Unconventional Staging

[DualDesertEagle]

Damn, u were already typing when I edited my post.

Mods allowed? If yes, what kind is allowed and what kind isn't?

[Human Person]

8 minutes ago, ShadowGoat said:

Also, how about no to the hot knife?

Aww.

Anyways, there are better methods, but they're less fun!

Just kidding.

Edited January 9, 2018 by Physics Student

[sevenperforce]

How's this for unconventional staging?

All decouplers are replaced with cubic octagonal struts. For "decouplers" with engines on top, no additional help is necessary. For decouplers not topped by engines, like my single-seat ion lander and the final staging, three Sepratrons with only a tiny bit of fuel fire to blow up the strut and break off the part.

For side-mounted stages, decouplers are still cubic octagonal struts, but the Sepratron is clipped into the discarded booster; it thus also acts as a sep assist motor.

Took this bad boy to Munar orbit, "decoupled" my ion lander, EVA'd over, hopped on the ion lander and went down to the Mun and back up again, EVA'd over to the mothership, went to Minmus, came back to the Mun with a Kerbin gravity assist, did a rendezvous with the ion lander, went BACK down to the Mun with the remaining xenon, ran out of fuel 30 m/s before impact and bounced to safety after lithobraking my engine, EVA'd into a suborbital trajectory, did a suborbital catch with the mothership, and came back home to Kerbin.

Individual staging events are not particularly easy to see, but here's what it looks like.

Decoupling my lander.

Coming down to the Mun.

Who indeed?

Landing on Minmus.

Wise words.

Rendezvous with the waiting lander.

Landing.

The suborbital catch.

Then it was homeward bound!

[DualDesertEagle]

51 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

How's this for unconventional staging?

All decouplers are replaced with cubic octagonal struts. For "decouplers" with engines on top, no additional help is necessary. For decouplers not topped by engines, like my single-seat ion lander and the final staging, three Sepratrons with only a tiny bit of fuel fire to blow up the strut and break off the part.

For side-mounted stages, decouplers are still cubic octagonal struts, but the Sepratron is clipped into the discarded booster; it thus also acts as a sep assist motor.

Took this bad boy to Munar orbit, "decoupled" my ion lander, EVA'd over, hopped on the ion lander and went down to the Mun and back up again, EVA'd over to the mothership, went to Minmus, came back to the Mun with a Kerbin gravity assist, did a rendezvous with the ion lander, went BACK down to the Mun with the remaining xenon, ran out of fuel 30 m/s before impact and bounced to safety after lithobraking my engine, EVA'd into a suborbital trajectory, did a suborbital catch with the mothership, and came back home to Kerbin.

Individual staging events are not particularly easy to see, but here's what it looks like.

Decoupling my lander.

Coming down to the Mun.

Who indeed?

Landing on Minmus.

Wise words.

Rendezvous with the waiting lander.

Landing.

The suborbital catch.

Then it was homeward bound!

I'm locked out of this challenge already. How the hell am I supposed to beat ^ THIS when I'm barely skilled enough to make it down to the surface of any other body with nowhere even CLOSE to enough fuel to return to Kerbin?

[SG Aero]

Ha! Nice attempt! I’ll put ya on the leaderboard, as well as your quote.

 

Actually first could someone edit the scoring system? I realize that it’s made for the alt-f12 challenge. It doesn’t take into accpunt the fact that you actually have to go places.

Edited January 9, 2018 by ShadowGoat

[sevenperforce]

1 hour ago, ShadowGoat said:

Ha! Nice attempt! I’ll put ya on the leaderboard, as well as your quote.

 

Actually first could someone edit the scoring system? I realize that it’s made for the alt-f12 challenge. It doesn’t take into accpunt the fact that you actually have to go places.

Shoot, I should have caught that.

You should ask @Ultimate Steve if you can borrow his scoring from the One Life challenge. It's closer. Speaking of which, he still needs to put me at the top of the leaderboard.

Speaking of leaderboards, how would you score it if, perhaps, I went to Duna, Eeloo, and Moho, in one launch, without decouplers?

[Geonovast]

Hm.  Didn't have any issues when I was using heat shields as decouplers, but now that I'm exploding service bays with internal sepratrons, fuel flow is a problem...

[Ultimate Steve]

Feel entirely free to use my scoring system if you find it necessary.

[SG Aero]

Shall do, Lord Steve!

@sevenperforceCould you calculate your score please?

Edited January 10, 2018 by ShadowGoat

[sevenperforce]

1 hour ago, ShadowGoat said:

Shall do, Lord Steve!

@sevenperforceCould you calculate your score please?

Do I get credit for landing on and reorbiting the Mun twice?

Also, I DID land back on Kerbin without difficulty; my computer just glitched and I don't have the screenshots.

[SG Aero]

Sure. I’ll give ypu credit for that. I’ll also award 50 point bts for returning to kerbin

[sevenperforce]

11 minutes ago, ShadowGoat said:

Sure. I’ll give ypu credit for that. I’ll also award 50 point bts for returning to kerbin

@Ultimate Steve's scoring system automatically works in points for returning to Kerbin. It awards one set of points for orbiting, one set of points for landing, one set of points for getting back to orbit after landing, and one set of points for getting back to Kerbin.

So under his system, allowing double points for a double (non-sequential) visit to the Mun, I'd score 160.

Edited January 10, 2018 by sevenperforce

[SG Aero]

Added!