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Shuttle Challenge v3 - The 1.1.x STS thread [Stock and Mod Friendly][11.10.2016 - CLOSED FOR REFURBISHMENT]


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Ok, so I had a bit of time, and finished the second and third level of the challenge. Kolumbia is flying great, except for the reentry part, which can be a little wild, and I still didn't figure out an optimal reentry profile.

The second part went quite well. The third was a little more complicated - I had to fly it twice, because the subassembly seems to be a little broken - the jr docking ports on the solar arrays are blocked, and impossible to dock to, si I had to rearrange them a bit. Other than that, all went according to the mission plan.

I hope everything is properly documented,

have a nice weekend,

Michal.don

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Hi,

I'm currently playing a highly modded hard career mode entry, and my funds are a bit tight. My shuttle has been tested in sandbox, and is ready for a real launch. Can I launch some alternate ComSats for mission 2 (that work with my remote tech network) rather than the ones provided? They are slightly heavier and bulkier.

Thanks,

Kit  

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21 hours ago, michal.don said:

Ok, so I had a bit of time, and finished the second and third level of the challenge. Kolumbia is flying great, except for the reentry part, which can be a little wild, and I still didn't figure out an optimal reentry profile.

*Gallery Snip*

The second part went quite well. The third was a little more complicated - I had to fly it twice, because the subassembly seems to be a little broken - the jr docking ports on the solar arrays are blocked, and impossible to dock to, si I had to rearrange them a bit. Other than that, all went according to the mission plan.

*Gallery Snip*

I hope everything is properly documented,

have a nice weekend,

Michal.don

Another nice couple of missions there, barring the, ahem, slightly unorthodox re-entry!  Just so I award you the right badges - I assume you made use of the spin stabilization for STS-2, and for STS-3 I'm pretty sure you launched right in to the 25-30 degree inclination, but I couldn't see any "proof" of inclination unless I missed something?  Anyway, you've certainly earned your badges, just want to be right as to Pilot vs Commander for you :)

 

17 hours ago, Paranoid Shark said:

Hi,

I'm currently playing a highly modded hard career mode entry, and my funds are a bit tight. My shuttle has been tested in sandbox, and is ready for a real launch. Can I launch some alternate ComSats for mission 2 (that work with my remote tech network) rather than the ones provided? They are slightly heavier and bulkier.

Thanks,

Kit  

Hi Kit AKA Paranoid Shark welcome to the challenge!  I'm not sure if you'd noted (or had previously certified under one of the two former challenges) but rule 8 states: "Missions must be completed in the logical order unless you are certified from either STS v1 or v2 challenges to the relevant level".  If you haven't certified then you will also need to fly STS-1 first which is essentially an empty shuttle mission (unless you go for bonus fuel pod mission).  

If you are worried about the funds being tight then why not play this out in sandbox?  However, If you are keen to integrate this into your career mode then by all means launch some alternate ComSats.  Just remember that for the Commander Rank you will need to have spin stabilisation built into your design :)

13 hours ago, Alchemist said:

Decided to share my Buran, if anybody wants to try it out

 

Nice thanks for sharing!  Remember people you can go for the Astronaut badge by using someone else's shuttle for a mission if you are badge hungry :)

This reminds me I need to update my own Buran release thread.  Let's see if we can get both of them top of page one just before SCF is written :wink:

Nice work Alchemist!

SM

P.S. @ZooNamedGames I haven't forgotten about you.  May well be receiving a mission request when I get round to it!

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1 hour ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Another nice couple of missions there, barring the, ahem, slightly unorthodox re-entry!  Just so I award you the right badges - I assume you made use of the spin stabilization for STS-2, and for STS-3 I'm pretty sure you launched right in to the 25-30 degree inclination, but I couldn't see any "proof" of inclination unless I missed something?  Anyway, you've certainly earned your badges, just want to be right as to Pilot vs Commander for you :)

Yes, I did use the spin stabilisation, unfortunately I did not take the pictures when I fired the separotrons.... As for the inclination of the orbit in the third mission, It's possible to see it in the fifth picture, I set one of my equatorial stations as target, and the inclination is 25,8°

So far I am having a great time competing in your challenge, I probably will try another mission in a few days.

