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Model Rocket Battle

Ultimate Steve
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Ultimate Steve

Ultimate Steve

Posted
Posted (edited)

Inspired by the Dude Perfect series of the same name, here is short construction/optimization challenge: Fly as high as possible with only a small solid rocket engine.

To prevent the designs from being brain dead obvious, there are some restrictions:

  • The only two allowed control inputs are the ignition of the rocket engine and the deployment of the parachute, no moving of fins, no RCS, no SAS, etc. These rockets should be unguided.
  • The rocket must return to the surface of Kerbin intact with no damage
  • The rocket must carry a Kerbal
  • The only allowed source of propulsion is the listed solid rocket booster (adjusting fuel content and thrust limiter is allowed)

There are 3 classes:

Class 1: One Sepratron Allowed

  1. @swjr-swis, 1469m
  2. @HB Stratos, 1318m

Class 2: One Mite Allowed

  1. @HB Stratos, 26102m
  2. @camacju, 14236m
  3. @swjr-swis, 9728m
  4. @Ultimate Steve, 2341m

Class 3: One Shrimp Allowed

  1. @HB Stratos, 75635m
  2. @swjr-swis, 52148m
  3. @Jack Joseph Kerman, 38315m

DLCs are allowed, and the standard reasonable mod restrictions and no cheating boilerplate applies. Altitude is measured above sea level, and launch from the launch pad without launch clamps. If the couple meter height of the rockets ends up mattering, I'll be very surprised.

 

 

Here is my first class 2 entry:

TesXhQP.png

Pe18xJD.png

Highest point, 2341 meters largely due to improper balance

fXkYbcz.png

Parachute deployment

BZTX3zv.png

And successful recovery! Good luck!

 

Edited by Ultimate Steve
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camacju

camacju

Posted
Posted

Here's my Class 2 entry - 14236 m:

UVCYCn9.png

On runway. A Kerbal has unreasonably high drag so that's why I included the fairing - I can actually get better height with the extra mass.

KMl13xN.png

I tried to balance this craft but for some reason a command seat's center of mass changes when a Kerbal is in it, and this change isn't reflected in the VAB. This means that Kerbal Engineer's thrust torque readout doesn't work either, so I had to do this with pure trial and error.

Qz9XFno.png

Mite burns out

54bqKm2.png

14236 meter max height

BxjXBnB.png

I rearranged the staging on the fly so a single staging event deploys both the fairing and parachute.

QyhhJdr.png

Chute deployed

naSmzSs.png

Landed

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swjr-swis

swjr-swis

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Posted (edited)

Entry for class 1: the sepratwist, 1469 m.

Spoiler

yobaDok.png

NQuwYfw.png

bVDYNPn.png

rl3uah4.png

safe landing through deployment of the kerbal personal chute

 

Entry for class 2: themiteyone, 11674 m.  Please ignore, see corrected no-damage entry.

Spoiler

zKvMaMD.png

EdF5eJF.png

AQvhzzP.png

w7YdBrn.png

qYn4huo.png

Safe-ish landing through deployment of the kerbal personal chute (fins crumpled)

 

Entry for class 3: the sifu-dwan, 88128 m. Please ignore, see corrected no-damage entry.

Spoiler

XUa56Wm.png

pkRzobq.png

JzQMHhq.png

AO3hWRx.png

landed with personal chute, rip fins

 

Edited by swjr-swis
class 2 & 3 entries replaced, see link
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swjr-swis

swjr-swis

Posted
Posted
On 7/2/2022 at 7:40 PM, Ultimate Steve said:

The rocket must return to the surface of Kerbin intact with no damage

I need to stop doing these challenges when I'm having trouble sleeping - just now realized this means the entire rocket, not just the kerbal. I'll have to redo the class 2 and 3 entries, since they lost their fins on landing. I assume this also means no fairing shroud deployment?

Correction coming up.

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HB Stratos

HB Stratos

Posted
Posted

Entry for class 2, 26102m

screenshot516.png

screenshot512.png

Spoiler

The ksp team made it so all parts attached to all but the bottom node have no drag so engines inside the plate would have no drag if interstage. Just they forgot that the top node ontop of the plate is also not the bottom node. That means one has now two free nodes that force attached parts to have zero drag. and if you attach two plates to each other they make each other have no drag while leaving two free nodes for parts to attach with zero drag on them too.

This should explain why the aeroGUI shows drag zero. That is no cheats used, that is just a few tricks in game abused. 

screenshot510.png

screenshot511.png

screenshot512.png

screenshot513.png

screenshot514.png

screenshot515.png

screenshot516.png

screenshot517.png

 

 

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swjr-swis

swjr-swis

Posted
Posted (edited)

Seeing as the fairing base/engine plate drag shielding are accepted, I'd like to enter themiteytoo for class 2. It combines both parts in the design for an optimal compromise between drag and weight reduction, reaching a new record of 27199 m.

Spoiler

wwaphDG.png

3zCuI02.png

9BP906G.png

D7oVriH.png

Side-effect: it sinks, with open chute. So I took an F3 shot to show it landed intact before letting Val bail out.

 

Edited by swjr-swis
forgot craft link
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