An Affordable Space Program: making the reusable spacecraft pay off.

[Rune]

Well for the record, no I hadn't considered that since I typically haven't tried to recover stages within that range, and my builds for this challenge so far have only been SSTO so I can't say I really thought about that aspect but none the less point taken and challenge accepted.

http://imgur.com/a/GTD9n

I present to you the 2STO payload lifter, I placed a dummy payload of 3 science labs plus docking ports for a total tonnage of just over 10.5 tons. First stage launches straight up and pushes to about 185k, second stage detaches, does an RCS burn to gain space then a gravity turn burn to reach a stable orbit. I then switched back to the first stage and followed it to landing. Then back at my second stage, I got abit overly critical about the eccentricity of my orbit so I used RCS burns to stablize it at around 175k. Then detached the payload, RCS burned to give me some space to work and set it for landing as well. Now i did use MechJeb for landings, I must admit I'm not really good at the fine adjustments in general and tend to overcorrect. But my piloting skills suck, I don't question that =P.

All in all I wasn't disappointed with the exercise but I still found it a bit easier to achieve this sort of payload delivery than I was having with my original launch vehicle I was tinkering with. It looks like I may have inadvertently created a 2 stage reusable rocket as a result of this experiment, just need to setup a way to refuel and find a better pilot than me to lift off the second stage and carefully reattach it to the first and a crane to reload the payload. I was quite happy with the landing sites of the different stages, I think I'll keep them there.

I might revisit this again someday in the future as I do like the concept of a 2 stage lifter that is fully reusable but I'm happy with this for now. Link below contains the craft file if anyone else is interested in tinkering.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jv66t66kfdq0a43/2STO.craft

Now I do want to say this, I never intended to say or imply that doing things certain ways were not interesting or not in some way hard. I honestly enjoy seeing everyone's creations and if a 2 stage SRB creation was posted (even one that needed a VAB to recombine & refuel) I would honestly be as interested in seeing how it was accomplished as much as the next creation. My only thought was that the idea of using a VAB to recombine and refuel somehow feels like cheating after all the other entries went to great lengths to not use it. I still respect the attempt, but out of fairness for the other entries I feel those should be kept on a separate leader board or marked on the existing leader board as "VAB used" if their entries are scored.

Also I very much agree, we're learning the lessons of the shuttle with this challenge and that's why I like it =)

Kudos on the TSTO reusable launcher! Yeah, reassembly is going to be hard... perhaps a really tall crane? There was an idea about ramps in this thread which would be glorious to see implemented, going all stock with crawlers on top of ramps and other crawlers rolling things under adn really complicated ground ops (which considering you can quickload/quicksave frequently, is the place to get complicated without wasting copious amount of time to the kraken). You need something gound based for the refueling operations anyway... and you minimize useless structure on the rocket. Plus, it would be very realistic looking.

As to VAB and solids... well, using the VAB goes very much against the spirit of the challenge, especially to reattach things, I don't think that should be allowed at all. But if someone can do this with plain SRBs while taking them back to KSC and reattaching them... they can refuel them using pixie dust for all I care, they deserve great kudos.

But the "worst" thing I see about TSTO is precision and repeatability. I mean, having wings makes hitting the runway easy, and lifting off in a single stage means with a bit of practice you can hit rendezvouses in very low orbits in one or two orbits without corrections that translate into inefficiencies. And when you have to repeat the whole thing at least five times... well, let's say it's good you can save now anytime, and that every landing got my heart racing while I was doing the challenge (and the Broadsword glides like a feather and lands on a ridiculously short distance at less than 50m/s). Of course you could also "go kerbal" and build a couple of km/s margin in the upper stage.

Finally, I think piloting by hand in an all-stock entry is much more challenging, so I tend to assume that position when I make suggestions. That just my opinion, though. But it's ok if you want to use mods! Just they can make a challenge a bit unbalanced sometimes (in this case, for example, landing with mechjeb takes away a big part of the challenge of reusing a VTOL, which is getting it back to the pad).

