The Munar Crusade

[Ehco Corrallo]

This is a mission for everyone. 

If you've been to the Mun, you remember the struggle to design something awesome enough to reach its cratered surface, the long, perilous descent onto the surface itself, and the inevitable failure of your landing legs. If you've been to the Mun you know what pain is. 

If you haven't been to the Mun, your one goal is your worst enemy: the Mun. It mocks you, even when you shut down your computer. The Mun is visible in real life, so it taunts you in real life. No matter where you go, you cannot escape the eventuality: you cannot be a rocketeer without travelling to the Mun. After reaching orbit, you go to the Mun, that's just the way it works. 

Dramatic preamble aside, this challenge is more or less exactly in the spirit of something entirely different from the Dres Awareness challenge. The Mun needs nothing, but we need revenge. The challenge is simple: send a mission to the Mun that's suitably massive enough that you can say to yourself: "I have conquered the Mun; there is no mission to the Munar surface that I could not succeed in completing."

One rule: no hyperedit. Other mods are totally fine, and don't in any way challenge the legitimacy of your mission (I'd like a list of mods nevertheless, but it's not neccessary). This challenge is about self-fulfillment. Hyperedit is an excellent tool, but in this case, it's counter-intuitive to purpose of this challenge. Mods are perfectly reasonable.

NOTE: I'm willing to discuss the no-hyperedit rule. 

I want lots of pictures! Not for confirmation or anything, I just want to see what everyone comes up with. 

In case you're still on the fence: 

There's a badge! 

THE BOARD OF CRUSADERS: 

@Speeding Mullet: 216 Fervent Religious Followers

@Temstar: 8640 Units of Fuel Storage

@A35K: 555 Propaganda Broadcasts

@Dafni: 132 Possible Follow-Up Missions

@Gojira1000: 12 Days of Khristmas

@Norcalplanner: 2,204,622.6 Pounds of Awesome. 

@CrashTestDanny: 60 Stranded Vacationing Scientists. 

@PointySideUp: 16 Birthday Candles (on the Mun). 

@Ehco Corrallo: One botched landing. 

@EvermoreAlpaca: 60,253 credits worth of profit. 

@DBowman: One Fourty-Eight man manned mission.

@purpleivan: The Largest Orange Lump.

@SuicidalInsanity: One Four Step Step Pyramid (I know it's a ziggurat...)

@superstrijder15: One Photo Finish.

@Jhawk1099: 3 Episodes of Munar Awesomeness. 

@Dfthu: 1 Tower, 1 Mun.

@spacebrick3: Over a few customers served. 

@JebsDead: 581 not-dead kerbals. 

@Van Disaster: 18 kerbals and a roaming home.  

Spoiler

If you've completed the Munar Crusade, and have been moved to the Board of Crusaders, you are entitled to use this URL to embed the badge in your signature. 

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/548681523271941364/AC5C94E1DDCBA7904C8A9B5995E1BB38130BC8C2/

 

Edited September 27, 2016 by Ehco Corrallo
So many crusaders! And a badge! And tags!

[HoloYolo]

So the challenge is land on the Mun? Even a player with 10 hours can do this. Could you make this harder?

[Deddly]

12 minutes ago, HoloYolo said:

So the challenge is land on the Mun? Even a player with 10 hours can do this. Could you make this harder?

That was the whole point of the mission... Land on Mun, only do it like a BadS

[HoloYolo]

1 minute ago, Deddly said:

That was the whole point of the mission... Land on Mun, only do it like a BadS

Explain how I can do it BadSly

[SuicidalInsanity]

Presumably doing it in a entirely unnecessarily and over complex very Kerbal manner, like landing a 200 ton lander or doing it only with SRBs or something. As an Idea, here's a mun landing I did for the size-0 challenge, but should probably apply here as well: Landing on the Mun using only 0.625m engines or smaller:

[Ehco Corrallo]

30 minutes ago, HoloYolo said:

So the challenge is land on the Mun?

