Aaaand I am back!
The landing and return to Minimus was a success. Took a while to align the orbit stuff (13 days *ahem*), but all in all a very smooth mission. I was even able to use my regular moon rocket without any modifications.
Congrats! What method did you use to get there?
So what should be my next target? Duna? Eve?
I guess I will need a sort of bigger rocket to get me there, huh?
Yes, you're gonna need a bigger boat.
A bigger rocket will get you to Duna pretty easily, and you may even be able to get back with it if you design a good lander. Getting to Eve isn't that hard, but coming back is. Expect one-way trips there until you're an expert. Antilogic and I were discussing return methods a bit up-thread.
Did someone say bigger boat? Introducing the Test Bed, the last rocket you'll ever need:
It is called the Test Bed because it was originally intended to test out in one package all I had learned about building a rocket. I didn't expect it to fly, much less get anywhere. Boy was I wrong.
It incorporates asparagus staging on an 8 booster design around a central core. Yes, that is eight big stacks of 3200L tanks with mainsails surrounding the central core. This is tricky to pull off because normally you will have clipping issues with 8 boosters of 3200L tanks. Let me show you how I got around that:
I had to triple stack hardpoint struts to push the tanks out far enough that they don't clip each other.
My first test flight was nerve racking because the first two asparagus stages empty at less than 3km. However, that's because they are feeding 3 other stacks each. It all worked out very nicely.
This rocket will put me on a direct Duna injection with
the central core retaining 1 1/2 tanks of fuel for manuevers. I can put my lander on an encounter with Duna and even do a lot of the slowing down to get into orbit without using
any of my lander fuel.
You may also notice that my lander has 4 NERVAS. I had meant to cut it down to just 3 NERVAS to save weight but I forgot and it turned out to not be an issue.
The one thing this rocket doesn't incorporate are sepatrons. I wanted to add them, but again I forgot. So far, I haven't actually needed them. They would be helpful because if I launch it enough times, I will have a collision event with one of the stages without sepatrons. However, I just don't feel like adding all the extra parts which will give me lagging issues and staging headaches. It works well enough for me now, so I am putting it into serial production and not messing with it.
It is more than enough for a Duna mission and could probably get me to Moho and back. I'm also fairly certain that I could land on and return from most of the Jool moons if I delete the 4th NERVA and maybe add some more fuel.
I don't think it will get me to and back from the heavier Jool moons with atmospheres or Eve. It could get me there, but a return will be tricky. I will have to radically redesign the lander and probably the launcher to get there and back, but for now, it's as good as gold.
I am using 6 large Rockomaxx solid boosters for takeoff, a single mainsail engine with 9600F for reaching orbit, an LV-N Atomic with 800F for orbital and space maneuvering and an LV-909 with 400F for final landing and return.
And: Thanks for the tips, will definately try it out!
=)
While I hesitate to suggest any changes to a succesful rocket, if you are just using this to fly around the Kerbin system, I would suggest either using a Poodle or a Single Nerva for both orbital manuevering and landings. Having both is unneccesary and adds extra weight. Just combine the fuel tanks from both systems and drop the extra engine.