Fanatically Reuseable Space Program - No part left behind!

[Pds314]

Begin a new career mode save on normal difficulty or higher. I strongly recommend keeping quicksaves and reverts *ON* and using named quicksaves frequently.

In this career save, you may not destroy or abandon any part anywhere, nor strand or kill any Kerbal. Anything that's useless where it is should be either moved to somewhere where it does something useful or returned to Kerbin's surface and recycled within a reasonable timescale.

Edited March 13, 2021 by Pds314

[ralanboyle]

Is the goal to unlock the tech tree? I don't think visiting all surfaces is realistic. 

[camacju]

Eve reusable is marginally possible but it's by far the hardest. Even Laythe and Tylo are relatively easy.

With ISRU you can do a SSTO to Eve and back so every surface should be possible

[18Watt]

Early in the tech-tree it would be difficult to get anything into orbit, let alone leave Kerbin.  Is it possible to fill out the tech-tree far enough just on Kerbin to start getting SSTOs to orbit?  I’ve never tried that.  I’m usually very deep into the tech-tree before I can get anything useful into orbit without staging anything away.

[camacju]

I've done a completely reusable orbital rocket on level 2 tech. And getting level 2 isn't hard with a single stage flea booster

[ralanboyle]

2 hours ago, 18Watt said:

Early in the tech-tree it would be difficult to get anything into orbit, let alone leave Kerbin.  Is it possible to fill out the tech-tree far enough just on Kerbin to start getting SSTOs to orbit? 

Yes. I did the first phase of this challenge this morning. I did a small hop. Then a flight. Then 2 sub orbits. Then orbit. I don’t think unlocking the tech tree will be hard. But a couple of the surface returns may be above my skill. 

[camacju]

I'm not going to do the career aspect of this challenge but I might try to do some proof of concept reusable missions

Edited March 14, 2021 by camacju

[king of nowhere]

On 3/14/2021 at 8:06 PM, 18Watt said:

Early in the tech-tree it would be difficult to get anything into orbit, let alone leave Kerbin.  Is it possible to fill out the tech-tree far enough just on Kerbin to start getting SSTOs to orbit?  I’ve never tried that.  I’m usually very deep into the tech-tree before I can get anything useful into orbit without staging anything away.

a command pod, 14 fuel tanks and a swiwel will get you ssto with general rocketry. you unlock it with 5 science, which you can get on the launchpad

[camacju]

10 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

a command pod, 14 fuel tanks and a swiwel will get you ssto with general rocketry

The problem is recovering it with only one parachute

[18Watt]

22 hours ago, camacju said:

The problem is recovering it with only one parachute

Yes.  I have little to no practice getting SSTOs to orbit that early in the tech tree, let alone bringing them back to the surface.  So I greatly appreciate the responses indicating that this is indeed possible.  And that was my next question, how to get stuff back early in the tech tree.

Another approach I’ve considered (thanks to this challenge) is hitting every biome possible on Kerbin using aircraft or rovers to get the tech tree partially filled out.   Also, I’m using the term ‘SSTO’, but do not consider that to mean only spaceplanes of course.  Due to the mechanics of stock KSP, recovering dropped boosters is not workable, so even traditional rockets would need to be essentially ‘SSTO’.

Or would they?  Another solution I’m curious about is dropping a first stage booster at high altitude prior to AP, say at 100km while still climbing.   I wonder if I could have the upper stage burn to get PE>70km, and switch to the dropped booster before it hits the atmosphere and ‘disappears’.   The steep entry profile would be destructive, but with a little fuel that might be survivable.

 

[ralanboyle]

1 hour ago, 18Watt said:

 Another solution I’m curious about is dropping a first stage booster at high altitude prior to AP

I generally use a two stage system, but both stages are piloted for easy switching and recovery. 

[QF9E]

On 3/14/2021 at 8:06 PM, 18Watt said:

Early in the tech-tree it would be difficult to get anything into orbit, let alone leave Kerbin.  Is it possible to fill out the tech-tree far enough just on Kerbin to start getting SSTOs to orbit?  I’ve never tried that.  I’m usually very deep into the tech-tree before I can get anything useful into orbit without staging anything away.

Yes, this is possible. I did an entire Caveman playthrough without ever going over 10 km in altitude. I flew a science plane to all biomes, including all splashed land biomes and landed water biomes: 

At normal difficulty this yields more than enough science points to unlock the entire tech tree up to tech level 5. At that level you have more than you need to build a reusable single stage to orbit rocket that can put significant payload into LKO.

Edited March 18, 2021 by QF9E

[Spricigo]

On 3/16/2021 at 7:03 AM, king of nowhere said:

a command pod, 14 fuel tanks and a swiwel will get you ssto with general rocketry. you unlock it with 5 science, which you can get on the launchpad

more than 14 fuel tanks if you mean Basic Rocketry or more than 5 science to unlock if you mean General Rocketry.  In either case, can be done with very little science and limited by  level 1 facilities.

On 3/16/2021 at 6:03 PM, camacju said:

The problem is recovering it with only one parachute

MOAR parachutes!  

..or a bit of fuel reserved for the suicide burn.

There are other issues, like depleting the batteries and turning into a lawn dart or tipping after the touchdown. But is quite doable.

 

16 hours ago, 18Watt said:

Another solution I’m curious about is dropping a first stage booster at high altitude prior to AP, say at 100km while still climbing.

Probably more practical early on.  If recovering near KSC is not required then you may not even need to adjust from a regular trajectory.

 

[ralanboyle]

Okay guys, 

Here is my startup through orbit. 

 

[WarpPrime]

I have a few hints regarding this challenge:

1. Doing science on the surface until you can get the Survivability node
2. If using rockets: Attaching radial parachutes to every rocket stage that will be "expended", putting the parachute staging icon along with the decoupler for that stage, and launching the rocket.
3. Building science planes & SSTO's (probably the easiest)