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As we all know here, Ingenuity became the first aircraft to achieve powered flight on Mars. It also became the first rotorcraft to fly on another celestial body. NASA, however, did consider winged aircraft first. There was ARES proposal that was ultimately abandoned in favor of Mars Phoenix program. There were Earth high-altitude research drones with adorable name "Mini-Sniffers" (pictured below) that could theoretically be adapted for Mars flight. And there is also a prototype solar glider Sky-Sailor developed by ETH Zürich that could be developed into a fully fledged mission if funding is provided Thankfully, we are not limited by either budget or feasibility of such missions in KSP and, therefore, for this challenge, we will develop a Duna airplane Mission Profile: The plane will be stored inside a fairing and launched from Kerbin towards Duna. After reaching Duna, the plane will separate from main rocket and enter the planet's atmosphere and glide as far as it can before it either crashes or lands softly on the surface Construction Rules: Only Stock parts are allowed, for both Plane and the Launch Vehicle Plane must be able to fit inside a 3.75 meter fairing. Fairing can NOT be made wider than its base, which means you will need to get creative with wing shapes or robotics in order to make the Plane fit Plane must be either an unpowered glider or be powered by electric props. Depending on that, your submission will be labeled either Unpowered or Powered Plane can be either Manned or Unmanned, that is up to your preferences If the Plane is Manned, the Kerbals aboard must survive the landing. Whether you choose to bail out and pull the parachute, attempt a soft landing or use the plane as an impact absorber is up to you, as long as all kerbals survive If the Plane is Unmanned, your save file must have CommNet enabled like on Normal difficulty. Don't forget to put an antenna on the Plane and couple of relays around Duna beforehand Plane cannot have any means to recharge its batteries: no solar panels/fuel cells/RTGs and whatnot With that being said, you can keep the Plane fully charged for the transfer from Kerbin to Duna. Just make sure all recharging means are discarded before atmospheric flight phase Launch Vehicle must use 3.75 meter fairing to store the Plane Significant part clipping is only allowed for Plane fuselage optimizations. Minor part clipping of wings and control surfaces of the Plane is allowed, but don't overdo it. No part clipping for Launch Vehicles EDIT: I think the thread name already makes it pretty clear, but just in case: the Plane must have wing parts. Wingless gliders won't be accepted Specific requirements for Powered submissions: Plane can only use no more than 100 electric charge to power the props. Rest of the flight must be performed unpowered Props can NOT be offset in any way. Prop offsetting can significantly reduce energy usage to the point of actually generating electric charge, essentially making an infiniglider. So, for the purpose of fairness, props can only be placed "normally" without additional fine adjustments Challenge rules: The whole stack must be launched from KSC Only the Plane is allowed to enter Duna's atmosphere: non-essential equipment like transfer stages must be detached before atmospheric entry. You are, however, ALLOWED to do a braking burn and even enter Duna's orbit altogether if you want to, as long as you don't skim the atmosphere while doing it. As soon as you're ready for the Duna flight, all non-essential equipment must be discarded After entering the atmosphere, you are NOT allowed to escape back to space: once you're in - you're gliding through the air until the end There will be three scoring criteria: weight of the Plane, weight of the entire Launch Stack and Distance travelled. You must include a screenshot of the first two criteria from VAB/SPH with data shown, some screenshots from the mission itself and a final screenshot of the landing site. Third criteria might be tricky to measure in pure stock KSP, so I recommend Persistent Trails that can track your flight trajectory and distance : just start logging your glide as soon as you hit Duna's atmosphere and then make a screenshot of your travelled distance. Alternatively, you can try out @linuxgurugamer's edit of Persistent Trails: this one will start recording automatically as soon as you enter the atmosphere! Third option, if you prefer to play without mods, is to use KerbNet to mark your entry point and then calculate the distance by hand (check @18Watt's submissions for an example on how to do it) Speaking of mods: Mods that affect gameplay (physics changes or new parts) are not allowed. Information mods like KER and graphics mods are allowed Submissions: OJT Unpowered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 931 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 66.439 tons; Distance - 596.421 km Unpowered, Manned (2 Kerbals). Plane Mass - 1722 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 62.794 tons; Distance - 754.295 km Unpowered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 707 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 61.325 tons; Distance - 24478.43 km 18Watt Powered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 804 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 125.562 tons; Distance - 1189.709 km Powered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 804 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 125.662 tons; Distance - 1509.905 km Unpowered, Manned (1 Kerbal). Plane Mass - 1188 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 126.188 tons; Distance - 12593.132 km Powered, Manned (1 Kerbal). Plane Mass - 1435 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 66.82 tons; Distance - 1946.392 km linuxgurugamer Unpowered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 4330 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 418.639 tons; Distance - 1808.855 km Unpowered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 4330 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 418.639 tons; Distance - 2792.045 km kerbalboi Unpowered, Unmanned. Plane Mass - 1065 kg; Launch Stack Mass - 235.333 tons; Distance - 9148.058 km Good luck!

Hello , I'm trying to land very heavy payloads on Mars and for this I'm using a gliding technique (Pretty much like the Space Shuttle). My first payload , the Mars Ascent Vehicle (201 tons) lands safely on Mars with Gliding+Parachute+Retro rockets As you can see the CoT is below the CoM, which is below the CoL and I can tilt it at 40 degrees without problems (so it's pretty stable). But for some reason.. This is the MDV.It flips in the air if it's more than 25 degrees inclined(I need around 30-40 to slow down) In the Mars Descent Vehicle the CoT is above the CoM and CoL.I have no idea why this happens and how to fix it.Is this why it flips?Thanks for the answers.

A quick demo of how to hit KSC every time in a spaceplane. When you hold the angle of the nose about 7 degrees above prograde, you get the best gliding angle and your impact point will steadily move downrange of the initially plotted ballistic arc. The further you point your nose away from "best glide", the less this effect till, at large angles, it actually causes the impact point to move closer. Whilst you can pitch down, left or right to acheive this effect, i recommend UP because it takes you away from the thicker atmosphere and gives you a respite from re-entry heat. As you can see, this mk1 doesn't have much problem with re-entry heat. Possible reasons for this 1. Inline cockpit is quite far back. The fly by wire unit has a pointy antenna thing on the nose, that moves the bow wave well forward of the cockpit. 2. large wing area means it stays high until it has lost a lot of speed. 3. engine pre-cooler makes a good radiator. As do the jet nozzles on the rapier. these parts surround the cockpit.