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

[boolybooly]

On 9/21/2017 at 1:00 AM, TheGuyNamedAlan said:

may i still submit?

Of course

 

Congratulations once again to @JacobJHC for completing an evidently carefully planned mission to take a lightweight spaceplane to the distant location of Gilly and thereby qualifying for the K-Prize with plaudits.

- Exploratory Astrokerbal Distinction with Gilly SSTO (12.203t).

Welcome back to the roll of honour aka the K-Prize party guest list.

 

[JacobJHC]

9 hours ago, boolybooly said:

Welcome back to the roll of honour aka the K-Prize party guest list.

Thanks! I have another destination in mind for this class of SSTOs, I'm not sure when, but soon it will launch for another vault around the Kerbol system...

[Laie]

I think it's time for me to renew my K-Prize license. The last time was so long ago it's untrue -- KSP 0.23.5, I believe.

Here's the Clipper taking 24 Passengers to the space station:

Gallery

Do passengers count as "cargo"?

[g00bd0g]

Was messing around and got my MK2 SSTO into a 75x75 orbit with over 6,000 DV remaining! Can pretty much go anywhere. Landing in 2nd video after I burned off some fuel...

 

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2017 by g00bd0g
changed my entry...

[boolybooly]

Congratulations to...

Laie Advanced Pilot Precision Award 1st Class with Clipper.

g00bd0g Advanced Pilot Precision Award with Mk2 SSTO.

... on completing the K-Prize mission with flying colours. Thanks for your mission reports and welcome back to the K-Prize roll of honour aka party guest list.

 

Re passengers @Laie since they have no mass they dont count as cargo but docking to transfer them counts as an Advanced Pilot Precision Award and combined with the runway landing/taxi this contributes to an APPA 1st Class.

@g00bd0g

[Laie]

Well, passenger modules are quite a bit more massive than an empty cargo bay of the same length... nevermind.

Thank you for taking the time and looking at my stuff. And everybody else's, for that matter: You're doing a public service which is woefully under-recognized.

[boolybooly]

 

Thank you for taking the time and looking at my stuff. And everybody else's, for that matter: You're doing a public service which is woefully under-recognized.

Thankyou Laie, good of you to say so, much appreciated 

Edited October 4, 2017 by boolybooly

[Yatsykon]

Entering the challenge with the Yatsykon Concept Co. Dimetrus - 1, my first SSTO since I started playing KSP in alpha 0.16 (Wow, that's so far away. Couldn't have imagined what KSP looks like now from back then. Much easier to play nowadays, back in my day we didn't get no fancy schmancy "patched conics").

Images should finish uploading by the time you see this, forgot to take photos pre-orbit.

https://imgur.com/a/fpEWV

 

 

[Thor Wotansen]

I have a question about the rules regarding decoupling.  Can I build a craft with engine pods that I can leave in LKO while I deliver cargo to other planets and then come back and re-attach them before I land?

[boolybooly]

Yes @Thor Wotansen but K-Prize achievements only count while the craft is whole because, while ingenuity is commendable in its own right and interesting to see, the aim of the K-Prize is to test the capabilities of spaceplanes entire.

So if you drop a payload into orbit as a whole craft then it counts, what you then do with it is up to you, the K-Prize accomplishments only count while the craft is entire, so if it splits nothing more counts until it reassembles.

 

 

Congratulations to @Yatsykon...

Yatsykon with YCC Dimetrus.

... for completing the K-Prize. Thankyou for your mission report and welcome to the roll of honour.

[paneledberry]

A while ago I did this with a stock plane. I have now designed spaceplanes of my own. I went to orbit and back with the Fang V4, and to the Mun and Minmus and back with the Aegis V6.

Edit: After rereading the awards, I suppose I should mention a Duna landing and return with the Farscape V2. I also docked an Aegis V6 with a Drone V3 over Kerbin. I can't land on runways worth crap so I always land on terrain lol

Edited October 18, 2017 by paneledberry

[panzerknoef]

Going through the challenges, I saw this one and I was like "Gosh, why didn't I ever do that one before?". I jumped straight into the action and made a spaceplane. Soon after I was reminded why exactly I didn't do it before, I'm horrible at building and flying spaceplanes. But I did manage it this time, be it hardly... 

