The K Prize - 100% reusable spaceplane to orbit and back

[Luovahulluus]

I got frustrated with my Eve rescue mission (seems like there are 4 kerbals stuck now, instead of the previous 3), so I figured I'd try to design my first SSTO. I only took one screen shot during my first successful SSTO flight. Not very informative, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I got it quite easily to a LKO and managed to crash it about a kilometer away from KSC, due to the pilot closing in on the the runway at double time warp and having his hand at a wrong place on the keyboard...

The next plane was basically the same, except I added the Kerbal Engineer chip, changed the single LV-T30 to two nukes and two turbo jets to a single one. I also added one control surface to keep the lift and weight in balance. 50 parts. As you more experienced plane pilots can probably guess, it didn't go up very fast.

At T+21:35 I was at 30000, still powered only by the single Turbojet. I did have the same nine air intakes as in the previous version, so you could say it's pretty air-hogged. Around 31000 I fired up the nukes to get more speed.

At 49km I'm keeping just enough thrust to keep my Apoapsis between 80 and 100km. The Jet still hasn't flamed out.

Made it to the orbit, yay!

Still plenty of fuel left, so let's go a little further

As you can see by the numbers on the right, this is a low Mun orbit. Still some fuel left...

Minmus orbit... Now it's time to head home.

When I got to Kerbin, everything seemed very foggy...

And things got even stranger when I got closer to the... I don't know what I got close to.

Then I suddenly exploded...

I woke up in my cockpit and realized it had only been a terrible dream... I decided to go for a completely unpowered landing.

No fuel used on landing . This thing glides a lot better than my kethane powered VTOL Eve plane.

It's terribly underpowered in atmosphere, but other than that, it flies great

[goduranus]

Are slipstream engines allowed? I think this would be a good replacement for a jet engine, at least on planets without oxygen. Like Duna.

http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/7-12-2014/2LWSiH.gif

damn how did you make that!

[Overfloater]

are slipstream engines allowed? I think this would be a good replacement for a jet engine, at least on planets without oxygen. Like duna eve.

explain. explain. explain!

;-)

[boolybooly]

hebdomad, hi again, the very second post in this historic thread is yours so we can safely say you were in from the start. Welcome back and thanks for your mission report on Ve Gemini, which has undubitably won the K-Prize with an Advanced Pilot Precision Award for landing at KSC runway.

Overfloater, congratulations on ticket No7 to the K-Prize party, awarded for the mission depicted for the carefully honed "Plane". Yet another expeditionary utilitarial distinction with advanced pilot precision award. I am assuming the montage was a mission report for the K-Prize and followed the rules. Let me know if I assumed too much.

Kaa253 welcome to the K- Prize and thanks for your mission report video for Zond. Congratulations on completing the K-Prize challenge with flying colours and landing safely at KSC runway for which the mission is awarded an Advanced Pilot Precision Award.

Luovahulluus thanks for your mission report and congratulations on completing the K-Prize and earning a Kosmokerbal Commendation for visiting Mün and Minmus with your unnamed SSTO. Let me know if you have a name for it. Welcome to the K-Prize party.

[Laie]

Submission:

http://ksp.schnobs.de/k-prize/gallery.html

(man, how do I embed a non-imgur gallery?)

I'm too lazy to dock this just for the sake of the K-Prize. Once docked, it won't undock until Laythe. However, there will be a decidedly non-stock tanker doing several fuel runs before Jool-5 gets going. May I submit this as well, for a combined Precision Award 1st Class?

[boolybooly]

You can submit what you want Laie, its hard to know what you are talking about without illustrations however if a craft piggy backs on another craft or is refuelled in flight the mission counts as a gate crasher.

Thanks for your gallery submission above, the images in the gallery appear to show two successful missions one which ended after landing safely and stopping intact on Kerbin's shores and then the craft then fell apart due to entering water too rapidly and one which also *presumably* achieved orbit though its not shown but the burn node for achieving orbit is shown plotted (please correct me if I am wrong), and then returned to land on KSC runway and earn an Advanced Pilot Precision Award fairly and squarely. So congratulations on succeeding in completing the K-Prize and welcome to the guest list for the party at the Dog and Booster!

Edited July 16, 2014 by boolybooly

[Laie]

You can submit what you want Laie, its hard to know what you are talking about without illustrations

Nevermind. Having earned my badge, I should leave good enough alone.

images in the gallery appear to show two successful missions [...]

