nth times the charm! (Voyager mission)

[NOG Aerospace]

Here is my very unorthodox completion of the voyager mission. In this mission, I sent up first the vehicle carrying the probe, outlined in the rules as the launch vehicle, which weighed less that 256 tons. Then, I built a much heavier vehicle(which would be allowed on the grounds that this isn’t the launch vehicle, so it has no weight constraint.) that carried a tug up into orbit to be docked into the voyager probe to push it out of the solar system. Nowhere in the rules does it forbid 0g assembly, but if this does go against a rule the I missed please let me know.

Here is the mission:

Spoiler: bp + putting voyager in orbit

Spoiler: bp + putting tug into orbit

Spoiler: distance and speed checkpoints

7300 at 12.000.000

4600 at 40.000.000

3500 at 100.000.000

Spoiler: mission log

 

[mariohobbs]

This seems like it should be illegal, I cannot find anything that says its not allowed; so good luck to you. Though an interpretation of the rules could say that the tug could be considered a launch vehicle and thereby exceeds the weight limit

 

[NOG Aerospace]

This seems like it should be illegal, I cannot find anything that says its not allowed; so good luck to you. Though an interpretation of the rules could say that the tug could be considered a launch vehicle and thereby exceeds the weight limit

what I’m really banking on is that the launch vehicle is defined as the one carrying the probe and that I didn’t misread the rules

 

[ILovespace3]

I think we have a future politician on our forum.

 

[Orion]

I would argue that your tug counts as payload, and a custom one at that.

 

[NOG Aerospace]

I would argue that your tug counts as payload, and a custom one at that.

The tug is a payload, but not to the launch vehicle. The payload in the rules refers to the voyager probe and how you are not allowed to modify it.

Adding onto this, I think that if my attempt went against the rules of the challenge, the rules would have clearly forbid it. For example, my first mars mission attempt was denied because I did the same thing as here, a zero gravity assembly, which was against the rules of the mars mission. You said yourself that the mars mission needed to be one launch, but nowhere in the voyager rules does it say the same

 

[JSP]

I think it's implied to be 1 launch. Altaïr can we have some assistance please?

 

[Orion]

if my attempt went against the rules of the challenge, the rules would have clearly forbid it.

Very true, but I can't really say you've completed the challenge when you haven't created an efficient rocket (the whole purpose of the challenge). I do recommend you try to do it in one launch, it'll be much more helpful when you try to design other efficient launch vehicles. We may need to modify these rules

 

[Axiom]

what I’m really banking on is that the launch vehicle is defined as the one carrying the probe and that I didn’t misread the rules

I'm pretty sure that the total mass of all launches have to be under 265 tons, and you completely blew it I'm sorry

 

[NOG Aerospace]

I'm pretty sure that the total mass of all launches have to be under 265 tons, and you completely blew it I'm sorry View attachment 115995

well crap
I’ll be back…

 

[Orion]

I'm pretty sure that the total mass of all launches have to be under 265 tons, and you completely blew it I'm sorry View attachment 115995

Ah, there it is.

 

[Altaïr]

I'm pretty sure that the total mass of all launches have to be under 265 tons, and you completely blew it I'm sorry View attachment 115995

That's correct. We don't disallow multiple launches, but then the limit applies globally to all launchers

 

[NOG Aerospace]

I’ve tried a few more designs and I still can’t get my voyager probe to escape the solar system or even get the rocket into LEO sometimes. Doesn’t help that I can’t really get references from other people’s completed missions because they are all DLC. Really scratching my head over this, what can I optimiz?

rocket design at time of posting : Rocket Link

 

[Altaïr]

I’ve tried a few more designs and I still can’t get my voyager probe to escape the solar system or even get the rocket into LEO sometimes. Doesn’t help that I can’t really get references from other people’s completed missions because they are all DLC. Really scratching my head over this, what can I optimiz?

rocket design at time of posting : Rocket Link

Your rocket weighs 178 tons
You can go up to 265, first use everything you have. If you use a bigger first stage with 3 Hawk engines you should be able to make an appropriate launcher. Then avoid using Hawk engines on the second stage. Normally when the second stage starts flying you should already have a good speed, it's time to switch to efficient engines. The Valiant is a little weak, so don't hesitate to stack 3 of them.
With this you should be able to get something interesting.

 

[Axiom]

Second Altaïr on that, changed the second stage and made the first stage much larger and I did it with a margin of around 400m/s

It was even faster than mine which used DLC parts somehow

 

[NOG Aerospace]

titan-centaur rocket off of Temu (I did voyager yayayaayayayay)
after a million attempts and modifications i came up with a design that only succeeded on the 5th launch, which was just fine for me because it actually worked this time. Thanks Axiom and Altaïr for this tips and thanks Altaïr for the voyager tutorial, here is my full mission

Spoiler: bp + launchpad

Spoiler: leo and velocities

Spoiler: mission log

dont know if it’s necessary but I can also get the 100.000.000km mark too

 

[Orion]

titan-centaur rocket off of Temu (I did voyager yayayaayayayay)
after a million attempts and modifications i came up with a design that only succeeded on the 5th launch, which was just fine for me because it actually worked this time. Thanks Axiom and Altaïr for this tips and thanks Altaïr for the voyager tutorial, here is my full mission

Spoiler: bp + launchpad

View attachment 116151 View attachment 116152

Spoiler: leo and velocities

View attachment 116157 View attachment 116155 View attachment 116156

Spoiler: mission log

View attachment 116158

dont know if it’s necessary but I can also get the 100.000.000km mark too

Can I see a screenshot of the map view as zoomed out as possible?

 

[NOG Aerospace]

Can I see a screenshot of the map view as zoomed out as possible?

Here is the map at 3 different zooms, is this enough?

 

[Orion]

Yeah, you're good!
Altaïr Pink

Spoiler: Mods...

 

[Altaïr]

And you did it in less than 250 tons? That's exceptionally good! Badge largely deserved, welcome into team Frontier