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

[JacobTheFoxx]

51 minutes ago, hoioh said:

I would be inclined to say, launch a spare, or two and go make repairs, it will be very "hubble"

You know what, if I'm not allowed the badge with one of the solar panels missing that'd be fun. Good idea.

Edited February 26, 2019 by JacobTheFoxx

[michal.don]

13 hours ago, JacobTheFoxx said:

You know what, if I'm not allowed the badge with one of the solar panels missing that'd be fun. Good idea

I'd love to see the repair mission, as @hoioh said, that would be so Hubble....

[JacobTheFoxx]

4 hours ago, michal.don said:

I'd love to see the repair mission, as @hoioh said, that would be so Hubble....

Alright then, that's what I'll do! I'll make a new smaller mk.2 shuttle for it, it'd be silly to send up my huge shuttle to replace one solar panel.

[JacobTheFoxx]

Well, the repair mission did go successfully, although certainly not to plan. Lets just say I really need to test my craft before I fly them.

[linuxgurugamer]

Here is my first entry for STS-9.  It is in 2 videos, it was 2 seperate streams.

I recovered a 3 ton, class A asteroid.

The landing was hairy because my joystick was disconnected; despite that, I landed it on the first try.

I'm in the middle of a second set of missions to recover a 9 ton, Class B asteroid.  I'm doing it for fun, since the challenge didn't specify any size.  The second mission is using an almost identical shuttle to this one.

Part 1

 

Part 2

 

Edit:  Just finished this again, with a Class B, 9.9+ ton asteroid.  Will post tomorrow

Edited March 4, 2019 by linuxgurugamer

[JacobTheFoxx]

I apologise for the bad audio in advance, was messing with different stuff and it didn't go too well. But here's my STS-3 submission, including the main mission and repair mission.

 

[sturmhauke]

Cool mission, I like your little square MMUs. They look like space bumper cars.

[JacobTheFoxx]

9 hours ago, sturmhauke said:

Cool mission, I like your little square MMUs. They look like space bumper cars.

Haha, thanks.

[Houdiny]

STS-1a certification attempt with runway landing

This is the first time I've done a ksp challenge after building by myself for a long time. I decided to make a simple shuttle, I do have a bigger one in RnD though.

I have installed KOS {not used}, FAR continued, EasyVesselSwitch {not used}, Analog control continued {somehow not used} (also module manager and modular flight integrator as dependencies).

The mission starts off pretty normal, the shuttle has 1 kerbal in it.

The boosters you see on the sides are retained for only a little part of the flight, they're there to make 100% sure I can't fail. After I jettison them I start turning the craft over.I circularized into a nice low kerbin orbit.For my return I chose to do a nice shallow approach to the ksc. It took a couple tries to get the return right and I still ended up flipping my shuttle for a part of the reentry. (Photos might not be from final reentry attempt)

I still ended up being short so I had to burn all of my maneuvering fuel to reach the runway. Also, I came in a little wonky and had to do hard corrections before I flew off the edge of the runway. I only made it down safely because I had drogue parachutes that saved me.

Landed with just a bit of runway to spare. 

[linuxgurugamer]

My second time doing STS-9, this time with a Class B, 9.9 ton asteroid.

And Jebediah was crazy, he rode it down in a chair on the outside of the asteroid.

The only "cheat" I did was to edit the save file to change a class C into a class B asteroid, otherwise I would have had to wait for a long time for one to show up.

This is a two part mission, shown in the videos below.  I had a slight issue when I didn't have the right parts to connect tanks together, but was able to work around that by using crossfeed through the asteroid :-)

Part 1, launch and rendezvous:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Part 2, capture, orbit capture, aerobraking and landing

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2019 by linuxgurugamer

[smotheredrun]

9 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

I had a slight issue when I didn't have the right parts to connect tanks together, but was able to work around that by using crossfeed through the asteroid :-)

Amazing how asteroids come with built-in plumbing, right?

Also... you mean there is another way to have Jeb bring an asteroid back?  I thought the chair riding was in his contract

[sturmhauke]

This is where I have failed to think enough like a kerbal. I'm over here trying to get my shuttle to fly standing up, as it were, with a Class C on its back, but all this time I could just stick an extra engine on the spud for balance and pipe LF through it. I dunno, maybe a Class C is still too big for me to deal with.

[michal.don]

Ok, time for another round of reviews. The delays are becoming quite customary, and I'm sorry about that.