Ah, maybe I should have added a few more words to explain it. The vessel is part of my Jool-5 package. The need to test it provided the opportunity to finally apply for the K-Prize. The first run was a failure with regards to the actual mission goals. I didn't document the second run as well because of been-there-done-that; I actually completeted two orbits before that tundra lake came my way. Mission time and resource panel support that story.

Thank you very much for accepting my submission!

(btw: can I hotlink the badge or should I host it myself?)

Thanks again for accepting my submission.

[boolybooly]

(btw: can I hotlink the badge or should I host it myself?)

Thanks again for accepting my submission.

My pleasure, thanks for contributing to the thread. I hope other spaceplane makers will find your designs interesting.

As for hotlinking, all I can do is report imgur's opinion.

Most of all we would love for you to simply share Imgur with everyone you know and help to spread the word. We would also thank you kindly for linking to pages rather direct linking, not using ad-block while on the site (we are primarily ad-supported) and perhaps sporting any of the fun merchandise from our store.

[Overfloater]

Noooo...! :-O that wasn't an entry... :[

That was only an unrecorded(yay, high framerate) test flight with a dummy payload.

But this on the other hand is an entry :^]

Lowest part count I managed so far (695), and most flyable heavy-cargo ship ever:

Astroliner VIII "Nova", 20t payload to Laythe and

Astroliner VIII-C "Nova" 40t payload to Duna.

Absolutely stock gameplay, no refueling & other silly stuff like that, every single movement is documented.

2nd one has bigger fuel capacity, and weights 179 tons at start.

>.>

<.<

Do I get on of those Maximalist Records for that...?

Craft files

Edited July 17, 2014 by Overfloater

[SgtMook]

Lowest part count I managed so far (695)...

Holy Kraken, Overfloater, how's your frame rate holding up?

[kepicness]

I've been wondering, would it be acceptable to take off from kerbin, go to a planet, decouple a part of the ship (pander part), land, get back up in orbit, RECOUPLE with the other part, getting back to kerbin and landing the whole thing? Basically it's to avoid carrying the heavy transfer stage to orbit twice, and it's still part of the same ship since it reattaches afterwards (with docking ports).

[boolybooly]

kepicness, yes there is a precedent but the K-Prize mission accomplishments measure whole craft performance so only count while the craft is not separated. So lander separation in orbit means a Kosmokerbal Commendation for visiting orbit and if you leave the lander there then it is also a Utilitarial Commendation for payload to orbit (even if it lands).

Thanks for your video reports of your missions with Astroliner VIII (and VIII-C) Overfloater, the second of which does qualify as the maximalist record holder for version 0.23, proving the Astroliner is a behemoth, but considering the way she flies she must be expertly constructed. Glad to see the space truck make another appearance and this and the ingenious base antenna mast assembly process (on Laythe, top vid) and the Duna escape rocket preparation (on Duna, bottom vid) are also worth seeing. So that is two more tickets to the K-Prize party (that's 9 now) and two of the much sought after Expeditionary Utilitarial Distinctions plus two more of the highly regarded Advanced Pilot Precision Awards as well for landing at KSC runway and on/across the island base runway in a remarkably short stopping distance, along with plaudits from forum-wide acknowledged KSP behemoth spaceplane expert pa1983 which can't be bad. So congratulations, well played all and thanks for taking on the K-Prize challenge.

The first page is being reconstructed to reflect the arrival of version 0.24 which looks to be a very spaceplane friendly development. Many thanks to the team at Squad for their work.

Edited July 18, 2014 by boolybooly

[Box of Stardust]

While I wait for .24 to work for me, I got an album of my K-Prize entry mission from months ago done:

SSTO and Minmus landing and back. 99% stock. Only thing in there not stock is a MechJeb I used for info.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited July 18, 2014 by Box of Stardust

[dewin]

Man, I'm wishing I had saved images of my first (and only) successful SSTO from a few days ago.

Admittedly, it did lose parts: Both jet engines. At 65km. Somehow managed to glide to a safe landing from that altitude (there was no LFO for the nuke)...

[Luovahulluus]

My previous SSTO was missing a name. Let's call her Pre-Moth.

This is the next version. Her name is Moth.

She had a lot more power in the atmosphere, and was also able to land on Minmus. She also got back to Kerbin.

The next step was the Big-Moth. Three jets, two nukes and a rover for a payload.

When I first put this on the runway, for a second I thought it was upside down

Leaving Kerbin Orbit

Trying to get the rover down. Luckily the gravity is so low SAS can hold the plane in this position.

