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

[Jhawk1099]

Here is my video/submission. I believe I earned a 1st class advanced pilot precision award and also a Utilitarial commendation. If I am mistaken @boolybooly please let me know. Also the plane's name is the Tiburón mk1. 

 

Edited May 10, 2016 by Jhawk1099

[mk1980]

On 8.5.2016 at 5:45 PM, boolybooly said:

...

mk1980 so was did the second vehicle the Mk1 or Mk2 drone and did it complete the mission?

sorry, this time i overlooked your question  

the first plane is "Startours 2" (only found 1 image of its smaller predecesor, not worth posting). i think the images cover the start, docking and the landing. didn't find images of the ascent or descent. don't know why i actually added the other plane (the Mk2 fuel drone). it worked all right, but i only used it once and landed like 100 km away from KSC. so i guess that plane was a "partial success".

are we allowed to post multiple planes? i recently started a little experiment with an interplanetary SSTO trip. might make a nice addition to the list. flew it to duna but failed to land. I could retry it and land it on Ike instead, or fly to gilly and land there.  rapiers and nukes, no ISRU - i think that would be compliant with the rules of your challenge (?)

[Jhawk1099]

Wait @boolybooly I plan on doing a similar challenge with a mildly retrofitted version of the Tiburón mk1 while doing all of the same things but dropping off a rover off on Minmus. Would this change any of my commendations/kudos things?

[boolybooly]

@mk1980 what I was trying to establish was whether you intended to make Mk2 a K-Prize mission report? If so please say so and state / show how it completed the mission so I can link it with appropriate awards, multiple planes are welcome, eg Kergarin's honour roll listing. Missions count if you land back on Kerbin, landing on another planet does not count as mission finish but does count towards the kudos awards. See other rules on first page, eg no refueling form ore fyi.

@Jhawk1099, your proposed mission profile would earn the coveted utilitarial distinction if the rover was dropped off from the landed craft. See rule 9 on first page.

 

Congratulations to Kergarin x4 ... 

-  Advanced Pilot Precision Award with POD1 SSTO V2.

-  Advanced Pilot Precision Award with SSSTO1.

-  Utilitarial Commendation (station), Advanced Pilot Precision Award with Excalibur Station Lift. (Special Gerry Anderson Homage award.)

-  Advanced Pilot Precision Award 1st Class with DELTA6 LF.

... also to ...

Jhawk1099 Utilitarial Commendation, Advanced Pilot Precision Award 1st Class with Tiburón mk1.

... for completing the K-Prize mission successfully, thankyou for you mission reports and welcome (back) to the guest list for the K-Prize party aka the roll of honour. 

 

[mk1980]

thanks for the reply. no- forget that mk2 fuel plane. if i find the time, i might make a better version of it and post it as a separate entry.

i finished a new roundtrip. hope it qualifies. didn't quite make it back to KSC and the F3 screen says one solar panel broke in the (final) landing. anyway - even if it doesn't qualify, i'm gonna share my little adventure.

it's basically a replay of my first attempt, but this time i packed a few chutes for the final descent to dunas surface. not sue if this is allowed by your rules? 

 

[Hegemon]

On 5/8/2016 at 8:45 AM, boolybooly said:

Congratulations to ...

 

Hegemon Advanced Pilot Precision Award with SSTO.

<snip>

... for successfully completing the K-Prize mission. Thanks for your mission reports and welcome to the elite club of K-Prize party goers.

Hegemon, what's it called?

Thanks

I think this one was called like SSTO-1C (how exciting), but let's go ahead and call it the "It-Worked!" lol

[Jhawk1099]

ok new mission plan. get into orbit. dock with station. fly to minmus and refuel there. fly to jool system. land and refuel on pol. then fly to laythe. land and refuel there and drop of a little rover. Then fly back to pol or wherever I can refuel and fly home and land on the KSC runway. That would get me a fair bit of kudos I think

[mk1980]

9 minutes ago, Jhawk1099 said:

ok new mission plan. get into orbit. dock with station. fly to minmus and refuel there. fly to jool system. land and refuel on pol. then fly to laythe. land and refuel there and drop of a little rover. Then fly back to pol or wherever I can refuel and fly home and land on the KSC runway. That would get me a fair bit of kudos I think

don't think so. the rules state pretty clearly that ISRU and refueliling are not allowed for the challenge

[Kergarin]

On 10.5.2016 at 10:06 PM, boolybooly said:

...

-  Utilitarial Commendation (station), Advanced Pilot Precision Award with Excalibur Station Lift. (Special Gerry Anderson Homage award.)

...

Thanks again,  What an honour! 

