Mission: Rocket Launch

[Moesly_Armlis]

Mission: Rocket Launch

Launch a rocket.

Achieve orbit. 

Launch it anywhere except in the area marked in the picture below.

 

Media of some of my fun times:

Mountain Launch

It all started when a rocket launch from the mountain was propositioned.

 

Video Tel Test

 

Polar Launch

Then a flight to the North pole and rocket launch.  The early launch profile of the rocket had unexpected results but still managed to reach polar orbit.

Video Polar Launch

 

Bill's Beach Blanket Launch

The next adventure is almost ready.

 

This is not like other challenges. Accomplishing this task offers many challenge and can be done with so many variants.   I choose to go stock.  Add in whatever game mods you require.  So the rules are simple.

Rules

Go launch a rocket into orbit!

No Launch Zone (includes air space above it)

Post your videos or pictures

Have fun.

[SpacePod9]

So no Mods that allow to launch from another area other than the KSP peninsula right?

Examples of these mods are Kerbal Konstructs or KerbinSide

In that case I might Start a project called Kegasus to get to orbit.

[Nich]

 I've always wanted to see what the DV requirement is for launching from the top of the mountain challenge excepted 

[Moesly_Armlis]

28 minutes ago, SpacePod9 said:

So no Mods that allow to launch from another area other than the KSP peninsula right?

Examples of these mods are Kerbal Konstructs or KerbinSide

Mods may or may not impact on fun time.  So use at your discretion.

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

I'll definately try this!

[sgt_flyer]

heh  i'll maybe try to rebuild my old earwig TEL (pre 1.0, so i would have to fully rebuild it)  here's what it was capable of at the time for those interested (manned Mün capable + return !)

 

 

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Hmmmmmmmmm, now, to design that rover-plane..... YOU DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING!

 

[Kokanee]

My entry, launched from the back of a plane and made it to a 75x75km orbit.

 

 

[Moesly_Armlis]

On 2/27/2016 at 2:36 PM, Kokanee said:

My entry, launched from the back of a plane and made it to a 75x75km orbit

See your plane launching a rocket.
 

Raise a train with a rocket launch at the beach.

 

 

This was quite a challenge.  First to have the rocket packaged and then be able to assemble.  Attaching the engine and having it travel in a straight line took time and patience.  Wheel choice was very important and I gave up on the rugged wheels, maybe the 1.1 update will change things.

There were plenty of train wrecks.

Connecting the passenger cars was also demanding as the train was becoming very unstable and further tweaking was needed to achieve a straight line.  Adding more wheels to the rocket package seemed to make the difference.

Having the probe core the root part was important and adding the passenger cars seemed to remove that advantage.  That is why at the beginning the vehicle detaches and then re-assembles.  Otherwise the Thumper takes the camera focus when the second stage is fired.

There were two bugs. 

The engine stowed sometimes showed it ugly head, but moving the Thuds further apart seemed to rub that away.

Unusual bug where the probe core would burn up at 60 km.  The camera was way over wobbly and the vessel status indicted the vessel was splashed down.  Launching adjacent to the water brought on this issue and moving the launchpad away from the immediate shore alleviated this problem.

Learned that engines need to be thrust limited to zero to set proper COM to thrust vector.  The probe core engines added a slight horizontal vector showing up in the hanger.

The KerbalKatz mod assisted greatly when testing.  Using the physics delta time changer made testing less of a chore.  The vessel to reach top speed took less real time to do so,  The physics ratio was used to set the speed of the video playback to bring it back to real time.

Scatterer was also very decent at producing atmospheric effects but the added detail to the water is what sold me.

When it all worked it was very pleasing.

 

Here is the video.

 

Edited March 16, 2016 by MoeslyArmlis

[scullyl]

 

I forgot to take a picture before, so heres what it looks like in the VAB

[Foxster]

Here's a cute little (near-)SSTO launched from the grasslands near the mountains...

It needed a bit of a boost to get some air-speed and while the jet wound up, then it was plain sailing to orbit and back. 

Dunno why, but this looks sooo cool!...

Edited March 17, 2016 by Foxster

[silks]

2 hours ago, Foxster said:

Dunno why, but this looks sooo cool!...

I totally agree.

Here's a lazy design of a floating launchpad. Not sure if hyperedit was allowed but I used it to get above the sea. Too bad mechjeb can't hold it steady after the rocket has decoupled and is sitting freely on the launchpad.

 

[beezTEM]

I like the idea.

[Moesly_Armlis]

7 hours ago, silks said:

Not sure if hyperedit was allowed

Yes you can use mods and cheats, but maybe use them for extravagant launches for example launching a rocket from the sun

 

9 hours ago, Foxster said:

Dunno why, but this looks sooo cool!

