Kerbal Shuttle Challenge

[Northstar1989]

Looking really good Northstar, the only thing I need now is a combined weight of the two payloads dropped off, and then we'll have a score.

So far I have you down for:

The Jebidiah Distinction: The shuttle launched on top of a rocket.

The Highflier Distinction: The shuttle went much higher than 250 km.

The Ares Distinction: The shuttle obtained an orbit around another celestial body

The Ace Distinction: The shuttle is piloted by Bill Kerman.

The Sparky Award: The shuttle crashed and burned during testing.

Close enough, it qualifies. Just give me a payload weight and we're good.

2.5 tons almost exactly on each (2.500 and 2.505 tons, to be precise).

I'll also edit that into the previous post presenting the shuttle. Sorry for forgetting that O:o

Thanks for allowing my entry, I was worried you wouldn't allow it- today is shaping up to be a better and better day. First, I go on an great first date with an amazing girl, and now this news...

Regards,

Northstar

[Northstar1989]

I made a shuttle called KSS Benign out of B9 Aerospace parts. Took the easy way I guess and sandwiched it between two liquid fuel boosters. Launched it into a temporary 84km x 79km orbit, then into a 200km x 200km orbit at the Mun. Dropped off a 1.97 ton comms satellite there. Then landed it back at the KSC runway at dawn.

That's a nice shuttle! And an even cooler video! Where did you get the music for it? How did you record?

One other question though- how did you get the SABRE Engines to work? I remember I was SO excited when I unlocked those, only to learn that it doesn't work in the current version of B9 Aerospace- even after I installed the fixes for B9 on the forum as directed...

Regards,

Northstar

[Mazlem]

Thanks Northstar. I used Fraps to record the video. The music is from Machinimasound: https://www.youtube.com/user/MachinimaSound/videos

There's a few patches for B9 rolled into one here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/66020-B9-0-23-fixes

[Raven.]

2.5 tons almost exactly on each (2.500 and 2.505 tons, to be precise).

I'll also edit that into the previous post presenting the shuttle. Sorry for forgetting that O:o

Thanks for allowing my entry, I was worried you wouldn't allow it- today is shaping up to be a better and better day. First, I go on an great first date with an amazing girl, and now this news...

Regards,

Northstar

Northstar, that is awesome to hear. A great girl can make all the difference in someone's life. I hope the relationship continues to be great for you .

In the meantime, here's what I got far you:

Altitude Score: A semi-major axis of 12,000 km was used for the score (semi-major axis of the Mun). So the altitude score was 1200.

Payload Score: 5.005 tonns * 100 = 500.5

SOI Score: 1070 for Mun orbit

Total Score: 1000 (completion) + 1200 (Altitude) + 500.5 (Payload) + 1070 (SOI) = 3770.5

The awards earned:

The Jebidiah Distinction: The shuttle launched on top of a rocket.

The Highflier Distinction: The shuttle went much higher than 250 km.

The Ares Distinction: The shuttle obtained an orbit around another celestial body

The Ace Distinction: The shuttle was piloted by Bill Kerman.

The Sparky Award: The shuttle crashed and burned during testing.

[Kroltz]

Test Pilots,

If there is anyone out there that would like to be a test pilot for me, please test the following craft and let me know if you approve of it. http://kerbal.curseforge.com/shareables/220696-ki-space-shuttle

This is a stock shuttle (requires asteroid mission)

Thank's

-KroltzIndustries

[Northstar1989]

There's a few patches for B9 rolled into one here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/66020-B9-0-23-fixes

I tried those patches before (they were the ones I was referring to) but while they fixed *some* of the bugs (such as enabling opening/closing of the cargo hatches in the SPH), it didn't fix the landing gear wobble or the SABRE engines for me- the two issues I was most troubled by...

Regards,

Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Northstar, that is awesome to hear. A great girl can make all the difference in someone's life. I hope the relationship continues to be great for you .

