Shuttle Challenge v4 - The STS thread [Stock and Mod Friendly] [THREAD CLOSED 06.08.17]

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

I have completed STS-1a, although I labeled mine as STS-1Rb as it is actually my 3rd (non-prototype) launch, and was also a rescue mission, recovering the 6 kerbalnauts which were stranded in orbit following an accident which stranded my first launch in orbit, then a second accident in which the second shuttle launch crashed into the first one.

In private message @Speeding Mullet I believe said this could qualify for STS-4R out of order, but I honestly don't mind if it doesn't because I'm going to do that one again anyways as the shuttle with the crew aboard in need of rescue wasn't at a 25-30 degree incline (it was 22.4 as I hadn't been planning for this to happen, and thus hadn't launched the stranded shuttle(s) into the appropriate inclination).  I want to work on my launch code to make it more precise anyways. Might even try to make a reentry code (that is going to be hard). Anyways, I believe this qualifies for STS Commander Rank 1.

Only mods used are KER for the readouts, and kOS simply because I wanted to test out my coding skills by creating a shuttle launch script. I can and have launched the shuttle manually before numerous times. One thing to note is that I actually added kOS capabilities to the stock avionics nosecone, so no mod parts were on-board.

This was quite fun, and I look forward to completing the other missions.

[Speeding Mullet]

On 7/2/2017 at 10:59 PM, zolotiyeruki said:

I like the idea of building a base on Minmus.  Such a mission would be less about cramming dV into the shuttle (or spamming engines/fuel) and leave more freedom to think about the design of the shuttle and payload.

I do like that idea!

 

On 7/3/2017 at 5:15 AM, Sayeret_1711 said:

My mission ideas: 

Moho and Tylo mwuhahahaha!  Definitely on the cards, but well down the line.  Dres needs some attention at some point but isn't top of the list of places to conquer.  Eve should be hilarious when I get round to it!

 

On 7/3/2017 at 7:57 AM, Bottle Rocketeer 500 said:

@Speeding Mullet I know that this isn't an actual mission, but I want to launch a mk.1 space shuttle with 4 passengers to Eeloo and back. Could you please add some sort of Eeloo mission for small space shuttles, as it takes a lot of work to get it to work.

Thanks, Bottle Rocketeer 500

Request for Eeloo noted

 

 

On 7/4/2017 at 9:25 AM, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

I have completed STS-1a, although I labeled mine as STS-1Rb as it is actually my 3rd (non-prototype) launch, and was also a rescue mission, recovering the 6 kerbalnauts which were stranded in orbit following an accident which stranded my first launch in orbit, then a second accident in which the second shuttle launch crashed into the first one.

Very very nicely done indeed!  Well presented mission report, and certainly passes you on commander for level 1, and pilot for level 4.  As eluded to in your post I think it's in the spirit of the challenge to perform the rescue mission out of cycle when you genuinely have to rescue a shuttle.  No out of cycle whoopsies to Jool though please

Here are your badges!    

 

 

NOTE - I'm going to be off the map from about Sunday this week for approximately 3 weeks.  Is there anyone that would like to admin the challenge for a few weeks from, well nowish I guess?  Preference for someone that knows the challenge well and has completed the majority of the missions.  PM me if you are interested.

Cheers!

SM

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

4 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Moho and Tylo mwuhahahaha!  Definitely on the cards, but well down the line.  Dres needs some attention at some point but isn't top of the list of places to conquer.  Eve should be hilarious when I get round to it!

"Hey Bill, why are we hauling the flying brick down here again?"

"Don't ask me!"

 

Sound like some interesting engineering challenges, but completely impractical.

[Speeding Mullet]

11 hours ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

Sound like some interesting engineering challenges

Returning a shuttle from Eve surface

 

Mini Announcement:  It gives me great pleasure to announce that @michal.don will be Admin for the Shuttle challenge for the next 3 weeks.  @michal.don has extensive experience in entering the challenge, and has been kicking around the thread long enough to know how we do things around here.  I'm sure that you will all welcome him, and treat him well while I am not around

SM

[michal.don]

9 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Mini Announcement:  It gives me great pleasure to announce that @michal.don will be Admin for the Shuttle challenge for the next 3 weeks.

Hi guys, and thanks to @Speeding Mullet for the welcome - I'll be managing this challenge for a while. I'll do my best to check your entries regularly and I'm looking forward to seeing your missions and designs.

