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

[VincentS]

This small (but not tiny) SSTO was designed for another challenge (visit whatever you can with 20 pieces) and features 21 pieces (the 3 landing gear only count as 1 in this particular challenge, so that was OK).

It is capable of going to minmus orbit, land there, orbit Mun and land back at KSC (touchdown outside runway, full stop on the runway).

Here is the album :

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(comments are in French, sorry about that.)

Edited October 29, 2014 by VincentS
typo

[boolybooly]

Thanks to all for your reports and congratulations to Spartwo, Kokanee, Overfloater, Toxicblue, Tarmenius, AstroDoc and VincentS on completing the mission and winning the K-Prize. Your achievements have been listed on the Roll of Honour aka the guests list.

Roflcopterkklol just one question, did White lightning mk2 land safely and complete the mission?

numerobis thanks for your gatecrasher report which has been added to the bouncers list, suitable (hopefully) quip applied

[Lou]

New and Improved Entry! SSTO to Eve and Gilly. Dropped a lander probe on Eve, put an orbiting probe around Eve, put an orbiting probe around Gilly, landed on Gilly, and dropped lander probe on Gilly. Also planted a flag on Gilly and made it safely back home. Starting mass of 22.94 T, final mass of 11.36 T. No mods.

Click here for all 40+ images.

Edited November 1, 2014 by Lou

[Fox62]

I might post a Gatecrasher entry at some point. RSS 6.4x Kerbin, RealFuels, AJE, FAR, etc.

[GoSlash27]

Please review this one for my first "gatecrasher" award.

http://s52.photobucket.com/user/GoSlash27/slideshow/KSP/ULS%202_0

It's called the Utility Launch System 2.0.

Advanced pilot precision award and utilitarial distinction for docking 15 tonnes of payload with an SSTO that only weighs 13 tonnes empty.

"HTOL is *so* 2013!"

Best,

-Slashy

[GoSlash27]

Also, the KrakBadger 2.5.

http://s52.photobucket.com/user/GoSlash27/slideshow/KSP/KrakBadger

A kraken drive infiniglider that uses no fuel.

I took off from KSC, transited to Eve, landed on Eve... and that's when things began to get hairy

Landing near my Eve Express base caused a severe lag that gummed up my action group to trigger my kraken drive, forcing Jeb to activate and deactivate it manually using a monkey wrench. All hopes of flying a precision return were out.

Limped back into Eve orbit and got a rendezvous home. Narrowly avoided splattering Jeb on the Mun and got an ugly reentry on Kerbin with no harm done, but I was a long way from home.

I infiniglided back to KSC and landed on the runway.

Close call, but I made it!

That should be worth an advanced pilot precision award and expeditionary astrokerbal distinction (Eve).

-Slashy

[ScriptKitt3h]

Got a sleek 2-man SSTO up and back the other day:

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(The nuke is clipped inside the single turbojet, and a small tank with 90 units of LiquidFuel [for use in the ascent portion of flight] is clipped inside the fuselage.)

[drewscriver]

The Hypatia I, first of a series of science gathering SSTOs I plan to build. Since it is intended to gather science, I made it as low-tech as I could. The only Tier 6 is the tech for turbojets, and I didn't use many of the lower techs as well. This also had the happy side effect of keeping it under 200 parts.

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My demo trip is a Munar visit (because contracts), but it's better suited to Minimus. As a tail-sitter, minimus's flatness is a major plus, and the lower gravity would allow you to reposition it and get more science. My munar trip only had enough fuel for one landing site (the rest of the science was orbital), and even then it barely made it back to KSP - I ended up using RCS to drop the periapsis enough for aerocapture.

[Signo]

Hi, this is my entry. I do not really know all the sub categories I could fit in.

The mission is a rover ride on Mun. The craft is full stock. Mods installed are MJ, KAC and EVE.

The plane can carry in its bay several "extras" to dock with the lander/rover and the rover itself can have extra tanks that I omitted here due to the K prize rules.

Any internal fuel transfer in this mission was CoM related and not intended to extend the real autonomy of the plane.

