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

[Visari]

Has anyone at all tried this in RSS full realism mode with Advanced Jet Engines?

A google search through the thread's 145 pages doesn't tell me much, unfortunately.

[boolybooly]

Technical Ben is right, Scarab MkII is cute Firerunner, those little delta wings have a reasonable amount of lift in them. Obviously great minds think alike, I have a lower tech level but comparable short body design using those wings for aero testing on Kerbin, called the Bee, has a great thrust to mass ratio. So can I link you for a K-Prize, did you make orbit and then achieve a safe landing OK?

Thanks for your screenshots Laie, those procedural wings are very striking. Would you enjoy the notoriety of a gatecrasher link?

[AvronMullican]

My entry.
unfortunately, due to pilot error, i did not quite complete my mission profile.
But she returned to kerbin with no parts missing Edited July 24, 2014 by AvronMullican

[Damaske]

WARNING! Gatecrasher due to unplanned Mid-air refueling (refilled with hyper-edit)

First test flight with new SSTO, due to failed piloting maneuvers during ascent a refueling craft was called in and a mid-air refueling took place around 18km. Failure of air breathing to rocket engine transition lead to using more fuel that planed, craft lowered attitude to refuel safely before blasting its way into orbit.

Name: Delta flyer

Type: Experimental single stage to orbit spaceplane

Crew: 1

Weight: 10.342 tons full, 4.442 tons empty

Part count: 31 parts

Powerplant: The Mass Key Shipyards combined Turbojet, LV-909 engine powerplant unit (cubic strut separated engines)

Thrust to weight ratio when full: 2.71

Max thrust: 275 (both engines running)

Putting this up here for now as a Gatecrasher till I work out the kinks in it. A better transition from air to rocket powered flight might be just what this needs, But may also need a rework on the powerplant of the craft. Craft did get into stable orbit, and then landed back at KSC runway with only a mid-flight power failure due to no power generation for space flight. (lv-909 has no power production)

[Overfloater]

It's been a while since I flew to Laythe & Duna in one go, cargo planes distracted me. 8-]

Unlike Astoliner IV "Comet", this one easily maintains control. ...until it's out of fuel, then it refuses to pitch down ._. gotta work on that.

Sorry for the insanely long video, but it was in fact a long trip...

Astro-Cruiser:

In case you're wondering why the fuel meter on the "stages" tab doesn't match the fuel meter on the "resources" tab: I disabled fuel flow from the front fuel tank, to keep weight in front. At 10:13 you can see me enabling it.

Craft file

current version consists of 187 parts.

Edited July 26, 2014 by Overfloater

[boolybooly]

Congratulations AvronMullican on completing the K-Prize mission with Kevyn, that is a handy island for overshooting space planes. Thanks for your mission report and welcome to the guest list for the K-Prize party.

Damaske, thanks for your progress report/gatecrasher which I have linked as a gatecrasher but if you get it working I can remove it and give you a full K-Prize listing. I take it the dual engine is clipped and not modded?

Overfloater, opening your account for 0.24.x I see with the stylish and well constructed looking Astro-Cruiser. Thanks for your clear mission video and congratulations on earning the coveted Expeditionary Astrokerbal Distinction for landing on Laythe and Duna, as well as the highly regarded Advanced Pilot Precision Award for landing safely on KSC runway. Welcome back to the guest list.

[Damaske]

Yes it is clipped with a cubic strut, Its a trick i found a while back and it is not modded.

[Firerunner]

Thanks for the compliments about the Scarab, I like the tiny size quite a bit as well.

I did indeed make it back to KSC intact - flew another flight and compiled an image album with some more details. The thrust-to-weight ratio of a turbojet is indeed absurd when you are building at these sizes.

Happy to share the craft file if either of you want to take it for a flight.

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[Guber K.]

Hi all,

I've been lurking around this forum and launching Kerbals for nearly a year now and have finally decided to participate in some challenges. Naturally, this one is the perfect place to start. My submission isnt' a grand as many, but it went very smoothly for someone who usually doesn't do planes, and has NEVER before done one as a single-stage ship.

So, apparently we had to put a kradio satellite into NKO for KPR (Kerbal Public Radio, of course). It's a pretty tiny satellite because they don't have any money, having had their budget cut by the KEA (Kerbal Endowment for the Arts...). So, it was decided to take it up with the latest (experimental) plane, the K 7, aptly named "The Gossamer Goose" for it's flight characteristics. A Clamp-o-Tron Jr. was duct-taped to the fuselage for the satellite and all was ready. Of course only Jeb could be trusted with this mission....

