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STS Challenge v2 (Closed)


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2 hours ago, FCISuperGuy said:

Nice shuttle and great flight! Only one thing - could you verify that your orbit meets the <100m difference requirement? Thanks!

There are couple screenshots with orbitsl parameters that read PE 499721, AP 499753

Or here I took another screenshot of its orbit - it becomes slightly more excentric on reloading

http://s015.radikal.ru/i332/1601/46/6427c0b70273.png

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17 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

You could probably do away with some of those engines on your shuttle and get better range on orbit, and possibly better stability on de-orbit if that's an issue for you?

Yeah, I might be able to. I have yet to start reentry testing though, it really depends on how stable it is de-orbiting. There will probably be changes when it comes to reentry, but it seems to get into orbit fine. Thanks!

 

EDIT: I just finished testing it on reentry, it works fine up to about 100km. I made some modifications(more rcs+ reaction wheel) and it now can come in from ~250-300km and land safely. The only problem is that it flies about as well as a brick. Its usually coming in ballistic, so I try to flare hard at the last second, and that seems to work ok for now.

Edited by batman78781
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21 hours ago, Alchemist said:

is that the nosecone tends to evaporate.

Sounds like your coming in pointing to much to prograde, or lowering your periapsis too much.  You need to face the belly of the shuttle quite a decent amount to prograde from the top of the atmosphere all the way down until the flames stop to take advantage of high atmospheric gliding and speed reduction.  if the aerodynamic forces are pulling your nose to prograde, then you either need more torque or RCS or a better wing design, or adjust your re-entry path.

Alternatively just face the belly totally to prograde, chuck a load of torque in there and aerobrake so hard your nose doesn't have time to heat up before you've lost the speed :).

@batman78781 - chuck me the craft file if you like - happy to have a play around and give you some constructive feedback!

 

SM

Edited by Speeding Mullet
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I've tried the second challenge with my Buran, but it ended with the entire orbiter in stationary orbit (or is 2868 km a bit too high now? it's 6 hours, but it reads 2m/s ground speed)

Well, I just went for "as high as the rocket gets my apoapsis", but it turned enough (and even some fuel still left) to get the craft this high with this payload.

http://s017.radikal.ru/i430/1601/75/bf48b9b396a9.png

How precisely do I have to deploy the satellites? I'm also considering sending one of them to diametrically opposite point in the orbit.

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10 hours ago, Alchemist said:

I'm also considering sending one of them to diametrically opposite point in the orbit

I can't see the picture as I'm at work (on lunch), but judging by what you've written you are about there.  As far as I am aware a circularly uniform altitude of 2 863.33 km and a speed of 1 009.81 m/s is what you're looking for a KEO.  your never going to get it exactly there, so I say 2m/s ground speed is really accurate!  don't forget unless your inclination is exactly on the equator the satellite will also librate as seen from Kerbin surface, which would also account for some ground speed I think.

Have a look at my mission report for the satellite deployment.  If you are able to get your apoapsis up to KEO height as you suggest, then assuming the periapsis is just out of the atmosphere you can use a single orbit to separate your satellite deployment by pretty much 180 degrees as I did.  The satellites have easily enough fuel to circularise at KEO.  Alternatively if you chucked your whole orbiter into KEO then simply release both sats at the same time, leave one where it is, then drop the other ones periapsis to just above the atmosphere for one orbit, then circularise at KEO and your should be close enough for government work.

regarding how you precisely deploy them there's a couple of options.  Spin or no spin.  you want to go for the most advanced mission I'm presuming so spin it is.  you want to set the staging so the sepatrons and the (bottom I think) decoupler are in the same group (obviously in 2 groups 1 for each satellite otherwise they will both deploy at once).  Once you've done that it's simply a matter of staging and the satellite will come spinning out.  It's a realllllly pleasing thing to watch, Inigma did a superb job with that.

 

SM

Edited by Speeding Mullet
spelling.
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On 1/5/2016 at 11:28 AM, batman78781 said:

The only problem is that it flies about as well as a brick

As far as I am aware landing safely is landing without blowing anything up.  A cursory check shows that I'm the only one so far to land a shuttle in 50 different bits (But land it did....technically) and I had to re-run the mission.

I'm sure there's some considerations though so post the mission report and I'm sure OP will check in soon and give you a definite answer.  I believe OP is quite busy with RL at the moment so a couple of days patience might be required.  I'll (very unofficially and without permission) try and answer any obvious questions before then, but obviously I won't have the authority to pass or fail a mission.

