Fuel Sipper Challenge : UPDATED

MadChris48 · August 9, 2015

Fuel Sipper Challenge

I've been wanting to come up with my own challenge for a while and after doing the Flight School Challenge and seeing the efficiencies of participants vary, I wondered how little fuel one could send a kerbal into orbit with.

I'm a minimalist and all about efficiency, so this was right up my alley; hence, this challenge was born.

Your Mission:

Design a vehicle to get a single kerbal to a 100km x 100km orbit while consuming the least amount of fuel (in kgs) to do so. Your Kerbal does not have to return.

This is an exercise in design efficiency and piloting prowess.

Rules:

1. Stock parts, normal difficulty settings

2. No gameplay/physics altering mods (visual and informational mods ok)

3. No exploits or 'cheaty' (Wheaton-y) stuff, no clipping of functional parts (fuel tanks, engines)

4. Must have 1 Kerbal on board.

5. Must have at least 1 screenshot of vehicle on runway/launch pad with the resource tab open, and 1 screenshot showing the craft in a 100kmx100km orbit with the resource tab open.

7. Once in orbit, subtract any remaining fuel from your starting amount to get the total consumed for each fuel type. (be sure to subtract the exact amount remaining, I have a feeling tenths and hundredths of fuel will make a difference between scores.)

8. UPDATE: You can use any propellant you like. Your score is the total mass of all propellant spent to reach orbit. Multiply total fuel spent by it's appropriate mass.

[TABLE=class: grid, width: 200, align: left]

[TR]

[TD]LF & LOX[/TD]

[TD]5kg/unit[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Solid Fuel[/TD]

[TD]7.5kg/unit[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Monoprop[/TD]

[TD]4kg/unit[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Xenon[/TD]

[TD]0.1kg/unit[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Leaderboard:

[TABLE=width: 700, align: left]

[TR]

[TD=align: center]Name

[/TD]

[TD=align: center]LF Used[/TD]

[TD=align: center]LOX Used[/TD]

[TD=align: center]Solid Fuel Used[/TD]

[TD=align: center]Xenon Used[/TD]

[TD=align: center]Monoprop Used[/TD]

[TD=align: center]Total Fuel Mass Spent[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=align: center]Foxster[/TD]

[TD=align: center]176.12[/TD]

[TD=align: center]124.37[/TD]

[TD=align: center][/TD]

[TD=align: center]1502.45 kg[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=align: center]MadChris48[/TD]

[TD=align: center]213.31[/TD]

[TD=align: center]138.85[/TD]

[TD=align: center][/TD]

[TD=align: center]1760.8 kg[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=align: center][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=align: center][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=align: center][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=align: center][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=align: center][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=align: center][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=align: center][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=align: center][/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Happy Flying!

Edited August 10, 2015 by MadChris48
UPDATE

GoSlash27 · August 9, 2015

Interesting! Doing a lot of work on my space station this morning, so it'll be a while before I can get in on this.

Least amount of fuel for 1 kerbal. Hmm...

HoloYolo · August 9, 2015

Can I use realism overhaul?

MadChris48 · August 9, 2015

Can I use realism overhaul?

Meh. see Rule #2. Once you start allowing mods people's physics get altered and consistency (and fairness) gets out of whack. I'd like to avoid that stuff all together.

HoloYolo · August 9, 2015

Meh. see Rule #2. Once you start allowing mods people's physics get altered and consistency (and fairness) gets out of whack. I'd like to avoid that stuff all together.

I see. Thanks.

cantab · August 9, 2015

At the moment you have the blatant loophole that solid fuel, monopropellant, and xenon all aren't considered. I would suggest changing the scoring to be by total mass of propellant expended, so people can use whatever propellants they like. (Note that not all resources have the same mass per unit, so there may be some number crunching needed).

Endersmens · August 9, 2015

The title suggests a hydrazine drinking challenge.

Foxster · August 9, 2015

Here's an entry from me.

LF: 198.00-21.88=176.12

O: 154.00-29.63=124.37

Score =176.12+124.37=300.49

MadChris48 · August 9, 2015

At the moment you have the blatant loophole that solid fuel, monopropellant, and xenon all aren't considered. I would suggest changing the scoring to be by total mass of propellant expended, so people can use whatever propellants they like. (Note that not all resources have the same mass per unit, so there may be some number crunching needed).

I see. As this is meant to be simple as possible to start, I'll edit the wording to be LF/LOX only for now. Im out of town for the day but may expand this to include other fuels in the future. Thanks for your input.

GoSlash27 · August 10, 2015

I see. As this is meant to be simple as possible to start, I'll edit the wording to be LF/LOX only for now. Im out of town for the day but may expand this to include other fuels in the future. Thanks for your input.

Well, that kills my original concept ( which wasn't working right anyway ) Too late to try something tonight, so I'll put it off.

Best,

-Slashy

MadChris48 · August 10, 2015

OK, after cantab pointed out some deficiencies in the rule set, they have since been revised (thanks!). I hope this makes it a little more flexible and flavorful of a challenge. Let's see where this goes, and if any further refinement of rules is needed I'm open to suggestion.

Thanks for the input, now let's get this party started!

Fuel Sipper Challenge : UPDATED

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