Yurt Rocket

I named my multi stage rocket design after it's resemblance to Mongolian tent "Yurt". The main objective of this design is to be able to deploy large volume and fragile payloads to the space with slow acceleration.

Yurt rocket is made of propellent tanks and engines attached around cylindrical belts. Unlike traditional rockets, the stages are side by side. The fuel and oxidizer tanks are next to each other and directly feed the engine beneath them. Traditional rockets have tanks one above the other and require long pipes to reach the engine. The engines will be throttleable but do not require gimbling because the thrust is distributed around a large area. Smooth acceleration is achieved by independently throttling the engines. Yurt rocket will have much more number of smaller engines compared to traditional rockets. Small engine parts can easily be 3d printed and mass produced. 

The payload will be placed in the hollow part of the rocket and covered by cascaded light weight aerodynamic shields. Therefore large space telescopes can be deployed unfolded so as the satellites can be designed unibody. As a result the telescopes and satellites can be designed lighter and cheaper (folding mechanisms add weight and complexity). Additionally, much larger Space Station sections can be deployed in one piece. Slow acceleration allows fragile instruments to be deployed as well. Finally, space tourists can be send to space much more comfortably (no high G acceleration to bear).

The first stage of the rocket will lift the rocket to 100km or above the ground without lateral speed. Just before it's fuel finishes the second stage will disengage from the first stage. After the separation, the second stage will rotate sideways and fire its engines to accelerate the remaining rocket and the payload to orbital velocity. All second stage engines will be vacuum optimized.

The first stage will free fall to earth. It's cascaded payload dome (allowing trapped air to escape, but still slowing down the fall) and parachutes will allow the stage to land close to the launch side safely. Much larger base area compared to traditional rockets will allow much stable fall without needing complex re-entry maneuvers.

The propellent tanks will be painted in black to increase the propellent pressures without external Helium pressure tanks. Longer time to orbit allows the sun rays to heat up the tanks. The tanks will be heat shielded during fueling and the shield will be removed just before the launch.

Yurt rocket design allows more stages to be added easily, just add more cylindrical belts. Finally, rockets with different diameters can easily be designed. The most critical part, the engines will be the same.