The Personal Reentry Vehicle Challenge

[MedwedianPresident]

The Personal Reentry Vehicle challenge

This challenge is all about providing Kerbals with a way to reach the surface of Kerbin from orbit without using hermetic capsules. You must build some sort of device (personal heat shield, MOOSE style capsule, etc...) that allows a kerbal to de-orbit and then enter the atmosphere and land safely. This is to ensure that in case of a Kerbal being stranded in a small spacecraft in space making rescue difficult he instead can initiate landing process by himself.

Rules:

1. All mods allowed EXCEPT any and all unrealistic mods (Includes HyperEdit) and CFG edits (ex. 5000 damage resistance).

2. Kerbal must not be exposed to reentry flames or hypersonic air blast. This means that the Kerbal must be protected by the vehicle when he is moving quicker than 900 meters per second and is at an altitude of over 25.000 meters; the Kerbal may also not show any reentry flames on his spacesuit.

3. System must be capable of deorbiting from a circular 120x120k orbit (this means periapsis is under 50 kilometres.).

4. Kerbal must safely return to the surface; either using vanguard personal parachute or parachute attached to the vehicle.

5. Kerbal can only be attached to vehicle using external command chairs or ladders.

6. Several kerbals may share such a vehicle as long as all requirements are fulfilled.

7. Design must be easily attachable to a spacecraft for use in emergencies.

Points:

10 points per each Kerbal safely brought back to the surface.

10 points for each 10 kilometres of altitude of the circular orbit above 120 kilometres. This means extra 10 points if orbit is 130x130; extra 20 if 140x140 and so on.

20 points if system is capable of landing Kerbals both on land or on water.

20 points if system can function as a temporary shelter until rescue forces arrive (e.g. heat shield functions as a boat or similar).

40 points if capable of returning Kerbals from orbit bigger than 500x500.

70 points if capable of returning Kerbals from low munar orbit or low minmus orbit (equal because Minmus has less gravity)

150 points if capable of returning Kerbals from outside of Kerbin's SoI.

250 points if capable of returning Kerbals from low orbit of another planet.

AND up to 50 bonus points that can be awarded by me; depending on the level of creativity and the craziness of the contraption.

Edited March 17, 2014 by MedwedianPresident

[mythic_fci]

1. All mods allowed.

I can predict the massive wave of HyperEditors and unrealistice CFG file editors incoming.

[MedwedianPresident]

The vehicle only must be capable of bringing a Kerbal down from orbit; it can absolutely be placed into orbit using HyperEdit.

[Superfluous J]

Technically, though, you could "use a mod" named hyperedit to get him back to the ground from orbit.

Or just edit the chair to have 500m/s impact tolerance and an RCS thruster. And a Monoprop tank, why not?

Or install that mod that gives Kerbals parachutes. Use his suit thrusters to get suborbital and then hit the chute once re-entry burning didn't kill him.

[MedwedianPresident]

The first thing and the second thing would be counted as cheating.

The third thing is not allowed because reentry flames can't hit the Kerbal himself.

[LordOfTheOrbits]

The last rule doesn't make any sense, because in reality you want reentry systems to be shaped as little aerodynamic as possible, so it slows down sufficiently.

Also the "higher orbit gets more points" rule makes no sense because you actually need a lower amount of dV to deorbit it the higher you are.

[Kasuha]

I was tempted to participate but rules and scoring system make no sense.

1. All mods allowed.

If all mods are allowed then you cannot declare Hyperedit usage cheating.

7. Design must be appealing aesthetically; be aerodynamic and realistic.

What is "appealing aesthetically"?

"Aerodynamic" usually means "least atmospheric drag", return modules are built to slow down, not to pass the atmosphere at highest possible speed.

And finally, realistic? The whole challenge is perfectly unrealistic in the first place because no sane engineer would send a real astronaut into atmosphere outside a pod.

8. Design must be easily attachable to a spacecraft for use in emergencies.

Define "easily". About anything can be attached to a spacecraft one way or another.

Regarding point system, impractical designs (carrying most Kerbals, most fuel and most stuff) are clearly favored over lightweight and simple designs. That makes no sense as well, practical design does not carry 100 command seats, seven bathrooms and a movie theater, it is designed to carry the crew from the place where it is to the place where it can be considered safe and has as low mass as possible so it does not add much to the ship's payload.

[mythic_fci]

I'm going to suggest some changes to the rules:

1. All mods allowed EXCEPT any and all unrealistic mods (Includes HyperEdit) and CFG edits (ex. 5000 damage resistance)

2. Kerbal must not be exposed to reentry flames or hypersonic air blast. This means that the Kerbal must be protected by the vehicle when he is moving quicker than 900 meters per second and is at an altitude of over 25.000 meters; the Kerbal may also not show any reentry flames on his spacesuit.

3. System must be capable of deorbiting from a circular 120x120k orbit (this means periapsis is under 50 kilometres.).

4. Kerbal must safely return to the surface; either using vanguard personal parachute or parachute attached to the vehicle.

