sevenperforce

I thought it was particularly neat that on this particular landing, they used a boostback not to RTLS, but to target a different ASDS location because they had to change the ASDS placement due to weather. That's incredible.

Even sexier pic: As you can see, they ARE curved around the stage, plus they have awesome leading-edge sharp points to break up airflow.

Elon said it was either a mechanical problem or a very large wind gust. Asymmetric shutdown could be the mechanical problem. I suppose we could calculate force gradients during engine shutdown from existing videos but it would be a lot of guesswork. On the subject of the grid fins, Elon stated that the old painted aluminum ones never were so damaged as to lose control authority, but they were always "fragged", i.e., too melty to be reused. The titanium ones provide a little extra control authority (which will help later, with FH) and are completely reusable without refurb. By this I assume we can conclude that even with the two reused rockets so far, none of the grid fins were original.

I, for one, welcome our new high-contrast robotic spaceship overlords.

I almost never calculate the dV of my individual stages; I know generally how far my rocket is going to get for a given fuel load. If you start playing sandbox, you can just overengineer your stages and make sure you have more than enough fuel for each portion of your trip. Then save more precise calculations for later on in the game, or for playing career.

Whoa, really freaking cool: The new Block V titanium grid fins are curved. They're also substantially larger than the original aluminum ones.

https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/878828849722671104 Apparently it was def an anomaly. Seems unlikely.

If so, it could explain why it came down so nearly off the deck, and then crushed the legs. A three-engine shutdown could easily have air-launched and ended up dropping from a few meters above the deck.

YESSSSSSS. I have been waiting for this.

Hacking it with decoupler launching seems to me to be rather against the spirit of the challenge.

Sneak peek of another attempt:

Yes, it would, right up to the point that it separates and kicks its engines into gear.

Thanks, and sorry I didn't see the update to the challenge rules. Here's EFT-1, as requested: Got all 100 points.

I getcha, but RCS provides propulsion whether you want it to or not. Just by turning it on you can often watch your Ap/Pe change slightly; without even steering in any direction. Reaction wheels, on the other hand, provide control without propulsion. Which is why some people consider them OP. For this challenge, they make sense because SRB's provide propulsion without control. So the two are a perfect match. This challenge seems to be all about timing (setting thrust and fuel limits possibly on the SRB's) and navigation. It sounds pretty cool, but I'm not sure if I'll get to it right away. If I can, though, I'll accept the challenge and give it a shot. I think it'll be fun. And pretty tough, too. If you want, I'll allow infinite electricity for your reaction wheels. The Cap'n is right; this is about timing, design, and navigation; no reason to worry about adding batteries and solar panels. Fantastic entry! I'm close to being able to get Advanced Mode with 2 SRBs but I haven't gotten it perfect yet. Once you get the Kerbal safely back to Kerbin I'll put you on the leaderboard. Great job. And nice move burning radial. You don't have to enter and leave orbit on a single burn but it definitely can save you a whole SRB.

Radial decouplers, tweakscaled down to 60% or so. Each KubeSat is a decoupler, a probe core, a cubic strut, a science instrument, and an antenna.

I was playing around with free-return trajectories for this challenge and it set me thinking: what's the lowest number of solid rocket motors needed to get to the Mun and back? Not a Mun landing, mind you; cislunar space is enough. In theory, I think you could make it into a free-return trajectory with just two SRB burns: suborbital spaceflight for the first one, and circularization+lunar injection with the second one. It would take a lot of timing, design, and careful planning, but it could be done. And if that's possible, then in theory you could enter and leave Munar orbit with only one additional SRB burn. So here's the challenge: get a Kerbal into cislunar space and return safely using only SRBs. No RCS, but reaction wheels are fine. Whoever can do it with the fewest SRBs wins! Basic mode: Munar flyby Advanced mode: Munar free-return Expert mode: Munar orbit Ludicrous mode: Munar landing Good luck!

All right, here's my submission for EM1. Scoring: Build an SLS Block 1 +25 KubeSats! (at least 1 science instrument per cubesat, +5 points per): +65 Free Returns! +15 Splashies! (+20 points if ocean is west of KSC, east of desert) ! +20 Solar Backup +15 Solar 4 +5 Unmanned Orion +10 Abort, Abort! +5 Total: 160 points! You could get more points if you just spammed it with, like, 400 kubesats, but that wouldn't be very nice. On that note, you should probably limit cubesat count. This was fun!

