camacju

STS 1a and 1b: This craft is inspired by the Reaction Engines Skylon. It can go SSTO with a sizeable payload by itself but that's not this challenge. So I added two side boosters, each with three Rapier engines and one Vector engine. The flight profile is pretty simple. As soon as the craft gets off the runway, I toggle the rockets just long enough to get to a speed where I can maintain level flight (~220 m/s or so). Then I keep the nose at 5 degrees until I reach about 750 m/s, at which point I pitch up to 15 degrees. (750 m/s is approximately where the Rapier engines reach maximum thrust). At 16 km I turn on the nuclear engines and the Vectors. The Vectors run out when I'm going about 1900 m/s. From here it's just the four nuclear engines pushing the rest of the way to orbit. In orbit! Difference of 42m between Ap and Pe. Note that I actually did this all on a single stage - I underestimated the amount of fuel held in the side boosters. Flight engineer Bill Kerman deploys the fuel pod This craft has quite an excessive amount of fuel remaining in orbit. I need to burn most of it off before I land. In hindsight I should have used drain valves. After some very responsible use of liquid hydrogen, the two kerbals return to Kerbin. Landed

https://imgur.com/a/26nvnxN I ended up using 1168 funds and recovering 11649 science, for 0.10 funds per science. Time to optimize and try again

Part 2 of the mission: Wow, Jool's moons have way more science than I was expecting. The second expedition got gravity assists from Eve and Kerbin before flying by Tylo, Laythe, Vall, and Pol. (I didn't have enough fuel to visit Bop). The second flight of the probe gained 7775 science, for a total so far of 11566.5 science. 1124 liters of liquid fuel have been used so far, and 170 liters of oxidizer. That's a total of 929.8 funds worth of fuel, for a value (so far) of 0.08 funds per science. I think I'll stop here and just return home. And I've realized that I can probably cut the expenditures in half or less, and get a super good ratio, by not bringing as much fuel and sticking just to these two expeditions. For example the probe only needed to be refueled once, which means that the SSTO itself can be made much smaller, etc.

Nah, a lab can be anywhere and process data anywhere, but you get a bonus for being in the same place

I'm trying a lab-less strategy right now which might take a while. I have a small cargo SSTO in low Kerbin orbit and an even smaller space probe that can run around the solar system and collect science. The Kerbin ascent used 984 liters of liquid fuel in order to deliver 1208 liters of liquid fuel, a space probe, and 968 liters of oxidizer into orbit. The space probe has capacity for 72 liters of liquid fuel and 88 liters of oxidizer, meaning that it can fly out 11 times before we need to return to Kerbin. The first expedition of the space probe flew by Mun, Minmus, Duna, and Ike. I have 3791.5 science currently and possibly 10 additional expeditions, and have expended 859.7 funds worth of liquid fuel and oxidizer. That's a current ratio of 0.22 funds per science, and the initial fuel expenditure will be amortized way down once I fly more expeditions.

Honestly I think the best way to do this is with the mobile science lab in LKO, a fuel tank, and a small efficient probe. The probe flies around, could even go interplanetary, collecting science and bringing it back to the lab, where it's multiplied before being transmitted back home

I used solar panels for my liquid fuel Jool 5 mission since I wasn't using electric props. I think that for the spirit of the challenge, any electricity used for propulsion has to be generated with a Nerv, but any electricity not used for propulsion doesn't need to.

https://imgur.com/a/c6dqdzW 170 science gained. Since this was a SSTO mission with no parts lost, the only costs are fuel costs. The mission used 165 liters of liquid fuel which costs 0.8 funds per liter, and 101 liters of oxidizer which costs 0.18 funds per liter. Total mission cost is 150 funds, for 0.88 funds per science. @DRAG0Nmon Am I calculating this correctly?

