Kerbal Shuttle Challenge

[Northstar1989]

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.

Delta-V would take some seriously hard math (which I'm really not familiar with). But here are the mass, radius, sidereal rotation period, Semi-Major Axis, inclination, and eccentricity values for each planet, which should give you a rough idea:

Ablate

mass = 8.94276895415044 E^18 kg

radius = 13 km

sidereal rotation period = 159300.265559099 seconds (2655 minutes- I *think* that's tidally-locked to the Sun)

SMA = 910,000 km

eccentricity = 0

inclination = 5.0 degrees

Ascension

mass = 1.90144081510339 E^19 kg

radius = 14 km

sidereal rotation period = 4040 seconds (67.3 minutes)

SMA = 100,000,000 km

eccentricity = 0.97

inclination = 19.0 degrees

Inaccessible

mass = 3.96868444710818 E^18 kg

radius = 15 km

sidereal rotation period = 440 seconds (7.33 minutes- NO THAT'S NOT A JOKE)

SMA = 125,000,000 km

eccentricity = 0.01

inclination = 2.0 degrees

Sentar

mass = 5.09314680671058 E^23 kg

radius = 6,000 km

sidereal rotation period = 36,000 seconds (10 hours)

SMA = 160,000,000 km

eccentricity = 0

inclination = 26.0 degrees

Skelton (Moon of Sentar)

mass = 4.51548115036107 E^21 kg (identical to Duna)

radius = 320 km (identical to Duna)

sidereal rotation period = 65517.859375 seconds (18.2 hours- identical to Duna)

SMA = 50,000 km (from Sentar)

eccentricity = 0

inclination = 160.0 degrees (yes, that's an inclined retrograde orbit)

atmosphere: sort of (3 atmospheres THICK at sea-level in the valleys, but does not reach to the top of the mountains)

oceans: no

Erin (Moon of Sentar)

mass = 2.9397663009231 E^22 kg (identical to Laythe)

radius = 500 km (identical to Laythe)

sidereal rotation period = 21600 seconds (6 hours- much faster than Laythe)

SMA = 80,000 km (from Sentar)

eccentricity = 0

inclination = 15.0 degrees

atmosphere: yes (probably oxygenated)

oceans: yes (like Laythe)

Pock (Moon of Erin- yes, that's a moon of a moon)

(coming soon)

Ringle (Moon of Sentar)

mass = 4.23326347332927E+22

radius = 600 km

sidereal rotation period = 491383.972112887 seconds (136.50 hours- darn that's slow!)

SMA = 120,000 km (from Sentar)

eccentricity = 0

inclination = 15.0 degrees

atmosphere: no

Thud (Moon of Sentar)

mass = 1.66155588852263 E^23 kg (that's 32.623% of the mass of the gas giant it's orbiting!)

radius = 600 km

sidereal rotation period = 1751403.30360751 seconds (20.27 days! With surface gravity that high, don't try landing here!)

SMA = 280,000 km (from Sentar)

eccentricity = 0.25

inclination = 20.0 degrees

atmosphere: no

Regards,

Northstar

Edited June 25, 2014 by Northstar1989

[Raven.]

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.

You only get credit for the landing if you deliver a payload to the surface with the shuttle. All scores are based on the delivered payload. The altitude score is essentially how high the payload was delivered, the payload score is the weight of the payload, and the SOI score is where the payload was placed; it all revolves around the delivered payload. The shuttle itself must deliver the payload; it doesn't count if the payload de-orbits itself. Your shuttle delivered a single payload (as far as I could tell from the screenshots) to Eve orbit, not Eve surface. You see now why the point value for an Eve landing is through the roof, and why I made a distinction just solely for this achievement, as this is not easy to do.

The Eve distinction does not require that the payload return with the shuttle; just the shuttle needs to return.

Hope this helps, and sorry for the confusion.

[Mark Nutt]

Ah, I see. That makes sense.

[mojobojo]

Auuugh, I forgot to get my final AP and PE again! Bah here is the mission anyway, I don't feel like doing the entire mission again. I got into a 10km orbit around Minimus. I updated to the latest mod packs and had to redo the launch system because Novapunch removed the SRBs that I was using. I also learned that Ferram Aerospace now breaks apart your ship through high G loads. I am going to post up a thread and share this shuttle with everybody, maybe make a how to video on launching and landing the thing too.

