KSP Challenge: Landing on Duna!

[HawranK]

Mission: get some beautiful scenery picture

• Destination: Duna, Eastern Canyon.. or any canyon nearby.. or at least Duna.
• Vessel: Aquarius 1 - completely oxidizer free

 

 

• Final touch of the skilled technician...

 

 

• R&D Team just realised there are more landers than the probe can handle. At least safely

 

 

 

 

• After 140 days of deep space hibernation.. Red planet on sight. And Ike with its shaddow as well.

 

• Eastern Canyon landing site fly by. Distance: 77km

 

 

• ....... receiving transmission ...... What a panorama! ..... Aquarius 1 out.

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

Had the idea to send a rover with an SRB only rocket. @Physics Student beat me to it (and it looks like we all had the idea to send a rover), but I decided to finish the challenge anyway. I sent Jeb in a rover packed with science equipment so that it'll at least be useful. No LF or OX on board. SRB's only. However, all the adjustments to the boosters got old, so I used a few of the units of monopropellant that are in the lander can to fine-tune my encounter to make sure I could free-capture and make an unpowered entry and landing.

 

 

Getting to orbit was easy enough.

 

 

The last 2 Thuds got me an encounter with Duna (I had used the single Thud in the middle to circularize).

 

 

From this point on, the ship is completely unpowered.

 

We just put Sir Isaac Newton in the driver's seat.

 

 

Final approach.

 

 

Slowed down quickly. Barely even got warm. Ya gotta love that thin Duna air.

 

 

Probably overkill with all the chutes and airbrakes.

 

 

Had to wait for sunup to get a good pic. After he sees the sights and grabs some science, Jeb'll use his rover to head to Duna Base and catch a ride home.

 

Overall, pretty fun challenge.

 

[qzgy]

Decided to try my hand at a video and a small SSTO to duna.

Botched the landing(many many times, but that, we do not speak of). Jeb is fine. Probably.

comments/suggestions on the video are welcome.

 

Edited July 15, 2017 by qzgy

[forexops]

Hi All

Here is my 1st attempt at posting on this forum as well as a doing a challenge :-)

 

View post on imgur.com

 

 

[qzgy]

52 minutes ago, forexops said:

Hi All

Here is my 1st attempt at posting on this forum as well as a doing a challenge :-)

Welcome to the forums! Also, neat mission.

I wonder if you could make it back to kerbin. You may or may not have enough dV depending on how much fuel you burnt getting to ike...

[forexops]

53 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Welcome to the forums! Also, neat mission.

I wonder if you could make it back to kerbin. You may or may not have enough dV depending on how much fuel you burnt getting to ike...

Thanks qzgy!!

There is still about 5,000 units of Xenon so it would be no problem to get back to Kerbin from Ike once the transfer window was open.

[YAGI]

Solid Rocket Booster only!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2017 by YAGI

[The Space Dino]

Interesting. I have a rough concept but still I'm going to try it out, and hopefully it doesn't take forever.

[XLjedi]

Stretching out the challenge times is better...  or even open-ended would be fine?  ...and you just earn a little badge or somefin.

Edited July 15, 2017 by XLjedi
typo

[Human Person]

This challenge is really fun. I want to redo it and try to build as light as possible with SRB only.

[XLjedi]

Several posts here regarding "SRB's" remind me of that line in Big Fat Greek Wedding...  "What do you mean, you don't eat meat? ...no problem, I'll make lamb!"

Um...  yeah...  I watched it. 

Edited July 15, 2017 by XLjedi

[Marschig]

One-way trip is a bad idea for manned spacecrafts. So I made this science capsule capable to return home. All available types of fuel were used in this flight.

 

[SinisterSonar]

On 2017-07-11 at 2:49 PM, Badie said:

From the beginning we wanted to do something with the community where everybody could participate.

Everybody can... unless they are on console, then they can't. Trust me when I say I have tried posting pictures for at least 2 months now and have not been able too, this being the only reason I am not participating. But I did the challenge anyway. I took off from the launchpad, flew into an orbit around 200000km on SRBs, waited for a transfer window to open, burned into an encounter with Duna, made orbit around Duna, de-orbited, landed on atomic engines, left the landing stage on the surface, returned to orbit, transferred back to Kerbin orbit, and landed Jeb safely on the peak of a mountain next to the KSC. P.S. All engines after making Kerbin orbit where atomic, No mods because you can't get any on console, No debug menu because there isn't one, And no editing the quicksave because I have no clue how. 

Edit: After I wrote the text above I went back on ksp and switched to the capsule Jeb was in to recover it, he was then viciously murdered by the kraken, and the highest gee force endured was 1467, which... surprised me to say the least. Luckily, quicksave! But still, that needs to be fixed.

Edited July 16, 2017 by SinisterSonar

[frodo821]

I have succeeded this challenge! I used "Quadruple Overlapped" nuclear engines.

