Nefrums

I barely used the nervs at all during second assent as i thought that i should burn the OX first. 2 nervs on a 60t ship gives about 0.2 twr 120/(60*9,81) It might work If i manage to get a high enough angle upwards, with should be possible with the insane amount of twr from 7 rapiers on a 60t ship. Edit: In any case i do need less OX than i had before, even if i need to save a small amount of OX for the second accent.

Well Mach 20+ is for flight on a earth sized planet, where velocity in low orbit is ~7km/s. On the much smaller kerbin Mach 20 does not make sence

I'll try to make a second attempt tonight. I'm thinking of replacing the Mk3 Liquid Fuel Fuselage Short and Mk3 Rocket Fuel Fuselage with Mk3 Liquid Fuel Fuselage. ie -2750 OX +250 LF. and -14,26 t this might be removing to much fuel, and will depend on that it is possible to do the second accent on LF only.

That is a engine mount plate with 3 bi-couplers. The TWR is a bit crazy on the second accent. Ship is less than 10t / Rapier. Actually had to throttle down to avoid overheat. Well done @Val! Now I have a reason to improve my design! And to be honest there is a lot of room for improvement in mine. It worked the first time, (or at least the first time i flew it past Mach 1). I had way to much OX, and barley used the Nervs. I think the second accent can be done on LF only.

I agree with what @Foxster, @Nich and @Laie writes. One more this thou. This game has two parts: building and flying, Some challenges are more focused on building and some are more focused on flying (or driving). Some people like one and some like the other, but most people like to have a good mix of both. I like challenges where you spend most of your time refining your ship over and over again rather than spending many hours flying the same ship. Like the Stock payload challenge. And to come back to what @Nich said about leader boards. If a challenge is so simple that building the ultimate craft is possible, then the challenge dies very quickly.

Here is another slightly larger entry for Master: 149,5 t , 66 parts

@PacThePhoenix That is one ugly plane! @Nich Nice one, You probably had the same problem as me, way to little lift while landing. But I think you missed the rule "Do not add engines to the payload." I think you had it right that 3 rapiers is enough. I'll try to build a ship using that. 65t should be possible (55% payload fraction).

Here is my 69.4 t plane: Without the cargo it flies like a brick. Landing was a bit challenging

Allowing lift surfaces on the payload makes it easier get balanced CoM/CoL both with and without cargo. I'm for allowing it!

It is possible but harder to maneuver without RCS, I don't think it should be required. It would also be hard to determine how much RCS and fuel you need to add for it to qualify, is one truster block wo fuel enough?

No isru, that makes this challenge alot more intresting

crap I just realized that I did not read the rules.... Well i docked in 3,52, but i forgot the cellphone...

14,4 LF, 8,8 OX One Panter and one Spider engine. Had some problems with running out of electric charge for the probe core

I should have them lying around somewhere, I'll have a look when i get home.

yes, more twr less d/V might be better. Hmm.... less fuel tanks also means less parts, less parts mean that i might be able to add another ring or two of boosters...

And I even tried adding another ring of booster around it, but my computer did like that. With close to 600 parts the game is running at 1/8 normal speed. But that about dubbels as the first stage drops out of draw distance.

I guess this would be in the above 1 kton category then.. a sub 1kton category would be fun as it would be more about efficiency than building the largest rocket. 6618 ton, 588 parts 20356 m/s dV Time: 13:58

Re entry heating is on normal. There is a few things that can affect this. Different engines have different heat tolerances. Angle on reentry. Drag of your booster. I had to add lots of air brakes to prevent overheating.

As the rapiers actually have have 4 exhausts, tiny sized parts placed after them are not git by the exhaust. Thou gimbal have to be disabled.

I guess all the entries in the reusable categories of the Stock Payload Fraction Challenge: 1.0.5 Edition qualify for this challenge: His is my two best:

I missed that. Will try again with a better design!

I was so close 15:07 Almost all engines fire the entire time. Had to lock some fuel tanks as fuel lines are a bit buggy.

More twr does the trick! 22,667 kg in orbit. Two Vectors and a poodle

Does the payload have to be decoupled? or is the empty lifter stage considered part of the payload?

I fired up the poodles att about 3-4km, with ruffly corresponds to when their isp reaches that os the SRBs. I was thinking about making my rocket twice as big and basically duplicating all parts. This would allow me to remove the last inline decoupler and replace it with small hard points as the twin-boars would be radially attached. This would in theory mean a 0.5 % or 3 funds/ton improvement.