Newbie Central - Micro-challenges for new comers! - Closed

[Zeiss Ikon]

Well.  I guess I still qualify as a "newbie", with rep just over 600.

I was going to build a glider, but I see someone beat me out on my chosen design -- near-vertical boost with a Flea and a suitable weight of airframe (I'd have to look up the thrust of the Flea in the VAB to find the weight to build to).  Hmmm.  I still might.  I think I can do a little better (than that glider, anyway).

[Ho Lam Kerman]

Gaaaah!

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EDIT: I'd like to post my entry. It also uses the "Vertical Shuttle" design.

There goes the drop pod. It marks the beginning of the flight.

The end of the flight. 

---------------------------------

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the actual flight, since I was too busy trying to fly this uncontrollable thing.

Edited May 31, 2018 by Ho Lam Kerman

[Alpha 360]

Was this designed to separate into multiple pieces, @Ho Lam Kerman? Or was this a rapidly unplanned disassembly? 

[Ho Lam Kerman]

43 minutes ago, Alpha 360 said:

Was this designed to separate into multiple pieces, @Ho Lam Kerman? Or was this a rapidly unplanned disassembly? 

That was RUD. Good thing the cockpits are hard.

I don't think that's not allowed?

[TheFlyingKerman]

Clearly I am not very good at making gliders. I just made it.

 

[Alpha 360]

1 hour ago, Ho Lam Kerman said:

I don't think that's not allowed?

Well, any landing you can walk away from is a success, so you take a Newbie medal!

Also, @TheFlyingKerman, you get a medal as well!

Edited May 31, 2018 by Alpha 360

[Zeiss Ikon]

Hmm.  Looking at a couple of these designs, I think there's some interpretation on "launch" and "TWR" -- did I see a Mammoth on a launch cart?  And the idea is to blast down the runway, then dump the cart, pull up sharply, and use the (ridiculous) momentum supplied by the "non-flying" launcher to glide?  Seems a little far from the original concept of a 2:1 TWR and 5 second burn time.

I built my glider with actual Separatrons (8 of them), actual liftoff mass (not counting the launch clamps) of 5.9 T (as close to the permitted 5.6 T as I could get with this design and keep the COM where it needed to be).  No-roll takeoff, more or less like a Snark missile only without the jet engine sustainers.  The Separatrons are mounted on radial decouplers, four on top and four underneath (so the off center thrust doesn't cause big pitch excursions) and the craft launches with roughly a 15 degree nose up attitude to keep from falling to the runway before it's going fast enough to climb.  Decouple the Separatrons at the end of climb (their momentum is helping until that point), then keep the glide around 41 m/s with pitch.

I got 5.8 km from the launch clamps on the second try (though F3 reports a bit over 12 km ground distance, I can see the clamps from the landing point), and ditched intact on both attempts (landing at 35+ m/s on water isn't all that difficult).

https://i.imgur.com/LFKiMzx.png

Aaaand it appears embedding is broken again.  None the less, that's the SPH shot.

https://i.imgur.com/umQGdyH.png

And here it is after ditching.  I think it's very unlikely anything built to the original concept (without what amounts to a catapult launch using a wheeled booster) will beat this figure by a bunch.  A kilometer or so, perhaps (I won't claim this is the most efficient design possible, and it's 300 or so kg heavier than it has to be under the rules), but not by a factor of five or six.

Meanwhile, I may stick a couple Junos and some landing gear on my design, and nip over to the Flying Wing challenge...

[Ho Lam Kerman]

1 hour ago, Alpha 360 said:

walk away from

But I had to swim! 

[rSSSfeed]

1 hour ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

Hmm.  Looking at a couple of these designs, I think there's some interpretation on "launch" and "TWR" -- did I see a Mammoth on a launch cart?  And the idea is to blast down the runway, then dump the cart, pull up sharply, and use the (ridiculous) momentum supplied by the "non-flying" launcher to glide?  Seems a little far from the original concept of a 2:1 TWR and 5 second burn time.

