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SSTKE - Single Stage to Kerbol Escape

capi3101

By capi3101
in KSP1 Challenges & Mission ideas

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capi3101

capi3101

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Posted (edited)

Greetings, all.

Due to an increased focus on avoiding the dangers of Kessler Syndrome (no doubt due to a late night screening of the blockbuster flop "Gravioli" for the KSC administrators), the KSC administration has decided to conduct their next mission with an emphasis on keeping the whole craft intact the entire time. No decoupling events equals no space debris, equals Sandra Kerman continuing to live and work in outer space, right?

The assignment: Send a probe on a escape trajectory from Kerbol.

The challenge: It has to be all one stage. No decoupling events. Period.

RULES:

1) For your entry to be scored, your craft must remain 100% intact from the time it launches/takes off to the time Kerbol escape is achieved. No parts may break off or be separated from the rest of the craft at any time.

1A) You may use TT18-As; this is the only exception allowed to Rule #1. TT18-As will earn 4 points apiece as per the scoring rules below.

2) Your craft must be unmanned. Your Kerbals may want to meet Sandra Kerman someday...

3) No hyperediting or infinite fuel allowed. Fly honest or not at all.

4) You may use any mods you wish to complete the challenge. This includes parts mods (but there is a penalty for using mod parts as per the scoring rules below).

5) You may build either a spaceplane (SPH launch) or a rocket (VAB launch); there will be separate leader-boards for both. You may make separate entries if you so choose.

6) Career or sandbox does not matter (though tech level of the parts does, as per the scoring rules below).

7) This challenge to remain open as long as there continues to be interest in it. Rules subject to change for the sake of clarification if requested.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

To submit an entry for the challenge, the following must be provided -

1) Your craft file. This is being used both to score your entry as per the rules listed below as well as to verify the number of parts.

2) A screenshot of your craft on the pad or in the VAB. This will be used for the rest of the community to have something to ogle.

3) A screenshot of the map view showing your Situation as ESCAPING and your Sphere of Influence as SUN, like this one:

oc3n8vW.jpg

(Not my screenie; apologies to the person to whom this actually belongs)

This final screenshot will be used to prove that you completed the assignment, of course.

SCORING:

Craft will be scored based on their parts. Each part included in the craft will receive a score based upon where that part falls on the wiki's Tech Tree. The number of points for the part will equal the "Tree Level" of the specific technology ordinarily required to unlock the part. To clarify:

1 pt = Starting Tech

2 pts = Basic Rocketry

3 pts = General Rocketry, Stability, Survivability

4 pts = Advanced Rocketry, General Construction, Flight Control, Science Tech

5 pts = Fuel Systems, Advanced Construction, Aerodynamics, Advanced Flight Control, Electrics, Space Exploration, Landing

6 pts = Heavier Rocketry, Specialized Control, Specialized Construction, Supersonic Flight, Precision Engineering, Advanced Electrics, Advanced Exploration, Advanced Landing

7 pts = Nuclear Propulsion, Large Control, Advanced MetalWorks, Advanced Aerodynamics, High Altitude Flight, Unmanned Tech, Ion Propulsion, Large Electrics, Electronics, Field Science

8 pts = Very Heavy Rocketry, Meta-Materials, Composites, Heavy Aerodynamics, Hypersonic Flight, Advanced Unmanned Tech, Large Probes, Specialized Electrics, Advanced Science Tech, Advanced Motors

All mod parts score 15 points regardless of where the mod designer has placed their mod along the tree (for example, KER last time I checked could be unlocked with Starting Tech; the KER parts count 15 points instead of 1).

For an example of parts scoring, let's say your craft contains 20 EAS-4 Strut Connectors. Struts are unlocked with General Construction, so they add 4 pts each. You have 20 Struts, so they will add 80 points (20x4) to your overall score.

Lowest score leads the challenge. In the event of a tie, the craft with the lowest mass at the time the respective entry is received will lead. If necessary, further ties will be broken by earliest date and time of submission.

Good luck to all entrants.

===LEADERBOARDS===

Spaceplane (SPH launch) Category:

1. Cyberklad, 266 points, final mass 10.05t, submitted 1407Z 3/1/14 [Mechjeb]

2. capi3101, 493 points, final mass 10.97t, submitted 0136Z 3/3/14 [KER, PreciseNode, KAC]

3.

Rocket (VAB launch) Category:

1 Alchemist, 37 points, final mass 7.8t, submitted 0753Z 2/27/14

2. Bobnova, 146 points (provisional), final mass 3.86t, submitted 1626Z 2/26/14 [FAR]

3. SlayerMcGee, 152 pts (provisional), final mass unknown, submitted 1216Z 3/3/14

Edited by capi3101
leaderboard updated.
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capi3101

capi3101

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I know that traditionally the person posting the challenge is supposed to demonstrate that the challenge is doable. I did make such an attempt last night, but it was not successful (single-stage yes, Kerbol escape no); I will make another attempt when I can. Hopefully that doesn't cause interest to wane.

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Bobnova

Bobnova

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Posted

OK here we go.

The rocket consists of:

1x Aero nose cone lvl3 = 3

1x RC001s lvl8 = 8

2x FLT-800 lvl4 = 8

8x Cubic Strut lvl8 = 64

1x LV-N lvl7 = 7

4x 48-7S lvl5 = 20

4x Delta-Delux lvl5 = 20

4x TT18-A lvl4 = 16

Total: 146

(Holy crap cubic struts are expensive. I may have to do this again with a different mounting system)

Only relevant mod is FAR, which decreases dV to orbit from ~4500 to ~3300 at the cost of requiring nosecones and wings for stability.