Thanks- she's quite charming, that's for sure. It was interesting to hear her say something to me in French (knowing I'd have no idea what it meant at the time) as goodbye, that translated as "until next time"...

In the meantime, here's what I got far you:

Altitude Score: A semi-major axis of 12,000 km was used for the score (semi-major axis of the Mun). So the altitude score was 1200.

Payload Score: 5.005 tonns * 100 = 500.5

SOI Score: 1070 for Mun orbit

Total Score: 1000 (completion) + 1200 (Altitude) + 500.5 (Payload) + 1070 (SOI) = 3770.5

The awards earned:

The Jebidiah Distinction: The shuttle launched on top of a rocket.

The Highflier Distinction: The shuttle went much higher than 250 km.

The Ares Distinction: The shuttle obtained an orbit around another celestial body

The Ace Distinction: The shuttle was piloted by Bill Kerman.

The Sparky Award: The shuttle crashed and burned during testing.

Cool!

Since I make a policy of carrying out all Challenges in my main Career game to pass the time (as well as find ways to make the payloads useful to my actual mission), it looks like I'm going to have to launch an *even heavier* payload to orbit (on an even bigger shuttle- I'm scrapping the Nyrmidon due to that yawing bug) to try and get a higher score! I'm thinking a huge rocket to launch a Solar (Kerbol) Power Microwave Beamed Power Transmitter to low Kerbol orbit... (that way I won't have to time-warp to complet the challenge, even if the actual payload takes months in-game to reach its destination)

What's the rule on using payload engines during ascent again? With a payload that heavy, I'm going to want to find some way to use the rather large engines on the rocket for ascent from Kerbin rather than just having them sit there idle...

Or, maybe I could just launch some RocketParts as payload and build that ship with Orbital Construction mod- I already have enough fuel in orbit to launch such a satellite from Munar orbit many times over...

Regards,

Northstar

[Damaske]

I had a shuttle design but when I moved to deorbit i went to quick save but instead quick loaded! I lost all the work I have done in the past oh few months ( duration unsure). Will redo mission asap and hopefuly this time I'll not quickload, as I have deleted the quickload.

[Raven.]

What's the rule on using payload engines during ascent again? With a payload that heavy, I'm going to want to find some way to use the rather large engines on the rocket for ascent from Kerbin rather than just having them sit there idle...

Payload engines are perfectly allowed. Why not use them? Especially if you got a ridiculously large payload.

[Mark Nutt]

This was a fun challenge! I haven't really messed around with shuttles much before, so this was a good excuse to really play with them.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

I'm not running any mods, unless you count Kerbal Alarm Clock. All the parts are stock.

[Mark Nutt]

(Sorry. Double post)

Edited June 8, 2014 by Mark Nutt

[It'snorocketscience]

Alright! This looks cool! I've prepared a special copy of KSP and I am now building with mods!

[mojobojo]

I don't see why it would be considered cheating. So to answer your question, no it's not cheating.

Well going to have to hold off on doing a relaunch for about a week. Had a lightning storm and it took my computer with it.

[Northstar1989]

Well going to have to hold off on doing a relaunch for about a week. Had a lightning storm and it took my computer with it.

Sorry to hear that! Did you have a power strip with a built-in circuit breaker protecting your computer?

If not, you might want to invest in one of those for the future...

Regards,

Northstar

[Sensi]

Cool challenge. I take it on with my Laythe shuttle.

It can SSTO to LKO with a payload < 30 tons. An ascent stage is needed for heavier stuff. It's also VTOL capable.

Parts mods used : B9, IR, KAS. I've tried to use PWB fuel balancer but to no avail, so I had to balance fuel "manually" with TAC fuel balancer. Using Throttle Controlled Avionics also helped a lot flying the shuttle while in VTOL mode.

It carried a 28 tons payload in its 12 m cargo bay. 9 t unloaded on Mün, 5 t on Minmus and 14 t on Laythe.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Fly safe.

