Torchship Speedrun

[sevenperforce]

Kerbals have unlocked the secret to the Infinity Torch -- a special module which taps energy from an alternate dimension and allows any engine to perform at 100% thrust with no propellant at all. (This module can be enabled by selecting Alt+F12 and checking "Infinite Fuel").

With this came the rise of torchships -- vehicles capable of performing Brachistochrone trajectories, accelerating constantly from Kerbin's SOI toward their destination and then turning around and accelerating in the opposite direction until they arrive. Space travel has grown exponentially, and it's time for you to make your entry into the interplanetary transport market.

The challenge: Build an Executive Torchship transport suitable for Brachistochrone transfers. Fastest possible round-trip time wins.

Rules:

• SSTO, obviously. No need to stage when the rocket equation is broken. Your vehicle must not take damage at any point during the mission. All stock.
• You need to be able to take off and land in style, on any surface, so it must have separate VTOL landing engines.
• You need crossrange capability, so your craft must be aerodynamic enough to fly to your landing site using aerodynamic control surfaces before engaging its VTOL engines. This also will allow for a survivable crash-landing if you suffer engine failure.
• Torch drives can be finicky, so you need to carry at least enough propellant to make your final landing without Infinite Fuel turned on, just in case.
• Kerbin doesn't yet have inertial dampening technology, so for your executive passengers' comfort you must keep your total gees below 8 at all times.
• You must carry at least four passengers and at least one pilot; command seats are not allowed.
• Round-trip mission time is any amount of time during which the vehicle is moving. So you can land at your destination and wait as long as you want for an opportune launch window; it won't count against your mission time.

Entry levels (will have separate leaderboards):

• Torchship Jockey. Take off from Kerbin, land on both the Mun and Minmus, and return to any place on Kerbin (no splashdowns).
• Torchship Navigator. Take off from Kerbin, land on Duna, and return to Kerbin within sight of the KSC.
• Torchship Pilot. Take off from Kerbin, land on Eve, and return to a landing on the runway at KSC.
• Torchship Commander. Take off from Kerbin, land on Laythe, and return to a landing on the helipad on top of the VAB.
• Torchship Master. Use your torchship for a Grand Tour, landing on every body in KSP other than Jool.

I'll put together some cool badges once we have entries and can award them.

Good luck!

 

[icantmakemodels]

Hold my beer...

 

[Laie]

@sevenperforce: you don't quite say it, but your description very much implies that the vessel be a plane. Would a  tailsitter be acceptable?

No "separate" VTOL engines, but apart from that it checks all the boxes.

[sevenperforce]

5 hours ago, Laie said:

@sevenperforce: you don't quite say it, but your description very much implies that the vessel be a plane. Would a  tailsitter be acceptable?

No "separate" VTOL engines, but apart from that it checks all the boxes.

Looking good! I did mean that it needed VTOL engines on a separate thrust axis, but I won't fuss about it.

[goduranus]

Got a torchship that doesn't need cheat mode. So technically satisfies the fuel without cheat mode requirement. Space bar to start, toggle main engines #1 and #2 with action groups 1 and 2.

Though actual speedrun is too much work, because reaching Minmums without time warp takes a long time even with 8Gs of acceleration.

https://kerbalx.com/goduranus/Torchship

Edited August 20, 2017 by goduranus

[Laie]

3 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

I did mean that it needed VTOL engines on a separate thrust axis

This afternoon I built a vessel according to your specs, and I hope you forgive me for saying so, but I found that it's not exactly sensible.

• What do you mean, " crossrange capability"? It's a friggin torchship! It can hover as much as it wants. That should provide all the crossrange capability you could ever need, and then some.
• It's not as if you'd need to perform the usual atmospheric entry. If you have a miracle drive that provides as much impulse as you want, when you want it, your vessel doesn't need to be aerodynamic. You may can come in tail-first, engines blazing, and slowly descend at whatever airspeed you desire.
• The ability to glide and land horizontally only really makes sense in case of engine failure, and only on planets with sufficient atmosphere. I posit that in this case, it would be wiser to just use parachutes (and sacrifice everything but the crew/passenger section).
• Going a bit beyond KSP here...  Howering a few feet above ground, then zooming off sideways looks good in the movies but causes all kinds of engineering trouble. Putting it down on it's tail not only allows you to use the main engines for takeoff, it also aligns the "down" direction during boarding/loading with the perceived down direction while under power. Imagine what would happen if you stand a bus/train/plain on it's end: the aisle becomes an abyss, for example, and which way do you mount the sink, cupboards, and so on?
• Oh, and btw: I found that if you keep it up for minutes, (some) Kerbals will pass out from much less than 8g.

