[STOCK]Tiny rocket challenge (Continuation for 1.1)

[Jasonden]

Okay -- thanks for the advice about keeping the CM forward!

I gave up on small missions, though, and went big instead.  Here's an 0.625 Duna return mission:

[Caithloki]

Here is my entry for the challenge

If you want to get past all the attempts and get to the one that is a success got to about the 1:15 mark, I got to Minmus and back.

[TedwinKnockman66]

On 28.02.2016 at 4:18 AM, Jasonden said:

Okay -- thanks for the advice about keeping the CM forward!

I gave up on small missions, though, and went big instead.  Here's an 0.625 Duna return mission:

Remember it's STOCK chalenge. No any mods what change gameplay, even a kerbal alarm clock!

but there is an exception! you can use graphic mods

Edited March 16, 2016 by TedwinKnockman66

[JacobJHC]

Can I use Ion engines? Only the .625 meter ones I mean not the big xenon tank.

[TedwinKnockman66]

2 minutes ago, JacobJHC said:

Can I use Ion engines? Only the .625 meter ones I mean not the big xenon tank.

Of Course Yes! it's 0.625! its alowed size

[JacobJHC]

Can I use the radial xenon tanks also? Thanks for the quick reply.

[TedwinKnockman66]

Yes

[DMSP]

Ok, a Mun and Minmus flight with landings on each.

All 0.625 fuel and rocket parts.

 

No Kerbal Alarm Clock? It doesn't really change gameplay that much though...

Edited April 18, 2016 by DMSP

[OhioBob]

I didn't make it very easy on myself, but I managed to achieve "hard mode" status.

My design was intended only to land on Mun or Minmus, not return.  It was a simple design that performed very well.  Here's a picture...

Spoiler

Landing gear were excluded to save weight.  My intent was to just do a "touch and go", that is, touch the surface, take a screenshot, and then quickly fire the engine and return to orbit before toppling over.  However, I found that after landing on Minmus Greater Flats, the rocket stood on end quite stably.  Here's a picture...

Spoiler

After landing I saw that I still had 1018 m/s Δv remaining.  Rather than waste it, I figured I might as well see if I could get it back home.  I had neither a heat shield nor parachute, so this wasn't going to be easy.  If I didn't burn up first, I'd have to perform a soft landing under engine power.

Getting back into orbit and performing a return burn was no problem, but that's when I realized I made a major blunder.  I was headed for a nighttime reentry and landing.  Rather than reload and try again, I decided to take my chances and soldiered on.

Reentry was a close call.  All three of my solar panels overheated and blew up.  My engine (the critical part) could handle only 2000 K, and, as I watched the temperature rise, I didn't think I was going to make it.  Luck was with me though as the temperature maxed out at 1988 K.  With disaster narrowly averted, I now faced the most harrowing part - the landing.

Since it was nighttime, I couldn't see a thing.  I was flying totally blind with only my velocity and altitude indicators to guide me (thankfully, KER gave me altitude above terrain).  KER was also telling me that I was about to land in a mountain biome.  Could things get any worse?  I did a quick calculation and estimated that, in order to kill my velocity, I needed to fire the engine at full thrust when 850 meters above the ground.  When the time came I hit the button and prayed.  I don't know how fast I was going when I hit the ground, but I blew off the bottom half of my rocket.  Miraculously, however, the upper part, including the probe core, survived.

Here's a picture the next day after the sun came up...

Spoiler

It probably shouldn't have happened, but some how it did.  I don't know if I was lucky or good.

 

Edited March 28, 2016 by OhioBob

[nikyname]

On 1/19/2016 at 11:51 AM, TedwinKnockman66 said:

 

Medium mode: go to any planet/moon

 

Challenge accepted

[DMSP]

I'm just back here wondering, was my Hard Mode submission above valid, @TedwinKnockman66?

[Nich]

Impressive mun landing with a low TWR. Looks like you followed all the rules to me

[JacobJHC]

@TedwinKnockman66 I know I am a bit late considering that it is 1.1 now but could I still complete the challenge? The Unity 5 update allows me to launch ships with alot of parts with a decent frame rate, before trying to do this challenge left me with a slideshow. Thanks 

[TedwinKnockman66]

5 hours ago, JacobJHC said:

@TedwinKnockman66 I know I am a bit late considering that it is 1.1 now but could I still complete the challenge? The Unity 5 update allows me to launch ships with alot of parts with a decent frame rate, before trying to do this challenge left me with a slideshow. Thanks 

It's continued for 1.1

[JacobJHC]

@TedwinKnockman66 Thanks, I plan on completing the challenge, also is there a badge yet for this challenge?

[TedwinKnockman66]

2 hours ago, JacobJHC said:

@TedwinKnockman66 Thanks, I plan on completing the challenge, also is there a badge yet for this challenge?

