The Crew Taxi Challenge

[K3achas]

Story:Kerbals were allways were going up on rockets. These rockets were being constantly redesigned. However, one day Wherner Von Kerman decided he would retire. As such there was a need for a simple, reliable rocket and crew shuttle to ferry crew.

Rules:You must design a rocket or spaceplane capible of bringing a crew to orbit.

The crew must be able to return from orbit.

No hacks or cheats (you know what I mean)

Edit:8/15/14- It must have a TWR above .1 (on kerbin) to count towards the triangle v score.

Scoring:

Safty first: Have an LES. +4pt

Moar safty: Plan out multiple abort modes (exept an LES:P). +3pt per mode

Crew space: Has space for more than one crew member. | +1pt Per crew member.

Much science: Has science expiriments. | +1pt per experiment (extra copies don't count)

Snacks: Use a life support mod. | +1pt per day (24 hour, what TAC uses) of life support

Burn: Use deadly reentry. | double score

Partialy Reusable: More than just the reentry capsule (and anything attached to it on reentry) is recovered. (Doesn't stack with other reusabilty bonuses) | +3pts

Mostly Reusable: Over 50% of the mass is recovered. (Doesn't stack with other reusabiltiy bonuses) | 1.5*score

Fully reusable: 100% recovered. (Doesn't stack with other reusabiltiy bonuses) | double score

Less boosters: Doesn't use radial stages. | +3pts

Spaceplane: Use wings to land. (not parachutes or engines) | +3pts

Rough landig: Land on uneaven (not polar or runway) terrain. (requires Spaceplane) | +3pts

Piggyback: Uses an asemetricaly attached stage or CSV. (like the space shuttle) | +7pts

Why piggyback when you can take off: Take off horizontily. | +3pts

Half stage: Use atlas style 1.5 staging. | +5pts

Docking compadible: Have RCS and a docking port. | +5pts

Power: Have a power generation system. | +5pts

Soft Landing: Use engines completly for landing. | +3pts

Triangle velocity: Has delta-v. | +1pt per 100m/s

Leaderboard:

1.changong: 210(For much space tourism:P)

2.Pds314: 184 pts(with far)

3.biohazard15: 129 (with NEAR, removed a point to make LES scored correctly)

4.Pecan: 74(100% stock, had applied multiplyer incorrectly)

5.Finerunner: 26(only one experiment counts)

6.

7.

Edited August 18, 2014 by K3achas

[JacobT11]

I'll definitely give this a shot when I get home.

[ihtoit]

time to resurrect my 280-crew monster.

[vat21s]

Working on something, Gotta launch a station to put them though.

[Pds314]

Ooooh... Delta-V counts toward your score you say? Well then...

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/82726-The-Gorgonops-Spaceplane-(LLL-B9-KAX-FAR-w-o-aero-failures)

As configured, it would have:

Crew space +2

Fully reausuable *2

Less boosters +3

Spaceplane +3

Why use piggybacks when you can take off +3

Power +5

Docking compatible +5

Triangle Velocity: 71.

So 2+3+3+3+5+5+71=92

92*2=184 points.

Of course, if I just replaced all of the extra Delta-V with 50 kg 3-person doors of hackery from LLL clipped into each other, I could have... 21000 Kerbals as passengers. Seriously, those doors are absolutely silly. You can fit 3 Kerbals in less mass and volume than one Kerbal would take up. Only on Ladders do Kerbals weigh less.

So 42000 is probably the best it can get.... Unless.... we pile Kerbals onto Ladders inside it. 4 Kerbals per long 5 kg ladder.... That's like, 300000 Kerbals, who would almost inevitably be eaten by the space Kraken.

If I didn't use the almighty doors of cheaty derp or the even more derpy method of cancelling their mass by putting it on a ladder and instead used lander cans, assuming I could figure out a way to fit them inside (probably with lots of clipping), I could get 600 Kg per passenger, which would allow up to 580 additional passengers.

