RCS Height Challenge

[Simon Ross]

OK, a very simple, but hopefully fun challenge for everyone out there. Not sure if it has been suggested before, but couldn't find it with the forum search facility, so here goes....

The challenge is very simple, to see who can gain the highest altitude using nothing other then mono propellent tanks and RCS thrusters.

The Rules

You may use any stock items you like, however any thrust must only come from RCS thrusters

You must have at least one Kerbal aboard

No mods are allowed, this includes MechJeb and Flight Engineer

All submissions must include an image of the finished ship in the VAB, in flight and in the final flight stats image

Other then that....Have fun :-)

[gm537]

You may want to note that the in-flight shot shows resource tab with nothing but Monoprop. Also does the Kerbal need to survive this journey?

[Simon Ross]

LOL GM. Kerbal survival is an optional extra :-)

[gm537]

Good that's how I was designing! You may want to post your attempt to give everyone a comparison.

[Kasuha]

Other then that....Have fun :-)

This is a "most ridiculous part count" challenge in the first place.

There's no problem to get to orbit or to other planets with just RCS ... besides the enormous number of parts you need for that.

Even getting to space with just decouplers seems to be less part-intensive to me...

[RocketTurtle]

I could just make an infiniglider...

[gm537]

I could just make an infiniglider...

The rules pretty clearly state "using nothing other then mono propellant tanks and RCS thrusters" so if you could I'd be impressed... Regardless you are correct that the rules could use a little clarification as it seems decouples and some structural parts are reasonable. But it is true that this is likely to devolve into a "most parts" kinda thing. Maybe an added rule could be a part limit of say 500? or 1000? Something that most computers could at least survive.

[metaphor]

Interesting. I've messed with some unmanned RCS-only rockets in the past. Like this:

Another one while launching:

This one got to 41 km altitude:

I'll try some crewed designs. One of the biggest challenges is not the low Isp, but that RCS thrusters have such a low TWR, I think it's only 2. So for a 1 ton tank, you would need 1 ton of RCS thrusters just to barely lift it up.

Edited November 7, 2013 by metaphor

[Virindi]

Tested this out with a little extra weight for the heck of it. How much can you carry? Answer: not much.

Oh, and the game crashed on the way down. It was running at about 0.5fps during the whole ascent, and it was really hard to click on anything. I lost altitude because I had to click a tank like 4 times before it would pull it up. I think this 'challenge' is more just an exercise in causing one's self pain.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[metaphor]

I lost altitude because I had to click a tank like 4 times before it would pull it up.

You can click on the checkbox next to Monopropellant under Resources in the top right, it will then show all your fuel tanks at once and you can turn them on/off at will.

[Nao]

Can i do it in older patches ?

(All stock, only rcs propulsion, you could get an orbit at sea level or get to Jool on one tank, good times. it was 0.16 or something)

Edited November 8, 2013 by Nao

[Simon Ross]

Sorry, no older patches, 0.22 only

Loving some of the shots I have seen so far, but come on guys, no mechjeb, still waiting for one of you to post our first genuine height record

[Toastie_Buns]

I admit I didn't see the whole 'No Flight Engineer' thing. Not that it achieves anything whatsoever or gives any edge here. It plain as balls can't work out monoprop as delta V, dude.

I had it running, since I installed the mod that puts flight engineer in every single 'capsule' as standard, but it was of no use, since I made this design back in 0.21 anyway, before I'd learnt of this marvelous mod.

Nevertheless, after a quick refit of the nosecone (It's now scientific, not SAS capable as I found out) and slapping on some solars that did NOTHING; I achieved the best score so far.

....I intend to hold the title for no longer than 5 mere moments.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

This craft is great for dicking around in (hence why I made it in the first place) so I'll drop a link for anyone who wants to mess around with it. It's...reasonable stable. Best flown with joystick or SAS with fine controls

Linksauce for craft

Edit: Balls, that's the unmodified craft with nosecone. If you want SAS, you'll need to throw on a probe core or something. I used the smallest, naturally.

Edited November 9, 2013 by Toastie_Buns

[Nao]

Toastie_Buns, that craft could fly on its own on iniglide from control surfaces, you could get to the same alt without RCS probably.

It would be nice if Simon added "no control surfaces exploitation to this challenge.

And continuing my rampage with random images in this thread...

extreme case of infiniglide in action (only 12 small control surfaces and 8km/s in atmosphere, all stock of course)

(I will make an entry when i finish building my new monster PC thou.)