I think the pictures will tell the story, (as soon as I figure out how to post them...) but in short, it was a slowish takeoff and climb, but the insertion into orbit went off without a hitch. Deorbiting was pretty easy also, with plenty of fuel to spare. Almost overflew the KSC due to cloud cover, but managed to float it onto the runway, very much like a goose hitting water. Nothing broken though....

All stock parts, only a Kerbal Engineer chip installed, which I forgot about.

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[boolybooly]

Thanks for the mission report Firerunner. Congratulations on completing the K-Prize mission with the small but perfectly formed Scarab and landing safely at KSC runway for which you have earned the highly regarded Advanced Pilot Precision Award. Welcome to the guest list for the K-Prize party.

Hi Guber K. Thanks for your mission report, congratulations on completing the K-Prize mission successfully and launching a radio relay satellite into Kerbin orbit in the process, for which you are awarded not only the highly regarded Advanced Pilot Precision Award for returning safely to KSC runway but also the greatly respected Utilitarial Commendation for leaving something useful in space. Welcome to the guest list aka roll of honour for the K-Prize.

[Tsynique]

Omega Shuttle (Unmanned)

Fully reusable SSTO spacecraft that lands on a runway and has about 150 km. range of atmospheric flight. Uses 4xRAPIER engines. All stock (except MechJeb + Engineering Redux). Can takeoff from a runway if fueled only with jet fuel. I use this to build space stations above Kerbin. Also, have a manned version with lower payload capacity for small orbital operations like saving kerbals from orbit.

[table=width: 500, class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Max Payload to LKO[/td]

[td]5 tons[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]Cost of craft (fully fueled)[/td][td]39968.00 √[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Refund after this launch[/td][td]38096.36 √[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Launch cost if all fuel is burned[/td][td]2076.00 √[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Launch cost of this launch[/td][td]1871.64 √[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Cost of this launch[/td][td]1871.64 √[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Cost of 1 ton to orbit[/td][td]374.328 √[/td][/tr]

[/table]

After some fine tuning in the ascent I managed to improve to these numbers.

[table=width: 500, class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Max Payload to LKO[/td]

[td]7 tons[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]Cost of craft (fully fueled)[/td][td]39968.00 √[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Launch cost if all fuel is burned[/td][td]2076.00 √[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Max. cost of 1 ton to orbit[/td][td]296.57 √[/td][/tr]

[/table]

[table=width: 500, class: grid, align: left]

[tr][td]Payload (tons)[/td][td]Remaining dV [m/s][/td][td]Remaining dV after payload deployment [m/s][/td][td]Estimated roundtrip destinations[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]0[/td][td]1450[/td][td]1450[/td][td]Low Mun orbit, Low Minmus orbit, Kerbin GSO, Duna flyby(?), Eve flyby(?)[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]1[/td][td]1197[/td][td]1295[/td][td]Low Mun orbit, Low Minmus orbit, Kerbin GSO[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]2[/td][td]969[/td][td]1129[/td][td]Low Mun orbit, Minmus slingshot[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]3[/td][td]763[/td][td]954[/td][td]High Kerbin Orbit[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]4[/td][td]567[/td][td]759[/td][td]High Kerbin Orbit[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]5[/td][td]380[/td][td]544[/td][td]High Kerbin Orbit[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]6[/td][td]199[/td][td]304[/td][td]High Kerbin Orbit[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]7[/td][td]11[/td][td]18[/td][td][/td][/tr]

[/table]

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[Shisouka]

*snipped*

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.

Never the less a nice design.

[Tsynique]

Aw snap, how could I miss that!

In theory it can take off horizontally, however few times I tried only one succeeded, so, yeah, I withdraw my entry

[Damaske]

Aw snap, how could I miss that!

In theory it can take off horizontally, however few times I tried only one succeeded, so, yeah, I withdraw my entry

You can be what He calls a Gate Crasher, its not as glamorous as a K-prize winner though.

[Concentric]

Saw this mentioned in the "What did you do today" thread, just when I'd finally managed a flyback SSTO spaceplane myself in career. Entirely stock, a small 1.63t payload to orbit (my Eve-Gilly probe stack and its ion drive), and also an orbital rescue at over 100km periapse.

Pulled a little part-clipping in the editor, but not a load of intakes or wing-stacking, so I think it's good on that front. If I'm reading this right, it gets the Advanced Pilot Precision for landing on the Runway, the Pilot Proficiency (because the runway is also KSC territory?) and the Utilitarian for the payload (it was unused until decoupling). Took off horizontally (no VTOL capability), spaceplane, the only decouple was the payload itself... it qualifies, right?

