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Reach the Speed of Light! (Read desc)


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Version: KSP 0.16 (Before you go into 0.13.3 and start Sundiving to speed of light :P)

(That also means you need a pic of the rocket itself to prove it is 0.16, and not 0.13, because I know the difference...)

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I have a crazy challenge that may challenge PhysX itself (maybe)! It is to go at 300,000,000 m/s, or the actual realistic Speed of Light. Now, you're probably wondering how you are going to get to that speed. Don't worry!

You can do any of the following:

-Cfg editing:

----only engine thrust, isp, and fuel consumption are editable for the sake of many bad things with decouplers......

-Use mods

-Anything except editing to the speed (however possible it is)

-No teleporting to the speed

It won't be easy, and I don't know if anyone did this ever before, but now I challenge you all (and myself, of course) to get to the Speed of Light. Post with pics if you did it, and a few tips for building light-speed capable rockets (you don't have to follow them if you don't want to):

-Get them as small as possible

-Make them as rigid as possible

-Start in Kerbol (Sun) orbit

-Preferably use Mechjeb to kill-rot or/and pro-grade you way out of the Kerbol system

-Anything else that keeps huge rockets stable

Stock Leaderboard for speeds faster than 300 million m/s:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Mod Leaderboard for speeds faster than 300 million m/s:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

I sure hope you can do it, because this challenge seems to be crazy, but I am sure of myself that one of us can do it.

Edited by Skyro
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cfg edits are allowed?

Step 1: Get to Kerbin escape with only one stage (easy since you can make one engine have negative consumption and very powerful)

Step 2: Get Kerbol velocity to 0, still with only one stage (easy for the same reasons)

Step 3: Decouple command module with extra-force decoupler (it's simple to calculate the force needed) and extra strength command module

cfg edits might not be a good idea.

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cfg edits are allowed?

Step 1: Get to Kerbin escape with only one stage (easy since you can make one engine have negative consumption and very powerful)

Step 2: Get Kerbol velocity to 0, still with only one stage (easy for the same reasons)

Step 3: Decouple command module with extra-force decoupler (it's simple to calculate the force needed) and extra strength command module

cfg edits might not be a good idea.

Well, they are here, because there has to be a way to get to 300,000,000 m/s in a way possible, like editing an engine, which i guess you can do, well, OKAY! I edited the rules on part cfg-ing in which you can only edit engine thrust, isp (search 'specific impulse' and goto wikipedia), and fuel consumption

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I could easily do it with stock parts in the demo! Won't work in 0.14 and up though.

Step 1: Get into an orbit around the sun.

Step 2: Kill all velocity.

Step 3: Drop into the heart of the sun.

Step 4: Watch the Space Kraken fling you out at speeds much higher than the speed of light.

Simple.

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Lol, would love to see your velocity and pics once you both do that, will be funny and nice to see. But, it has to be 0.16. Thats why I allowed cfg-edits and mods. I currently have mine going and it is using a solar sail part I made, it's going at about 210,000+ m/s right now. Gonna post a pic soon...

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Have been looking into this for awhile.

Lets say u could get a constant 10g thrust = 850 hours run time

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=time+to+light+speed+at+10g+acceleration

edited some config files to get 200g thrust still would take 40 hours and at this point it is almost impossible to keep the ship pointed in one direction.

:(

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I just gave it a quick go with fuel tanks that have stupid amounts of fuel and 3 engines that were pumping out 2000 thrusts each. You have to be really careful with throttle otherwise it breaks apart. I had it going fine up to around 500 km/s but unfortunately the engines broke off for some reason. It also starts acting really weird, very hard to keep in a straight line. Not sure why. I doubt it's possible to get to the speed of light

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If cfg edits of drag are allowed, just use a -1 value for a single tank, make a rocket that comprises a pod, this tank and any engine, lift off, and watch as you are flung at ridiculously high speeds before even leaving the atmosphere :cool:

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I've been burning for over a half hour... reached 23,000 Km/s, but i will continue!

How fast did you end up going? I editted a capsule, ASAS, tank and engine to have no drag, large collision value and minimal weight. I made the tank have a huge capacity, and the engine to have a small burn rate and HUGE output. (Note: If you keep the actual thrust to 1000, the engine won't rip itself apart, it's the other numbers that need to be huge). I got up to around 30,000 km/s, before I got bored looking at it, and stopped. It wobbled all over the place, but was able to mostly point itself in the right direction. I tried using winglets to control the steering once in space, but they would always seem to shred the ship apart in the lower atmoshere.

Still, it's pretty cool putting your ship on the lowest throttle setting, and still watching it hit 100k in about 7 seconds. :)

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Got my pics, 24.7 times the speed of light! This happened though a glitch, but I don't see anything that says thats not allowed ;)

I did the same thing ... I put the drag and weight of everything down to zero. Ended up bouncing off the launchpad and doing the Kessel run in around 12 parsecs.

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shift + alt + control + d

Turn on infinite fuel, build desired craft, leave it on for a few hours until captured by space kraken. Fiddle with controls for hours in attmps to struggle free of kraken.

Got to 100K m/s that way. Could easilly have gone higher. Getting to c, however, would take an incredible amount of time that I'm not willing to devote. Also unsure if debug is allowed, though I don't see why not if cfg edits are.

I did this a couple weeks ago when I thought of the idea of getting to light-speed myself and quit when I found out how long it would take. Found some Orbital Construction teleport glitches that will send you far over it though.

MechJeb not required, but it made it easier.

2wd7uy8.jpg
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I've managed 149,285m/s.

How?

- Engine: part editted to 25000 thrust and no fuel consumption

- MechJeb Circular Pod thing

- One small stock fuel tank

- Adv SAS module

- Press T and full thrust until Kerbin escape or interruption*

*The Mun nearly ruined everything.

Issues with this method:

- It's impossible without cheating or a ridiculously light, powerful and fuel efficient engine

- Once you escape Kerbin's gravitational field you cannot turn on engines for some reason.

Average acceleration in space: 140m/s^2

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