Shuttle Challenge v5 - The STS thread [Stock and Mod Friendly] - MAJOR CHALLENGE ANNOUNCEMENT! - 30.3.2020

[Kerbolitto]

I've made a larger one for a space station, it uses counterweights and bigger cylinders, its not exceptionnal (and big) but it works better than the shuttle's arm!

[sturmhauke]

Hokay, so. I have abandoned my plan to capture a Class C. That last design I posted wasn't playing nice with the aero engine, due to the Mk4 fuselage pieces being "upside down" as far as the lift calculations were concerned. My plan was to have essentially 2 shuttles, flat sides together at launch, and then they would split and dock with the asteroid to make a sandwich before returning. I might try it again sometime just for the goofy factor, but honestly I'm not even sure it would have survived the stress of landing.

However, my previous design, while it liked to flip upside down when flying with a Class C, proved capable of landing a Class B just fine. I even found a magic rock. I still need to complete the mission for real, but here's a sneak peek:

 

[Speeding Mullet]

A tentative hello to the KSP community after almost a year away . 

I wasn't a big name on the forums particularly, but most well known probably for running V4 of this challenge, and doing some really overly complex missions including Jool 5's, Elcano's, and plenty of other shenanigans.  Oh yes I built a few Shuttles too! Good to see the Shuttle Challenge still going strong and indeed growing after all this time.  @michal.don and everyone else - Hi again, and @4x4cheesecake Here's an entry for old time's sake. 

I threw together a Myasishchev VM-T Atlant and a new Buran style shuttle and did the STS-1T Approach and Landing test:

 

Link to Mission report - https://imgur.com/a/5pKod8l

Not too bad for first KSP boot up in a year   I'm back baby (maybe).

SM

[4x4cheesecake]

Welcome back to the challenge and KSP @Speeding Mullet , it's always nice to see an "old stager" stopping by
A new mission report as well? Very nice!

That's a beautiful buran style orbiter you've build and it performed very well but I'm actually slightly more impressed by the Atlant and it's landing. Some will say, you managed to save the plane and the kerbals but I think, it's more accurate to say "you failed to abandoned the plane" because it has to sound hilarious to describe this landing accurately    

Well done mission and a well deserved badge for you:

[michal.don]

On 6/30/2019 at 9:17 AM, Speeding Mullet said:

A tentative hello to the KSP community after almost a year away . 

Welcome back, it's really nice to see you around again  I haven't been very involved on the forums (and in KSP, in general ) lately either, but I'm always watching what's going on here. For the time being, @4x4cheesecake has agreed to take care of the challenge (and he's doing a wonderful job). But worry not, the challenge is still going, even if the number of new entries is a bit low at the moment. I guess everybody is playing with the new robotics stuff, it looks pretty awesome

Great to see you shuttling again,

Michal.don

[sturmhauke]

Yeah I've been messing around with the DLC for sure. Once I finish my potato mission, I'm gonna upgrade my main install to 1.7.2 and start doing robotic shuttle missions... ON THE MUN!

[linuxgurugamer]

5 hours ago, michal.don said:

 even if the number of new entries is a bit low at the moment. I guess everybody is playing with the new robotics stuff, it looks pretty awesome

Great to see you shuttling again,

Michal.don

I've been working on the Duna missions, will be finishing Duna-1 this evening

[Speeding Mullet]

On 6/30/2019 at 11:17 PM, 4x4cheesecake said:

That's a beautiful buran style orbiter you've build

Why thanks very much!  It does seem to perform remarkably well, so I'm for once looking forward to flying some new missions!  Saving the Atlant was pure luck.  I just assumed it lost!

21 hours ago, michal.don said:

I guess everybody is playing with the new robotics stuff, it looks pretty awesome

Great to see you shuttling again,

Thanks!  Nice to be hanging out here again among friends.  I'll leave the robotics for the moment.  Trying to keep things simple to avoid over complicating things and ending up in the same trap as last time!  I think there's a reason they called the mod "infernal" robotics

16 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

I've been working on the Duna missions, will be finishing Duna-1 this evening

I honestly don't remember whether I ever completed the Duna missions beyond sending a Shuttle there as a plausibility test before publishing the missions.  I'll be interested to read the mission report, and rip off some of your quality ideas .

I just completed another mission - STS-2T Abort.  I did this for an easy badge as part of easing myself back in, and to further test my shuttles capability.  Its called Brunch for some reason?!

