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

[Krazy1]

My Kerbin Klaw plane can recover scrap from orbit. May I suggest a reverse unilateral commendation? Or a "scavenger commendation"? See my craft on KerbalX for pics. Vanilla stock with 4 Panthers and 2 darts, uncrewed. 

 

[boolybooly]

On 8/20/2020 at 8:51 AM, CalmLlama said:

@boolybooly Thanks for letting me know.  

I updated an old craft called Strix, first flown in 2016, to be compatible with the latest version of KSP.  I completed a test flight where I took off from the runway at the space center, flew to orbit, completed a single orbit, then de-orbited and landed back on the same runway I took off from.  This plane has 800 m/s DV in orbit, and a low takeoff / landing speed, making it perfect for a re-usable orbiter/lander on Laythe.  

 

In which case congratulations on achieving the K-Prize mission objectives and earning the sought after Advanced Pilot Precision Award for returning from orbit to land safely on the KSC runway.

Thanks for your mission report and welcome to the K-Prize party guest list aka the roll of honour.

 

 

6 hours ago, Krazy1 said:

My Kerbin Klaw plane can recover scrap from orbit. May I suggest a reverse unilateral commendation? Or a "scavenger commendation"? See my craft on KerbalX for pics. Vanilla stock with 4 Panthers and 2 darts, uncrewed. 

 

OK sure, I have amended the rules to recognise salvage for Utilitarial kudos.

Revised rules as follow.

Quote

8. Payload to orbit, including fuel delivery also ore, fuel or salvage to Kerbin from asteroid or orbit. Utilitarial Commendation.

9. Payload to distant planet surface including fuel delivery also ore, fuel or salvage to Kerbin from planet. Utilitarial Distinction.

 

Edited August 21, 2020 by boolybooly

[Krazy1]

On 8/21/2020 at 4:08 AM, boolybooly said:

OK sure, I have amended the rules to recognise salvage for Utilitarial kudos.

Great! I used Klaw Plane 8 (yes 8 revisions to get it right) in my career for a contract to recover a large drill in LKO. The launch and recovery went pretty well but I overshot KSC and landed on the peninsula to the East - in the dark. More pics at Kerbal X but this one has the numbers shown. 

 

[boolybooly]

Congratulations @Krazy1 on earning a Utilitarial Commendation with the innovative and carefully designed Klaw Plane 8, by retrieving a salvage payload and landing safely with it on Kerbin, as documented in your report and at Kerbalx.

https://kerbalx.com/Krazy1/Kerbin-klaw-plane-8

Thankyou for your mission report and welcome to the roll of honour aka the K-Prize party guest list.  

[JacobJHC]

Does KJR disqualify? I built a Laythe SSTO which uses it to stock kraken attacks.

[boolybooly]

If it does not alter the flight characteristics of stock KSP its fine @JacobJHC, rigidity does not count towards lift etc so is deemed by the K-Prize committee to be within the spirit of the the K-Prize rules.

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by boolybooly

[JacobJHC]

On 9/3/2020 at 1:34 PM, boolybooly said:

If it does not alter the flight characteristics of stock KSP its fine @JacobJHC, rigidity does not count towards lift etc so is deemed by the K-Prize committee to be within the spirit of the the K-Prize rules.

 

Awesome! In that case I'd like to submit the 'THICC BOI'. The thumbnail is deceiving, but it is an SSTO and can fly to Laythe and back without refueling, and bring a few hundred passengers with it. 

 

[sturmhauke]

That is certainly one thicc boi!

[boolybooly]

Congratulations @JacobJHC on passing 500+ subscribers on your gameplay channel, ah the sweet smell of success!

Its good of you to drop by and share your celebratory mission with the K-Prize challenge, so thanks and welcome back.

