Saturn

[Lt. Snakestrike]

So far I haven't made much progress on Titan other than the probe I'm using to scout it out. I've been working on getting some new tech put together for land bases in the system as well as rockets to get the things there. So far though, not much, but I'm beginning preparations to send my IPS to Titan (currently unmanned, but will house astronauts who'll take a direct route to get there rather than waiting for gravity assists)

It just received a fuel tanker, and is beginning final preparations to depart.

Still need to jettison one of the Fireworks (which was an earlier model) and the fuel ship, but other than that it's getting close to departure.

 

[BANDWITH]

That's a neat ship you have there.

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

That's a neat ship you have there.

Yeah, I this is the culminations of my Fireball and Supersolid projects.

Well, the Fireball project mostly. The supersolid research will come in soon with the navigation.

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

Well, I was going to try a normal, engine first re-entry, but I guess the aerodynamics system has other plans... Sideways entry it is then!

I guess I'll just wait for 1.41 before I even try to get my last shuttle back from my station then.

 

[BANDWITH]

I think you re-entered sideways because the aerodynamic fuselauges lie and are not aerodynamic.

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

I think you re-entered sideways because the aerodynamic fuselauges lie and are not aerodynamic.

I'm not even gonna take the time to try to figure it out, 1 parachute and the ions is enough to land this thing anyway.

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

Lol, just realized how close I landed to the launch pad too. I was trying to get close, but just now bothered to zoom out to see...

 

[Altaïr]

Nice
By the way, what is that greyish texture you use for Earth? I've seen it several times, but I could never figure out where did it come from...

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

That's because of the the Complete Solar System Mod, it has a different picture for earth which changes the surface textures.

 

[Altaïr]

Ok thanks! I didn't know, I didn't try that one. Sorry for the off-topic.

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

No, it's fine, I'm still a little ways from getting an update on this mission anyway.

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

Doing some testing for the payload section of the 1000t payload capability monstrousity that I'm developing as my workhorse for delivering payloads to Saturn.

 

[TtTOtW]

Looks really interesting

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

Alright, thank you to everyone who helped me with figuring out the DeltaV calculations, they really helped with this, I've been getting sick of the tediousness of trial and error of developing pad-assembly rockets.

Now introducing the Tsar Launch System
Designed to launch over 1000 payload tons into orbit, I now have more fuel than I could ever need.

It's fitting of its name too, as it is a Kingly rocket, and also paying homage to the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful explosive of this planet (Gotta love the explosive rockets).
I started with the TTV, the Tsar Transfer Vehicle, with two monstrous payload bays intended to be used for housing buildings on their journey to Saturn. The Ship itself isn't designed to send the payload to Saturn, but will instead be attached to an ion array to propel it on its journey. (TTV pictured in the previous post)

I then created a core designed to burn for a longer period, but not to lift the TTV into orbit on its own. That's where the calculations come in.
I knew that I needed to get to a TWR of 1.2 in order to have a good launch, and I knew that the side boosters would have nine engines each, leaving me with 7500 tons of thrust at liftoff. The calculations kinda just made themselves from there, and I got to a great rocket out of it.

Once I got a booster blueprint in SFS, I could get a fuel weight and from that a DeltaV, which actually turned out to be 2650ish. That alone isn't enough to get the TTV into orbit, but it doesn't have to, as the TTV has 600 m/s of DeltaV to kick it into orbit.

First Launch: Nearly got into orbit, but had issues with seperation due to the docking ports, and didn't get into orbit outside of the atmosphere (overshot the Apogee)

Second launch: Too shallow of a launch and more issues with seperation. Time for a fix.

Third Launch: Fixed the seperator issue using added seperators, and got it into orbit.

Considering it's at its max payload mass, and I'll likely never launch that much again with the rocket, I now have a workhorse for my Saturn endeavors.

Extra Picture:
Was doing some no grav testing, and this thing looked kinda awesome floating above the launch pad.

I don't think I forgot anything...

 

[Altaïr]

Nice, that's a real monster you designed there.

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

Not to mention it's working so much better than the fireball did, and it isn't just specialized for one thing either.

 

[TtTOtW]

A million kilo rocket is a sweet creature

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

Well, the layered fairings didn't work...

 

[TtTOtW]

Well, the layered fairings didn't work...
View attachment 12717

Oof

 

[Altaïr]

Well, the layered fairings didn't work...
View attachment 12717

Most expensive fireworks ever

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

Only blew up a little of the fairings, not any major damage. I'm gonna have to do a no-grav integration though, the fairings don't want to behave.

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

These are the things which've been giving me so much pain.

I wish I didn't have to load them in no-grav, but I don't really have much of a choice now. They're around 950 toms total as well, so they're ae near to the Tsar's capacity as I'll ever need to use operationally.

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

Testing assembly of the ion array before launching. I really hope there aren't problems...

 

[8BitCosmonaut]

Alright, thank you to everyone who helped me with figuring out the DeltaV calculations, they really helped with this, I've been getting sick of the tediousness of trial and error of developing pad-assembly rockets.

Now introducing the Tsar Launch System
Designed to launch over 1000 payload tons into orbit, I now have more fuel than I could ever need.
View attachment 12662
It's fitting of its name too, as it is a Kingly rocket, and also paying homage to the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful explosive of this planet (Gotta love the explosive rockets).
I started with the TTV, the Tsar Transfer Vehicle, with two monstrous payload bays intended to be used for housing buildings on their journey to Saturn. The Ship itself isn't designed to send the payload to Saturn, but will instead be attached to an ion array to propel it on its journey. (TTV pictured in the previous post)

I then created a core designed to burn for a longer period, but not to lift the TTV into orbit on its own. That's where the calculations come in.
I knew that I needed to get to a TWR of 1.2 in order to have a good launch, and I knew that the side boosters would have nine engines each, leaving me with 7500 tons of thrust at liftoff. The calculations kinda just made themselves from there, and I got to a great rocket out of it.
View attachment 12663 View attachment 12664
Once I got a booster blueprint in SFS, I could get a fuel weight and from that a DeltaV, which actually turned out to be 2650ish. That alone isn't enough to get the TTV into orbit, but it doesn't have to, as the TTV has 600 m/s of DeltaV to kick it into orbit.

First Launch: Nearly got into orbit, but had issues with seperation due to the docking ports, and didn't get into orbit outside of the atmosphere (overshot the Apogee)

Second launch: Too shallow of a launch and more issues with seperation. Time for a fix.

Third Launch: Fixed the seperator issue using added seperators, and got it into orbit.

View attachment 12666
View attachment 12667 View attachment 12668 View attachment 12669
View attachment 12670

Considering it's at its max payload mass, and I'll likely never launch that much again with the rocket, I now have a workhorse for my Saturn endeavors.

Extra Picture:
Was doing some no grav testing, and this thing looked kinda awesome floating above the launch pad.
View attachment 12671

I don't think I forgot anything...

Finally some good content, non of those faction wars shit. You're making out the most of the game, very detailed calculations and very impressive setup.

 

[Lt. Snakestrike]

Getting closer, looks like it'll work.
Tedious as hell though, I'm glad I won't be making many of these. Just gonna be reusing two or three.