Doing It Elon Style

sevenperforce · August 1, 2017

In much the same spirit of @Bottle Rocketeer 500's rather-popular "Doing It Orion Style" challenge, I decided to put together a similar challenge featuring sequential missions, building up from the launch of the Falcon 1 through the present and beyond. But, since Elon also owns Tesla, some steps in the challenge will include building all-electric vehicles to match the Model X, the Model S, and the Model 3.

To add variety to the challenge, I'm also going to include planned-but-never-flown configurations like Falcon 1e and Falcon 5. For each mission, I'll do my best to provide a set of mission requirements which are specific enough to make it interesting and challenging but not so specific as to make it arbitrary or time-consuming. Missions are optional; you can choose a single one, skip around, or do them all one by one in sequence.

Possible missions (I won't do all these but it's a sampling of possibilities based on demand):

Falcon 1
Falcon 1e
Tesla Roadster
Falcon 5
Falcon 5R
Falcon Air
Tesla Model S
Falcon 9v1.0 Dragon 1
Falcon 9v1.0 Dragon 1 + comsat, engine-out
Falcon 9v1.1 Cargo (polar, soft splashdown)
Falcon 9v1.1 Cargo to KTO
Falcon 9R Dragon (soft splashdown)
Falcon 9R Cargo to Kerbin Escape (soft splashdown)
Tesla Model X
Dragon 2 launch abort test
Falcon 9R Dragon (ASDS attempt)
Falcon 9 FT Cargo (RTLS landing)
Falcon 9 FT Cargo GTO (ASDS attempt)
Falcon 9 FT Dragon (ASDS landing)
Falcon 9 FT expendable (fairing recovery)
Falcon 9 FT with X-47B
Tesla Model 3
Falcon Heavy Demo
Falcon 9 Block 5 with Dragon 2
Dragon 2 max-Q abort
Falcon Heavy Constellation
Falcon 9 Crew
Falcon Heavy: Grey Dragon
Falcon Heavy: Red Dragon

If there's some interest, I'll get started on the requirements for the first few missions!

General rules:

Tweakscale is allowed
Readout mods are allowed
Piloting mods are not allowed
Unbreakable Joints and No Crash Damage are allowed for propulsive landing attempts
Part mods which alter tankage ratios or engine performance are not allowed
No reaction control wheels are allowed
You must use the same engine for all first stages, so plan accordingly. The engine you choose will start with low thrust and be uprated over time.
Scoring is based on lowest LV dry mass.

EDIT: Missions below!

Spoiler

Falcon 1

Spoiler

Use an unmanned two-stage vehicle to launch a >200-kg payload of your choice into LKO. Each stage may have only have one engine, and no aerodynamic control surfaces are allowed. The first-stage engine must be thrust-limited to 40% and the upper-stage engine must be thrust-limited to 70%. The upper-stage engine isp cannot exceed 320 seconds. The upper stage may use monopropellant thrusters, but only for roll control. The first stage should have a probe core and parachutes for an attempted recovery (successful recovery not required). The second stage should have a probe core and be deorbited.

Falcon 1e

Spoiler

Use an unmanned two-stage vehicle to launch a >1000-kg relaysat into LKO. You must use the same engines and stage diameter as you used in Falcon 1, but the first stage should be longer. The first-stage engine must be thrust-limited to 45%; the upper-stage engine does not need to be thrust-limited. The upper-stage engine isp cannot exceed 320 seconds. The upper stage may use monopropellant thrusters, but only for roll control. The first stage should have a probe core and parachutes and must be recovered fully intact.

Tesla Roadster

Spoiler

Build the fastest possible all-electric two-command-seat vehicle with gullwing doors. No solar panels or RTGs; battery power only.

Falcon 5

Spoiler

Upgrade time! Build a larger-diameter two-stage launch vehicle with five engines on the first stage (one in the center and four around it) and two engines on the second stage. The first and second stage engines must match the ones you used on Falcon 1e. No aerodynamic control surfaces are allowed. No RCS. This will be your first KTO launch; send a >1000-kg relaysat (preferably the same one you launched for Falcon 1e) to a stable orbit with an apoapse over 2,900 km with its own propulsion bus to circularize. The propulsion bus counts as part of the payload mass. The relaysat must circularize in Kerbisynchronous Equatorial Orbit.

