Laythe Cruise Line Challenge (100% Re-usable SSTLAB with 10 passengers)

[TechniCali]

Laythe Cruise Line Challenge (100% Re-usable SSTLAB with 10 passengers)

Following up on my previous Munar Cruise Line Challenge, it's time to step it up a notch. The mission is now to build a sustainable, 100% re-usable luxury “cruise line†that can take a large number of Kerbal tourists from KSC to the surface of Laythe and back without shedding any stages/equipment, and ideally without refueling at all. SSTLAB (Single Stage to Laythe and Back). Remember, the spirit of this challenge is to create a luxury cruise line experience.

Once again, I am pretty happy with my results but have room to improve. Below are the rules and scoring system and the results I acheived with my the cruise line. I'll aim to keep the leaderboard updated on the front page of this post. Please score yourself with your own post following my format below. Here's my craft file with MechJeb and non MJ versions (you'll also need SpacePlane Plus)

Rules and (Scoring)

• The Love Boat (+200): This is a cruise line – carry at least 10 passengers to the surface of Laythe and back, to allow for proper socializing along the way. +200 points if you can make it happen.
  
• The More, The Merrier (+20 points per additional Kerbal to Laythe surface and back)
  
• No Malarkey: Luxury cruise line passengers do not want to spend a ~7 year journey to Laythe in an external command seat – they want to spend it in a luxurious cabin. Kerbals who are forced to hang on outside don't count toward the total number of passengers.
  
• Home Airport (+30): Land back at KSC
  
• 100% re-usable (+200) : Return with everything you brought with you except fuel, oxidizer and monpropellant. A cruise line can't afford a new ship for each cruise.
  
• Fully Intact (+100): No staging, including use of docked craft as landing craft or interplanetary transfer stages (even if you re-dock and land back at KSC with them). This is a luxury Cruise Ship, not a series of municipal buses.
  
• Gas Stations Suck (+100): No refueling in-flight – luxury cruise line passengers don't want to hang around space stations.
  
• 100% re-usable refueling (+50): Failing the above goal, refuel using only 100% reusable craft so that you don't discard refueler ship parts to refuel your SSTLAB.
  
• Stock Boy (+25): Use only stock parts.
  
• Mods: You may use mods, but none that give an advantage in achieving the mission vs. stock parts. For reference, I used PorkJet's excellent SpacePlane Plus to get access to a nice looking passenger compartment and make the craft look like a beautiful luxury liner, but don't think it gives a significant advantage vs. Hitchhiker containers in terms of performance. Points will be deducted at my discretion as informed by the opinion of the forum if it appears you got a significant non-stock advantage.
  
• We have the schematics! (+10) Post your .craft file.
  
• Are we there yet? (+50 per year under 10) Post a total MET (Mission Elapsed Time) of less than 10 years. + 50 points for each full year below 10.
  
• No cheating: Obviously this means no hacks, physics exploits, etc. However, it also means no clipping exploits that allow multiple air intakes to be stacked on top of one another. Violation of this rule is the only one that means zero points. Saving and loading are fine, though.
  
• Living in Luxury: As this is a luxury cruise liner, you should make it as elegant and beautiful as possible. No points since this is subjective, but the forum will judge you!
  

Leaderboard:

TechniCali (Second attempt): 1,115 points

TechniCali (first attempt): 740 points

Results From My Cruise Line:

TOTAL SCORE: 740

SUCCESSES:

• The Love Boat (+200)
  
• Home Airport (+30)
  
• 100% re-usable (+200)
  
• Fully Intact (+100)
  
• 100% re-usable refueling (+50)
  
• We have the schematics! (+10)
  
• Are we there yet? (+150) 6 years, 70 days
  

FAILURES:

• Stock Boy (0): Use only stock parts.
  
• Gas Stations Suck (0): No refueling in-flight – luxury cruise line passengers don't want to hang around space stations.
  
• The More, The Merrier (0)
  

I am super close to no refueling – I had 2208 deltav left when re-entering Kerbin, and my in-Kerbin orbit refuel on the way out only filled me up with 2339 deltav. So, that's the next acheivement I'm going to aim for.

Craft File:

Here's my craft file with MechJeb and non MJ versions (you'll also need SpacePlane Plus)

Now for the fun part: Here's how my adventure went. The scariest part was re-entering Kerbin's atmosphere at Mach 34.

Takeoff from KSC:

Docking:

Once in LKO, I launched a sister 100% re-usable cruise liner (identical except for a docking port in the nose) to dock and transfer fuel

On to Jool

The burn for Jool was about 2,000 m/s of delta v, and I was lucky enough to get a Jool-less direct encounter with Laythe, saving a lot of maneuvering fuel.