Down to business, THICC BOI is the exceedingly large kerbal transporter you built and flew in a well documented and extensive mission to Laythe and Minmus making use of multiple flybys and aerobraking maneuvers to slingshot its way there and back earning the extraordinary kudos of double Astrokerbal Distinctions including one with the highly regarded Expeditionary~ prefix for landing on Laythe, as well as the much sought after Advanced Pilot Precision Award for returning safely to Kerbin complete with parachute assisted landing on KSC runway. In addition the K-Prize committee awarded a discretionary That's Entertainment award for services to showbusiness!

So thanks for your mission report and welcome back to the K-Prize party guest list aka the roll of honour.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 5, 2020 by boolybooly

[JacobJHC]

2 hours ago, boolybooly said:

Congratulations @JacobJHC on passing 500+ subscribers on your gameplay channel, ah the sweet smell of success!

Its good of you to drop by and share your celebratory mission with the K-Prize challenge, so thanks and welcome back.

Down to business, The 500 Subscriber Special is the exceedingly large kerbal transporter you built and flew in a well documented and extensive mission to Laythe and Minmus making use of multiple flybys and aerobraking maneuvers to slingshot its way there and back earning the extraordinary kudos of double Astrokerbal Distinctions including one with the highly regarded Expeditionary~ prefix for landing on Laythe, as well as the much sought after Advanced Pilot Precision Award for returning safely to Kerbin complete with parachute assisted landing on KSC runway. In addition the K-Prize committee awarded a discretionary That's Entertainment award for services to showbusiness!

So thanks for your mission report and welcome back to the K-Prize party guest list aka the roll of honour.

 

 

 

 

Thank you! If I might amend one thing though, the craft's name in flight was 'THICC BOI' and not 500 Subscriber Special due to its large heft. 

[boolybooly]

3 hours ago, JacobJHC said:

Thank you! If I might amend one thing though, the craft's name in flight was 'THICC BOI' and not 500 Subscriber Special due to its large heft. 

K fixed.

[Lt_Duckweed]

I would like to steal the Minimalist Record from tseitsei89, nearly 4 years after he claimed it, with "Tiny SSTO".  Due to the nature of a minimalist challenge, it has the exact same parts as "SpecialSpeckOfDust", arranged in a different manner.  With some careful design considerations I was able to reliably shave ~100 m/s off of the ascent on a craft to craft consideration.  Namely, the strut was attached to the rear node of the spark to reduce drag and offset to its position as a landing skid, and the wing is angled 5 degrees to provide better l/d ratio through the early parts of the flight when drag is highest.

However, rather than removing all 100m/s worth of fuel, I have opted to simply reduce the mass as compared to the previous record by 1kg, to a new value of 835kg.
 

 

Edited September 6, 2020 by Lt_Duckweed

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Lt_Duckweed said:

reduce the mass as compared to the previous record by 1kg,

Wow! That's actually pretty crazy. Must have taken a lot of attempts...

[Lt_Duckweed]

14 hours ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

Wow! That's actually pretty crazy. Must have taken a lot of attempts...

Yeah it took a few attempts to get the ascent profile dialed in.  Too shallow and you can't make orbit.  Too steep and you can't make orbit.  It's gotta be just right.

Edited September 7, 2020 by Lt_Duckweed

[boolybooly]

Congratulations on completing the K-Prize mission with a carefully researched and developed mission profile and craft design @Lt_Duckweed  for Tiny SSTO building on the design of @tseitsei89 's Special Speck of Dust and refining it to achieve a lighter takeoff mass of 0.835t to earn the special kudos of minimalist record holder and take the crown!

Which is a fine example of how friendly competition can foster progress.

So thanks for your mission report and welcome to the K-Prize roll of honour aka the K-Prize party guest list.

Edited September 7, 2020 by boolybooly

[camacju]

https://imgur.com/a/BjgQmi9

My submission - the 'Tern'

This SSTO was made for a completely different purpose. I built it to orbit Kerbin and land 3 or 4 times in a row. But it works just fine for this too.