SM

Edited by Speeding Mullet
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Ok, I've done it this time! I call it the SuperShuttle Mk.1. This trip is for the pilot, commander, and flight director badges (Rank 1).

The Imgur album is below, sorry for not adding captions, I'm kinda busy so I'll just walk you through it now. 

I added a mk1 pod on the payload because of remotetech. I have a new save because of the debris in my last post, and I am too lazy to make another network of satellites. 

The ascent is normal, I pitch back to 45 degrees at 10km. The boosters on the side are powered by a mammoth + two vectors each, and the shuttle has 4 vectors on it. The external tank has two vectors that light when the boosters separate to keep TWR up. They drop off when my TWR reaches 1.5 so that the efficiency stays up, and the remaining engines on the shuttle keep a TWR of 1. These power it to orbit, and I used the leftover fuel to burn for the mun. Then, at the Kerbin AP, I made a rough circularization. I ditched the ET, switched to OMS and then finished up making the orbit meet the parameters. I didn't take screenies of this part, It was just a lot of messing with the orbit to get it right. Anyway, Jeb got in his pod and separated from the shuttle. On the way back inside, I found that the solar panels had broken since I bumped it or something. Anyway, I just burned straight retro, and I circularized back around 250km or something like that. I used the last OMS fuel and then some rcs to deorbit, then proceeded to land. As you can see, I used the whole "flies like a brick" thing to just point down and flare last minute.

Ok, so there it is, the SuperShuttle Mk1!  I have a bunch of pointless pics in there because I just got environmental mods, sorry about that. Inigma Industries Fuel Pod to an eighty thousand km orbit! It is kinda touchy about the AP and PE up there, so I have the flight engineer window up instead. If you need any more info, I'll be happy to post. Also, I think this could probably get on a course to Duna, and maybe enter orbit there. I think I'll do that mission, but I just wanted to ask your permission to post it here, since it may not apply. Thanks anyway @FCISuperGuy!

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Finally finished the second run on my Buran


Ascent:

Spoiler

 

Takeoff!

http://s020.radikal.ru/i709/1601/76/2863b937057b.png

Booster separation

http://s019.radikal.ru/i624/1601/d1/09bb0d14b4bb.png

Ok, let's just get the apoapsis as high as the rocket gets it...

Wait! that's already about there!

http://s43.radikal.ru/i101/1601/0d/edeeb2b44cd1.png

And the rocket still had a bit of fuel left...

http://s017.radikal.ru/i420/1601/e2/a9f15229721c.png

Ok, adjust the apoapsis

http://s018.radikal.ru/i520/1601/2e/568b86fff0ec.png

And then kill the groundspeed...

http://s018.radikal.ru/i526/1601/76/bb8ad3348733.png

Wait, what!? 2 m/s? but it is 6 hour circular orbit! Ah, yes, sidereal day. They did tweak it.

http://s019.radikal.ru/i635/1601/3e/f7b04c332379.png

 

OK, stationary orbit reached. What was the mission?Deploy 2 satellites to stationary orbit... Well, since we're already here...

First satellite out and spinning!

http://s020.radikal.ru/i719/1601/1d/1784e97b195b.png

Let's send it to the opposite point!

Spoiler

steer the orbiter out of the exhaust way

http://s009.radikal.ru/i308/1601/51/031ca4ef8d2d.png

And let's burn! it's really stable while spinning! Let's make it 9 hour period

http://i016.radikal.ru/1601/44/d2688cbb721b.png

And here it goes away!

http://s017.radikal.ru/i443/1601/32/a277a4fdd09d.png

We'll just need to circularize after 1 orbit

Now the second satellite - it'll need only minor corrections

http://s020.radikal.ru/i709/1601/03/63e0707ee6c9.png

Now we need to aim the landing... and our surface-relative position is not going to change.

Deorbit! and don't hit the commsat.

http://s011.radikal.ru/i315/1601/aa/2b31b20e60dc.png

Now reentry...

