pseudorealityx

I did miss that.... how many intakes does it take to get to 38km with 36kN of thrust at 2/3rd throttle? I see 4?

Very cool. From what I can see, you've got the 1 turbojet and 4x ion engines. Am I missing something on how you went from 15k (when the jets died) to orbit?

Which is an "oddball" trait of KSP. So no. Within reason, the goal is to make something that's basically logical to build as a real spaceship.

First, I'm apparently ignorant of the glitch that allows that. Care to explain? And second, no. I was hoping this challenge would about trying to be smart about building, flying, and landing a rocket. Not how to abuse oddball traits of KSP.

Edited the original post to add a definition of space plane. A plane by definition uses aerodynamic lift. There have been rocket powered planes (Me-163 for example), but they all use wings of some sort. I'm obviously not as experienced as many of you on KSP, but I think staging is somewhat important. The more 'dead' weight you bring with you, the more fuel you use. And any fuel you use is weight you cannot land with. For the sake of sanity, I was thinking of not allowing ion engines, but in the case that someone who hasn't posted is actually attempting this WITH an ion engine, I'll wait a day(?) to update the rules. Anyone has any comments on that, let me know. By the way, thanks for posting. First Challenge and posts on KSP, so the help is appreciated.

Thanks for the input. I'll edit the original thread.

So my first post on the forum... and didn't see a similar thing listed. A couple of friends have been trying to challenge ourselves to make the most efficient rockets. Started with getting to the Mun, then Eve, etc. Goal: Land a Kerbal on Laythe with the highest ratio of (tons on Laythe/tons on launch pad on Kerbin) Restrictions: 1) Stock parts. (We're relatively novice users, so if use plug-ins, fancy calculators, etc, at least mention it). 2) Vertical take off 3) Kerbal must be contained in a stock 'pod/can'. 4) Mass weighed based on the ship being intact after landing on Laythe. If something breaks off, it doesn't count. [edit] 5) No refueling/docking from another ship during the mission. Goal is a single spacecraft makes the journey. 6) Original thought was no spaceplanes, but if folks are interested in that, feel free to post that and we can have 2 'leaders'. Let's define 'spaceplanes' as a craft that uses aerodynamic lift in an atmosphere to avoid a traditional vertical launch with a "regular gravity turn" /[edit] Current effort: 17.4 tons on Laythe. 131.93 tons on the launch pad on Kerbin Go!