Drain driving challenge

[Pds314]

Build a land vehicle and try to get it as far north as possible from the KSC using drain valves. Your score is your latitude.

1. No using the drain valves on intake air.

2. No using drain valves outside slider range with KAL.

3. No other form of propulsion is allowed.

4. No mod parts. No exploits. No ISRU. Craft design can be anything you want.

Edited June 22, 2020 by Pds314

[llertag86]

After some experimenting, wow, this is a ridiculous challenge, as the drain valve thrust is dependent on the tank its attached too it is best to go with the largest tank available for the largest amount of stock thrust; but then it exponentially increases the consumption. just getting over the first hill by the space center is a challenge as the larger the craft the harder it is to turn as landing gear don't turn. It would be easier to use rover wheels to at least turn but then its impossible to legitimize the run for not using any other propulsion. According to your rules convert-o-trons are allowed which kind of defeats the purpose but would take an incredibly long time to coast and refuel every few kilometres if your lucky. I would suggest redoing this thread as a flight challenge, speed challenge or see if people can lob something into orbit or elsewhere using the valves.

[EveMaster]

13 minutes ago, llertag86 said:

It would be easier to use rover wheels to at least turn but then its impossible to legitimize the run for not using any other propulsion.

I think if you switch off the motor in the settings of the rover wheels, they would be allowed.

[Pds314]

8 hours ago, llertag86 said:

After some experimenting, wow, this is a ridiculous challenge, as the drain valve thrust is dependent on the tank its attached too it is best to go with the largest tank available for the largest amount of stock thrust; but then it exponentially increases the consumption. just getting over the first hill by the space center is a challenge as the larger the craft the harder it is to turn as landing gear don't turn. It would be easier to use rover wheels to at least turn but then its impossible to legitimize the run for not using any other propulsion. According to your rules convert-o-trons are allowed which kind of defeats the purpose but would take an incredibly long time to coast and refuel every few kilometres if your lucky. I would suggest redoing this thread as a flight challenge, speed challenge or see if people can lob something into orbit or elsewhere using the valves.

OK I revised it so ISRU is not allowed. BTW You can use rover wheels if they're not motorozied. I don't know what landing gear you're using but you can always double up little ones or use BG servos to pivot the big ones.

Regarding flying or orbitting... Drain valves have an ISP of about 5 s. There's no way you're making it to orbit with that. each stage would be getting you like 40 m/s or something.

Edited June 22, 2020 by Pds314

[Pds314]

Gliding until I got to the beach to improve the Oberth effect and then going along the beach, I managed to get to latitude 0.625 in this simple, single stage vehicle.

Of course there is nothing stopping anyone from using drain valves to power a fan or multiple stages or anything.

Edited June 22, 2020 by Pds314

[ralanboyle]

Alright, I got to 1.22. I'm pretty sure I can get above 2 but I probably won't bother unless this heats up.