Rune. I never installed Mechjeb, so necessity made me a decent pilot I guess.

[Keldaria]

Well, at least I have more fun failures to share!

http://i.imgur.com/EOCDMor.jpg

The RCS tug ("Alaskan Mosquito Mark I") was just a little bit too large to dock the cupolas in position, so I sent a little scaffold up with the second cupola delivery flight. Kinda an extension that was intended to hold the cupola at arm's length and a more convenient orientation. I'll have plenty to say about why I hate cupolas when this is over.

Buuuut, the scaffold docking port joints are way, way too floppy for reasonable RCS operation. SAS is out of the question, because it just oscillates wildly if you turn it on.

So, I downloaded the MechJeb source code and made a few changes to address the backing up bug and see if I could reduce the wobble.

Maybe it's time to send up "Alaskan Mosquito Mark II, the Claw Edition!" I wonder if grabbing stuff with the claw would be a better option if some idiot decided to send a space station up in 20 different pieces and put it all together in orbit. Sending up the KerblArm (Mark III) isn't an option until Infernal Robotics recovers from the 23.5 update.

(Edit: well, that took 10 minutes to investigate. Claws are way, WAY better. Guess I'd better get around to deorbiting and sending up another mission.)

ACK!, that sucks, I was really looking forward to seeing your final creation. Its not everyday I see something that ambitious come together... I look forward to seeing what you can do with a claw =)

I've given up on my previous attempt with claws, and I've run into another snag with my smaller, lighter SSTO spaceplane.

If I have one station module that is significantly larger than my SSTO's payload space, is it acceptable for me to attach it to the top of my first lift with a decoupler, provided all further modules use the docking port in the cargo bay?

For demonstration:

http://i.imgur.com/nIHLk8y.png?3

The actual cargo bay is between the engine intake nacelles and is about as big as a mk2 fuselage section. I can fit single kerbal pods and small sub-assemblies, but not the lab or habitat units needed for an entry. so I decided to try and lift it this way.

For the record, I'm surprised it even flies with that thing stuck on top.

Ohh, that's a good question... I honestly don't see why that wouldn't be a valid setup to use, as strategic planning of what you place on your first flight should be allowed and I don't think anyone here has posted an example of spawning their first flights separate from their first payloads, but I could be entirely wrong on that.

I would be interested in knowing the answer to this question myself as I'd tend to be inclinded to do the same thing with my entry and place the oddest/hardest to attach payload on the initial creation/launch of my vehicle.

Kudos on the TSTO reusable launcher! Yeah, reassembly is going to be hard... perhaps a really tall crane? There was an idea about ramps in this thread which would be glorious to see implemented, going all stock with crawlers on top of ramps and other crawlers rolling things under adn really complicated ground ops (which considering you can quickload/quicksave frequently, is the place to get complicated without wasting copious amount of time to the kraken). You need something gound based for the refueling operations anyway... and you minimize useless structure on the rocket. Plus, it would be very realistic looking.

As to VAB and solids... well, using the VAB goes very much against the spirit of the challenge, especially to reattach things, I don't think that should be allowed at all. But if someone can do this with plain SRBs while taking them back to KSC and reattaching them... they can refuel them using pixie dust for all I care, they deserve great kudos.

But the "worst" thing I see about TSTO is precision and repeatability. I mean, having wings makes hitting the runway easy, and lifting off in a single stage means with a bit of practice you can hit rendezvouses in very low orbits in one or two orbits without corrections that translate into inefficiencies. And when you have to repeat the whole thing at least five times... well, let's say it's good you can save now anytime, and that every landing got my heart racing while I was doing the challenge (and the Broadsword glides like a feather and lands on a ridiculously short distance at less than 50m/s). Of course you could also "go kerbal" and build a couple of km/s margin in the upper stage.

