Adapter

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An adapter is a part which allows to place multiple stacks of parts beside a single stack. Although some adapters have “coupler” in their name they don't work as decouplers and are statically attached. Beyond the common structural parts, many fuel tanks can be used as adapter too.

Attributes

All of these parts are Fuel Crossfeed Capable, meaning that when there is a fuel tank on the single side and an engine on the multiple side of the adapter, propellants, like liquid fuel and oxidizer, will flow through the adapter on the way to the engine. However, it should be noted that fuel will only flow from the single end to the multiple ends, and not vice versa; this prohibits use of an upside-down adapter to supply fuel to a single engine from multiple stacks.

The branches are unsupported and prone to bending or breaking if the weight and thrust are not properly distributed. Rockets incorporating an adapter are also likely to wobble, unless the stacks are opportunely bound together with struts.

Uses

The main uses of these adapters include connecting a small payload, such as a space probe, to a large launcher, or using several small engines on the bottom of a large fuel tank to increase efficiency. If a one-to-multiple adapter is on an upper stage which has engines underneath it, adding decouplers at the bottom of the engines and an upside-down one-to multiple adapter can allow for a large launcher underneath a powerful interplanetary vehicle. But only one of the decouplers are connected to the adapter below. This is very unstable and needs to be supported by struts.

Another, unconventional use of those parts is as a landing 'foot' when landing very large craft (such as bases). The stock landing legs aren't big or powerful, even though in version 0.22.0 they were re-modeled to include pistons for making a landed craft more stable. Using the strut parts as 'legs' and an adapter such as the Tri-Coupler as a 'foot', it can artificially make its own landing leg. Although, it will be mostly useless on sloped terrain, since it, unlike the landing legs, wouldn't have any pistons for keeping it from falling over on a slope.

Testing shows that the "tall" variety of adapters perform better aerodynamically than the "flat" variety, enough to offset the difference in weight. This means that when lifting off from a planet with an atmosphere, a larger delta-v is obtained when using the former (unless of course the part is protected from wind forces, for example using a fairing). The opposite is true when lifting off from a vacuum planet, due to the lower mass of the "flat" variety.

Types

Parts
Image Part Radial size Cost
(Funds)
Mass
(t)
Max. Temp.
(K)
Tolerance
(m/s)
Tolerance
(g)
FL-A10 White.png
FL-A10 Adapter Tiny, Small 150 0.05 2 000 6 50
RockomaxBrandAdapter Gray.png
Rockomax Brand Adapter Small, Large 500 0.1 2 000 6 50
FL-A5 White.png
FL-A5 Adapter Tiny, Small 100 0.04 2 000 6 50
RockomaxBrandAdapter02 Gray.png
Rockomax Brand Adapter 02 Large, Small 450 0.08 2 000 6 50
Radial attachment point.png
BZ-52 Radial Attachment Point Small, Radial mounted 250 0.04 2 000 10 50
Rockomax Hubmax Multi-Point Connector big.png
Rockomax HubMax Multi-Point Connector Small 900 1.5 2 000 15 50
Mk1 Structural Fuselage.png
Structural Fuselage Small 380 0.1 2 000 10 50
TVR-200 Dark.png
TVR-200 Stack Bi-Coupler Small, Small x 2 400 0.1 2 000 9 50
TVR-1180C Dark.png
TVR-1180C Mk1 Stack Tri-Coupler Small, Small x 3 680 0.15 2 000 12 50
TVR-2160C Dark.png
TVR-2160C Mk2 Stack Quad-Coupler Small, Small x 4 2 000 0.175 2 000 12 50
TVR-200L Dark.png
TVR-200L Stack Bi-Adapter Large, Small x 2 400 0.1 2 000 12 50
TVR-300L Dark.png
TVR-300L Stack Tri-Adapter Large, Small x 3 600 0.15 2 000 12 50
TVR-400L Dark.png
TVR-400L Stack Quad-Adapter Large, Small x 4 800 0.2 2 000 12 50
Mk3EngineMount.png
Mk3 Engine Mount Mk3 2500 0.7 2 600 50 50


Fuel tanks acting as adapters

Liquid fuel and oxidizer density are both 5 kg/unit Mass
(t)
Liquid
Fuel

(Units of fuel)
Oxidizer
(Units of fuel)
Image Part Radial size Cost
(Funds)
Full Empty Max. Temp.
(K)
Tolerance
(m/s)
Tolerance
(g)
C7 Brand Adapter - 2.5m to 1.25m.png
C7 Brand Adapter - 2.5m to 1.25m Small, Large 800
(433.0)
4.57 0.57 2 300 20 50 360 440
C7 Brand Adapter Slanted - 2.5m to 1.25m.png
C7 Brand Adapter Slanted - 2.5m to 1.25m Small, Large 800
(433.0)
4.57 0.57 2 300 20 50 360 440
Mk2 to 1.25m Adapter.png
Mk2 to 1.25m Adapter Small, Mk2 550
(366.4)
2.29 0.29 2 500 50 50 180 220
Mk2 to 1.25m Adapter Long.png
Mk2 to 1.25m Adapter Long Small, Mk2 1 050
(682.8)
4.57 0.57 2 500 50 50 360 440
Mk2 Bicoupler.png
Mk2 Bicoupler Small, Mk2 x 2 860
(676.4)
2.29 0.29 2 500 50 50 180 220
2.5m to Mk2 Adapter.png
2.5m to Mk2 Adapter Large, Mk2 800
(432.8)
4.57 0.57 2 500 50 50 360 440
Mk3 to Mk2 Adapter.png
Mk3 to Mk2 Adapter Mk2, Mk3 2 200
(1 282.0)
11.43 1.43 2 600 50 50 900 1 100
Mk3 to 2.5m Adapter.png
Mk3 to 2.5m Adapter Large, Mk3 2 500
(1 353.0)
14.29 1.79 2 600 50 50 1 125 1 375
Mk3 to 2.5m Adapter Slanted.png
Mk3 to 2.5m Adapter Slanted Large, Mk3 2 500
(1 353.0)
14.29 1.79 2 600 50 50 1 125 1 375
Mk3 to 3.75m Adapter.png
Mk3 to 3.75m Adapter Extra large, Mk3 2 500
(1 353.0)
14.29 1.79 2 600 50 50 1 125 1 375
ADTP-2-3 Gray.png
Kerbodyne ADTP-2-3 Large, Extra large 1 623
(246.0)
16.88 1.88 2 000 6 50 1 350 1 650
Radial size Tiny Small Large Extra large
1× Small
2× Small TVR-200 Stack Bi-Coupler TVR-200L Stack Bi-Adapter
3× Small TVR-1180C Mk1 Stack Tri-Coupler TVR-300L Stack Tri-Adapter
4× Small TVR-2160C Mk2 Stack Quad-Coupler TVR-400L Stack Quad-Adapter