So I might be able to get a score of ~1200 if I put in the effort.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Pds314

[Pecan]

OK then, here's mine (Chapter 7 of the tutorial if you want the details):

Moar safty: 'Abort' shutsdown engines, decouples cockpits, deploys parachutes: 3pt

Crew space: 3 crew: 3 + 3 = 6

Much science: It's got a SCANSat BTDT, does that count? 6 + 1 = 7

Fully reusable: It's a SSTO. 7 x 2 = 14

Less boosters: Doesn't use radial stages. 14 + 3 = 17.

Spaceplane: Use wings to land. (not parachutes or engines). 17 + 3 = 20.

Rough landig: Well, yeah - if you want to. 20 + 3 = 23

Why piggyback when you can take off: did that. 23 + 3 = 26.

Docking compadible: That's part of the job description. 26 + 5 = 31

Power: Battery and solar panels. 31 + 5 = 36

Triangle velocity: Has delta-v. Well it's not built for it but being over-engineered it does end-up with quite a bit. 36 + 8 = 44

[chengong]

Crew space +1

Partialy Reusable +3 (some of the tanks didn't explode)

Power +5

Triangle velocity +515

Total = 524 pts

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[K3achas]

Crew space +1

Partialy Reusable +3 (some of the tanks didn't explode)

Power +5

Triangle velocity +515

Total = 524 pts

Javascript is disabled. View full album

A TWR of 0.00 sounds like it wouldn't be vary usefull. Removing score for that part.

[chengong]

A TWR of 0.00 sounds like it wouldn't be vary usefull. Removing score for that part.

Mind you it can't be 0.00 because then there wouldn't be any delta V. And I'm pretty sure it's 0.01, And yes it is useful in that I can change my orbit all I want given enough time.

[Pds314]

Chengong... How the flip did you manage to get 51500 m/s delta-V?

Oh wow, wait, you have a giant monster of a craft which basically consists of solid xenon with an ion thruster on the back.

Note to OP: Maybe you should ban the ion engine for being so cheaty but impractical? Either that or make a minimum TWR requirement of like, 0.01 or something.

Edited August 16, 2014 by Pds314

[dbmorpher]

What I don't get is why you used Proc Fairings and didn't use a Nosecone.

[chengong]

Chengong... How the flip did you manage to get 51500 m/s delta-V?

Oh wow, wait, you have a giant monster of a craft which basically consists of solid xenon with an ion thruster on the back.

Note to OP: Maybe you should ban the ion engine for being so cheaty but impractical? Either that or make a minimum TWR requirement of like, 0.01 or something.

Could've had more but I'm running on a slow computer compared to my gaming rig.

I use a fairing to reduce aerodynamic drag at the tip of the rocket to make it more stable.

Edited August 16, 2014 by chengong

[KandoKris]

A taxi Challange ? I like it but just one I cant as I like to have lots of ways to get my crews from a to b

From Kebin to station

Crew 12 but you can add more chairs

Between stations

Blue ship attached, crew 15 - more a "jolly rodger" craft then mine. I'm yet to use as a mun base transport as I want to make a new base just for it. It just looked so cool I had to make one of my own yesturday. so I wont pertend to add it as an entry but it dose look pritty in blue.

At the momnet most my outpost crew use this 2man and do Jool crew swaps with these little things

for fun orbit rescue I use

To get crew to and from Laythe

crew 3 but can add lots of seats and 3man from Eve is this

Oh and all can land on kerbin if thats what u wanted to do with them

Edited August 16, 2014 by KandoKris

[biohazard15]

Here's my entry:

Atlas-Taurus!

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Scoring:

- Safety first (Taurus pod has an built-in LES): 5 pts

- Crew space: Taurus holds 7 Kerbals: 6 pts

- Much science (see below for full list): 15 pts

- Less boosters: 3 pts

- Half stage: it's not Atlas style, it's THE Atlas! - 5 pts

- Docking compatible: 5 pts

- Power - has circular solar panels and KW batteries - 5 pts

- Triangle velocity: 1600 m\s dV = 16 pts

- Burn (see last screenshot): score x2

Total: 120 pts

Science experiments list:

- BANANA!