Finally, I think piloting by hand in an all-stock entry is much more challenging, so I tend to assume that position when I make suggestions. That just my opinion, though. But it's ok if you want to use mods! Just they can make a challenge a bit unbalanced sometimes (in this case, for example, landing with mechjeb takes away a big part of the challenge of reusing a VTOL, which is getting it back to the pad).

Rune. I never installed Mechjeb, so necessity made me a decent pilot I guess.

Believe it or not, but I actually did get the rocket back together.. It took me forever tho... a crane would definitely be the way to go, and like you I did like the ramp crane setup, I just wonder if I could make something high enough that would still work as intended. I honestly haven't given ground ops a great deal of thought yet on my 2sto launcher, but I have a few theories on how to simplify it... they should prove interesting but it will be a few days before I can find the time to put them together.

As for precision and repeatability of a 2sto, I'd have to agree with you that the setup is not ideal, for one its not like regular rocket setups where I can set MechJeb to launch when the time is right for rendezvous, so I'll almost always need to do an adjustment burn after achieving orbit, which means I'm going to need to ether push more fuel into the second stage or leave some payload on the ground. I had 10.5 t approximately so I could easily cut that in half to get some extra time, and I had extra fuel in the first stage so I could in theory shift that fuel / weight into the second stage with some tank adjustments to give me more fuel for adjustments... Honestly not sure what I would aim for but you are correct and my second stage didn't have nearly enough fuel to play with adjustments for rendezvous.

Also, I agree that mechjeb makes getting a VTOL back to the pad infinitely easier, if it wasn't for MechJeb I probably wouldn't be working on a VTOL entry for this challenge and going the spaceplane route as at least that I can manhandle easier when bringing it in for a landing. (that is not to say landing a large spaceplane isn't a challenge because it most certainly is, but its easier for me to make landing adjustments for than a VTOL IMO). Now I've got parachutes on my VTOL for landing so its not exactly hard for me to land without mechjeb (deorbit burn and point parachute away from ground) but it is hard to figure out the exact landing trajectory to land near KSC. While I probably could work on getting an approximate reentry position to land near KSC with enough trial and error, I see no reason to torture myself with doing that over and over again. I'm not a rocket scientist after all =P, which is probably why I love KSP. If you can do without MechJeb, then you have my respect as I don't think I could easily do without all the information that MechJeb provides, or some of the autopilot features (I don't use the autodock or the plane autopilots yet, and this was technically the first time I used the landing pilot, I hadn't needed it before this)

[Mecha Pants]

One thing about piggyback payloads, I'm learning that it's very important to mount them as far forward as possible, otherwise they lead to uncontrollable back-flipping as the CoM moves above and behind the CoL. Be very careful with your pitch, if you try it, I can't really pitch much past 30 degrees in the upper atmosphere without things getting really hairy in my current build.

[O-Doc]

One thing about piggyback payloads, I'm learning that it's very important to mount them as far forward as possible, otherwise they lead to uncontrollable back-flipping as the CoM moves above and behind the CoL. Be very careful with your pitch, if you try it, I can't really pitch much past 30 degrees in the upper atmosphere without things getting really hairy in my current build.

You can add a ballast tank under the nose. That's how I configure alot of my SSTOs. One hardpoint on the shoulder and one under the nose. Mostly, use a weight ratio of 2:1 between points.

Those nose pods are jet fuel only.

[Mecha Pants]

Progress report: SSTO kinks worked out, two station modules in orbit (station core and crew return pod), gearing up for mission three which will give me a place for two launches worth of solar arrays.

Decided against a decoupler to anchor the station core, as it would leave bits behind. I ended up using two clampotron Jr. instead.

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Edit: Fourth launch docked to station, awaiting return and landing

Current station tonnage after launch #4: 29.2t

Edited April 11, 2014 by Mecha Pants

[sdj64]

Good job so far Mecha Pants, surprised it could lift that first payload!