Details of the flight (such as they are) here. Do you want the .craft?

Edit: Ah, right, a name... the Magpie.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Concentric

[Wanderfound]

What are the standards of proof here? I've got a few SSTOs that would qualify.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/88628-Kerbodyne-D7-Heavy-X5-a-heavy-lift-SSTO-spaceplane

[SkyRender]

So I still need to land this thing, but it was pretty fun overall to build. I wanted to see how many crew cabins I could put into orbit using only one orange tank's worth of fuel overall, and without resorting to massive shenanigans involving intake spam. This was what I came up with, aided greatly by the significant mass drop the RAPIER received recently. I kinda sorta forgot to load it with Kerbals before sending it up, though... Anyway, it was built using one of my favorite tricks of centering the fuel load with the rest of the craft's center of mass, so its CoL/CoM positioning never changes. Meaning landing it should be no big deal once I get around to it.

EDIT: Well, I landed.

It was one of the trickier landings I've done, mostly owing to the fact that I started my descent a bit too early, but it worked out in the end and everything landed intact.

EDIT 2: Here's some vital statistics on the craft:

Airbus Kerbin: 109 parts in 1 stage

2880 liquid fuel + 3080 oxidizer + 7.5 monopropellant on-board

Initial mass: 62.788T

Dry mass: 34.308T

Fuel mass fraction: 54.64%

Payload mass: 16.25T (Mk1 Cockpit + 6 Hitchhiker Storage Containers)

Payload fraction: 25.88%

Fuel per Kerbal: 115.2 liquid fuel/123.2 oxidizer

Edited August 2, 2014 by SkyRender

[Norcurion]

My first try of a Payload SSTO: The Gryphon MK I

Payload to Orbit (with acceptable safety margin, 75x75 km) is 2.25, Fuel Cost 800 Funds ---> 356 Funds per Mass Unit

I do use Mechjeb

rest of the pictures are in the imgur album with descriptions

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[Rhomphaia]

Been experimenting with partclipping and airhogging. I present the Yosuzune.

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[NikkyD]

What exactly do you all call "airhogging" ?

[Rhomphaia]

What exactly do you all call "airhogging" ?

Lots of intakes.

In this case 8 Ram intakes for a single turbojet, more than double the ratio any of my previous spaceplanes.

[carazvan]

Coming back to KSP after a break and made this a bit before 0.24 came out:

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The Mk.III Flea SSTO which only uses 2 air intakes and either jets or ion engines.

Currently working on a 2-3t payload craft that will weight ~5t (trying to balance CoM is fun when doing >50% payload)

[Damaske]

I have lost he craft file of "Prototype" due to changing over from 64 bit to 32 bit KSP. Please keep it as a Gate crasher, I'll have to remake the craft from start and maybe it will be better this time around.

[Ultraflight]

I have a rather.. unconventional SSTO here.

I call it the "BabyEater 700".

It's just BARELY capable of getting orbit, with 100 units of fuel left in the tank for the Rockomax Skipper engine to deorbit.

The vehicle is extremely hard to land, so normally I just pop the emergency chutes, like in the picture.

It takes off horizontally, but the wings and wheels are basically the only things plane-related aboard the vehicle.

To fly:

1. Full throttle down the runway

2. As soon as you go over the end, pull up

3. Fly straight up

4. Fly like a rocket

5. If you can't land the vehicle normally, pop the chutes

Craft file:

https://mega.co.nz/#!pUBDXTbC!_bfCQTQmpL4FoBumv9yTQMHsLptSscwY-R3sSaJbugA

Note: It will take the entire runway including the end boost to get the pig off the ground.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Ultraflight

[Laie]

What exactly do you all call "airhogging" ?

An excessive amount of intakes. Though when it becomes "excessive" is in the eye of the beholder, really. Using more than one intake per engine is pretty much the standard for anything but the most lightweight designs.

At one intake/engine, the engine(s) will start snapping for air at ~18000m; with two intakes, you push that to ~24km. If you look at how terminal velocity increases in that span, it should be quite obvious why a second intake will take you much, much farther.

Note that engines don't necessarily flame out immediately when air becomes scarce; they can still produce plenty of thrust, but of course not as much as when fully supplied. Also note that adding ever more intakes doesn't scale too well: while a second intake will take your from 18 to 24km before air deprivation sets in, having four will only get you to 28km. But then agin, if you have another look at that chart, 28km looks much better than 24km.