Sensi.

[Northstar1989]

Cool challenge. I take it on with my Laythe shuttle.

That thing has a VERY high part-count (At over 200 parts). What are you using all those parts for?

It can SSTO to LKO with a payload < 30 tons. An ascent stage is needed for heavier stuff. It's also VTOL capable.

Looking at your album, you refueled in LKO. As I understand it, that's against the rules- you can only refuel in the SOI of other celestial bodies, such as the Mun or Laythe. Why don't you try it again with an ascent-stage: it seemed to be meant as part of the spirit of the challenge to build something with an external fuel tank or rocket anyways...

Parts mods used : B9, IR, KAS. I've tried to use PWB fuel balancer but to no avail, so I had to balance fuel "manually" with TAC fuel balancer. Using Throttle Controlled Avionics also helped a lot flying the shuttle while in VTOL mode.

I've never tried Throttle Controlled Avionics, but it definitely seemed interesting last time I looked at is. Does it work well for you?

It carried a 28 tons payload in its 12 m cargo bay. 9 t unloaded on Mün, 5 t on Minmus and 14 t on Laythe.

Like I said, I think your entry may be DQ'd by the thread author for refueling in LKO. But why don't you try it again with an ascent vehicle for an even higher payload score?

http://imgur.com/a/uHsrM

Fly safe.

Sensi.

Nice pics nonetheless. Cool craft. My only lingering question- why does it have such a high part-count?

Regards,

Northstar

[Sensi]

Nice pics nonetheless. Cool craft.

Thank you.

That thing has a VERY high part-count (At over 200 parts). What are you using all those parts for?

A high wing parts count (no PWing), + the huge number of struts needed to stiffen it, + the payload parts count, + things like the structural panels hiding the ugly LV-Ns, etc...

Looking at your album, you refueled in LKO. As I understand it, that's against the rules- you can only refuel in the SOI of other celestial bodies, such as the Mun or Laythe. Why don't you try it again with an ascent-stage: it seemed to be meant as part of the spirit of the challenge to build something with an external fuel tank or rocket anyways...

Well, Raven wrote that refueling is allowed for missions "whose target location is outside of Kerbin SOI" and "yes, the fuel depot can be in Kerbin orbit". Moreover, I wanted to build a nextgen shuttle that could SSTO and VTOL, and doesn't necessary need external rockets and fuel tanks to go to LKO. Indeed, I could have gone to Mün and Minmus without refueling thanks to an ascent stage, but I didn't use one because I aimed for the SSTO award. And if you go SSTO with a payload, you'd better have a refueling station waiting for you in LKO or you're not going anywhere.

I've never tried Throttle Controlled Avionics, but it definitely seemed interesting last time I looked at is. Does it work well for you?

Yep, it works well, but you have to configure it for your different VTOL flight profiles : in a high gravity field (e.g. Kerbin, Laythe,...) , you need a more reactive throttle control than in low gravity (Mün, Minmus,...).

But why don't you try it again with an ascent vehicle for an even higher payload score?

This shuttle is a proof of concept with B9 S2 parts and Sabre engines. What mattered was flexibility, versatility and endurance, not payload mass.

Edited June 12, 2014 by Sensi

[palioxis1248]

Well, read through alll the posts, and so far no one's done a stock 3m part plane yet, so here's my entry.

Not-very-humbly presenting, the Betelgeuse! So named because it's big, fat, and has a good chance of blowing up in the near future! This baby can deliver close to 25 tons to LKO, and still have fuel to spare to make it home despite a botched reentry, as the album below demonstrates. Payload is held in the cargo bay and on side-mounted racks, a la the NERVA pods. Apologies for the multitude of pictures!

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Contending for:

The Squad Distinction

The Ace Distinction

The Certified Bad-Ass Distinction (I hope doing S-turns doing reentry, missing your landing point, turning around, gliding 60km, then narrowly missing a ridge and landing on the Insular Airfield is considered pretty badass.)

