The Caldari Challenge: Design an Asymmetric Spaceship

[Blaster]

This is a design challenge for all you eccentric rocket designers out there.

In the distant future, starship designers don't conform to the strict design philosophy of symmetric ships. They make outlandish vehicles, with a complete lack of symmetry. And yet, they fly fantastic.

You are tasked with building an asymmetric ship. It has to go to space. The launch vehicle does not count, only the space portion.

Rules:

Asymmetry is rather self explanatory. If you have a ship that would look the same if divided in half and one half mirrored, it is symmetric, and therefore disqualified. It also needs to have at least two engines and two hulls (a hull being such things as command pod, living areas, fuselage, or fuel tanks) that are not in-line with eachother.

Engines must be placed on the hulls, not on struts, beams, or girders. Attaching an adapter or short fuel tank to a strut or girder at the centermass point does not qualify. It also looks silly.

If the ascent stage can do a 70x70 orbital insertion, it is considered an SSTO, and the whole ship must be considered in the efficiency scoring.

Stock Ships and Modded Ships will have separate scoring ranks.

Scoring:

Points are mainly awarded by ship performance, and use additive tier scoring. The ship has to achieve orbit (Pe above 70.00 km) to qualify. Add each score from each section for a total. You may refuel in Kerbin Orbit, but only Kerbin orbit.

Thrust Tiers (choose only one):

( ) Thrust in a straight line with SAS, Reaction Wheels, corrective engines and / or RCS: 1 pt

( ) Thrust in a straight line with SAS and Reaction Wheels or engine gimbal only: 10 pts

( ) Thrust in a straight line naturally (no SAS or course correction): 100 pts

Delta-V Tiers (choose only one):

( ) Orbit the Mun: 1 pt

( ) Orbit Minmus: 2 pts

( ) Orbit another world: 10 * Number of planets from Kerbin

( ) Land on another world and return to KSC: 100 * Number of planets from Kerbin

Efficiency Score:

Put only the space part on the launchpad.

|_| Total up all Launch Resources and divide by (number of ship parts times one hundred) and round to the nearest whole number.

Bonus Points (choose all that apply):

| | Manned (external seats and EVA do not count): 1 pt

| | Single Stage to Orbit: 10 pts

| | 100% Reusable (Land at KSC from space, refuel, exchange crew, and takeoff): 100 pts

|_| No refueling outside KSC: Delta-V Tier Score Here

Add all sections to get your final score.

Pics or it didn't happen. Videos even better.

The contest is named after the Caldari, a playable race in EVE Online, an MMORPG in space that notably has very asymmetric ships.

Edited September 15, 2013 by Blaster
Language Clarity

[Blaster]

Here's a first attempt to beat. The ship's called the Vulture, and took just a few minutes to knock together and get in orbit.

Vulture uses LV-T30 engines, and while it is RCS equipped, it can hold the line with just reaction wheels and SAS. A slight modification may make it possibly naturally balanced, and later on, I will try for an Atomic version. Launch stage is just a stack of BACC boosters, making it a 2 stage ship.

Caldari Challenge Score

Ship: Vulture

Thrust Tier: 10

Delta-V Tier: 0

Efficiency Score: 6000/(51*100)= 1 (rounded to nearest whole number)

Bonus Score: 1

Total Score: 12

Craft File: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/55294379/KSP/Vulture.zip Can you do better?

Edited September 15, 2013 by Blaster

[Giggleplex777]

Pictures?

Would this count as an asymmetrical spaceship?

[Blaster]

Edit: It is asymmetrical. Get it in orbit and score it up. Also, this forum's WYSIWYG editor is completely broken for me. On Chrome and Firefox.

Edited September 15, 2013 by Blaster

[Captain Sierra]

Edit: It is asymmetrical. Get it in orbit and score it up. Also, this forum's WYSIWYG editor is completely broken for me. On Chrome and Firefox.

Yeah, it is busted. Something went wrong last forum update. Use tags for now.