Orbit Boot Camp

[Admiral Fluffy]

Here is my submission

https://imgur.com/a/fhKOgCw

I don't have time to put the images in, so here is the album. You will find the cost at the bottom.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Admiral Fluffy
oh hey llok new page

[OJT]

So, I've been eyeing the Heaviest Payload delivered record made by bayesian_acolyte for the last two days, since it seemed somewhat achievable to me. I've done lots of optimization to my craft, got the payload mass to around 5.7 tons and around 3450 vacuum dV at launch. To be fair, the final launch vehicle ended up looking a lot like the acolyte's submission, but there's simply no other way of going around it (and I did try to build my ship around 2.5m fuel tanks and even attempted to make an SSTO, but it sadly didn't work), his concept seems to be already very optimized, and the fact that I actually managed to scrape a bit more dV at launch while having heavier payload than him is already impressive in my book lmao

There's only one issue though: I can't reach orbit. I've been battling with this for the whole night. I tried various launch profiles, tried to go shallower or steeper at different points of ascent and yet every time I am about 200 m/s short of orbit (at best). I can't add fuel to the vessel because I go over the recovery limit set by the challenge, and there isn't really any place I can noticeably reduce dry mass of my ship. Besides, judging by the screenshots, acolyte reached orbit comfortably with enough dV to spare to deorbit, so at this point I am just confused. What's the optimal launch profile for the Kerbin takeoff? Anyone can lend me a hand here? Because if I crack this dilemma the record will (hopefully) be mine

Edited February 2, 2022 by OJT