Please, do behave, and try not to profit from the fact that the main Shuttle guy is not around for a while

Michal.don

[sdj64]

Duna STS1 and 2 complete.  I used my new shuttle, the Taurus shuttle, which is heavily inspired by the X33 Venture Star.  Like the Venture Star, it's aerospike powered and has enough delta-V to SSTO with a light payload, but for the challenge it was launched on a booster so it could get to Duna without needing refueling in orbit (and to meet the fine print of what actually is a shuttle).

The station is about 12 tons, and includes boosters and fuel to adjust its orbit if necessary.

DSTS2 brought a scanning satellite that can also provide a relay for the station, and a rover with rocket engines to get it out of the cargo bay.  The only thing not recovered was the drill unit on the back, the rover was returned to the cargo bay and flown home.

DSTS1: http://imgur.com/a/sbX14

DSTS2: http://imgur.com/a/oLaze

Edited July 7, 2017 by sdj64

[Alchemist]

A quick news review of my mission:

Elcanoplan 2 returns to landing site. 3600 km traveled

And refueling of the shuttle is also complete

Blast off!

In the meantime, HRO-M finally arrives at Pol. Found something quite concealed in this terrain

Turns out HRO-M03 also got enough fuel left after ascent to go straight to Pol

But not enough fuel left to capture there...

Not the first time HRO-M captures something on escape trajectory!

 

Laythe is done, but there are a few more places to visit before going home

 

 

On 07.07.2017 at 11:02 PM, sdj64 said:

Duna STS1 and 2 complete.  I used my new shuttle, the Taurus shuttle, which is heavily inspired by the X33 Venture Star.  Like the Venture Star, it's aerospike powered and has enough delta-V to SSTO with a light payload, but for the challenge it was launched on a booster so it could get to Duna without needing refueling in orbit (and to meet the fine print of what actually is a shuttle).

And I was thinking my shuttles are a bit oversized... Nice design!

[michal.don]

On 7. 7. 2017 at 10:02 PM, sdj64 said:

Duna STS1 and 2 complete.  I used my new shuttle, the Taurus shuttle, which is heavily inspired by the X33 Venture Star.

There are small and compact shuttles. There are somewhat larger ones. And then there is this beast  Good job on your two Duna missions, and as I don't see any modded parts, I am happy to award you with the appropriate set of badges:

I must say I really like the design, and it seems your shuttle is a really capable one, so I'm looking forward to seeing it go to Laythe.

 

21 hours ago, Alchemist said:

Laythe is done, but there are a few more places to visit before going home

Ah, I remember HRO-M from my shuttling days a while ago, good to see the thing still flies and handles well in more and more complicated missions. You planned quite an adventure for yourself, and I'm quite curious how it will all turn out.

Edited July 9, 2017 by michal.don

[Alchemist]

7 hours ago, michal.don said:

You planned quite an adventure for yourself, and I'm quite curious how it will all turn out.

The way it just turned out... Now I have to admit the thing about which I wasn't sure until the very end. But now it's official

Yes, it's there. Yes, it was a total insanity. Yes, Jeb is at the controls.

That's it - we have third challenge officially in the mission profile.

 

P.S.

 

Edited July 9, 2017 by Alchemist

[michal.don]

5 hours ago, Alchemist said:

The way it just turned out...

You, sir, are properly crazy. Deep respect to you

When you succesfully come home again, you'll get your well-earned badge. I have honestly never seen anything like that attempted before. If this challenge had a hall of fame, you would have surely gotten a trophy and a membership card

Michal.don

[Agent Awesome]

Hey guys

first ill say that I have completed sts-1a and 1b

Secondly 

i lost the save by accident so I redesigned the ship and the fuel pod in orbit so can I just cheat it back to where it was? Thanks

AA

[michal.don]

On 13. 7. 2017 at 1:55 AM, Agent Awesome said:

Hey guys

first ill say that I have completed sts-1a and 1b

Hello, and welcome to the challenge.

Congratulations on designing a working shuttle, that is not easy at all. It looks like a very capable spacecraft, and I'm curious how far you will be able to get with this one. Here are your badges, commander, wear them proudly

For the purpose of recovering the fuel pod, I don't see any problem with hyperediting it into desired orbit. Please, just make a screenshot (or show it in your next video) to let me check the fuel pod is properly full before the recovery mission.

MIchal.don

[Senki__]

First attempt at this challenge. My Shuttle is a bit interesting. More designed off of the Venturestar than anything else. 

