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

[Shadownailshot]

I present to you.. The F-22 Raptor ;P

It can easily get you to one of the moons and land, just coming back.. You\'ll need a bit more fuel.

I believe you need enough screenshots or video that shows you were DEFINITELY in orbit.

[Oggula]

9.9 Tonnes liftoff to orbit 0.16

[Sean Mirrsen]

It likely won\'t work come 0.16.1. Going by the craft file (it uses mechjeb so I can\'t open it), it uses aerospikes to fly, so likely doesn\'t use full throttle on ascent and during circularization. In 0.16, this saves you fuel due to a bug.

0.16 craft will only survive the 16.1 update if you can orbit them using full thrust at all times.

[Oggula]

that\'s a par

[G Addict]

Anyone got a good way to shift centre of mass using useful parts? I\'ve got a promising design, but it needs a long tail+ control surfaces to take off successfully. Unfortunately, the only place a tail could feasibly go is already taken by an equally important engine, so I\'ve had to mount it on top of the plane. It now flies like a dream in atmosphere, but because of the centre of mass being above centre of thrust, it goes nose over tail pretty quickly once it\'s out of the atmo. I could just stick a few low profile decouplers on the bottom or something, but I\'d rather have something useful there instead of dead weight. Too low for placing fuel tanks - they\'d screw with the landing gear, but I can\'t really think of anything else. Don\'t need any more wings.

Anyway, I\'ve got a good feeling about this one. Entry once I\'ve sorted this problem out. :

[RC1062]

My planned craft, the \'Orion\'. Unfortunately I have an annoy tendency to refuse to power jet engines using rocket tanks, power rocket engines using jet tanks, use the aero-spike engine, or build anything much bigger than that.

Any advice in regards to keeping within these parameters?

[colmo]

My planned craft, the \'Orion\'. Unfortunately I have an annoy tendency to refuse to power jet engines using rocket tanks, power rocket engines using jet tanks, use the aero-spike engine, or build anything much bigger than that.

Any advice in regards to keeping within these parameters?

Its actually quite hard to stop one set of engines guzzling the fuel of the others. I\'m planning a similar smallish K prize candidate using the radial engines - atm, looks like they\'re going on the wingtips to get thrust symmetry with just two. I find the lack of thrust vectoring on the aerospike unforgiving.

[Maxed-Rockets]

I did it! My original design could make it to orbit, but was extremely unstable during re-entry. These are some of the most stable designs I have ever seen, and they have more than enough fuel to reach a 125km orbit and return.

The first design, the Fun-1D will reach 125km orbit with 125l of fuel, plenty to return with.

The second design is basically the same, but has an extra fuel tank, reaches 125km orbit with 340l of fuel.

They are very easy and forgiving to fly and re-enter. You can probably remove the RCS tanks to get extra range, I never use them.

[CanuckOverlord]

It likely won\'t work come 0.16.1. Going by the craft file (it uses mechjeb so I can\'t open it), it uses aerospikes to fly, so likely doesn\'t use full throttle on ascent and during circularization. In 0.16, this saves you fuel due to a bug.

0.16 craft will only survive the 16.1 update if you can orbit them using full thrust at all times.

So the Unity V will survive the update but be a pain in the ass to land, because you can\'t just idle your way down?

[Shadownailshot]

I found a design on youtube that looked extremely stable, and judging by the video, should have had enough fuel to reach both moons and return in a single flight. I tried it out, reached a 300km circular orbit with between 3-400 litres of fuel left. Taking off was hell, took me about 10 tries to figure out how to get this thing off the ground without exploding. Once it\'s in the air though, it\'s relatively easy, but it handles much differently than anything I\'ve ever used.

That\'s the video. I wanna make some modifications so I\'m not just copying the guy, but it\'s a pretty good design, perfect for rondezvous, but I\'m not sure if it could carry external (or internal for that matter) mass to orbit or not, I have yet to try with any SSTO design.

EDIT: I also think the guy was using some sort of fuel cheat, not unlimited, but I did not end up with nearly as much fuel as he did, and I was trying to fly more efficiently. I started with an 80 Km orbit, even somewhat took advantage of the aerospike fuel bug, and still ended up with less than one tank of fuel left.

[Emilio]

I should redo my old BARTO spaceplane, it could do it.

[emkej]

So as a 0.16 entry, I present to you the X-Wing 9000:

Ascending to 10km using turbojet engines:

Continuing ascend whith rocket engines:

Stable orbit at about 100km:

Happy Kerbal after succesful landing at KSC:

Flight end screen:

[Shadownailshot]

So as a 0.16 entry, I present to you the X-Wing 9000:

Ascending to 10km using turbojet engines:

Continuing ascend whith rocket engines:

Stable orbit at about 100km:

Happy Kerbal after succesful landing at KSC:

Flight end screen:

My god, that thing is a f**k*n\' monster. My biggest one isn\'t even half that size. Although, there have been bigger ones.

[rustymcclintock]

So as a 0.16 entry, I present to you the X-Wing 9000:

Ascending to 10km using turbojet engines:

Continuing ascend whith rocket engines:

Stable orbit at about 100km:

Happy Kerbal after succesful landing at KSC:

Flight end screen:

craft file?

[boolybooly]

Congratulations to emkej and Mac <s>Azzameen</s> Kerman for completing the challenge with X Wing 9000 welcome to the honours list, your invitation to the party is in the post.