Spoiler

Hitting atmosphere at 3 km/s. I'm not sure about reentry at such velocity...

http://s018.radikal.ru/i510/1601/6c/f532c0414027.png

Very unsure of this! But it seems to be stabilizing...

http://s020.radikal.ru/i721/1601/a8/2d2c82198e1a.png

Ok, we are climbing. and the velocity is about right for LKO. Let's reduce the drag for now

http://s017.radikal.ru/i402/1601/c8/bae1fe4f8dc4.png

This trajectory should bring us right home

http://s017.radikal.ru/i402/1601/4a/2a90937d2bf1.png

And getting back to space. Good old skip-reentry.

http://s019.radikal.ru/i618/1601/eb/4499a8ef28a7.png

Reentering again. Well, it might be a bit too high.

http://s018.radikal.ru/i514/1601/13/02388f2db5bf.png

Yeah, definitely overshot.

http://s017.radikal.ru/i407/1601/c3/3c3f250087f8.png

Finally, caught proper airlflow

http://s018.radikal.ru/i522/1601/0b/2a39d663f92a.png

Engage jets and aim for the airfield. Looks like a bit too much torque from them.

http://s017.radikal.ru/i427/1601/e5/dd821ed7085d.png

Approaching target

 

http://s018.radikal.ru/i528/1601/08/5679c64bd41f.png

http://s010.radikal.ru/i312/1601/7b/44fcbeb37905.png

http://s020.radikal.ru/i704/1601/32/68e0b16c3bcf.png

And touchdown!

http://s018.radikal.ru/i511/1601/87/ec285ab1a3e1.png

And we have landed!

http://s019.radikal.ru/i603/1601/94/e2bd3313e602.png

Now only need to adjust the satellites.

Second satellite goes first:

http://s018.radikal.ru/i525/1601/01/913b9fc474fa.png

The first satellite gets stationary on the other side of the planet

http://s020.radikal.ru/i713/1601/0f/e2b78285c955.png

And here they are!

http://s019.radikal.ru/i644/1601/a4/d03df42fee4b.png

http://s019.radikal.ru/i629/1601/df/0f28777c1def.png

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And the Hubble mission. Totally loved this one.

Launch:

Spoiler

Takeoff! and try not to hit the clamps

http://s010.radikal.ru/i314/1601/5a/a116b2b4623a.png

Inclined orbit? Ok, let's turn 30 degrees to the south.

http://s018.radikal.ru/i520/1601/09/52302c5de2c8.png

Sun is rising... in the west...

http://s017.radikal.ru/i433/1601/68/e0443ead4d09.png

And if you are wondering, I'm controlling pitch profile just by altering between altitude hold and prograde SAS modes (not that I can do much manually at this framerate). Energia just flies itself without too much input.

http://s40.radikal.ru/i089/1601/ce/976c63cec764.png

And here go the boosters

http://i081.radikal.ru/1601/7f/6a44f82b0d6c.png

Let's have 600 km altitude. And still quite some fuel left in the rocket.

http://s018.radikal.ru/i517/1601/ca/c53d098b131d.png

Buran separating from Energia. We really reverted the sunset, didn't we?

http://s018.radikal.ru/i527/1601/d2/98adeec0fee2.png

And circularize at apoapsis

http://s018.radikal.ru/i514/1601/12/65c52094c8f6.png

And here we are!

http://s013.radikal.ru/i325/1601/6c/fca50eed27eb.png

Releasing the payload!

http://s019.radikal.ru/i644/1601/50/df5fc81765e4.png

http://s017.radikal.ru/i417/1601/f8/747056c5bc65.png

Now we need to deploy the panels!

Spoiler

Engineer Decie goes first

http://s018.radikal.ru/i503/1601/62/9df32eef0749.png

Let's test these MMU units.

http://s020.radikal.ru/i706/1601/05/ed87e2c9b936.png

Upside down? Come on, we are in orbit!

http://s017.radikal.ru/i441/1601/af/c0389bd54176.png

Scientist Blly-Bobdun (totally picked for his name) goes to supervise the operation (don't you damage the equipment!)

http://s019.radikal.ru/i627/1601/5f/166b52d6075c.png

Second Pilot Maxvy joins to help with steering. She's really good at that, isn't she?

http://s018.radikal.ru/i519/1601/1f/d3e65717b923.png

Hey why are the girls assembling the telescope while the guys chill out?

http://s001.radikal.ru/i195/1601/04/c70331e61ab2.png

Well, it's not that much manual labor when the thrusters do all the work. Panel installed!

http://s019.radikal.ru/i609/1601/dc/4ce87624f9bb.png

Now to the second one. Decie, can you ever dock straight?

http://s018.radikal.ru/i523/1601/0b/5e2484823d0f.png

Unlike Decie, Maxvy has no problem aligning herself.

http://s020.radikal.ru/i719/1601/98/e0ee729de032.png

I think we slightly misaligned this one... Not critical.

http://s017.radikal.ru/i432/1601/4f/31ba4693d800.png

Maxvy done, returning to the ship

http://s58.radikal.ru/i162/1601/82/6eb40cf3f917.png

Decie and Billy-Bobdun checking panel deployment.

http://s020.radikal.ru/i717/1601/bd/47ab3c4c7e63.png

Seriously, can engineers ever dock straight? (No this wasn't intentional. Just sometimes these small modules oscillate to much on magnets. But Maxvy still managed to get her dockings perfectly straight)

http://s017.radikal.ru/i422/1601/c3/bb56c1826529.png

(fun glitch - both girls, when leaving their seats inside the cargo bay, teleported in front of the cockpit...)