EDIT: Hang on, found some pics. Guess I'm running for the Sparky Distinction as well now.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Here's the craft file for anyone who wants it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/048zulte8fxqt26/Betelgeuse.craft

Cheerio!

Edited June 14, 2014 by palioxis1248

[Cakeofruit]

I have a entry but i also have a suggestion, for the refueling it's should have some sort of malus

Also a bonus for leaving the external fuel tank with a periapsis on kerbin atmosphere

Great challenge

[Raven.]

I apologize for taking so long in responding to submissions. I have been in New York City for the last week with no access to internet (hotel wanted to charge me $10 for wifi for 4 hours, so I waited until I was back). So, now that I'm back in Arkansas, the first thing I'm doing is scoring submissions.

This was a fun challenge! I haven't really messed around with shuttles much before, so this was a good excuse to really play with them.

http://imgur.com/a/CiskI

I'm not running any mods, unless you count Kerbal Alarm Clock. All the parts are stock.

Not bad. First shuttle to make it to Eve. Here's the scoop:

Altitude Score: 8415.9286, because the shuttle hit Kerbin escape velocity (semi-major axis of the edge of Kerbin SOI was used)

Payload Score: 1.11 * 100 = 111

SOI Score: 2340 for delivering to Eve orbit.

Total Score: 1000 (Completion) + 8415.9286 (Altitude) + 111 (Payload) + 2340 (SOI) = 11866.9286

Awards earned were:

The Jebidiah Distinction: The shuttle launched atop a big ole' rocket.

The Squad Distinction: The shuttle was completely stock (Kerbal Alarm Clock did not alter the performance of the shuttle)

The Highflier Distinction: The shuttle achieved a much high orbit than 250 km.

The Ares Distinction: The shuttle achieved orbit around another celestial body, in this case Eve.

The Ace Distinction: The shuttle was a manned shuttle.

Cool challenge. I take it on with my Laythe shuttle.

It can SSTO to LKO with a payload < 30 tons. An ascent stage is needed for heavier stuff. It's also VTOL capable.

Parts mods used : B9, IR, KAS. I've tried to use PWB fuel balancer but to no avail, so I had to balance fuel "manually" with TAC fuel balancer. Using Throttle Controlled Avionics also helped a lot flying the shuttle while in VTOL mode.

It carried a 28 tons payload in its 12 m cargo bay. 9 t unloaded on Mün, 5 t on Minmus and 14 t on Laythe.

http://imgur.com/a/uHsrM

Fly safe.

Sensi.

Oh dear, this is gonna score high. This is thus far the highest scoring shuttle on the challenge. Just landing on Laythe alone netted the submission a solid 9700 points. Then we throw in the Mun and Minmus landings. Here's the scoop:

Altitude Score: 12,000 (For the Mun landing) + 47,000 (For the Minmus landing) + 84159.286 (For hitting escape velocity) = 14315.9286

Payload Score: 28 * 100 = 2800

SOI Score: 9725 (Laythe landing) + 1240 (Minmus landing) + 1710 (Mun landing) = 12675

Total Score: 1000 (Completion) + 14315.9286 (Altitude) + 2800 (Payload) + 12675 (SOI) = 30790.9286

Awards earned are as follows:

The SSTO Distinction: The shuttle launched as a single stage, without ejecting any parts after launch.

The Highflier Distinction: The shuttle went above 250 km altitude.

The Ares Distinction: The shuttle achieved a circular orbit around another celestial body.

The Constellation Distinction: The shuttle landed on another celestial body.

The Ace Distinction: The shuttle was a manned shuttle.

The Certified Badass Distinction: The shuttle is extremely versatile, being capable of functioning as a shuttle, space plane, and a VTOL at will.

Well, read through alll the posts, and so far no one's done a stock 3m part plane yet, so here's my entry.