I'm finished with my entry! This challenge managed to be both engaging and tedious at the same time. I got around the problem of getting the payload to upright by initially emptying the fuel tanks on the payload and using a Claw on the refueling rover to refuel them once upright. I assumed that still counts as only one refueling, not two. No mods used, this is all stock on 23.5. The ship is called the Blackjack, the station is named rather unoriginally "Reusable Station", and I don't have a company name here on the forums. yet...

My score:

+5 modules

-5 refueling

+68 tons

+16 kerbals

+10 stock

total: 94 points.

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[SirJoab]

Very nice sdj64! I really like the look of that station. Also that's a very unique way of accomplishing a vertical launch with a horizontal payload attachment. I give you 2 style points!

Your score breaks down as:

+5 for 5 Modules

+67 for 67.96mT in Orbit (Sorry, tonnage points have always been rounded down on this challenge... I have to remain consistent)

+16 for Kerbals on board

-5 for refueling 5 times

+10 for completing all-stock

+2 for style

Total : 95 points.

To the leaderboard with you!

[Aghanim]

Let me try this at home later... using Realism Overhaul

Even with KSPI fusion reactors I couldn't circularize using the 1.25m reactor, I need 2.5m reactor. 3.5m reactor is a cheat though, as it allows me to do 1 tank VTOL into orbit

Using fuel is probably easier though, as I could do 2 stage spaceplane... I just need the TTNeverUnload plugin

[Rakaydos]

I wonder what the earliest tech node is that you can pull this off. If OP parts are really balanced by ludicrus price tags, this seems a good way to sidestep those restrictions.

[Mecha Pants]

I'd like to take this moment to remind anyone who may be planning an entry to test and ensure that all action groups are working properly before beginning the challenge in earnest. I did not, so I'm dealing with manually switching modes on the rapier engines and turning turbojets off. My action group only toggles one side..

[gchristopher]

Faster that my Kerbals can say "rhobicuboctahedron"^*, the station is finished! That was a huge challenge, wow.

(* very slow, none of them can pronounce that.)

What Goes Up, LLC presents Orbipalooza: Fuel Depot, Intermittent Science Station and TOTAL Concert Venue!

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The station is in 260x260 high Kerbin orbit. (It's a concert venue, so of course it had to be in "high" orbit.)

Three different 100% reusable lift systems were used to build and crew the station, comprising 5 vehicles. 9 missions were flown with cargo ranging from just passengers to 39.85 tons.

Everything that launched used only stock parts plus Mechjeb. TAC Fuel Balancer and Docking Port Alignment Indicator were also used extensively to save effort. Ground operations used Infernal Robotics and KAS for gantries.

Full writeups of each launch system are over on the rocket builder forum and most were already described in this thread.

Here's the mission log:

Launch Vehicle: Up Chuck Mark XXXIII / Unladen Swallow Mark XXIII (writeup, craft files) : These were the first successful try at a composite system where a VTOL rocket/jet lifts the payload, then a spaceplane retrieves, deorbits and lands the rocket portion. The rocket is then righted and moved by a gantry, the next payload attached, refueled, and launches again.

Mission 1: "Atomic Sisyphus Mark VII", Mass 22.702t. This is the orbital tow truck that will haul station modules up from low kerbin orbit to a higher orbit, and do some RCS assembly work.

Mission 2: "Science or Else" Science Core and YIKES Escape Pod Cluster, Mass 23.066t. Each "Yikes! Individual Kerbal Escape System" consists of a pod, engine, fuel and parachute, enough to get one Kerbal safely back to the ground. The cluster includes 12 pods, enough for the 8 planned crew and 4 guests.

At this point, enough had been learned from the composite launch system to scale up to a better system.

Launch Vehicle: SporkLift Mark IX / Hot Dog Bun Mark XIV (writeup, craft files) This system features a flatter, brick-shaped rocket that can accommodate a 40 ton payload with fewer restrictions on shape. The spaceplane portion consists of two wing halves that split and attach to either side of the rocket to deorbit. One bonus is that the rocket lands upright on landing gear, so it doesn't need a gantry to right it and can drive straight to the next launch.