Altitudinalist, Pilot Precision, Astrokerb, Kosmokerb

This was actually the first time I took a SSTO to Minmus

edit: I know I didn't actually reach the 1.6 million Gm apoapsis. However, I'm not really willing to do 70 years of real time in time warp.

Edited September 8, 2020 by camacju

[boolybooly]

Congratulations @camacju on completing the K-Prize mission successfully with the supremely efficient and useful Tern design and earning the highly regarded kudos of an Astrokerbal Distinction for landing on Minmus and Advanced Pilot Precision Award for returning to land on KSC runway.

The potential apoapsis above Kerbol demonstrated was prodigious but sadly does not count for the altitudinalist record if the mission craft did not actually go there, sorry. This is because the K-Prize has to be awarded for missions actually flown, else people could submit a high dv design from the SPH spec and noone would know if it could really make orbit and the K-Prize would mean less, so the mission has to be flown to test the craft against the game physics engine. Also, so you understand, the Kosmokerbal Commendation (KC) is always considered included in the Astrokerbal Distinction, (which therefore supercedes the KC - FYI) because you cannot land on a planet without entering the SOI. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for your mission report and welcome to the K-Prize roll of honour aka the K-Prize party guest list.

 

Edited November 17, 2020 by boolybooly

[camacju]

 

 

https://imgur.com/a/YGTcTmx

Altitudinalist submission, v2?

[Vanamonde]

Use Imgur's BBCode link, @camacju. It works best on this forum. 

[boolybooly]

7 hours ago, camacju said:

 

 

https://imgur.com/a/YGTcTmx

Altitudinalist submission, v2?

OK I am glad you found a way to avoid a tedious stock timewarp flight but an altitudinalist record can only be achieved as part of a completed K-Prize mission. The minimum K-Prize mission is make orbit and return safely to Kerbin.

The screeny is interesting but does not show a complete mission.

For the altitudinalist record to count, a mission report is needed (images or text if you like, we are on the honour system here) recounting how the craft reached an altitude and completed the K-Prize mission by returning to land safely on Kerbin.

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2020 by boolybooly

[Reinhart Mk.1]

idk if this adds to the badge but might as well drop it here too

 

 

[camacju]

https://imgur.com/a/IPjjkgu

not sure how to do the bbcode thing

but anyway, here we go, the 10 million year mission is complete, altitude about 242,000 Gm and I landed on Kerbin this time

Surprised kerbals haven't gone extinct after 10 million years

Edit: I also did a space probe delivery mission with the Tern

https://imgur.com/a/du1HZ4T

This counts for Utilitarian right?

Edited September 9, 2020 by camacju
forgot a mission

[boolybooly]

Congratulations to @Reinhart Mk.1 on completing the K-Prize mission earning another Expeditionary Astrokerbal Distinction for Duna (including an Exploratory AD for Ike) as well as an Advanced Pilot Precision Award for landing Gloria Mk.IIc safely on the KSC runway.

Congratulations also to @camacju on achieving the altitudinalist record with a very big AP over Kerbol taking the trophy from @dvader with a five fold increase.

Sorry to say the utilitarian mission report did not mention landing again, if you could clarify the status of Tern at the mission endpoint then it will be possible to adjudicate.

Thanks both for sharing your mission reports and welcome back to the roll of honour aka the K-Prize party guest list.

[Reinhart Mk.1]

@boolybooly sorry for doing this again but i just like shiny medals n junk

 

 

[boolybooly]

No need to apologise for participating in the K-Prize because here at the Dog and Booster we are pepped for take off!

Sol Mk.IIc did remarkably well but as you should know by now, losing parts due to explosions is against K-Prize rules, see timecode 24:15 +> for dual exploding Gigantors.

So do you want this linked as a gatecrasher, with suitable quip? Or would you prefer it was quietly brushed under the carpet. You can choose since you already shared a successful K-Prize mission.

Either way you can now display the gatecrasher badge if you so wish, if that was the shiney medal you were looking for.