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10-minute altitude challenge

numerobis

By numerobis
in KSP1 Challenges & Mission ideas

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numerobis

numerobis

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Posted (edited)

Rebooting a challenge from zarakon from some time ago, here's my 10-minute altitude challenge.

The goal: launch. After 10 minutes, hit F3 to show the flight results. Make that altitude number as big as possible.

The rules:

  1. Max of 5,000 total LiquidFuel and Oxidizer (aka 25t of fuel, total). IntakeAir and Electricity are allowed without bound.
  2. No other propellents (no SRBs, no monopropellent used).
  3. No control surfaces. None.
  4. No ladder-pushing, Krakendrive, or any other similar tricks.
  5. Stock parts, stock physics.
  6. Mention what autopilots you used, if any.
  7. Give a download link to the craft, and offer advice on reproducing your result.
  8. Show pictures of your craft at launch (MET 0:00), and of the F3 dialog at 10 minutes (MET 10:00:00). Make sure the resources tab is showing.

As per boolybooly's approach in the K-prize, I'll maintain a leaderboard but I'm also interested in those who violate the rules in interesting ways.

The numbers to beat (if you fly a slight modification, I replace your previous number; a very changed rocket and you can appear twice):

  1. 5,847,664 by Aphobius, using turbojets and big rockets.
  2. 5,212,147 by gm537, using basic jets and turbojets and LV-T30 and kitchen sinks.
  3. 4,924,141 by Aphobius, using basic jets and 48-7S.
  4. 4,809,504 by Tsevion, using basic jets and a K2-XL
  5. 4,151,552 by numerobis, using 48-7S and SPP tanks
  6. 4,007,665 by hoioh, using a mess of 48-7S. Missing the craft file.

Gatecrashers:

  1. Tex_NL shows off the debug menu's infinite fuel -- but forgets to turn off gravity so he'll remain stuck in Kerbin's SOI.

Edited by numerobis
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numerobis

numerobis

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Eeps... what I was going to have as my example post, I miscounted and I have too much fuel, so this is an invalid entry!

Anyway, here's the format I expect.

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Here's the spacecraft.

Pretty simple really: a 48-7S upper stage with a tonne of fuel, and an asparagus of LV-T30s below. I used a little SAS on each tower for vectoring, it's less extra mass than using an LV-T45.

No autopilot, so I overshot terminal velocity at times. Standard "gravity-turn" liftoff, ho hum.

Now beat my result! (By, for example, making a valid entry)

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hoioh

hoioh

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Had to try and see how far I could get up to, so I did 4 attempts:

1. 3,820,686

2. 3,650,162

3. 3,914,758

4. 3,834,150

Showing attempt number 3, as it achieved the highest point. It's nice to note that all of these launches acumulate enough momentum to escape the pull of Kerbol and fly off into empty space.

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Edit: forgot to add a fuel count:

Small tank = 45+55 = 100

Medium Tank = 800

5x 800 = 4000

2x 100 = 200

Total fuel = 4200

(going to upgrade the ship with and additional 800 fuel now.)

Edited by hoioh
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hoioh

hoioh

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Added the 4 extra 200 tanks to the asparagus stages because they need to throttle down to stay below terminal velocity anyway, so making those last longer would add the maximum amount of speed to the system and launched it again.

With an altitude just over 4mln meters and a maximum speed just under 10,000m/s achieved in 4:43, may I present to you gentle and ladiesmen, the Space Pancake 2.3!

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Tex_NL

Tex_NL

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Darn, no monoprop. :mad: My tiny monoprop rocket can reach interstellar velocities within a minute. I wonder where it will be when I enlarge it to burn for a full 10 minutes.

And you might want to add: No infinite fuel.

The largets stock engine with the smalles stock probe. Infinite fuel ON!

screenshot10.png

With infinite fuel on I reached interstellar velocity within 30 seconds and passed Mun orbit in 4:30 minutes.

Passed Minmus orbit in just under 9 minutes.

Can I leave Kerbins SoI? Sadly no.

screenshot9.png

MJ was ONLY used to monitor, not for control. NEAR atmosphere.

I might be able to squeeze out a few more km by launching at another time of day. This launch was straight up, very close to midnight

Edited by Tex_NL
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Tex_NL

Tex_NL

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...

Gatecrashers:

  1. Tex_NL shows off the debug menu's infinite fuel -- but forgets to turn off gravity so he'll remain stuck in Kerbin's SOI.

Oh damn. You are so correct. I totally forgot I could have hacked gravity too.

And chengong. I never said my entry was fair. I simply took advantage of a gap in the rules and bend them to my advantage.

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numerobis

numerobis

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Hoioh: you're number 1! Until later today I'm sure :) For future reference, I'll ask others to make sure the resources tab is showing.

Tex_NL: oh please. You didn't think to turn off gravity, too? And you didn't choose the engine with the best TWR. I am disappoint.