This rover handles the best on Minmus out of every rover I've had there. It's COG is very low. It's still easy to flip over, we are still talking about Minmus here... Highlands was the last biome I visited on Minmus. Managed to get some science points too.

Coming in nose down and wing first. Not as I planned... I also time accelerated past my orbital inclination change window, so I did not just overshoot the KSC, I also did so at the wrong place.

Managed to land safely on the runway for the first time ever. This is a great plane too!

[Luovahulluus]

I'm just going to go ahead and spam the thread with another entry. Can anyone guess which award I was going for this time?

I present to you the BEHEMOTH V!

Some stats:

- Mass: 252.6 tons (or 234.6t if you don't count the landing gear, as Kerbal engineer seems to do)

- 21 Turbojets

- 2 Mainsails

- 140 Ram air intakes (6.7 per jet)

- 12 Mk2 fuselages for jet fuel (not enough)

- 24 landing gears

- 920 parts

- All stock except for the Kerbal Engineer chip

- No parts hidden inside the other parts

Here she is in all her glory.

Up we go! This is looking good so far... Except for the wings. They seem to bend alot.

Yes, the part count is deadly to my computer. It took me 42 minutes in real time to fly the 14km between this screenshot and the previous one.

I also forgot to raise the landing gear.

Above 20km, I had some real trouble keeping her in the right direction. She really wanted to turn left, so I had to limit one of the engines to compensate. I had some mirroring issues when attaching the wings to the Mk2 fuselages, so I figured that's why I had more drag on the left.

Because of the steering problems I had to fire up the Mainsails too early. I also had to cut down the other one to 91%, to keep the plane going straight-ish.

Finally in space! It took me just over three hours to get there!

Proof of orbit. 2400 dV left. With these frame rates I'm not going find out how far I could go with it.

Carefully entering the atmosphere. Trying to keep the g-forces as low as possible, because I don't know how much the wings can handle.

I was aiming for the peninsula in the continent, but it doesn't seem like I'm going to make it. Luckily there is a nice little island right next to my flight path.

Finally I realized what was wrong with my plane. My fuel lines were messed up and fuel consumption was not even. The left Kerbodyne tank was nearly out of fuel and the right one was full. After balancing the tanks the plane became a lot easier to fly. What a surprise

I have to admit, I felt kind of stupid there for a moment.

Trying to find a place to land, with fuel levels nicely even . The plane is still a little difficult to handle in a turn like this.

Luckily the island seems to be quite flat.

Coming in quite steeply.

The moment of thruth... This is kinda scary...

Landed safely(?) on Kerbin on the first try! I'm happy and relieved, the kerbals seem kind of indifferent. The touch down was smooth but I almost broke the plane by braking too hard. Because of the high part count and slow computer, it took me 5h 35min in real time from lift-off to landing.

I have some plans on how to convert this into a cargo plane, but with these frame rates it's not going to happen. If someone else wants to be my test pilot, give me a shout.

Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kzgrtfzk2kd1o84/The%20Behemoth%20Vs.craft

I removed the Kerbal engineer chip, so it's now 100% stock. Fix the fuel lines and add batteries and solar panels before lift-off.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Luovahulluus
Typo

[Luovahulluus]

And on to the next entry

Let me introduce the Minipossu

It ended up to be quite similar to the current minimalist record holder, only lighter by 99kg. I tried several ways to make a horizontal take-off with less than three landing gears, until I realized landing gears are actually massless objects, despite the SPH and VAB showing them mass of 0.5

The take-off was short but horizontal and the gravity turn needed several tries until I got it right. Here I am on the orbit, with lots of fuel to spare

The landing was quite easy, as this thing still glides at ridiculously low speeds. Just before touch down my horizontal speed was just 6.7m/s

Still my end result was the same as splodens: the craft ended up on it's side, still intact.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Luovahulluus

[shufflermuffler]

http://imgur.com/a/3wOYI Here is my entry, 780 parts, 148.48 tonnes and interplanetary capable, with a decent payload. Havent recorded a payload yet, but i will get to it. It is similar in shape (But a lot smaller!!!) to what G4Virus did

To see it do a non payload run go here

>>>>>http://imgur.com/a/3wOYI<<<<<

Edited July 20, 2014 by shufflermuffler

[pa1983]

Hehe figured I recognized it

Can still download my crafts here if need be.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27196441/SSTOs.zip

My final craft I did, the Galaxy had a low wing and the fuel in the center of etch wing for better load balancing. The X jumbo always had the problem of a heavy fuselage. Spreading the load over the wing is a lot stronger and more stable for landing and take off.