Note that the stage diameter you choose will be the same stage diameter for Falcon 9, so plan accordingly.

The first stage interstage should contain a probe core and parachutes for an attempted recovery, but successful recovery is not required.

Falcon 5R

Spoiler

The upgraded Falcon 5R was to be the world's first fully-reusable orbital rocket. Use the same five-engine configuration as you used for the Falcon 5, but the engine thrust may be uprated to 50%. The two engines on the upper stage should be replaced by a single engine with thrust equal to or greater than each of the first-stage engines; it should also be thrust-limited to 50%. Both stages should contain parachutes and you should add a heat shield to the upper stage; both stages should have a probe core and be recovered via splashdown.

The payload should be an unmanned power and propulsion bus (probe core, solar panels, radiators, batteries, reaction wheels, RCS) with docking nodes on either side and must be launched into low Kerbin orbit > 120 km with an inclination greater than 15 degrees. Total payload must be greater than 5 tonnes. This is the first hub of a space station you will use for later missions.

Falcon Air

Spoiler

Partnership with Stratolaunch! Take the Falcon 5R and remove the central engine (four engines total). Add winglets for aerodynamic control to the first stage and air-launch using a manned turbofan aircraft powered only by Goliaths. Both stages should have recovery hardware and attempts but do not need to be successfully recovered; the carrier aircraft must be landed back at KSC.

The payload should mass over 4 tonnes and carry an atmospheric sampling instrument. It should be powered solely by monopropellant and be capable of dipping into the atmosphere multiple times from a polar orbit (apogee > 500 km). It should be able to send data back to KSC.

Tesla Model S

Spoiler

Build a four-seat all-electric gullwing vehicle with the greatest possible range. Should have a top speed no less than 75% of the Tesla Roadster. No solar panels or RTGs; battery power only.

Falcon 9v1.0: Dragon

Spoiler

Time for the Dragon to fly!

Design a probe or unmanned capsule capable of docking with the station core you launched using Falcon 5R. It needs omnidirectional RCS thrusters and fuel tanks of the same type as your station, a heat shield, and parachutes. It should carry internal batteries but also carry a service module/trunk which can carry at least one secondary payload and supplies solar power for the probe. The probe can be as small as you want it to be.

Convert your Falcon 5R into a Falcon 9, removing all recovery hardware and adding four more engines to the first stage. The first stage should be stretched, but the upper stage should remain the same, with the same engine and tank size.

Use your Falcon 9 to launch Dragon into an orbit matching your station core, then detach the upper stage, deorbit it, and use Dragon's omnidirectional RCS thrusters to rendezvous with your station. Test docking, refuel the station core if possible/necessary, and then undock and deorbit. Jettison your SM/trunk, re-enter, and successfully splash down.

Edited August 4, 2017 by sevenperforce

Bottle Rocketeer 500 · August 1, 2017

Can you please give mission reqirements for Falcon 1 and 1e

sevenperforce · August 1, 2017

1 hour ago, Bottle Rocketeer 500 said:

Can you please give mission reqirements for Falcon 1 and 1e

Done!

53miner53 · August 2, 2017

How about Tesla roadster?

sevenperforce · August 2, 2017

13 hours ago, 53miner53 said:

How about Tesla roadster?

Done!

Edited August 2, 2017 by sevenperforce

DunaManiac · August 2, 2017

I'm Not Metric, can anyone turn 200 Kg into tons for me? Please?

Edited August 2, 2017 by DunaManiac

CaptainTrebor · August 2, 2017

13 minutes ago, DunaManiac said:

I'm Not Metric, can anyone turn 200 Kg into tons for me? Please?

200 Kg = 0.2 Metric Tons.

sevenperforce · August 2, 2017

@CaptainTrebor @DunaManiac @53miner53 @Bottle Rocketeer 500 I added Falcon 5, Falcon 5R, Falcon Air, and Tesla Model S!

Bottle Rocketeer 500 · August 2, 2017

@sevenperforce The requirements seem to be too realistic to do easily.

sevenperforce · August 2, 2017

7 minutes ago, Bottle Rocketeer 500 said:

@sevenperforce The requirements seem to be too realistic to do easily.

I tested Falcon 1, Falcon 1e, and Falcon 5 with boilerplate payloads and it was a cinch.

