help needed to put class C asteroid back in orbit

[Irvin]

Hi

I got this crazy idea to put back in orbit a 12 tons class C asteroid. It is near the runway at KSC I've tried many planes or rocket designs but the best I could achieve never got higher than 6000m.

Do you have any idea ? I've been trying to do that for three weeks but now I'm out of ideas.

I'm using KSP 1.0 with no mods.

Thanks !

Edited May 3, 2015 by Irvin

[Irvin]

Ok I finally did it !

I used a rocket, I couldn't manage to get a plane flying into orbit with such a payload.

My best plane design was this, the highest altitude it could climb to was only 6000m:

I'm using a small dedicated rover to move the asteroid on the KSC runway and attach it to my planes/rockets:

So I gave up with planes and switched to rockets and it was much easier this way, I used a Kerbodyne S3 14400 as a counterweight, the rocket design is very basic with asparagus staging, it has tons of reaction wheels and RCS thrusters but nothing more:

I launched from the runway as it was easier to move the asteroid on a flat ground.

I had A LOT of failed attempts:

The most difficult part was to find the right balance of fuel to move in the counterweight to be able to control the rocket at high speed. The rock drags like hell and I was a bit stupid to put an aerodynamic top on the counterweight but finally I found the right amount of fuel to move into the counterweight:

I'm no Scott Manley and it was very difficult to control this thing:

I even had to move back some fuel at high altitude as the rocket was pitching down, believe me it's not easy at all to click on the fuel tanks while keeping this thing on its trajectory !

It starts to look good:

And finally, my orbit sucks but I did it !

Maybe it's useless to put an asteroid back in orbit but I'm very proud of what I did

Do you think it would be worth to start a challenge about this to see what other people can do ?

[Skorpychan]

That, I suppose, is the recourse when people refuse to make with the funds for landing an asteroid because you didn't redirect it. Back it goes!