[CLOSED] Reusability Challenge- Reusable rocket challenge with a twist.

[HighFructose]

My entry will be done today, taking longer than I expected.

[SquaadZulu]

Alright. I am still designing my own entry. A space shuttle that will be reassembled after recovery.

[sevenperforce]

"Impress me", you said?

I think this should do the trick.

All stock, except that I used Tweakscale here and there to make it a bit easier on myself. I also used infinite fuel for the skycranes, since I wasn't really up to spending countless hours doing a challenging skycrane stage-mating with jet engines.

Fully-reusable two-stage-to-orbit relaysat launcher. Primary launch vehicle, initial payload, refueling rigs, and secondary payload were all loaded in a single "launch". No "recovery" button use.

First payload, upper stage, lower stage, and recovery/refueling rigs along with skycranes and second payload, all loaded onto the runway (for space considerations) at once.

First recovery/refueling rig decoupled and backed away. I didn't end up needing to use this one at all.

Second rig, with upper-stage recovery skycrane attached, decoupled and moved away.

Third rig with second payload and attached skycrane, decoupled and backed away.

Closing the second-stage engine cowlings.

Liftoff!

Climbing rapidly. Tweakscaling a Vector up to 2.5 meters might have been overkill.

Throttled down. Nearly a vertical ascent.

Still barely doing any gravity turn.

Just need to get up out of the atmosphere.

That should do it!

Reserving approximately 25% of first-stage propellant seems to work.

Decoupling, ramps open, fairing jettisoned, Dart engines ignited!

Second stage rapidly outpaces the first stage.

Circularization node set.

Circularized! Now, back to the first stage.

Still in a ballistic trajectory. Airbrakes out.

Transferring fuel down to keep the COM as low as possible.

Preparing to adjust trajectory.

Edging over just slightly to cancel horizontal velocity. The map view is misleading; it takes the surface speed into account for the rocket trajectory but not for the surface itself.

Continuing to adjust trajectory while burning through re-entry.

Engine off; re-entry is not too bad, really.

Starting my (slow) landing burn. No hoverslams for me!

Throttling up now that I'm dangerously close to the surface.

Will I make it?

I believe so!

Managed, with the barest of fuel reserves remaining!

Now my first refueling rig heads off for its job. Note the secondary payload mounted on top. Each of these rigs has a probe core, a docking port, a single RTG, and a fuel cell array.

Approaching the target.

Mated!

Initial refueling.

Now here goes my second rig with attached S2 retrieval skycrane.

Approaching...

Also mated!

Fuel transfer complete; first stage is fully-fueled.

Back to orbit to check on my little friend.

First relaysat away and fully-functioning!

Note that periapsis is above 100 km. Honestly, this had enough margin to do KTO but I didn't want to bother with it.

Burning to deorbit. This took a few tries to get right.

I had a very small periapsis window.

Jettisoned the payload adapter.

Heat shield exposed; airbrakes out!

Heating up.

Coming in really hot.

I had to toggle the airbrakes manually to keep them from overheating.

Opening the engine ramps as the KSC comes into sight.

Entry burn to kill speed before I hit the water.

Reached terminal velocity.

Descending. Fuel is going to be tight.

Landing burn started.

Still descending.

Made it with bingo fuel!

Quite a distance from where I need to be.

Skycrane time! This is where I turned on infinite fuel. Without KER is something else to help me construct it, it was either infinite-fuel skycrane or jet engines, and jet engines don't change their throttle settings fast enough to be used for this kind of finely-controlled work.

Heading out to pick up the upper stage.

Landed next to it; ready to maneuver into position.

Hovering...

Coming in slowly...

Mated!

Skycrane lifting off, taking the upper stage back toward KSC.

Wasting no time.

Leveling out.

Lining it up...

Steady as she goes...

Easing in.

Mated!

Decoupled the skycrane.

Landing the skycrane well away.

Landed!

Decoupled the skycrane with the second payload.

Hovering over...

Lining it up.

Payload mated!

Skycrane released.

Skycrane down.

Refueling the upper stage.

Refueling rig decoupled and pulled away.

Second refueling rig decoupled and pulled away.

Ready for relaunch!

Launched, raising landing legs.

Not going to worry about recovery on this one so I'm doing a slightly more aggressive turn.

Past the recovery point.

First stage burnout.

Second stage separation and ignition!

Headed toward orbit.

Fairing jettison.

Circularizing.

Made it!

Decoupled the fairing and payload adapter (background).

All systems go!

Two relays put up in two launches with a single launch vehicle, no recovery.
**takes a bow**

[SquaadZulu]

@sevenperforce Impressive, but I am going to deduct some points for "Infinite Fuel". I would try to use a flatbed truck in order to recover that one payload stage, then used the skycrane to mate the stages. I will PM you your badge.

Edited August 9, 2017 by SquaadZulu

[sevenperforce]

45 minutes ago, SquaadZulu said:

@sevenperforce Impressive, but I am going to deduct some points for "Infinite Fuel". I would try to use a flatbed truck in order to recover that one payload stage, then used the skycrane to mate the stages. I will PM you your badge.