This mission completed for submission to the EM1 Mission of the Doing It Orion Style challenge. Only mod was TweakScale. I went a little overboard trying to match all the elements of the real SLS + Orion, down to the count and placement of the RCS thruster blocks. Definitely pleased with the final product, though! View from the VAB. Standing tall on the pad. Igniting the SSMEs first. Booster ignition and clamp release! I always love these kinds of shots. I don't much like the SLS myself but it is a nice-looking rocket to be sure. Look familiar? Halfway through the SRBs and just now supersonic. Not going to get rid of the launch tower until after the solids are jettisoned. Really starting to get some heating now, right at burnout. Gees will drop soon, though. Booster staging aided by some sepratrons clipped into the nosecones. Boosters receding; about half my launch fuel and pulling two gees. Throttling down to fine-tune my ascent. Fairing and LES jettison! Now I just need to go a little bit further... MECO in a disposal orbit. Separating the core. Nice shot of the ICPS here, compare to this. Extending solar panels as the core recedes. Circularizing. As you can see, I have 13 cubesats mounted around the ICPS decoupler. Orbit circularized. Testing out my RCS blocks. Note the placement is identical to here. Really good view of the ICPS. Went ahead and threw an antenna on here since it is unmanned. Extending the antennae on the KubeSats. KubeSat 1 away! These each consist of a probe core, an antenna, and an instrument of some kind. I plan to deploy them in low Kerbin orbit, kerbostationary transfer orbit, Munar free-return, and Munar orbit. I only brought 13 KubeSats because that's the number of adapters on Orion's Stage Adapter. Deploying a few more KubeSats: Let's see, where were we? Planning Munar Free Return. ICPS reignition! TweakScale is almost perfect, but it didn't adjust exhaust plume length. So it looks a little weird. Deploying another KubeSat with a slightly higher apoapse. Yet another. You can see the orbits of the individual KubeSats. Deploying KubeSat in Kerbostationary Transfer Orbit. There it is in KTO! Throttling down to finely adjust the free-return. And there's my free-return! Got a pretty good Munar Periapsis for a free-return. Releasing more KubeSats now that I'm in a free-return trajectory. Nice shot of the service module here too, along with the large battery to show I have backup in case the solar panels fail. Approaching cismunar space. Nice shot of the loop around the Mun; you can see that the KubeSats I released have spread out nicely. One of the KubeSats is on an impact trajectory, the others are not. I went ahead and used the ICPS for this burn so I could save some KubeSats for deployment in Munar Orbit. Deploying! Finally separating the ICPS and Orion is flying free! Nice swarm of KubeSats here along with me. Let's head a bit closer to the Mun. Tightening up that orbit... Much better! Did a few orbits until I was lined up to head back to Kerbin. Getting ready for the return burn. This is the first really good shot of Orion by itself. Starting the burn. And now my periapse is below the surface! This will be hot. Farewell, Mun! Earth approach. Separation from the Service Module. Hope I don't overshoot and come down on land. Very warm. Hitting the drogues immediately to try and get a splashdown. Popping the mains. This is gonna be close! Dropping the heat shield. Cut the drogues. Aaaaand... Splashdown!

This doesn't quite reach the top of the leaderboard from the old challenge, but it's not half bad for a basic entry: Three RAPIERs, locked to open-cycle, crossfed to the center. There's a probe core under the fairing. Only a bit of fuel in the core because booster burnout is very near the limit of what the RAPIERs can handle in open-cycle. Liftoff! Maximum altitude was 238,289 m. I'm sure I could do better, but...

Probably nearing its limit -- I don't know how many rotational gees I'm pulling but it's high. It gets very unstable at high RPMs; even though it is fully autostrutted, the parts start slipping out of place and it makes the control surfaces pull out of alignment. I might be able to do a better job of it if I used a single part as the fuselage. Protip for testing: throw the whole thing inside a fairing and slap an SRB underneath it. That'll save you the trouble of climbing slowly through the atmosphere. Looking forward to seeing it!

I'd rather have your submission than not! How about I do two separate leaderboards: one with infinite fuel/electricity, and one without?

I don't follow? I meant thrust with the engine plume pointed down.

Do I have to use wheels?

This one is pretty simple. Build a craft which can only gain altitude by aerodynamic lift and see how high you can sustain flight. Infinite fuel and infinite electricity are permitted on a separate leaderboard albeit with a 10% score penalty. It doesn't have to be a true helicopter, but the critical thing is that you cannot apply vertical with reaction engines at any point. Should be pretty common-sense. Note that the scoring is based on sustained altitude, not maximum altitude. Here's a quick-and-dirty example, just to show what can be done: Just a capsule and a bunch of reaction wheels with fins on the outside. 17.4 km and still climbing. EDIT: Made the rules a bit clearer/better. Leaderboard:

I'll try this.