I agree, and I protest. So I made something. (small disclaimer, screenshots were taken over two attempts)

This is x16. Note that thrust is within margin. Those wings on the sides are pointed DOWNWARDS to generate downforce, keeping the cart pasted on the runway. The main body of the "glider" has no wings at all.

Racing down the runway, it picks up some serious speed.

Detach wheels when it clears the runway.

And when it loses control because of such crappy aero, ditch everything else...

.. and comfortably glide into a newbie medal.

Only 2 seconds of thrust after takeoff to get 7 klicks distance! Absolutely legit.

 

[Conor_]

Ok so this is the first challenge I've done but I got around 5km using only separatrons.  I did an unmanned one that did about 10km but forgot to take pictures.

Imgur link: https://imgur.com/a/cmlE25S

I'm looking forward to the next challenge!

[Zeiss Ikon]

7 hours ago, rSSSfeed said:

Only 2 seconds of thrust after takeoff to get 7 klicks distance! Absolutely legit.

  

Welcome, @Conor_ -- nice first post! 

Edited May 31, 2018 by Zeiss Ikon

[Kerbalstar]

2 hours ago, Conor_ said:

Ok so this is the first challenge I've done but I got around 5km using only separatrons.  I did an unmanned one that did about 10km but forgot to take pictures.

Imgur link: https://imgur.com/a/cmlE25S

I'm looking forward to the next challenge!

Cool! I wish I had thought of that decouple your object from your plane thing!

Edited May 31, 2018 by kerbalstar
Oh, Typos, how I love thee.

[The Minmus Derp]

May I do a multi launch modded Minmus base?

@obney kerman

[Alpha 360]

@The Minmus Derp, the current challenge is to launch a glider to 4.3 kilometers at least. If you do that, then you get a Newbie Medal. The challenge will be changing soon though. 

[SiriusRocketry]

I've cracked it! Submission posted tomorrow- my sixth attempt fully overachieving by two and a half times the required distance.

[VelocityPolaris]

Brief announcement: I've thrown together a special pilot modification of the ENCCC medal on GIMP, which will be rewarded to those who have the 3 furthest distance scores.

[obney kerman]

18 hours ago, The Minmus Derp said:

May I do a multi launch modded Minmus base?

@obney kerman

Like @Alpha 360 said, we are doing a glider challenge. A minmus base challenge may come later.

[The Minmus Derp]

ok. maybe both.

[VelocityPolaris]

On 5/31/2018 at 3:21 AM, Ho Lam Kerman said:

Gaaaah!

EDIT: I'd like to post my entry. It also uses the "Vertical Shuttle" design.

 

 

On 5/31/2018 at 7:41 AM, Zeiss Ikon said:

Hmm.  Looking at a couple of these designs, I think there's some interpretation on "launch" and "TWR" -- did I see a Mammoth on a launch cart?  And the idea is to blast down the runway, then dump the cart, pull up sharply, and use the (ridiculous) momentum supplied by the "non-flying" launcher to glide?  Seems a little far from the original concept of a 2:1 TWR and 5 second burn time.

Sorry for the late reply. Yeah, sorry, @Ho Lam Kerman, but Zeiss has a point. That's what, a 4000 KN engine, 3700-something at sea level? And that's an 81-tonne fuel tank assuming it was full, a 15-tonne engine, I think - doing some rough rounding, I'd guess that craft weighs about 100 tonnes. The maximum TWR is 200 KN per 10 tonnes, so your max thrust in that case would be 2000 KN, which this is in grand violation of. What is the meaning of this?

 

 

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On 5/30/2018 at 6:17 AM, Elon Kerman Jr said:

Hi sorry I didn't do the first like I said I would but here is my entry I hope it doesn't matter to much if I missed the required staging I don't know how to upload images

https://imgur.com/a/LQMKQZ4

Again, sorry for the late reply. Is this a challenge entry? Any chance we could see the rest of the craft? (replies were automatically merged BTW)

Edited June 3, 2018 by VelocityPolaris

[VelocityPolaris]

On 5/30/2018 at 4:58 AM, SpacePanda said:

I hope i completed all criteria of challenge

Waiiiiit a minute - 163.2 KN thrust, should, according to the rules, require a minimum craft mass of around 8.something tonnes, I think. And this says it has a mass of like 3.225 tonnes, yeah? That is in violation of that 200 KN per 10 tonnes rule, I think. Maybe we should let this stuff slide, though, as I'm only catching any of it at the last possible second.