The craft of choice was a modified version of a supersonic crew transport I made for a different challenge, I swapped out some crew compartments for fuel tanks and tadaa! A functional space plane. The thing is called the Arenal-S, being a spacegoing version of the Arenal jet.

takes off horizontally ofc, it being a plane after all...

I cruise up to 9000 meters to start my speed run. Just gotta clarify that I really have no idea what the most efficient way is to get a space plane into orbit, I just flew horizontally at speeds of 1200m/s up to a height of 14 kilometers, then to pull the nose up steeply, raise the apoapsis and starting to fire the rocket engine soon after to get my apoapsis up to orbital height.

I did land at KSC 2, I don't know if that counts as KSC territory or not.

Full album: right here

 

Hope this qualifies as a functional space plane!

Edited October 22, 2017 by panzerknoef

[qzgy]

That's a really pretty plane! I'm surprised you wings actually didn't melt off. Those have a rather low heat tolerance.

[panzerknoef]

3 hours ago, qzgy said:

That's a really pretty plane! I'm surprised you wings actually didn't melt off. Those have a rather low heat tolerance.

Thank you very much! And yes, they came quite close to melting off, I did my reentry in 2 times cuz they were overheating so much... Thankfully they have a lot of lift so it was quite easy to just hop out of the atmosphere for that. Also,  "pretty" sadly didn't make it very efficient, I hardly got it into orbit, probably cuz of extremely bad piloting of my part, but still...

Edited October 22, 2017 by panzerknoef

[Secuas]

Here's a video I made of my MK3 SSTO, Magical Trailblazer. It can carry an orange tank to orbit and fly back.

The flight path is fairly simple just keep a 10 degree angle and raise the nose to 40 when you engage the rapiers.

 

[HamnavoePer]

I just flew my first fully re-usable SSTO to orbit and then landed back on the KSC  Images: https://imgur.com/gallery/Aoh06 Oh, and They never Siad i wasn't alloed to land, Flip around while braking and just keep flatspinning... I faced forward again after a few spins...

Edited October 28, 2017 by HamnavoePer

[Laie]

On 10/22/2017 at 2:44 PM, panzerknoef said:

Just gotta clarify that I really have no idea what the most efficient way is to get a space plane into orbit,

Any launch you can spacewalk away from... "Most efficient", in your case, would only be some refinement. Maybe go supersonic right after takeoff before going into one uninterrupted clim? This may or may not work better. I expect the overall difference to be slight either way. By and large, you're doing it right.

Nice plane, btw. Looks much bigger than it actually is.

@qzgy: those wings also have a lot of surface area to radiate with, you can adjust the heat load by AoA. They also have enough mass to not go poof in an instant, so you have time to react and see it work.Try it, it's fun! Returning from Minmus is totally possible, though not in a single pass.

[Edax]

I achieved the K-Prize 2 years ago with a crazy 12 engine flying wing,

but I haven't played since then, so I decided to resurrect one of the last projects I was working on, a Thunderbolt II configured circumnavigator, capable of landing anywhere on Kerban and returning to KSP.  The high mounted engines and wings allowed for safe waterlandings.  For kicks, I replaced all the LF tanks with LF+O tanks and made it an SSTO with the idea that it could possible work as a more effective spaceplane on Laythe then what I currently have, which isn't optimized for water landings at all.  Discovered that it actually works, despite not being ideal for spaceflight at all.  The reason I'm posting in here again is because the Thunderbolt II configuration is somewhat unusual for an SSTO, and this is my first K-Prize video.

So what's I've learned from my Thunderbolt II

Pros:

Looks very distinct from nearly every angle.

Excellent aerobreaking capabilities, was able to glide all the way back to the runway.

Docking Port aligned with centerline.

Water Landing Capable

Heat Resistant

 

Cons:

Engines not aligned with the ship's centerline.  Limited thrust in space.

Inefficient aerodynamics.

Inefficient fuel efficiency.

Limited Delta-V, 2k when fully refueled.

Edited October 31, 2017 by Edax

[boolybooly]

Congratulations are due to the following ...

panelledberry Kosmokerbal Commendation (Mün & Minus) with Fang V4.

- Expeditionary Astrokerbal Distinction (Duna) with Farscape V2.