Mission 3: Main docking junction, extra fuel and "Alaska Mosquito Mark I" RCS Tug, Mass 39.85t.

Mission 4: Rhombicubeoctahedron superstructure base section, Mass 30.04t This had ungainly aerodynamics from using wings as station structure, had to drop the tonnage to launch successfully. Current station mass: 114.685t

Mission 5: Superstructure upper section and docking port scaffold, Mass: 39.245t. This one had MORE weirdly angled wings. Why did it fly better than the previous mission? The internal scaffolding that held the round superstructure together for launch is pulled out once in orbit and becomes a large structure with several docking ports for visiting ships. Current station mass, 150.449t.

Mission 6: Cupolas! Did you know that cupolas have a dragginess number of 0.4, twice that of any other pod? I don't know what that means, but it sure did crash a lot of trial launches! I hate cupolas. Hate hate hate. The only thing I found that would work was to build a "lampshade" shaped scaffold that dangled the cupolas around the rocket down near the center of mass, so they didn't drag the front of the rocket sideways and crash it. Then when I got the whole mess up to the station, the Alaskan Mosquito RCS tug was just a little bit too big around to place the cupolas onto their final location on the superstructure. Total fail. Cupolas are evil. I could only launch 4 at a time, plus some fuel. The launch mass was 30.745t, so sometimes drag is more significant than mass for this launch system, it seems.

Mission 7: This is the Same thing plus a strut attachment so the RCS tug can actually reach the right spot. This only kind of worked. The little extender arm let me place the cupola, but both SAS and Mechjeb couldn't handle the wobbles and had large oscillation feedback problems. I wasn't able to reliably place a cupola with the right rotation.

Mission 8: "Alaska Mosquito Mark IV" and "Combustible Camel" reusable fuel module. Mass: 36.987t. This mission delivered a claw-based RCS tug, which worked great. It was still a major pain to grab all 8 cupolas, move them around to the correct side of the station, then attach them. But it worked, the station is now fully assembled!

After each launched, I'd siphon off the leftover fuel into Atomic Sisyphus, so there was usually a net gain of fuel each time a payload was shuttled up to higher orbit. The final station mass was 228.784 tons, after getting rid of all the temporary scaffolding that came up with the cupolas.

Time to send up the crew! At this point, Jeb reasserted his majority ownership of the company and insisted on flying the mission and that it had to be a "sweet ride." So, we designed a maneuverable, aerobatic spaceplane with plenty of external seating. (All my Kerbals vastly prefer to ride on top.)

We couldn't think of a good name, so we put up a poll on the internet to let people pick their top choice. A write-in candidate won by a large margin, so we went with it.

Launch Vehicle: "Crew-Only, Liquid Boosted Exoatmospheric Reusable Transport" (COLBERT) SSTO reusable spaceplane. It features two RAPIER engines, awesome external seating for 8 passengers and a claw for flexible docking options.

Mission 9: 8 Kerbal crew to the station, and Jeb showboating in his fancy new spaceplane. Mass: 8 x whatever a Kerbal weighs. (90 kg each?)

After all the missions were done, the various reusable launch systems were driven a few kilometers away from KSC and parked to reduce lag. Here they are posing for a family portrait, ready more launches!

Part count was definitely more of a limiting factor for the station than mass. At 718 parts, it was starting to lag even on my desktop machine. The superstructure panels accounted for a lot of parts. If I had to do it again, I'd want RTG's instead of all the small solar panels just for the lower part count. Ladders were the biggest sacrifice, so Kerbals have to use RCS to get around most places.

Ever since I decided to go with a station shaped like an Archimedean solid, the complexity really got out of hand. Each panel is separately dockable, though most went up together with a support structure. The attempts to launch them as stacks of panels were hilarious slinky-shaped crashes. Everything that remotely involved a cupola found some way to be horrible.

