Altaïr
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Dear rocketeers,
If you are here, it's probably that you're attempting to get team Frontier, and for this you need to terminate the mighty Voyager quest. Maybe you already tried it and saw it was harder than it looked at first. The purpose of this thread is to give some hints about how to design an efficient launcher, and how to fly it.
That first part will be dedicated to the rocket design, the second one will be dedicated to the flight technique, and the third one will consist in a collection of tips and tricks. Finally, I'll show a demonstration, with a video so that you can see in detail how to crack that challenge.
So let's start with the...
Rocket design
This part will consist into 3 points.
Understanding the role of each engine
Basically there are two kinds of engines in SFS:
First, build this:
Then click launch and fire all engines. But first, try to figure out by yourself what would happen. A hawk has 3 times as much thrust as a Valiant. So both sides have the same thrust and work against eachother, so this thing should go nowhere. Actually the answer is more subtle, here is what happens:
As stated, neither side is more powerful than the other one, but if you look at the fuel gauges, you'll see that the Valiant side consumes less fuel. That's what "efficient" means. An efficient engine gives more impulse from the same quantity of fuel. That's why those engines are actually the best. To know how efficient is an engine, you have to look at its specific impulse. The higher it is, the better.
The importance of staging
Now let's see why it's important to have several stages on your rocket. Let's take an example, let's say we want to send to orbit a small satellite, with this rocket:
It has just enough fuel for the job, but it's simple and it works, so why try harder? Actually the fact that it has a single stage is a huge drawback. It doesn't look at first, but the problem is that as the fuel is consumed, the tanks that holded that fuel are now empty, meaning that they are now dead weight. And in this case those are 6 tons, which is not negligible. Splitting the rocket into 2 stages allows to drop a good part of this dead weight mid-flight, and also allows to switch to an efficient engine (see previous part).
And if I try with this rocket:
I get the same result. But it weighs 12.6 tons less.
Generally speaking, dedicating 2 stages to reach orbit is the best compromise. And from there, in the case of the Voyager quest, you'll need another stage to send the probe to the stars. So overall, you'll need a 3 stages rocket for this challenge. This is without a doubt the optimal value. Note that if you choose to use a pair of boosters, the boosters themselves may count as a stage, so a 2 stage boosted rocket is fine.
Don't neglect the fairings!
As you have to save as much weight as possible, you may be tempted not to use fairings... But it's a huge mistake! Unless you play sfs 1.4, fairings are not decorative. The game takes aerodynamic into account.
Your payload is very draggy. Overall, the fairings weigh approximately 1 ton, but it will make your rocket way more aerodynamic. They will really allow you to save some precious fuel! Oh, and don't forget that you can discard them once you're in space.
If you are here, it's probably that you're attempting to get team Frontier, and for this you need to terminate the mighty Voyager quest. Maybe you already tried it and saw it was harder than it looked at first. The purpose of this thread is to give some hints about how to design an efficient launcher, and how to fly it.
That first part will be dedicated to the rocket design, the second one will be dedicated to the flight technique, and the third one will consist in a collection of tips and tricks. Finally, I'll show a demonstration, with a video so that you can see in detail how to crack that challenge.
So let's start with the...
Rocket design
This part will consist into 3 points.
Understanding the role of each engine
Basically there are two kinds of engines in SFS:
- Powerful engines (Hawk/Titan): those engines are suited for a first stage, when the launcher has to fight gravity. They provide a good thrust, but they are heavy and consume a lot of fuel.
- Efficient engines (Valiant/Frontier): those engines are more durable and are well suited for suborbital flight and space flight, when thrust isn't a concern. They are best suited on a second and third stage.
First, build this:
Then click launch and fire all engines. But first, try to figure out by yourself what would happen. A hawk has 3 times as much thrust as a Valiant. So both sides have the same thrust and work against eachother, so this thing should go nowhere. Actually the answer is more subtle, here is what happens:
As stated, neither side is more powerful than the other one, but if you look at the fuel gauges, you'll see that the Valiant side consumes less fuel. That's what "efficient" means. An efficient engine gives more impulse from the same quantity of fuel. That's why those engines are actually the best. To know how efficient is an engine, you have to look at its specific impulse. The higher it is, the better.
The importance of staging
Now let's see why it's important to have several stages on your rocket. Let's take an example, let's say we want to send to orbit a small satellite, with this rocket:
It has just enough fuel for the job, but it's simple and it works, so why try harder? Actually the fact that it has a single stage is a huge drawback. It doesn't look at first, but the problem is that as the fuel is consumed, the tanks that holded that fuel are now empty, meaning that they are now dead weight. And in this case those are 6 tons, which is not negligible. Splitting the rocket into 2 stages allows to drop a good part of this dead weight mid-flight, and also allows to switch to an efficient engine (see previous part).
And if I try with this rocket:
I get the same result. But it weighs 12.6 tons less.
Generally speaking, dedicating 2 stages to reach orbit is the best compromise. And from there, in the case of the Voyager quest, you'll need another stage to send the probe to the stars. So overall, you'll need a 3 stages rocket for this challenge. This is without a doubt the optimal value. Note that if you choose to use a pair of boosters, the boosters themselves may count as a stage, so a 2 stage boosted rocket is fine.
Don't neglect the fairings!
As you have to save as much weight as possible, you may be tempted not to use fairings... But it's a huge mistake! Unless you play sfs 1.4, fairings are not decorative. The game takes aerodynamic into account.
Your payload is very draggy. Overall, the fairings weigh approximately 1 ton, but it will make your rocket way more aerodynamic. They will really allow you to save some precious fuel! Oh, and don't forget that you can discard them once you're in space.
Last edited:
