of over 300 units of mass moved out to over 200kms! (#1) or over 120 units of mass taken to Muna orbit!

Compare the 230 tanks of fuel used by our ASHL, to the 270 tanks in our DSHL, and realise that the ASHL can take double the payload further, and you can see why we have developed this!

Using an advanced symmetrical designed drop system, we are able to shed the weight of tanks in eight stages, with 18 tanks on the outside ring in each of the four stages and 24 tanks on the internal ring in each of four stages, whilst keeping all 61 engines firing continuously we are able to fly large payloads though the Kerbin atmosphere in as quick a time as possible, saving fuel by reducing atmospheric drag time and increasing the chance of free fireworks for all!

Burn time for the 61 engines is an approximately 240 seconds, with 18 gimbal engines and 43 main sized ones and with a thrust out put of 11750 units, that’s a lot of payload shifting! With winglets, plenty of SAS and RCS thrusters, this baby flies almost dead straight on a test run with out any payload, so long as your payload is symmetrical it should not impact Melissa\'s flying abilities.

Should you need more stability or RCS fuel(we have allowed for between 6 and 8 tanks of spare fuel to power what is on the payload) than we have room for a mix of another 24 SAS/RCS fule tanks.

The modular design means that if the over 300 units of payload mass(120 full tanks!) that we can shift is not enough, you can remove the outer layers one group at a time for an additional 45 units of payload each time, or taking single tanks off a group of stacks for 15 units , we do however suggest you do not modify the internal ring, as it is also for structural support.

Operational tips are included below.

Stuart Kerman, President of SKRAM - bringing you tomorrows engineering problems today!

Other projects from SKRAM

The SSLV (Super Stupid Lifting Vehicle)

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=8354.msg121554#msg121554

The Faraday super light Mun return craft

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=9729.msg144170#msg144170

Mun Base MCEsher using DSHL(Dumb Super Heavy Lifter)

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=9947.msg147832#msg147832

Upcoming projects from SKRAM include Space station Delta and a Mun base for the community Mun base project 2.0

#1 – The winglets were removed from the standard model for this test, RCS thruster where fired for the full trip prograde using all RCS fuel, bringing the total distance to 206kms carrying 121 full fuel tanks and return vessel.

Operations guide for ASHL Melissa, you don\'t have to follow any of this, but be warned random bits may just fall of this ship or its payload at any point if you don\'t.

1) After copying the .craft file into your ships directory(please keep a raw un-alterd backup copy), please start a new session of KSP.

2) When building your payload onto the lifter, please do so in one session, with only saving at the end, as saving and loading seems to creep bugs into the larger ships. I always keep my master .craft file and replace the one in the ships directory for each build.

3) Once your build is finished and saved, please restart KSP, as a note, always over strut your payload and strut it to the fuel tanks and RCS/SAS, but not to the outer two layers of tanks that get dropped.

4) It is always recommended that each flight is proceeded by a small one tank test ship, to prepare the physics engine in KSP, please take that ship out to the pad, wait for for the dials to even out, look around(enjoy the FPS you wont be seeing those again) then end the flight and return to the VAB.

5) You should now be able to load and launch your ship, I always tap on the SAS and RCS and the throttle as soon as the ship loads, one tap on the throttle is enough to take it to 100% due to the lag, please wait a few seconds, you will first see the throttle move, then the SAS/RCS and its fine to start the first stage.. that can take a few seconds.

6) Flight instructions: Fly dead straight up, no course alterations, no pitching no nothing, 100% throttle all the way.

7) What if I want to alter my course? Feel free to try, but you aren’t going to like it, this ship is for taking a payload straight up.

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sjwt

sjwt

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Dem fuel lines.

Seriously, though. This is epic.

What, its only 130!

I am looking forwards to designing epic stuff to lift with it, I love a lot of the larger stock projects out their, but I am a touch sadden by the fact we have no stock payloads to lift yet, so ppl mostly use empty fuel tanks.. I like the idea of carrying a full payload!

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sjwt

sjwt

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Absolutely stupid design.

I like it! 8)

I\'d call it very Kerbal, for the amount of mass it lifts, I woudl say its about as efficient as you can get with the Launch pad being the size it is.. It gets 27% of its mass to 200ks.. that\'s pretty good!

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  • 1 month later...
sjwt

sjwt

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THIS. IS. GONNA. KILL MY PC!!!!

my computer can hardley handle the game itself. how would it handle this!

Indeed, looks like the download might be too much on its own :)

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Zombieweasel

Zombieweasel

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I knew Radial Drop tanks would lift a massive amount. My Crossfire Probe has roughly the same design concept except instead of using an 8x symmetry i use just 4x. It is Super stable so long as payloads are symetrical. And by keeping a set number of engines burning and discarding spares+tanks you maintain high efficiency. I frankly cant think of using any other design once i worked out its logistic. But my god those fuel lines must have taken awhile to sort out.

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sss

sss

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Indeed, looks like the download might be too much on its own :)

nah.

my computer can handle fsx, minecraft, orbiter, portal and alot of other things.

not to mention downloads.

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