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Shuttle Challenge v6 - The STS thread [Stock and Mod Friendly] - ANNOUNCEMENT: v7 IS LIVE!

sturmhauke
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QF9E

QF9E

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45 minutes ago, Jestersage said:

Question: May I ask why the Cassini-Huygen challenge have the restrain of "a single R-12 "Doughnut" (left) for the Cassini probe and a single "Oskar-B" (right) fuel tank for the Huygens lander"?

Specifically:

1) Why the fuel limitation?

2) Why there's even fuel on the Huygen? To my understanding, Regardless of Galileo atmospheric probe or the Huygen, the lander does not have thrusters for deorbit landing, but instead realy on Cassini for trajectory, and use parachutes?

I don't know the reasons, as I am not the challenge designer, but when doing the mission for myself I found that I needed only about 1/3 of the allowed fuel. My guess is that the fuel requirements are there to promote use of gravity assists rather than a brute-force solution.

As to the fuel on Huygens: I agree with you that you could do the mission with an unfueled Huygens probe, although that would be a little more difficult. Maybe the challenge designer wanted to make the challenge a bit easier for newer players by allowing Huygens to have its own fuel? As far as I have been able to find out, the real-life Huygens probe did not carry its own fuel or rocket engines.

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sturmhauke

sturmhauke

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7 hours ago, Jestersage said:

Question: May I ask why the Cassini-Huygen challenge have the restrain of "a single R-12 "Doughnut" (left) for the Cassini probe and a single "Oskar-B" (right) fuel tank for the Huygens lander"?

Specifically:

1) Why the fuel limitation?

2) Why there's even fuel on the Huygen? To my understanding, Regardless of Galileo atmospheric probe or the Huygen, the lander does not have thrusters for deorbit landing, but instead realy on Cassini for trajectory, and use parachutes?

Cassini-Huygens was designed by the previous challenge admin, not me, nor have I attempted the challenge myself. Perhaps @michal.don would like to weigh in. But here's how I see it:

  1. The real mission was launched on a Titan IV-B/Centaur, not a Space Shuttle, but once it got to orbit it relied on a minimal amount of fuel and multiple gravity assists. The total spacecraft mass at launch, including propellants, was only 5600 kg, with a dV of approximately 2040 m/s.
  2. Huygens didn't have fuel, that's true. From what I can tell, Cassini released it on an elliptical trajectory such that it reached apoapsis above Titan first, before moving towards periapsis within Titan's atmosphere and eventually deploying chutes.
  3. I suppose that the STS-3T mission parameters are meant to be a compromise between the real mission and the limitations of KSP, and be challenging but not insanely difficult. I know a few people have completed it.

More info on the real mission: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini–Huygens

Edited by sturmhauke
typos
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Jestersage

Jestersage

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Oh okay. Was trying to design one for myself, and I ended up looking at Raptor9's Scout-outrider clone for reference and inspiration, but of course he used quite a bit of fuel in his design (but no fuel in the lander). Of course, I feel like he purposely combined both Galileo (namely, the solid state trasnfer stage) and Cassini into one mission

Going to try it regardless.

EDIT: Michal.Don replied back. Gonna do some test with the different fuel amount -- if I can get a badge out of it that's a bonus, but more interested in a Jool probe myself.

Edited by Jestersage
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michal.don

michal.don

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10 hours ago, Jestersage said:

Question: May I ask why the Cassini-Huygen challenge have the restrain of "a single R-12 "Doughnut" (left) for the Cassini probe and a single "Oskar-B" (right) fuel tank for the Huygens lander"?

Specifically:

1) Why the fuel limitation?

2) Why there's even fuel on the Huygen? To my understanding, Regardless of Galileo atmospheric probe or the Huygen, the lander does not have thrusters for deorbit landing, but instead realy on Cassini for trajectory, and use parachutes?

Pretty much as the other guys guessed, the fuel limitations exist to make the player use gravity assists. The mission is of course possible to complete without any fuel on the lander, but I tried to not make it too difficult for players who are not that profficient in gravity assists yet.

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QF9E

QF9E

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Grand Tour Mission report, final part: Moho and Kerbin: https://imgur.com/a/nxiybM2

After ploughing through 56 GB of game footage spread over 27 files, selecting 314 screenshots, uploading all of them to imgur (which refused to cooperate in the usual fashion: broken uploads, random ordering of images and inconsistent interfaces) and adding commentary to all of them, my mission report is finally finished. Compiling this report was WAY more work than I had anticipated, so I hope you'll like it. It is probably too long to appreciate in a single sitting - well, what can I do, this mission was very long as well and I wanted to document all maneuvers.

While nominally a JOOL STS-1 mission on the Commander Level, I hope you will appreciate that it was much more than that. Consider it my tribute to this awesome series of challenges.

@sturmhauke There's one Shuttle badge that I don't yet have, and I think this mission might qualify. Could you please consider it?

