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

[Sean Mirrsen]

if you look over in the Affordable space program thread you'll see exactly that in sdj64's entry, It even tips itself back up after loading cargo.

Well yes, the Affordable Space Program allows rocket SSTOs. But would that work for the K-Prize?

[boolybooly]

As long as they take off horizontally Sean, btw your gate crasher link is ready...

Mecha Pants, thanks for your mission report congratulations on completing a bonafide K-Prize mission with a well earned Utilitarial Distinction for balancing a big station module on the effective Arrow V Cargo SSTO delivery vehicle in the first mission. Nice to see a runway turnaround on refuel and launch and the second mission as an interesting and satisfying completion of the first mission. Can you clarify the monopropellant status? Looking at the screenies the monopropellant tank does not appear to be full on delivery. Since the second mission was not originally intended to be a K-Prize mission it would be understandable if the rules followed were not K-Prize rules. Was it launched part empty? Or was some monopropellant used in the orbital maneuvers taken from the payload tank? Not sure if the mission met the K-Prize decoupling proviso rules.

Rules

1. The craft may not lose any parts in flight, no decoupling allowed.

2. The craft must lift off horizontally, reach orbit (PE > 70,000m) and land intact ready for 'refuelling'.

3. All fuel tanks, wings (lift generators) and engine parts must be stock, for fairness.

Provisos to rule 1.

A. Payloads may decouple from the craft providing all payload tanks are full on decoupling and any thrust generators on the payload were not used prior to decoupling.

B. Docking is permitted providing no fuel is transferred (net per fuel type) into the K-Prize craft (it can be transferred out). Crew transfers are permitted.

Redwizard000 thankyou for your mission video and the record of the exploits of Space Moth Mk I. Your word is good here. Congratulations on completing the K-Prize mission successfully and making a somewhat safe landing without any parts breaking off, which frankly was a minor miracle ! Welcome to the K-Prize party.

noname117 thanks for your interesting mission report on the flight of the Caracara with IVA cockpit perspectives. Congratulaitons on completing the K-Prize mission successfully and earning yourself an Advanced Pilot Precision Award for landing safely on the KSC runway. Welcome to the K-Prize party guest list aka roll of honour.

Edited April 13, 2014 by boolybooly

[Redwizard000]

Redwizard000 thankyou for your mission video and the record of the exploits of Space Moth Mk I. Your word is good here. Congratulations on completing the K-Prize mission successfully and making a somewhat safe landing without any parts breaking off, which frankly was a minor miracle ! Welcome to the K-Prize party.

Thanks! I knew approving that budget item for a case of duct tape and super glue for the space plane hangar would be a good investment!

Edited April 14, 2014 by Redwizard000

[Mecha Pants]

The monopropellant tank attached to the crew capsules start at locked 50%, to prevent scraping the runway. Being unable to strut them in place required some sacrifices to get them into the air. They aren't unlocked until the pods are released for attachment to the station.

If that disqualifies those launches I'm not too bummed about it, I still have another 11 launches to work out.

[boolybooly]

Well that sounds perfectly reasonable Mecha Pants and in fact I have adjusted the rules to make that scenario count and catch up with the new partial tank launch capability in this version.

Provisos to rule 1.

A. Payloads may decouple from the craft providing all payload tanks are as full on decoupling as at launch and any thrust generators on the payload were not used prior to decoupling.

BTW when you say the tank was locked did this include the RCS thrusters as well or were they used in the launch?

[Mecha Pants]

RCS ports on the pods are also disabled until unloading at the station. Pod torque is on, but only to help manage the tendency to do backflips until crashing at the end of the runway. The Arrow V loves quicksaves on the runway.

Edit: Launches three and four used the same refueling crawler, which didn't have enough to fully refill the Arrow's onboard monopropellant tanks on launch four. On its own, the arrow holds 615 if memory serves. I'm away from my KSP computer at the moment. The Crew pods launch with 375 in their large tank, and the little extension arm launches with 380.