EDIT: Download the craft file here!

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited June 21, 2014 by mojobojo

[immelman]

Hi there! Can I enter my all stock parts (apart from deadly re-entry) shuttle for this challenge?

Dropped off a full flt-200 tank in Mun orbit and then landed back at the KSC:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited June 21, 2014 by immelman

[Northstar1989]

@Raven

I posted the info for all the planet's in Krag's Planet Factory except Pock (which I can't seem to find the data for anywhere out-of-game, but it's a moon of Erin a lot like Pol).

Take a look at it, and see what you come up with.

Regards,

Northstar

[Damaske]

I have a shuttle in the development that combines the launch system of the Super 25 Kerbal shuttle orbital system and the parts of Lack Luster labs. It is still in the prototype stages with only last night making a full launch into space with no cargo. Now comes the harder part the return to kerbal space center. I've only made the shuttle and rocket and not done much glide testing due to how the KSO super 25 fuel tanks needs to be made and hooked up. I am sure that i'll be able to get some pictures up soonâ„¢ of my shuttle.

The Mass Key Shipyards

Damaske

[General Rarity]

Sorry, imgur albums don't really like my internet speed. So I'm using spoilers instead

'Titan' WInged REentry Vehicle, or Titan WIREV. It can bring a 1.2 ton fuel tank into a 600km by 600km orbit with about a third of its fuel remaining.

At the end, my vertical stabilizers popped because of the launchpad... 3000 meters up. Because of this, my shuttle wasn't stable at the end and partially landed. I will re-try the shuttle when I have the time.

Mods used: Procedural Parts, Procedural Wings, Procedural Fairings, and mechjeb.

Score(s): +1000, for challenge. I did successfully land before, but that mission brought a >1 ton sat into an 80 km orbit.

So, if I have this right.. (617.23+607.348)/2 + 600 = 1212.289 x .1 = 121.2289

1.2 ton payload x 100 = 120(payload) + 121(altitude) + 1000(challenge) = 1241 points.

Awards: Piggyback, Highflier, Predator, Sparky (?)

Please correct me if I'm wrong. It was really fun designing a shuttle.

[Kaa253]

I have a whole fleet of shuttle designs. I really enjoy making and flying them. Dtobi's space shuttle engines mod has to be one of my favourite mods for KSP. Most of my shuttles/lifting bodies are only designed for transporting Kerbals and do not carry payloads as such. As I use FAR and Deadly Re-entry I like to use winged craft because you can fly accurately back to the launch pad on return to Kerbin. With FAR it is pretty difficult to predict where capsule craft will actually land.

For this challenge I have put together a flight mission of the "KSTS V" piggyback style shuttle, which does have a cargo capacity and a crew compliment of 3. I was getting a bit bored with the payload bays in B9 so this one uses a payload bay from Talisar's Cargo Transport Solutions mod to be a bit different. The mission delivered a long duration Command Service Module type craft with mass of over 10 tonnes to Minmus orbit. No refuelling stops were made after launch.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Mods used: FAR, DRE, B9 Aerospace, Procedural Dynamics, Cargo Transport Solutions, Spherical & Toroidal Tanks Pack, Space shuttle Engines, AIES Aerospace, SXT, KW Rocketry, Procedural Parts, MechJeb, Smart Parts & Real Chutes.

Thanks very much for setting an interesting and entertaining challenge.

Cheers, Kaa

[palioxis1248]

A 100-ton payload SSTO is in the works! Hopefully I can get it on here soon!

[MelancholyFlapper]

I took a bunch of screens of my shuttle when I did this challenge, but I forgot to grab map view screens because I'm a huge ditz. Is it acceptable if I show it in orbit and landed on each of the bodies I went to (the mun, Minmus, and an RDV with a captured asteroid midway between the two)? I'll post them if it still works. I'm going to school for film/photography currently, so I was focused a bit much on taking nice screens of the shuttle, oops. I should really get Kerbcam sometime.

[MelancholyFlapper]

http://imgur.com/a/HMAfP/

Here it is!

[Kaa253]

http://imgur.com/a/HMAfP/

Here it is!

Beautiful bird you got there! Great screenshots and a nice asteroid rendezvous as well.

[Bit_reaper]

I didn't build this shuttle for this challenge so it has no payload capability but I though I share it with you guys none the less.