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Tex_NL

Tex_NL

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Hoioh: you're number 1! Until later today I'm sure :) For future reference, I'll ask others to make sure the resources tab is showing.

Tex_NL: oh please. You didn't think to turn off gravity, too? And you didn't choose the engine with the best TWR. I am disappoint.

I totally forgot to turn of gravity. And I didn't bother to look at TWR at all to be honest. I just took the biggest one. I just wanted to show how far the rules could be bend without breaking them. Turns out I didn't bend them far enough.

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Tex_NL

Tex_NL

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I just gave it another try. This time with a better stock engine and hacked gravity. Again I launched straight up at midnight and reached 68.282.689m. Again not enough to leave Kerbin.

I won't say it's impossible to leave Kerbins SoI within 10 minutes but it won't be easy.

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hoioh

hoioh

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Very nice way of doing things Tex_NL, I really didn't think that one up. I basically use the F12 menu for some clipping and that's it. It never even occurred to me I could hack the crap out of it :D

Thanks for the number 1 Numerobis! Got a badge yet?

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chengong

chengong

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Posted
Oh damn. You are so correct. I totally forgot I could have hacked gravity too.

And chengong. I never said my entry was fair. I simply took advantage of a gap in the rules and bend them to my advantage.

nobody is talking about you. we're talking about a certain clearly unbalanced bug engine.

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numerobis

numerobis

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What, the turbojet? Go ahead and put in a turbojet entry, and make sure it works. It will likely beat hoioh's entry -- but that's the first legal entry.

Turbojets aren't totally straightforward to get working right in this challenge.

Oh, I recommend adding some basic jets, too, because they really shine at your low-altitude speeds.

Edited by numerobis
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numerobis

numerobis

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Hark, a valid entry! I'm informed we have a party to go to STAT, so this is the best for this evening -- and contra the name of the album, I do not beat hoioh on the relevant metric (though I am going rather a lot faster).

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Wait, what the what? I thought I had the resources tab open! Argh.

A measly 3,387,528m. But, about 11km/s top speed. I lost several hundred m/s at the end of the first stage, when for some reason MechJeb lost control.

The main idea is to replace the Tnn tanks with Mk2 adapters and Mk2 bicouplers, which means terminal velocity is half as high and you can thus go twice as fast through the lower soup. But they also have lift, which either I or the autopilot failed to figure for.

Craft

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linuxgurugamer

linuxgurugamer

Posted
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Rebooting a challenge from zarakon from some time ago, here's my 10-minute altitude challenge.

The goal: launch. After 10 minutes, hit F3 to show the flight results. Make that altitude number as big as possible.

The rules:

  1. Max of 5,000 total LiquidFuel and Oxidizer (aka 25t of fuel, total). IntakeAir and Electricity are allowed without bound.
  2. No other propellents (no SRBs, no monopropellent used).
  3. No control surfaces. None.
  4. No ladder-pushing, Krakendrive, or any other similar tricks.
  5. Stock parts, stock physics.
  6. Mention what autopilots you used, if any.
  7. Give a download link to the craft, and offer advice on reproducing your result.
  8. Show pictures of your craft at launch (MET 0:00), and of the F3 dialog at 10 minutes (MET 10:00:00). Make sure the resources tab is showing.

As per boolybooly's approach in the K-prize, I'll maintain a leaderboard but I'm also interested in those who violate the rules in interesting ways.

The numbers to beat:

  1. 4007665 by hoioh

Gatecrashers:

  1. Tex_NL shows off the debug menu's infinite fuel -- but forgets to turn off gravity so he'll remain stuck in Kerbin's SOI.

Would be nice to see the craft files for the winning entries.

Also, a suggestion for another challenge: Fastest to orbit. Orbit defined as a Peripsis of at least 100km. Stock parts, with FAR, possibly KW rocketry? No cheats allowed.

If there is interest, I may do this, unless you want to.

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Tsevion

Tsevion

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The "max altitude" depends on your SoI, so if you can get into solar SoI, you'd crush the opposition.

Unfortunately, to do that in 10 minutes would require reaching speeds of 100km/s, which is not really feasible.

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Tsevion

Tsevion

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Here we go... the "To Infinity Fast I"

Makes 4.8Mm in 10 minutes at 10.4km/s (achieved at 3:30)

Simply throttle to max, wait for the jet engines to spool up, then stage as fuel runs out.

Craft File

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Slightly more conservative throttle from 10k-30k might allow you to get even further.

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numerobis

numerobis

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Finally beat hoioh's all-rocket record. It was just about keeping more thrust around; I need about TWR 2.5 to maintain terminal velocity, but after the second stage, I'm high enough up that I just want to burn as fast as possible.

Flight instructions are on the first page. I'm sure you could do better, but still, 4151552m is nothing to sneeze at!

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Craft

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