Best dV in LKO with SSTO - no jets, no ions, no flapping

[James_Eh]

Having beaten myself silly proving that the maths seem to be correct regarding Eve SSTOs, I am proposing a new challenge. I have scrolled back through challenges started since the last few updates and haven't seen anything similar so I hope this interests at least a few folks.

Build a stock rocket. No fancy jet engines, no fancy ions. No fancy staging. (To be clear - liquid-fuel powered SSTO.) Establish LKO. Report your remaining dV. Really, that's it.

What fun! No tedious waiting for your ion glider to run out of sun! No laborious spaceplane ascents! KSP to the core!!!!

Note - let's just state up front that this is for unmanned rockets only, although if somebody wants to stick anything other than a lightweight pod onto the craft, feel free...

Obviously, pix of crafts in LKO will be required, or videos, or whatnot.

OTHER RESTRICTIONS:

- no control surfaces of any kind (don't want any issues with infini-glide)

- no other obvious cheating with other k-drives, infinite fuel, etc

- wings are allowed unless somebody tells me why this is a bad idea

- as far as mods go, I'm thinking there need to be two categories for FAR/no FAR. Aside from that, it would be very helpful if you had either MJ or KER to show the dV in the display, otherwise your remaining dV will have to be calculated by hand. Other mods which don't offer any performance improvements to stock parts (and don't introduce better parts) are fine.

I have personally been surprised by how much oomph you can wind up with in LKO with a well-designed and flown SSTO rocket. I hope others point the way to even better results! (PS - I firmly believe that this is not simply a spreadsheet exercise. There are things you can do during ascent re: engine thrust balances which can dramatically improve your results.)

(leaderboards to be posted here)

[ihtoit]

oh... well, with a pad weight of 1.077t, my standard probe launcher has 40 static solar panels, a radio mast, 4 1k batteries, lightweight stock SAS unit, flat okto core, fl-t100 tank and Super Atomic rocket by Luvodicus, that thing has over 11km/s dV on the pad. It can get lots of places. Yanno, one of these days I'll have to put up a pic or three.

[James_Eh]

and Super Atomic rocket by Luvodicus.

I'd think that might be the disqualifier here...

[mhoram]

A quick entry with 3183 m/s in orbit.

There is more possible ;-)

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[ihtoit]

I'd think that might be the disqualifier here...

why? It's a dV challenge, not a TWR challenge. dV depends not on the engine, I use the Luvodicus because it's ridiculously fuel efficient.

[James_Eh]

A quick entry with 3183 m/s in orbit.

There is more possible ;-)

<sniff> It's lovely!

I suppose I should throw my current entry in. I couldn't stay away from the 23.5 engine due to the massive TWR. But the 2.5m tanks have a better fuel:mass ratio, so I wound up with this. 4036 dV left to play with!

[KotDemopan]

why? It's a dV challenge, not a TWR challenge. dV depends not on the engine, I use the Luvodicus because it's ridiculously fuel efficient.

Aren't these alot of Rockomax 48-7S-es, along with one LV-N Atomic Rocket Motor?

Edit: NVM wrong rocket

[EdFred]

What part of stock did you not understand?

And dV DOES depend on the engine. Heard of ISP?

Edited August 9, 2014 by EdFred

[Sensi]

Upping a bit the ante : 4503 m/s

[EdFred]

Do all engines have to be ignited at launch?

[GoSlash27]

I only have 3 SSTO variants in my hangar, and all of them are "practical" types (not optimized for this challenge).

#1 the cheap career mode SSTO

#2 the Tylo Rover 5.0 SS: Designed to land on the surface and act as a crawler/ transport/ assembly vehicle and also...

#3 the Tylo rover 5.0 SS in RV configuration: A pair of rovers linked to a payload (such as the personnel pod shown here) to return it to orbit.

I haven't bothered figuring out the residual DV in these, but it's not much. Maybe 300 m/sec or so.

Best,

-Slashy

[Climberfx]

Upping a bit the ante : 4503 m/s

http://i.imgur.com/DB4HNB8.jpg

Sensi, you did orbit with a lot of dV, thanks the Atomic, but that wouldn't be practical. 0.03 of TWR. Ow My God!. Would take a eternity to do anything. But good work.

[MarvinKitFox]

What part of stock did you not understand?

And dV DOES depend on the engine. Heard of ISP?

Shh!

talk like that gonna get you banned, too.

[Jett_Quasar]

This is a stock SSTO that I built. I was able to get it into a 111 by 117KM orbit with 8500 liquid fuel left. I don't use mods so I don't know what that translates into dV but it's extremely cool.

The view from inside the ship. I just thought this picture was fun...

I anyone is interested I'll post the full slideshow of the launch, as well as the craft file so you can try it out for yourself.

JR

EDIT: I did a test and got 1700m/s DV from LKO.

Edited August 13, 2015 by Jolly_Roger

[Sensi]

Sensi, you did orbit with a lot of dV, thanks the Atomic, but that wouldn't be practical. 0.03 of TWR. Ow My God!. Would take a eternity to do anything. But good work.

Heh, I'm not in a hurry to go anywhere, but you're right.

I bet that the winner of this challenge will have a TWR of 0.01 or less.

[Jetwave]

This is a stock SSTO that I built. I was able to get it into a 111 by 117KM orbit with 8500 liquid fuel left. I don't use mods so I don't know what that translates into dV but it's extremely cool.

http://i.imgur.com/mB01xMQ.png

Taking off from KSP; I messed up on the navigation but other than that a clean launch. There are 11 KR 2L main engines and 12 nuclear. I hit the nukes at about 5000m and cut off the mains once I hit a peak altitude of 75KKm. Hot key 1 is to toggle the mains, 2 is for the nukes and 3 is for the comm array.

http://i.imgur.com/34oCTtj.png

It's a large ship, holds about 40 Kerbals, but Lodbas was the only on on this flight

http://i.imgur.com/wYiLEHN.png

Here are the stats once I got in orbit...

http://i.imgur.com/t3rgu8P.png

The view from inside the ship. I just thought this picture was fun...