Any rocket that is not launched at the mundane launchpad is always cool.

[max_creative]

I have a 3 icbm's on stand by at the island airbase. They have successfully made it to orbit with fuel to spare does it count? (This is on the mobile device and I also don't know how to take screenshots or use imgur so sorry)

[*MajorTom*]

Submarine with missile. Ocean launch. Only stock. Very bad there is no water engines in stock  

And no-cheat transport to water

ps: sorry for my poor english

[xendelaar]

On 25-2-2016 at 11:14 PM, Nich said:

 I've always wanted to see what the DV requirement is for launching from the top of the mountain challenge excepted 

Launching from the mountains (at 5500m) saves you approximately a "whopping" 100- 200 dV.  I've tried this a couple of months ago.

[max_creative]

5 hours ago, *MajorTom* said:

Submarine with missile. Ocean launch. Only stock. Very bad there is no water engines in stock  

And no-cheat transport to water

ps: sorry for my poor english

Yours is awesome! And your submarine works a lot better than mine!

[scullyl]

On 2/24/2016 at 3:35 PM, MoeslyArmlis said:

Then a flight to the North pole and rocket launch.

What did you use to fly to the North pole? Also I'm going to take on your challenge of launching from the sun 

 

[Moesly_Armlis]

On 3/19/2016 at 6:55 AM, *MajorTom* said:

Submarine with missile. Ocean launch. Only stock. Very bad there is no water engines in stock  

Excellent work on the submarine.  I was expecting an explosion at the end because ... missile.  The scientific data collected will be glorious.

On 3/19/2016 at 2:18 PM, scullyl said:

What did you use to fly to the North pole? Also I'm going to take on your challenge of launching from the sun 

A transport plane was used. 

edit:

 

The polar expedition did not go as planned and the transport plane needed to be recovered in order to free up the rocket.  Some where I have the pictures and video and I will post them.

Expecting your next launch to be scorching.

 

 

There are plenty of tutorial resources here on the forum but the wiki is vital.

This is the link

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Main_Page

or look at the top of the forum there is a button KSP Wiki

To take screenshots on my windows it is the F1 key and pressing the F2 key will reduce the HUD instruments clutter.  The wiki has the information for many other key commands.

As for help with imgur you will need to register an account with that website or another similar.  Then sharing is easy there is a share icon that can copy the image link location then a similar share icon within the KSP forum to paste it into your posts.  On windows I use a right click and select copy link location then paste that into a post.

Edited March 26, 2016 by MoeslyArmlis

[max_creative]

41 minutes ago, MoeslyArmlis said:

Excellent work on the submarine.  I was expecting an explosion at the end because ... missile.  The scientific data collected will be glorious.

A transport plane was used.  The polar expedition did not go as planned and the transport plane needed to be recovered in order to free up the rocket.  Some where I have the pictures and video and I will post them.

Expecting your next launch to be scorching.

 

 

There are plenty of tutorial resources here on the forum but the wiki is vital.

This is the link

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Main_Page

or look at the top of the forum there is a button KSP Wiki

To take screenshots on my windows it is the F1 key and pressing the F2 key will reduce the HUD instruments clutter.  The wiki has the information for many other key commands.

As for help with imgur you will need to register an account with that website or another similar.  Then sharing is easy there is a share icon that can copy the image link location then a similar share icon within the KSP forum to paste it into your posts.  On windows I use a right click and select copy link location then paste that into a post.

I know. I just checked, f1 is turn the brightness down. f5 and f6 aren't anything so maybe I will change some stuff.

[OhioBob]

The rules of the challenge are simple, so I used a simple and low cost solution...

Spoiler

 

Edited March 28, 2016 by OhioBob

[Gojira1000]

That was fun

 

 

[max_creative]

2 hours ago, Gojira1000 said:

That was fun

 

 

Launching stuff underwater FTW!!! Question was this inspired by Matt Lowne's intercepting a orbital bomber, or hazard-ish's eve underwater return? Or did you just think "oh not from the ksc... LETS DO IT FROM UNDERWATER!!!

[Gojira1000]

3 minutes ago, max_creative said:

Launching stuff underwater FTW!!! Question was this inspired by Matt Lowne's intercepting a orbital bomber, or hazard-ish's eve underwater return? Or did you just think "oh not from the ksc... LETS DO IT FROM UNDERWATER!!!

I've been trying to build a submarine SSTO for quite a while, so this was a good chance to use some of my failure-lessons. I blame Matt and Hazard-ish for the whole "submarine SSTO" project. Which I will eventually manage in a way that makes me happy.