The Great Kerbal Space Race

[Kemp_J]

Of course, the problem with being in sandbox for this challenge is that I need to use the rest of the week to grind out the rest of the tech in my career mode, otherwise I'm going to be way behind for the next challenge.

[ticalc2014]

Of course, the problem with being in sandbox for this challenge is that I need to use the rest of the week to grind out the rest of the tech in my career mode, otherwise I'm going to be way behind for the next challenge.

Funny you should mention that, because I'm about to start a new career (or pick up where I left off on the first challenge from my backup). It bothers me that I've only landed on Minmus and Mun, and I'm nearly on day 49. I just got lazy and decided not to multi-task, so I time-warped through several days, had my EVA transfer lose science due to a game crash, went back to Minmus again, and here we are. I can probably cut the time in half, anyway, if I get several missions going at once and also focus on science around Kerbin. But first, I will attempt to beat your top speed in this career, as I have the tech, and have been burning through my cash reserves on failed attempts. I hope to see some updated results tonight, even if I come up short.

[ticalc2014]

I've developed a hybrid approach to this whole speed challenge. Establish a craft that is capable of reaching a stable top speed, then strap a booster to the front of it. Max out your top speed, then decouple and fire the SRB. With that, I establish a new record, and the potential to explore further speeds. 1384.1 m/s + 1482.0 m/s = 1433.0 m/s avg. My speed would have been better if I didn't lose control during the SRB burn, but that will be something to work on in future attempts. Without further ado, meet the "Afterburner".

Edited May 22, 2015 by ticalc2014

[Kemp_J]

Very nice I did consider a hybrid approach, but I'm a simple man.

I had a massive problem with maintaining level flight, but it seems like you've got that nailed so you're beating me in many different ways at this point. My video doesn't really show it because I started low and allowed the plane to climb through that (and got lucky that I didn't get too close to 20km before finishing), but in prior attempts I was trying to stay close to 20km and was constantly needing manual inputs. It wouldn't even think about levelling off, it would just immediately flick past level and straight into the other direction. That had the unfortunate side effect of shedding a whole lot of speed every time it switched from down to up or vice versa. Probably losing the front winglets at the start of each run didn't help matters.

Edited May 22, 2015 by Kemp_J

[TinyPirate]

Wow, some pretty impressive speed work there!

[ticalc2014]

Very nice I did consider a hybrid approach, but I'm a simple man.

I had a massive problem with maintaining level flight, but it seems like you've got that nailed so you're beating me in many different ways at this point. My video doesn't really show it because I started low and allowed the plane to climb through that (and got lucky that I didn't get too close to 20km before finishing), but in prior attempts I was trying to stay close to 20km and was constantly needing manual inputs. It wouldn't even think about levelling off, it would just immediately flick past level and straight into the other direction. That had the unfortunate side effect of shedding a whole lot of speed everything time it switched from down to up or vice versa. Probably losing the front winglets at the start of each run didn't help matters.

'

Those front winglets make a HUGE difference! I played around with my wings trying to get the center of lift closer to center of mass and all that, but couldn't get anything to fly level. I finally thought to throw those on there and play around with that center of lift, and all of a sudden, I'd barely have to do anything once I reach cruising altitude. They really do make the difference, keeping it flying almost perfectly level, and preventing the cockpit from spinning out of control when firing the SRB.

[Kemp_J]

'

Those front winglets make a HUGE difference! I played around with my wings trying to get the center of lift closer to center of mass and all that, but couldn't get anything to fly level. I finally thought to throw those on there and play around with that center of lift, and all of a sudden, I'd barely have to do anything once I reach cruising altitude. They really do make the difference, keeping it flying almost perfectly level, and preventing the cockpit from spinning out of control when firing the SRB.

They seemed to have the lowest heat tolerance of any part on my plane. Maybe it's because I used the fancy ones. Kind of annoying that the assembly interface doesn't list max temperatures for parts (unless I missed something in the new UI?).

[ticalc2014]

Which winglets were you using? The deluxe winglets were working fine for me, as they only have the little flaps that cut into the air, so they should take on less heat than the AV-R8 albeit with less control as only part of the winglet is providing control. It could be that the constant fight to stay level is causing additional heating in the control surfaces. If you can get your center of lift and center of mass to balance out better (COL just a tiny bit behind COM in my case) and get control surfaces to survive on the front, and back, it will make for a much easier time remaining level and building speed.

[Kemp_J]

Which winglets were you using? The deluxe winglets were working fine for me, as they only have the little flaps that cut into the air, so they should take on less heat than the AV-R8 albeit with less control as only part of the winglet is providing control. It could be that the constant fight to stay level is causing additional heating in the control surfaces. If you can get your center of lift and center of mass to balance out better (COL just a tiny bit behind COM in my case) and get control surfaces to survive on the front, and back, it will make for a much easier time remaining level and building speed.

