Ssto-from eve

[awsomejwags]

Rules-you can use kw rocketry, novapunch,b9 aerospace kspx kethane and hooligan balloons (using the last two will dock you 3 points)

Mechjeb is allowed.

Must be manned.

Have fun!!!

Edited April 24, 2014 by awsomejwags

[-ELF-]

Scoring system is everything you need.

And, citation from Wiki - "Jet engines do not function in Eve's atmosphere, since it contains no oxygen  they make noise and consume fuel, but they produce no thrust. Planes with other propulsion methods do, however, work very well, and are a great way to explore the planet."

So, that will be either rocket powered or Ion gliders (dare, anyone?)

Anyway, make it interesting for others, include scoring, and post your own entry to drop a seed.

[Kasuha]

Rules-you can use kw rocketry, novapunch,b9 aerospace and kspx

Mechjeb is allowed.

Must be manned.

Have fun!!!

I would like to see your own attempt.

[Captain Sierra]

I would like to see your own attempt.

I'm gonna second this. Eve is the hardest place to take off from to begin with and SSTOing that has been dubbed impossible by many. Now, assuming you don't give a crap about reality, it's entirely possible to do an ion glider, but it should be known that this would never work IRL. SSTOing Eve without doing something horribly unrealistic is very likely impossible. I think a better challenge would be 'fewest stages off of Eve' where people are ranked by the number of times they drop parts on their way up.

[MockKnizzle]

In order to have a dV of 11,000 m/s using areospikes (with an ISP of 390) and a single stage, the mass ratio of the rocket (wet mass to dry mass) has to be more than 17:1. The highest mass ratio fuel tanks in stock KSP have a wet/dry mass ratio of 9:1, thus a single-stage EAV with conventional liquid-fuel rockets is impossible.

I suppose if other mod packs have some fuel tanks with better wet/dry ratios, then it might be.

[Othuyeg]

I do not see how this would be possible without releasing the krak... OH NO IT IS HERE! RUN!

[DJEN]

I miss 1096bimu. It's a shame that xe got banned.

[Red Iron Crown]

11km/s of dV is not necessary, if you choose your landing site carefully an ascent can be done with less than 9km/s. I still don't think it's possible without kethane-powered thermal turbines, though.

I don't think an ion glider can do it, it's just barely within their capabilities to get into Kerbin orbit.

[awsomejwags]

scoring- 10 points for ssto

9 points for 2 stages

8 points for 3 stages

6 for 4 stages

and two for any other amount

-3 points if you used kethane jet or hooligan lab balloons

Can you shrink it? Build your craft with under 30 parts +4 points

Rockomax regular-build it bigger and better using mostly rockomax parts + 2 points

Is it a bird- no its a spaceplane. + 5 points

Edited April 24, 2014 by awsomejwags

[Captain Sierra]

11km/s of dV is not necessary, if you choose your landing site carefully an ascent can be done with less than 9km/s. I still don't think it's possible without kethane-powered thermal turbines, though.

I don't think an ion glider can do it, it's just barely within their capabilities to get into Kerbin orbit.

Were you thinking plane or VTOL? Is the former even doable? The kethane turbine is hardly high performance. I doubt it will be able to bring the required speed and altitude. A standard lander with jet assist might be possible to help clear the thickest parts of the atmosphere and get you to a range where that mythical under 9500m/s ascent is doable. Either way, this may be an extreme EVA throw-away SSTO.

scoring- 10 points for ssto

9 points for 2 stages

8 points for 3 stages

6 for 4 stages

and two for any other amount

This scoring simply will not work well. An asparagus-staged Eve ascent vehicle often has up to 20 staging events in a single launch not counting the parachute deployment on landing. I think you should retry the scoring to be dependent on dry mass after ascent divided by dry mass before ascent. This means you can have ten staging events but not drop any parts and still technically be an SSTO (all my plane SSTOs have jets and rockets in separate stages but no parts are dropped).

Edited April 23, 2014 by Captain Sierra

[Red Iron Crown]

Were you thinking plane or VTOL? Is the former even doable? The kethane turbine is hardly high performance. I doubt it will be able to bring the required speed and altitude. A standard lander with jet assist might be possible to help clear the thickest parts of the atmosphere and get you to a range where that mythical under 9500m/s ascent is doable. Either way, this may be an extreme EVA throw-away SSTO.

You're right, I was thinking of this, but it's multistage. The <9500m/s ascent isn't mythical though, you just have to land at high altitude. Several examples here.

I suppose one could abuse infiniglide, kraken drive, or ladder force to make an SSTO, but I don't think that's the intention here.

[The Destroyer]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/24898-Challenge-Submission-Guide

[wasmic]

This challenge is very badly thought-out. It's possible to get into Eve orbit in just two stages if the first is kethane-jet powered, but SSTO is only possible if using the HooliganLabs balloons mod. The scoring system is also very boring. Should someone achieve SSTO, noone will be able to beat their score, even if they make a smaller craft.

[Pds314]

Yeah, this is definitely not doable unless maybe possibly someone can do it with an Ion plane. The best the Aerospike can get i still under 6 km/s under reasonable Eve TWR. Adding wings doesn't help because theyy make drag and you need to fly through even more atmosphere.

[skykooler]

What if we combined an aerospike and an ion engine?

[Prophecy]

Im pretty sure its doable with the KSP Interstellar Mod. Given the SSTO can do 2-3 refules.

[NichG]

With KSP Interstellar, its relatively easy using an upgraded plasma thruster and lots and lots of beamed power. An antimatter spaceplane will also do the trick fairly easily. Also probably a small ship using a DT Vista. For the stock challenge, a rocket-assisted, massless-battery-pack ion glider seems like it'd be worth trying though.

Suggested scoring system: minimal time to orbit for an SSTO, each extra stage costs you 20 minutes.

Edited April 24, 2014 by NichG

[Tw1]

If you will excuse the use of, uh.. unconventional propulsion, done, and done. All stock. 17 minutes. 0.13 tons.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

The vessel is my Ladderlift frame, without the parachute and seat to reduce weight.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Tw1

[NichG]

That is going to be pretty hard to beat with an ion glider . My first test attempts took about 2 in-game hours to get to 6km from sea level, with an Eve TWR of 0.02. Ascending at 3 degrees with an airspeed of 12m/s is painful. On top of that I'm sure I'll need to add more mass for the rocket ascent stage once you get above the pea soup part of the atmosphere since it only had something like 3km/s once the ions run out of xenon.