On 2/28/2019 at 1:32 AM, linuxgurugamer said:

Here is my first entry for STS-9.  It is in 2 videos, it was 2 seperate streams.

Good job on finishing the last "Kerbin" mission!

The "nuke pod" idea is really neat, nice piece of engineering on your part. And by upsizing the LV a bit you got a really powerful machine with a lot of potential, and still room for more upgrades. I'm getting curious how you will perform in the next missions. Here's your badge, congratulations!

 

On 3/1/2019 at 10:39 PM, JacobTheFoxx said:

I apologise for the bad audio in advance, was messing with different stuff and it didn't go too well. But here's my STS-3 submission, including the main mission and repair mission.

One scheduled Hubble mission, and one to cover up for serious mess-up, where have I seen this?  The MMUs are really cute, and the missions are both very well flown, so another bagde, for you, too:

 

On 3/3/2019 at 1:43 PM, Houdiny said:

STS-1a certification attempt with runway landing

We have another newcomer here, welcome to the challenge!

Great demonstration mission for your shuttle concept, and a pinpoint landing as well - not an easy feat. I suspect a redesign will come soon to add significant cargo capacity, so here is your badge, and I'm looking forward to seeing more soon!

 

Michal.don

[linuxgurugamer]

7 minutes ago, michal.don said:

Good job on finishing the last "Kerbin" mission!

The "nuke pod" idea is really neat, nice piece of engineering on your part. And by upsizing the LV a bit you got a really powerful machine with a lot of potential, and still room for more upgrades. I'm getting curious how you will perform in the next missions. Here's your badge, congratulations!

Up until now I've been launching this shuttle on top of the rocket, but I spent last night while streaming learning how to build and launch it on the side of the stack with an external tank.

I'm not too worried about the Mun missions, I've essentially already done them in my career game on Iota (GPP planet pack).  But I want to do it better than I did before, so it may be a few weeks while I design the research base and update the shuttle to use much heavier engines at the rear (needed for the launch)

Now, this may  seem a bit nuts, but am I allowed to drop off the engines once I'm done with them?  I'm referring to  the engines at the rear of the shuttle

Edited March 5, 2019 by linuxgurugamer

[michal.don]

15 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Now, this may  seem a bit nuts, but am I allowed to drop off the engines once I'm done with them?  I'm referring to  the engines at the rear of the shuttle

Well, it's a bit against the whole "reusability" thing, but let's call them a part of the LV instead of the orbiter then  

[linuxgurugamer]

2 hours ago, michal.don said:

Well, it's a bit against the whole "reusability" thing, but let's call them a part of the LV instead of the orbiter then  

Ok.  I'm just exploring possibilities.  My problem is that the 2.5m shuttle is so much lighter than the 3.75m shuttle, that the Vector engines throw the whole weight & balance out of kilter.

So how about this:

I could put the vectors on the external tank, and the normal engines on the shuttle

I'm not giving up on having the engines on the shuttle, just exploring the different possibilities before I start doing the design work.

[hoioh]

53 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Ok.  I'm just exploring possibilities.  My problem is that the 2.5m shuttle is so much lighter than the 3.75m shuttle, that the Vector engines throw the whole weight & balance out of kilter.

So how about this:

I could put the vectors on the external tank, and the normal engines on the shuttle

I'm not giving up on having the engines on the shuttle, just exploring the different possibilities before I start doing the design work.

Just a random thought on the design:

You could put a fuel tank on the back of the shuttle with a separator and attach some engines to that, then attach the external tank to it, if need be with more engines and then jettison the whole lot together when you reach orbital velocities, or even after you bring the whole thing up to orbit

Shaped sort of like a spear-throwing hook, or a (smoking) pipe

[linuxgurugamer]

33 minutes ago, hoioh said:

Just a random thought on the design:

You could put a fuel tank on the back of the shuttle with a separator and attach some engines to that, then attach the external tank to it, if need be with more engines and then jettison the whole lot together when you reach orbital velocities, or even after you bring the whole thing up to orbit

Shaped sort of like a spear-throwing hook, or a (smoking) pipe

Interesting, but I may end up having the science facility mounted on the outside of the shuttle, given that the shuttle is only 2.5m in size

[JacobTheFoxx]

18 hours ago, michal.don said:

One scheduled Hubble mission, and one to cover up for serious mess-up, where have I seen this?  The MMUs are really cute, and the missions are both very well flown, so another bagde, for you, too:

Thank you very much! On to STS-4! 

