SSTO Rocket Division League

[ghostbuzzer7]

Welcome to the 2015 - 2016 SSTO Rocket Division League! Our engineers have worked overtime yet haven't made a single SSTO since Kerbin's atmosphere has drastically changed due to global warming of course... Any how your mission is to build a rocket that is an SSTO. Harder than it sounds . Anyways, I know the community is going to try to search up designs and so if you use either this design or this one, expect to be DQed (Because it has to be authentically yours).

Heres the catch for all you people trying to jump to conclusions. You are NOT permitted to use the Turbojet, Basicjet, or the RAPIER Engine. Any submissions that have this will also be DQed.

Leaderboards:

1. cybersol 1:47 *Slap on them boosters*

2. RocketPropelledGiraffe 1:59 *Old 1960 Rockets is my specialty*

3. Foxster 2:45 *violating Aerodynamics Daily*

4. WOLVSAid 4:23 *In Mainsails we trust *

5. SkyRender 5:29 *Cant get simpler, Low Tech*

6. Jakalth 12:04 *Atleast I Can Lift... Can you?*

General Rules:

1. No cheats (Because some of you like to defy that if not stated)
   
2. No RAPIER, Turbojet, or basicjet.
   
3. Stock ONLY
   
4. You must have a command pod on it of choice
   
5. Must have a sustainable orbit above 70 x 70km
   
6. YOU MUST Have 3 screenshots: At the launch pad, in flight, and f3 mode in orbit. *Minimum*
   
7. Have fun
   

*If I missed any rules or you need clarification, ASK*

Scoring:

How fast you can get into an orbit of kerbin. Time will count as your main goal to prevent low-burning rockets. Remember you got to go fast

Proof of Concept: *Cannot use this design*

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Good luck to all who participate

Edited May 25, 2015 by ghostbuzzer7

[Hotaru]

Any requirement to be able to return?

[ghostbuzzer7]

Any requirement to be able to return?

You dont need to return back into atmosphere. That would be way too hard and you would probably not have the Delta-V to retrograde back into atmosphere and land relatively near KSC. So no, just get into orbit

[Jakalth]

Maybe I should submit my newest creation for this? It's a self launching freighter that uses a single stage to reach orbit, by definition, an ssto. Does a mass of just shy of 800 tons have bonus points?(since it is a slow craft to get into orbit)

[ghostbuzzer7]

Maybe I should submit my newest creation for this? It's a self launching freighter that uses a single stage to reach orbit, by definition, an ssto. Does a mass of just shy of 800 tons have bonus points?(since it is a slow craft to get into orbit)

Haven't really thought of an alternative scoring but Im sure I can figure something out to accommodate this. In the meantime, bring it in

[WOLVSAid]

Hey guys, Here's my attempt, I think I over cooked the rocket but it was very easy since the aerodynamic drag model has been fixed in 1.0

[Jakalth]

The Jak MS-03 Clarksen is a single stage to orbit freighter/mother ship I plan to use for playing around with long range planetary transfers. This craft can fly to orbit in a single stage, only needing to shed the extra mass once orbit has been achieved, for transfer efficiency and ease of cargo docking. This does make it a true ssto by definition. It was interesting actually documenting the flight of the Clarksen since it is a fairly hands on craft to fly and requires a less efficient flight profile. It's flight was not a fast one though so it will not top any of the speed run boards. But weighing in at 796.6tons at launch, you can't expect a lot of speed.

The only mods I have are Kerbal Engineer and Stage Recovery(which is broken at the moment...). Whether or not this disqualifies this craft is up to the host of this challenge. Note: though I use KER, I do not have any of the custom parts installed on the rocket. Ker is running in sandbox mode, so it does not need them.

796.6tons, 12 Nerv engines, 2 Mommoths, and a Mainsail, all run in a single stage craft with the engines in different groups so they can be toggled.

The Bumbling Flight of the MS-03 Clarksen.