Lower wing also offer better placement for wheels and allows for a big underbelly offering 10 or more degrees of rotation during take off and landing and better spread of the load on the landing wheels.

Im playing the new carer mode. Have not built an SSTO since last year so a bit rusty. Might do another on but for carer LKO is the only thing that make sense if one wants to earn money.

But any way nice to see so many crafts inspired by my old designs. Found a few in the forum.

[boolybooly]

Thanks to Box of Stardust for the BSG Viper lookalike mission report, which I guessed was called Viper, but correct me if there is more to it. Its a cool look and it completed the K-Prize challenge admirably, earning an astrokerbal distinction for landing on Minmus and an advanced pilot precision award for returning safely to Kerbin. Congratulations and welcome to the 0.23 guest list, since you said it was pre 0.24.

Thanks Luovahulluus for three or was it four missions? Congratulations for winning a Utilitarial Distinction and Astrokerbal Distinction for the trip to Minmus with a buggy also an Advanced Pilot Precision Award for bringing Big Moth home safely. Well done for winning both the Maximalist record holder title with BEHEMOTH V and the Minimalist record holder title with Minipossu. That is quite an accomplishment and it will be interesting to see if anyone can do better than those in this version.

Congratulations shufflermuffler for successfully piloting a large unnamed craft through the K-Prize mission and bringing it back to KSC runway in one piece. Welcome to the guest list for the K-Prize party.

Hope everyone is enjoying 0.24, I am taking my time with it, having lots of fun, still dont really have the tech for a space plane due to spending much time messing about with testing parts but its not far off and once my space lab makes Minmus and then Mün (using the atomic engine the Kerbals borrowed from the testing department) and opens up the tech tree for me I should be able to show you some kind of 0.24 space plane designed for testing parts and doing science.

[Rainbowtrout]

I might as well give this a go. Time to dust off the Owl SSTO, and add to it.

[shufflermuffler]

...

Yes the cargo and fuel hold was ingenious of you, I thought id start small though, and change the wing shape.

[Laie]

I present to you the BEHEMOTH V!

Above 20km, I had some real trouble keeping her in the right direction. She really wanted to turn left, so I had to limit one of the engines to compensate. I had some mirroring issues when attaching the wings to the Mk2 fuselages, so I figured that's why I had more drag on the left.

Had that recently. In my case, it was because of a broken fuel line and asymmetric drain. The difference wasn't enough to make her roll, but KSPs mass-based drag model made her yaw badly.

I have some plans on how to convert this into a cargo plane, but with these frame rates it's not going to happen. If someone else wants to be my test pilot, give me a shout.

Been there done that. The short answer is mods. You don't even have to put it on too thick:

That's procedural wings and rockomax-sized intakes. The intakes have mass, drag, and intake capacity like a quadcouple worth of standard intakes, mounting them to rockomax tanks saved me the pylons (of which I'd otherwise need two per engine). The mod intakes alone are saving me 192 parts right there. The tanks also hold all the fuel I need to get into orbit and back, so the kerbodyne tanks that make up the fuselage are all payload.

For scale, here she's docked and transferring fuel to my Jool-5 transfer stage. The main wings are 12 parts, thanks to the procedural wing mod. I refuse to even think about how many wing pieces (and struts!) I'd need to make this happen in stock. It probably wouldn't hold anyway.

All told, that's still over 200 parts. 24 RCS thrusters, 32 struts, headlights, gear, reaction wheels... it all adds up. Still, the two mods (wings and intakes) allowed to push the part count into regions where I experience nearly no lag after liftoff or in orbit (one minute gametime comes to about 65 seconds real time). However, while air runs short at ~28km, lag is still quite bad, like 2:3 or so.

[Firerunner]

Decided to twiddle around and see how small a SSTO shuttlecraft I could build with the new intakes.

This one was the result: The Scarab MkII

49 parts (mostly because of the LFO fuel setup), weighs in at 6.33t fueled or 3.72t empty. Has enough fuel to make it to a 100km orbit including the deorbit burn, but not much more than that.

Edited July 21, 2014 by Firerunner

[Technical Ben]

Love the little thing, it looks so cute. I had some tiny planes pre-0.24, now I could go even smaller... though I have no STTO as I always crash/flip/loose it when trying to fly at high altitude.