Fewest parts to orbit the Mun

[Wild Cobra]

OK, hopefully this is new enough and popular with the new 1.05.

 

The challenge is to make a orbit with no more than a 50 km apoasis, with the fewest parts count. Those all tying with the fewest parts count will be ranked by the fastest mission time to achieve the objective. All stock 1.05 parts, and no cheats. Mods that offer only visual or navigation, data, etc are OK as long as it doesn't alter what a person with only stock parts can do.

 

I have completed this with a single digit parts count ship in under 11 hours of mission time. I know it can be done.

 

Of course to get there fast, you must have a good trust to weight ratio. I probably could have made it faster, but throttled back keeping my ship under 6 G's while in the atmosphere. I burned off parts on my first attempt due to heat.

 

Ends midnight 12/30/15. I have my screenshots that I will release within a week, and also try to do better after I see some initial entries.

 

Leaderboard

2 parts:

1)

2)

3)

 

3 parts:

1) 03:41:35 killakrust

2) 09:55:28 RocketPropelledGiraffe

3)

 

4 parts:

1) 07:54:04 Andiron

2)

3)

 

5 parts:

1)

2)

3)

Edited December 6, 2015 by Wild Cobra
Leaderboard

[RocketPropelledGiraffe]

Since I cannot sleep I did this real quick to get a first entry out.

Simple three part rocket, two passengers. A regular Hohmann transfer takes us to Mun orbit in roughly 12 hours.

 

My transfer was far from optimal, so it is easily possible to do it faster. I don't see any possibility to have fewer than three parts, neither the SRBs nor the Boar booster have sufficient delta-v.

Edited December 1, 2015 by RocketPropelledGiraffe

[Gaarst]

3 minutes ago, RocketPropelledGiraffe said:

My transfer was far from optimal, so it is easily possible to do it faster. I don't see any possibility to have fewer than three parts, neither the SRBs nor the Boar booster have sufficient delta-v.

Boar on its own has enough dV to make it to orbit.

Sticking just a probe core on it and launching straight up should allow you to get to the Mun: that's two parts. I might give it a try tomorrow.

[RocketPropelledGiraffe]

I am pretty sure that the Boar and a probe core will get to the Mun, but I don't think it will get into orbit. I am curious to see what is possible.

[Wild Cobra]

3 hours ago, RocketPropelledGiraffe said:

Since I cannot sleep I did this real quick to get a first entry out.

Simple three part rocket, two passengers. A regular Hohmann transfer takes us to Mun orbit in roughly 12 hours.

 

My transfer was far from optimal, so it is easily possible to do it faster. I don't see any possibility to have fewer than three parts, neither the SRBs nor the Boar booster have sufficient delta-v.

Wow, nice. Better than I was expecting. I was thinking a power source would be required. Blows my first and second successful launches away. Looks like three parts and 11:55:28.

 

The Twin Boar will take you that far. I just didn't have enough fuel to make the <50k orbit, without a second tank. That's why I required the < 50k orbit.

 

My first success was six parts and 10:41:16. My second I used five parts and 10:44:52. I ran out of electricity on an unsuccessful launch, so I added a PB-NUK. I also used a nose cone, but apparently, it isn't needed.

 

Since it blows mine away, here is my first successful attempt:

 

http://imgur.com/a/GEpbP

 

It wouldn't let me submit a second so soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 1, 2015 by Wild Cobra

[Wild Cobra]

3 hours ago, Gaarst said:

Boar on its own has enough dV to make it to orbit.

Sticking just a probe core on it and launching straight up should allow you to get to the Mun: that's two parts. I might give it a try tomorrow.

Good luck with that. Without an aerodynamic nosecone, I think it's impossible.

[RocketPropelledGiraffe]

1 hour ago, Wild Cobra said:

Good luck with that. Without an aerodynamic nosecone, I think it's impossible.

I'm not sure that you need one, it's not like my Kerbodyne-Lander Can rocket has any decent aerosynamics...

 

2 hours ago, Wild Cobra said:

I was thinking a power source would be required.

You will never need a power source for this as long as you have a power generating engine. You are fine for ascent and ejection burn, just remember to deactivate the electricity in the probe core during the transfer flight and turn it back on shortly before you reach the Mun.

I took the lander can because I figured the extra mass won't matter a lot when I bring the biggest tank. Plus it has a lot of torque.

[Andiron]

Easy-peasy ! Could have done it with 3 parts, but RocketPropelledGiraffe's one is good enough.

Four parts : Mk1 Lander Can, 2x Jumbo 64, 1 Vector engine (really OP)

[Andiron]

8 hours ago, RocketPropelledGiraffe said:

I am pretty sure that the Boar and a probe core will get to the Mun, but I don't think it will get into orbit. I am curious to see what is possible.

That's impossible because twinboar doesn't have any power generation, so you need at least one solar panel

[RocketPropelledGiraffe]

Maybe use a lander can instead, or plan the trip that no steerin input is needed after clearing the atmosphere. Then you could deactivate the probe core while burning, only use the electricity when turning the engine on/off and for the final orbital injection.

There are some possibilities, not sure if it can be done though.

[Random_Person]

Awesome challenge, I will try with 3 parts!

[Wild Cobra]

Holy crap...

 

I was testing three part combinations for apoasis only, and got one past Minmus orbit, so I tried to orbit Minmus. I did it! Too bad I didn't document it.

 

Next challenge?

[killakrust]

Spent a sizable amount of time the last few evenings trying to do this challenge with 2 parts.

I've just had my best result so far with the Twin-Boar and a RC-001S guidance unit. Managed to get into Munar orbit with a 64km Pe and 1700km Ap. I was pretty stoked to get into Mun orbit at all, as all of my previous efforts had ended up 5-10m/s DV short, and just carried on past.

I had to actively manage the battery of course. This meant switching it off until the launch window, then turning it on and doing a direct ascent. The SAS messes up if left on for the first 10km (pitches over for some reason), so had to manually control it for a bit before activating stability control. Once the intercept is done, then battery goes off. Battery is then switched on again to turn the craft to the circularisation maneuver node, then off again. Then on again for the final burn.

Result: Challenge Fail (Ap still way higher that required), but I'm still pretty stoked I got there with 2 parts tbh.

 

[killakrust]

Ok, so I figured I should at least get on the leaderboard...

here is a 3 part craft going to the Mun.

40k Ap, 36k Pe, time taken 3h 41min 35sec.

 

 

 

Edited December 5, 2015 by killakrust

[Wild Cobra]

Well, here is what I thought was an optimized time for three parts until I saw Killakrust's post. 6:27:44:

 

 

Do I get to compete im my own challenge?

Edited December 5, 2015 by Wild Cobra

[moritree]

On 1/15/2017 at 8:54 AM, Stratzenblitz75 said:

I don't think anyone has done an Apollo style moon mission using only SRBs:

 

Holy Jeb dude, that was some stunning rendezvous.