Download if interested: MS-03 Clarksen

p.s: Does anyone know if you can link entire Photobucket albums directly to the forums, as pictures, like you can with IMGUR?

Edited May 23, 2015 by Jakalth

[SkyRender]

It doesn't actually take that much to make an SSTO in 1.0.2, honestly. Even confined to rocket engines, the KISS principle applies.

What does KISS mean? Keep It Simple, Stupid! And in that spirit, here is a 14-part ultralight SSTO rocket. I call it It's Not Rocket Science.

The real trick to this thing is an efficient ascent profile.

It can easily get into a stable orbit, and well beyond in fact.

Overall it took around 5m30s to get to orbit, which is pretty standard with a decent profile. I could have been slightly more aggressive and still made it (there's still 400m/s or so of dV after circularization).

And of course, a beauty shot to show that it did in fact arrive in orbit with nothing dropped.

[Foxster]

2:45.

[RocketPropelledGiraffe]

Made it to orbit in 2:30.

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I actually messed up my launch profile and it took longer than necessary - c'est la vie.

You can propably go faster if you are a better pilot, I had trouble to control the rocket since I had to push the nose down all the time - the gravity did not do it fast enough with this short, high TWR rocket.

Ghostbuzzer, maybe clarify in the rules that the heating effects must not be deactivated for the flight.

Edit: Great, I actually messed up my album and and managed to delete the flight summary screenshot. I guess I have to give it another go, as a placeholder I inserted an orbiting screen at MET 2:34.

Edited May 23, 2015 by RocketPropelledGiraffe

[ghostbuzzer7]

Made it to orbit in 2:30.

http://imgur.com/a/lWE2W

I actually messed up my launch profile and it took longer than necessary - c'est la vie.

You can propably go faster if you are a better pilot, I had trouble to control the rocket since I had to push the nose down all the time - the gravity did not do it fast enough with this short, high TWR rocket.

Ghostbuzzer, maybe clarify in the rules that the heating effects must not be deactivated for the flight.

That comment is clearly emphasized with no cheats I will be adding everyone's score soon. Just be patient everyone.

[RocketPropelledGiraffe]

MY second attempt was a lot better than expected, Mike Kerman is an excellent pilot!

I made it into orbit in just under two minutes, 1:59!

Same rocket, same general launch profile, same antiradial burning to raise the periapsis as fast as possible.

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[ghostbuzzer7]

MY second attempt was a lot better than expected, Mike Kerman is an excellent pilot!

I made it into orbit in just under two minutes, 1:59!

Same rocket, same general launch profile, same antiradial burning to raise the periapsis as fast as possible.

http://imgur.com/a/DNe67

Ohh very nice. Update for leaderboards at 5:00 PM EST. Thats when I will be posting up scores. but very unique. It looks like a martian rocket

Edited May 23, 2015 by ghostbuzzer7

[ghostbuzzer7]

Sorry about that guys, I was at a party... leaderboards will be updated now.

[cybersol]

Here is my entry "Lightning"... 11 parts of awesome. Final time was 1:47.

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Cheers,

CyberSoul

[RocketPropelledGiraffe]

Kudos to you!

I see you basically had the same flight profile as myself, but with more TWR. Was overheating any issue at all? I never got the temperature bars in my attempt, which basically means you can go a lot faster with more thrust.

I am now really motivated to see if 1:30 or less is possible with SSTO.

[cybersol]

Yeah, I was surprised that at faster speeds this challenge turned out to be about 80% piloting and 20% engineering. Overheating was a issue, but I had prior experience from the 30 second challenge on which parts to avoid. I did have to fiddle with the nose section once to make it more robust, but this version can stand absolutely massive amounts of heat.

I'm pretty sure that 1:35 is definitely possible even with simple rockets, but I reached my patience limits with this one for now.

[Dman Revolution]

I don't have the f3 up, but i have KE and it lands back on kerbin after releasing the payload...

(40t max payload to orbit & landing)

idk if thats any good

http://imgur.com/a/YYExF#0