And done!

Last check on the scientific equipment, and going home. Speaking of which, Rodon, you lazyS! You were supposed to pilot the orbiter, how did it drift 200 m away!?

http://s016.radikal.ru/i337/1601/97/cfcbce371480.png

And here's the orbit

http://s43.radikal.ru/i101/1601/06/30f3e3adda7b.png

Now we only have to land...

Spoiler

With this period couldn't find a proper window for direct landing...

http://s020.radikal.ru/i708/1601/9d/88d579ac2c54.png

Therefore, let's do some aerobraking! Hey, KSC, see you next orbit!

http://s018.radikal.ru/i526/1601/a3/c22191de0c2f.png

And we're back in orbit.

http://s014.radikal.ru/i326/1601/c6/b825a4f68f4a.png

And now reentry. And we need  bit of steering

http://s017.radikal.ru/i406/1601/1b/db697ba7ea6a.png

A bit more steering...

http://s009.radikal.ru/i307/1601/17/6d721aacdbe5.png

Now it looks like a good approach!

http://s010.radikal.ru/i314/1601/16/9db7406aef39.png

Right on target! Looks like not everybody shares Rodon's enthusiasm...

http://s013.radikal.ru/i323/1601/aa/f7e01254efa6.png

Gear down!

http://s020.radikal.ru/i706/1601/46/35ae37b9a4b4.png

Touchdown!

http://s020.radikal.ru/i710/1601/a7/cd41c3cc2471.png

And here we are!

http://s011.radikal.ru/i316/1601/6f/de635555509a.png

http://s020.radikal.ru/i700/1601/08/7f0534f2804b.png

Mission complete!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's my attempt for a Flight Director mission. I hope the craft I made qualifies for being a shuttle, and that my 'landing' also qualifies as a landing. I had to realize that I forgot to add gears, so I had to improvise. The kerbals and the payload are definately intact. I'm willing to redo the task if you deem my landing too hairy.

I also tried to screen an orbit with AP-PE being in the 100m range... but I got the wobbly physics bug, and on 50 million kilometers it means a fluctuation of like ~500.000 m. But I swears, there were seconds when I fulfilled the requirement a dozen times. :P

 

Edited by Evanitis
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@FCISuperGuy has authorised me to temporarily admin this challenge while he is away, to keep the ball rolling on the challenge entries while he is away.  While I cannot update the OP leaderboards I can pass or fail missions, and hand out badges!  Without further ado:

On 1/4/2016 at 1:45 AM, Alchemist said:

There are couple screenshots with orbitsl parameters that read PE 499721, AP 499753

Congratulations! You have passed the STS commander rank 1, and with 500km too! Great Buran repro!! As I said I cannot update the OP with your placing, but feel free to collect your Flight Director badge and wear it with pride:    et2p8E4.jpg

 

On 1/13/2016 at 4:07 PM, Panel said:

Alright. Sorry for all the screenshots in the dark, I didn't think the launch was going to go as well as it did.

There. As you can see, I lost a wing, the nosecone, and one engine.

I'm going to pass this one, as I think it will encourage you to develop this shuttle that's showing early promise.  Even though you lost an engine, and nose cone, and a wing part you still fulfill the basic STS pilot requirement of "Build a shuttle complying to the above space shuttle definition and fly it to orbit, then deorbit and land. Land anywhere you want."

Wear your badge with pride and go forth and prosper with your shuttle, and enter more of the challenges with it :)   Rvs3vgQ.jpg

 

 

On 1/16/2016 at 3:00 PM, batman78781 said:

Ok, I've done it this time! I call it the SuperShuttle Mk.1. This trip is for the pilot, commander, and flight director badges (Rank 1).

The Imgur album is below, sorry for not adding captions, I'm kinda busy so I'll just walk you through it now. 

I added a mk1 pod on the payload because of remotetech. I have a new save because of the debris in my last post, and I am too lazy to make another network of satellites. 