I thought I was using the advanced canard, but it turns out I'm using the AV-R8. My COL and COM seem ok (actually they seem to be better placed once the winglets are gone), but I guess actual flying of the plane is better evidence than guessing from the markers. I'm going to concede this one to you

[TinyPirate]

And looking at the time entries are closed and I will start working on the next video once I get my next mod video out shortly. If folks want to squeeze an entry in, they likely have 24 hours to do so. Thanks Ticalc and Kemp for having a go!

[ticalc2014]

Established a new speed record in the very early stages of my career. I went to my backup from the first challenge, and really focused on building funds, recovering science, and carrying on several missions at once. After unlocking the "Supersonic Flight" node, I performed several parts tests, and low and behold, up pops (Test the "Whiplash" engine) contract! Several Munar landings for my tourists had afforded me some expendable funds, so I went for it. Just before the end of the 8th day, Valentina splashed down from her new, high-speed record run, having attained 1392.6 m/s during the jet engine burn, and topping out at 1550.6 m/s during the SRB "Afterburner" stage, bringing her 1-minute run (1:07 to 2:07 in the video) to a blistering 1471.6 m/s!

Edited May 25, 2015 by ticalc2014

[TinyPirate]

That really is pretty phenomenal. Well done!

[Kemp_J]

Wow, dominating this round

[ticalc2014]

You know what they say, "Go big or go home!". Since I already had the backup, I figured it would be fun to see just how fast I could get to that stage of the career. I still have plenty of tech to unlock before I'm truly that far along, but I only focused on getting to "Supersonic Flight" to gain the ability to unlock the "Whiplash" when I built enough science. If I didn't get the part test contract for it, I could have unlocked it in a day or so, if I keep declining contracts until I got "Visual survey of Kerbin" or "Temperature scan on Kerbin" type contracts, and had Valentina fly around completing them with a basic jet. Now I don't know what to do, as I have 11 flights in progress, 4 to Minmus, another 6 to Mun, and a satellite waiting on it's final burn, but every node is 3+ hours out, and my last available contract cycled around to "Explore Duna". It'll be easy enough to get there, at this point, I'd just rather not spend money hiring new astronauts when I've got 3 around the Mun to rescue, so Valentina, Bill, and Bob are all I have available. It may be time to try to recover science from the surface of Kerbin, while I wait, as I don't want to get too many more missions running. That or keep up the pace I'm going, and add Kerbal Alarm Clock. Decisions, decisions.

[TinyPirate]

OK! So the video is done for the second challenge:

Ticalc and Kemp - it was fun watching you guys go at it neck-and-neck for a week, but Ticalc pulled off a victory in the end, well done!

For the next challenge - let's see your largest, most massive SSTO ever. Build a Single Stage to Orbit craft. It MUST be flying on jet engines sub-20k, and then you can kick the rockets on and zoom up to orbit. We're aiming to get the LARGEST spaceplanes known to Kerbalkind up into orbit - so a shot in the VAB or SPH show craft mass would be good, as would any shots or video of the trip up to orbit, along with a shot in orbit. Submit your entries on the forum thread.

The date to get entries in by is Midnight PST - 3 June.

I'll probably make this the last challenge as it has been fun but we're running out of competitors!

Edited May 26, 2015 by TinyPirate

[Kemp_J]

I got a 150 tonne plane into vacuum and splashed down mostly intact, no way it was going to establish an orbit though and a water landing doesn't make for a very reusable plane. Definitely going to need a different design.

[TinyPirate]

150t! That is pretty impressive!

[ticalc2014]

Sorry, I've been busy lately, and haven't had much time to work on this challenge. I've also never done any form of SSTO, and apparently, am very bad at it. I wish the challenges had drawn more interest, and we could have kept this going longer. Thanks for the first few, though, I liked having a reason to really push and see how quickly something could be done in a new career, as I usually get lazy, and do one mission at a time, with a lot of time-warping, but the multitasking added an extra layer of difficulty, trying to plan multiple launches, figure out which tourists to pair off such that contracts could be fulfilled efficiently, etc. I never had any reason to leave enough fuel to get into Munar orbit, back to orbit around Kerbin, and then off to establish an orbit around Minmus before finally returning to solid ground, until I decided to try a time-efficient approach, brought on by the "early in career mode" aspect from the high-speed challenge.

[TinyPirate]

Thanks for the note! I still can't record this for a couple of days so I am happy to take a late entry - even sandbox would be great. Just post if you get around to it.

[Kemp_J]

Sorry about not getting an entry in yet, been pretty busy myself (and also there have been more than a few failed runs).