The M Prize - 100% reusable spaceplane w/ 100% resuable manned mission to Mun & back

[ultra86]

The M Prize challenge is an expansion on the popular K-Prize challenge launched by boolybooly.

***** RULES CHANGED *****

***** It is now ok to return your mun lander to your spaceplane to dock before landing both vessels together *****

Backstory:

When I originally completed the K-Prize a few weeks ago I decided to take it to the next level and build a 100% reusable spaceplane that could get into orbit and send a 100% reusable manned landing craft to the Mun and back. After several failed multi-hour attempts spanning several weeks I finally achieved the impossible last night. So... It is in this spirit I present to you a most difficult challenge.

Mission:

Create and launch a 100% reusable spaceplane with mun lander to orbit. Once in orbit decouple your manned lander and then begin your mission to the mun. Land your lander on the Mun, go on EVA to plant a flag, and then return to your ship and travel safely home to Kerbin. From here you can either land the lander on Kerbin by itself or rejoin your spaceplane and return both vessels together. When you're done both ships will be back on Kerbin 100% intact and ready to be refueled and sent on to their next mission.

Rules:

1. Both vessels must be 100% reusable. No dropping of fuel tanks, or other decoupling of any kind.

2. Both vessels must be manned. Probes do not count.

3. Spaceplane must take off horizontally and reach a stable orbit of at least 70km and no more than 100km before decoupling the lander.

4. Mun lander must make it's way from a stable Kerbin orbit of 70-100km to the mun and back by itself.

5. Both vessels must return to Kerbin safely and land on land, NOT in the water, and both must be 100% intact (no broken gear, clipped wings, anything)

6. No refueling or docking allowed of any kind (except to re-attach your mun lander if landing both vessels together). Both ships must take off with enough fuel to get the job done.

7. B9 Aerospace and Novapunch are the only two part mods allowed. B9 may actually be required to complete the challenge. I didn't use NP but I know it's popular/balanced.

**No other part/performance enhancing/auto-pilot mods allowed. This means no mech-jeb, no lazor systems, no fusion engines, etc.

**Non-performance enhancing mods like steam gauges, chatterer, flight engineer ARE allowed. If you're not sure check with me.

**Ferram Aerospace is allowed but winners of the M Prize that use it will be noted in the list (thanks to Stochasty for pointing out the advantages of Ferram)

8. No debug console, part clipping, cheating, or bending of the rules in any way shape or form. The fun is in the challenge itself and your reward is the satisfaction of actually having pulled it off.

Here is a link to B9 Aerospace. If not required it will certainly give you more tools to design a ship that is capable.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/0-20-2-b9-aerospace-pack-r3-1/

Winners list:

I will add all those who complete the mission to the M Prize post. I'm not sure if it's possible using stock parts, but anyone who completes the challenge with stock parts only will go to the top of the list.

Durrr.. just noticed I misspelled reusable in the title.. Hoping a moderator can fix this :/

Pics and info from my M Prize mission:

My ship in the SPH

Take-off (note, I botched several of the screenshots throughout the nerve wracking 90 minute mission there and back. You can see here I forgot to load Bill into the lander on the first attempt, then failed to take screenshot of take-off in second attempt)

Decoupling lander from a stable orbit

Spaceplane safely returned to Kerbin. Note, I landed with absolutely no fuel on board. I only had a 1/3 of a second blast at full throttle left to push my spaceplane back into the atmosphere.

Now here's where I really botched up the photos. Totally failed to get the money shot of Bill planting a flag on the mun, but you can see from the next photo I did indeed pull it off.

Flag on Mun

Close-up of the lander

Lander safely entering atmosphere with chutes deployed. Again I failed to get the money shot but indeed it landed safely on land. Attempted this at 2am after building and testing for hours so my attention was focused entirely on completing the mission. Just as with the spaceplane there was absolutely no fuel left in my lander. I had just enough in both vessels to pull it off successfully.

Edited August 13, 2013 by ultra86

[Stochasty]

Two points:

First, Ferram Aerospace Research makes certain things in the game harder, and certain things easier. Specifically, it shaves off roughly 1km/s delta-v from the cost of making Kerbin orbit for a well designed rocket, due to the realistic drag model that it implements. This means you can get to orbit with much smaller craft, as long as they are well-designed (the "well-designed" part being the "certain things harder" in my first sentence). Whether or not you consider this to be too performance enhancing is up to you; personally, I love FAR.

Second, is having a second craft for the Mun lander required? What about doing everything as part of a reusable single stage? There are a number of people in the K-Prize thread that have done single stage return missions from the Mun, Minmus, Duna, Laythe, and others. The "two-part" portion of this challenge does make it unique and therefore interesting, but I don't think it's actually any harder than doing it as a single stage.

