The Universal Rocket Design Challenge

[PhoenixCraftLTD]

Welcome to the The Universal Rocket Design Challenge the largest challenge yet. Here you will pit your enginuity aganst that of every other Kerbal Rocket Scientist to create a Universal Rocket system that works for every planet, and moon in the Kerban System.

There will be two lists of U.R.D.C. winners compiled, one for single man craft, and another for the three man capsule craft.

Rules:

1. You may work in groups of no more than five members.

2. All rockets must be 100% stock.

3. No flight mods may be used.

4. Rockets must be able to fly from the KSC to any planet/moon, land, and make it back to Kerbal. (with the exception of Jool)

5. There are no limitations on the number of stages a craft can use.

Extra awards will go to groups that make Rover Landers, and Spaceplains to the same specs as UDRC rockets.

To be counted in the list of Official U.R.D.C. winners you must submit ether video or pictures of the entire build and flight process.

Good Luck And May The Kraken Grant You Safe Passage!!!

[EndlessWaves]

Given that there's no special requirements on the ship side to get to any planet this would be easier to test as a voyage to the most D/V intensive planet out there.

Rebuilding the entire rocket for proof is also a little excessive.

[PhoenixCraftLTD]

Given that there's no special requirements on the ship side to get to any planet this would be easier to test as a voyage to the most D/V intensive planet out there.

Rebuilding the entire rocket for proof is also a little excessive.

I guess I should have made it clearer you don't need pics of building the rocket just of the completed Build.

[RoboRay]

So, in other words, you want an Eve lander/return craft.

[Apotheosist]

The hard thing is returning from Eve. I recommend another category for universal rockets that go to anywhere but Eve.

[Markus Reese]

A good criteria is a ship that can return from eve, or reach jool and has temp capabilities to land on Moho. Those are the three extremes.

[Oggula]

I just tested a 20 tank 5 engined lander on Eve, even with a 6km altitude landing spot all it could manage was 1.5km/s at 50km altitude. My lander had 7.5km delta v, and lost 2km on drag and 4km on gravity. To put it another way, one would have to land on top of a mountain so high it eliminates all the drag in order to achieve orbit, or land a proper monster on a mountain using a perfect Kerbin escape, inclined rendezvous and aerobraking.

In other words, return from Eve is nigh on impossible.

Finally, there is no such thing as a universal lander, because a lander can either be designed to return on its own, or for rendezvous returns, because I don't believe that Llaythe, Tylo, Eve or Moho can be directly returned from. Moho is also unique because of the overheating meaning landers must be small. Therefore I would have to choose 3 different craft for all possible return missions, and a transport in addition.

Sorry to rain on your parade buddy

[Apotheosist]

I just tested a 20 tank 5 engined lander on Eve, even with a 6km altitude landing spot all it could manage was 1.5km/s at 50km altitude. My lander had 7.5km delta v, and lost 2km on drag and 4km on gravity. To put it another way, one would have to land on top of a mountain so high it eliminates all the drag in order to achieve orbit, or land a proper monster on a mountain using a perfect Kerbin escape, inclined rendezvous and aerobraking.

In other words, return from Eve is nigh on impossible.

Finally, there is no such thing as a universal lander, because a lander can either be designed to return on its own, or for rendezvous returns, because I don't believe that Llaythe, Tylo, Eve or Moho can be directly returned from. Moho is also unique because of the overheating meaning landers must be small. Therefore I would have to choose 3 different craft for all possible return missions, and a transport in addition.

Sorry to rain on your parade buddy

Nothing is nigh on impossible. Earlier today I reached orbit from the surface of Eve with stock parts: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/21748-First-ever-ascent-to-orbit-from-Eve-using-stock-parts

Sorry to rain on your parade buddy

[bsalis]

I changed the persistence file to put this craft on the surface of Eve.

No one said getting to orbit from the surface of Eve was impossible.

What is has still yet to be proven is can you build a rocket that can get to Eve, land, then return to Kerbin. I too would say it is nigh on impossible. The vehicle required would be massive. The lag would make piloting it for burns a pain at the least. Putting it down on Eve without breaking anything is another hurdle.

[Apotheosist]

No one said getting to orbit from the surface of Eve was impossible.

What is has still yet to be proven is can you build a rocket that can get to Eve, land, then return to Kerbin. I too would say it is nigh on impossible. The vehicle required would be massive. The lag would make piloting it for burns a pain at the least. Putting it down on Eve without breaking anything is another hurdle.

Putting it down on Eve is easy, I have already tested that and it went very well. The thicker atmosphere slows you down much more

I could quite easily do a mission to return a kerbal from the surface of Eve Back to Kerbin with two rockets, which I'm actually going to work on tonight. One rocket to get to Eve and up to Eve orbit, then rendezvous with a return rocket to Kerbin. Doing it all in one rocket is much more of a challenge. But you people need to have more faith! With good design you can greatly reduce mass and part number of your rockets. People see all these massive ungainly rockets and tend to form assumptions about how big rockets need to be to do certain things.

[Exclipse]

Why bother with rendezvous... everyone knows this can be done easy enough. The challenge is one rocket, One.

[Oggula]

Yeah, I kind of had a bit of a mare and forgot jet engines existed for a week, sorry brethren