No. I'm not maked badge yet...

Edited May 30, 2016 by TedwinKnockman66

[Cunjo Carl]

    I'd like to add this tiny air breathing SSTO to the table. No matter how long I worked on it, I couldn't stop thinking how cute it was! My goal is to make one a kerbal can ride into space. Click below for the rundown.

Spoiler

 

Control Systems
    One of the trickiest decisions for a tiny SSTO is control systems. Ailerons are very effective, but big and heavy for such a tiny plane. Control wings like the delta deluxe wind up being too draggy. I wound up using reaction wheels, and found the small one pleasantly but barely sufficient to control flight. This saved me from heavier/draggier solutions and freed up enough mass to make it just barely possible!

Wings
    The ship can use either of the small triangle wings, the Small Delta Wing or the Wing Connector Type D. The small delta's high intrinsic L/D counterbalances the fact it's about 30% too big for our purposes. On the other hand, the structural type D's low weight counterbalances its middling L/D and slightly too small size. Both will get to orbit, though! Because I'm on keyboard, I tilted the wings up about 10 degrees from true, so I could just set the SAS to prograde and let the ships lift steady!

Rockets
   I ultimately used a single stack of fuel tanks with one Juno and one twitch hanging off. Because the COM moves so much during the final burn, it's a little tricky to keep on target, but rapidly pounding the keyboard helped... As an alternative solution, a spark can be placed just behind the Juno, and then we can slightly clip the Juno inwards. It doesn't take much to get it within the spark's damage offset, and then you have your very own mini rapier! These were my favorite to fly, but opinions on clipping may vary.

Gear
   Saddly, that landing gear's gotta go! There's just nothing appropriate for runway landing teeny tiny SSTOs yet. It's ironic because together with the decouplers, the landing gear comprises nearly half the craft's cost, but into the ocean with them! Hypothetically we could do an ocean landing, given how light the little craft is.

Flight Path
   The Juno spaceplanes have two advantages over rockets, first being their ability to lift the craft up to where it's low-pressure/low-drag basically for free, and the second their L/D ratio preventing losses to gravity during that long trek up to orbital speeds. Fast space planes can also develop some of their orbital speed while still air breathing, but Junos are limited by their anemic TWR to fairly low speeds when pushing fuel. I just cut speed development as a loss, and instead focus on the free initial lift and the free gravity repulsion while speeding up instead. The flight path is fairly forgiving, just lift up to 8-10km at a 10-20 degree angle, and then burn with the chemical rocket, too. After that, raise the Ap to 75km, and enter orbit in the normal way. It's an easy flight for such a difficult-to-tune design!

The next question is, can it be scaled to a 2 or 3 stack while removing extra wing/intake to make space for a payload.... A Teeny Tiny Payload!

 

 

Edited June 1, 2016 by Cunjo Carl

[Crocket]

Once I showed Lellian Kerman of the Itty Bitty Rocket Committee this challenge, she knew it was the Committee's time to shine! They're brainstorming right now!

(Challenge accepted, will post results sometime soon.)

[Crocket]

Lellian's rocket didn't cut it, but oh well. At least she had fun!

Also, about the NCS Adapters: they were in the 0.625m category, so I considered them fair game. Sorry if I cheated a little on accident.

 

[IncongruousGoat]

Hello all! Now having realized that this challenge is still a thing, here is the mission report for my submission to hardcore mode, achieved by going to Gilly.

I think I'll try for Tylo next. 100% convinced it's possible.

[AlexTheNotSoGreat]

I would like to point out the fact that you didn't say anything about using ion engines... 

[TedwinKnockman66]

On 17.09.2016 at 8:07 PM, AlexTheNotSoGreat said:

I would like to point out the fact that you didn't say anything about using ion engines... 

Any parts of 0.625 size and any command pods are allowed, You maybe know ion engine is 0.625 size

Edited September 19, 2016 by TedwinKnockman66

[Aadit1000]

Are small solar panels allowed?

 

Edited September 21, 2016 by Aadit1000

[TedwinKnockman66]

On 21.09.2016 at 9:15 PM, Aadit1000 said:

Are small solar panels allowed?

 

Yep! All Radial parts allowed

[Jhawk1099]

On 1/20/2016 at 10:51 AM, TedwinKnockman66 said:

Make a rocket from tiny parts(0.625m) and send somwhere.(you can use command pods, Heatshields any size)

Easy mode: get sub-orbital or orbital flight

Medium mode: go to any planet/moon

Hard mode: go to any planet/moon and get back

HARDCORE Mode: send Jeb, Bill, Bob to any planet/moon(Not mun or minmus) and return him without refuel

Who's done Here Badge:  http://imgur.com/rWY9VGL (HD Version: http://imgur.com/4NODlIl)

 

 

what about tweakscale? this way we could have .625m heatshields