Deduct away. But, in my defense, I wouldn't have been able to mate the stages without infinite fuel at all, not without hundreds and hundreds of quicksaves. It's just extremely tedious.

[SquaadZulu]

20 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Deduct away. But, in my defense, I wouldn't have been able to mate the stages without infinite fuel at all, not without hundreds and hundreds of quicksaves. It's just extremely tedious.

Fair enough

[DunaManiac]

Very Impressive. My thing is just a toy compared to yours.

[gchristopher]

Nice! The "Harder Mode" rules for this challenge are about the same as the old Affordable Space Program challenge. You'll find a lot of entries (pre-1.0 aero) there, too. 

KAS is great for this, as well as Infernal Robotics for ground operations.

[TheGuyNamedAlan]

i see bragging rights. im on it fam

[ScriptKitt3h]

OH. Ohhh, may have to finally take this out for more than just a shakedown run/test flight for this challenge...

*Note that this isn't an entry, not yet, but that I'll probably being using this rocket (which is based on the last released SpaceX ITS proposal) and ship (the payload).

Will be doing the launch for a submission shortly- ship should easily get up to 100x100km orbit no problem, the biggest hassle is fine-steering the reentry portion close to touchdown.

Edited August 26, 2017 by ScriptKitt3h

[Andetch]

How does this count then? My career mode I always work to a reusable system once fund and tech levels are high enough.

I launch a heavy mining rig to Minimus, where she will stay for evermore. Also goes a tanker to sit in Minimus orbit, but with the ability to deliver large amounts of fuel anywhere in the system, after collecting it from the rig.

Then tourists are sent up in a bus (codename Holy Grail), and it can deliver small payloads on it's nose to anywhere in the Kerbin System. The SRB stage used to fire the bus into a sub-orbit will land in the peninsula east of the KSC, on parachutes, where it can be recovered. (I see an opportunity to build a recovery vehicle to get the SRB parts, but I think it would not be cost effective).

The bus and payload meets the tanker in Minimus orbit, usually after landing on the lakes, and refuels. She can then either land on The Mun and return to KSC, or head to Duna, meet the rig/tanker combo around Ike, land on either Duna or Ike, refuel as needed, then head back to Kerbin SOI, take whatever fuel is needed and land at KSC. The only part that requires crew is on the Rigs, as a communications network is launched separately - the bus is fully automated.

Meeting any stations along the way, of setting up an RV to rescue a stranded Kerbal (there are ladders for easy EVA ship transfer), or departing at a poor planetary alignment can be factored into the fuel load.

For building stations (I have not felt the need to make really huge ones yet) I would put a similar mass into a fairing instead of the bus and either move it under it's own power; or use one of my re-usable tugs to put it where it needs to be.

I can't post pictures yet, because the system is not fully 100% complete..... but if it is the sort of thing that you're looking for - I can work harder to get it all working.

p.s loving the challenge idea.

[SquaadZulu]

2 minutes ago, Andetch said:

How does this count then? My career mode I always work to a reusable system once fund and tech levels are high enough.

I launch a heavy mining rig to Minimus, where she will stay for evermore. Also goes a tanker to sit in Minimus orbit, but with the ability to deliver large amounts of fuel anywhere in the system, after collecting it from the rig.

Then tourists are sent up in a bus (codename Holy Grail), and it can deliver small payloads on it's nose to anywhere in the Kerbin System. The SRB stage used to fire the bus into a sub-orbit will land in the peninsula east of the KSC, on parachutes, where it can be recovered. (I see an opportunity to build a recovery vehicle to get the SRB parts, but I think it would not be cost effective).

The bus and payload meets the tanker in Minimus orbit, usually after landing on the lakes, and refuels. She can then either land on The Mun and return to KSC, or head to Duna, meet the rig/tanker combo around Ike, land on either Duna or Ike, refuel as needed, then head back to Kerbin SOI, take whatever fuel is needed and land at KSC. The only part that requires crew is on the Rigs, as a communications network is launched separately - the bus is fully automated.

Meeting any stations along the way, of setting up an RV to rescue a stranded Kerbal (there are ladders for easy EVA ship transfer), or departing at a poor planetary alignment can be factored into the fuel load.

For building stations (I have not felt the need to make really huge ones yet) I would put a similar mass into a fairing instead of the bus and either move it under it's own power; or use one of my re-usable tugs to put it where it needs to be.

I can't post pictures yet, because the system is not fully 100% complete..... but if it is the sort of thing that you're looking for - I can work harder to get it all working.

p.s loving the challenge idea.

You do what you want. But you must upload pics or gif or vid link in order to receive the badge.

[Andetch]

Well I will get on it then ;D

[SquaadZulu]

This thread hasn't seen any entries in a month, so I am closing this thread in 2 weeks time. Any last minute entries must be entered now. To all that participated, thanks for your interest and participation.

[SquaadZulu]

The closing of this thread has been long overdue, but with this post, the challenge is now closed and no further entries will be accepted. Thanks to all who made submissions, and may your further endeavors be successful.