Thanks,

Michal.don

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17 hours ago, michal.don said:

Yes, I did use the spin stabilisation, unfortunately I did not take the pictures when I fired the separotrons.... As for the inclination of the orbit in the third mission, It's possible to see it in the fifth picture, I set one of my equatorial stations as target, and the inclination is 25,8°

So far I am having a great time competing in your challenge, I probably will try another mission in a few days.

Thanks,

Michal.don

Oh yes, derp how did I miss that 5th pick.  I was literally going through the album one by one viewing full resolution.  Must have looked right at it!

Glad you are enjoying yourself so far - It just get's better from here in my opinion.  The missions become much more fluid and give you increasing amount of input as to how you achieve them.  Look forward to seeing your entries, and here are your very well earned badges!   P83gnaC.jpgMvCxjCK.jpg

SM

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I had a busy couple of days, finishing the projects for my university, and working on a few interesting things at my job.... So naturally, instead of studying, I flew another mission :D I went for the level four, the rescue mission. The mission itself was fun, and my shuttle did just fine, except for the reentry part, which was again a bit funny (I'll eventualy learn to do it properly, I promise :) ). Anyway, there's an album from the mission:

See you soon, I'm already designing a space station for the next part :D

Michal.don

Edited by michal.don
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15 minutes ago, michal.don said:

I had a busy couple of days, finishing the projects for my university, and working on a few interesting things at my job.... So naturally, instead of studying, I flew another mission :D I went for the level four, the rescue mission. The mission itself was fun, and my shuttle did just fine, except for the reentry part, which was again a bit funny (I'll eventualy learn to do it properly, I promise :) ). Anyway, there's an album from the mission:

*Gallery Snip*

See you soon, I'm already designing a space station for the next part :D

Michal.don

Ah yes procrastination on a KSP level - I am also guilty at times!  

Nice work on the rescue mission.  A lot of people don't get their Shuttles this far so it's good to see you progressing through to become part of an increasingly rare group.  I've also found high inclination re-entries extremely difficult compared to normal ones.  Perhaps someone can explain why?

I found the Space station mission to be one of my favorites and I really got it into it as you can see here with some thorough detail.  Won't be long and you'll be landing an asteroid, which reminds me I need to get STS-10 up and running.  I've been back to the drawing board a few times on it so far.  Anyway I digress, here is your well earned badge:  rohCksW.jpg

Also I see you haven't done the Bonus Fuel Pod mission for the Flight Director badge.  There's another single mission you can do if you run into writers block designing your space station :)

SM

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18 minutes ago, Speeding Mullet said:

I found the Space station mission to be one of my favorites and I really got it into it as you can see here with some thorough detail.

Wow, that's a great looking station. I'm afraid mine will be much more basic, my computer is rather low-end, so I have to keep part count reasonable, and I'm by far not such a good space architect :)  About the 'roid landing, do you know whether the bug where all the asteroids have a mass of about 150 tonnes is fixed? I have great faith in my shuttle, but that is probably a bit too heavy :D

Michal.don

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Well, since asteroids in 1.1.2 are not cooperating, I thought of searching for something appropriate in 1.0.5.

results are questionable... What are they made of? I'm not sure what I like more: 10 meter 150 ton rock or 5 meter 3 ton sponge. Those are lighter than empty tanks of similar size! one would expect density similar to ore or at least liquid fuel for something more icy.

And here goes my hoping to find something that fits in the payload bay...

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3 hours ago, michal.don said:

Wow, that's a great looking station. I'm afraid mine will be much more basic, my computer is rather low-end, so I have to keep part count reasonable, and I'm by far not such a good space architect :)  About the 'roid landing, do you know whether the bug where all the asteroids have a mass of about 150 tonnes is fixed? I have great faith in my shuttle, but that is probably a bit too heavy :D

I think the bug persists, but I haven't investigated it, I'll just wait for them to update at this point.  Although it's a more realistic prospect in weight terms I guess it's not that conducive to landing something, unless you are going for this kinda 85t potato landing :D

 

6 minutes ago, Alchemist said:

Well, since asteroids in 1.1.2 are not cooperating, I thought of searching for something appropriate in 1.0.5.

results are questionable... What are they made of? I'm not sure what I like more: 10 meter 150 ton rock or 5 meter 3 ton sponge. Those are lighter than empty tanks of similar size! one would expect density similar to ore or at least liquid fuel for something more icy.

