Help me find a solution to this early game mission

[Kebra]

Test Rockomax Mark 55

Radial Mount Liquid Engine

in flight over Kerbin

Note:

Kerbin

Flying

Alt: 2100m to 5800m

Spd: 490m/s to 890m/s

Sounds easy enough right? I call myself a pretty experienced player but i simply cant figure out what to do here.

Achieving those speeds before 5800 meters seems impossible.

I BACCs and RT10's currently give me the best thrust to weight ratio. But even strapping 4 RT10's on the back and flying in a 45' angle to maximise time before height doesn't work. I'm near it, i achieve the speed at about 6500 meters.

Flying in a lower angle is very difficult due to the bad maneouvability of boosters.

Any thoughts or ideas? Remember, this is an entry level mission. I'm doing it at the same time as my 56.000m mission.

[eddiew]

Guess you don't have an option to stick wings on it and fly horizontal?

How about... do it on the way down from apoapsis? As in turn over, point at the ground, hit the SRBs? You'd have all of ten seconds to do the staging, decouple, and get your pod off the rocket

[Jovus]

There are a couple of possibilities.

Most 'obvious' would be to make it some sort of plane, probably utilizing RT-10s for the thrust and (if you don't have landing gear) putting it on the runway with a lauch stability enhancer to allow takeoff.

Perhaps easier would be to do this backwards, i.e. on the way down. Launch a very streamlined rocket, send it up to ~30km with SRBs, then with rockets on both ends manage the descent speed so that it is going that fast in that envelope.

[EtherDragon]

One thing to try is to use the tweakables of your boosters and reduce their thrust by a bit for better control. Another thing to try is rather than radially mounting radial boosters, mount the boosters as linear stages.

[Pecan]

...Any thoughts or ideas? Remember, this is an entry level mission. I'm doing it at the same time as my 56.000m mission.

You took the contract at the same time, but it probably has a deadline a long time in the future (most have) so there's no need to DO it at the same time. Shelve it for now, until you have wings.

[moronwrocket]

Can't you mount more than one of the test article to your vehicle? Put a bunch around a liquid-fueled 1st stage to get a ridiculous TWR. Around 3 looks about right to hit those speeds? And then leave 2 in a separate staging group to meet your contract. (2 to make it symmetric)

[Kryxal]

When I want to use engines to set up their own test, I toggle them on then stage when conditions are met. For this mission, I'd use a basic jet ... leave it for later if you can afford the slot being filled.

[Superfluous J]

Yup, it's all about the wings. All you need is that one tech node with all the starter plane stuff.

Except landing gear, of course. Just toss a bunch of parachutes on your plane and take off vertically.

[eddiew]

I'm curious to know whether any of these options worked now

[Kebra]

I'm curious to know whether any of these options worked now

I will give it a shot when i get back home.

Most of these seem like workarounds for a mission that might not be properly thought up. But i'm determined to get it done preferably without being stuck at only having 1 free mission slot for too long.

[eddiew]

Bear in mind that the game generates these contracts at random, sometimes with impractical mission parameters. On occasion you may just have to abandon one because after a bit of thought you realise it's simply too hard for your current tech level

[AlexinTokyo]

^This.

Choosing which contracts are profitable, or can be easily shoehorned into or combined with 'real' missions, and which are ridiculous (or outright impossible), is a pretty important skill.

This is especially true with limited tech available.

[Superfluous J]

Also with a plane that contract is doable, though you gotta be near the top height and lowest speed. It's "only" about 3 times terminal velocity (so helloooooo re-entry effects)