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

[EvermoreAlpaca]

1 minute ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

The video is marked private.

Thank you, fixed.

[V7 Aerospace]

I'm guessing that the Aeris 4A is considered cheating 

Edited January 1, 2016 by V7 Aerospace

[Temstar]

I've been working on a series of workhorse SSTO spaceplanes, here's one of them, the STS Starlifter BP:
 

Spoiler

Here it is on the runway before lift off. 132 tons powered by seven Rapier engines. This particular one is a bipropellant tanker designed to lift fuel and oxidiser to orbital propellant depots.


Climbing to orbit on closed cycle.


75km x 75km orbit reached and approaching the propellant depot.


Docking to depot completed, ready to transfer propellant. Total transfer to the depot was 2852L of LiquidFuel and 3473L of Oxidizer, which is a tiny bit more Oxidizer than the optimum mix. I kept 360L of LiquidFuel and 440L of Oxidizer in the spaceplane for deorbit burn.

Total delivery to depot comes out at 31.625 tons, plus some spare monopropellant. Payload fraction 23.83%


Disconnecting from the propellant depot to perform deorbit burn.


Peak heat load during high alpha reentry. The lifting body fuselage which provides something like 50% of the lift during level fight is acting as a giant airbrake here, hence the relatively low heat during reentry.


Gliding towards KSC.


Flaring just before touch down.


Starlifter stopped on the runway, ready to be recovered.

Fully fuelled this spaceplane costs $168,064, empty it's $158,340. The cost of the propellant delivered to the depot was $2,906.74, so the cost ends up being $215.57 per ton to orbit.

Being a workhorse design, it's also available in LiquidFuel tanker for refuelling atomic rocket engined powered crafts:


Cargo carrier, capable of carrying 34 tons to orbit:


And a orbital passenger plane variant, with a capacity of 32 passengers:

Edited January 2, 2016 by Temstar

[manni01]

I made this nice little Mun SSTO

 

[boolybooly]

Congratulations to...

Bill Zarr  Advanced Pilot Precision Award 1st Class with Peregrine.

Gojira1000 Utilitarial Commendation (42t), Pilot Proficiency Medal with Mule-1.

madster Advanced Pilot Precision Award 1st Class with Dumb 2.

sieve Advanced Pilot Precision Award with Hubble Service Vessel.

Temstar Advanced Pilot Precision Award 1st Class with Starlifter.

manni01 Astrokerbal Distinction (Mün), Advanced Pilot Precision Award with Mun SSTO.

Evermore Alpaca  - Advanced Pilot Precision Award with Bill Kermans' SSTO (minimalist record holder 4.792t).

... for completing the K-Prize mission successfully and each with your own style and kudos. Thankyou for your mission reports and welcome to the K-Prize Party Guest list aka the roll of honour.

 

FYI V7 Aerospace, using the stock craft or other player creations is perfectly OK, the aim being to fly the mission successfully and provide a report of some kind. I would simply comment that it is appropriate to make full disclosure and credit other peoples creations where they are used.

[ECarinae]

Hello! I managed to painstakingly make a SSTO I'm happy with, and get it to orbit and back! @Randazzo showed me this thread in my topic showing off the craft and mentioned I should check this thread out. The SP-M is a SSTO capable of reaching orbit and return, and has a built in resource harvesting and refining assembly all packaged into a Mk2 Cargo Bay CRG-08. The mining assembly was more of a conceptual design rather than efficient, but it does work if you have a little while (See: Years) to spend on planet harvesting. Now that I know of this thread, I think I'm going to have to tweak the design and go for some challenges.

Edited January 8, 2016 by ECarinae

[Randazzo]

I was inspired by the design above to make my overdue 1.0.5 entry, Kestrel III, though only in name. Radically different design, but business as usual. Launch, rendezvous with station, land. Spent a lot of time with the air on fire in this one.

And I realize the station shot (the station has mechjeb) looks suspiciously like it was performing a rendezvous, but it was from docking with that solar/radiator panel extension and not the Kestrel. I can do it again and dock with something else if it's an issue as I can't remove the MJ unit at this point.

 

 

[Doctor Mandarb]

I'm entering my "SSTO-MKIII" (yes, no fancy name this time) to the challenge. I managed to bring 2 Kerbals into orbit (~ 85 to 86 km) there was a bit fuel left after landing. Now while this was a pure flight to orbit and back.... if it would go to do extended work in space. I would have to add more fuel, or refuel it in space. I'm not that professional (yet). But I'm glad I can land a plane without a real heatshield... only useing radiators to save the Kerbals from being cooked alive.

There is a video to prove my flight.

It was build, and send into orbit during my live-stream. Therefore no real picture gallery this time, but I have 1 picture after it returned home

See you in at my next flight, and lets hope we all can walk away from it.

[ihtoit]

WELL, I built a fuel pod to start, because I thought to myself that I wouldn't have enough in a SSTO to do everything at once.

Jettisoned the engines too early, stranded it in an utterly useless eccentric orbit.

Launched my SSTO anyway, launched its payload (a small comsat in a 71km circular equatorial orbit) took it to a rendezvous and ran out of fuel on the approach. Tried to slow using RCS for docking but overshot by several km before running out of monoprop.

SO, I launched another robot tanker for rendezvous/docking, drained the first one using it (dock event 1), them shifted orbits for a rendezvous and dock (event 2) with the spaceplane.

Successfully refuelled the spaceplane.

Parked spaceplane (now with 1194m/s dV plus LF for terminal approach/landing) in a 297km circular orbit.

Drained the fuel from the pod engine tanks and jettisoned those. Fuel pod 2 is now stuck in orbit.

Note: Apart from MechJeb and BDArmoury (thought I'd give myself a bit of a challenge by putting the fuel pod in Guardian Mode with lasers, that didn't quite go according to plan!), everything is Vanilla 1.0.4.

