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Shuttle Challenge v5 - The STS thread [Stock and Mod Friendly] - MAJOR CHALLENGE ANNOUNCEMENT! - 30.3.2020


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14 hours ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

The flight itself looks very stable and the gimbals on the SRB seem to help a lot to vector the thrust properly during launch. You reached an orbit with ease and I'm not sure if you overshot the KSC on purpose to fly a little loop like the real shuttle or if it happened by accident but it definitely worked out very well ;)

I have two questions before I'll reward you with a badge though:

1) Did you use any mods? Looks like it is pure stock but I want to be sure ;)
2) How did you manage to add more then 120k units of LFO to your shuttle?! That's insane :o

Pure stock all the way, and the tank itself is composed of one large 3.75 tank in the core fully fueled, and 6 wrapped around it partially fueled to get a more desirable diameter

Also sadly I have to see if I can figure out a way to make it fly smoother but its not as stable as you'd think from screenshots, when the first SRB is almost out of fuel (there is 4 srbs clipped into each other on each side) it wants to tip over with a passion, and once it slows down into the atmosphere it becomes rather unstable with roll. The new SRB having thrust vectoring though is honestly a god send for using SRBs on a shuttle.

I'll be releasing the shuttles craft file, probably on KerbalX after I finish working on it. :) 

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16 hours ago, michal.don said:

Hi guys,

so I am back home, tired, jet-lagged as hell, but with many great memories and interesting experiences :) 

I was watching the thread when possible, and I am glad to see many new faces, as well as a few comebacks. I'll have a closer look at the entries when I get a full night of sleep, now I'm just stopping by to say hello to you all and thank@4x4cheesecake for doing an awesome job, I really appreciate it ;)

Michal.don

 

Welcome back Michal :)

I hope you enjoyed your holiday and you overcome the jet-lag soon. Did you bring us some souvenirs like the last time? :D

There were indeed quite some awesome entries in the last weeks, you'll definitely like them :)

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16 hours ago, Fraus said:

Pure stock all the way, and the tank itself is composed of one large 3.75 tank in the core fully fueled, and 6 wrapped around it partially fueled to get a more desirable diameter

You did a great job on clipping these parts, I didn't notice it until you've mentioned it :o

Thanks for clarification on the used parts and congratulations to your badge :)

QThe6Sf.jpg?1

 

23 hours ago, EveMaster said:

My newest shuttle creation is called the Pico Space Shuttle. It weigths 3.44 tons fully fueled and with boosters and fits into a MK2 cargo bay. The only mod used is KER.

Wow, that's impressive :o

It's arguable if this is actually still a shuttle by the definition in the OP since you didn't land horizontally, but...3.44 tons?! You sir, got some serious skills and the new SRBs seem to work very well and so does the Spark engine. Since you've used the SRBs just to gain altitude but no horizontal speed, I wouldn't expect you to reach an orbit but I'm definitely wrong there^^ Well done and much kodus for this tiny build :)

I'll give it a shot once I've updated to 1.8 ;) 

Thank you very much for sharing your craft and the mission report. You already earned the STS - 1 Commander badge with your Nano shuttle, I'll leave it to @michal.don if you get another badge for this one ;)

While speaking of @michal.don: He returned from his holiday and will take care of you guys again, so for now, this was my last review.

Thanks again for giving me permission to look after this great challenge once more and thanks to everyone who participated during this time, I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did :)

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I have to admit, the jet lag hit me harder than I expected, so I did not manage to get to the extries yet, but I'll at least share a few images from my holiday. If you're interested, they're in the spoiler:

Spoiler

I spent the last three weeks in Vietnam.

OmYoKoz.jpg

We spent a few days in the mountains, some of these in great weather....

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...some, not so much.

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Ha long bay is a must-see...

kEKKiKo.jpg

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...as is the temple in Hue.

ObDXbr4.jpg

We've visited ancient places of worship,

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the most notorious tourist traps,

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tried (lots of :) ) local food and beer,

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lived in the smallest alleys....

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...in one of the biggest and busiest cities,

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and witnessed beautiful sunsets on empty beaches.

lZZjw2W.jpg

(And here is your challenge manager, unsuccessfully trying to prevent said jet-lag during a five hour wait in Dubai ;) )

I'll hopefully adjust to my regular timezone soon,

Michal.don

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kkXacmq.png

 

My submission for the LOP-G missions.  This should have been ready a month or so ago, but the footage for the third flight got corrupted, then I got lazy and finally flew it again last weekend.