Edited April 14, 2014 by Mecha Pants
Additional details for Launches three and four

[boolybooly]

OK great, thanks for clarifying Mecha Pants, then the second mission did in fact earn the highly regarded Advanced Pilot Precision Award 1st class for docking in orbit and landing on the KSC runway, which has duly been recognised on the guest list roll of honour.

[Cinocal]

Draco Prime

Refined version of one of my all time favorites. Glides so well it's hard to slow down.

Flown with FAR mod.

[boolybooly]

The top wing has an interesting almost pentagonal shape Cinocal, lots of lift surfaces with the second set of dorsal wings. I guess you are aware that the FAR mod changes lift physics, so the question is whather you want your mission post linked as a gatecrasher or whether you would prefer to do a K-Prize mission?

[godefroi]

Alright, I made a run. Why not, right?

This is in 0.23.5, but the design is purely 0.23.

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[Cinocal]

Gatecrasher. No problem.

[SpaceK531]

I made my first non-crashy spaceplane today, I'm very happy, so I will share it with all of you:

The name of it is the "lumbering beast," which only partly applies because it does lumber but it is no beast, more like a wimpy giant.

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all stock plane.

no behavioral mods.

[Shna_na]

I made my first non-crashy spaceplane today, I'm very happy, so I will share it with all of you:

The name of it is the "lumbering beast," which only partly applies because it does lumber but it is no beast, more like a wimpy giant.

http://imgur.com/a/Cx9eQ

all stock plane.

no behavioral mods.

That one where you mention composition isn't as perfect as you'd think, sorry to burst your bubble. I've got a qualification in art (photography, even more related), and as much as you are close, you're not quite there. Better try than most people though. There are plenty of other elements missing from it, too: shape, colour, exposure, etc. that could be improved. At least you know what to look for. The screenshot that came two before it (the one labelled "Getting into orbit") is much better - it has the right composition, gives the subject plenty of space to move into, the shapes are better, and the lines. You have lines that all point towards the middle of the image, even the majority of the struts. The lighting is better, too.

Well done with the mission, by the way! I wouldn't have even considered moving the fuel from the rear to the front, great job on that resolution.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Shna_na

[gchristopher]

Hot Dog Bun (full writeup, craft files) is completely symmetrical SSTO spaceplane that splits right down the middle. Each wing half attaches to the side of a payload in orbit. Then the whole thing deorbits and lands at KSC. It's all stock. Now that the claw is in the game, refueling is stock, too.

It flew 6 missions for the Affordable Space Program challenge, refuelled on the runway and relaunched each time.

Ground assembly/disassembly is possible because the plane has two sets of landing gear, one facing forwards and one sideways. One is used for takeoff/landing/taxi and the other is used to move the wing halves in and out of a docking connection. A single sideways-facing powered wheel drives it when going sideways.

A couple systems using a VTOL launcher to lift a payload and a spaceplane to deorbit were used. This was the second, more powerful, iteration.

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[RocketscientistV]

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I could have landed at KSC but I tried twice and landed ended up landing 20 km away from each other.

Edited April 18, 2014 by RocketscientistV

[SpaceK531]

-snip-

Thank you for your constructive criticism. I believe you missed the point of the image description, though. I did not mention the quality of the composition, which has a number of flaws. I did mention that the look space is adequate. This was somewhat in jest because in all good aircraft photos, the nose of the aircraft is facing the direction of travel, but in the photo, the nose is facing away from the direction of travel, so the lookspace must be adjusted to give the rear of the plane room to move through the frame.

Basically, the vessel was facing retrograde, so I gave it lookspace in the reference frame of direction of travel instead of the vessel's internal reference frame.

[Sean Mirrsen]

And time to chime in with a proper entry. The Rocketship Pretty Fly is not entirely unmodded, but all lift surfaces, tanks, and engines are stock. Mods used are Procedural Fairings for the smooth nosecone and ejectable parachute cover (behind the cockpit), Near Future Propulsion for the aerodynamic-looking RCS blocks and the neat radial stack couplers for the engine pylons, and the mod with the miniature lights the name of which I can't for the life of me remember. And the wonderful Mk2 Cockpit IVA view, of course, but it's not craft-specific.