On 5/30/2018 at 12:07 AM, doggonemess said:

I'm happy to report a silly amount of success. After doing the Juno challenge, I noticed that stacking lifting surfaces still maintains the lift of the part, even if the part is touching the surface above or below it. On top of that, I know that more mass = more inertia, and more mass (for this challenge) = bigger rockets at the start. So combining these along with much trial and error has yielded my result. Splash down at 70 KM! WOOHOO!

(The 21 km object in the image above is my plane from the Juno challenge, landed at the island airfield.)T

The imgur link isn't working, by the way.

Another meannitpick. Obviously, you flew pretty far, but do you know that you flew 70 KM? The "ground distance covered" value in the f3 tab usually reports a number greater than what a reference object on the runway would tell you, hence why I made the reference object thing a rule. Or did you actually have a reference object that told you 70 KM, and I'm just making crazy assumptions here? Either way, you've definitely won an ENCCC medal, though I'd really like this to be cleared up. My guess is that you flew around 53 Kilometres, still nothing to scoff at.

Edited June 3, 2018 by VelocityPolaris

[VelocityPolaris]

"you have 53+ new replies on the thread 'newbie central - microchallenges for newcomers'"

Heeeeelp the ghosts of Christmas past are trolling me for all the nitpicking, 'cuz I'm being all scroogelike with the medals.

EDIT: Oh good, now it's scaled it down to a more realistic "you have 36 new replies"

Also I can apparently edit my challenge post now. I'm think the challenge will end today, so if anyone wants to make an entry, they'd best do it quickly.

Edited June 3, 2018 by VelocityPolaris

[hoioh]

38 minutes ago, VelocityPolaris said:

"you have 53+ new replies on the thread 'newbie central - microchallenges for newcomers'"

Heeeeelp the ghosts of Christmas past are trolling me for all the nitpicking, 'cuz I'm being all scroogelike with the medals.

EDIT: Oh good, now it's scaled it down to a more realistic "you have 36 new replies"

Also I can apparently edit my challenge post now. I'm think the challenge will end today, so if anyone wants to make an entry, they'd best do it quickly.

I don't understand how I get the medal, can't find it in the post. Also, I kinda liked the way you handled the medals before, so I'd love to see that again! You could make it a little easier on yourself by putting the picture once and all the receivers of said medal above it instead of each their own. Though that does make it a bit more special  

Nevermind, didn't read your post entirely...

[VelocityPolaris]

Just now, hoioh said:

I don't understand how I get the medal, can't find it in the post. Also, I kinda liked the way you handled the medals before, so I'd love to see that again! You could make it a little easier on yourself by putting the picture once and all the receivers of said medal above it instead of each their own. Though that does make it a bit more special  

I don't know how it's supposed to work, either, but I'm assuming each person individually gets a picture of the medal sent via personal message once the challenge has ended. We could hand those out before, I reckon, but as for the special pilot edition medals that go to the top 3, I'm trying to wait until the challenge is closed to find out, definitively, who the top 3 are.

[The Minmus Derp]

Is the next challenge Minmus base? if it is, YAY! i can do that!

On 5/29/2018 at 1:25 AM, doggonemess said:

and no more engines may be activated in-flight. 

ahem. does that count separatrons on the detaching stage?

[VelocityPolaris]

5 minutes ago, The Minmus Derp said:

Is the next challenge Minmus base? if it is, YAY! i can do that!

ahem. does that count separatrons on the detaching stage?

Uh, no. If these sepratrons are only fired to help detach the stage and don't help propel the craft, those are free. If they're on the detaching stage and propel the craft, you can have 200 KN of them for every 10 tonnes of detach stage+glider mass.