[linuxgurugamer]

On 3/5/2019 at 11:51 AM, hoioh said:

Just a random thought on the design:

You could put a fuel tank on the back of the shuttle with a separator and attach some engines to that, then attach the external tank to it, if need be with more engines and then jettison the whole lot together when you reach orbital velocities, or even after you bring the whole thing up to orbit

Shaped sort of like a spear-throwing hook, or a (smoking) pipe

I've finished the design of my MUN STS-1.  The research facility is entirely enclosed in the shuttle bay, needed a shoehorn to get it in.  From this point on I'll be launching the traditional way, with the shuttle on the outside instead of on top.  I spent a whole stream 2 weeks ago just learning how to launch this way, and while not a veteran, I'm now doing ok. I expect to be doing the mission on Sunday night, at 7PM EDT, would love to have you all come and watch (twitch.tv/linuxgurugamer) 

[JacobTheFoxx]

For STS-4 and STS-5-8 I'm going to be using replicas of the Buran, and the American space shuttle. Just got finished making my American space shuttle and it flies suprisingly well, although it is quite unstable below 20KM after re-entry as it always wants to put you into a flatspin. But regardless, here's a test mission with an orange tank test payload:

Edited March 12, 2019 by JacobTheFoxx

[linuxgurugamer]

Mun STS-1 completed.   Research station deployed with 3 kerbals. An interesting shuttle design, the external tank has 3 Vectors, while the shuttle itself has an aerospike engine.  After 3 failed launch attempts, we made it to orbit, and then to the Mun.  The external tank had plenty of fuel, so it went along with us.  Landing was interesting, I got distracted by stream stuff and crashed the first time, second time was easy.  What I didn't realize until it was too late was that the external tank ran out of fuel halfway down, so I wasted some fuel landing it as well.  And then, because it was out of fuel, it wasn't able to fly itself away after decoupling, so we had to push it over.  Good thing the Mun has such light gravity.  Once down, the research station was deployed with it's own thrusters.  One more minor glitch showed up when the structural trusses at the ends which were the anchor points got stuck with the RCS thruster nozzles, so a Kerbal had to do some Kerbaling by jumping up and down on them to break them free.

Finally, the takeoff was dicy, first time was a disaster, second time was good.  Very low climbout in the beginning.

The return home was mostly uneventful, although long.  Due to the low amount of fuel remaining, once we left the Mun's SOI, the orbit was modified to put the Pe at 60km; low enough to get some drag, high enough to avoid too much.  After 10-15 orbits with aerobraking, the shuttle was low enough to be able to circularize.  This was necessary to be able to land back at the KSC.  The reentry was nominal, and the jet engines were only needed for about a minute.  The shuttle ended up being a bit nose heavy at the end, but it landed safely.

YouTube video here:

Spoiler

 

The mission in picture:

Spoiler

 

The Landing:

Awkward moment here, the external tank was empty and couldn't fly away on it's own, had to push it over.  Good thing the Mun has such light gravity

 

A bit of a problem here:

We'll just Kerbal it away:

Base safely away from shuttle:

 

An exciting takeoff:

Spoiler

 

Orbital maneuvers:

Reentry, with some really weird effects:

Mission complete:

 

 

Edited March 19, 2019 by linuxgurugamer

[linuxgurugamer]

On 8/5/2017 at 2:06 PM, michal.don said:

A pressurized rover for at least 5 kerbals, that is capable to dock to the habitation module (STS Mun-3)

Define "rover" please.  Does it have to have wheels, or can it be thruster powered?

On 8/5/2017 at 2:06 PM, michal.don said:

An Emergency Escape Vehicle (EEV) for the whole crew (STS Mun-4)

This, I assume, can be anything?  How about a mini shuttle?

[michal.don]

On 3/18/2019 at 4:30 PM, linuxgurugamer said:

Define "rover" please.  Does it have to have wheels, or can it be thruster powered?

As usually, the definition is quite vague, to not limit creativity - so a rocket-powered rover is fine by me  

On 3/18/2019 at 4:30 PM, linuxgurugamer said:

This, I assume, can be anything?  How about a mini shuttle?

Yes, any means of transportation to Kerbin is fine, including a mini shuttle.

 

I don't have the time to check your entry right now, I should be able to get to it in a day or two. Looking forward to seeing the next one too, though!

Michal.don

[Legoprodigy]

Guess ill have to re-earn my badge with an MK2 shuttle