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KSP Challenge: Landing on Duna!


Darth Badie

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8 hours ago, ManEatingApe said:

Interestingly, the heat and impact tolerance of a Mk1 pod is so good that a heat shield is not required for an Duna aero-capture and a single Mk16 parachute will do (even if you have the misfortune to land at high elevation

I've found Duna to be very forgiving in terms of aerocapture. When I flew my mission posted above, there was barely any heating to my ship at all.  Between the low gravity and the thin air, you can get away with all kinds of stuff there that would be instant death elsewhere.

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On 12.7.2017 at 8:03 PM, MiffedStarfish said:

Ok, LVNs are the way to go.

They are, they really are ... so let´s do it without. :wink:

Here is my entry and very first try with editing videos. Not as nice as I would like it to be, but hey, sleep is important, too.

As always, lots of very cool entrys so far. :)

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4 hours ago, siimav said:

Here's another spaceplane entry for this challenge. It has more than enough delta-v to land on Duna and also get back to Kerbin with fuel to spare.

Nice plane! I looked through your album, and If you want that plane to lose the drop tanks and SRBs and be able to do this mission as a true SSTO,  I suggest these things:

1) Use a ratio of 1:1 for Nukes and Rapiers. The better TWR at the top of the run more than makes up for the lower relative thrust at the bottom end. In this version, each Rapier engine should be able to push almost 20 tons to 1500m/s at 29km. To maximize acceleration up high, you should engage your nukes at around 10km, at which point their ISP is almost 800 already. The trick to getting the most out of the Rapiers is to stay on the runway all the way to the end if you can, then don't climb more than 1000-2000m before hitting Mach 1.5 or so. After that, I find that a steady pitch of about 10-15 degrees gets me the best speed and rate of climb at the top of the air-breathing envelope. The main thing though is that you want to punch through that squishy zone around 310m/s as quickly as possible, and that works best in near-level flight at low altitude.

2) Instead of drop or any other kind of tanks, use wet wings. You get that fuel at the cost of way less drag than another tank would incur.

3) Add a little angle-of incidence to your main wings, i.e. tilt them so that they have a few degrees positive angle of attack when your fuselage is level. You will find it much easier to climb while pointed directly prograde that way.

4) Mk II parts look nice, but they have significantly more drag/ton of fuel than Mk1 parts. I'd consider switching your side fuselages to those. The Mk1 LF fuselage has the most fuel for the least drag by a sizeable margin.

5) If you don't consider it cheating, clip a backwards-facing small circular intake into each of your Rapier engines, so that it just protrudes in the middle. That trick does wonders to reduce drag from the non-tapered back ends of those engines.

Edited by herbal space program
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4 hours ago, invision said:

those crafts are fun to play with, i made one yesterday that can land on duna and then launch back into space, with enough fuel to fly forever.

yep!  I toyed with the single panel but opted for dual since the power stack was also going to prove spin stabilisation during entry.

Nice craft buy the way.

Edited by Wallygator
Sphelling
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14 hours ago, KerrMü said:

They are, they really are ... so let´s do it without. :wink:

Here is my entry and very first try with editing videos. Not as nice as I would like it to be, but hey, sleep is important, too.

 

very nice!  for a first attempt at video editing you have performed admirably! 

(And that copter...  go ahead and show off! :wink: )

 

Edited by Wallygator
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23 hours ago, siimav said:

Here's another spaceplane entry for this challenge. It has more than enough delta-v to land on Duna and also get back to Kerbin with fuel to spare.

Click here to view the full commented Imgur gallery

dwU4zcw.png

You could improve the efficiency by reducing the number of stacks and using all mk1 parts for them. Fuel-filled wings are also pretty handy. 

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21 hours ago, KerrMü said:

Here is my entry and very first try with editing videos. Not as nice as I would like it to be, but hey, sleep is important, too.

Oh my! If that's a first attempt you're going to be directing Star Wars in a couple of years time :) Nicely done :)

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2 hours ago, MiniMatt said:

Oh my! If that's a first attempt you're going to be directing Star Wars in a couple of years time :) Nicely done :)

Thanks. :blush: now I´m blushing. But it was a lot of work.

And it is interesting how fast you get spam comments on youtube.

Edited by KerrMü
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Here, have my video that's probably a week late...

Have HyperEdit installed, but never used it for the challenge. This is raw footage, and it shows a few bugs on my part, and gives rise to a request: SQUAD, could you please put some brakes on those wheels!?

 

Really hard to balance a plane on a saddle-point.

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3 hours ago, Wallygator said:

Only in the real world. :wink: 

No... in the rules of this challenge also.  The OP ruleset was a bit vague, but @Badie did clarify it. 

Maybe the clarified rules should be updated in the first post? 

There are a  LOT of people using SRB's, but SRB's are not allowed.

[goes back to fiddling with Atomic-Whiplash booster rocket]

Edited by XLjedi
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On 13/07/2017 at 6:06 PM, Badie said:

Ok I hope this helps: 

"anytime" means: no oxidizer on board  throughout the trip

You  can use: Liquid Fuel, Solid Fuel, Intake Air, Monopropellant, EVA Fuel, Xenon Gas, and Electric Charge

...is what Badie said. 

So SRBs are permitted. 

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19 minutes ago, Foxster said:

...is what Badie said. 

So SRBs are permitted. 

Oh shoot... you're right!   I think I read that like 3 times and skipped right over "Solid Fuel" in the list?

Well that makes it considerably easier!  ...now what do I do with this whiplash booster?  Guess I'll save it for another challenge.

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