This rocket have no oxygenizer.

And this rocket got out from Kerbin.

I planned the maneuvering.

Executing maneuver nodes.

All nodes were executed!

Transfering to a orbit to enter Duna.

Entered Duna.

Decelerating to prepare to land Duna.

Decelerating more to open chutes.

Openning chutes. 

All chutes were opened!

I succeeded landing on Duna!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I used three sets of octuple "Sepratron I" to decrease velocity when I prepare to land on Duna.

This vissel can be found here!!!!!!

Edited July 16, 2017 by frodo821

[EBOSHI]

5 hours ago, frodo821 said:

I have succeeded this challenge! I used "Quadruple Overlapped" nuclear engines.

Album kLB8Bsi will appear when post is submitted

It is a nice trial. However, since the image is not displayed properly, it is better to link directly to the address of the image.
If the post is long in the vertical direction, you can use a spoiler (eye mark).

[Zegreus]

 

On 7/13/2017 at 11:24 PM, Bottle Rocketeer 500 said:

I'll try making an LF only Duna SSTO!

Just noticed this comment after finishing. Looking forward to seeing someone else do it this way!

 

Hi All,

 

First time posting and attempting the challenge!!

I decided an SSTO using no oxidizer, monoprop or solid fuel would be a reasonable challenge  I also planned on using the least number of parts I could. Final design uses 24 parts and weighs 18T.

Album - If anyone want's to explain to me how to embed an Imgur album feel free to send me a message.

Looking forward to trying more challenges in the future.

Edited July 16, 2017 by Zegreus
having difficulty inserting album

[Foxster]

One more mission attempt. This time with zero Ox on board and Thompdos Kerman was kindly volunteered to try out a new micro-base design.

The Watney One...

Album: http://imgur.com/a/EVI6G

 

Edited July 16, 2017 by Foxster

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

I actually think that I will submit a booster-powered craft, maybe Duna Direct?

[kozutti]

After that,   They see ...
Traces of water

Album of imgur：http://imgur.com/a/NvEpw

Previous story  ：http://imgur.com/a/VN5bx

Edited July 16, 2017 by kozutti

[steuben]

Here go. Images of the Laughing Gas

Album Xw4IZ will appear when post is submitted

Edited July 16, 2017 by steuben

[NISSKEPCSIM]

And it just so happens that I'm currently working on a Vega-style all-SRB rocket...

[Cloma]

http://imgur.com/a/w9aF6

I failed a little.

Edited July 16, 2017 by Cloma

[herbal space program]

Here's a Kerballed SSTO that makes it to Duna and back to the KSC on LF only, using RAPIER and Nerv engines:

 

Album /a/PuVuE will appear when post is submitted

 

Looks like I lost the race to post the first SSTO design here (actually, so far my ship appears to be to only one that doesn't jettison anything), but this one has crew and makes it back, so I can put it in for the K Prize too!

 

It was easier than I thought it would be to make orbit without any oxidizer. It seems like the air has changed significantly in recent versions, making ascent to orbit on air easier but worsening re-entry heating. My recent Laythe spaceplane made orbit with almost 5km/s dV and 10 tons of extra cargo, which I think would not have been possible back in 1.0.5, when I was doing a lot of this stuff before. THat plane could in principle have made LKO with just under 6km/s dV, and I wasn't even really trying to optimize that parameter,  so it looks to me like some quite remarkable feats of long-range SSTO flying will now be possible!

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2017 by herbal space program

[captainb]

Here's my entry:  http://imgur.com/a/g7sCx.  First forum challenge I've done so far and I quite enjoyed it!

I went slightly heavier than most people so far, opting for the Mk1-2 capsule to carry 3 crew.  Design was a bit tricky, it took forever to get the SRB staging right.  Thought I would have enough delta-V to get back, turns out I didn't  

Selected images from the album:

Spoiler

 

Edited July 17, 2017 by captainb

[ManEatingApe]

Here's a cheap and simple entry using only 2 SRBs and a little monopropellant. 7 parts total and 5,180 funds.

SRBs are difficult to aim, so if you can't aim the ship, aim the KSC instead!

By warping to a Duna transfer window, then waiting until the KSC is pointing the right direction, you can get within a few m/s of a Duna intercept. A place anywhere RCS port then provides the fine control for a decent transfer.

(Astute players will note that, strictly speaking, the RCS thruster is unnecessary, as you can just nudge the capsule with a Kerbal on EVA. However I was a little lazy, so perhaps so another cunning poster can try that approach!)

Interestingly, the heat and impact tolerance of a Mk1 pod is so good that a heat shield is not required for an Duna aero-capture and a single Mk16 parachute will do (even if you have the misfortune to land at high elevation)

 

 

Edited July 17, 2017 by ManEatingApe