 

Full Mission Report - https://imgur.com/a/taPioS4

Again an enjoyable mission, thanks!  I need to back track and work out which missions I have not done.  I think I've not done (possible edits to come):

• Mun STS 5 through 7
• Duna STS 1 through 3
• Jool STS 1
• Eve STS 1
• STS 3T through 6T

I think I can at least LOP-G with minimal modification to the current shuttle, so perhaps I'll work on that casually

SM

[linuxgurugamer]

7 minutes ago, Speeding Mullet said:

I honestly don't remember whether I ever completed the Duna missions beyond sending a Shuttle there as a plausibility test before publishing the missions.  I'll be interested to read the mission report, and rip off some of your quality ideas .

I finished it very late last night, had some control problems which turned out to be that the trim was set when I wasn't aware.  I also had the fun issue of sending a Kerbal on EVA, and then when I hit R to use the thrusters, the universie exploded!

I'll be posting the edited videos in the next day or so, have to get out to a dr. appt.

Please note that I use a heavily edited install.  The shuttle is somewhere around 22,000 kT at launch, it is using the Mk 2.5 Spaceplane Parts tweakscaled up to 5m.  It's a  beast.

Edited July 2, 2019 by linuxgurugamer

[4x4cheesecake]

8 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Full Mission Report - https://imgur.com/a/taPioS4

Quick question here: Did you actually leave the atmosphere? You're Ap went above 70km but there is no screenshot which actually shows your shuttle outside of the atmosphere

[Speeding Mullet]

4 hours ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

Quick question here: Did you actually leave the atmosphere? You're Ap went above 70km but there is no screenshot which actually shows your shuttle outside of the atmosphere

Waaah no I didn't I don't think.  I raised the Ap above 70km (just) so with aero forces during the pitcharound for sure this would have dropped below 70km.  Highest I have a screenshot of though is:

The shuttle is probably capable of doing a jool 5 before pad abort, but rules is rules   I will run the mission again tonight and post the report!

12 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Please note that I use a heavily edited install.  The shuttle is somewhere around 22,000 kT at launch, it is using the Mk 2.5 Spaceplane Parts tweakscaled up to 5m.  It's a  beast.

Maybe not stealing ideas haha.  Wow that's a beast

SM

[sturmhauke]

Yeah like the biggest thing I've ever launched was about a tenth of that. My biggest shuttle was maybe 800 tons on the pad, for one of the station parts.

[Speeding Mullet]

Everyone was looking forward to the next launch in the schedule.  Someone had decided that the latest vanity project, the MOP-G was the ideal way to not visit the Mun.  The PPE module was aboard the strangely named Shuttle "Brunch" and on lift off everything looked good for the completion of Mun STS-5.  But wait - What happened to that rocket motor?

Full Mission report - https://imgur.com/a/gWBn9yL

Proof of altitude:

Unfortunately I failed to read the instructions and landed at the Island airfield instead of KSC as directed.  I'm hoping you will class this as a pass for an "old stager" though as all other missions allow landing at this secondary strip, it made it more challenging, and I could easily have landed the shuttle at KSC if I wanted

If not I guess I'll do it for a third time, but I'm kinda itching to get stuck into the Mun STS mission!

SM

[4x4cheesecake]

3 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

the strangely named Shuttle "Brunch"

Are we every going to find out why the shuttle is named "Brunch"?

 

2 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Unfortunately I failed to read the instructions and landed at the Island airfield instead of KSC as directed.  I'm hoping you will class this as a pass for an "old stager" though as all other missions allow landing at this secondary strip, it made it more challenging, and I could easily have landed the shuttle at KSC if I wanted

I'll turn a blind eye this time, because I have no doubt about the capabilities of your shuttle or your piloting skills
Even NASA feared this maneuver and I've struggled a lot during this mission, so let's say: we are just happy to see your Kerbals alive and back on Kerbin

Congratulations to your new badge and let's see, how you are going to build a MOP-G

[linuxgurugamer]

5 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

strangely named Shuttle "Brunch"

Ummm, were they intending to have Brunch (a mix of breakfast and lunch) in orbit?

[linuxgurugamer]

Finally, my Duna STS-1 mission.

The kerbals realized that the shuttles used for the Mun missions, while very versatile,  wouldn't be able to complete the Duna missions, especially the landing on Duna.  So they decided to supersize the shuttle.

They huddled in the design center, and over a period of weeks they hammered out a new shuttle, based on the old one, but a little bit larger.  Multiple simulated test flights were flown, the resulting shuttle was a bit over 508 tons at launch, including the space station;  the LOP-G design was used, only this shuttle was able to fit the whole disassembled station in the cargo bay.  Shuttle weight without the station and no fuel was 252.6 tons, fully loaded with fuel but no cargo it tipped the scales at 461.7 tons.  While a bit oversized for the first Duna mission, the intent was to design a single shuttle which would be able to return to Duna on subsequent missions and land.

