The Elon's Problem Challenge

[NoobTool]

So I haven't actually flown the mission yet, but when I came across this challenge I realized that I had a craft that was pretty nearly perfect for it. I made a few modifications and came up with this (not very Space-xy). Sorry for the poor lighting.

 

The Czar Galactica Mk 3 heavy crew transport. Room for 150 Kerbals. I built the original from the tail forward so that the fuselages would be easily reconfigurable. This is from the maiden test flight to orbit for this variant (only the pilot on board). I moved the asteroid mining rig to the rear ventral cargo bay and added some drills for surface drilling. Should have more than enough ^V to make it to Minmus or an asteroid rendezvous for refueling on the way to Duna. The tricky part will be the Duna landing. I'll try to actually fly the mission this weekend. When I get the post up, you should get a similar framerate reading the post to the one I'll get flying the mission!

 

[NoobTool]

*Edit:

So... I guess Duna will have to wait. I was unaware that drills are not working. Does anyone know if they are broken for asteroids too? Or is it just surface Mining? Anyway, here are a couple better pictures and a link to the craft file.

https://kerbalx.com/NoobTool/Czar-Galactica-Mk-3-Heavy-Crew-Transport

Edited October 12, 2016 by NoobTool

[Hodari]

10 minutes ago, NoobTool said:

. I was unaware that drills are not working. Does anyone know if they are broken for asteroids too? Or is it just surface Mining?

Drills have been working perfectly fine for me, unless there was a newer patch that broke them.  I was able to refuel all of my tankers just fine though.

I have however run into a different problem(probably a bug).  Seems like when using SAS to point the ship at Target, it's aligning it based on the center of mass rather than the part I'm actually controlling, even after using the Control From Here button.  The navball markers look like they are lining up with where it SHOULD be pointing, but it actually aims the ship differently.  This is particularly a problem with the way my Duna Lander is designed right now:
 

Spoiler

 

Since there isn't actually anything AT the center of mass and I'm trying to control it from one of the 4 cockpits, it's ending up being WAY off on alignment when I'm trying to dock.  Also, not sure if the shielded ports just aren't strong enough for ships this size to dock at all or if even my best attempts were still slightly misaligned, but after a few hours of trying, I was unable to get this and my refueling tankers to dock at all.  Even when it looked like they were lined up perfectly and coming in at a range different speeds between 0.1 and 0.9m/s, they would just bounce off of each other.  Any ideas other than having to redesign everything in order to use the Sr. ports instead?

[RamirezCorp]

On 10/2/2016 at 10:16 PM, SuicidalInsanity said:

99 Kerbals to Duna

Took the Elon Musk approach and had everything done in two launches using shared hardware

Duna Transport Craft: 124 parts, 168.6 tons, 27.4m tall, 177,311 funds, seats 99 Kerbals
DTC Tanker: 50 parts, 125,788 tons, 24.8m tall, 75,325 funds, recovery refund ~67,000 funds
DTC Launcher, launched both the DCT & DTC-T: 75 parts, 590,315 tons, 32.2m tall, 266,517 funds, recovery refund ~167,678 funds
     -recovery refunds exact value  is dependent on how much fuel is remaining in the tanks after de-orbit and landing burns.

Total cost at launch: 785,670 funds to send 99 Kerbals to Duna
Net cost per operational cycle: 383,314 funds
Ticket price per kerbal: 3871.85 funds
Fuel cost per Kerbal: ~758 funds


Rest of the album can be found Here
99% stock, only mod part used was the heavy landing legs on the DTC and DTC tanker.

 

How do you figure out the cost per kerbal? sorry im new to this

[SuicidalInsanity]

@RamirezCorp: Start with the sum total value of the mission as a whole, subtract the value of recoverable assets, and then divide that by the number of kerbals. For fuel cost calculate the cost of the fuel used during the mission and divide that by number of kerbals.

[septemberWaves]

I think I might do this when 1.2 is out and a few of my must-have mods are updated. SpaceY will certainly make it interesting, and I think I'll be able to replicate the design fairly accurately (assuming that I can attach 42 engines to the bottom of whatever I end up with without my computer dying of lag). 1.2 will actually make that part better because I can separate from an interstage fairing without having to jettison the fairing.

Also, I'll be going for at least 100 tonnes of cargo capacity too, and be sure to include ISRU and colony equipment. I don't know how I'll attach it to the transport, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Edited October 9, 2016 by eloquentJane

[macktruck6666]

Actually, 100 tons to mars was an old estimate. Now he wants it to transport 450 tons and eventually up to 200 passengers.

[mattssheep4]

@ parameciumkid

Damage to an engine from saltwater is not from the impact from landing, it's from the combination of the metal, water, and salt reacting together on various parts of the engine, including inside the reaction chamber and up into the fuel lines, pumps, electronics, and so forth. 

Edited October 10, 2016 by mattssheep4

[NoobTool]

Well, I'm not sure what the issue was with the drills. Maybe I was missing an update? Anyway reloaded that save a few days later and they were working! Game on!

Link to the mission report. All parts recovered landed at the runway. The only cost was fuel.

80151 units liquid fuel x .8 funds = 64120.8

27225 oxidizer x 0.18= 4900.5

250 Monoprop x 1.2= 300

69,321.3 starting fuel value

Recovered:

9107 liquid fuel x 0.8= 7,285.6

2140 oxidizer x 0.18= 385.2

208 Monoprop x 1.2= 249.6

7920.4 in recovered fuel

69321.3 - 7920.4 = 61400.9 / 150 Kerbals = 409.4 funds per Kerbal. Pretty good value!