The ascent is normal, I pitch back to 45 degrees at 10km. The boosters on the side are powered by a mammoth + two vectors each, and the shuttle has 4 vectors on it. The external tank has two vectors that light when the boosters separate to keep TWR up. They drop off when my TWR reaches 1.5 so that the efficiency stays up, and the remaining engines on the shuttle keep a TWR of 1. These power it to orbit, and I used the leftover fuel to burn for the mun. Then, at the Kerbin AP, I made a rough circularization. I ditched the ET, switched to OMS and then finished up making the orbit meet the parameters. I didn't take screenies of this part, It was just a lot of messing with the orbit to get it right. Anyway, Jeb got in his pod and separated from the shuttle. On the way back inside, I found that the solar panels had broken since I bumped it or something. Anyway, I just burned straight retro, and I circularized back around 250km or something like that. I used the last OMS fuel and then some rcs to deorbit, then proceeded to land. As you can see, I used the whole "flies like a brick" thing to just point down and flare last minute.

Ok, so there it is, the SuperShuttle Mk1!  I have a bunch of pointless pics in there because I just got environmental mods, sorry about that. Inigma Industries Fuel Pod to an eighty thousand km orbit! It is kinda touchy about the AP and PE up there, so I have the flight engineer window up instead. If you need any more info, I'll be happy to post. Also, I think this could probably get on a course to Duna, and maybe enter orbit there. I think I'll do that mission, but I just wanted to ask your permission to post it here, since it may not apply. Thanks anyway @FCISuperGuy!

I don't think I can find an emoticon fitting what I think of this.  :o is the closest I can get as my jaw just hit the floor!  Inigma Fuel pod to eighty thousand km orbit.....WOW!!!  You sir shall wear your badge with pride, and when OP returns you will no doubt take top spot on leader-board of leaders .  Here it is:   et2p8E4.jpg  I've certainly wondered following flicking through this mission whether my Buran might be capable of a similar feat.  I highly doubt it without modifications though.  Wow again well done!!!

 

On 1/17/2016 at 5:43 AM, Alchemist said:

Finally finished the second run on my Buran

Sorry the post would be huge if I copied all those pictures in, but wow what a beautifully smooth mission and how cool is it seeing those awesome @inigma comsats spin out of the cargo bay!!  You Sir are STS Commander - Rank 2 and here's your badge to prove it:   WUvoQpP.jpg

 

On 1/18/2016 at 9:59 AM, Alchemist said:

And the Hubble mission. Totally loved this one.

Again I won't copy the pictures across but despite Rodon's best efforts the crew performed a very nearly flawless mission, and deployed the Hubble space telescope with much aplomb.  It's a great mission and your Buran once again proves it's worthiness with great gusto!  Here's your badge to wear with much bragging:   neSFTQk.jpg

 

On 2/1/2016 at 0:41 PM, Evanitis said:

Here's my attempt for a Flight Director mission. I hope the craft I made qualifies for being a shuttle, and that my 'landing' also qualifies as a landing. I had to realize that I forgot to add gears, so I had to improvise. The kerbals and the payload are definately intact. I'm willing to redo the task if you deem my landing too hairy.

I also tried to screen an orbit with AP-PE being in the 100m range... but I got the wobbly physics bug, and on 50 million kilometers it means a fluctuation of like ~500.000 m. But I swears, there were seconds when I fulfilled the requirement a dozen times. :P

 

Oh my.  Oh my oh my oh my.  That is one of the more unconventional shuttles I've seen haha.  It's an absolute beauty!!!  I presume the maimed duck is the carrier vehicle rather than the orbiter?

Now.  I've had a very very close look, and from what I can see you have paid very clear attention to the rules, despite appearing to flaunt them, which I like. alot...This rule " boosters may be attached radially on the Carrier Vehicle (no other attachment location is permitted) for additional thrust" at first had me going, but on closer inspection your engines are definitely radially mounted, and there's no rule about vertical take off so this is a brilliant way of approaching the shuttle problem.  Did you model it on anything out of interest?

Now, to the mission itself is where as interim admin I really have to (as much as I hate myself for doing it) apply the rules to the letter.  Where as "Pilot - Rank 1" might allow for some lee-way with slightly botched landings, the Inigma industries payload challenge is a measure of "the ultimate display of piloting and engineering prowess and skill".  Since I can only go off my previous fuel pod mission where my craft came apart on landing due to the Kraken inhabiting KSC and FCI's adjudication at the time, I hope you won't hate me for applying his exact wording in this instance:

"Very nice! Unfortunately, to be fair I have to ask for a successful landing. However, due to the successful nature of the rest of the mission. if you could fly another shuttle (can be empty) up to the same altitude and demonstrate a reentry, that would be awesome".