My SSTO Beauty Shot:

Edited January 10, 2016 by ihtoit
.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

QUESTION! Apparently MechJeb isn't allowed....? 

[ihtoit]

1 minute ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

QUESTION! Apparently MechJeb isn't allowed....? 

I have always and always will challenge this restriction by saying that even Apollo used computers!

[Chemp]

49 minutes ago, ihtoit said:

I have always and always will challenge this restriction by saying that even Apollo used computers!

And we all know how this turned out: "landing"

Seriously though, the argument can indeed be made. Others like myself prefer eyeballing trajectories. It's up to you how you want to play the game, but the rules of a challenge are that - rules.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Well? Is it allowed for the K-Prize or no?

[EvermoreAlpaca]

I ditched the pilot to go even smaller.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoqwYB5BrGc&feature=youtu.be
2140 kg at launch.  Take off and landing on bicycle landing gear!

Edited January 11, 2016 by EvermoreAlpaca

[MagicFireCaster]

So i have a lot of spaceplanes made to transport payloads to LKO, so that means i've already cleared the challenge?

[Randazzo]

14 hours ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

Well? Is it allowed for the K-Prize or no?

Nearly certain it is not allowed.

3 minutes ago, MagicFireCaster said:

So i have a lot of spaceplanes made to transport payloads to LKO, so that means i've already cleared the challenge?

You must prove it, i.e., "pics or it didn't happen".

[MagicFireCaster]

15 minutes ago, Randazzo said:

Nearly certain it is not allowed.

You must prove it, i.e., "pics or it didn't happen".

Yeah i guess i will try to upload something interesting then.

[Evanitis]

5 minutes ago, Randazzo said:

Nearly certain it is not allowed.

I'm certain it is. If it wasn't, a rule would mention it. But the only bit about modded parts doesn't. Here:

On 2012. 05. 22. at 10:29 AM, boolybooly said:

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

 

Though I get it - the Spaceplane Guidance's autoland feature smells fishy. Never noticed it before, I should give it a try. BTW... I love that MJ speed-height graph it makes about the ascent profile, so I always had a module when I did SSTOs.

[Randazzo]

2 minutes ago, Evanitis said:

I'm certain it is. If it wasn't, a rule would mention it. But the only bit about modded parts doesn't. Here:

 

Though I get it - the Spaceplane Guidance's autoland feature smells fishy. Never noticed it before, I should give it a try. BTW... I love that MJ speed-height graph it makes about the ascent profile, so I always had a module when I did SSTOs.

There used to be a line about informational mods only, I'm not sure where it went but I'm relatively certain it still applies and is in the spirit of the challenge. Boolybooly is the man with the answers though.

 

[SpaceplaneAddict]

All I want it for is Delta-V readouts and the maneuver plotter, 'cause I don't trust KER, and am stupid about which way to burn to do various things

[Jhawk1099]

Can I make a video and post that?

[boolybooly]

Mechjeb is fine because it doesnt break the rules by changing flight characteristics. See the first post of the thread. The challenge is about comparing spaceplane designs, so they need to be on a level playing field. You can use any mods which dont alter flight physics from stock eg robotics, skins, mechjeb. Using mods for engine parts, wings, tanks or physics tweaks like FAR will be given a gatecrasher listing! The choice is yours...

Any mission report which demonstrates the K-Prize mission was completed including images or videos or just the written word is fine, we are on the honour system here. To qualify a report needs to be of a mission that was actually flown from start to finish, not just a theoretical mission or stringing together several partial missions. You have to actually do it! The report needs to state or show the objectives completed, info also in the first post.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2016 by boolybooly

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Well, lucky me! Now, when is that Dunian transfer window....?

[stewis]

Hi,

Here's my entry to the K-Prize this SSTO ship can take at least 45t payload to 80km with a bit of practice it can get to a 80-90km orbit with around 900 oxidizer and 2000 liquid fuel for the return trip (I messed this assent up slightly so used a bit more fuel than normal but still had plenty left for return).  I suppose if i used the 45t of fuel that is cargo the ship could get to even greater orbits but I am using it to construct a space station in orbit at 80km.  Take off weight is 142t without a payload.  

The ship includes a small service payload that I include on most trips this sits behind the small payload bay doors and includes monopropellant, batteries, large stabilizer, X200-8 tank and a large solar panel.

Costs of the ship are 142,426 without a payload and on landing you get around 130,000 back meaning to orbit and return costs are 12,000.

The ship needs to start on 4 engines due to air intake requirements but once its moving all engines can be started.  This is because the ship only has 2 shock cone intakes,  these provide sufficient air to power the 4 whiplash and 6 rapier engines at full throttle up to mach 4.4.  

All parts are stock only plugins i use are Kerbal Engineer and Docking Port alignment indicator.

If anyone is interested in the ship file I will happily upload somewhere.

 

Edited January 13, 2016 by stewis

[Randazzo]

21 hours ago, boolybooly said:

Mechjeb is fine because it doesnt break the rules by changing flight characteristics. See the first post of the thread. The challenge is about comparing spaceplane designs, so they need to be on a level playing field. You can use any mods which dont alter flight physics from stock eg robotics, skins, mechjeb. Using mods for engine parts, wings, tanks or physics tweaks like FAR will be given a gatecrasher listing! The choice is yours...

Any mission report which demonstrates the K-Prize mission was completed including images or videos or just the written word is fine, we are on the honour system here. To qualify a report needs to be of a mission that was actually flown from start to finish, not just a theoretical mission or stringing together several partial missions. You have to actually do it! The report needs to state or show the objectives completed, info also in the first post.

Well, I'll be dipped. Are these recent changes, or did I imagine up rules for myself?