KerbalX

Details

• Type: Subassembly
• Class: lifter
• Part Count: 9
• Pure Stock

Mammoth Engine with 4x Vecotrs

This s*** s gonna get hairy. - Werner Von K.
The Joolian V rocket proposal had been floating around KSC for many years after the completion of the Joolian IV. While simply scaling up and adding stages or solid boosters to the largest rocket would work, the recovery margin ran thin. The JIV recovers one out of five expensive Mammoth engine stacks and the plans for the Joolian V called for six or more to be jettisoned in to the oceans to lift the proposed 500t payload. With no missions that couldn’t be accomplished with 2 JIV’s worth of lift, the cost of the expended parts was the major factor in stalled development.

That changed with what is being dubbed the Woolly Mammoth engine. Kerbin’s finest engineers managed to fix four Vector engine nozzles in to the previously open spaces between the Mammoth’s bells. The inner pair are locked in place and the outer pair are given room to gimbal. The original bells are also given some flex, but as this is for superheavy launch vehicles, gimbal ranges across the unit are restrained to ensure maximum forward thrust. It was also found to limit wobble in unsteady, super heavy loads. Four fins come standard and can be removed as needed.

When this engine was first mounted to tanks the designers realized they had made a mistake. The final engine was so powerful that they never considered just not staging any of the planned drop tanks or engine stacks. Five Woolly Mammoths are the base of the Joolian V SSTO Rocket which has passed its initial trials to place a 500 ton payload within 200m of the KSS (150,000km x 150,000km) and deorbit itself.

The 500t payload via SSTO rocket would not have been possible without the Woolly Mammoth. With news of the new engine spreading across the space program, whispers about colonial outposts and super stations have energized every department. Even the accountants are salivating at being able to fully recover such an expensive lifter. Studies are being done to see if the Joolian III & IV can be retrofitted with the Woolly Mammoth and total number of stacks reduced to one and three respectably.

Built with 9 of the finest parts, its root part is Size3EngineCluster.

Built in KSP version 1.2.2.