Sorry, sorry and sorry again, if there was a bravado badge you would win it for returning the fuel pod to the surface.  Besides, chuck some wheels on that thing and land it at the runway for ultimate bragging rights!  Oh yes, you don't need to return the fuel pod to Kerbin, but that's extra impressive and shows a very well balanced shuttle!!

 

Hope all are happy with my adjudication.

SM

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1 hour ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Did you model it on anything out of interest?

Well, I saw pictures of the Shuttle on a Boeing-747, and I thought it's a totally awesome way of getting it to orbit. Later on this forum my attention was called to the fact that it's only used for transporting the spacecraft to the launch-site. Bummer.

Not long ago I've been also told on this site that there is a precedent. In the Moonraker (James Bond movie from '79) Hugo Drax hijacked the shuttle of the same name from the top of a plane in flight. I'm yet to watch the film to find out if he took it directly to his lunar base, or if he landed it first in his secret hideout in South-America. Guess I should watch it at this point.

11-moonraker-shuttle-hijack-740x357.jpeg

1 hour ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Unfortunately, to be fair I have to ask for a successful landing. However, due to the successful nature of the rest of the mission. if you could fly another shuttle (can be empty) up to the same altitude and demonstrate a reentry, that would be awesome".

 

Sorry, sorry and sorry again, if there was a bravado badge you would win it for returning the fuel pod to the surface.

Don't apologize, you are doing a fine job already by maintaining the STS Challenge. If anything, you are too lenient. Letting me land it empty? Too easy. Though it's a tricky question, as the mission description in the OP is a bit controversial - The note at the badge says it's awarded for taking the pod to orbit, while the flavour text states that it should get to orbit and back. I prefer the harder options, and anyhow it's far from the silliest and most pointless task my kerbals has been contracted to do. ^_^

I was totally prepared to redo parts or the whole mission for this challenge. Actually, the craft was built for fun, and it was half finished when I noticed that it -could- fit in the description outlined by Mr. SuperGuy. So I slapped on some OPM engines, and made it ~30% longer (and like a hundred tons heavier) so I could take the pod. I kinda' knew that the landing was too hairy, but I wasn't sure if the jet-engines were 'radial' enough, so I decided to wait for confirmation.

Anyways, empty splash-landing isn't too challenging. The initial speed and altitude doesn't matter in this case, the trick is to slow down enough on the last 100m before it stalls and falls like a brick. That's -much- easier to do if the craft is lighter by 42t. I'll try it a few times with the original quicksave, it -might- just work. If I fail, I'll just redo the whole mission with added gears and do a proper runway landing.

EDIT: checked my screens... I managed to get 54 m/s on 8 meters? Dang I don't think I can do any better. Guess gears will be needed. xD

Edited by Evanitis
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8 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

I have to ask for a successful landing.

YAY! I did it... with the original quicksave. And what a landing! Most fitting to the spirit of the craft and the mission. ^_^

One trick of the water-landing is to let the high-tolerance parts touch water first, what slows down the vessel before the more sensitive bits splash with too much speed. I couldn't really do that with this design - both pair of wings are on the lower part of the Shuttle, not to mention that small tank on the nose*. I struggled a bit before I realized that the 'traditional' approach won't work, no matter how gently I fly.

I had to think outside the box... and than the solution hit me. It was too simple. At this point it was only a few more tries to refine the descent profile to achieve the perfect water-landing:

I still had to be really gentle. The rudder was actually in the ocean for like a minute before I could successfully descend with the rest of the plane. It still totally did worth the effort. red-neck-laughing-smiley-emoticon.gif

 

*

Spoiler

Were you wondering why The Husttle has that silly looking mk1 tank on the nose? The answer is more mundane than you'd think. While doing SSTO planes, I got used to the jet-engines equally draining every tank. I didn't want to 'cheat' by unintentionally lowering the mass of the payload, so I included a bit of jet fuselage, so I could reload Inigma's pod once on orbit.

When I realized that jet-engines can't drain trough separators, the craft was pretty much done. I didn't want to do even the slightest rebalancing, so I just swapped the liquid fuel part with a rocket one and went to launch.

 

Edited by Evanitis
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12 hours ago, Evanitis said:

YAY! I did it... with the original quicksave. And what a landing! Most fitting to the spirit of the craft and the mission. ^_^

One trick of the water-landing is to let the high-tolerance parts touch water first, what slows down the vessel before the more sensitive bits splash with too much speed. I couldn't really do that with this design - both pair of wings are on the lower part of the Shuttle, not to mention that small tank on the nose*. I struggled a bit before I realized that the 'traditional' approach won't work, no matter how gently I fly.

