MabDeno

Well done Tsevion! After all the effort that has gone into this challenge I now feel we have 'the right to smirk' when anyone says its impossible to get an ion craft to orbit.

OK then latest attempt, the Tripple Dart! 6 Engines, 11 Tanks and 44 Strakes Computers having trouble with 500 part count, might have to try a different design.

I agree with the flight time, my best runs all had around 42-47 minutes of fuel. I've never tried raking the wings, the benefits you gain at high altitude might be offset by more drag at lower altitude but it could be worth experimenting with.

Latest manned attempt has 5 engines 9 tanks and 40 wing strakes netting 39000m and 1700 m/s. Not bad but I cant see it getting anywhere near orbit soon.

Im coming to the conclusion that 3 engines isn't enough to get a Kerbal into orbit. I think it will be minimum of 4 and maybe even 5 engines with an appropriate amount to wings and tanks to suit.

OK after duct taping a command seat to the double dart I have achieved a height of 37,000 at about 1500m/s. I ran out of fuel before the sun went down so logically I strapped another engine and 8 wing strakes to it and sent it up again. This got me to 36,000m at 1500m/s and ran out of fuel with alot of daylight to spare so 1 extra fuel tank might get somewhere. Current craft has: 1 kerbal, command seat, small reaction wheel, battery, 40 wing strakes, 5 engines and 8 fuel tanks. At nearly 500 parts its starting to tax my computer a bit too so I'm not too sure I can complete this. BTW does anyone know how much drag a Kerbal has?

I'll be attempting a manned flight next, have to find a suitably brave and stupid Kerbal first though. Slashy: A ratio I've been looking at is the lift rating to mass ratio. Most of our designs have been around the 8.5 - 9 lift per T, any more than that just seems like extra weight and any less wont get the ship high enough before the sunlight runs out. The thrust to weight ratio of around 0.3 seems to be quite a common trend too.

Sorry for spamming the thread but here it is! What would be better than one Ion Dart? Two bolted together of course. The Double Dart: 2.8 T, 4 engines, 8 fuel tanks and 32 wing strakes I was quite happy to see it go above 100k apoapsis but then I noticed that I'd get sunlight back before I dropped below 90k and managed to use the remaining fuel to circularise. Craft file http://www.filedropper.com/doubledart

OK latest attempt, the Ion Dart Im finding a nice reference point for speed is 1000/s at 30km. I cant seem to break the 30k barrier without that much velocity

Thats fantastic! I'd be tempted to put batteries on it and only activate them when your ready to circularise.

I must have hit a sweet spot. http://i.imgur.com/zxSuvvv.png 16 wing strakes 2 engines with 4 fuel tanks. I ran out of sunlight before I could use the remainder of my fuel. I'll post a full album and craft when I optimise it a little.

I had a feeling the wings strakes were performing well but I was having a hard time getting front and rear facing solar panels on them. might have that sorted now though. :-D

Im on .25, does the landing gear weight count now? Doesn't seem to show any change in Ker unless I'm missing something.

OK, here is the Bi-Tri Plane. 12 Wings, 4 engines with 8 fuel tanks and one small reaction wheel (I got sick of the minute balancing dance) I ran out of fuel just before running out of sunlight. Without the middle set of wings it couldn't get over 28k altitude.

I'll try that out with my latest design. I've had fairly successful results above 30k mark with 4 engines I think its my flight profile which is letting me down.