The shuttle was updated, some changes were just cosmetic to look a bit closer to the real thing ( reworked OMS pods, the area where the wings join the fusselage ).  In order to have a proportional size, instead of proper SFBs, now it uses mainsails under 1.875 m tanks (it was built in ksp 1.7, the new SFBs from 1.8 will probably replace them).  The other addition was the robotic arm, which game me several headaches but at the end of the day worked reasonably well.

All these modifications changed the flight behaviour, from "a brick that can glide a bit" to "just a brick", and took me a while to get the hang of it, but a hard and speedy descent does the trick.

The mission itself is in the very edge of the shuttle's range, especially for the first flight where the payload was 13.08 tons.  The other two flights were a bit easier at 9.93 and 7.89 tons. ( these numbers don't include the extra fuel tanks )

Spoiler

cLyynKa.jpg

The mainsail's base is inside the fuel tanks, I'm not sure if the different sized engine plates are stock or part of the restock mod.

Mod list by the way, I think the only ones which add parts are the hullcameraVDS and research bodies mods (not used on the craft):

a9vNAkF.jpg

2AgR1n0.jpg

 

Reports down here, in video format because what's the point of robotics if you can't see them moving? :D 

 

Edited by Ozelui
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For the missions outside of kerbins SOI, or in general, are droptanks allowed once in orbit on the shuttle? And if so, would it be acceptable if they’re engines on them, more or less as boosters? 

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STS-4/4R Commander run!

The shuttle in trouble was planning to a rehearsal for the space station mission, but while decoupling there was a computer malfunction, resulting in damage to the wings! (simulated accident, pictures in the album ;) )

So STS-4R (originally named STS-5) was refitted as a rescue shuttle, 3 crew pods were added. The boom was eventually not used to dock, but did manage to "hook onto" the shuttle in trouble, limiting the drift a bit. No trouble with the EVA.

Screenshots should have all the info like inclination and orbit height, but i have some more if some info is missing. Enjoy :)

STS-4: https://imgur.com/gallery/yzBNISv

STS-4R: https://imgur.com/gallery/NFoUrag

5Bqe7ns.png

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Alright, sorry for the slight delay, but I'm finally ready. So, let's get to it!

On 10/30/2019 at 7:13 PM, Ozelui said:

My submission for the LOP-G missions.

And the first entry I get to review after my holiday is an impressive one indeed! Good call makng a video report, the robotics stuff does look very good in action. I have to admit, I did not try all the functions of the new parts yet, but after seeing this, my urge to properly play KSP grows significantly :) And the "crawler arm" design that moves around the whole station is a great piece of engineering!

The overall design of the station is very nice, too. I have no objections to any part of your mission whatsoever, so, a well deserved commander badge for you, congratulations!

w1diq3g.png?1

Looking forward to seeing the announced 1.8.X redesign!

 

On 10/31/2019 at 9:23 PM, MarkoeZ said:

STS-4/4R Commander run!

Alright, the first mission requiring orbital rendezvous out of the way - congratulations on completing that one! Also, nice robotics touch with the docking boom, I really, really have to give the robotics a proper try. And of course, good job on the runway landing from an inclined orbit - not an easy thing to do ;)

Again, no objections on my part,

so a new commander badge for you:

2LypmZP.jpg?1

Congratulations!

 

On 10/31/2019 at 6:27 AM, Fraus said:

For the missions outside of kerbins SOI, or in general, are droptanks allowed once in orbit on the shuttle? And if so, would it be acceptable if they’re engines on them, more or less as boosters? 

Oh, I missed this question.... But as @sturmhauke said, droptanks/boosters of the LV can go with you to LKo and beyond. The rules don's specify when you have to drop those, only that you drop them eventually. For example my, design for the Duna missions dropped the ET almost after the departure burn to Duna, so no problem with that.

Hope that clears your question,

Michal.don

Edited by michal.don
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12 hours ago, michal.don said:

..congratulations on completing that one! Also, nice robotics touch with the docking boom, I really, really have to give the robotics a proper try. And of course, good job on the runway landing from an inclined orbit - not an easy thing to do ;)

Thanks! :D

And yeah, you should really give the robotics a try. If you liked the boom you are going to love the next missions, already done constructing and hyperedit testing most of the space station modules :) Full mod-less run coming soon!

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4 minutes ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

For some reasons, it says "unknown part modules" for me but still loads fine though.

That sounds like a KSP craft version conversion?  Craft is older than current version of KSP.  You load it; it performs the conversion; you save it; you no longer get that warning on loads.  (Maybe not the only way to get this but this is a) common, b) expected, c) not fatal.)

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2 hours ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

It weights 40t, so it's perfectly fine :)

For some reasons, it says "unknown part modules" for me but still loads fine though.

