cmfarsight

while I agree that that is not an actual pay load it gives a true representation of what the lifter is capable of as at the end of the day mass is mass, you can swap out fuel for probe parts but its still mass. assuming I am not missing something that is.

We all know that efficiency is king ("yes Jeb SRB's are king to") and higher is just better because well its higher. I therefore propose a challenge to create a vessel that can get at least a 20 tonne payload to a 200km orbit with the highest payload mass factor possible. Payload mass factor is the starting mass of the vessel divided the final mass in orbit, to find these out there a load of mods that will do it ie mech jeb Rules are very simple Minimum payload is 20 tonnes ie the vessel in orbit must weigh at least 20 tonnes Orbit must be a 200km circular orbit. No modded engines or fuel tanks To enter post a pic on the ground and one in orbit along with their respective weights and payload mass factor Winner will be whoever has the highest mass factor, draws will be settled with who has the heaviest vessel I will keep a running leader board here assuming this doesn't die in the next 5 min Here is a craft to start us off so a starting weight of 251.76 tonnes Final weight of 57.72 tonnes Giving a pay load mass factor of 57.72/251.76= 22.9%

landing a rover on eve, swapped out the heavy landing legs for the mediums on my standard rover delivery vehicle to save fuel, 1k up form the surface realized that the legs did not reach past the bottom of the nuclear engines I was using, also found out that the nuclear engines attachment to the fuel tanks is rather weak.