Alpaca Z

This makes sense, launch clamp trickery removes a lot of challenges. I have added the rule of launching stationary from the surface of Kerbin. So unfortunately, @Celeste SI your submission is not accepted, but I do appreciate your effort and hope you can keep on challenging. @JeDoesStuff I have temporarily kept your entry, since you launched within the lower atmosphere. But I suggest that you do another run without the launch clamp trick, and post it here when you have some time.

I have added your mission to the list. But I am wondering if I should another rule restricting the launch location to be on the surface of Kerbin ... Well done! Added to the list. I am not monitoring the post frequently, but I will come back occasionally if I have time.

To be rigorous and consistent, my thought is we should not allow craft file editing for this challenge in principle. If you have edited your craft file, or want to whitelist some types of craft file editing, please list them out and I can add them into the challenge rules if appropriate.

Updated the record table.

How can I help?

I launched a space station into a 75 km orbit around Kerbin. Then I tried to launch a spaceplane to dock with it. Somehow the orbit of the station got messed up after the plane got to orbit. It got into the atmosphere and would crash into Kerbin. Here are the screenshots. https://imgur.com/a/O7xExh3 Edit: I just noticed that the engine on the station is somehow firing when I switched to it. That seems to mess up its orbit. But the engine was off in a save before the launch of the spaceplane. I have no idea why it would turn on.

On the first point, I wanted to count it as total launch mass - pilot mass (45 kg X No. of pilots). Because some of the records use jetpack, some don't (mostly mine). I didn't say it because it makes calculations a bit complex, and I don't know how people would think about it. On the second point, I believe Proxima looked at improving grand tour record, but not sure if she is still working on it.

The leaderboard can be very long. I don't intend to make one, but anyone who is interested can make one in the comment. I don't think anyone has optimized their Jool "lander" for low mass, so I left it out for now. I will update if someone did that.

Low mass challenges are always fun. I have been interested in it for a long time, watched a lot of fantastic videos, and have set a few records by myself. However, a lot of the low mass challenges on the forum are either outdated or simply doesn’t exist. I haven’t found anyone doing a compilation of the existing low mass records either. As ksp1 is in its final version and ksp2 is approaching, I decided to dig up all the existing low mass world records and make a table of them. I have decided to only include manned missions that lands on celestial bodies other than Kerbin. Therefore, unmanned missions and low mass to orbit are not shown here. Due to limited time and effort, I only count the first 3 places for each mission. Special thanks to @camacju for helping me collecting some of these records. Low mass world record list Destination 1st place 2nd place 3rd place Moho 1.681 ton ZG Alpaca 2.038 ton Bradley Whistance 2.976 ton Blend Flour Eve 4.598 ton Alarik0 (4.708 ton) 5.04 ton Proxima (7.5 ton) 8.061 ton Blend Flour Gilly 1.6 ton Turbo Pumped (2.9 ton) Minmus 1.087 ton Proxima 1.199 ton Bradley Whistance (1.3 & 2.0 ton) 1.279 ton Commandante Sese Mun 1.726 ton Hodeok 1.777 ton Dr. Compton 1.951 ton JeDoesStuff? Duna 2.291 ton ZG Alpaca 2.998 ton Bradley Whistance 3.998 ton astrobond Duna+Ike 3.398 ton Donmy Kerman 3.664 ton kspfreak 3.955 ton astrobond Dres 1.673 ton Proxima Tylo 4.685 ton Proxima 4.906 ton Guybrush Kerman 8.1 ton Hodeok Jool-5 5.253 ton Proxima 5.819 ton ZG Alpaca 6.2 ton Bradley Whistance Eeloo 1.658 ton Blend Flour 1.8 ton Hodeok 2.7 ton Turbo Pumped Grand Tour 11.398 ton Ultimate Steve 14.508 ton Proxima 25.1 ton Bradley Whistance As you can see, I try to avoid repeated counting, and include as many contributors as possible. So only the best result is counted if one person made multiple attempts at the same challenge. Following the same logic, grand tour or Jool 5 missions do not count towards any other challenges. I have followed a few rules in my selection, which also serves as the rule if anyone wants to attempt one of the challenges. Rules - No infinite fuel, infinite electricity, hack gravity, or any form of cheating. (obviously) - Stock and DLC only, no modded parts. Information mods are OK. If you are not sure, ask in your submission. - No kraken drives (docking ports, landing gears or whatsoever), no KAL overclock, no magic wings (heat shield or flag wings), no cfg change. - Must be Manned. The Kerbal must return to Kerbin. - Re-entry heating must be set to at least 100%. - Mass does not include launch clamps. - Mass does not include pilot. - Part clipping is allowed but should be stated clearly. - You are welcome to post your missions here. However, missions above 25 tons will not be added to the record list, even if you are the only entry in your category. This is the mass of the heaviest craft within the current list, which is Brad’s grand tour mission a long time ago. - In case you don’t know yet, a sandbox save with Commnet disabled allows engineers to create maneuver nodes. This is encouraged so that you can push the limit further using EVA construction. - The craft has to start stationary and in contact with the surface of Kerbin, allowing mountain launches but forbid launch clamp trickery. Notes Missions prior to ksp 1.0 were not counted, because the game was very different at that early stage. I excluded the usage of magic wings, but there are some very interesting low mass missions using them. I have included two examples here: 1.56 ton SSTO to Eve and back 0.776 ton SSTO to Minmus and back What to do next? Is there any new record to be set? Of course! Dres has little attention now, and there haven’t been separate attempts to each of the Joolian moons other than Tylo. Is there any room for improvement to the current records? There certainly is. I know some community members are working on improving the Eve, Duna+Ike and grand tour records. The Duna and Gilly records have quite some room for improvement. The other records may also be improved, but the margin is really tight, and probably there wouldn’t be better approaches that are qualitatively different.

