landing a booster at Kerbin

[Fraston]

So, you know in the powered landing scenario ( that really hard one where you land a fuel tank with unfairly little fuel with engines) that you have to acheive landing at Kerbin with engine power alone? Well, I challenge you to make a booster that gets a payload (or two) into LKO. But the payload doesn’t matter. What matters is the booster. Land the booster on Kerbin.

landing:

5 points for a parachute landing

10 points for a powered landing, +20 points for a hoverslam(waiting until the last minute to fire the engines)

60 points for a lithobrake landing (using parts with high collision speed tolerance, like a shell of swiveling landing gear)

extras:

+ 10 points if the booster is larger than 3.75 meters

+5 points for each additional booster, plus each method of landing, NO MORE THAN 4

+5 points if there is more than one payload

 

 

Edited May 16, 2018 by Fraston

[Kerbalstar]

Good idea @Fraston! Just one question: What do you mean by larger than 3.75 meters? Do you mean one core, or can I have multiple cores together to qualify for that? I ask because there is no stock part larger than 3.75 meters. Someone would have to have either a mod or the DLC, if it has to be one core.

 

Edited May 11, 2018 by kerbalstar
Autocorrect

[Jack5.exe]

I already got a 5M reusable rocket! Just need to fix it a lil

[Fraston]

B

6 minutes ago, kerbalstar said:

Good idea @Fraston! Just one question: What do you mean by larger than 3.75 meters? Do you mean one core, or can I have multiple cores together to qualify for that? I ask because there is no stock part larger than 3.75 meters. Someone would have to have either a mod or the DLC, if it has to be one core.

 

I mean that a normal 3.75 tank or a 5 m tank, or a 3.75 with radial tanks all qualify.

[Airdude]

Time to break out my Falkon 1. It needs some design tweaks but I should have my submission ready by tonight.

[Fraston]

 

43 minutes ago, kerbalstar said:

Good idea @Fraston! Just one question: What do you mean by larger than 3.75 meters? Do you mean one core, or can I have multiple cores together to qualify for that? I ask because there is no stock part larger than 3.75 meters. Someone would have to have either a mod or the DLC, if it has to be one core.

 

I mean that a normal 3.75 tank or a 5 m tank, or a 3.75 with radial tanks all qualify.

[Fraston]

Derp

did you know that dying is the number-one cause of death in kerbals?

I derped out and reposted something lol

[Kerbalstar]

2 hours ago, Fraston said:

 

I mean that a normal 3.75 tank or a 5 m tank, or a 3.75 with radial tanks all qualify.

Wonderful, thanks!

[Airdude]

Done!

First stage performed a powered landing on the peninsula just east of the KSC.

Second stage performed a perfect hoverslam, landed just west of the mountains next to the KSC.

Deployment of two MiniSats in 200KM resonant orbits. I seem to have forgotten to upload the picture of the map view of the final result, so here’s just the one.

 

Score: 35

mission highlights:

Spoiler

 

Falkon II on the pad.

First stage re-entry

Beep boop

Second stage re-entry.

First stage landing location.

Stage 2 landing location, satellite passing overhead.

 

Edited May 13, 2018 by Airdude

[Andetch]

So, I got one that lands on parachutes without a probe core. It is also caveman tech, and SSTO. 

According to the challenge it's only 5 points - but maybe there is some kudos for the fear of technology?

In the video I admit I missed a true orbit by 5 metres (but there wasn't enough air resistance to create an atmospheric capture), and had a high AP, but you get the idea I am sure. 

 

Edited May 13, 2018 by Andetch
Correcting autocorrect.

[herbal space program]

I think this is a great idea, but  some of the definitions and scoring criteria are not really clear to me.  So before  cook up an entry I have a couple questions for the OP, @Fraston: Are wings, wheels,  and control surfaces allowed? Also, I'm not clear on exactly what constitutes a hoverslam or lithobraking under the rules. Perhaps more importantly, I'm not sure exactly how "boosters" and "payloads" are defined.  These questions are kind of related to the first question about the wings, as I'm wondering how you would envisage scoring a spaceplane, with a large cargo bay full of 0.625m autonomous Oscar/Spark first stages, that takes off and lands horizontally on the runway and discharges say twenty of those little "boosters" to land from orbit in various ways. If that plane were to land from orbit successfully without power, would that constitute lithobraking?  Anyway, I imagine you would probably want to put the kibosh on any such cheeky nonsense, so just a bit more explanation of your definitions might be in order .  I only offer these suggestions because I believe that with a somewhat tighter set of rules/definitions and perhaps a more open-ended scoring system of some kind, this challenge could get a really killer response!