Has to be said that v0.16 has thrown us a curve with the square of the fractional throttle setting bug. There is no doubt it can make your fuel stretch about 100x further than it should but that requires a low throttle setting. It makes the whole challenge much easier if you can get into space, but doing that tends to require high throttle settings. So I think people who have had a go at the challenge in good faith deserve a mention on the honours list, just like those who tried and failed get a mention, especially if they show piloting skill unrelated to fuel like emkej. But I think it makes sense to keep 0.16 honours separate and also suspend fuel critical prizes like maximalist and minimalist, then start a new part of the list for 0.16.1 if it ever happens.

Hebdomad if you wanted to start a whole new challenge thread for 0.16.1 feel free, I have no objection. I think the K prize is bigger than one administrator. I would agree with quoting the 0.15/0.16 honours list, perhaps in a spoiler, to keep it complete and neat. Otherwise I will keep this one going and make a new section for the new version. Your call, anyone else have an opnion feel free to chip in.

Edited August 7, 2012 by boolybooly

[hebdomad]

Presenting the Jetmaster_Aether_mk016

^- Youtube link -^

I'm still yet to figure out how to embed stuff in this new forum...

:/ can't share the file yet, it thinks my 4kb file is way too big. O_0

*edit* Fixed after all this time

Edited July 12, 2014 by hebdomad

[hebdomad]

Congratulations to emkej and Mac Azzameen

Hebdomad if you wanted to start a whole new challenge thread for 0.16.1 feel free, I have no objection. I think the K prize is bigger than one administrator. I would agree with quoting the 0.15/0.16 honours list, perhaps in a spoiler, to keep it complete and neat. Otherwise I will keep this one going and make a new section for the new version. Your call, anyone else have an opnion feel free to chip in.

Your call. I would be happy to help administrate a new thread... if that's at all possible.

[martscht]

I know that .16 submissions are sort of frowned upon here. But I wanted to submit this anyway, because I actually got to space and (sort of) back to KSC in a spaceplane for the first time!

Anyway, here it goes:

My Buraq 2 on the runway. I know, a beauty it ain't, but it get's the job done. Although Jeb seems to be a bit sceptical.

I was sort of astonished of how circular I managed to get my orbit. A nice even 115 x 115.

Well, while he's up here, Jeb might as well enjoy the view.

On the way it got uncomfortably close...

But I still missed the runway by like 200 meters. So close... But still, landing at KSC felt almost as good as my first ever Mun landing.

A few quick remarks: This thread is actually the first I heard of the fuel consumption glitch (seems like I'm not that active on these forums). Anyway, I approach things the Kerbal way: full throttle or no throttle. In my original design I also had a decoupler to get rid of the awful aerospike engine on re-entry. But since the challenge says don't lose any parts, I got rid of that.

So, when .16.1 is out, I'll try it again. But first I need to get a grip on landing spaceplanes on the mun...

[emkej]

My Buraq 2 on the runway. I know, a beauty it ain't, but it get's the job done. Although Jeb seems to be a bit sceptical.

I think it looks kinda cool, even though a little bit generic. You are too critical to yourself, building a spaceplane that can complete this challenge and looks good is really difficult, so well done.

[hebdomad]

Naw come on! Where is my spot on the new board?

> Youtube link of the flight > http://youtu.be/LtSdbJ5fMB4

[boolybooly]

Congratulations to martscht for your achievement and on getting back to KSC terrain and landing in one piece, your place on the honours list is well deserved. I didnt want to give an impression of disapproval for v 0.16 it just has a big balance change which means that it doesnt have consistency with the previous balance nor is it a realistic model, however you can get quite a lot of fun out of exploiting it with massive thrust to weight ratios ^.^ (which you did not do I hasten to add).

And hebdomad, congratulations on improving on your previous feat and making a nifty video to report it with some nice touches. I hope you dont mind that I gave your KosmoKerbal Commendation diminutive text for v16 as it is a fuel dependant achievement (we lost strikethrough).

The BB transition has also broken all the links in the first post and added characters to the text. I am waiting for aLeXmOrA to complete his work before repairing it in case he solves some of the problems in the process. Unfortunately unless you get mod access hebdomad there is no way to share admin on the same list, it has to be one or t'other. I am happy to carry on if people are happy with the challenge as it is. My questions stemmed from the fact that some people wanted to have other tasks included like payload delivery. I thought that because it conflicted with the no decoupling rule that it deserved to be a seperate challenge thread which someone else could look after but I didnt want to impose that view if others disagree. However it strikes me that there is scope for a sister thread to the K Prize for more advanced spaceplane related challenges eg dropping a satellite or fuel dump into various orbits, which would leave the K Prize a well defined, easy to understand challenge, which I hope will encourage new players to have a go... point being hebdomad could start a payload thread and I can carry on with this one.

Edited August 13, 2012 by boolybooly

[Maxed-Rockets]

Can I get credit for mine?

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/11214-The-K-Prize-100-reusable-spaceplane-to-orbit-and-back?p=222544&viewfull=1#post222544

[boolybooly]

Yes sorry MaxKSP, all the fuss over the transition has confused me, congrats on getting your design to work in v16. I also missed Tarmenius' recent well illustrated and successful free return mission report somehow, but you are both on the honours list now and you even have links which work. If I have missed anyone else please say so.

[djnekkid]

Are there any 0.16 3man SSTO's? Capable of a 150km orbit and roundevouz with my spacestation? The crew needs to be exchanged from time to time

MechJeb, KW pack, NovaPunch, all are OK

[boolybooly]

These are the rules for inclusion on the official honours list and invite to the party, but if you achieve some kind of orbit and landing by breaking the rules you can be recognised as a gate crasher and placed on the bouncers watch list. ;D

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.