Hmm... I bet I can get under 1 fund per science, let's see what happens

@Helvica_Ring_Scientist Is this submission acceptable? Because of the docking it's a bit hard to tell exactly which ship does the landing. But in my opinion, the inner system ship lands on Moho, Eve, and Gilly; the Kerbin ship lands on Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus; the middle system ship lands on Eeloo, Dres, Duna, and Ike; and the Jool ship lands on the five moons of Jool.

When? I'm pretty sure he didn't do Eve with Nerv only. Same with Tylo

If ore is converted to LF only when used I think it should count. Also what you're describing is a turborocket design (I think), which won't work at Eve surface because the Nerv doesn't generate enough thrust. I think that Nerv powered electric props are the only way to go here.

@ralanboyle If I don't have DLC, could I make a DLC-less prop and try to get as fast as possible?

hehe @ralanboyle will be next

That's pretty much what I was thinking. ISRU+Nerv to make an electric generator so you'd only need one. Then stage batteries with a prop plane. You'd probably only need two stages of batteries before the props top out, at which point you'd light the nuclear engines and return to orbit. Not sure if I could do this challenge because I'm bad at making stock props and I don't have breaking ground, so I'd have to come up with some other way to do it.

Does fairing occlusion count as part clipping? The fairing is going around the outside of the fuel tanks rather than through them

I don't have DLC sorry

https://streamable.com/trowtq With a bit of lateral thinking, I got this nuclear powered waverider all the way up to 25780 m/s under 50 km. https://imgur.com/a/3qiPMQ6 Here's an imgur album detailing the first part of the challenge and to prove that all the rules were met. The mothership has four rapier engines and is a single stage. At 20 km, the waverider is dropped and continues the rest of the way to orbit. *** Some time later, the waverider arrives back at Kerbin with 21 km/s of relative velocity, at which point it expends the 4500 m/s it has remaining and speeds through the top part of the atmosphere. It doesn't spend long enough in the atmosphere for heating to have an effect.

Oh noooo I misread the rule ): Ok I'll try again. And yes launch cost is 8229 Well dang now I gotta try to reduce cost further, somehow.

https://imgur.com/a/S0T3qRz Same craft, same ascent profile, but launching with 10 fewer units of liquid fuel. Net launch cost 120.07 funds Since this is reusable, the only cost is fuel cost. For the jet phase this is determined by drag and heat. For the rocket phase this is determined by mass. This means that there are a couple possible optimizations to capitalize on: -Make the fairing narrower while still occluding all the key parts (reduce mass and potentially reduce fairing drag) -Figure out how to manage without the control surface at the front and use reaction wheel torque for everything -Replace the small wings with basic fins (but this could run into heat problems at the end of jet phase) -Get more speed out of the jet somehow (same problem) -Find a more efficient ascent profile (this is limited by the fact that you want to be facing directly prograde as much as possible to minimize drag, so the entire ascent profile is dictated by the first ~10 seconds of flight)

Here's my submission for lowest recovery cost, with a net cost of 123.44 funds to bring a kerbal from the KSC, to orbit, and back to the KSC. Cost in VAB is 8229 funds, with 8105.5 recovered. Ascent profile is pretty simple. Hold pitch up until you're pointed up 25 degrees. At 550 m/s set SAS to prograde. When the jet flames out, activate the spark. When apoapsis is above 70 km, cut throttle and circularize at 70 km. https://imgur.com/a/fciAuAH Note: Since I land at the runway I get 100% recovery value, so the only cost is fuel cost. 129.89 liquid fuel used, and 108.53 oxidizer used.

https://imgur.com/a/Hb0K424 Kerbal can get out and back in on Tylo and Laythe. On Tylo this is due to the fact that in 1.11, Kerbals can jump higher. On Laythe this is pretty straightforward

Yeah the kerbal can get out, then jump back up to re-board the lander, or just walk up to it for the Laythe lander. The problem was that I only had one flag

Sure that's fine But in your original post there's nothing about needing to plant a flag - just land on the moons and return

Alternatively you could use a Nerv as an electrical generator and power a prop that way