Video submission for low mass Jool 5 mission. 5.82 ton (excluding pilot mass) at launch. After a painfully long time, I was finally able to break Bradley Whistance record on this.

The challenge: send a kerbal to Duna and back with the lowest launch mass possible! Continued from: The original post has been inactive for many years, and I would like to get rid of the "launch in a capsule" restriction, in order to pursue the absolute limit. I would be excited to see someone breaking my new record! A mission with a Juno engine should probably get the launch mass below 2 tons. The Rules: - No infinite fuel or hack gravity, or any form of cheating. (obviously) - Stock and DLC only, no modded parts. Information mods are OK. If you are not sure, ask in your submission. - No kraken drives, no KAL overclock, no magic wings (heat shield or flag wings), no cfg change. - The Kerbal must return to Kerbin. - Re-entry heating must be set to at least 100% - Mass does not include launch clamps. - Mass does not include pilot, but inventory of the pilot should be included. In other word, reported mass=mass on launch pad – 45 kg. - The craft should launch by itself, on any of the launch site in the stock game. But DO NOT transport it to a different launch position using other crafts. - Part clipping is allowed but should be stated clearly in the submission. - Missions below 5 tons are very welcome. Missions above 15 tons… There is plenty of room for improvement, since launching in a chair is allowed. - In case you don’t know yet, a sandbox save with Commnet disabled allows engineers to create maneuver nodes. This is encouraged so that you can push the limit further using EVA construction. Submission Rules - Have a screenshot from inside the VAB showing the craft's mass or show it in a video if you are submitting by video. - If you are submitting by screenshots, make sure to screenshot every major burn and the landing on Duna and the return to Kerbin. - If you are submitting by video remember to show the mass and all major burns. Leaderboards - My own submission: Propeller + rocket, a very unconventional approach. I am posting this challenge because I broke BW’s record. Very little part clipping (and not really necessary). 2.291 Tons - @EvermoreAlpaca: Previous world record from the legendary Bradley Whistance. Likely the limit of this challenge prior to the introduction of DLC – 2.998 Tons - @kspfreak: Sets a new world record to Duna+Ike. The new EVA construction is heavily used. Even had enough delta v to go to Minmus. -3.709 tons - @astrobond: Another legendary player who invented the world first Eve SSTO. To both Duna and Ike (previous world record in that category). – 3.995 Tons A few submissions from the original challenge that are below 10 tons: - @tseitsei89 Low mass duna mission 4.609t - Imgur, Jet engine launch, spark booster to help speed up, ions to orbit. Tiny lander using a pair of spider engines - 4.609 Tons - @ManEatingApe: achieved 1700+ meters per second using a rapier, used a tiny wheel like lander and a tiny ion shuttle, utilized aerobraking at both Duna and Kerbin saving fuel. - 4.992 Tons - @Eidahlil : Very awesome craft, rapier engine shot it out of the atmosphere, the lander and ion shuttle assisted each other in achieving orbit, lander has no parachutes, Kerbin and Duna captures both done manually by the ion engine. - 5.473 Tons - @Nefrums Small Duna - Imgur, Rapier launched, spark engine assisted in orbit, ion-powered transfer stage, Duna lander made of cockpit of launch vehicle, Mun assist into Kerbin Orbit, glided down to KSC, powered landing on a spark engine. Very impressive, especially the powered Kerbin landing. - 7.5 Tons

Since you can do it with stock game, it should be acceptable.

Update: Bill to orbit and back in 671 kg and probe to orbit in 543 kg + probe to Minmus in 763 kg I think I might re-open the challenge in a new thread, if no one replies to this one in a few weeks.