Okay, scoring. It's too bad tonnage is such an overwhelming factor. I was going for complexity, and the mass kinda just happened as a side effect. Module count is the hardest part to figure out. There's maybe 20-ish separate parts that were moved and reconfigured during station construction, and over 50 separately dockable pieces. I think grouping them together by function sounds fair, though. How about this for a module list:

• Atomic Sisyphus Mark VII Orbital Tow Vehicle
  
• Rec Room, Kitchen (Science Lab) and YIKES Escape Pod Cluster
  
• Main Superstructure (Rombicuboctohedral Panels and Crew Cupolas)
  
• Docking Junction and Docking Port Tree
  
• Alaskan Mosquito Mark I RCS Tug
  
• Alaskan Mosquito Mark IV Claw-Based RCS TUG
  

That's: 6 modules, 228 tons, 8 crew, 9 launch/refuelings. All the vehicles and station (anything that left the ground) were stock, but the ground vehicles variously used Infernal Robotics and KAS. MechJeb, Docking Alignment Indicator and TAC Fuel Balancer were used in flight, but every maneuver was first done manually, without any mods, to make sure it was doable. I think multi-port docking is the only part where Mechjeb would be required to call it "reliable."

Thanks for the awesome challenge, SirJoab! I've had a great time doing it and looking at all the other amazing entries. I can't wait to see more!

Edited April 15, 2014 by gchristopher

[Uberlyuber]

I am playing! The mods i will be using are kw rocketry, B9, and mechjeb. As for the rocket/station names, i need to think up of one. However, Squad co., The Uber Empire Rocketry Division, and JM Autopilots have been contracted to make my reusable spacecraft.

[LordFjord]

@gchristopher: Holy Kerbal! That is going to be hard to outmatch. Well planned and executed!

[Rune]

Wow, gchristopher, awesome job! You are going to take a very deserved first place here (Once again, proving scoring is a function of mass, and that I should have developed the bigger 36+mT cousin of the Broadsword before I tried this... but enough whining!). Also, yours is probably the most kerbal of all entries. Congrats!

Rune. The needless complexity! It was glorious to follow.

[SirJoab]

Wow gchristopher! You're either crazy or a genius... or both... That is amazing!

Your score breaks down as:

+6 for 6 Modules

+228 for 228mT in Orbit

+8 for Kerbals on board

-9 for refueling 9 times

+4 for style ( I know, I said 1-3 points for style... but this is so far above and beyond I don't think anybody will argue with me on this call. )

Total : 237 points.

I think you just raised the bar on the complexity of this challenge!

[DerMeister777]

Hey, so I've been creeping around the KSP Forum for a long while, and saw this challenge. So I decided I'd give it a shot as I love the practicality of it.

Anywho, I've built a SSTO Rocket with a 50t lift capacity and it includes an orbital tug that stays in orbit until the operation is complete. (I actually built this before seeing the ingenious designs of Christopher and now I feel so unoriginal.) Now, I have a question regarding the rules of this challenge as I have run into a game engine restraint. My rocket weighs 750t fueled up and requites ~500t of fuel. I have a fuel rover capable of hauling this much fuel to the rocket and filling via KAS (I know, too easy right?), but the issue is that the weight of the rover destroys all the wheels of the rover no matter the quantity of wheels present. I had 20+ on the final attempt, and it shattered wheels as soon as I moved forward. Since I really don't want to redesign an entire reusable station launcher system, is it permissible to Hyperedit the tanks of a smaller rover full multiple times to in turn fill the rocket? It would still require a rover capable of refueling at KSC, but without approx. 50,000 trips with a fuel rover.