Not-very-humbly presenting, the Betelgeuse! So named because it's big, fat, and has a good chance of blowing up in the near future! This baby can deliver close to 25 tons to LKO, and still have fuel to spare to make it home despite a botched reentry, as the album below demonstrates. Payload is held in the cargo bay and on side-mounted racks, a la the NERVA pods. Apologies for the multitude of pictures!

http://imgur.com/a/l3pJy

Contending for:

The Squad Distinction

The Ace Distinction

The Certified Bad-Ass Distinction (I hope doing S-turns doing reentry, missing your landing point, turning around, gliding 60km, then narrowly missing a ridge and landing on the Insular Airfield is considered pretty badass.)

EDIT: Hang on, found some pics. Guess I'm running for the Sparky Distinction as well now.

http://imgur.com/a/ULVDV

Here's the craft file for anyone who wants it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/048zulte8fxqt26/Betelgeuse.craft

Cheerio!

Well, here's the scoop:

Altitude Score: (((73.144 (Pe) + 76.698 (Ap))/2) + 600) * 0.1 = 67.4921

Payload Score: 21.18 * 100 = 2118

SOI Score: 0 (shuttle did not leave Kerbin orbit)

Total Score: 1000 (Completion) + 67.4921 (Altitude) + 2118 (Payload) = 3185.4921

Awards achieved are:

The Jebidiah Distinction: This one was difficult to decide on. I was hoping the challenge would be setup in a way to where every submission could get a "launch vehicle" award (those being the Jebidiah, Piggyback, and SSTO Distinctions). This is one of those that falls through the cracks. I am awarding the Jebidiah Distinction, since using big boosters is something he would do.

The Squad Distinction: The shuttle is made from completely stock parts.

The Ace Distinction: Jeb drove.

The Certified Badass Distinction: For doing S-turns doing reentry, missing your landing point, turning around, gliding 60km, then narrowly missing a ridge and landing on the Insular Airfield, all without pulling a Sparky, we think.

The Sparky Award: The shuttle crashed and burned.

[Cakeofruit]

Here is my entry for this challenge

This mission was very long mainly because my shuttle is design for LKO

(not so much fuel and almost 1600 of monopropellant) and a had to make it twice due to a major fail on the landing gears that could support the landing ( even the smoothest) the black box reveal that the crash maybe came from the floppy landing gear syndrom , the mission II was a success and we even put a heavier payload in orbit.

The goal is to bring the payload to minmus and back.( i didn’t understand the SOI score but my payload is still in the cargo bay at mün but we deliver it in one piece at minmus)

My shuttle use B9, KW, and my install is with DeadlyR and FAR.

I started my shuttle madness after a episode of interstellar quest (from Scott Manley).

I’ve built at first small shuttle ( 1-2 tons) and try bigger and bigger but it’s started to be really hard to balance so large shuttle without extra gimbal engine ( like in the awesome shuttle engine mod ) this craft is the bigger i have built

so this craft is call orbiter 4.2000 ( 4 is the version, 2000 stand for the mod Graphotron 2000 before it was 23 the number of "small" rebuilding).

Javascript is disabled. View full album

I had to use a lot of gravity slingshot to do this mission to get to minmus and to have a descent reentry, i didn’t know that refueling was allowed so it all in one go.

i could maybe going out of kerbin SOI with refueling and small tweak to use the external fuel tank as a big reserve of fuel ( like a i beam and some docking mechanism ) and then refuel the craft at minmus or the mün.

i could go a lot more far with some extra 20k of fuel.

I thinks the payload score should be link tho the altitude were it's deploy (like score =(mass*semi-major)/ some realistic number)

EDIT : forgot the points

1000 for the entry

4336 for the payload

for the SOI and the altitude i don't know if it's (2070 and 5900) or because i did't leave any payload on mün orbit ( 1070 and 4700)

so 13306 or 11106 !