Behold, Kerbterprice. The 0.35 all stock US shuttle approximation. Only boosters for lift assist and the main engines run off the big tank only just like on the real thing. It also has enough fuel for the orbital maneuvering engines to get to an space station in low kerbin orbit and de-orbit for an KSC landing.

I got an bigger and even more realistic shuttle that makes use of the ARM parts but so far I have not been able to make it preform well. It gets into orbit but is a real pita to fly and its forced to make use of the on board fuel just to make orbit leaving practically nothing for actual orbital maneuvering.

Edited July 15, 2014 by Bit_reaper

[MelancholyFlapper]

Beautiful bird you got there! Great screenshots and a nice asteroid rendezvous as well.

Thank you! It flies like a brick, though. The line between "smash into ground vertically" and "smash into ground at an angle" was razor thin, on descent I was going too fast to land when I had velocity to not plummet, and when I was going a reasonable speed, I went kerplunk, so it took a lot of trial and error to land at KSC's strip as opposed to using the chutes and drifting to the ground vertically.

Oh, in case it wasn't clear from the screenshots, the payload was 1.6 tons for that big tour, left on the Mun's surface.

[Tsynique]

Omega Shuttle (Unmanned)

Fully reusable SSTO spacecraft that lands on a runway and has about 150 km. range of atmospheric flight. Uses 4xRAPIER engines. All stock (except MechJeb + Engineering Redux). Can takeoff from a runway if fueled only with jet fuel. I use this to build space stations above Kerbin. Also, have a manned version with lower payload capacity for small orbital operations like saving kerbals from orbit.

[table=width: 500, class: grid, align: left]

[tr]

[td]Max Payload to LKO[/td]

[td]5 tons[/td]

[/tr]

[tr][td]Cost of craft (fully fueled)[/td][td]39968.00 √[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Refund after this launch[/td][td]38096.36 √[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Launch cost if all fuel is burned[/td][td]2076.00 √[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Launch cost of this launch[/td][td]1871.64 √[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Cost of this launch[/td][td]1871.64 √[/td][/tr]

[tr][td]Cost of 1 ton to orbit[/td][td]374.328 √[/td][/tr]

[/table]

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[jonatron5]

Now im a veteran ksp player here and I love tackling ssto and resuable vehicles. But without gimbiling those shuttle engines I dont see how you ballance theshuttle on the lfos.

I mean the shuttle screwd the center of mass wayoff the center of thrust. So you have to counter that exactly with the correct ammount of offcenter thryst on the shuttle engines wich means since your throttle is on your main engines too. You must be running it full throttle and using the thrust limiter to steer it bkac on track?

Am I right or is there another trick to it?

[Tsynique]

Now im a veteran ksp player here and I love tackling ssto and resuable vehicles. But without gimbiling those shuttle engines I dont see how you ballance theshuttle on the lfos.

I mean the shuttle screwd the center of mass wayoff the center of thrust. So you have to counter that exactly with the correct ammount of offcenter thryst on the shuttle engines wich means since your throttle is on your main engines too. You must be running it full throttle and using the thrust limiter to steer it bkac on track?

Am I right or is there another trick to it?

Reducing thrust on the off-center engines is one way to do it but another way (maybe there are more but that's all I know) is to borrow the idea from NASA and mount the orbiter engines slightly at an angle, so that the thrust vector points to the center of mass. Of course, due to fuel burn the center of mass will move but not too much if done right and standard engine gimbal should fix that. Those who designed a staged NASA-like shuttle could probably tell you more.

[panzerknoef]

Here's my entry: the SpaceTruck

A craft that uses two external booster parts, they offer the same amount of thrust, so no suicidal flips. The orbiter itself finishes the insertion and does the circularization. For this challenge i took an example satellite with me, otherwise complete worthless but it shows that my shuttle can lift some. The satellite weighs in at 11.58tons. The orbit I achieved was only a 150x150km orbit due to the fact thatn my shuttle is designed for LKO's. And since i use up all my fuel for deorbiting, everything from on there was gliding, i always do this though.

So for the points, if i did eerything right here, i get:

semi major axis: (((150.978+150.659)/2)+600)*0.1= 75.0823

SOI score: 0

Payload: 11.58tons so that's 1158points

and the 1000 point completion bonus

===> that gives me 2233.0823

here are some pictures

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited July 31, 2014 by panzerknoef