I will try to load it without the Craftmanager extension. Hold on...

EDIT: I did not get the error either with the default loader or CraftManager. Which part does it declared missing? I (re)built it in 1.8.1.

The reason I have to make that one is because the original version is now underweight when parts get replaced.

Edited by Jestersage
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5 hours ago, Jestersage said:

I will try to load it without the Craftmanager extension. Hold on...

EDIT: I did not get the error either with the default loader or CraftManager. Which part does it declared missing? I (re)built it in 1.8.1.

It doesn't complain about a missing part, just an unknown part module and KSP doesn't tell me which one. I would actually expect a more detailed warning or error message as soon as I try to load it but it works just fine and KSP loads the craft without any issues.

Spoiler

LvUscLo.png

When I actually copy it to the subassemblies folder instead of the ships folder, so that's probably just my own fault ;)

5 hours ago, Jestersage said:

The reason I have to make that one is because the original version is now underweight when parts get replaced.

Yeah, that's the case since the 1.6 update, IIRC. It shouldn't disqualify any entry which uses the old fuel pod since it is still linked as the required payload and I know for a fact, there is at least one entry here in the thread which got verified by myself anyway, exactly for this reason^^

Still, it's nice to use an alternative pod with the proper mass :) 

Btw: which parts did you change? On the first sight, I cannot spot any difference to the old pod :o

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7 hours ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

It doesn't complain about a missing part, just an unknown part module and KSP doesn't tell me which one. I would actually expect a more detailed warning or error message as soon as I try to load it but it works just fine and KSP loads the craft without any issues.

  Hide contents

LvUscLo.png

When I actually copy it to the subassemblies folder instead of the ships folder, so that's probably just my own fault ;)

Yeah, that's the case since the 1.6 update, IIRC. It shouldn't disqualify any entry which uses the old fuel pod since it is still linked as the required payload and I know for a fact, there is at least one entry here in the thread which got verified by myself anyway, exactly for this reason^^

Still, it's nice to use an alternative pod with the proper mass :) 

Btw: which parts did you change? On the first sight, I cannot spot any difference to the old pod :o

My Changes are:

- Updated all old version of RCS thrusters and fuel tank to the revised versions

- Added 1 Radiator Panel, bring it to a total of 4

- Replacing the 2x z100 battery with 4x z400 battery

The exercise is not really to replace the old one, but make sure it functions well for test, due to not just mass constraint (if old parts are strictly replaced with new parts they become under-mass) but also dimensional constraint. That, and someone commented on the original to update it to 1.6

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I have absolutely no idea how I'll find a use for this right now, but its a WIP, It's been done before on the KSP Reddit but this is something I've been meaning to do for far too long.

mDWJB9e.jpgJFuWZRR.png

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On 11/8/2019 at 9:29 PM, Jestersage said:

Would you verify if this can be used for the challenge?

Just for the protocol - absolutely fine by me. And good point, I should update the subassembly for the current version.

On 11/10/2019 at 3:30 AM, Fraus said:

I have absolutely no idea how I'll find a use for this right now, but its a WIP, It's been done before on the KSP Reddit but this is something I've been meaning to do for far too long.

I'm soooo looking forward to seeing this one fly.... :D

Michal.don

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Hello everyone, it's @Cormorant - Mayflower. So after months of extreme procrastination being busy with all my RL stuff, plus that I lost the other account (of which I'm still recieving emails from), I feel like it's probably about time again for this, so @michal.don, is it ok for me to restart my entries from here?

gkRGr7g.png

https://kerbalx.com/TM31/Aquilla-Corvus

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20 hours ago, TM31D2475 said:

Hello everyone, it's @Cormorant - Mayflower. So after months of extreme procrastination being busy with all my RL stuff, plus that I lost the other account (of which I'm still recieving emails from), I feel like it's probably about time again for this, so @michal.don, is it ok for me to restart my entries from here?

Welcome back! To be honest, I don't remember exactly which missions you completed so far - could you please send me a link to your most recent one? Of course you can then continue with the next one.

 

9 hours ago, Fraus said:

Do the test flight missions have to be in order as well??

Well, since they are sort of "bonus" missions, I think it's not neccessary. But so far, everybody completed them in the order they are in the OP. Are you interested in only a specific one?

Michal.don

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2 hours ago, michal.don said:

Welcome back! To be honest, I don't remember exactly which missions you completed so far - could you please send me a link to your most recent one? Of course you can then continue with the next one.

 

I'm asking if I could restart my entries since I made some changes to Aquila Aquilla after that (and I think noone acknowledged it's existence)

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