I highly recommend using a gimbal-limited Vector as your primary engine, tweakscaled down slighly if you have Tweakscale. At 40% thrust-limit, it has NO trouble getting Falcon 1 into orbit with plenty of fuel to spare. I'm using a tweakscaled Swivel as my replacement for the Kestrel on the upper stage, but YMMV.

sevenperforce · August 3, 2017

@Bottle Rocketeer 500 @CaptainTrebor @DunaManiac @53miner53 @Physics Student @Nefrums @foobar @HiThere!2 @Spaceman17

As proof that this challenge is readily doable, here's Falcon 1 and Falcon 1e:

Falcon 1:

Spoiler

Thrust-limited first stage engine, tweakscaled down.

Thrust-limited upper-stage engine, also tweakscaled down.

Low TWR at liftoff.

Still climbing. No control surfaces does make this tricky.

Easing into gravity turn.

Doing better now.

Closeup showing thrust structure.

Nearing burnout with quite a bit of downrange speed.

Separation and S2 ignition!

I have some chutes on the first stage; let's see if I can recover.

Tumbling wildly.

Re-entry heat.

More re-entry heat, but I don't think the engine will burn up. The trouble will be whether I'll slow down enough to deploy my drogues safely.

Nope!

Oh well, better luck next time!

Back to the upper stage. Pitching down significantly to keep from lofting too high.

Still burning toward orbit.

Good apoapsis.

Fairing deployed, sat comm out, circularizing.

Circularized! Falcon 1 has reached orbit for the first time!

Separation.

All systems operational!

Burning to deorbit.

Good bit of propellant left; this has a lot of margin.

Surprisingly low impact speed! Might be easier to recover the upper stage than the lower stage. Not exactly the same as RL, of course, because heat shields...

Falcon 1e:

Spoiler

Relay sat over one tonne.

Same upper-stage engine but with improved thrust; this is effectively the "Kestrel 2".

Uprated thrust on the "Merlin", same thrust structure, taller first stage tank.

Still low TWR at liftoff.

Downrange and climbing.

Approaching MECO...

MECO with residuals this time.

Second stage away! Higher thrust makes it nice and energetic.

Transferring residuals to the lowermost tank to ensure retrograde re-entry. Going to try and use this fuel to slow down mid-entry to drogue speeds.

Not too much heat, but VERY speedy.

Starting the retroburn. Don't know if I have enough to hit drogue-safe speeds.

Drogues out!

Mains out.

Coming down at very nice speeds.

Splashdown successful!

Kinda started sinking like a rock...oh well, it's still technically recoverable!

Back to the upper stage. Lowered thrust to refine orbit.

Easing in.

Fairing deployed.

Circularizing!

Deployment!

Just for fun, I'm using the onboard engines to increase inclination as much as possible to improve relaysat coverage.

Not too bad.

Deorbit burn!

Re-entry.

Splashdown!

I've also done Falcon 5 and Falcon 5R, but I want to see other designs before I post them.

Spaceman17 · August 3, 2017

this gives me an idea, for a challenge, the thing is that all space companys with interesting programs had finished in other challenges, let me know a bit

Human Person · August 3, 2017

Well, I just started out with RSS/RO. Let's see what I can do, probably not the recovery missions.

sevenperforce · August 3, 2017

3 hours ago, Physics Student said:

Well, I just started out with RSS/RO. Let's see what I can do, probably not the recovery missions.

Nice! If you're doing it with RSS/RO, it may prove a little too difficult, so you can relax some of the engine thrust requirements.

Human Person · August 3, 2017

37 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Nice! If you're doing it with RSS/RO, it may prove a little too difficult, so you can relax some of the engine thrust requirements.

Thrust limiting doesn't work in RO and you have to search for engines capable of throttling. I think I'll look for the real configs of SpaceX Engines and try to replicate the real rockets as close as possible. Not in the next two weeks though, I'll be on vacation.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Physics Student

sevenperforce · August 4, 2017

Falcon 9v1.0 with Dragon is posted, and here is Falcon 5 for your viewing pleasure!

Falcon 5:

Spoiler

Here's the one-tonne relaysat with xenon and power for circularization.

Didn't get the fairing shape quite the way I wanted it.

Very low TWR at liftoff. Can't wait to get uprated engines.

Gradual ascent.

Had to play around with the ascent to get the right kind of curve.

