Bellatrix 10P KEO Challenge

[Sando Mutt]

Making a long story short, working in my KIA project (You'll have news soon) this awesome kommsat was produced:

To put it into orbit I had to design a vehicle capable of inserting about 6000Kgr. in Keosynchronus Transfer Orbit (KTO); not willing to waste much time on it, the Bellatrix family of launchers was created: a tristaged Skipper Hammer boosted (atmospheric)-Reliant (LKO)-Terrier (KTO) beauty, quite difficult to pilot, but cheap and more than able to do the job.

After doing more than 20 launches (with a few funny failures) the idea started to percolate my mind: how much mass can this thing put in Keosynchronus Equatorial Orbit? The one I was using for the kommsat missions had 6 Hammer SRBs, and the Rockomax Fuel Tank has enough circumference to harbour 4 more, so then appeared it: The Bellatrix 10P:

After doing the initial tests, it was evident that it was able to put around 7000 Kgr. of payload in KEO with a fine launch. After some more tests, and adjusting the flight profile, it got its final certification: 9000 kgr. to KTO, and if the payload uses monopropellant for final circularization, 7350 Kgr. in KEO.

But, of course, certification only means that that is what it can do "easily". An then the challenge was born:

The Bellatrix 10P KEO Challenge

Mission: you will have in your hands a shiny new Bellatrix 10P with a dummy payload composed of an RGU, battery, solar panels, antenna, monopropellant tanks and dead weight in the form of ore and fuel tanks, all propelled by 6 Puff engines; launch it and put these payload in KEO.

Objective: Put in KEO as much mass as you can.

Rules:

1. You can not alter in any form the design of the launcher nor its payload, by adding, removing or repositioning any of its parts.
   
   
2. You can modify the amount of ore and fuel in the payload tanks that provide dead mass to change the mass of the payload.
   
   
3. You can modify the amount of fuel in any of the tanks of the launcher and SRBs, including the monopropellant tanks of the payload.
   
   
4. You can alter the thrust power and detachment sequence of SRBs.
   
   
5. KSP 1.0.4 must be used.
   
   
6. FAR, Procedural Firings, Nebula Decals, Firespitter Core and TweakScale mods are mandatory.
   
   
7. You can not use any other mod nor MM cfg file that alter in any form the physics of the game.
   
   
8. The final orbit must be inside this limits to qualify as a successful atempt:
   
   
   1. 
      
   2. Inclination: <0.08º.
      
      
   3. Eccentricity: <0.0005.
      
      
   4. Period: 6H ± 0.01s.
      
      
   5. Stationary Longitude: 15ºW ± 5'.
      
      
   6. The payload must have enough monopropellant for 50m/s of ÃŽâ€v.
      
      
   7. Mission time must be less than 100 days.
      
      
      
      
      
   8. You must post a KSP screenshot with the mandatory orbit parameters visible to be able to join the Hall of Honour and earn Achievement Plaques.
      
   9. This rule list can be modified to balance and cover any problem that might show up.
      
      
      
      Awards: A Hall of Honour will recognize and list the achievement of all the entrants that follow rule 9. Also the following special Achievement Plaques will be awarded for those of you that:
      
      
      Bronze KEO Challenge plaque for mass at KEO of 7600Kgr. or more
      
      Silver KEO Challenge plaque for mass at KEO of 7800Kgr. or more
      
      Gold KEO Challenge plaque for mass at KEO of 8000Kgr. or more
      
      
      This plaques will have engraved the payload mass and the name of the entrant.
      Downloads:
      
      • FAR mod at http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/20451-1-0-4-Ferram-Aerospace-Research-v0-15-4-1-Goldstein-7-29-15
        
      • Procedural Firings mod at http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/39512-1-0-4-Procedural-Fairings-3-15-(June-27)
        
      • Nebula Decals mod at http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/100984-0-25-NEBULA-space-engineering-Decals-Update!-Quality-fix-more (yes, it works with up to date Firespitter)
        
      • Firespitter mod (Nebula dependency) at http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/24551-Firespitter-propeller-plane-and-helicopter-parts-v7-1-%28May-5th%29-for-KSP-1-0. You only need the DLL to make work Nebula Decals
        
      • TweakScale mod (Nebula Dependency) at http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/112693
        
      • Bellatrix 10P and MM cfg for the decals used in the ship in https://s3.amazonaws.com/mutt-space/KEOchall/Bellatrix+10P+KEO+Challenge.zip. Put the included MuttSpace folder in the GameData folder as with any other mod.
        

And that is all. Good luck and have fun!

- - - Updated - - -

HALL OF HONOUR

Gold Plaque of Achievement winners

none

Silver Plaque of Achievement winners

none

Bronze Plaque of Achievement winners

Sando Mutt @ 7728

Rest of Challengers

none

- - - Updated - - -

And here comes my best attempt so far:

And with it, I'm granted the first Plaque of Achievement:

Edited August 21, 2015 by Sando Mutt