About the mission profile, I went for a common SSTO ascent (45° till 15000m then building my speed up till 30000 or so, 45° again till a decent Ap and so on). Then after circularizing, the transfer burn to Mun. After a couple of parking maneuvers I dropped the rover on the surface and went for a good ride (Tatanka rovers fear nothing, they are a very fun ride).

Got back to orbit, RV, docking and home. To discharge some fuel I went for a rocket braking instead of an aero one.

Landing was difficult, the rover was wobbling with SAS on, but I did it. I need to rework something or concede and download KAS.

Now enjoy the pics and thank you for reading.

The plane -

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The mission -

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[astrobond]

Hi All

Here is my 0.25 "New KLK SSTO 15T" craft file, and the YouTube Video

Hope you will love it !

(Tip: If you have problem reaching Kerbin Orbit, engage Ascent Autopilot at 26000m and not at 18000m sorry...)

.

Edited November 7, 2014 by astrobond

[Grumman]

Here's my latest and largest SSTO, the SF-9 space shuttle. It has a few KAS parts but only uses them for reloading the rover into the cargo bay. It has taken off, docked in LKO and returned to the KSC runway without taking on fuel. I haven't tested yet whether it can reach Minmus without orbital refueling, but I expect I'd have to leave the rover at home.

Edited November 4, 2014 by Grumman

[The_Rocketeer]

Presenting the Peregrine SP1-C. This is the cargo variant, there are also P (8 passengers) and M (4 passengers plus small cargo bay) variants. They are intended as LKO satellite deployment and station service craft. I have also used the same design, with auxiliary boosters, to deploy satellites in GSOs and SSOs.

I called it the Peregrine after the falcon, due to the shape of the wing-plan which I think resembles the hawk in a hunting dive.

This flight was pretty shabby by most standards, I didn't circularise having forgotten to put a station in orbit first to dock with, and then mistimed my re-entry and had to use the turbojet to extend and land at KSC (still, that's what it's there for!).

The payload for this flight was just thrown together, but the plane could comfortably cope with a much larger (and heavier) satellite, subassembly or probe.

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Edited November 4, 2014 by The_Rocketeer

[Bill Zarr]

The Podly-Dynojet, a fun-sized SSTO, built for orbital rescue in career.

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[boolybooly]

Thanks for some interesting mission reports making good use of the excellent new spaceplane parts from porkjet. Congratulations to Lou GoSlash27 ScriptKitt3h drewscriver Signo Astrobond Grumman The_Rocketeer and Bill Zarr for completing the K-Prize challenge mission succesfully, your accomplishments are identified and linked in the Roll of Honour.

Signo thanks for your combined craft/lander entry. To explain the award, the precedent is that where a craft splits up and rejoins the award applies to all accomplishments as the whole craft but not to the different parts which can have significantly different fuel usage. Hope that seems fair.

GoSlash27 thanks for your VTOL report. I hope you enjoy your additional gatecrasher entry, unfortunately K-Prize achievements cannot be awarded where the K-Prize mission is not completed eg where the craft is disqualified due to a vertical takeoff, however you do get a special bespoke quip tailored to your entry which I hope you will also enjoy in the light hearted spirit which is intended.

[AstroDoc]

Payload at each end

I tried to build a craft with a plane at each end and the payload in the centre, but controlling it's ascent was a nightmare.

I successfully made one with part of the payload at each end, and the plane in the centre.

I was disappointed that the final cost of the Mun lander mission was ~7000 Kerbal currency. With trimming I might have been able to get it down to 6000+, but in the end a simple rocket might have been cheaper.

I adhered to provisos A and B associated with rule 1

Screenshots below of takeoff, orbit, docked parts orbiting Mun, lander landed and splashed, and plane back on runway.

AstroDoc

Edited November 11, 2014 by AstroDoc

[zawine]

I do it right? I called this one Tweety.

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[Roflcopterkklol]

Roflcopterkklol just one question, did White lightning mk2 land safely and complete the mission?