Thanks for posting this challenge! I had fun!

 

 

[Kerolyov]

On 10/2/2016 at 6:49 PM, burner_nn said:

Misson done. Report is here: Album

Took 475k * 3 for shuttles. 502 * 2 for tankers. 2,429k in total for 108 kerbals. That's 2,24k per Kerbal. Everything returned to Kerbin succesfully

@burner_nn

Is some of your album missing? Can only seem to see 12 images which all seem to relate the landing back on Kerbin?

[burner_nn]

8 hours ago, Kerolyov said:

@burner_nn

Is some of your album missing? Can only seem to see 12 images which all seem to relate the landing back on Kerbin?

All images are there. That's order that got messed up a bit

[macktruck6666]

Currently working on this:

I think the competition should require us to transport habitats. This thing can trasnport 100 kerbals with adequate living space, a skycrane/refiner vessel.

It's only 550parts and 3,100 tons.

Edited October 19, 2016 by macktruck6666

[Clancy]

I've got a design that's tested and should work, but I've been out of town and haven't had time to actually fly the mission.  Hopefully, I'll have some time this weekend. Here's a preview:

http://imgur.com/a/9FotV

[Kerolyov]

On 10/16/2016 at 0:02 AM, burner_nn said:

All images are there. That's order that got messed up a bit

Thanks @burner_nn realised I didn't see the big button at the bottom, to load the remaining images.....

Really nice effort!

[Clancy]

Ok, mission finally complete! Here’s my entry:

I tried to stay as close to Musk’s plan as I could. Stick a big ship on top of a big booster. Land and recover booster. The main ship uses most of its fuel getting to orbit, where it waits to be refueled. Meanwhile, the booster is re-used to launch another ship which is filled with extra fuel. The refuelling ship docks with the main ship to give it enough fuel to get to Mars (or in this case, Duna) Then the refueller lands back at the Space Center. Now the main ship rockets off to Mars (Duna) (at the appropriate launch window) and Aerobrakes and lands on the surface. Fuel and Oxidizer are mined and processed from the planet’s surface. When the tanks are full again, (and the launch window rolls around) the ship lifts off and heads home. It Aerobrakes at Earth (Kerbin)

 I gave myself additional restrictions to follow Musk’s plan: No parachutes, No wheels, Everything lands tail-first, Chemical rockets only.  The refuelling ship had the same form and same mass as the Main Ship like Musk envisioned to save on engineering and parts (not that those savings show up in KSP) It also meant the booster took the same ascent profile, so I didn’t have to move the drone ship between launches.

 

Here’s Phase 1:

http://imgur.com/a/DijMm

And Phase 2:

http://imgur.com/a/ZzmpF

Here’s the summary:

Drone Ship:  89,445 Funds

Mass (Empty):  185.3t

Liquid Fuel:  2,160

Fuel Cost: 1,728 Funds

 

Launch 1: Heart of Gold + BFR

 

HoG Empty:   316,465 Funds

Mass (Empty):  78.5t

Liquid Fuel/Oxidizer:  7,245/8,855

Fuel Cost: 7,390 Funds

Fuel Mass: 80.5t

 

BFR Empty:  177,327 Funds  

Mass (Empty):  58.8t

Liquid Fuel/Oxidizer:  15,300/18,700

Fuel Cost: 15,606 Funds

Fuel Mass: 170.0t

 

Launch 2: Fuel HoG + BFR

 

Fuel HoG Empty:   100,103 Funds

Mass (Empty):  41.2t

Liquid Fuel/Oxidizer:  10,620/12,980

Fuel Cost: 10,832 Funds

Fuel Mass: 118.0t

 

BFR Empty:  177,327 Funds  

Mass (Empty):  58.8t

Liquid Fuel/Oxidizer:  15,300/18,700

Fuel Cost: 15,606 Funds

Fuel Mass: 170.0t

Total Fuel Costs: 51,162

• -1000 for Fuel Recovered

• +2000 for Landing Legs Replaced on BFR

52,162 Funds

Price Tag: 522 Funds/Kerbal

 

Edited October 26, 2016 by Clancy

[TopHeavy11]

You do realize such a monstrosity would be far larger than the Saturn V or even the SLS. It would have to have enough fuel (and engines!) to lift of a KILOTON PLUS payload to sub-orbit and then REVERSE it's trajectory, SURVIVE re-entry, and LAND back on the LAUNCH PAD. I mean, YES, it POSSIBLE. But even on the CORRECT SCALE, it wouldn't even FIT in the VAB to begin with! How do you expect us to build that?! The part count ALONE would crash a SUPERCOMPUTER, let alone the shaders and all the other stuff happening at the same time. You need to tone down you challenge quite a bit. I managed to do something similar to his proposal, just never with any ISRU in 3.75/Mk3 scale. HEY EVERYONE! You can just get a mod that lets you see how massive it is.

[Clancy]

Anyone seen @Jasonden ? It's been over a month. This seemed like a fun challenge, I'd hate to see it end with such a whimper. I was even wondering if anyone would be interested in expanding it to other planets?

[Whackjob]

This picture is from a very long time ago but I think it might qualify.  It's also my favorite and I'd consider it iconic of my work.

And that is Duna.