Edited August 11, 2013 by Stochasty

[ultra86]

Interesting info on Ferram. I was not aware it could provide such a significant advantage. At this point I think the best thing to do is allow it but provide a separate list for those who successfully complete the challenge using Ferram. I would say it's not allowed, but I know a lot of people out there like to use it and I don't want to detract from their experience if they wish to compete in this challenge. I will amend the rules.

As for your second question, I think the unique and interesting part of this challenge is having a minimum 2 man crew with separate lander that returns safely to Kerbin. In my mind it seems like it would take a lot more fuel to move more mass to the mun, land it, and then return safely, therefore making it much more difficult to use a single 100% reusable craft. I could be wrong here, def not as experienced as some players. Were the guys doing single stage return missions to the Mun, Minmus, Duna, and beyond doing it without docking, decoupling or refueling of any kind?

Edited August 11, 2013 by ultra86

[Stochasty]

Were the guys doing single stage return missions to the Mun, Minmus, Duna, and beyond doing it without docking, decoupling or refueling of any kind?

Yes. Check the first page of the K-Prize thread for a list, it should identify who went where. I've done it several times myself; see here for my most recent craft.

That said, I do agree with you that the "two part" variant does add an interesting twist.

[ultra86]

That's pretty amazing. I can't imagine building a ship that takes off from Kerbin, lands on Laythe, and then returns to Kerbin without refueling of any kind. A lot things are possible that I can't imagine tho I hope this challenge is still interesting to some of the more experienced players, as well as those who are just getting into KSP.

[corpsdog]

I'm not sure if I'm up to attempting the challenge - though I have been trying to make an SSTO SP to carry modules into orbit, so this would be an extension of that. I was wondering about returning the SP and lander separately. I kind of like the idea of leaving the SP in orbit around Kerbin (or even use it to transfer to MUN orbit) and have it wait to redock with the returning lander and bring them in together.

But, these would be different challenges. I definitely can see additional challenge in building a lander with everything it needs to make the transfer x2, the SP with the capability to carry that "dead weight" to Kerbin orbit, as well as having to make 2 successful Kerbin landings as opposed to just one.

Right now I'm trying to find the circumnavigation challenge and if it's still open. I already have a drone that should be able to do it easily, even with the ceiling limit, and modifying it to be "manned" shouldn't be difficult.

[SteevyT]

Can pieces undock and redock before landing?

Edit: Nevermind, I see the two part lander, spaceplane thingy you used.

[ultra86]

I'm open to adjusting the rules to make this a little more interesting. I think having the lander return to the spaceplane before landing on Kerbin is still within the spirit of the challenge, and still poses the difficulty of getting enough dead weight into orbit with enough fuel to make the journey to the mun's surface and back. Will amend the rules shortly.

[koshelenkovv]

Can I do mission this way?:

3. Spaceplane must take off horizontally and reach a stable Mun orbit before decoupling the lander.

4. Mun lander must make it's way from a stable Mun orbit to the mun surface and back to spaceplane by itself.

Edited August 14, 2013 by koshelenkovv

[ultra86]

Ya, I'm thinking I should adjust the rules so the challenge appeals to more players. Perhaps when creating the mission I was too set on the way I play the game and not thinking enough about how others might like to play. I'll allow this and adjust the rules accordingly. This is probably an easy challenge for some of the more experienced players, but for anyone who hasn't done it yet it can take a while to figure out the magic formula of fuel/thrust/balance required to pull it off.

[damny]

3. Spaceplane must take off horizontally and reach a stable Mun orbit before decoupling the lander.

4. Mun lander must make it's way from a stable Mun orbit to the mun surface and back to spaceplane by itself.

I have a plane with lander that's meant to do that. I wasn't going to ask about it, but IMHO there's no real difference in difficulty. I'm pretty sure it's just one more fuel tank or thereabouts if I wanted to make my lander fly to Mun by itself, and obviously a plane that can reach Mun and beyond will have no trouble lifting the extra weight to orbit.

This is probably an easy challenge for some of the more experienced players

It's the mods that make it easy. B9 removes half of the challenge of building an SSTO spaceplane by adding engines that are actually meant for SSTO spaceplanes.

[corpsdog]

I think you should make the challenge the way you want to. You're the one issuing it. If you want to bed more open about, you could keep your challenge as it is, and have some different accomplishments, kind of like the K prize kudos. For me, that would entice me to do your original challenge, and also do my planned mission - which would give me an additional accomplishment.