The full stack was just a bit larger, tipping the scales at a whopping 24,436 tons (429 parts).

Assembly	Mass	Parts
Shuttle, dry	262.6	139
Shuttle, wet	461.7	139
Duna LOP-G	46.9	103
Shuttle, Full Stack, wet	24436	429

The launch seemed to crawl, but that was due to the size of the launch vehicle.  In actually it had a TWR of 1.45 on the pad, and that only improved as fuel got burned off.

The initial part of the mission went smoothly, although the odd forward-staged tank promoted by Jebediah turned out to be more problematic than expected.  It was staged while under full power, and was unable to get out of the way of the shuttle, it ended up damaging the central tank; not critical for this mission, but will need to be addressed for future missions.

The flight to Duna was without any significant issues, although the loss of fuel from the central tank unbalanced the shuttle, and the aerobraking around Duna was somewhat entertaining for the crew.  But the shuttle survived without any further damage and was able to achieve an orbit with the aerobraking maneuver.  The orbit was dropped down to about 69x69km, and assembly of the space station was without incident; the only unexpected issue was that due to the rcs maneuvers, the orbit was actually 70.262km x 69km.  The station's orbit was circuliazed after assembly was complete, and the shuttle settled down to wait for a window to return.

The return voyage was without incident, however the reentry was delayed several times due to an unknown force on the controls; was finally identified as the trim being over too far.

Shuttle landed (finally, after several attempts) without further incident.

Full video in spoiler below

Spoiler

 

 

[4x4cheesecake]

1 hour ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Finally, my Duna STS-1 mission.

Well done LGG, that mission was full of twists and quite an adventure to watch on your stream and after all the trouble, I'm glad to see your entry here  

Also, it looks like the club of flying monstrosities just got a new member. Your Mun shuttle was already big but the upscaled version for the Duna missions is just hilarious. I love it

2 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

The launch seemed to crawl, but that was due to the size of the launch vehicle.  In actually it had a TWR of 1.45 on the pad, and that only improved as fuel got burned off.

Maybe the shuttles for Mun STS 5 - 7 and another, mysterious craft next to the runway "slightly" impacted the framerate as well

Anyway, congratulations to your new badge and I'm looking forward to your next mission

 

PS: Since we already compared our shuttles during the construction phase, I cannot stop at this point^^

2 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

The full stack was just a bit larger, tipping the scales at a whopping 24,436 tons (429 parts).

Assembly	Mass	Parts
Shuttle, dry	262.6	139
Shuttle, wet	461.7	139 
Duna LOP-G	46.9	103 
Shuttle, Full Stack, wet	24436	429 

Let's see what I can offer:

Assembly	Mass	Parts
Orbiter, dry	72.328t	209
Orbiter, wet	236.228t	209
Duna outpost	14.3t	46
Shuttle, Full stack, wet	1,123.158t	340

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I have an idea why you had troubles to land your orbiter on Duna

[linuxgurugamer]

As a result of the trim issue, I fixed the trim indicator from the NanoGauges which broke back in 1.3.1, also made it a stand-alone mod here: 

 

[linuxgurugamer]

While reviewing the rules for the Duna STS-2 and STS-3, I realized that they are not mutually exclusive.  Meaning that the STS-2 mission could also bring the lander, and then just do both missions from that point on.

Would this be allowable and acceptable?

[4x4cheesecake]

12 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

While reviewing the rules for the Duna STS-2 and STS-3, I realized that they are not mutually exclusive.  Meaning that the STS-2 mission could also bring the lander, and then just do both missions from that point on.

Would this be allowable and acceptable?

Please keep the missions separate

If you want to save some time, I would suggest to launch two shuttles, one for each mission, so you can use the same transfer window and fly them parallel. Don't dock them together or transfer any stuff between the shuttles, just do both missions at the same time

[linuxgurugamer]

3 hours ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

Please keep the missions separate

If you want to save some time, I would suggest to launch two shuttles, one for each mission, so you can use the same transfer window and fly them parallel. Don't dock them together or transfer any stuff between the shuttles, just do both missions at the same time

Will do

[Speeding Mullet]

On 7/3/2019 at 11:21 PM, 4x4cheesecake said:

Are we every going to find out why the shuttle is named "Brunch"?

So I believe it is literally as I was hungry and it was roughly brunch time, but I can't prove that, so it is in fact shrouded in mystery and the truth, although out there - will never be known.