I sped it up by 2x.  If the landing disqualifies it I can retry it.  It is STS-1a and STS-1b in one mission.

No mods used besides visual enhancements.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Senki__

[Lone Star]

I'm interested in doing these, but want to ask, sorry if this was asked already and I missed it.  Does the Shuttle have to land under it's own power, or can you use Parachutes once you're close to the surface?  I'm currently really bad at managing to land aircraft under anything even closely resembling it's own power.

Thanks

[michal.don]

On 14. 7. 2017 at 8:28 PM, Senki__ said:

First attempt at this challenge. My Shuttle is a bit interesting. More designed off of the Venturestar than anything else. 

Welcome to the challenge! You are right, your shuttle is an interesting design, and certainly a rather good-looking one

The descent and landing were not ideal, but the damage was not too excessive to deny you the badges. Congratulations, and better luck at your next landing.

Wear these badges proudly

19 hours ago, Lone Star said:

Does the Shuttle have to land under it's own power, or can you use Parachutes once you're close to the surface?

Hi there,

the rules of this challenge state that a shuttle is:

A "reusable" winged Orbiter which carries Kerbals (and cargo for any mission beyond STS-1a) to orbit and back and is capable of a horizontal landing.

So, it does neccessarily need to land under its own power. You can use parachutes to assist you with braking, just don't use them in a way to completely stop you mid-air and then gently fall on the runway. Keep the horizontal part in the horiizontal landing

Good luck with your design and I'm looking forward to seeing your entry here soon,

Michal.don

[zanie420]

Here is my mission log, getting the Mullet Dyne fuel pod up, my first video included:

@michal.don, I noticed that the RCS on the MulletDyne pod is all disabled. Is this on purpose? To complete the return challenge, are we not allowed to control the pod's RCS?

Edited July 16, 2017 by zanie420
query

[zolotiyeruki]

On 7/15/2017 at 3:52 PM, Lone Star said:

I'm interested in doing these, but want to ask, sorry if this was asked already and I missed it.  Does the Shuttle have to land under it's own power, or can you use Parachutes once you're close to the surface?  I'm currently really bad at managing to land aircraft under anything even closely resembling it's own power.

Thanks

FWIW, one of my early missions ended with the shuttle landing via parachutes, due to a complete loss of control on re-entry, and SM allowed it.  I fixed the whole CoM/CoL issue for later missions

[Agent Awesome]

On 15/07/2017 at 0:06 AM, michal.don said:

Hello, and welcome to the challenge.

Congratulations on designing a working shuttle, that is not easy at all. It looks like a very capable spacecraft, and I'm curious how far you will be able to get with this one. Here are your badges, commander, wear them proudly

For the purpose of recovering the fuel pod, I don't see any problem with hyperediting it into desired orbit. Please, just make a screenshot (or show it in your next video) to let me check the fuel pod is properly full before the recovery mission.

MIchal.don

Uh

the actual shuttle is stock

i only have visual and informational mods in the video

i got rid of kerbalism mod after the filming was done 

[armegeddon]

It took me dozens of attempts and several minor changes to my shuttle, but I finally landed on and returned from Duna for Duna STS-2.

This shuttle is carrying a set of fuel tanks for the return trip, so I didn't have to redesign the shuttle too much.

I decided to alter my external fuel tank to use an asparagus type, dropping empty tanks and engines as the launch progresses instead of throttling down or shutting off engines.

I docked with my Duna Station and dropped the return fuel tank off near it prior to landing.

Since I have not been able to actually perform a horizontal landing on Duna's hilly surface with this shuttle design, I just stuck about 20 parachutes on it and drifted to the ground. I apparently did not balance them right as I ended up pointing upwards when they deployed, but that was okay, as I did not have enough and needed to burn the engines a little to reduce vertical velocity to prevent crashing anyways, but it landed with no problems.

The shuttle also carried a pair of SRBs for launching from Duna to conserve fuel to dock back up with the return fuel tank in orbit.

The return trip went off with no problems. The Kerbin aero-capture was nearly perfect and lined me up for a de-orbit and landing at KSC on the second pass.

I came in a bit too early and ended up having to use the atmospheric engines to fly an additional 150km to get to the KSC and land.

