Liquid Fuel Only Challenge!

[AngryPotato9]

Challenge: use only liquid fuel, no oxidizer, or ion engine

Goal: Do the most ambitious mission you can! (Possibly a Jool V?)

Edited December 28, 2020 by AngryPotato9
Adding stuff

[AngryPotato9]

Btw, no srbs either 

[ralanboyle]

So, we can do suborbital runs and kerbin atmosphere stuff... unless we use glitch drives. What are you looking for? 

Welcome to the forum. 

[paul_c]

I am not getting it. The "S" in KSP is "space" - and liquid-only engines don't work there. 

[Tristen Simon]

On 12/24/2020 at 10:06 PM, AngryPotato9 said:

Challenge: use only liquid fuel, no oxidizer, or ion engine

Goal: Do the most ambitious mission you can!

The most ambitious thing I've ever done with Liquid Fuel Engines only and completed, is landing safely on the Mun and returning to Kerbin.

[swjr-swis]

3 hours ago, ralanboyle said:

So, we can do suborbital runs and kerbin atmosphere stuff... unless we use glitch drives.

2 hours ago, paul_c said:

I am not getting it. The "S" in KSP is "space" - and liquid-only engines don't work there.

What's wrong, lads? Lost your Nerv...?

 

[ralanboyle]

7 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

What's wrong, lads? Lost your Nerv...?

Sure, but if we use Nerv then I don't understand the challenge. We can just launch whatever we want into suborbit with jets and then visit the whole solar system with nervs. a Jet/nerv Eve landing/return mission might be hard, but the rest is pretty much up for grabs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm probably interested, I just need a more refined goal @AngryPotato9. 

 

[camacju]

Eve and Tylo are probably not gonna be landable, same with Jool
Actually you might be able to land on Tylo with nerv only but that'll be pretty hard

I might try to do that

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by camacju

[ralanboyle]

5 minutes ago, camacju said:

I might try to do that

There are no new challenges I am interested in and I almost never use nerv, so I might do this too. 

[camacju]

I just realized - no EVA pack will be allowed.

[sturmhauke]

42 minutes ago, camacju said:

Eve and Tylo are probably not gonna be landable, same with Jool

Landing on Eve isn't the problem, it's getting back to space. The pressure is going to drive the Nerv's thrust close to 0.

[camacju]

Not close to zero, literally equal to zero. At 9km the nerv's thrust is about 1/400 of its vacuum thrust

[Souptime]

you fools.. drain valves!

[dnbattley]

39 minutes ago, camacju said:

Actually you might be able to land on Tylo with nerv only

From my Jool-5 challenge submission a while back, I can absolutely confirm that landing and taking off from Tylo using NERVA is possible, with care.

[camacju]

Yeah I got a land+return with one nuclear engine

[Arugela]

1 hour ago, camacju said:

Not close to zero, literally equal to zero. At 9km the nerv's thrust is about 1/400 of its vacuum thrust

Does that mean we can use electricity and wheels that can steer to move the nose back and for to move forward and gain lift with massive wings? Or does electrical count as a fuel?

There are also both electric and lf based propellers to get off eve. I assume that makes eve less ambitious. Or is this no DLC content?

You will have to be more specific as to what is and isn't usable.

Edited December 27, 2020 by Arugela

[ralanboyle]

9 minutes ago, Arugela said:

You will have to be more specific as to what is and isn't usable

THIS is the clincher. Everything is possible without constraints. 

[camacju]

I may have budgeted slightly too much liquid fuel for my ascent vehicle. If I hadn't detached the jets when they flamed out, I could have gotten all the way to Tylo orbit on a single stage, and not even had to use my two transfer stages. This means that I'll be obligated to land places other than Tylo.

Edit: If I had planned this better, I might have been able to do an all liquid fuel Jool-5. That would be pretty cool

Edited December 27, 2020 by camacju

[camacju]

@ralanboyle@Arugela By the way I think the spirit of this challenge is to only use liquid fuel reaction engines. So drain valves, jets, and the nuclear rocket are allowed, but props wouldn't be (unless you're doing a liquid fuel powered turboprop).

[ralanboyle]

1 hour ago, camacju said:

(unless you're doing a liquid fuel powered turboprop

I think this might be the best choice for stage 1 getting off Eve if anyone wants to try it. 

[sturmhauke]

I did this mission to Duna and Ike a while back. Docking with Nervs only is possible, but annoying. Set the throttle limiter very low, use a lot of reaction wheels, and prepare to swing back and forth a lot.

https://imgur.com/gallery/uhwRA

Spoiler

shortly after takeoff

 

jet boosters away

 

deploying lander (there's one Nerv hiding under those tanks)

 

on Duna

 

now on Ike

 

Jeb posing for my avatar icon (thanks Jeb!)

 

docking for return home

 

docked with crew return SSTO over Kerbin

 

final approach

[camacju]

So I slightly improved my lifter design to do a full Jool-5 mission and this is what I ended up with:

Again way overengineered. Total craft has 17 rapiers and 10 nuclear engines

[camacju]

Ok so I completed the entire Jool 5 with only liquid fuel. I recorded it and I'm probably gonna try to put it together into a video or something

[AngryPotato9]

On 12/26/2020 at 7:55 PM, Arugela said:

Does that mean we can use electricity and wheels that can steer to move the nose back and for to move forward and gain lift with massive wings? Or does electrical count as a fuel?

There are also both electric and lf based propellers to get off eve. I assume that makes eve less ambitious. Or is this no DLC content?

You will have to be more specific as to what is and isn't usable.

You can use propellors, as long as there the ones powered by liquid fuel, and reaction wheels are fine

Edited December 28, 2020 by AngryPotato9
Forgot info

[camacju]

Okay, I landed on all five of Jool's moons using only liquid fuel. Note that on the Laythe landing I composited multiple takes because of me forgetting to record stuff. The lander obviously can orbit even from sea level.

167 parts in total, 17 rapiers, 10 nuclear engines, 0 oxidizer

Also - I have absolutely no idea how the lander survived (mostly) intact at the Kerbin landing. The docking port must have absorbed the initial impact somehow?

Edited December 29, 2020 by camacju