 

On 7/3/2019 at 11:21 PM, 4x4cheesecake said:

I'll turn a blind eye this time, because I have no doubt about the capabilities of your shuttle or your piloting skills
Even NASA feared this maneuver and I've struggled a lot during this mission, so let's say: we are just happy to see your Kerbals alive and back on Kerbin

Congratulations to your new badge and let's see, how you are going to build a MOP-G

Why thanks very much indeed!!

 

On 7/5/2019 at 11:22 AM, linuxgurugamer said:

Full video in spoiler below

I'll readily admit to not sitting down for the full 4 hours, but skipping through the pertinent bits I'd like to say wow, and well done on this mission.  It takes a lot of work (and time) to do stuff like this.  Don't you love it when you can measure the size and complexity of your mission by the increase in frame-rate between launch and landing .

 

Right - the LOP-G Missions, or MOP-G in my case.  I designed the payloads on Wednesday, and flew the missions Wednesday and Thursday night / Friday afternoon.  Here are my missions for the commander badge.  Mission 2 is reasonably straight forwards, but mission 1 and 2 both included spur of the moment bonus sub missions for the hell of it, and for further capability testing in advance of the next set of missions.

MOP-G Mission 1 - https://imgur.com/a/sBsSAD1

MOP-G Mission 2 - https://imgur.com/a/Hr6YuC2

MOP-G Mission 3 - https://imgur.com/a/K7A7MaF

MOP-G Orbit change - https://imgur.com/a/O5e5Jrm

I guess next up I really need to visit Duna now.  Need to work on the ET and general shuttle framework a little for these ones most likely, especially judging by others!

SM

 

[4x4cheesecake]

Quote

if you are not going to the Mun, then you may as well not do much science while you are not going.

Space philosophy 101 by @Speeding Mullet?

10 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

MOP-G Mission 1 - https://imgur.com/a/sBsSAD1

MOP-G Mission 2 - https://imgur.com/a/Hr6YuC2

MOP-G Mission 3 - https://imgur.com/a/K7A7MaF

MOP-G Orbit change - https://imgur.com/a/O5e5Jrm

Looks like you had some fun while building your MOP-G and even squeezed in some extra stuff to use the excessive fuel...I have the gut feeling, Raner Kerman is really happy about this.
The MOP-G looks really nice, and I like the details you've put on it like the sun shades. You fulfilled the mission requirements with ease and still got plenty of fuel left... I guess, you're not going to have a lot of trouble during the Duna missions

I had quite some fun reviewing your entry, thanks for that and congratulations to your new badge

Edited July 7, 2019 by 4x4cheesecake
Added quote

[Speeding Mullet]

On 7/8/2019 at 12:51 AM, 4x4cheesecake said:

Space philosophy 101 by @Speeding Mullet?

Its not as cutting edge as pointy end upwards, but its pretty avant-garde thinking! .

 

On 7/8/2019 at 12:51 AM, 4x4cheesecake said:

Looks like you had some fun while building your MOP-G and even squeezed in some extra stuff to use the excessive fuel...I have the gut feeling, Raner Kerman is really happy about this.
The MOP-G looks really nice, and I like the details you've put on it like the sun shades. You fulfilled the mission requirements with ease and still got plenty of fuel left... I guess, you're not going to have a lot of trouble during the Duna missions

I had quite some fun reviewing your entry, thanks for that and congratulations to your new badge

Raner had a blast and is already under pre-selection for a long stay at Duna as mission engineer.  Yep, I tend to go over detailed, but this is probably less detailed than I used to be to be honest!  Thanks for the badge.

 

I've just prepared the mission report for Duna STS-1 ready for your adjudication

 

Full Mission Report - https://imgur.com/a/qpKOeB1

the next task is to convert the shuttle for surface operations on Duna.  This will require some level of modification, but probably not a huge amount.  The shuttle just seems to be brilliantly capable!

SM

[4x4cheesecake]

3 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Its not as cutting edge as pointy end upwards, but its pretty avant-garde thinking! .

I should have known that before I did my Duna STS - 3 mission...my lander was always pointing downwards

Spoiler

 

3 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Full Mission Report - https://imgur.com/a/qpKOeB1

The next one already? Cool!

Haven't had any doubt your shuttle will still perform well during this mission and you didn't let me down Looks like a routine mission for you, even the aerobreak/capture at Kerbin, and the modified habitat module from the MOP-G works perfectly fine as an outpost.

One question though: The "onboard telescope" view on Duna is just a zoomed IVA view, isn't it?^^

Already curious how you are going to modify the shuttle to land it on Duna but in the meantime, enjoy your brand new badge!