any high isp high thrust engine???

[merlin]

hii, i have been playing ksp for a few weeks and i wanted to go to the mun and come back by using a OVERKILL rocket. i want to know - 1. rhino vs mainsail engine for a transfer stage??? 2. is there ANY high thrust high isp engine which i can use for transfer?? THANKS!1

[✪KSPBugger✪]

Cuddle up a whole bunch of LV-N Nuclear Engines.(these run solely on liquid fuel so you dont need rocket fuel tanks, you only need liquid fuel tanks)

[pumpkinator]

mastodon engine works well and they are fuel efficient if you want to go overkill

[Tansetsu]

If your rocket isn't that heavy, take the mainsail since it weighs less. If it's very heavy, take the rhino since it's more efficient.

Though for any semi-heavy transfer engine, my goto is the Skipper, which in my experience tends to be underrated.

[arjensmit79]

The engines are balanced. If it has great TWR, it has not so great ISP and vice versa. You need to pick an engine that fits the rocket design. It is not like some rpg game where you can always find an even better weapon and brute force your way by item quality. If an engine existed that excelled on both, all others would be obsolete.

So what do you mean with overkill exactly ? Do you want lots of excess delta-v ?
Or do you want an insane TWR so that the burns take a really short time and it feels like you are really kerballing ? (doing silly stuff, not because it makes sense but because it is fun)

You can get excess delta-v in multiple ways.

Like a basic simple mun rocket with enough delta-v uses 2 swivel stages and 1 terrier stage.

You can keep this small diameter and gain excessive d-v by using an asparagus staged rocket. (look it up, they are awesome) Or you can achieve it by using a large diameter first stage, medium diameter middle stage and small diameter third stage.

But lets discuss some different engines:

Swivel, Reliant, Skipper, Mainsail, Twinboar, mammoth, masthodon. These are high thrust engines that perform well on sea level and thus are the go to engines for first stages.

Terrier, Cheetah, Poodle, Rhino. These are highly efficient engines that are awesome for lunar or interplanetary transfers. Their Thrust is not super great, but that does not matter in space as you are not fighting gravity.

Within these first 2 categories, the engines aren't all that different. Just pick the one that has a size and weight that fits what you are trying to build.

Nerv: Has a horrible TWR and very high ISP. You may find yourself pursuaded to use a large number of them to defeat the low thrust, but that makes for a very heavy and inefficient rocket. If you want to make good use of this engine, you need to be patient and accept low thrust, meaning long burns, if you do that, it will get you places. Espescially effective if you build an interplanetary vehicle that you fuel up in orbit before sending it away. But it's insane to consider using it to go to the mun.

Dawn: This is even more extreme than the nerv. It has insane ISP, but almost no thrust. This is mostly used on satellites that need to make only tiny burns for station keeping, but need to have fuel for years or even decades. It could in theory of course also be used to propel a larger ship and give them absolute insane dv if you have the patience to wait for burns that take days. It could make interstellar travel viable if there were other starsystems in KSP. (and maybe could be used for that in real life when humanity is ready for multi-generation journeys)



PS: press right mouse button on the engines in the VAB or tech tree so you can see the details for yourself.

[don]

Edit those json's young man and ANY engine is yours!

[✪KSPBugger✪]

Originally posted by arjensmit79:

The engines are balanced. If it has great TWR, it probably has not so great ISP and vice versa. You need to pick an engine that fits the rocket design. It is not like some rpg game where you can always find an even better weapon and brute force your way by item quality.

So what do you mean with overkill exactly ? Do you want lots of excess delta-v ?
Or do you want an insane TWR so that the burns take a really short time ?

You can get excess delta-v in multiple ways.

Like a basic simple mun rocket with enough delta-v uses 2 swivel stages and 1 terrier stage.

You can keep this small diameter and gain excessive d-v by using an asparagus staged rocket. Or you can achieve it by using a large diameter first stage, medium diameter middle stage and small diameter third stage.

But lets discuss some different engines:

Swivel, Reliant, Skipper, Mainsail, Twinboar. These are high thrust engines that perform well on sea level and thus are the go to engines for first stages.

Terrier, Cheetah, Poodle. These are highly efficient engines that are awesome for lunar transfers. Their Thrust is not super great, but that does not matter in space.

Nerv: Has a horrible TWR and very high ISP. You may find yourself pursuaded to use a large number of them to defeat the low thrust, but that makes for a very heavy and inefficient rocket. If you want to make good use of this engine, you need to be patient and accept low thrust, meaning long burns, if you do that, it will get you places. Espescially effective if you build an interplanetary vehicle that you fuel up in orbit before sending it away. But it's insane to consider using it to go to the mun.

i use 1 heavy nuclear engine from a mod and it takes usualy 4 min+ burns to get somewhere