Spoiler

W0Cdh2Y.jpg?1

@michal.don: I was reminded of a comment you made when I was doing my Kerbin Shuttle missions, back when you ran the challenge:

Quote

I'm genuinely getting curious how you'll fare in the later missions at Duna, Jool and Eve...

I hope the current mission satisfies your curiosity ;). As we say in Dutch: "U vraagt, wij draaien". This roughly translates to "you ask, we deliver".

Some mission highlights:

X4LegVQ.png

Moho landing

Sfa4rY7.png

Planting a flag on Moho

qT0hiaG.png

Almost there

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michal.don

michal.don

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5 hours ago, QF9E said:

I was reminded of a comment you made when I was doing my Kerbin Shuttle missions, back when you ran the challenge:

I have to admit, this answers my question quite completely :D I did not have an opportunity to have a proper look at the report yet, but I sure will check it soon, and send a few likes your way ;) 

And, in my opinion, this one is firmly in the "skunkworks" territory, but I'll leave the honors to @sturmhauke :) 

Michal.don

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s_gamer101

s_gamer101

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Here is already my mission report for STS-5: https://imgur.com/a/oKe2K0B

I launched the Hab as the first module of my station.

I used some special boosters this time:D:

yGbeOL2.png

And here is my mission report for STS-6, which launched the propulsion module: https://imgur.com/a/SU8wiuW

STS-7 and STS-8 will hopefully follow soon.

Mods: KER, EEX, Trajectories, RCS Build Aid

DLC Parts: Making History and Breaking Ground

 

Edited by s_gamer101
Forgot to mention Breaking Ground DLC
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LittleBitMore

LittleBitMore

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I present to you: the majestic Rocketn't Shuttle! It should apply for Commander for the very first and most basic mission.

It uses an unorthodox design to make it to orbit, and flies very well on ascent as well as descent. It is theoretically capable of docking to other craft with Clampotron Jr. ports, and can ferry one Kerbal to orbit and back. It can also run without crew if required. I double checked the rules several times over and I believe it follows all required standards listed in the rules.

In addition, this is not only my first shuttle, but also my first runway landing. (I'm not good with planes.) It uses no mods and both DLCs (though I don't think Breaking Ground was used, I'll be safe and just say it was).

Really proud of this one.

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s_gamer101

s_gamer101

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My mission report for my reusable STS-7 (finally):

https://imgur.com/a/bDQ14Tu

And STS-8 is here:

https://imgur.com/a/fwEK3aI

Mods: EEX, RCS Build Aid, Trajectories, KER

DLC: Both Making History and Breaking Ground

qDmKR3a.png

jS5LSi2.png

I'm using a new shuttle. It should have enought delta V for missions beyond the Kerbin series, can carry external payload and has a reusable launcher (as long as I don't crash it:D).

 

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sturmhauke

sturmhauke

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@s_gamer101 Looks like you need to practice your booster landings a little more. ;) But your space station and orbiter look good, so you're fine. Congrats, Commander!

p5sBhgu.png

 

As for Lunex rules, they're more restrictive than the Shuttle Challenge but still qualify. Namely, Lunex requires a spaceplane mounted at the top of a rocket stack, while here we only require a staged spaceplane (you could even do a runway launch, but that has its own difficulties). In v5, there were a few Dream Chaser-style entries, which I'd argue is the descendant of Lunex. So go for it. That said, I think Lunex-style will have a harder time with large payloads.

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s_gamer101

s_gamer101

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Here's my entry for Mun STS-1. The mission is also for the Lunex challenge (Mun Lunex 1, Mun Lunex 2 and Mun Lunex 3). I used both DLC's (MH and Breaking Ground). Mods: Trajectories, EEX, KER

https://imgur.com/a/pp9JBj1

Spoiler

YtzRkMr.png

8GKuC8c.png

The rover is for the Lunex challenge. It has a working rocker-bogie suspension using Breaking Ground parts. This method was developed by @vyznev.

rassDwh.png

k1Ex6Wd.png

 

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sturmhauke

sturmhauke

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8 hours ago, s_gamer101 said:

@sturmhauke I have a question about STS-9: If a Kerbal is riding on the Asteroid during reentry and landing, is it allowed to open the Kerbal's personal parachute? (This would give a little bit of extra lift and look cool)

I'm not sure how much a little personal parachute is going to contribute to landing a multiton space potato, but you're welcome to try. Besides, if you can't look cool doing something dumb what's the point? :cool:

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epicman81

epicman81

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8 hours ago, sturmhauke said:

Hello @epicman81, and welcome to the v6 challenge! Can you clarify your use of Mechjeb please? Full autopilot is only allowed for orbital maneuvers. Partial/assist modes are allowed for atmospheric flight.

I used ascent guidance to get in orbit and landing guidance to help with the trajectory prediction. I manually piloted the glider back to the runway. I am sorry for the confusion

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