90 Seconds to Orbit

[Captain Sierra]

Quick, that warehouse full of nuclear engines is going critical, evacuate!!!

You have 90 seconds to evacuate kerbals from KSC. The nuclear explosion will be to big to escape in the ground so go up.

The Challenge, should you choose to accept it:

Build a rocket that can break Kerbin atmosphere in 90 seconds. To count, you must have an apoaps of at least 70km to be out of the atmosphere. There are three tiers: Breaking the atmosphere, reaching stable orbit, and rendezvous with a space station. Don't worry, not all in 90 seconds.

Tier 1 involves getting to orbit and then not having the fuel to circularize. Tier 2 involves getting your apoaps over 70km in 90 seconds and then being able to circularize to a stable orbit. Tier 3 involves getting apoaps over 70km in 90 seconds, then having enough fuel to circularize and rendezvous and dock with a space station.

The rules:

Your craft may use mods (but nothing like light speed engines, these, and other 'cheat' mods will not count if used).

Your craft must break a 70km apoaps in 90 sec to count.

You may not use and cheats, debug menus, hyperedit, or anything else that otherwise allows you to circumvent physics or instantly create an orbit.

Scoring:

The challenge is time based. You must complete the first step in 90 seconds. Faster times will go higher on the leaderboard.

Leaderboard:

Tier 3:

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

Tier 2:

1)Jodo42 - 74 seconds

2)

3)

4)

5)

Tier 1:

1)SkyRender - 80 seconds

2)

3)

4)

5)

Any questions?

Get launching!

Edited July 21, 2013 by Captain Sierra
leaderboard update

[AncientAstronaut]

Have you even actually done this yourself to see if it's possible?

[astropapi1]

Tier 1 involves getting to orbit and then not having the fuel to circularize.

1. How do you get into orbit without circularizing?

2. Have you tried this yourself?

3. What are the mod restrictions? You and me might have different views on what a "cheat mod" is.

[Jodo42]

The only way I see this being doable in stock is with the small solids. And even then it's going to be CLOSE. I've almost got something that works, but it's kind of cheaty.

[ChrisDaBox]

1. How do you get into orbit without circularizing?

What it means is that you can get into an orbit but you can't make it circularized. Its basically an oval shaped orbit where the periapsis is lower than the apoapsis. The closer they are, the more circularized the orbit is.

[Lazro]

Tier 1 involves basically sitting on a massive pile of explosives and igniting them.

...

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

EDIT: Apparently you just need an apoapsis of 70km or bigger within 90 seconds, actually very easy...

[SkyRender]

Getting above 70KM in 90 seconds or less entirely doable with stock and without cheating.

It doesn't even need that complex a rocket to do it.

[Jodo42]

Going off sky's basic design, here's a ship that should qualify for class 2.

http://imgur.com/Fnt14Gz

The ship.

http://imgur.com/viCdkE9

Apokee of over 70K at 1:14.

http://imgur.com/6yIRQHV

Circularization burn in progress at 17:56

http://imgur.com/YJ2U9nZ

Circularization finished at 18:44, apokee of 533,983m, perikee of 531,723m.

http://imgur.com/5cT1ssy

The final orbiter.

Edit: images weren't working, you'll have to use the links :/

This could have been done better. Much better. And much faster. So go forth little ones, and do better than I.

Edited July 20, 2013 by Jodo42

[Captain Sierra]

Yes, you can reach orbital altitudes in 90 secs. I'ts a lot like the 30 second altitude challenge, but with higher tiers that involve more required payload. Yes, I have tried it. I can in fact do tier 1 just fine. Still working on the rocket for Tier 3 (It keeps exploding cuz its a pile of fuel).

[Xeldrak]

Well, there you go:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

I needed 52 seconds to get my apoapsis above 70km, then circularized and docked with my "spacestation". It's all stock exept for MechJeb to provide the numbers....

[Bystander]

Don't mean to pick holes but,

1) It would help if you mentioned the 70km ap when you introduce it, currently it just says "getting to orbit" which doesn't mean 70km - I can orbit at the launch pad if I had enough deltaV to circularise and no mountains got in the way.

2) The introduction indicates Kerbals need to escape, yet there's nothing in the rules that states I can't just launch a probe. How many Kerbals ?

[Captain Sierra]

Getting above 70KM in 90 seconds or less entirely doable with stock and without cheating.

This is a perfect example of what to do and gets you on the Tier 1 leaderboards. Get your apoaps over 70k and then get to said apoaps in under 90 seconds. I did a lousy job of clarifying that earlier so let this be an example what to do. Apoaps must be over 70k. Your score is the time it takes you to reach at least 70k.

EDIT: my attempt at Tier 3 is on hold. The Kraken is holding down any rocket I launch.

[Captain Sierra]

At least one kerbal is required to be on board. Thank you for bringing that one up, I do need to clarify that.

[Xeldrak]

Alright, so here we go again...

Javascript is disabled. View full album

- Apoapsis of 72.08 km after 52 seconds

- Got to 70.4 km within 80 seconds

- circularized at 100 km

- docked to my old "station"

Just a small question....what time counts now? Because with jodo you have used the time when he was on a trajectory with an apoapsis >70, with SkyRender you use the time when he actually reaches 70+ km altitude

Edited July 21, 2013 by Xeldrak

[zapy]

This is my attempt, I finished tier 1 and 2 in 63 seconds. I need more info about tier 3, but I still have enough fuel to make more operations and dock to a space station...

[BigDog]

I was a bit unclear about the apoapsis or me being above 70k at 90 seconds. If it is just the apoapsis, this thing should be able to circularize and dock easily. Blasting straight up at fuel burn out apoapsis was 484,600m. This is the first time I have seen re-entry heat going up!

Apoapsis above 70k at 47 seconds.

Rocket above 70k at 81 seconds.

Actual times may be a second less, to say this thing is moving fast would be a massive understatement. So what is it, Apoapsis above 70k at 90s or rocket above at 90s?

[BigDog]

How about a circular orbit with enough D-v to reach the Mun? I think apo time was around 60 on that flight, didn't see it as I had my hands busy. I need to add some RCS so I can dock this bomb and note the time. Rocket is 1 orange tank with one small tank below for over heat control, 8 of the small radial engines, and 28 SRBs for that pin ya to the seat acceleration.

[koshelenkovv]

Pretty easy.

Building rocket takes less than 90 seconds too. So Bob escaped under 3 minutes.

Edited July 21, 2013 by koshelenkovv