[goduranus]

47 minutes ago, Laie said:

• The ability to glide and land horizontally only really makes sense in case of engine failure, and only on planets with sufficient atmosphere. I posit that in this case, it would be wiser to just use parachutes (and sacrifice everything but the crew/passenger section).

Agree with the above as well, except that the ability to glide is sensible, as in atmosphere the heat and sound of the engine reflected off the ground may damage your craft, so horizontal landing would cause the least maintenance demand.

Elite pilots like Jeb can only take 6.7Gs sustained, while tourists will pass out at as low as 4.3G.

[swjr-swis]

5 hours ago, goduranus said:

Got a torchship that doesn't need cheat mode. So technically satisfies the fuel without cheat mode requirement.

Actually... you got a ship with parts that have been hand-edited with non-stock values. Technically, that's not only still 'cheating', it violates the 'All stock' requirement (rule nr. 1).

[goduranus]

That's not an entry. Brachistochrone transfers isn't practical with stock KSP. Need the mod with high physical time acceleration or run KSP for weeks.

[sevenperforce]

4 hours ago, Laie said:

This afternoon I built a vessel according to your specs, and I hope you forgive me for saying so, but I found that it's not exactly sensible.

• What do you mean, " crossrange capability"? It's a friggin torchship! It can hover as much as it wants. That should provide all the crossrange capability you could ever need, and then some.
• It's not as if you'd need to perform the usual atmospheric entry. If you have a miracle drive that provides as much impulse as you want, when you want it, your vessel doesn't need to be aerodynamic. You may can come in tail-first, engines blazing, and slowly descend at whatever airspeed you desire.
• The ability to glide and land horizontally only really makes sense in case of engine failure, and only on planets with sufficient atmosphere. I posit that in this case, it would be wiser to just use parachutes (and sacrifice everything but the crew/passenger section).

Indeed, but I made the challenge the way I did for a reason, haha. Otherwise people would just pile on the engines and forget. This requires people to be at least a little bit creative.

Quote

• Going a bit beyond KSP here...  Howering a few feet above ground, then zooming off sideways looks good in the movies but causes all kinds of engineering trouble. Putting it down on it's tail not only allows you to use the main engines for takeoff, it also aligns the "down" direction during boarding/loading with the perceived down direction while under power. Imagine what would happen if you stand a bus/train/plain on it's end: the aisle becomes an abyss, for example, and which way do you mount the sink, cupboards, and so on?
• Oh, and btw: I found that if you keep it up for minutes, (some) Kerbals will pass out from much less than 8g.

Yes, it looks good in the movies. One of the things I was curious about is whether we'd end up with designs that look a lot like scifi, or designs that look more utilitarian.

3 hours ago, goduranus said:

Agree with the above as well, except that the ability to glide is sensible, as in atmosphere the heat and sound of the engine reflected off the ground may damage your craft, so horizontal landing would cause the least maintenance demand.

Elite pilots like Jeb can only take 6.7Gs sustained, while tourists will pass out at as low as 4.3G.

It may be that I should alter the requirements of this challenge to say that warp time is not counted, or counted differently...not sure of the best way to do it.

[UbuntuLinuxKing]

On 8/20/2017 at 3:39 PM, goduranus said:

Agree with the above as well, except that the ability to glide is sensible, as in atmosphere the heat and sound of the engine reflected off the ground may damage your craft, so horizontal landing would cause the least maintenance demand.

Elite pilots like Jeb can only take 6.7Gs sustained, while tourists will pass out at as low as 4.3G.

I made a mod that includes an engine called the "Kerman Drive". Just eight at full thrust (50,000kn each) produces around 130Gs, so I just install a probe core and let them black out for the duration of the journey.