What exactly qualifies me for the Garry Anderson Homage Award?  could not find a description on this.

[NotAnAimbot]

On 8/5/2016 at 5:43 PM, Jhawk1099 said:

Here is my video/submission.

What's the mod we see in orbit?

[Jhawk1099]

5 hours ago, mk1980 said:

don't think so. the rules state pretty clearly that ISRU and refueliling are not allowed for the challenge

oh sad day.

[boolybooly]

mk1980 is right, no refuel, the point is to compare the capability of reusable craft using its launch specs.

@mk1980 you can land any way you want as long as it doesn't lose parts, so a lost solar panel means your mission does not get a link on the guest list but could be a gatecrasher. You are exempt from automatic gatecrasher listing due to having successfully completed the K-Prize during this version but if you specifically want to link the mission via the gatecrasher list then I can add one, with a suitable quip. Your decision.

Edited May 20, 2016 by boolybooly

[totalitor]

I try to do SSTO working with deadly re-entry mode. Getting back on one piece is the hardest part. Anyone succeeded?

[AeroGav]

 

 

 

https://kerbalx.com/AeroGav/Astrojet-Citation

1 Whiplash, 2 NERV.   30 Tons loaded. 5 Kerbals. 2200 dv in orbit.  Inline clamp o tron. Vernier engines, Fly by wire hub.  Able to horizontally land on Minmus and Duna.  Can return from Minmus surface easily, can go to Duna, land and return to Duna orbit comfortably, but will need refuel for transfer burn back to Kerbin.  Lucky it's got a docking port then !

I discovered Mechjeb after finalising the design.  I love how much more repeatable and hassle free everything becomes, but it can also be flown manually by just setting pitch trim for an AoA of 3-4, increasing to 5 or 6 at sound barrier, maybe dropping a little for the speedrun, then after that locking in SAS for a constant but slowly rising pitch.  I put a lot of effort into handling qualities and have arranged fuel system so that CG does not move whether full or empty

(not so easy when jets and rockets are employed).

the second part here hopefully answers the question on how you fly to orbit on the meagre thrust of NERV engines only..

Rearranging fuel and snacks, wipe down the tables before serving the in flight meal (monoprop makes great disinfectant, that's why every pod has some).

Final approach to Minmus, proof what it's really made of (ice must be involved, as you can see)

...next time , i'm going to plug my joystick in.   Using keyboard and fighting SAS the whole way was no fun...

REturn to Kerbin videos start here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO0I88JZmwo&list=PLF64Jfn9iJDGPpBfLk01SZDmFCeaA0DB_&index=6

the landing back at ksc is here - hasn't finished uploading yet so no thumbnail

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXOtG6fIe7Y

Spoiler

 

https://kerbalx.com/AeroGav/Astrojet-Citation-X

 

 

Edited May 21, 2016 by AeroGav

[Kneves]

Here is what I made for this challenge. Ship is 156 tons

Edited May 15, 2016 by Kneves
Forgot to put on weight

[cantab]

On 22/05/2012 at 9:29 AM, boolybooly said:

The craft must lift off horizontally

I don't understand. That would require using something capable of smoothly moving across the ground without causing catastrophic damage to the spaceplane, and no such parts exist in KSP 1.1.2. The only way to safely leave or touch ground is straight up and down.

(Post-flight to a 100 km LKO and back, no payload to speak of just a couple empty fuel tanks in the bay that I'd been using to check CoM and stuff. Also, not using stock errordynamics.)

[mk1980]

On 13.5.2016 at 3:43 PM, boolybooly said:

mk1980 is right, no refuel, the point is to compare the capability of reusable craft using its launch specs.

@mk1980 you can land any way you want as long as it doesn't lose parts, so a lost solar panel means your video does not get a link on the guest list but could be a gatecrasher. You are exempt from automatic gatecrasher listing due to having successfully completed the K-Prize during this version but if you specifically want to link the mission via the gatecrasher list then I can add one, with a suitable quip. Your decision.

@boolybooly sorry for the late reply! I've been away for a few days. i might still have the quicksave a few seconds before the final landing where the panel was destroyed. does the roundtrip count as a proper entry if i reload and manage to  splash down without destroying the solar panel? (i could make a screenshot of the F3 screen if i succeed)

EDIT: last quicksave was literally only ~3 seconds before splashdown. i reloaded it and managed to splash the plane down a bit softer without breaking anything. see image below - no entries in flight events and part count in the KER display is the same as on all the other images.

your decision if it's a legitimate entry to the challenge now. don't want to start an argument. if you say it's not, I have no problem with an entry in the gatecrasher list, either.