I had to think outside the box... and than the solution hit me. It was too simple. At this point it was only a few more tries to refine the descent profile to achieve the perfect water-landing:

I still had to be really gentle. The rudder was actually in the ocean for like a minute before I could successfully descend with the rest of the plane. It still totally did worth the effort. red-neck-laughing-smiley-emoticon.gif

 

*

  Hide contents

Were you wondering why The Husttle has that silly looking mk1 tank on the nose? The answer is more mundane than you'd think. While doing SSTO planes, I got used to the jet-engines equally draining every tank. I didn't want to 'cheat' by unintentionally lowering the mass of the payload, so I included a bit of jet fuselage, so I could reload Inigma's pod once on orbit.

When I realized that jet-engines can't drain trough separators, the craft was pretty much done. I didn't want to do even the slightest rebalancing, so I just swapped the liquid fuel part with a rocket one and went to launch.

 

HAHA Yes, mission passed!!!  That's a novel and fantastic way of dealing with the landing.  I am honored to present the Flight Director's badge to you.  I would rotate it 180 degrees due to your landing as a special badge just for you, but the flight director badge will have to do instead, and is a rare thing anyway:   et2p8E4.jpg .

 

I was wondering what the bottle nose on your shuttle was, and with the explanation I was wondering why you hadn't disabled crossflow on the docking ports, but a solution is a solution!

Ahh Moonraker, classic bond!  Also you are right the STS fuel pod challenge does say "and back" but I don't think anyone's actually done that at this point.  That's the wording, but it's a little bit odd if that's actually what it means!

 

SM

 

 

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On 04.02.2016 at 0:29 PM, Speeding Mullet said:

Congratulations! You have passed the STS commander rank 1, and with 500km too! Great Buran repro!! As I said I cannot update the OP with your placing, but feel free to collect your Flight Director badge and wear it with pride:   

Sorry the post would be huge if I copied all those pictures in, but wow what a beautifully smooth mission and how cool is it seeing those awesome @inigma comsats spin out of the cargo bay!!  You Sir are STS Commander - Rank 2 and here's your badge to prove it:  

Again I won't copy the pictures across but despite Rodon's best efforts the crew performed a very nearly flawless mission, and deployed the Hubble space telescope with much aplomb.  It's a great mission and your Buran once again proves it's worthiness with great gusto!  Here's your badge to wear with much bragging:  

et2p8E4.jpgWUvoQpP.jpgneSFTQk.jpg

Thanks! The interesting part is that I never really optimized it for this challenge - I just tried to make a replica. Which barely flew with empty payload bay initially. But then the new engines with proper gimbal range were added and it turned out perfectly working with wide variety of payloads (although I still had to slightly trim the neutral rotation on the engines). It was a bit of surprise to get this high with full payload bay (and even higher with lighter payloads)

And don't blame Rodon - he might have got himself slightly carried away in the orbit, but he is definitely the one who does the landings, because even Maxvy freaks out when the ship dives onto the runway. I think they deserve a vacation on the Mun...  which is another set of payloads for Energia.

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On 2/5/2016 at 10:24 AM, Alchemist said:

which is another set of payloads for Energia.

Nice payload set - so that's an "Apollo" that is taken up by the Buran then?  Not sure what the two sides would have said about that back in the day, but the glorious KSP knows no boundaries so what the hey!

13 hours ago, Alchemist said:

Ok, this doesn't really match level 4 challenge, but it still may be interesting: the actual crew extraction proposition for Buran would look like this:

I spent a while reading the Mission 4 rescue plan and came to the conclusion that the shuttles do not actually dock together, rather they fly very very close to each other and the rescue is performed via EVA, but I did still develop a docking module for my Buran and it's a useful thing to have if your Buran is in regular rotation to space stations!

Good luck with mission 4 - It's amazing seeing two shuttles in orbit feet from each other, even if it is only a game!

SM

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Remind me to never do a shuttle challenge again :P. This was a serious pain and took me several hours to complete. Building the shuttle was pretty straight forward, a few issues here and there that I fixed, but the return was hell. Up to deploying the payload was all fine, aero-braking and landing on the other hand was not very fun. Sadly, I didn't snap any screenshots of the shuttle flipping out like a crazy-flippy-out thing and I honestly have no idea why it was so aerodynamically unstable. Nevertheless, STS Commander Rank-2: Achieved!