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[Shna_na]

-snip-

Ah, I think I see now. Thanks for clarifying.

[boolybooly]

godefroi, thanks for your mission report, congratulations on successfully completing the K-Prize mission with the effective K-Prize Spaceplane. You also earned the soght after Advanced Pilot Precision Award for landing at the KSC runway. Welcome to the K-Prize party guest list.

SpaceK531 thankyou for your mission report on the flight of the Lumbering Beast. Congratulations on winning the K-Prize and earning the highly regarded Advanced Pilot Precision Award in the process. Welcome to the guest list (aka roll of honour) of the exclusive K-Prize party.

gchristopher, thanks for your mission report, very innovative and interesting technique, one question. Did the SporkLift thrusters assist with the initial landing of the combined vehicle in any way?

RocketScientistV thanks for your mission report, nice paint job! Sorry to say the broken solar panel counts as not landing intact. So do you want to the mission to be linked as a gatecrasher or will you try again ?

Sean Mirrsen thanks for your mission report. Since the RCS blocks are non stock thrusters and were used in the flight that has to be a gatecrasher, looks good though

[RocketscientistV]

Try again. This time Ronrigh is staying in the astronaut complex

EDIT:

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I'll actualy take gate crasher and prize.

Edited April 21, 2014 by RocketscientistV

[gchristopher]

gchristopher, thanks for your mission report, very innovative and interesting technique, one question. Did the SporkLift thrusters assist with the initial landing of the combined vehicle in any way?

Thanks, and no. I guess in theory they could be used that way, for some kind of weird VTOL-assisted landing? But no, SporkLift is dead weight. Typically I drained off the fuel into the orbital transfer tug along with payloads, so SporkLift doesn't contribute any fuel or oxidizer to the deorbit either.

[SpaceK531]

Did another spaceplane, trying to build them better and better each time.

This one has a very creative name: Delivery Plane

Ascent plan diagram:

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Lessons learned between Lumbering Beast and Delivery Plane:

• Crime doesn't pay
  
• use more engines
  
• more lift =/= better (lift ratings on wings, LB: 46, DP: 53.2)
  
• PACK MORE FUEL
  
• more engines to lift the fuel require more fuel
  
• Pack less oxidizer
  
• find out better ascent curves
  

Edited April 21, 2014 by SpaceK531

[LvL]

I made a Bi-Plane Design, but with 4 wings in a square instead of 2. I also like to use the beautification mod, because it just makes everything look much nicer.

Edited April 21, 2014 by oarum

[boolybooly]

oarum, I cant see that, fyi used the Imgur allbum code to display albums without # inside [imgur] tags on this BB. Did it make orbit with pe > 70km and land safely ? What is its name?

RocketScientistV done and done, congratulations on completing the K-Prize mission without losing any parts Your word is good enough here but FYI none of the orbital screenies you included were proof positive that the PE was > 70km. There was one shot of AP (with details of another craft) time to AP and craft velocity on the navball which might be possible to use to calculate full orbit but I dont have the time or energy. A challenge for someone else if anyone feels up to it.

gchristopher, thanks for your reply and for observing the K-Prize rules, congratulations on successfully completing the K-Prize challenge and earning an Advanced Pilot Precision Award 1st class for docking in orbit and landing Hot Dog Bun on KSC runway. Its an unusual and interesting mission, payload delivery from orbit to ground which is the first time I have seen this in the K-Prize challenge. So it sets a precedent and for the record the fact that the payload did not in any way contribute to the flight or thrust of the vehicle meant that it did not break the single stage rules so it is allowed. Welcome to the guest list aka the roll of honour.

SpaceK531, thanks for your latest mission report. Congratulations on earning an Utilitarial Commendation for delivering a payload to orbit and an Advanced Pilot Precision Award for landing at the KSC runway. The fact that the payload had non stock tanks did not factor in the mission because the tanks were shown to be inactive. Sorry to read about the technical problems with the payload but glad that the exploding stool worked for you! Party invites are in the post

[RocketscientistV]

Its Ok, you saw that it could get into orbit before. I updated the album with Me landing on the runway.