Laythe Aerobraking:

Landing at Laythe:

Group photo of the 10 passengers!

Laythe Takeoff:

HOLY CRAP:

My encounter with Kerbin on return only required a very small amount of deltav - about 1,100 to burn and 200 to correct. However, I was travelling at well in excess of 11,000 m/s when I got to Kerbin and had a very tough time holding the ship together at Mach 34 in the aerobraking

The crew had a dream that the wings fell off during poor piloting on return at 20,000. Good thing it was just a dream, and they could learn from the experience and pilot it correctly on the real run:

KSC final approach:

All 10 of my boys after a 6 year, 70 day mission:

Operation Instructions:

Hotkeys:

1: Rapier engines group 1 toggle on/off

2: Rapier engines group 2 toggle on/off

3: Jet engines group 1 toggle on/off

4: Jet engines group 1 toggle on/off

5: Switch Rapier modes

6: Toggle main on-wing circular intakes (structural intakes are always open)

7: Toggle rear “tailstrike prevention†gear (raise it before takeoff)

8: Turn on main cabin lights

9: Deploy solar panels

0: Nuclear Engines toggle on/off

Press spacebar, then press 6 to close intakes to limit drag. Raise the rear landing gear for takeoff. Ascend at a 50 degree angle to 15,000, and then climb at a 30 degree angle. Start leveling out more and more as you climb towards 30,000, opening intakes when needed to prevent flame outs. Around 1,900 m/s and 31,000, press 3 and 4 to turn off the 8 jet engines to allow more air for the remaining Rapier jets. Later, turn the rapiers on rocket mode with 5, and re-enable 1 group of jet engines. Finally, turn off the jets, kick on the nukes, and turn off the rapiers when their thrust is no longer necessary.

Edited July 16, 2014 by TechniCali

[apex-prey]

So I was just thinking when on a crews it gos to ports and ferrys come get people and take them to the islands if you think about it like that then the space stations would be ports planits the islands and docking and landing craft the ferrys

[TechniCali]

So I was just thinking when on a crews it gos to ports and ferrys come get people and take them to the islands if you think about it like that then the space stations would be ports planits the islands and docking and landing craft the ferrys

Sure, but that reduces the challenge here. You can still do it, but you'll lose out on 100 points.

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

It would seem to make sense to have a space station in orbit around one of the Joolian Moons - Tylo is prime, as it requires the least dV to travel to the other moons from, and is not too difficult to get an intercept for (being about the same mass and gravity as Kerbin).

A space station would also double as refuel depot, meaning you can make even more beautiful looking planes... and have smaller excursion vessels to visit particular moons, or maybe even to dip into Jool's atmosphere... could be the next step up of the challenge though!

Surprised there hasn't been an intermediate challenge to say, Duna or somewhere... you have jumped from Mun/Minmus to Laythe, which is a pretty big step up in difficulty!

Might give this a go once I've finished my Jool-5 challenge and done your SSTMaB challenge...

[Overfloater]

Heh... I happened to have just that kind of craft, consists of 11 crew, only 1 has to be a pilot.

And I get a whole 0 points, due to maniacal intake-spamming & flap-spamming inside the plane's body! x-P

[TechniCali]

Heh... I happened to have just that kind of craft, consists of 11 crew, only 1 has to be a pilot.

http://youtu.be/NmfvsNFziF4

And I get a whole 0 points, due to maniacal intake-spamming & flap-spamming inside the plane's body! x-P

Intake spamming is fine in the sense of using a ridiculous amount of intakes. What's forbidden is using clipping tricks to put intakes on top of each other in such a way that they collide with each other.

[apex-prey]

I was just thinking in an rp kind of way if I was a rich kirbal i would want to stay at a sweet orbiting resort

[TechniCali]

I DID IT!

I finally managed to get a fully stock craft that also does not require refueling, and got 25 Kerbals to Laythe! See the details in this post in the main forum!

My updated score:

Results From My Cruise Line:

TOTAL SCORE: 1,115

SUCCESSES:

The Love Boat (+200)

Home Airport (+30)

100% re-usable (+200)

Fully Intact (+100)

Stock Boy (25): Use only stock parts.

Gas Stations Suck (100): No refueling in-flight – luxury cruise line passengers don't want to hang around space stations.

The More, The Merrier (20*15 = 300)

100% re-usable refueling (0)

We have the schematics! (+10)

Are we there yet? (+150) 6 years, 77 days

FAILURES:

• None!