Sure did, sorry about the late reply, completely missed your post

Anywho here are some pics of a mission, just saying white lightning is a bit more than just an SSTO.

Take off

10km

15km

21km

25km

30km

34km

40km

100km orbit

Map view of 100km orbit

Accelerating to a more distant position

2000km orbit seems nice, with a lot of fuel left over too.

Map view of 2000km orbit... a lot of fuel left in the reserve tanks.... this journey is not over!

To the Mun!

Hi mun!

This was a pretty scenic picture imo

in 140-150km orbit

in 110-15km orbit

Close fly bye

That was quick, bye mun!

Back to kerbin we go

in 4600km orbit - 500km orbit

Back at kerbin in a snug 500km orbit!

Map view, Lets land this bad boy

Going down (apo aps is at 5km)

easy does it on the way down, not quite so heavy anymore, dont want to stall it

this big missing section is where i totally did not stall it on the way down and have a few very tense moments that did not end until 5000 meters, not at all.

Touch down! with over 2k LF and nearly 3k OX after going to a circle 2000km orbit then into munar orbit followed by low pass followed by a return to 500km orbit before de orbit and landing, what a mouth full.

[The_Rocketeer]

Sure did, sorry about the late reply, completely missed your post

Anywho here are some pics of a mission, just saying white lightning is a bit more than just an SSTO.

So why not land on the runway? o.O

[Roflcopterkklol]

So why not land on the runway? o.O

i never do lol, laziness, i could have gone to minmus after going to the mun then landed back at kerbin if i was less lazy when i did that

[The_Rocketeer]

Well, I gotta be honest, I was really bummed out after all the Mun stuff that u just dumped ur plane in the desert... what a let down...

Jokes! Nice craft man...

[bakanando]

I do it right? I called this one Tweety.

That's a very nice minimalist spaceplane. Great use of the radial engines.

And now for a spaceplane of my own, the Emergency Retrieval Spaceplane Hayato MK1.

This is my first successful mission to LKO and back with a spaceplane, also my first time landing in the runway. I designed this one for rescueing stranded kerbals in orbit (the contract ones).

The ascent wasn't very efficient but it got there with a little less than half of its fuel left. (Bigger pic here)

Approach

Capture

A very stressful landing @65m/s

Edited November 13, 2014 by bakanando

[zawine]

That's a very nice minimalist spaceplane. Great use of the radial engines.

Thanks. I kept going bigger, and failing with bigger and bigger explosions (which was awesome). Then decided to try a different approach

[GloriousWater]

This is a design for a Laythe lander I had back in my 0.24.2 career save. Unfortunately that mission never flew. Still, here it is in all its glory:

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(I did forget to put batteries/solar panels on the thing, but it's not a probe so it can fly just fine anyway)

[boolybooly]

Thanks AstroDoc zawine Rofltcopterkklol bakanando and GloriousWater for your mission reports and congratulations on successfully completing the K-Prize mission. Honours and plaudits are listed in the guest list for the K-Prize party, to which you are all welcome.

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

Realizing that we never claimed our K Prize, we rolled the old GullWing 1 out of mothballs for one last trip around the world. (we – LOL - me and the other Kerbals). The Gull Wing project went all the way to Gull Wing 12, an attempt to build a payload shuttle to carry fuel to orbit. But we always burned more fuel than we carried. So we went back to rockets.

The Gull Wing 1 was our first successful orbital space plane. The breakthrough came when we stopped using any of jet fuel fuselage components at all and use only LFO fuselages. Back in version 0.24 that meant using exclusively rocket fuselages.

On the runway

Wheels Up

Sub orbital

Orbit achieved

Deorbit maneuver plotted

Reentry -

We were a little high on our deorbit perigee point, (This plane is a lot lighter than the ones I use today) so we will overshoot the KSC a little bit, will have to turn around and approach from the water (that is what the actual space shuttle does IRL)

Coming in for a landing

Nothing in the rules said you can’t do this.

oops, not quite on the runway.

Little bit of taxiing

On the runway, 100% recovery.

K-Prize please!

Edited November 14, 2014 by Brainlord Mesomorph