And here goes my hoping to find something that fits in the payload bay...

Yep, I think the pet potato that I landed was a mere  0.22484t once I'd sucked out the ore, and even that didn't fit into the cargo bay.  Tweakscale monstrosity shuttle anyone? :D

If it looks like this bug is interfering for a few people then what I might do is try and rush out the STS-10 mission and swap them around, or think of something else which is "interim" level so you can keep entering the challenge.  It's got to be a quality mission though as I don't want to let down the flavor of the challenge so far.

SM

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The alternate payload landing mission may as well be to recover any kind of payload from space.

Pilot level: The recovered module may have guidance and docking ports. Just get it in the shuttle and land.

Commander level: No guidance of its own or docking ports may be used on the payload (the claw module on the shuttle may separate to grab the payload and bring it in). Land on a runway. Some minimal mass and orbit parameters limitations.

Asteroid recovery may come as a bonus Flight Director level.

 

P.S. Just tested my Buran landing with this... half the mass of the orbiter

320a22f7664a.png

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Since the bodylift bug is fixed with stockbugfixes it's time to fly a shuttle. Funkyndustries needed to design it from scratch, ...again..., thx to updated colliders in 1.1.

But our engineers are getting better and better. So here is my attempt for delivering the cargopod in Kerbin orbit.

Craft specifics:

Mission: STS-04 Space Shuttle "Eriksson 2.0"

STS at Launch without cargopod: 852.386t / 328 parts / 288,228 Kredits

Final circular orbit with cargopod: 1672.8km

In fact it was my second mission with the cargopod, the first one was some kind of simulation, and it went so well, that I'm going for the rest of this fantastic challenge.

Sidenote: Why can't I make a screenshot of the flight results (F3)?

Edited by funk
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Hey there,

Kolumbia is back!

This time, it helped build a station, which was named in honor of Sheloly Kerman, who sadly left us forever, when he was eaten by a Kraken on his mission to Minmus. We'll never forget.

Here are the four albums of the four flights.

I hope everything was done and documented properly, and even my reentries are starting to get better :)

Michal.don

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FUNKyndustries has successfully sent two spin-stabilized ComSATs to KSO:

For new missions, I remember a reddit challenge in 2015, which would fit perfectly and can be improved, e.g. deliver a satellite into LKO (<250km) and retrieve another one in a single orbit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/3g8mlm/weekly_challenge_week_97_satellite_snatch/

Edited by funk
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On 5/17/2016 at 0:11 AM, Alchemist said:

The alternate payload landing mission may as well be to recover any kind of payload from space.

Pilot level: The recovered module may have guidance and docking ports. Just get it in the shuttle and land.

Commander level: No guidance of its own or docking ports may be used on the payload (the claw module on the shuttle may separate to grab the payload and bring it in). Land on a runway. Some minimal mass and orbit parameters limitations.

Asteroid recovery may come as a bonus Flight Director level.

This sounds like a good interim compromise. After reading this I thought about making the challenge that you have to land the inigma 42t fuel pod that you had previously placed in orbit.  Do you think that would be too difficult?  I've seen one or two people land it in the old challenge successfully I'm pretty sure.  It would also standardize the challenge somewhat instead of people developing differing payloads.

Should I put that mission in to play then I might punt the asteroid landing challenge to after the visit another SOI challenge as it's probably more difficult to land an asteroid than visit another planets SOI....

 

On 5/20/2016 at 1:25 PM, funk said:

Since the bodylift bug is fixed with stockbugfixes it's time to fly a shuttle. Funkyndustries needed to design it from scratch, ...again..., thx to updated colliders in 1.1.

But our engineers are getting better and better. So here is my attempt for delivering the cargopod in Kerbin orbit.

Craft specifics:

Mission: STS-04 Space Shuttle "Eriksson 2.0"

STS at Launch without cargopod: 852.386t / 328 parts / 288,228 Kredits

Final circular orbit with cargopod: 1672.8km

*Gallery Snip*

In fact it was my second mission with the cargopod, the first one was some kind of simulation, and it went so well, that I'm going for the rest of this fantastic challenge.

Sidenote: Why can't I make a screenshot of the flight results (F3)?