In the two videos below, I delivered Bill Kerman to orbit and back with a 671 kg craft (excluding pilot mass), and a fully functional probe (with a solar panel and a battery) to orbit with a 543 kg craft. The manned craft involves a magic trick (Bill holding jetpack on his hands). The unmanned one is completely legit. These two missions break records of lowest mass to orbit for both manned and unmanned (controllable) missions, both set by myself a week ago. Previous manned mission record: 713 kg by ZG Alpaca; 874 kg by Bradley Whistance. Previous unmanned controllable mission record: 0.645 ton by foamyesque(prior to v1.7 when spark hasn't been nerfed); 659 kg by ZG Alpaca. The second video also contains an unmanned mission to Minmus with only 763 kg. I initially wanted to challenge the 776 kg manned Minmus record by Lark Kerman, but his magic flag wings are too powerful to beat. Nevertheless: this mission should still be the world record of unmanned probe to Minmus (w/o magic). Due to the lack of orientation control of the solar panel, I had to use infinite electricity in the last part of the mission. I could have replaced the antenna with a battery and provide communication through relay satellites. The weight and delta v are not affected. The battery should provide enough electricity for the whole mission, as long as you put the probe core on hibernate during time warp. However, it is so painful to do it all over again, and I really apologize for that. Previous manned mission record: 776 kg by Lark Kerman (a lot of magic); 1.2 ton by Bradley Whistance (no magic).

I just checked as you suggested, cannot see the old variants. Are you sure it is not added to your game by any mods?

Oh, sorry for missing that. I guess I need to work on it a bit more to break this record then. I am changing the post to reflect this. I do want to point out that the post was from 2016 before spark engine was nerfed in v1.7. The mass of a spark has increased from 0.1 ton to 0.13 ton since the nerfing. So, I am thinking the craft may not work in the latest version of the game.

My first submission to this challenge. Bill to orbit in 713 kg, and probe to orbit in 659 kg. Mission reports and videos here. Not sure if the OP is still around, maybe I should have started a new challenge thread?

Can't believe I forgot to submit to this challenge! Here is my video of a single stage grand tour that includes Eve. As I used Lt_Duckweed's craft, it should probably be count as a collaboration between us.

In the two videos below, I delivered Bill Kerman to orbit with a 713 kg craft (excluding pilot mass), and a fully functional probe (with a solar panel and a battery) to orbit with a 659 kg craft. These two missions break records of lowest mass to orbit for both manned and unmanned (controllable) missions. A couple notes: Previous manned mission record: 874 kg by Bradley Whistance. Previous unmanned controllable mission record: foamyesque, 0.645 ton (prior to v1.7 when spark hasn't been nerfed). I used reaction wheel + 0 torque servo as motor because of weird rpm oscillation problem with DLC motors.

That is totally OK. I mentioned that in my post "... but sadly I wasn't able to plant a flag on Tylo due to lack of ladder" so I understood it does not satisfy all the rules.

Lt_Duckweed created an SSTA and I used it to do a single stage grand tour mission that includes Eve (with his permission). It includes the Jool five mission, but sadly I wasn't able to plant a flag on Tylo due to lack of ladder. I'll post it here anyway just for those who are interested.

As the title suggests, I sent a 170-meter aircraft carrier to Eve in a single launch (2 stages, no refueling). This mission is a tribute to the Eve carrier missions by Bradley Whistance and Stratzenblitz75. It has been half a year since their last upload, I am so looking forward to (either of) their next video that I starts to re-create their mission by myself Here is the video: And the craft file: KerbalX - Eve aircraft carrier launch system https://imgur.com/A2J0Z62

This will be a series of short tutorials for players who just started learning about gravity assist. The first episode gives you step-by-step guidance on how to plan a KEKKJ assist chain to get to Jool from low Kerbin orbit with 1099 m/s delta-v. Here is the video:

The ascent to 15 km is driven by DLC ducted fan propellers, take a look at 0:27 of the video, or maybe the detail video: The wing-clipping is mostly for aesthetics. Originally I just attach each wing without overlapping, and it flies just fine (as long as I keep the CoM and CoL roughly at the same position). However, I just don't like the looking, it was so ugly... so I arranged them in a (in my opinion) better-looking shape for the actual mission. The key point is that this type of wing clipping does not reduce drag or change any performance of the craft, it should do the same job without wing clipping. As an example, take a look at Brad Whistance Eve cargo SSTO: I could have the wings arranged in multiple layers as he did, but it doesn't look quite like a plane (again in my opinion)...

Yes it is, I never built another plane exceeding 200 t before. But if you compare it with Brad's 2000 t Eve SSTO, this one seems to be reasonably small.