Overview
What if you only have Rockomax’ solid boosters? Can you put some serious cargo in orbit?
How this was done
Easy as MünRock collecting: A large remote controlled module on top of a large battery on top of a large SAS on top of a Jumbo64 on top of a large SAS on top of a Skipper engine.
This was the dumb mass our lovely solid rockets were to lift!
All SRBs were mounted on the outside of the ship, radially, except if otherwise noted.
Ladies and gentleman: behold the results!
Too much blabber, not enough results!
Here’s how the solids performed:
And as a nice graph, maximum altitude and geforce (sorry nvidia, I’m feeling quite playful today!):
Clarifying the two “one SRB” on the table, the first one was run on its own (and a small remote controlled module, just to launch in 0.22). Its maximum altitude and acceleration can be considered the maximum achievable using only solids, no matter what you lift.
Clearer: at the limit you have an infinite amount of SRBs lifting something, it will perform roughly the same as the lone SRB.
The second “one SRB” had the test vessel on top of it and, because it was too heavy, it didn’t even lifted off the ground.
Also: the 12, 16, 18 and 24 SRBs were mounted as follows: six or eight on the tank and six or eight more mounted on the first ‘ring’ of SRBs, respectively.
Conclusions and commentary
Conclusion zero: my physics professor would have a heart attack if he saw this lame report… Hopefully, this is Kerbin and fellow Kerbal rocket scientists and engineers couldn’t possibly care less about ‘frivolities’ such as “error bars” or “standard deviation”, in spite of unliking the abscence of cute printscreens.
Conclusion one: more SRBs lift more mass faster! So, if you ever need that extra push, add more SRBs, some struts if necessary, and blast off.
Conclusion two: SRBs are best for high-pressure scenarios. Be careful, though, not to overspeed during ascent, otherwise air drag will render the booster useless after said pressure drops near zero.
WARNING: if the SRBs are helping another engine, make sure this other engine can lift the whole vessel on its own or else more SRBs will take you lower than less SRBs. Happened today, got some data, will redo the testing and, if confirmed, will show the results with reasonable explanations later.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Rule of thumb: always test your vehicles in parts before a long trip to make sure they are all useful.
FINAL CONCLUSION
No. You cannot put something in orbit using only SRBs as a Single-Stage-To-Orbit vehicle.
Debriefing
Jebtalk, as usual, should be directed to the pertinent “comment” section down below.
Also, remember to firmly strap you seatbelt at all times while seated, including in space.
And dont go taco-eating before launch… Abort sequences may be triggered automatically by gas sensors onboard.