I absolutely love the detail on this shuttle.  It's proportions look "right" and the body kit job you've done on the front is a really nice touch too!  Lucky Val is an expert in space walks otherwise you would have been in hot water!

1672.92km sets the new benchmark for stock altitude as well so I will update the leader-board and you can wear your badge with pride, and as always - Funk.   et2p8E4.jpg

 

14 hours ago, michal.don said:

Hey there,

Kolumbia is back!

This time, it helped build a station, which was named in honor of Sheloly Kerman, who sadly left us forever, when he was eaten by a Kraken on his mission to Minmus. We'll never forget.

Here are the four albums of the four flights.

*Galleries snipped*

I hope everything was done and documented properly, and even my reentries are starting to get better :)

Michal.don

Wow!  Sheloly Kerman would have a tear in his eye seeing this station.  Well managed flights the lot of them and nice progression from way overshooting to absolutely nailing the landing.  That's pretty much precisely why I went for the Buran design with atmo's.  I can never get that re-entry right!

Kolumbia does the job again - well done and here's your badge!  Really need to get moving with the next mission now as there's a couple of you at the starting line!   XTFmgzR.jpg

 

13 hours ago, funk said:

FUNKyndustries has successfully sent two spin-stabilized ComSATs to KSO:

*Gallery Snip*

For new missions, I remember a reddit challenge in 2015, which would fit perfectly and can be improved, e.g. deliver a satellite into LKO (<250km) and retrieve another one in a single orbit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/3g8mlm/weekly_challenge_week_97_satellite_snatch/

Once again a very funky mission!  Every time I see more pictures I spot more detail on the shuttle it's quite awesome!  On to the HST mission next for you - It's a really good one so enjoy!  Here's your badge:   WUvoQpP.jpg

Nice idea with the mission suggestion - I'll certainly consider it - I've got a bit of a long list going now so I'm hoping that I'll be able to develop 5 or 10 more missions for this challenge in the future.  The one's we have are all centered around Kerbin SOI but I think we have an opportunity to prove that shuttles are more worthy than people think they are.  Jool 5 in a shuttle anyone :wink:

 

SM

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7 minutes ago, ZooNamedGames said:

Also- I have a few more concepts to add missions for if you wanted.

Oops - Done :)

Also suggestions always welcome.  Can't guarantee they aren't already on my long list or will make it to be actual missions but of course feel free!

SM

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57 minutes ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Oops - Done :)

Also suggestions always welcome.  Can't guarantee they aren't already on my long list or will make it to be actual missions but of course feel free!

SM

Well I'll shoot a series of suggestions here soon :) .

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3 hours ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

Would something similar to the Dream Chaser suffice? At least for STS-1

Sure thing - As long as it fits within the definition of a shuttle for the purposes of this challenge:

"A reusable winged Orbiter which carries kerbals and cargo to orbit and back and is capable of a horizontal landing. It should have OMS engines for trajectory changes as well as an RCS system for maneuvering. It must be lifted into space by a Carrier Vehicle which either supplies fuel during to several main engines mounted on the Orbiter or lifts the Orbiter into space with its own engines.  Boosters may be attached radially on the Carrier Vehicle (no other attachment location is permitted) for additional thrust."

So your Dream Chaser style shuttle will need:

Space for crew
Space for cargo (however small)
OMS Engines
RCS System
 

Once you have all that integrated you are good to go.  I build one over year ago but haven't updated it since, or updated it for this challenge either.  I say go for it!:

 

SM

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Because I finished the station, and asteroids are stil broken (I checked, the A-class stil weighs 150 t), I decided to try the bonus mission with the fuel pod. I managed to put it in a 350x350 orbit with plenty of fuel left.

This challenge was great, and me and my crew are really looking forward to more missions, if they eventually come (or the asteroids are fixed). Thanks for the challenge, Speeding Mullet, and I hope to hear from you soon with more awesome missions to do with Kolumbia :)

Michal.don

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6 hours ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

How about a single OMS engine?

Yep that'll do it :).  I think it's just assumed there will be two because symmetry but one is fine for me.

@michal.don I'll review your entry when I get home tonight - Can't see the imgur galleries at work :(

SM

Edited by Speeding Mullet
got rid of some spaces
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