 

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26 minutes ago, PacThePhoenix said:

Remind me to never do a shuttle challenge again :P. This was a serious pain and took me several hours to complete. Building the shuttle was pretty straight forward, a few issues here and there that I fixed, but the return was hell. Up to deploying the payload was all fine, aero-braking and landing on the other hand was not very fun. Sadly, I didn't snap any screenshots of the shuttle flipping out like a crazy-flippy-out thing and I honestly have no idea why it was so aerodynamically unstable. Nevertheless, STS Commander Rank-2: Achieved!

 

Shuttles are indeed a funny thing, and very often prone to the flippy out thing.  One way to overcome this is to build in a double skin wing, it seems to give more stability, especially on re-entry.  The alternative is to totally rort the system with control authority haha!

I'm not going to remind you not to do a shuttle again as it looks like you're 90% of the way to having a really decent one.:cool:  Little more work in solving your de-orbit and I think you should be good.  Besides, now you've poured all that energy into designing your shuttle it would be shame not to see you use it to do some of the other challenges available here!

One tip for the future, I like your screenshots, but it would be really useful to be able to see the resource panels.  I know it doesn't look as good, but for judging success or failure of a challenge entry it's a really big help to be able to see all of the information.  Also try and include more proof of Pe/Ap in your screenshots, as the one's you have provided don't really say "the satellite is in a perfectly geostationary orbit."

With that all said you've conducted an excellent mission here, and I can see with the proof you have provided that there is zero point in only claiming that you have completed the mission, and so I am happy to declare you STS Commander - Rank 2 and you can wear your badge with much pride as a successful shuttle designer!

WUvoQpP.jpg

Well done!

SM

 

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18 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Shuttles are indeed a funny thing, and very often prone to the flippy out thing.  One way to overcome this is to build in a double skin wing, it seems to give more stability, especially on re-entry.  The alternative is to totally rort the system with control authority haha!

I'm not going to remind you not to do a shuttle again as it looks like you're 90% of the way to having a really decent one.:cool:  Little more work in solving your de-orbit and I think you should be good.  Besides, now you've poured all that energy into designing your shuttle it would be shame not to see you use it to do some of the other challenges available here!

One tip for the future, I like your screenshots, but it would be really useful to be able to see the resource panels.  I know it doesn't look as good, but for judging success or failure of a challenge entry it's a really big help to be able to see all of the information.  Also try and include more proof of Pe/Ap in your screenshots, as the one's you have provided don't really say "the satellite is in a perfectly geostationary orbit."

With that all said you've conducted an excellent mission here, and I can see with the proof you have provided that there is zero point in only claiming that you have completed the mission, and so I am happy to declare you STS Commander - Rank 2 and you can wear your badge with much pride as a successful shuttle designer!

WUvoQpP.jpg

Well done!

SM

 

Thanks! Yea, I'll make sure to show the resource panels next time when critical information is required, I just don't really like the look of it in screenshots. I did get the satellites to roughly geostationary altitude as you can see, but I didn't show the orbital period with Kerbal Engineer which was exactly 6 hours (+-0.5 seconds). I may work on shuttles in the future as I think they're pretty cool, I just don't see myself using them a whole lot. Maybe I'll attempt STS-3... :D

9agCO2U.jpg

 

Edited by PacThePhoenix
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  • 3 weeks later...

Introducing the Space Shuttle Breakthough.

I wanted to make a design that didn't have the thrust alignment issue of the "realistic" shuttles. Having all my engines pointing down saves a lot of headache whenever I need to adjust my payload weight. With this design, I can easily reconfigure for anything between 0-50 ton payloads. If I need to do more, I can just slap on more tanks and boosters.

Originally, I was gonna do it with two drop tanks, but in order to fit the rules, I needed to connect them with girders to constitute a single "carrier vehicle." I believe this craft fits the rules description.

As you'll notice, I have a lot of mods installed (this is my dirty installation I use for designing stuff in sandbox). I didn't use them. This is a 100% stock vehicle.

 

 

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2 hours ago, robertlong13 said:

Introducing the Space Shuttle Breakthough.

*snip*

When I first saw it I thought nahh, that can't be right, but it absolutely is and well within the letter of the law too! I bet it's capable of a lot more if you really pushed up the srb numbers.  So an elegant solution to the shuttle problem, and a very nicely run mission too with excellent re-entry and by the looks of it stable gliding.  Credit to your re-entry for landing on the runway with no jet engines.

So it is with great pleasure I award you the STS Flight Director badge.   et2p8E4.jpg

 

I'm @FCISuperGuy will update the leader-board with your result when he is less busy playing RL :).

Edit:  I also open the wheels super late - it's just the Shuttle way and yes much cooler!

 

SM

Edited by Speeding Mullet
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