 

Here's the imgur gallery of the mission: (for some reason it does not want to embed the gallery, so just follow the link.)

http://imgur.com/a/O3qy1

Next to plan out the Laythe landing

Edited July 17, 2017 by armegeddon

[michal.don]

On 16. 7. 2017 at 11:24 PM, zanie420 said:

Here is my mission log, getting the Mullet Dyne fuel pod up, my first video included:

Hello and welcome to the challenge! A nice shuttle, and pretty well flown mission - especially the reentry part looked well controlled (apart from the flat spin above KSC  ).Here are your well earned badges:

On 16. 7. 2017 at 11:24 PM, zanie420 said:

I noticed that the RCS on the MulletDyne pod is all disabled. Is this on purpose?

To be completely honest, I do not know. So, until Speeding Mullet is back, I'll let you do as you like. You can dock the fuel pod to the shuttle under its own RCS. But it would be a nice test of the RCS on your shuttle to dock to an object that can not be controlled, so, if you're up for the extra challenge...  

 

On 17. 7. 2017 at 1:49 AM, zolotiyeruki said:

FWIW, one of my early missions ended with the shuttle landing via parachutes, due to a complete loss of control on re-entry, and SM allowed it.

Yep, these things happen even to the best of us....  I'll probably allow a mission that lands on parachutes as an emergency measure, I just wouldn't like to see a design that uses bazillions of parachutes as a primary metod of landing. Thus the horizontal part.

 

On 17. 7. 2017 at 2:35 AM, Agent Awesome said:

the actual shuttle is stock

I'm sorry, my bad. I saw all the mod tabs on the right of your screen and automatically assumed that your shuttle is modded. Here are the correct badges for you:

 

23 hours ago, armegeddon said:

It took me dozens of attempts and several minor changes to my shuttle, but I finally landed on and returned from Duna for Duna STS-2.

Congratulations on the successful completion of the Duna missions - especially the landing and takeoff parts are really tough. Interesting SRB/Nuke design for the liftoff, and it seems it works quite well. Now, good luck in conquering Laythe  Here is your badge:

Michal.don

[zanie420]

4 hours ago, michal.don said:

Hello and welcome to the challenge! A nice shuttle, and pretty well flown mission - especially the reentry part looked well controlled (apart from the flat spin above KSC  ).Here are your well earned badges:

To be completely honest, I do not know. So, until Speeding Mullet is back, I'll let you do as you like. You can dock the fuel pod to the shuttle under its own RCS. But it would be a nice test of the RCS on your shuttle to dock to an object that can not be controlled, so, if you're up for the extra challenge...  

Oh helll... when you throw the gauntlet THAT way.....challenge accepted    I will endeavor to make a better cut video this time, perhaps with music and commentary, it was my first ever.... and first shuttle designed for that matter. Look for it in a few hours. Thanks for the badges, I covet them all.

[Alchemist]

Finally edited this. How does a shuttle land on Tylo? Quite risky, that's how.

[macktruck6666]

Well, I was trying to do something original so hopefully I've accomplished that.

Here is what I'm working on. Both the booster and shuttle land horizontally and independent of each other. It can also take a full payload to orbit at the same time. Not sure how much mass the shuttle can land with, but with an empty stall speed of 80 m/s, it's pretty stable. The booster does have a 250 m/s speed limit and can only pitch about 10 degrees away from prograde while in low atmo without cuasing to much drag on the nose and spinning out.

Wondering if I should make a bigger version.

Edited July 23, 2017 by macktruck6666

[michal.don]

On 23. 7. 2017 at 3:29 AM, macktruck6666 said:

Well, I was trying to do something original so hopefully I've accomplished that.

A fully reusable shuttle, that's the properly "green" way to go  A nice craft you have there, I'm looking forward to seeing it in action on its first mission. Welcome to the challenge!

Michal.don

[Alchemist]

On 23.07.2017 at 4:29 AM, macktruck6666 said:

Here is what I'm working on. Both the booster and shuttle land horizontally and independent of each other. It can also take a full payload to orbit at the same time. Not sure how much mass the shuttle can land with, but with an empty stall speed of 80 m/s, it's pretty stable. The booster does have a 250 m/s speed limit and can only pitch about 10 degrees away from prograde while in low atmo without cuasing to much drag on the nose and spinning out.

About the drag on the booster's nose - it you make the interstage with fairings, you can stick a nosecone under the engine, so that it's much less draggy. And if you are having this kind of issues with the booster, it also means you could consider moving its CoL even further back

On the other hand, for 2-stage VTHL you may also consider belly-to-belly side-mounting instead of stacking - this way you don't have to counter the orbiter's lift with such huge wing area on the booster. Although, KSP may do stupid things about control point when the root part is side-decoupler.