mSSTO (micro SSTO) Challenge

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

nice one, cyberklad - now first for weight, and second for least amount of parts used I have used the weight in your screenshot for fairness, (and by the way F1 is the default screenshot button - gets stored in the KSP main folder in a handy folder called 'screenshots' - unless windowed mode does that?) More pictures will mean fairer judgement

Edited April 16, 2014 by Cmdr. Arn1e

[Red Iron Crown]

I tried to get the mass down as much as I could by making a jet/ion hybrid, and it worked pretty well but the part count went nuts. It's another tailsitter, with a single ion engine and tank mounted to the nose. The rest looks about the same, but I replaced the big jet fuel tank with a stack of Oscar Bs with no oxidizer, added another intake, and covered the whole thing in massless solar panels and batteries. Made orbit on the first attempt, and didn't need all that battery capacity after all as I was able to raise periapsis out of the atmosphere before falling into Kerbin's shadow.

The result:

1,992kg

162 parts

.craft file

I think I could probably get it down a little further, I had a fair bit of jet fuel left when I got to orbit and I also carried a reversed second probe core that I could eliminate. I'm not sure if we're considering spamming massless parts a physics exploit or not, especially since the panels and batteries are so useful for ions. If it seems outside the spirit of the challenge feel free to disqualify.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[tavert]

I don't know the part count, but this was 1.51 tons last June and the same parts should still work:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Removing most of the oxidizer would help a little, but this predated tweakables.

Using just a 48-7S and enough small fuel tanks to get 4.4-4.5 km/s dV should beat this by a few hundred kg.

[Red Iron Crown]

Impressive, tavert. The jet engine is about 80% of that ship's mass, crazy.

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

As Red Iron Crown said, Impressive

That puts tavert in the lead for the weight, would be interested to see how may parts it is

Red Iron Crown - I have put your higher score in the weight leaderboard, could have previous best if you want it displayed on the board

Edited April 17, 2014 by Cmdr. Arn1e

[Red Iron Crown]

I think just the best entry from each player on each board is enough.

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

Cool, that makes it a bit easier for me

Not gonna be able to judge any entries for the next couple of days (until mobile company accepts payment and re-connect me! D'oh...)

[Nedal]

I suppose my little ion guy qualifies.. if i put landing gear on it. So I tried it, and dag gummit, landing gears have no effect on the craft. Is that new?

Craftfile: https://www./?s82wpn14c9toshf

.61 tons

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

I suppose my little ion guy qualifies.. if i put landing gear on it. So I tried it, and dag gummit, landing gears have no effect on the craft. Is that new?

[snip]

Yeah, that's new I think.... Red Iron Crown has started a thread about it on the general KSP discussion about these no-mass parts!

Still, for the purposes of my challenge it's acceptable - and puts you in 1st for lowest mass

Part count would get you on that leaderboard too, but can understand if it's too much hassle...

[Kasuha]

Yeah, that's new I think.... Red Iron Crown has started a thread about it on the general KSP discussion about these no-mass parts!

Aircraft landing gear is massless for a long time now.

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

Aircraft landing gear is massless for a long time now.

I do remember someone saying about that before .23.5 came out, now you mention it... this time round it's the OX-stat panels, some batteries and other very-low-mass parts (to my current knowledge, which isn't overly extensive, which is why I'm just allowing these parts for the purpose of this challenge)

[zarakon]

Landing gear has been massless forever. If it wasn't massless, every spaceplane would require some kind of counterweight on the top to keep the center of mass in line with the engines for after leaving the atmosphere