Closeup of Falcon 5 thrust structure.

Nearing burnout.

Pretty hot at staging, but I wanted to get the upper stage moving as fast as possible, as horizontal as possible.

First stage tumbling. I'm going to do a landing attempt but it may or may not actually land.

Got down to a safe speed for drogue deployment without requiring a retroburn!

Mains out.

Still coming down pretty fast.

Will this be slow enough?

Nope! Hard splashdown. Looks like I need more chutes for a successful recovery.

Anyway, back to the upper stage!

Closeup of the Falcon 5 thrust structure with dual Kestrel 2 engines, identical to the ones used on the Falcon 1e (compare).

This is a GTO launch so I'll just let my apoapsis keep going higher and higher.

Nearing space, orbital velocities.

Fairing jettisoned, throttled down.

Orbit achieved! Entering coast period.

Testing systems.

KTO transfer burn node set.

Upper stage restart!

Burning to injection.

Throttling finely.

Nice high apoapsis!

Payload sep! Upper stage deorbit not shown, but it happened (see plenty of fuel reserves above).

Testing ion engine.

After a little adjustment, I determined that setting the thrust limiter at 57.5% matches insolation power. This allowed me to set a maneuvering node to move my argument of periapsis just beyond the ascending node of inclination (the Mun is at 0 degrees inclination so this helps when setting up kerbostationary equatorial orbit).

Now that I'm almost to kerbostationary altitude, I've set my circularization node and I'm burning gradually to circularize and change inclination.

Almost there!

Wrapping up...

Done!

And here we are. Nice placement, too.

Edited August 4, 2017 by sevenperforce

DunaManiac · August 5, 2017

Perhaps I will, the Falcon 1 will be posted today!

DunaManiac · August 5, 2017

Okay, I got Falcon 1 after a whole lot of trial and error.

I added some extra tanks to give it more fuel and let it be more bottom heavy.

And now passing Max-Q

And now we are performing our orbital insertion burn

Tada! Andyway, after a bit of course correcting, we finally reached a stable orbit.

Anyway, About the first stage, After reentry and deploying the Aerobrakes, the parachutes safely deploy.

And Parachutes fully deployed! And...

Touchdown! As you can see, nothing blew up. Very Surprising.

Meanwhile, back to the probes.

Away! My beautiful cube sat! Away!

And separation of my main probe.

And the second stage falls down,

To it's destruction!

I hope this was a good entry! Bye :wink:

DunaManiac · August 6, 2017

Back again with Falcon 1E! As you can see the thrust limiter is 45, and the stage is longer!

And into the air!

First stage out.

Orbital Inserstion...

In case you were wondering about the stage, it landed.

And back up in orbit, the Probe seperates and the debri returns to Kerbin.

sevenperforce · August 17, 2017

All right -- here are my entries for Falcon 5R and Falcon Air!

Falcon 5R:

Spoiler

Space Station propulsion and power core under larger fairing, with the RCS thrusters on the upper stage set to roll control only for ascent.

Upgrade! In place of the two Kestrels, this is my version of the Merlin Vacuum. Note thrust limiter and scale. Recovery hardware for both stages is visible in this shot.

Simplified, lighter thrust structure, and uprated engines.

Liftoff is anemic, as usual for these early rockets.

Takes a bit to get up to a meaningful speed.

Clipping along steadily!

Staging.

First stage is coming back for "re-entry" though it never actually exited the atmosphere.

No heating, really.

Drogues out. I tried this a few times and you REALLY need the drogues or you rip it apart.

Mains popped before drogues open completely.

Should be a survivable impact speed.

Success!

And she floats.

Back to the upper stage!

Carefully controlling inclination on ascent.

Popped my fairing.

Got my apoapsis where I want it, so I'll warp around to circularize.

Power array out.

Burning to circularize.

There you have it!

Now to deorbit.

I only tried recovery once...

Very wobbly on entry; the heavy single engine throws off the CoM.

Made it through! Chutes out.

Descending rapidly.

Slowed to a nice speed.

Splashdown!

Final shot of the station core.

Falcon Air:

Spoiler

Stratolaunch time! There were a range of options with this one...

First, here's the atmo-skimming monoprop-powered probe.

Full rig on the runway.

Closer view. The payload is slung underneath, strutted in carefully, with an off-axis cockpit.

