The Ike Shuttle Challenge.

[Themohawkninja]

Objective: Take off with a craft, and once in orbit around Kerbin, use a spaceplane to land on Ike, and return on the runway at the KSC.

Definition of a spaceplane:

-It touches land via landing gear, or rover tires.

-It is one stage.

-It uses a "cockpit" CM.

-It doesn't land on atmospheric bodies via a parachute .

-There has to be at least one control surface/canard for each of the three axis of rotation.

Rules:

-You ARE allowed to use any number of stages to get into orbit (one in orbit, all stages prior to, or after the spaceplane must be jettisoned).

-The spaceplane MUST comply with the aforesaid criteria.

-You HAVE to land on the real KSC runway, NOT the Easter egg one, and NOT the island one.

-You CANNOT use any mods.

Scoring: Your score is the percent of total liquid/xenon fuel remaining when you stop on the KSC runway. (15% remaining gives you a score of 15, not 0.15).

SCOREBOARD

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Proof of Possibility:

This craft gets a score of 11.

Dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vhjntuylbcl5gt1/Shuttle.craft

Front:

Back:

NOTE: Mine has RCS, and the docking port, because it is my shuttle to and from my LKO station. This challenge came from when I decided to test the limit of this thing, and take it to Ike and back, and it worked!

Edited August 4, 2013 by Themohawkninja

[Themohawkninja]

I'll bump this once to see if anyone wants to give it a go.

[IcarusBen]

Once my computer is fixed I'll try this challenge. Is Mechjeb allowed?

[Themohawkninja]

Once my computer is fixed I'll try this challenge. Is Mechjeb allowed?

No, I stated that no mods were allowed.

[IcarusBen]

Awwww...

[greg12]

I think B9 has really nice parts for shuttles and you can`t even cheat with that. (not like with mechjeb autopilot) So I think you should allow the non cheat mods.

If I would have a shuttle mission to Ike, I would place a lander in the cargo bay and land with that (I mean land only with the lander). Than dock back in the shuttle`s cargo bay and go back to Kerbin. Pros: fuel efficient and reusable.

No point of landing the whole shuttle on a non-atmospherics planet/ moon. (unless you have something like a rover at the back or something)

And one more, you didn`t say that you can`t refuel with the shuttle at some point.

These are only my idea/suggestion/help about this type of missions. I hope that you can understand my point of view.

[Themohawkninja]

I think B9 has really nice parts for shuttles and you can`t even cheat with that. (not like with mechjeb autopilot) So I think you should allow the non cheat mods.

If I would have a shuttle mission to Ike, I would place a lander in the cargo bay and land with that (I mean land only with the lander). Than dock back in the shuttle`s cargo bay and go back to Kerbin. Pros: fuel efficient and reusable.

No point of landing the whole shuttle on a non-atmospherics planet/ moon. (unless you have something like a rover at the back or something)

And one more, you didn`t say that you can`t refuel with the shuttle at some point.

These are only my idea/suggestion/help about this type of missions. I hope that you can understand my point of view.

I just say no mods, because I don't feel like getting into debates about "is this mod cheaty?" since there are many mods that I don't know about.

Technically refueling at a later point counts as multiple stages (docking counts as stages).

Also, you can do EVA's on Ike if you want. No need to have a rover.