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Land Without Fuel, Parachutes, and Landing Gear!

LocalGenius

By LocalGenius
in KSP1 Challenges & Mission ideas

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LocalGenius

LocalGenius

Posted
Posted (edited)

Landing is the most dangerous stage in space travel. Anything could go wrong. Your parachute may decide to rip off just before landing. Your rocket may run out of fuel while you are still in the air. Your landing gear may be too short, so you decided to mount landing gear on decouplers, only to accidentally decouple just before landing on the plains of Kerbin.

The challenge is to come up with a method for landing safely (in one piece) WITHOUT Fuel, Landing Gear or Parachutes!

It is possible!

MGDLh.jpg

I used decouplers towards the front of the craft.

vyeZb.jpg

I fired my rockets, got above 2,000 m. used up all the fuel I had, and detached my rocket engines.

f7mvT.jpg

I descended until I was about 10 m. above the surface.

liR32.jpg

Then took my time on the last few meters

2z7Sk.jpg

Then I started slowing down!

7KU8t.jpg

Successful Landing!

RULES!

  1. Landing must take place on land, water landings are too easy.
  2. No Landing Gear, Landing Legs, Parachutes, or fuel of any kind below 2,000 m.
  3. Kerbals must remain in the ship during the descent
  4. No Mods, with the exception of MechJeb.
  5. Pictures must be taken before launch, during descent at 2,000 m., just before landing, and when your craft has reached a complete stop.

Scoring!

Landing on Kerbin = 100

Landing on Eve = 200

Landing on Duna = 400

Land a craft with more than 50 parts* = 100

Land a craft with more than 100 parts* = 200

Land a craft with more than 200 parts* = 600

*parts will only count if their absence compromises the integrity of the landing vehicle.

Take off using your improvised landing gear = 200

Using a different method of landing other than the one I used = 1000

Awesomeness Factor = up to 300

ScoreBoard!

  1. "Maltesh" - landed on Eve, Awesomeness=300, score=1500 Landing method - Spacediving into Eve's atmosphere!
  2. "LocalGenius" - landed on kerbin, Awesomeness=90, score=190
  3. ____________
  4. ____________
  5. ____________

EDIT: Because of the extreme simplicity of Maltesh's landing on Eve, I won't allow a repeat performance. Kerbals must stay in their ships during the landing.

Edited by LocalGenius
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maple51

maple51

Posted
Posted
Landing is the most dangerous stage in space travel. Anything could go wrong. Your parachute may decide to rip off just before landing. Your rocket may run out of fuel while you are still in the air. Your landing gear may be too short, so you decided to mount landing gear on decouplers, only to accidentally decouple just before landing on the plains of Kerbin.

The challenge is to come up with a method for landing safely WITHOUT Fuel, Landing Gear or Parachutes!

It is possible!

MGDLh.jpg

I used decouplers towards the front of the craft.

vyeZb.jpg

I fired my rockets, got above 2,000 m. used up all the fuel I had, and detached my rocket engines.

f7mvT.jpg

I descended until I was about 10 m. above the surface.

liR32.jpg

Then took my time on the last few meters

2z7Sk.jpg

Then I started slowing down!

7KU8t.jpg

Successful Landing!

RULES!

  1. Landing must take place on land, water landings are too easy.
  2. No Landing Gear, Landing Legs, Parachutes, or fuel of any kind below 2,000 m.
  3. No Mods, with the exception of MechJeb.
  4. Pictures must be taken before launch, during descent at 2,000 m., just before landing, and when your craft has reached a complete stop.

Scoring!

Landing on Kerbin = 100

Landing on Eve = 200

Landing on Duna = 400

Land a craft with more than 50 parts* = 100

Land a craft with more than 100 parts* = 200

Land a craft with more than 200 parts* = 600

*parts will only count if their absence compromises the integrity of the vehicle.

Take off using your improvised landing gear = 200

Using a different method of landing other than the one I used = 1000

Awesomeness Factor = up to 300

ScoreBoard!

  1. "LocalGenius"-landed on kerbin, awesomeness=90, score=190
  2. ____________
  3. ____________
  4. ____________
  5. ____________

You scared Jeb.
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Bluejayek

Bluejayek

Posted
Posted
Think you should swap the scores for Eve and Duna - Eve's massive gravity makes powered landings incredibly hard, while duna's got relatively weak gravity.

This is UNPOWERED and unpowered landings are easier on eve because of the thick atmosphere.

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Sean Mirrsen

Sean Mirrsen

Posted
Posted (edited)

Why does landing larger craft yield more points? One would think the other way around would make more sense. Anybody can make a capsule surrounded by wings and control surfaces and land it. Can you land a capsule with just two wings and no ASAS or control surfaces? I did, at one point. Hold on while I try to recreate the thing...

edit:

On takeoff.

Going up.

And up.

Capsule away!

Gliding in.

This... counts as a landing, right?

Well, any landing you can walk away from... :P

The things that look like skids are leftovers from the decoupler, and they did a lot to contribute to the broken state of the wings, because they exploded as soon as I touched down, and the whole thing tumbled over. :\

Edited by Sean Mirrsen
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Sean Mirrsen

Sean Mirrsen

Posted
Posted
A fuel needs to be reacted to produce heat and power. RCS is just cold gas (usually nitrogen) being ejected in specific directions.
No, fuel in a rocket is just reaction mass. Being "reacted" and being "ejected" is the same thing. Newton's third law, remember? Whether fuel is burned (conventional engines), heated to boiling point and ejected (NERVAs) or just plain thrown overboard doesn't matter.

Point is, there is to be no propulsion system on the craft whatsoever, at least no functioning one. Also no landing gear, although that is basically a technicality - landing gear aren't a magic unbreakable part, they're just a pretty tough part with no friction problems. Structural pylons are hardly any different from them.

In my opinion, just restricting it to "no propulsion of any sort and no parachutes" would work just as well, though having no landing gear certainly does force the pilot to make the approach much more carefully.

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Nemoricus

Nemoricus

Posted
Posted
No, fuel in a rocket is just reaction mass. Being "reacted" and being "ejected" is the same thing. Newton's third law, remember? Whether fuel is burned (conventional engines), heated to boiling point and ejected (NERVAs) or just plain thrown overboard doesn't matter.

A point of pedantry: Fuel is what a rocket consumes to give energy to its propellant. Propellant, on the other hand, is what the rocket ejects to accelerate. In a chemical rocket, the two are synonymous, while on a NERVA style engine the fuel is the nuclear fission material while the propellant is something like hydrogen or water.

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LocalGenius

LocalGenius

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Posted (edited)

Sean Mirrsen, that was an impressive mother ship, and I think I didn't stress this enough, but the goal was to land in one piece.

To straighten things out, RCS fuel counts as fuel, but as long as you use all of the fuel, or use none, I will accept your lander.

Edited by LocalGenius
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