Tail view of the launch vehicle, showing the vastly different thrust structure and the winglets. Compare:

Taking off. Fuel appears low because a lot of my parts were fuel-carrying and I didn't need nearly that much.

Liftoff at a fairly low speed.

Going to make a 270-degree turn to head due south over KSC.

Continuing the turn, with a nice shot of the Falcon Air LV.

Completing the turn, still climbing and gaining speed. The turn will allow me to still be fairly close to the runway when I drop the bird.

Leveling off to climb.

Nearing drop speed/altitude.

Falcon Air away!

With the payload dropped, I'm banking hard around to RTLS.

Just breaking supersonic, for the fun of it.

Approach.

Correction. I hate landing planes. I really, really do.

Uh-oh.

Well, I didn't manage to hit the runway, but at least I put her down!

Now, back to the Falcon Air.

Engines ignited, pitching up as hard as I can without stalling.

Slowly dragging up the prograde marker.

This took a lot of retrying to get right. If it's this hard to air-launch in KSP, I can see why virtually no one wants to try it IRL.

Much closer to where I want to be, now.

Well, I can say this -- air-launching certainly makes a difference in staging velocity. Though, to be fair, I'm using a smaller payload.

Burnout.

Staging and prep for re-entry.

Not too hot, really.

Drogues out. Will it work?

Nope. The mains wouldn't open. Oh well!

Upper stage is powering on to orbit.

Lining up my polar inclination.

Still using the RCS thrusters for roll control only.

Fairing away!

That's a nice orbit.

Payload attached to US.

Circularized enough to prepare for skimming missions.

Time to see if the upper stage can be recovered.

This should be a nice harsh entry, especially from such a high apoapse.

And a lot of remaining fuel to boot, making it less draggy than it should be.

Can I hold retrograde?

Apparently not.

Sooooo close to overheating...

Well, the heat shield was useless.

But somehow I made it through without the heat shield!

Chutes popped.

Final descent...

Aaaand....

Made it!

Now to try out my atmosphere skimmer.

Not much drag or atmosphere at this altitude. I'll try lower on the next pass.

Recharged my batteries; now I gotta stow these panels.

Much lower. The heat shield is actually being used. Doesn't look like I got any different readout, though. Oh well!

Each time I do this, I have to fire my monoprop engines to keep from losing apoapse altitude.

Hanging out in slightly higher polar orbit!

sevenperforce · August 22, 2017

All right, here's Falcon 9 (v1.0) with Dragon 1! I'm pretty proud of this, honestly; the Dragon 1 looks very, very close to the real thing.

Dragon with omnidirectional bipropellant RCS thrusters, trunk, solar panels, and upper stage.

Added four engines to the Falcon 5 configuration to make a Falcon 9; otherwise identical.

Launching at night for rendezvous.

Fairly slow ascent, as before. TWR is hurting with the same thrust limitation as the Falcon 5; I have almost twice as much thrust but a heavier first stage and a MUCH heavier payload.

Gravity turn proceeds slowly. Trying to get a match to space station inclination early.

Obligatory "almost-to-MaxQ-but-not-quite" shot.

Closer to burnout. Once first-stage fuel drops below about 30%, acceleration REALLY ramps up.

Here's staging! As you can see, TWR at staging is >1, which is expected. Of course, given Kerbin's precipitous drop in gravity, it's not going to hurt me here.

Ascending rapidly, but I've already adjusted to continue trying to target the station.

Reached apoapsis outside of the atmosphere, so that's one milestone.

Blew off the "capsule" nosecone. Now it looks even more like a Dragon 1.

Using my target to set up circularization.

First shot of Dragon 1 and the F9 upper stage in orbit.

One more intercept to match orbits.

S2 ignition to match.

Stage separation.

Extending the solar panels on the D1.

Using thrusters to match orbital speed.

Continuing the approach. It's a bit rough without proper reaction wheels.

Very close now.

Nice clear shot of final approach.

Docked!

Refuelling the attitude control tanks on the station core.

Separated from the station core. Everything went according to plan!

Deorbit burn.

This was a very narrow window to come down where I wanted to come down.

Separating from the trunk. This, I think, is the biggest problem with the D1 and D2 designs from SpaceX. Solar panels are hella expensive! Why would you throw away solar panels?