Also, Christopher, you're an absolute genius with that complex system. Mine is similar, but a much more brute force approach. I have a rocket capable of getting 50t to 80km orbit, then a space tug moving it to the 120km orbit the station will reside in. The chutes were particularly fun to figure out how to repack, as there were about a million of them. However, it does mean that the deorbit burn is all the Delta-v I need to burn to land. To solve the issue, I just put a Mk2 Lander Can under each massive chute stack and assigned the single resident to EVA on landing to repack the 8 chutes around him. What an excellent job huh?

[SirJoab]

...is it permissible to Hyperedit the tanks of a smaller rover full multiple times to in turn fill the rocket? It would still require a rover capable of refueling at KSC, but without approx. 50,000 trips with a fuel rover.

I will allow this... if I remember correctly I allowed someone else to use hyperedit to refuel their Fuel Rover. I'll have to look back to see who it was.

[gchristopher]

Wow, thanks for the encouragement and appreciation, everyone. When I started this, I couldn't reliably launch a spaceplane, so I learned a lot from other amazing entries. What a journey.

I've built a SSTO Rocket with a 50t lift capacity and it....weighs 750t fueled up and requites ~500t of fuel.

Oooooh! I can't wait to see it! 6-7% payload is the best I could estimate getting from a pure rocket in my halfhearted attempts. I'm glad someone else is doing it, maybe I can make myself stop trying now.

the weight of the rover destroys all the wheels of the rover no matter the quantity of wheels present.

Yeah, sadly, the giant wheels are far too fragile to actually use as giant wheels.

Don't give up and hyperedit, though! I had to build a lot of weird heavy gantries and I settled on a stock way to deal with the problem you're seeing.

You can use small gear bays to cushion other wheels from crushing forces. That fuel truck weighs 535 tons and has only 8 of the ruggedized wheels to drive it around. It's pretty slow, but corners nicely. Plus, with the claw, you might be able to avoid using KAS if you want to stay stock now.

Good luck! I look forward to seeing it.

[Swifty]

I've Started this challenge using my B9-FAR VTOL SSTO the "Firefly"

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Here is a screen shot of the Firefly with the crew transfer shuttle (if its allowed) the "Morgan", Several trucks loaded with the station module payloads to be taken into orbit, the crane and the fuel truck.

Imgur Album of the filght

After docking the next payload into the Firefly the game crashed whilst removing the KAS attachment points (I think it was because i grabbed one whilst also having a cable attached to the kerbal.

After reloading the game I was presented with this:

Payload gone along with the mission impossible kerbal

Oh well, I'll refuel the craft and respawn the payload tomorrow

Great challenge by the way - something I've not done before in KSP. Though this isnt going to be a high scoring one - im going for the elusive style points for a VTOL SSTO and ISS inspired station instead :-)

[DerMeister777]

*Edit- Bad imgur link.

Edited April 17, 2014 by DerMeister777

[DerMeister777]

So, I have barely started my station, only just now towing up the first core module, but I thought I'd show off some progress as of now. I finally got all the kinks worked out of everything and I'm ready for chain launching these buggers!

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Luckily, I didn't actually need HyperEdit since I made a massive "Fuel Caterpillar" capable of refueling the rocket in one got. (Thank gosh too, I hate HyperEditting.) I'd love to use Christopher's design, but I like stubbornly clinging to my own inventions, even though his rover is far more efficient. The rocket can get around 50t into 80km LKO, but it's cutting it very close to do so. As such, I prefer to instead load it up to no more than 45t, just incase Jeb does something stupid, so I'll have extra Delta-v.

[SirJoab]

Swifty : That is a really nice looking fleet. I don't think I'd have the patience to park them all so nicely...

DerMeister777 : Hehehe... I absolutely love that refueling rover.

Edited April 18, 2014 by SirJoab

[gchristopher]

Caterpillar truck is waaay better!

[SirJoab]

***delete***

Edited April 18, 2014 by SirJoab

[Swifty]

I have stopped my attempt at this challenge - theres just so many bugs.

Things attached to KAS winches disappear, random oscillations on the KAS payload and FAR suddenly stops calculating the forces on the aircraft.