SSTOMT (Single Stage To Orbit Multiple Times) challenge

[michal.don]

Single Stage To Orbit Multiple Times challenge

The premise of this challenge is pretty simple: you have to build a vessel that is capable to get to orbit, reenter, touchdown at KSC runway, takeoff and get to orbit again as many times as possible.

Rules:

1. The orbit must be stable ( Periapsis of at least 70 000 m).

2. The vessel may not decouple any parts.

3. The vessel must be crewed, be able to generate electic power and have any sort of cargo bay (you may use it to store batteries and solar pannels).

4. To be considered "stock", you may use quality-of-life mods as KER, KJR, and stock atmo. However, your vessel must use stock parts only. No hyperedit of course.

5. In the "modded" section, you may use any mods including autopilots and part packs. However, engines that consume only electric charge are not allowed. Your engines must use some kind of fuel.

6. You should post an album with pictures of takeoff, ascent, in orbit, at least one from reentry and touchdown at runway. Please keep your resource tab open in your screenshots.

7. Of course, no ISRU allowed.

8. You don't have to stop after the landing, just touching the runway is enough.

Scoring:

1. The most important criteria is the number of orbits you were able to achieve

2. If there is a tie, the height of your periapsis of the last incomplete orbit decides

3. If your periapsis was under the surface of Kerbin, the height of your apoapsis decides

 

There are two leaderboards for this challenge - stock and modded. Look at the rules to find out which category your mission belongs to.

 

If you want to participate and have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Leaderboards:

Stock

1. @michal.don with Noonwraight - 2 complete orbits, Ap of 58 800 m

2.

3.

4.

5.

Modded

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Looking forward to your entries,

Michal.don

 

 

Edited July 17, 2016 by michal.don

[michal.don]

My entry, the Noonwraight SSTO.

It was able to achieve two orbits, and a suborbital hop with an Apoapsis of 58 800 m. I could improve it a bit by discarding most of the monopropellant and refining my landings, but I'm quite happy, as it is a first plane I built capable of reaching orbit twice.

Michal.don

[Van Disaster]

B9 pWings allowable? I have to use Pilot Assistant & MJ thanks to issues with my hands, other than that how about GPOSpeedFuelPump?

Also, did you do a run yourself? there's no rules for contests, but it's a generally accepted thing to do.

[michal.don]

7 minutes ago, Van Disaster said:

B9 pWings allowable? I have to use Pilot Assistant & MJ thanks to issues with my hands, other than that how about GPOSpeedFuelPump?

Yes, I do not see any reason why not. The part mods limitation is mainly to prevent people from using overpowered engines. The fuelpumping is what I consider a quality of life mod, so I have no issue with that, either.

9 minutes ago, Van Disaster said:

Also, did you do a run yourself? there's no rules for contests, but it's a generally accepted thing to do.

Yes, I did, it is documented in the second post. I didn't include it in the OP, but it should be the first post right under that.

 

Looking forward to your entry,

Michal.don

[Van Disaster]

So you did, not sure why that took it's time showing up. Well, this might take a while but it is at least right up my alley I'd kinda like B9 Mk2 parts, but no big deal.

[michal.don]

14 minutes ago, Van Disaster said:

I'd kinda like B9 Mk2 parts, but no big deal

Sorry, I must say no because of the engines, I'd like to keep the field level for stock players. I hope it's not an issue.

Michal.don

[septemberWaves]

Perhaps two separate categories might be a good idea; a leaderboard for stock entries and a separate one for modded entries. That way people who want to use mods such as B9 or Mk2 Expansion would be able to enter this and be judged independently. Personally I would attempt this with Mk2 Expansion, Mk3 Expansion, and Mk4 spaceplane parts if there was a separate modded leaderboard which allowed those mods.

Although if you do decide to do that, I would recommend making a separate rule to ban the use of any nuclear jet engines, since they don't consume any fuel to run, and also to ban turbofans which only consume electric charge.

Edited July 17, 2016 by eloquentJane

[michal.don]

5 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

Perhaps two separate categories might be a good idea; a leaderboard for stock entries and a separate one for modded entries

I like that idea, thanks for your insight. I'll update the OP.

[Van Disaster]

21 minutes ago, michal.don said:

Sorry, I must say no because of the engines, I'd like to keep the field level for stock players. I hope it's not an issue.

Michal.don

No, it's not a big deal, although the engines have been balanced to stock for quite some time. The B9 mk2 parts just have a little more fuel space.

Going more than two cycles seems a real challenge, will be fun.

[michal.don]

2 minutes ago, Van Disaster said:

The B9 mk2 parts just have a little more fuel space

After a suggestion from @eloquentJane, I altered the rules and started a modded category, in which you might use part mods of your preference. Sorry I didn't think of this earlier, the two categories now should make the requirements from my part a bit more relaxed.

Michal.don

[foamyesque]

@michal.don

You should probably disallow ISRU. Otherwise the answer is "as many times as I feel like". :v

[Ultimate Steve]

I think that this guy wins.

[michal.don]

1 hour ago, foamyesque said:

You should probably disallow ISRU

Good point, I'll update the OP

59 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I think that this guy wins.

Wow, I wouldn't think anything like that is even possible. I'm curious if anyone here manages to do something equally awesome.

Michal.don