- Advanced Pilot Precision Award with Aegis V6.

panzerkneof Pilot Proficiency Medal with Adrenal-S.

Secuas Utilitarial Commendation (36t), Advanced Pilot Precision Award with Magical Trailblazer.

HamnavoePer Advanced Pilot Precision Award with My First SSTO.

Edax Advanced Pilot Precision Award with Thunderbolt II.

 

... for completing the K-Prize mission successfully. Thankyou for your mission reports, well played and welcome to the guest list for the very exclusive K-Prize party aka the roll of honour.

Edited October 31, 2017 by boolybooly

[AeroGav]

On 22/10/2017 at 1:44 PM, panzerknoef said:

Going through the challenges, I saw this one and I was like "Gosh, why didn't I ever do that one before?". I jumped straight into the action and made a spaceplane. Soon after I was reminded why exactly I didn't do it before, I'm horrible at building and flying spaceplanes. But I did manage it this time, be it hardly... 

The craft of choice was a modified version of a supersonic crew transport I made for a different challenge, I swapped out some crew compartments for fuel tanks and tadaa! A functional space plane. The thing is called the Arenal-S, being a spacegoing version of the Arenal jet.

I cruise up to 9000 meters to start my speed run. Just gotta clarify that I really have no idea what the most efficient way is to get a space plane into orbit, I just flew horizontally at speeds of 1200m/s up to a height of 14 kilometers, then to pull the nose up steeply, raise the apoapsis and starting to fire the rocket engine soon after to get my apoapsis up to orbital height.

Optimum height for speedrun is just under 17km on Whiplash,   but it sounds like you're close enough.    So long as you're hitting over 1000m/s what you do on jet power isn't that important.    On rocket mode, it is best to just pitch for best lift/drag ratio rather than "pulling the nose up steeply".  So if your wings aren't angled up , that'd be about 5 degrees above prograde, if you have angled wings, and it looks like you do have built in incidence, then just fly as close to prograde as possible without having the nose actually go below prograde.   If you angle the canards up a bit in the SPH so that the plane flies with a small positive AoA with no control input,  you can just set prograde hold on SAS at this point and it will take care of giving you the most efficienct angle.

However, you've got low melting point airliner wings and a pointy cockpit so you may need to cilmb straight up to avoid melting.   With an inline mk2 cockpit and big S wings, heat is less of a worry.

Also note - 

you have a lot of liquid fuel storage, you could perhaps think about fitting a nerv or two to make use of it.

the mk2 fuselage pieces have awful drag characteristics.  mk1 tanks of the same capacity have significantly less drag, even better are wings and strakes if you are just storing liquid fuel.

[SG Aero]

Just a question: how big would my ssto need to be to make the maximalist challenge? Also I'm going to say that a turboprop counts as a payload as it fullfills all the requirements.

I won't use any fuel on the stock turboprop and I won't be using the lift generators prior to separation.

[Scarecrow]

Been a while since I last submitted an entry to this, so here's another I knocked up a few days ago.  Built along the lines of the SR-71 Blackbird, but designed to deliver small satellites to LKO, I  present Blackbird SSTO

 

 

Take off

 

In orbit

 

Payload delivered

 

Nearly home

 

Mission success

 

Craft file can be downloaded from Kerbal X and comes complete with the small relay satellite  -  https://kerbalx.com/Scarecrow88/Blackbird-SSTO

 

[boolybooly]

Congratulations to ... @Scarecrow on completing a classic payload to orbit mission with a classically stylish bird.

- Utilitarial Commendation, Advanced Pilot Precision Award with Blackbird SSTO.

The honour of the K-Prize is yours once again, thanks for your report and welcome back to the K-Prize party guest list. I found your earlier entry with Jeb's Limo btw and added the Blackbird as above as a second entry.

 

 

[Scarecrow]

Thanks @boolybooly

[danielboro]

id like to submit my LR-PMK6/LR-PMK6-stok
https://kerbalx.com/danielboro/LR-pmk6-stok
https://kerbalx.com/danielboro/LR-pmk6

thers a vid of them getting to orbit
my best landing was parachuting in the water near the KSC
the moded version can get to minmus but not back unless i refuel it

and as extra just in case, i have PMK4 that can only get to orbit and back. i use it for kerbin orbit tourists
ill add sum pics of my last tourist trip later