- KDEX

- SCANSat Multispectral sensor

- FASA Geiger counter

- DMagic solar particle collector

- DMagic magnetometer

- DMagic telescope

- DMagic multi-spectral imaging platform

- Thermometer

- Gravmax detector

- Mystery Goo

- Materials bay

- DMagic RPWS

- SCANSat RADAR

- Orbital Research scanner (from Mission Controller Extended)

Mods used:

- NEAR

- DRE

- NovaPunch

- Taurus HCV

- Procedural fairings

- KM Special parts (for boosters)

- Various science mods (see above)

Edited August 16, 2014 by biohazard15

[K3achas]

Mind you it can't be 0.00 because then there wouldn't be any delta V. And I'm pretty sure it's 0.01, And yes it is useful in that I can change my orbit all I want given enough time.

Chengong... How the flip did you manage to get 51500 m/s delta-V?

Oh wow, wait, you have a giant monster of a craft which basically consists of solid xenon with an ion thruster on the back.

Note to OP: Maybe you should ban the ion engine for being so cheaty but impractical? Either that or make a minimum TWR requirement of like, 0.01 or something.

From first post:

Edit:8/15/14- It must have a TWR above .1 (on kerbin) to count towards the triangle v score.

[K3achas]

A taxi Challange ? I like it but just one I cant as I like to have lots of ways to get my crews from a to b

From Kebin to station http://i.imgur.com/g6Bb5WW.jpg

Crew 12 but you can add more chairs

Between stations http://i.imgur.com/X1LUN0a.jpg

Blue ship attached, crew 15 - more a "jolly rodger" craft then mine. I'm yet to use as a mun base transport as I want to make a new base just for it. It just looked so cool I had to make one of my own yesturday. so I wont pertend to add it as an entry but it dose look pritty in blue.

At the momnet most my outpost crew use this 2manhttp://i.imgur.com/EOUqRpV.jpg and do Jool crew swaps with these little thingshttp://i.imgur.com/GTlUDHk.jpg

for fun orbit rescue I use http://i.imgur.com/AMRKR7E.jpg

To get crew to and from Laythe http://i.imgur.com/MSs2hnI.jpg

crew 3 but can add lots of seats and 3man from Eve is this http://i.imgur.com/XeRESsV.jpg

Oh and all can land on kerbin if thats what u wanted to do with them

Can I have the stats on those (for scoring). I'd hate to not have those awesome craft not be on the scoreboard.

[chengong]

Lol fine, no more troll entries.

80-crew super taxi:

Crew space: Has space for more than one crew member. +82

Less boosters: +3

Much science: +4

Spaceplane: +3

Rough landig: +3

Why piggyback when you can take off: +3

Power: +5

Triangle velocity: +2

Fully reusable: x2

Total = 210 pts

That last screenshot has screwed up stats because I used quicksave and load after landing. I was trying to park it right in front of the hanger but my engine blew up as I got up the ramp.

It's just there to show that no parts fell off or blew up.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited August 17, 2014 by chengong

[Firerunner]

I'd suggest either putting caps on the number of crew/experiment parts or dividing score by your spacecraft weight, as otherwise these completely dominate the other options.

A quickly put together, not very optimized example of a SSTO using two attached pylons with 80 thermometers on each side:

160 x Much science: Has science expiriments. | +160pts

Less boosters: Doesn't use radial stages. | +3pts

Spaceplane: Use wings to land. (not parachutes or engines) | +3pts

Rough landig: Land on uneaven (not polar or runway) terrain. (requires Spaceplane) | +3pts

Why piggyback when you can take off: Take off horizontily. | +3pts

Fully reusable: 100% recovered. (Doesn't stack with other reusabiltiy bonuses) | double score

= 344pts

[biohazard15]

I'd suggest either putting caps on the number of crew/experiment parts or dividing score by your spacecraft weight, as otherwise these completely dominate the other options.

That would be a quite simple change: every science experiment is counted only once. There is no need to place cap on the number of crew - after all, number of crew is the point of this challenge.