Kiloton Club

[Earl]

Earl you bugger... You and Danny really are brothers in tech. Guess you are the natural successor?

Ha, I wish I was as advanced as he is! I'd never have the patience to make So many landing gear designs!

 

[Earl]

Ok, and here's my idea. You can expand more horizontally in the build space.

One build, no bp. edits.
Edit: don't think it can get a kiloton into orbit, but you get the point.

 

[Falcon231]

This is my attempt, I tested this, and it can get to orbit. Anyways, it’s time to launch this monstrosity.

 

[Falcon231]

All is still fine after stage separation.

 

[Pink]

Where's the payload?

 

[Falcon231]

Where's the payload?

the second stage, I added boosters to it since the first and second attempt had no way to boost it after fuel was depleted from the first stage.

 

[smol]

the second stage, I added boosters to it since the first and second attempt had no way to boost it after fuel was depleted from the first stage.

Wouldn’t the boosters burn the very fuel in the payload you were trying to lift? Do you have 1kT left in orbit after all is said and done?

Your fuel gauge in the second photo only shows 64%, and with a velocity of 1023m/s I don’t think you are done burning yet.

 

[4KidsOneCamera]

Wouldn’t the boosters burn the very fuel in the payload you were trying to lift? Do you have 1kT left in orbit after all is said and done?

Your fuel gauge in the second photo only shows 64%, and with a velocity of 1023m/s I don’t think you are done burning yet.

Yeah, smol is right. Your boosters are burning fuel from your payload. Fuel tanks can interact through their sides in 1.5 as well as their top and bottoms.

 

[Falcon231]

Wouldn’t the boosters burn the very fuel in the payload you were trying to lift? Do you have 1kT left in orbit after all is said and done?

Your fuel gauge in the second photo only shows 64%, and with a velocity of 1023m/s I don’t think you are done burning yet.

 

[Altaïr]

View attachment 42028

With 39% of remaining fuel I don't think you have 1kton in orbit. And as smol and 4kidsOnecamera said, that's rather a second stage, it would be better to clearly separate the actual stages and the payload...

To be honest it will be very difficult if you stay limited to the build area, we all did some pad assembly or bp edit to do it.

 

[TtTOtW]

In theory you should under no circumstances be able to lift more than 900t to orbit within the build space. In practice that number shrinks to a bit over 700.' Nice try, really. But you'll need to think outside the box. Or rather, outside the grid.

 

[Pink]

Okay, I challenged myself to be more mass efficient.

You've already seen the one on the right. 5kt on lift-off, abysmally low TWR (1.04!).
The 1kt payload makes up 20% of the lift-off mass.

Now the one on the left. I basically spammed titans to raise the TWR to 1.4, then started cutting fuel from both stages, removing titans as necessary.
4.3kt on lift-off, TWR somewhere around 1.4.
The 1kt payload makes up 23% of the lift-off mass.


Lift-off!


Turn over early to reduce gravity losses.... We will be almost horizontal before the apoaspis is above 30km.

See?

In orbit with 10% left. And before the booster hits the ground, even! This was much much easier to fly than the 5kt version.

More efficiency gains obviously possible.

 

[TtTOtW]

I'm impressed!

 

[4KidsOneCamera]

I'm impressed!

Same here. Works good, and looks good as well!

 

[Pink]

Oh, man, so tired now.

3999.9t lift-off mass to put 1004.1t in orbit.

Better than 25% payload mass fraction.

 

[Altaïr]

Okay, I challenged myself to be more mass efficient.
View attachment 42415
You've already seen the one on the right. 5kt on lift-off, abysmally low TWR (1.04!).
The 1kt payload makes up 20% of the lift-off mass.

Now the one on the left. I basically spammed titans to raise the TWR to 1.4, then started cutting fuel from both stages, removing titans as necessary.
4.3kt on lift-off, TWR somewhere around 1.4.
The 1kt payload makes up 23% of the lift-off mass.

View attachment 42416
Lift-off!

View attachment 42417
Turn over early to reduce gravity losses.... We will be almost horizontal before the apoaspis is above 30km.
View attachment 42418 View attachment 42419
See?
View attachment 42420 View attachment 42421
In orbit with 10% left. And before the booster hits the ground, even! This was much much easier to fly than the 5kt version.

More efficiency gains obviously possible.

That's really good, especially that you have some fuel left, so you could pretend that it counts as payload aswell. In practice, you would just have to swap the fuel tanks in excess from the second stage to the payload. The launcher would weigh exactly the same and would fly the same way, you would just reach orbit with nearly 0% fuel remaining.

 

[Pink]

That's really good, especially that you have some fuel left, so you could pretend that it counts as payload aswell. In practice, you would just have to swap the fuel tanks in excess from the second stage to the payload. The launcher would weigh exactly the same and would fly the same way, you would just reach orbit with nearly 0% fuel remaining.

Thanks.
It's still not close to being as efficient as yours!

 

[Altaïr]

Thanks.
It's still not close to being as efficient as yours!

It's not that far. My best score was at 27%. And that's really when pushing the limits of my launcher to the max.

 

[Pink]

It's not that far. My best score was at 27%. And that's really when pushing the limits of my launcher to the max.

Confirmed: serial two-stage is 92.5% of the efficiency of boosters and sustainer core.

 

[Cosmo's fan]

Ok here's my entry, presenting

The Fiend -

Payload(mass=1300 tons)-

On pad-

Liftoff! -

Booster sep-

Leo(Note: 11% fuel left in first stage, and second stage is untouched) -

Final orbit after 100% consumption-

Payload released-

Any kind of recommendation or suggestion will be appreciated.

 

[Cosmo's fan]

I know my total mass to payload mass ratio is very less but that's not a complete project already started working on its efficiency and i know that boosters are way too big so that problem has already been addressed

 

[Altaïr]

I know my total mass to payload mass ratio is very less but that's not a complete project already started working on its efficiency and i know that boosters are way too big so that problem has already been addressed

Welcome to the club

Even if it can be improved that's still a good launcher, especially for a first try. My first try was ugly in comparison.

 

[TtTOtW]

Captain. Good job. I see our Pyronian lifter has taught you some valuable lessons

 

[Cosmo's fan]

Captain. Good job. I see our Pyronian lifter has taught you some valuable lessons

Ohhh yes really

 

[jerome_the_sfs_boss]

Can I join with my HPC