LALO flight experiments. (Not really a challenge, just something interesting to try.)

[Galane]

We spend so much time and effort in KSP to go high, I decided to set my sights a lot lower. ;-)

You've probably heard of HALO and HAHO parachute jumps. High Altitude Low Opening and High Altitude High Opening. Both give the jumper a lot of time to think about what they'll be doing after they land. LALO gives you mere seconds to launch and deploy the chute and gear before landing, but you can get a lot of flights into a short amount of time.

Tonight I was dinking around assembling tiny, low flying rockets and trying to land them under a parachute. First I tried a single Oscar B with an OKTO2 on top and three of those smallest radial mount engines, all topped by a drogue chute. Even though I could deploy the chute the instant the fuel was gone, it nearly always destroys some of the vehicle on touchdown.

Finally got a reliable assembly with these parts. Went with the larger engines to kick up a bit more altitude, nearly 1,000 meters. I may try taking out one or two of the tanks to reduce the maximum altitude. Where do the legs go? On one side of each engine! The parachute comes >thisclose< to yanking the rocket apart when it deploys.

3 Mark 55

3 Oscar B

1 OKTO2

1 Mk16

3 LT-1

Could try going back to the drogue, single tank and wee little engines and adding the smallest landing legs. Those got the above collection down but sacrificed themselves in a cloud of vaporized whatever it is they're made of. I'd like to be able to bring one down intact from only 500 meters.

I'd like to see what other people come up with and how low an altitude they can safely land from. Manned or unmanned. Everything that goes up must come down together.

[Pariah89]

You got any screenshots?

Might be because im tired, but I can't quite picture this in my head.

[Galane]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27748767@N08/9476408517/

That gets up to around 800 meters. I took off the top tank, deployed gear before launch and it hit about 502 meters. Bounced pretty hard on landing but nothing exploded.

[Bean]

So the challenge is to land from a low altitude? Am I missing something? Could you not just go ant -> oscar b -> okto2 -> Mk16 or similar?

Well here goes my attempt, 774m max altitude, parachutes open at 106m ish, land safe an intact 69m above sea level, so parachutes 40m from the ground.

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Edited August 12, 2013 by Bean

[Galane]

I dunno if anyone still does it, but in model rocketry there were drag races. Drag being the aerodynamic type. ;-) The object was to be first off the pad, reach the lowest altitude and hit the ground last. Penalties were assessed for damage to the rocket.

Since KSP doesn't have multiplayer for being first off the pad, I suppose one could try for the lowest altitude and longest flight duration.

[Zephram Kerman]

I dunno if anyone still does it, but in model rocketry there were drag races. Drag being the aerodynamic type. ;-) The object was to be first off the pad, reach the lowest altitude and hit the ground last. Penalties were assessed for damage to the rocket.

Since KSP doesn't have multiplayer for being first off the pad, I suppose one could try for the lowest altitude and longest flight duration.

That's very cool. I'm liking this "outside the box" style event.

If it's only low altitude and duration, well that sounds like anything with jets and wings. So there should be more rules, just to narrow down enough to make this fun. I presume this is intended for rockets with parachutes only?

[Galane]

Rockets, or at least vertical takeoff only. Keeping with the original model rocketry theme, all fuel has to be expended prior to landing. Instead of parachutes could use a lot of high drag attachments to make it like a dandelion seed.

[Tobmaster]

Hmmm, with chute spamming and a mainsail, you can get this very low... Duration is low as well.

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Am I missing something important?

[Galane]

Not missing a thing. Part of the game in a rocket drag race is guessing what the other player is using for motor because you don't want to go higher.

I see the Drag Race is still in the current edition of the NAR Pink Book. http://www.nar.org/pinkbook/61_DR.html

A method to do multiplayer competitions with timing in KSP would be to synchronize the in-game clocks on two or more computers, and to be able to get that time data for exact liftoff and touchdown times.

Rockets ready?

Spacebars ready?

Three! Two! One! Launch!

Compare data afterwards to determine the winner.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Galane