Edited June 15, 2014 by Cakeofruit

[Northstar1989]

-The SOI score only comes into play if you deliver a payload to another celestial body. This score is based on the delta-v required to reach the target celestial body. A higher score is awarded if you can deliver your payload to the surface of another celestial body, though you still need to get the shuttle back to the KSC runway. The scores rewarded for visiting other celestial bodies is listed below:

Mun: 1070

Mun – Landed: 1710

Minmus: 1000

Minmus – Landed: 1240

Sun: 950

Moho: 3880

Moho – Landed: 5280

Eeloo: 4200

Eeloo – Landed: 5040

Eve: 2340

Eve – Landed: 14340

Gilly: 4200

Gilly – Landed: 4235

Duna: 1430

Duna – Landed: 2810

Ike: 1810

Ike – Landed: 2345

Dres: 2100

Dres- Landed: 2655

Jool: 4545

Laythe: 6925

Laythe – Landed: 9725

Vall: 7305

Vall – Landed: 8485

Tylo: 7675

Tylo – Landed: 10745

Bop: 7945

Bop – Landed: 8201

Pol: 7945

Pol – Landing: 8125

@Raven

I would like to suggest a new set of SOI values- the Krag's Planet Factory mod ones!

Specifically, the ones from the stable Master version (does not include the Sirius/Barry additional star systems). That is, Sentar, Inaccessible, Ascension, and Ablate.

For reference, it takes 6-7 km/s to reach the Sentar system... (the Saturn analogue- it even has rings!)

Also, what about players using Real Solar System? That would GREATLY up the difficulty level- it takes more Delta-V with that mod to reach the Moon from the surface that it does to reach Sentar from Kerbin's surface... And don't even get me started on if you run it alongside Krag's Planet Factory to have a Saturn analogue in the game.

Perhaps a special Distinction and Scoreboard entry just for people playing with RSS?

Regards,

Northstar

Edited June 15, 2014 by Northstar1989

[palioxis1248]

Gee thanks! But I see you didn't count the extra NERVA pod... In any case, thanks a bunch for the awesome challenge and the awesome score!

[Raven.]

@Raven

I would like to suggest a new set of SOI values- the Krag's Planet Factory mod ones!

Specifically, the ones from the stable Master version (does not include the Sirius/Barry additional star systems). That is, Sentar, Inaccessible, Ascension, and Ablate.

For reference, it takes 6-7 km/s to reach the Sentar system... (the Saturn analogue- it even has rings!)

Also, what about players using Real Solar System? That would GREATLY up the difficulty level- it takes more Delta-V with that mod to reach the Moon from the surface that it does to reach Sentar from Kerbin's surface... And don't even get me started on if you run it alongside Krag's Planet Factory to have a Saturn analogue in the game.

Perhaps a special Distinction and Scoreboard entry just for people playing with RSS?

Regards,

Northstar

I'll definitely take a look at it. If you can get me the delta-v values I'll get that set up and added into the challenge.

Gee thanks! But I see you didn't count the extra NERVA pod... In any case, thanks a bunch for the awesome challenge and the awesome score!

Oops! Get me the weight of the extra NERVA pod and I'll get your score corrected, you should definitely get credit for that.

[Mark Nutt]

Not bad. First shuttle to make it to Eve. Here's the scoop:

Altitude Score: 8415.9286, because the shuttle hit Kerbin escape velocity (semi-major axis of the edge of Kerbin SOI was used)

Payload Score: 1.11 * 100 = 111

SOI Score: 2340 for delivering to Eve orbit.

Total Score: 1000 (Completion) + 8415.9286 (Altitude) + 111 (Payload) + 2340 (SOI) = 11866.9286

I appreciate you running this challenge, and I don't mean to complain, but do I not get any points for landing on Gilly?

Also, does the Eve Distinction require that the payload return from the surface of Eve? I might have read it wrong, but I thought that I just had to deliver the payload to Eve, and have the shuttle make it home.