Challenge Shuttle-A Ascent

[aftercolumbia]

http://youtu.be/ioebMyVY5tM (will be up sometime Monday (120220) morning.)

The challenge is to launch from Havana (a standard scenario in the base package) and achieve an orbit with a periapsis over 200km with the maximum amount of fuel left over. On this flight, it was 18383kg left, my (unrecorded) personal best so far is 19039kg, so I know it can be topped. From the scenario description, "normal" performance seems to be about 3000kg.

Note: I realigned the ship on the pad to a heading of 90deg. If you want to flip over and go heads-down, you can change it to 270deg in the scenario file.

Terry

 

[TMac3000]

I just hit the hovers, use RCS to turn to heading, and go straight up like an elevator to 20 km, then pitch up to 30 degrees and hit the mains. Don't forget to put the aux pods in hover if you're carrying a full load

 

[thumper235]

I cannot wait until I develop enough skill to actually be able to participate in these challenges. I really think it will be alot of fun.

 

[Dobrodav]

Nice vid. Should google "Gravity turn", heh. My best result is only 16 tons, and i was using "dirty trick" - Launched without hovering. Shutle A have ability to use only one of its hover engines, so full thrust on forward hover engine, when pitch reaches 30 degrease apply full thrust on mains and aux, cut of hover and be prepared to use rear hover engine to counteract rotating behind 90 degrees. Kinda tricky, and unrealistic (ship actually stays on nozzles for some time) - but fun, you should try it :thumbup:

 

[aftercolumbia]

Ah, the forward hover tailstand (which I haven't tried deliberately because of high angular rates; the one time I did it by accident, I was flat on my back faster than I would be in a boxing ring.) The reason I don't think it works as well is because it probably saves quite a bit of propellant to accelerate to about 150m/s or 200m/s with the combination of hover and mains before switching completely over to mains. I can't aim at a precise speed because the timing is determined by the rather slow rotation rate of the aux pods and the all-thrust vector alpha ranges between 22deg and 45deg, depending on the aux pod position, making it quite difficult to keep it aimed straight up (this is the biggest challenge: the closer you keep to a vertical trajectory while pitching the vehicle up, the better.)

Terry