5. Kerbal can only be attached to vehicle using external command chairs or ladders.

6. Several kerbals may share such a vehicle as long as all requirements are fulfilled.

7. Design must be easily attachable to a spacecraft for use in emergencies.

OPTIONAL: Be aesthetically pleasing.

[broman]

I have an actually practical design that I'll post up shortly, I've been testing it.

[MedwedianPresident]

I'm going to suggest some changes to the rules:

1. All mods allowed EXCEPT any and all unrealistic mods (Includes HyperEdit) and CFG edits (ex. 5000 damage resistance)

2. Kerbal must not be exposed to reentry flames or hypersonic air blast. This means that the Kerbal must be protected by the vehicle when he is moving quicker than 900 meters per second and is at an altitude of over 25.000 meters; the Kerbal may also not show any reentry flames on his spacesuit.

3. System must be capable of deorbiting from a circular 120x120k orbit (this means periapsis is under 50 kilometres.).

4. Kerbal must safely return to the surface; either using vanguard personal parachute or parachute attached to the vehicle.

5. Kerbal can only be attached to vehicle using external command chairs or ladders.

6. Several kerbals may share such a vehicle as long as all requirements are fulfilled.

7. Design must be easily attachable to a spacecraft for use in emergencies.

OPTIONAL: Be aesthetically pleasing.

Thank you. Thank you.

[randomness5555]

You realise you've got 10 posts of argument and no submissions right? You may be doing something wrong here...

[Fellow314]

You mean like this thing?

[frizzank]

Come on people don't be so caught up in pointing out loop holes in the challenge. Just because it doesn't specifically state some exploit does not mean you should do it.

It is getting real old with the challenges that you have to have a law degree to draw up a challenge that someone can't find some loop hole to cheat through.

It looks fun. Im going to have a go.

Eject a kerbal from orbit not in a pod

Survive re-entry, no flames on kerbal.

Survive the landing.

[OTehNoes]

You mean like this thing?

http://i.imgur.com/FAsexez.png

5. Kerbal can only be attached to vehicle using external command chairs or ladders.

Nope.

[Fellow314]

5. Kerbal can only be attached to vehicle using external command chairs or ladders.

Nope.

Oh, so I'm supposed to read all the rules, am I??

(sorry )

[Othuyeg]

Yup... it needs a rule "You must read all the rules."

Anyways, I am going to be submitting my own attempt later

[Aghanim]

Why we couldn't use hyperedit?

So we need to launch it into space?

Trying this with my RSS and deadly reentry... later

[frizzank]

First attempt was unsuccessful as it tipped over during re-entry. MK2 worked much better. All survived, jeb broke his leg, again.

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[OTehNoes]

Here's my effort! 3 Kerbals down from a 624 x 626 km orbit! Worked as a boat too!

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As you can see from the pictures, the re-entry itself was fairly sedate, not that much heat at all!

[Aghanim]

My attempt:

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Note that I do this challenge under Realism Overhaul with RSS and deadly reentry, some solar panel tweaking is advised if you really wanted to use the ion engine for deorbit burn, because the power is much lower than expected

Part mods that is used:

- Mechjeb

- 6.25 m inflatable heat shield from Deadly Reentry

Edited March 21, 2014 by Aghanim

[Sargent890]

Here is my entry:

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It is a one kerbal personal return pod. It has onboard reaction wheels and an orbital power module to keep the reaction wheel alive until re-entry. This test was conducted by launching the pod unmanned, rendezvous-ing with a stranded kerbal and returning him to Kerbin. This was done from a 150x149km orbit.

I also have a 4-kerbal version that I may upload later.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Sargent890

[OTehNoes]

Love that design Sargent, very efficient use of space! Would be good attached to a space station!

[Sargent890]

Thanks,

The main issue with such a compact system is that it is almost impossible to get to the OKTO2 so that I can fly it properly.

[jmiki8]

This is my entry, the "Anchor" (well, it looks like one). It's suitable for typical space stations orbiting up to 150 km (although the reentry vehicle may be capable of deorbiting from higher orbits). It seats 2 kerbals, and has only the minimal set of heat shields to protect them. It has an attachment point on its bottom part, where it can be connected to other vehicles via docking ports or decouplers (used in my test). I know there are better designs, I just wanted to show it.

The test flight:

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*EDIT: The rocket had 4 side boosters. I just couldn't correct it, as I wasn't logged into Imgur.

Edited March 23, 2014 by jmiki8

[Claw]

Here is my entry.

I added a few more requirements on myself.

- Must carry 2 or more kerbals

- Must be capable of returning from the surface of the Mun

- Must be 1.0t or less, including mounting hardware.

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(All stock except MechJeb.)

This design is aerodynamically stable on reentry. It needed to be since the battery is very limited. A probe core provides enough torque to orient the craft during burns and to orient the heat shield for reentry. Solar panel is extendable via hand crank for when batteries are dead, and MJ acts as a probe-core interface (but isn't really needed).

End result is that it weighs 0.998t and has 1709 dV when loaded with 2 kerbals. Comes equipped with a parachute, solar panel, and communications system. Is capable of recovering in water or on land and can act as a boat, sun, or wind shelter. Jeb refused to fly because it has too many frills.

Edited March 25, 2014 by Claw