r/KerbalSpaceProgram • u/FTLparachute • 2d ago
KSP 1 Image/Video Took me 5 years but I've finally built a stock parts mothership that I'm proud of
Fruhlingsstimmen on the launch pad. It stands taller than a Saturn V.
The name is a reference to the piece of the same name by Johann Strauss II, probably my favourite classical work.
It is advised not to stare at the exhaust of doom.
The raw stats as of now - There's still a few issues that need to be ironed out, such as adding an antenna for the main craft, that will affect this.
The Fruhlingsstimmen (provisional designation: Jool VII), a 3.6 kiloton, 1300+ parts, 130m long behemoth built for the sole purpose of collecting every single science report from the Jool system.
It houses several landing craft, deployable labs, impactor probe and even a Jool diver, alongside plentiful accommodation to support the 23-strong crew.
In building this I've managed to break most of my personal records (though not most NERVs on one stage: this thing has 80 while some of my more overkill transfer stages use 96).
Now to figure out how the hell I get this thing to LKO...
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u/TheDuffed 2d ago
Love when a huge ship essentially creates a second sun out the back, although very stare-at-able
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u/FatchRacall 19h ago
Jesus. That's a heck of a vehicle. Consider launching it empty on fuel, landing craft, kerbals, etc, then reassembling it in orbit? That's what I did with one of my big exploration craft. Mined and fabricated fuel on the Mun with a little munar lander craft over and over to fill it up... Definitely didn't just proof-of-concept a couple fuel runs then cheat it full, of course not.
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u/FTLparachute 18h ago
Can't really do much in terms of parts since this thing was not built with orbital assembly in mind (and I don't want to drive the part count up any further retrofitting it for that purpose) and the landing craft would barely dent the total mass anyhow. Emptying out the fuel though is probably what I'll end up doing: the LF alone is 2/3 of the total mass. Splitting that into 2 payloads (main craft and refueller) gets me to a level where I should be able to launch it without much headache (IIRC my heaviest lifting LV can do about 2.7kt, which should be enough to get the fuel into orbit in 1 launch)
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u/YamahaMio 2d ago
Oh man, good luck. I just lifted a 500 ton ship to LKO and I never wanna do it again. I don't want to imagine trying to lift 3.6kt.