No mod parts used.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Not much left once Kerbol escape is managed, 2 units of fuel is it.

A slightly better launch profile might leave 8 units, probably more like 4.

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capi3101

capi3101

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I'ma gonna be a stickler for the rules, guys. BobNova; I'm afraid I have to count your entry as provisional for the time being - see submission guidelines #1 and #3 (I need to see the words SUN and ESCAPING on the final disposition screenie - this also has the mass data I'll need in the event of a future tie). Your scoring numbers match up and I will award you the 146 points when your entry is completed.

I do appeciate you using the TT18-As; I need to make a clarification there, which I'll post here and revise my rules to reflect.

1A) You may use TT18-As; this is the only exception allowed to Rule #1. TT18-As will earn 4 points apiece as per the scoring rules below.

Alchemist - looking forward to your re-attempt.

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capi3101

capi3101

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Hello alltogether...

I have a question regarding the rules... do i have to go straight to Kerbol Escape or am i allowed to try a swingby maneuver?

Greetings Phoenix

Phoenix2301, how you do it does not matter; what matters is that it gets done. If you want to try a swingby, go right ahead.

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capi3101

capi3101

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It should be a very doable challenge, as you only need about 4 km/s above Kerbin's orbital speed to escape, and generous donations courtesy the Oberth effect should mean you can do that with very little delta-v

4,000, eh? So that's what I was doing wrong...

It is a doable challenge; I've seen a lot of folks with the Escape device on their Kerbol ribbons. The tricky bit comes with the scoring rules.

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capi3101

capi3101

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I've come to the firm conclusion that I genuinely hate spaceplanes. Should probably say that in the context of "I was making an attempt at an SPH proof of concept." Dozen explosions before the thing takes off, another half dozen before it finally takes off well, and then I run out of gas for the jets. I know you're supposed to be able to make orbit on one jet fuel tank per engine - so I know I'm probably doing it wrong.

Updated Bobnova's score for the 3.86 tonne final mass; still need the craft file to make it official.

Edited by capi3101
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Alchemist

Alchemist

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Posted (edited)

Finally managed to get to escape velocity (reached it on the last drops of fuel)

Takeoff at the sunset

e4602ebc4e8c.png

be5239e47252.png

Flameout! Going on the nuke alone

1c68d7b98112.png

And the fuel is running out...

46a1213bd4e1.png

7f1d1f53ac89.png

Success!!!

Bye Kerbin! We are not going home!

29b43c87c985.png

a28477298d4f.png

Let's see:

1* Stayputnik = 4

2* LVT-30 = 2*1 = 2

1* NERVA = 7

6* FLT-800 = 6*4 = 24

Total = 37

(if you replace the tanks with X200-16 it would be 28 pts...)

craft file

P.S. better don't try flying it yourself - it is not so easy to get to LKO, let alone have enough fuel left after that. It took me 5 attempts to get the escape velocity (althrough it was pretty good at getting its apoapsis higher than Eeloo)

Edited by Alchemist
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SlayerMcGee

SlayerMcGee

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Posted (edited)

Thank you for the challenge, I very much enjoyed this one!

I went for an ultra-light ultra-simple stock design, flown by hand, without mods. I used a Mun gravity turn to reduce the Delta-V needed for Kerbin escape (it reduced it by about ~150 m/s, enough for this simple craft to escape with about 6.4 units of fuel left in the tank once a stable Sun orbit was reached.

Vehicle total delta-V: 6188 m/s (vacuum)

Vehicle total weight: 2.395 tons

Craft file is here.

Parts list:

2x FL-T200 fuel tanks - 2 points

1x Rockomax 48-7S rocket - 5 points

1x Probodobodyne OKTO2 probe core - 7 points

1x Z-100 rechargable battery pack - 4 points

Total: 18 points

This design should be new VAB record! :)

Mission details:

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Edited by SlayerMcGee
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capi3101

capi3101

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Getting there slowly but surely...my SPH entry made Kerbin orbit (finally) with about ~4,900 m/s of delta-V left for the Kerbol Escape burn. I find I'm now missing one crucial piece of information necessary to complete my own damn challenge....

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cyberklad

cyberklad

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ksp17.jpgksp18.jpgksp19.jpg

Quite a nice craft to fly. Got interstellar with over 900M/s of delta v left. And has some solar panels so it should stay alive for a good bit of the 68 years it will take it to reach interstallar space.

It gets up to 30.000M before it runs out of air. and can achieve 2100m/s and start to gain some climbing speed before it runs out of jet fuel.

Scoring:

1x LV-N 7

2x Turbojet 7x2 14

10x Ram Air Intake 7x10 70

4x CubicOctogonal Strut 8x4 32

2x Delta Wing 6x2 12

2x Structural Wing 7x2 14

2x Advanced Canard 8x2 16

2x Mk1 Fuselage - Jet Fuel 5x2 10

2x FL-T800 Fuel Tank 4x2 8

3x Small Gear Bay 5x3 15

4x OX-STAT Photovoltaic Panels 5x4 20

1x RC-001S Remote Guidance Unit 8

1x Inline Advanced Stabilizer 5

1x Z-1k Rechargeable Battery Pack 7

1x Aerodynamic Nose Cone 3

1x MechJeb 2 (AR202 case) 15

total 256

Craft File: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6lyz5z6lhfskxmo/SSTKE%20SPH.craft

Edited by cyberklad
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