iplop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_XI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice#Phases Water cannot be compressed in liquid form, however, it can be compressed into other forms.

I'll probably re-tweak this ship/post the requirements later but this is my go-to spaceplane:

Total mass = 0.82 Max altitude = 130 m Max speed = 34.1 m/s And as you can see, the max altitude is higher than the launch clamp, so it can fly forever. Welp, I think you win the thread. A lighter ship isn't possible.

Does this count? Total mass= 1.16

Very interesting challenge! I may take you up on this one.

Here's a two of my favorite 'gliders': I went to the north pole with this one ;D Both of those are rather old. I haven't messed with canard powered flight in quite some time. Tip: ASAS = autoflap Edit_1: Here's one I just made(Finally broke my speed record!): The trick to taking off without blowing up is: climb to ~10k m altitude before ramping up the speed too much. From there, gradually lower your altitude until you're up to speed. Unfortunately I accidentally retracted the landing gear while landing and crashed. :/ File if anyone wants it(it's rather simple): [ATTACH]32788[/ATTACH] And none of my gliders count since they're either old screencaps without the correct screenshots or derped landings. ;D

I made it back to Kerbin using SRBs! : D And it only took two tries to get the trajectory right! Edit: I should've gone to the arch.. It's right there (first 2 screenshots). I didn't realize it was so close.

I tried several attempts at that without success. I think the issue is that the jet-engines don't function at a high enough altitude to make establishing orbit via a tangential trajectory feasible. Air resistance is just too much to overcome at the engine's reasonable flight ceiling. I'd say that's realistic.

Thanks! Unfortunately it's definitely been done before (I'm pretty bad at detecting sarcasm online -not sure if that was genuine or not). The video "whatisthisidonteven" posted includes lots of nifty tricks. Such as: helicoptering down with canards instead of using a parachute. :> He also uses a method for wasting thrust that I wasn't able to copy. I read elsewhere that it's the same method glider pilots (real life) use to hold position when their visibility is poor.

All this talk of impossible annoyed me so I went ahead and landed a pure SRB lander. ;D Completely stock, no CFG edits: Arch is in the lower left portion of this photo: It landed completely intact but on its side(this took many quick-loads to accomplish). Now I need to decide if I'll try again from my save, end the mission for the stats, or try to continue onward. :/ Edit: Apparently I'm near the arch. :> Edit_2: To save and try more drastic measures for righting my craft or to try again... Edit_3: Got it!!! Without having to try for another landing! -will work on getting it back to kerbin tomorrow (will 4 SRBs be enough? O.o) Here's the file if anyone wants it: [ATTACH]32760[/ATTACH] (it's just a really old design of mine with an SRB lander slapped on top) Edit_4: Here's the strategy I used: 1) Rounded off Munar orbit at ~100k m altitude 2) When over where I wanted to land I performed a retrograde burn until I was falling straight down 3) Ejected the liquid stage when my transition to a straight fall was complete (~70-80k m altitude) 4) As you can tell by one of my pics, I originally intended to use the 4 outside SRBs to decelerate. This didn't work out (too powerful) so I ended up switching them around mid-fall 5) I brute forced the exact altitude to engage the landing SRB (turned out to be roughly 7,150m altitude)

50,492m! : D The rest of the pics: http://imgur.com/a/vcClj The craft file is pretty much the same as the last one only every fuel tank is double stacked with jet engines(one more half-size fuel tank added as well). Edit: Here's the craft file if anyone wants it: [ATTACH]32754[/ATTACH]

Congrats on getting that thing to orbit! I was completely unable to control it faster than 175m/s. ;D Orbiting that was easily 99% of the work. Making the cube only took a few minutes. Both the cube I made(DL the file and see for yourself) and his rocket appear to be stock. Edit: ah, my bad. ;D

Here's a rather large cube I made if anyone wants to try to get it into orbit: Outside: Inside: On launchpad for scale: File:[ATTACH]32701[/ATTACH] I give up. :/ Feel free give it a try!

I'll have to revise my design. O.o Anyways, 45,485m altitude Turns out fins for helicoptering down are lighter than a parachutes. Edit: 49,002m altitude! The ring of engines near the center are double stacked (engines mounted on the top + bottom). Emptying the tanks: Hairy landing; my fins broke: The ship file: [ATTACH]32700[/ATTACH]

43,064m altitude! No RCS, etc. Went Straight up. It was surprisingly stable. Here's the ship: [ATTACH]32689[/ATTACH] (stock)

Does this count? I went straight up 'till I reached ~26k m, then used RCS to do the rest. Unfortunately I wasted 4 RCS tanks trying for orbital insertion. It could definitely go higher. That was a really lazy build. Other folks can definitely do better.

Also, in my testing, RCS was not nearly strong enough to control a helicopter. It's official, you win the thread! ;D

Woops, I read 1200km at a glance. You're right, that would require many tanks of fuel. *Should read more carefully before posting*

Sure about those numbers? I just went 45% around kerbin using only 1/3 of my fuel (6 tanks). I quit when I realized it'd take me ~45 minutes. ;D Edit: I completely misread the post I quoted.

Complaining about realism while designing a helicopter that jettisons its rotors into cradles is a tad silly, no? Proof that these designs aren't so unrealistic: What you came up with is extremely interesting and I'd love to see it work but don't put down the other submissions just because yours didn't fly.

Awesome helicopter and ingenious use of parachutes! Edit: My goal was to make a similar ship while cutting the piece count. Those parachutes work great! -Will post more pics once the mission is finished. Flight ceiling/decent: http://imgur.com/a/eSTMf Unfortunately the parachutes decided to release 3/4 of the way down. I'll give it another go later. Edit_2:

Here's a stock go-anywhere rover concept I've been playing with: (it rolls sideways) I'm not sure about its performance on the Mun but it can go ~13-14m/s on kerbin (also untippable). -Could probably meet most of your requirements if modified properly. Edit: To answer your other question: The "How To" forum would probably be the best fit for this thread.

Yes, you can make a helicopter without using canards/control surfaces!

My two stock heli experiments: Rockets are mounted completely horizontally on both helis. Neither of them had happy landings... ;D

My PC is rather choked by its CPU. What kind of performance hit can I expect from this addon (how costly is it CPU-wise)?