Edited May 19, 2016 by mk1980
added image

[boolybooly]

OK @AeroGav thanks for your video reports, did you finish the mission by landing on Kerbin or do you want gatecrasher listing ?

Likewise @cantab I sense another contender for the Gerry Anderson Homage award. I also detect a predeliction for vertical take offs but do you want the notoriety of a gatecrasher listing? Or will you upgrade your runway and find a way to go horizontally a bit before you lift off?

@mk1980 nice work but you neglected to mention the name of the craft ... so I called it Candlesticks  

 

Congratulations to ...

Kneves Utilitarial Commendation (40.520t), Advanced Pilot Precision Award with Bessy.

mk1980 - Expeditionary Astrokerbal Distinction with Candlesticks.

... for completing the K-Prize mission successfully. Thankyou for your mission reports and welcome (back) to the K-Prize party guest list aka the roll of honour.

Edited May 20, 2016 by boolybooly

[cantab]

Well I refuse to build planes in stock aerodynamics, which is entirely on principle and not at all because I don't know how without FAR's graphs and numbers. So gatecrasher it is, wheels or no.

[AeroGav]

10 hours ago, boolybooly said:

OK @AeroGav thanks for your video reports, did you finish the mission by landing on Kerbin or do you want gatecrasher listing ?

 

I don't have a save file for the mission to Minmus and the Duna one doesn't have enough fuel to return to Kerbin without docking and refuelling in orbit.

I have some footage of the takeoff from the surface of Minmus which leaves me on an escape trajectory from Minmus SOI with an apoapsis inside Kerbin's atmosphere, and 557 m/s dV showing on Mechjeb.edit -

Spoiler

 

here

 

 

 

 

 

Do you want me to refly a re-entry from Minmus with landing on KSC  or have I got to fly the entire mission again, and re-shoot all the video?  My internet connection is very slow this took best part of a day 

In my opinion i have already proved the craft has the ability to reach and land on minmus comfortably,  the only bit that has not been demonstrated is re-entry.

EDIT - OK I HAVE A SAVE AFTER ALL TAKEN FROM THE PARKED ON MINMUS SITUATION.  LET'S BRING LIZBETH KERMAN HOME..

EDIT 2 - ok i will link the re-entry / landing videos in my original post.  it took a few attempts to reach the space centre and the latest patch has increased heating, not sure why the cockpit slowly continues to build heat at mach 5 and 50km... that's a rather low dynamic pressure regime. Not actually blown this one up on any attempt but maybe should consider radiators?

Edited May 21, 2016 by AeroGav

[boolybooly]

We are on the honour system, all you have to do is say if the mission was completed but mission reports are always welcome. If it isn't completed then it has to actually land safely on Kerbin to be complete, which can be played and replayed from a game save of your choosing, so you can take as many tries as you like. As long as it actually flies the K-Prize mission and lands intact it counts. 

So congratulations are due to ...

AeroGav Astrokerbal Distinction, Advanced Pilot Precision Award with Astrojet Citation.

... for completing the K-Prize mission successfully and earning the highly coveted Astrokerbal Distinction for a Minmus landing and Advanced Pilot Precision Award for returning to the Kerbal Space Center landing strip. Thanks for you mission report videos and welcome to the K-Prize party guest list aka the roll of honour.

[mk1980]

yet another entry from my side. this time the goal was to get a ridiculously large payload to space, using a ridiculously large plane.

as seen in the first image, the "Winged Nightmare" has a total mass of 466,160 kg and 185 parts (including the payload - the big fuel tank thing strapped to the back of the plane)

the payload mass in orbit (after deployment) is 96,410 kg (as seen in of the images below)

i didn't manage a landing on the runway, but pretty close (last image)

 

[Derpiderp]

I present to you, my SSTO "Karpfenator MKIII". It can get easily to Minmus and the mun(yet to be tested).

To make the visibility during the landing, I used planetshine to increase "Vacuum Ambient Brightness".

Edited May 24, 2016 by Derpiderp

[Spartwo]

I have no idea how to fly an SSTO in 1.1...or 1.0

 

Man, I'm outta practice.

 

I decided to use the screenshots without UI because I blew up at the end anyway...

Edited May 26, 2016 by Spartwo

[g00bd0g]

I present the most practical space plane in KSP  A bold claim I know... Minimal parts count, very stable and predictable flight characteristics, heat tolerant parts, docking port, lights, etc... Hauls two full orange tanks (72t!) and 4 kerbals to LKO, with fuel left over for de-orbit and landing. Haul space station parts to orbit, fly to minmus, rescue Kerbals, do pretty much anything that needs doing in Kerbin orbit. Pretty boring demo video, but she gets the job done!

 

Edited May 27, 2016 by g00bd0g