I anyone is interested I'll post the full slideshow of the launch, as well as the craft file so you can try it out for yourself.

JR

That looks awesome!

[GeckoOBac]

This is a stock SSTO that I built. I was able to get it into a 111 by 117KM orbit with 8500 liquid fuel left. I don't use mods so I don't know what that translates into dV but it's extremely cool.

http://i.imgur.com/mB01xMQ.png

Taking off from KSP; I messed up on the navigation but other than that a clean launch. There are 11 KR 2L main engines and 12 nuclear. I hit the nukes at about 5000m and cut off the mains once I hit a peak altitude of 75KKm. Hot key 1 is to toggle the mains, 2 is for the nukes and 3 is for the comm array.

http://i.imgur.com/34oCTtj.png

It's a large ship, holds about 40 Kerbals, but Lodbas was the only on on this flight

http://i.imgur.com/wYiLEHN.png

Here are the stats once I got in orbit...

http://i.imgur.com/t3rgu8P.png

The view from inside the ship. I just thought this picture was fun...

I anyone is interested I'll post the full slideshow of the launch, as well as the craft file so you can try it out for yourself.

JR

I logged in just to say that this is the most awesome thing I've ever seen in this forum. AMAZING model... And functional too!

[faeschi]

I gave my standard Career Mode Lifter a quick spin. I normally drop the SRBS but its supposed to be SSTO

Its return capable for money efficiency.

Ended Up with 1625ms Delta V in a stable Orbit.

Edited August 10, 2014 by faeschi

[GoSlash27]

This is a stock SSTO that I built. I was able to get it into a 111 by 117KM orbit with 8500 liquid fuel left. I don't use mods so I don't know what that translates into dV but it's extremely cool.

http://i.imgur.com/mB01xMQ.png

Taking off from KSP; I messed up on the navigation but other than that a clean launch. There are 11 KR 2L main engines and 12 nuclear. I hit the nukes at about 5000m and cut off the mains once I hit a peak altitude of 75KKm. Hot key 1 is to toggle the mains, 2 is for the nukes and 3 is for the comm array.

http://i.imgur.com/34oCTtj.png

It's a large ship, holds about 40 Kerbals, but Lodbas was the only on on this flight

http://i.imgur.com/wYiLEHN.png

Here are the stats once I got in orbit...

http://i.imgur.com/t3rgu8P.png

The view from inside the ship. I just thought this picture was fun...

I anyone is interested I'll post the full slideshow of the launch, as well as the craft file so you can try it out for yourself.

JR

You are part of the rebel alliance and a traitor!

[cantab]

More of a proof-of-concept than a proper entry here, 1315 m/s with just an LV-N.

You could take this approach legitimately by driving to a suitable launch site, I just did it the lazy way. With the chemical engines the improvement won't be as pronounced, but still might well make a fair difference.

[Jett_Quasar]

They've shut down the main reactor... there'll be no escape for the princess this time!

I'm glad you guys like the Hammerhead, it's cool and all but I'm nowhere being the front runner on this challenge. Mhoram has the right idea, it's not just about TWR, you do need that to get into orbit but it's more about efficiency. I'm working on something that will do a good job on delta V but won't be so flashy; in the mean time here's the rest of the story on the Hammerhead.

JR

Edited August 13, 2015 by Jolly_Roger

[Damaske]

This is a stock SSTO that I built. I was able to get it into a 111 by 117KM orbit with 8500 liquid fuel left. I don't use mods so I don't know what that translates into dV but it's extremely cool.

http://i.imgur.com/mB01xMQ.png

Taking off from KSP; I messed up on the navigation but other than that a clean launch. There are 11 KR 2L main engines and 12 nuclear. I hit the nukes at about 5000m and cut off the mains once I hit a peak altitude of 75KKm. Hot key 1 is to toggle the mains, 2 is for the nukes and 3 is for the comm array.

http://i.imgur.com/34oCTtj.png

It's a large ship, holds about 40 Kerbals, but Lodbas was the only on on this flight

http://i.imgur.com/wYiLEHN.png

Here are the stats once I got in orbit...

http://i.imgur.com/t3rgu8P.png

The view from inside the ship. I just thought this picture was fun...

I anyone is interested I'll post the full slideshow of the launch, as well as the craft file so you can try it out for yourself.

JR

DUDE! That is really NICE! A blockade runner from Starwars! I would really like to acquire the craft file for that to add to my collection of craft that seams to grow weekly heh. Have you thought about trying to paint it up with Kerbel paint?

EDIT: GHA i have been ninja'ed !

[Jett_Quasar]

I just posted it, I don't use any mods of any kind. I like to keep it stock so I can easily share with everybody. If you want you can go ahead and paint it up or change it however you want as long as you credit me for the original design. Oh and if you make any money on it I want my cut - right after Lucas gets his that is...

JR

[James_Eh]

Upping a bit the ante : 4503 m/s

Hmmm... now I realize that this challenge is a bit flawed. I had assumed that LV-N's would need to be part of the ascent phase, but since that is clearly not the case, this just becomes a contest to see who can get the most fuel into orbit with 1 LV-N attached. Chalk it up to my lack of practice with the 23.5 parts...

[ihtoit]

Pretty much stock, 4370m/s dV to 70x70 orbit. Also my contender entry for the smallest SSTO challenge: