If this end starts pointing towards space, you will STILL go to space today

[SirJodelstein]

(Pilot in the image is obviously not Jebediah)

As a tribute to the glorious XKCD comic "Up Goer Five", i bring you this challenge:

Challenge: Build a rocket that launches upside down

- Before launching, all engines and thrust-generating parts must point with the wrong side towards the sky (vertical)

- the stock Sepratrons and RCS thrusters are exempt from this rule

- The whole craft must be visible within the VAB/SPH (No absurdly long launch stability enhancers)

- Acquire an orbit of at least 80km x 80km

- Your score is the payload mass in orbit. To make this simple, the only counting payload items are full fuel tanks and crew pods

- Mods are ok but will go into their own category (Mod Balanced or Mod Anything, judges decision). Please list which ones you used. Mods that only display additional information can enter in the stock competition. Mechjeb SmartASS and autopilots are not allowed, even in the mod categories.

- Oh, and obviously, Hyperedit and Debug-Menu cheats are out.

demonstration video (0.8t)

Leaderboard - Stock

1. 90t - SirJodelstein with a modular rocket assembly station Entry Post

2. 58t - fireblade42 with his girder-supported "Big Roller" Entry Post

3. 56t - crlfe with a pivot axle Entry Post

4. 40.55t - SirJodelstein with jib-arm steering flip-and-fly Entry Post

5. 26.5t - Ninety-Three with a separatron-liftoff-assist and mainsail turning flip-and-fly Entry Post

6. 24.5t - Francesco with a flip-and-land before liftoff Entry Post

7. 9t - lizard455 with an asymmetric-thrust rocket Entry Post

Leaderboard - Mod Balanced (KSPX, KW Rocketry, Novapunch, Damned Robotics, KAS, Stronger Struts, Deadbeef-EdTools-increased VAB, and similar stuff)

(new category, no entries jet)

Leaderboard - Mod Anything (Orion drives, warp nacelles, quantum struts, Sci-Fi stuff, bring it on! Still, all thrust-generating elements other then the stock sepratrons and rcs elements must be placed upside down)

1. 290t - 1096bimu with the magic-driven Normandy SR2 launched out of the water Entry Post

Honorable mentions (aka the ideas pile) (any entry that shows a prototype in any stage of development)

- Sweetness_IBs experiments with sepratron turns and sepratron liftoff assists Post

- Fels girder airbag spiderPost

(rejected entries)

209t - 1096bimu with Hakaris Uber RCS block and a massive fuel tank - nonstock RCS thrust in forbidded direction (this used to be allowed at the time of this entry, so i had to revise the rules).

Now its your turn - show us your crazy creations. Or get sneaky and bend the rules

Edited June 29, 2013 by SirJodelstein
new category: honorable mentions

[Kilmeister]

You need to add a rule to limit the height of the launch support struts.

[TheFod]

oh wow. nice piloting dude.

[Enigma179]

You need to add a rule to limit the height of the launch support struts.

Judging by the video I think the struts can be as tall as you want them to be, the VAB's height is the limit.

[kerbomatic]

I thoroughly enjoyed watching that. Also, isn't the height of the launch support thingy already limited by the height of the VAB?

Edit: ninja-ed

[SirJodelstein]

I thoroughly enjoyed watching that. Also, isn't the height of the launch support thingy already limited by the height of the VAB?

Edit: ninja-ed

Actually, after Kilmeisters post i found out that you can easyly grab the whole craft and scroll up to arbitrary heights and place it there, so that was an important rules addition. So yeah, the VABs height shall be the limit for this competition.

Also, the parts panel is rendered above the roof

And, the VABs exterior model is lower than the height of its interior model:)

Edited June 12, 2013 by SirJodelstein

[lukerules117]

Do I get bonus points for not using rcs or sepratrons

[1096bimu]

what is with the mechjeb hate?

Here's my moded entry.

209 tones of payload into an orbit 466 kilometers high. I followed your rules exactly, no Smart ASS, my engine points upwards( although it fell off half way but you never said it couldn't fall off), the payload is a full fuel tank, it fits perfectly well inside the VAB, and I did not use hyperedit or the debug menu. Seriously, my RCS thrusters have their own Mana, they don't need the debug menu.\

Mods:

spherical fuel tank

Hakari's Uber RCS block

Edited June 12, 2013 by 1096bimu

[Ninety-Three]

what is with the mechjeb hate?

Flying a ship out of an upside-down start is mostly about piloting, MechJeb defeats the point.

[1096bimu]

Flying a ship out of an upside-down start is mostly about piloting, MechJeb defeats the point.

practicing something you can easily do with Mechjeb, or practicing piloting skill in a physics based engineering sandbox game both defeat the point of playing the game in the first place.

[Ninety-Three]

practicing something you can easily do with Mechjeb, or practicing piloting skill in a physics based engineering sandbox game both defeat the point of playing the game in the first place.

And pointing your engines at the sky defeats the point of going to space. This challenge is not about practicality.

Also, as someone who enjoys piloting, that's one hell of a generalization you're making.

[1096bimu]

And pointing your engines at the sky defeats the point of going to space. This challenge is not about practicality.

Also, as someone who enjoys piloting, that's one hell of a generalization you're making.

Nobody said anything about being practical, read what I said before you reply.

nothing wrong with piloting, do it in FSX or something.

[Ninety-Three]

nothing wrong with piloting, do it in FSX or something.

You don't seem to understand. Some people enjoy piloting in KSP. Some of these people make KSP challenges that involve piloting. You're free to mod piloting out yourself, but telling other people to stop having fun their way seems a bit much.

[SirJodelstein]

bimu... why do you use every opportunity you get to turn a thread into yet another mod/mechjeb vs. stock discussion? Can't you just accept that there are a lot of people that enjoy other things than you? This is my challenge, and i decided it to be a piloting challenge in addition to an engineering task. If you want to do it with MJ, then do it in your own challenge! or do whatever - "doing whatever is fun for you" is probably the best "point" a game can have, right?

[wealthysoup]

I think this would be interesting if there were extra points for different challenges. I.E. No RCS etc. I was playing around with a non RCS rocket for fun (relating to this challenge) and although it seems to be pretty hard I think with work it would be doable.

[Ninety-Three]

So I immediately saw a loophole in the rules. I slapped together a lazy mainsail beast, then added sepratrons.

The rule that only full fuel tanks and capsules count means that my payload comes in at 26.5 tons.

I put the whole thing up on imgur, with a bunch more screenshots of the initial launch to show how it went. One important technique: Since I'm using only vectored mainsails for angular control, I had to build up some quick angular momentum, then turn them off until my ship stopped pointing down.

[Francesco]

1. add parachutes

2. release launchpad clamps

3. ???

4. profit

[Ninety-Three]

dude, sepratrons are thrust-generating parts: there's no loophole, you're just breaking rule #1 of this challenge.

- On the pad, all engines and thrust-generating parts must point with the wrong side towards the sky (vertical)

- Sepratrons and RCS thrusters are exempt from this rule

Read the rules.

[Francesco]

Read the rules.

my apologies.

[SirJodelstein]

Nice solution, Ninety-Three! I had thought about not allowing any upward-facing thrust on launch (i.e. max horizontally aligned trons and rcs), but this opens up way more possibilities. Wouldn't have thought that the trons alone could actually lift such a beast 300m high.

[Ninety-Three]

1. add parachutes

2. release launchpad clamps

3. ???

4. profit

I don't think this will be as easy it looks. In my experience, it's hard to flip a ship while parachutes are deployed, they try to right it, and I imagine this effect gets a lot worse as your ship gets bigger. I'd be interested to see if someone can make it work for a large ship though.

[wealthysoup]

1. add parachutes

2. release launchpad clamps

3. ???

4. profit

Nope doesnt work. That was my first creative thought.

Edit:

Ninety-Three--My attempt had a couple of long struts extending out the side of the command module, attached to that was a pile of parachutes. The problem with them is that you need to be going forward at a certain speed / over a certain distance before they start to right you. By the time this happens at this height youve practically hit the ground. I don't think its possible with even a medium sized ship but it'd be cool if someone proved me wrong

Edited June 12, 2013 by wealthysoup

[1096bimu]

bimu... why do you use every opportunity you get to turn a thread into yet another mod/mechjeb vs. stock discussion? Can't you just accept that there are a lot of people that enjoy other things than you? This is my challenge, and i decided it to be a piloting challenge in addition to an engineering task. If you want to do it with MJ, then do it in your own challenge! or do whatever - "doing whatever is fun for you" is probably the best "point" a game can have, right?

It is just absurd to me that you will accept ridiculous entries like mine, but not entries which are more genuine and creative, but uses mechjeb. I am merely pointing that out.

[Francesco]

Nope doesnt work. That was my first creative thought.

ha! are you sure?

works like a charm. I used Ninety-Three's sepratrons "loophole"

Flip the ship of 180° as it's falling, come down with parachutes and landing gears; launch as normal.

Result: 24.6 t to orbit, minus parachutes and two small engines = 23.82 t.

[alex the killa]

I think sepatrons should not be allowed imo

If you have any sort of propulsion facing down, it's semantics when you have a difference between sepatrons and an actual booster in larger numbers