Team Frontier 1/3 : Voyager

Space_geek25 · Jul 19, 2022

This is the first mission of the team frontier. I started by the voyager quest because it's the easiest / shortest challenge.

I made a 2 stages rocket with small Boosters. I used side separator between the two stages because it's 0,2t lighter. I start turning very early, and I made the lowest orbit possible. I made my burns in 2 times, at the periapsis. After 3 tries, where I failed ( 50m/s), I managed to get an escape trajectory.

Pink · Jul 19, 2022

I am sorry, I've just noticed the separator connecting the core to the third stage. The part that gets left on the third stage gets burned off, this counts as damage, which isn't allowed.

A normal separator is fine, 0.2t shouldn't decide whether a submission fails or not.

While you are redoing the submission, there is two easy points of potential improvement:

If you increase the TWR at launch, then your rocket will experience less "gravity losses", allowing you to arrive in orbit with more fuel. A TWR up to 1.6, 1.7 is optimal, it depends on how draggy the rocket is. The way to increase TWR in this case is with more engines. Example: you are able to fit 2 kolibri engines on the bottom of the core if you change from 6 wide fuel tanks to side-by-side 4 wide fuel tanks that mimic an 8 wide fuel tank.
Your upper stage is rather large, there is the potential for extra dV if we steal some fuel from the boosters, add it to the upper stage, and then split it into 2 upper stages, in an approximate 2:3 ratio.

Altaïr · Jul 19, 2022

Also, you can replace the separator by a docking port if needed: there will be no part attached to your second stage that way.

Space_geek25 · Jul 19, 2022

Mooncrasher said:

I am sorry, I've just noticed the separator connecting the core to the third stage. The part that gets left on the third stage gets burned off, this counts as damage, which isn't allowed.

A normal separator is fine, 0.2t shouldn't decide whether a submission fails or not.

While you are redoing the submission, there is two easy points of potential improvement:

If you increase the TWR at launch, then your rocket will experience less "gravity losses", allowing you to arrive in orbit with more fuel. A TWR up to 1.6, 1.7 is optimal, it depends on how draggy the rocket is. The way to increase TWR in this case is with more engines. Example: you are able to fit 2 kolibri engines on the bottom of the core if you change from 6 wide fuel tanks to side-by-side 4 wide fuel tanks that mimic an 8 wide fuel tank.
Your upper stage is rather large, there is the potential for extra dV if we steal some fuel from the boosters, add it to the upper stage, and then split it into 2 upper stages, in an approximate 2:3 ratio.

Can I use part clipping in this challenge?
( my rocket is to hight)