Do It Like Jebediah: Orbit and land safely using only boosters

[foamyesque]

Alright people. Your task is simple:

[list type=decimal]

[li]Get into space[/li]

[li]Orbit[/li]

[li]Land safely (anywhere)

[/li]

But you have execute it like Jeb would: Boosters, boosters, boosters. No sissy stuff like parachutes or liquid engines. Nova and Sunday Punch's part packs are allowable, but the real Thrillmaster would do it with the stock boosters. 8)

Good luck.

[DoctorEvo]

My kinda challenge. 8)

[rdfox]

For added bonus points, try and do it in a *single* stack, without lateral decouplers or surface-mounts! (For that purpose, I'd also permit the various multi-couplers in Sunday Punch's pack, and the lateral bi- and tri-couplers.)

I'm not sure that's even possible to do, but it'd certainly be an interesting twist.

[Thobewill10]

Working on it now. Almost got it

Crap. The landing without a parachute's gonna be hard

[ckellingc]

Phase 1: Orbit

Phase 2: De-orbit burn

Phase 3: Fall straight to earth

Phase 4: Fire stabilizing SRB's

Phase 5: Detach srb's and use liquid fuel

Phase 6: Crash DAMMIT

[DrLucky]

I think I'm going to download the SRBs-get-lighter-as-they-burn patch first.

[foamyesque]

Phase 1: Orbit

Phase 2: De-orbit burn

Phase 3: Fall straight to earth

Phase 4: Fire stabilizing SRB's

Phase 5: Detach srb's and use liquid fuel

Phase 6: Crash DAMMIT

I see liquid fuel in that list. >

[jahwillprovide]

Ill take this challenge as soon as my orbit is finished

trying for a 24 hour one just to see if I can do it

landing with no parachute should be fun

Is there a required height?

[foamyesque]

As long as you're in orbit and can prove it, nope. My run had an apogee of 206km and a perigee of 66km, but I screwed up my re-entry approach. =(

[DoctorEvo]

As long as you're in orbit and can prove it, nope. My run had an apogee of 206km and a perigee of 66km, but I screwed up my re-entry approach. =(

If I launch, kill my ascent rate and snap a shot at perigee to prove I'm at orbital speeds and eccentricities, do I still have to complete an orbit or can I just deorbit immediately?

[foamyesque]

I'd ideally like to see one complete orbit, but if you're in a hurry as long as you can prove you would've orbited, I'll take that, because floating in space is boring. It's not like the landing'll be any harder, since you've got the lateral. A shot at apogee works for similar reasons.

[ckellingc]

I see liquid fuel in that list. >

Just now saw the no liquid fuel rule. May God help us all.

[MyNameIsNotPa]

My strategy: Land upside down with the reverse booster. 8)

[sirscott]

My strategy: Land upside down with the reverse booster. 8)

Ive been experimenting with a variety of mod-parts just to try and find a way to crash-land the thing , and so far they've all been tuned into paste. Either the thrusters are powerful enough to return the dropping capsule to upward flight , or aren't powerful enough to slow it down even for a crash landing. Anyone got suggestions?

[Cannon_Fodder]

With wings the landing would be much easier. Been trying the horizontal 'crash' landing approach too.

[defiler86]

I'll definitely give this challenge a shot, stock parts only, too.

[foamyesque]

With wings the landing would be much easier. Been trying the horizontal 'crash' landing approach too.

Winglets are acceptable. After all, if you have more control, you can add more boosters!

[sirscott]

With wings the landing would be much easier. Been trying the horizontal 'crash' landing approach too.

I think this is a promising line of enquiry. After a lot of trial and error , I came up with the contraption below. After a lot of practice In-atmo , ive been able to pull off a few controlled crashes. Its a pig to handle (SAS all the way) and if you dont time it all just right the landing pads will bounce you back up. Survival rate is probably 10% , which probably just makes Jeb want to fly it all the more.

[foamyesque]

Seven m/s too damn fast

I had a lagstorm passing through my target altitude for ignition, blast it.

[sneakeypete]

Been messing around with the horizontal lander idea with stock parts, and i have to say, it aint happening.

[sirscott]

Been messing around with the horizontal lander idea with stock parts, and i have to say, it aint happening.

Yeah , the stock wings just don't have enough lift. I've been experimenting with C7s aviation mod though and have come up with a number of prototypes that show some promise. The latest is the Jebediah 1.2 , which is effectively a C30 solid booster with a delta wing , wing let-tail and some landing gear bolted on. So far its proven pretty safe , the bouncy gear surviving landing speeds of up to 50 m/s. The only problem I have found has actually been stopping , as a glitch in the part physics seems to mean that the craft only de-accelerates very slowly on the ground , and has a tendency to bounce. My solution in the .2 model was to attach the gear to radial decouplers so that once the machine had bounced its way down to 20m/s or so I can blast off the wheels and drop onto the 'belly' of the booster , which naturally pulls up pretty sharp. Success rate after a bit of practice is above 80% , so now im moving on to build a launcher to try and put this contraption in orbit.

[Cannon_Fodder]

The C7 parts are not on the approved parts kits. Otherwise this would be a breeze. I had already been playing with gliders.

[Cannon_Fodder]

Well not a cake walk. Getting high lift vehicles into orbit is getting tricky with just SRBs.

[Cannon_Fodder]

With the C7 space plane parts I am VERY close. I am finding getting a stable aircraft into orbit using only boosters harder then I thought.

last attempt put me 900m/s short of needed orbital velocity.

[Cannon_Fodder]

Well it wasn't pretty but it worked with SIDR, Sunday Punch and C7 parts.

On Pad

1st Stage Separation

Boosters, Center booster, plus outside SRBs exhausted.

Burning Wingtip boosters to even out speed. NOTE can be decoupled before burn-out and will miss ship. Jettisoning early is about the only speed control you are going to get.

I think I overshot my speed mark Still haven't reached Apogee

De-Orbit Burn I am afraid I will never hit Apogee and will fly out to deep space. Firing the 2 inboard SRBs.

Just above Atmosphere

Splash Down

The texture line under the red arrow has a bit of a 'step down' which is what killed my SAS

The craft can do it even with my bad flying. Maybe you can take it and do better.