Not quite. The goal is actually to conquer the Mun by landing as much crap on the Munar surface as it takes to make you feel as though you have entirely mastered Munar travel. It's not meant to be terribly difficult, (so that slightly newer players can manage it) but it is meant to be long term and large scale. A fleet of rovers, a sprawled mining base, a hysterically heavy landing ship, or something to that effect would do. 

Essentially it's the complete opposite of those minimum parts missions; instead of sending the most minimalist ship possible, you send the most extravagant one you can build.

Arbitrary bonus points for ridiculously heavy landing ships and slightly pyrotechnic lightshows. 

30 minutes ago, HoloYolo said:

Even a player with 10 hours can do this. Could you make this harder?

A player with 10 hours is supposed to be able to do this. It's not meant to be about skill in designing and piloting like some other challenges are; I didn't want it to be too time consuming or limited by skill. It's about gaining confidence through a series of trips to the Mun, until it's entirly reasonable to say that you are a Mun God.

If you're good at Mun landings already, challenge yourself and do something ridiculous. 

I'm either going to try circumnavigating the Mun, or I'm going to build a Jazzercise colony in the East Crater. 

I apologize if the original mission statement was unclear, so here's some clarification (in bold typeface, because I can): Take a trip to the Mun that is so spectacular and awesome that you can't help but be proud of it. It can be one launch if the payload is appropriately fabulous enough, but send multiple ships otherwise. 

Edited December 11, 2015 by Ehco Corrallo
Reiterated mission statement for clarity.

[Ehco Corrallo]

40 minutes ago, HoloYolo said:

Explain how I can do it BadSly

Those giant rover wheels are a good start. Or build something that's visible from really far away. SRBs make an excellent addition to any mission, just make sure to put them somewhere unexpected. Building something giant out of structural panels would qualify, especially if it has lots of lights. Jebidiah clones can help with stability. 

Basically, plan a Mun mission like Jeb would. 

Build something along the lines of St. Fredrick, the Party Plane of Funkyness, only bigger, and on the Mun. 

This is St. Fredrick, the Party Plane of Funkyness:

[Speeding Mullet]

I like the sound of this challenge.  The destination is obviously easy, but as OP says it's not about that at all.  It's about landing something on the Mun that is so outlandish that the average person simply goes .  it welcomes hideously bloated launch vehicles, inventive engineering, and lots of fun.

Only thing I could suggest for this challenge is possibly a points system based around maximizing the size and/or complexity of the craft, so for example number of bases/rovers etc landed at once, or total mass of lander etc etc.

Anyway.  Here's a Cathedral landing on the Mun.  Excuse me Sir, do you have a minute to talk about our Lord and Savior, Kraken, god of the Kerbol System?

 

SM

[Ehco Corrallo]

13 hours ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Only thing I could suggest for this challenge is possibly a points system based around maximizing the size and/or complexity of the craft, so for example number of bases/rovers etc landed at once, or total mass of lander etc etc.

I'm going to make up a horribly arbitrary, totally ridiculous scoring system, and award points based on inconsistent variables. Then I'll award badges based on that [just as soon as I make a badge and figure out how to award it]. If you include the weight of the final payload, I'll factor that in. 

Speeding Mullet's Score:

x2 multiplier for using lights,

1 point per Mammoth engine,

2 points for using a Twin Boar in an unconventional stage,

and 100 points because it's a cathedral,

for a total of 216 Fervent Religious Followers. 

One thing: does your cathedral have a congregation? Every cathedral needs a congregation. 

I love the cross by the way. 

Edited December 12, 2015 by Ehco Corrallo
Forgot to mention the cross.

[Temstar]

Long time ago I built up this large modular Mun base which I named Von Braun City, built up of components over something like 30 launches.

[HoloYolo]

I stand corrected and I will do this.

[Ehco Corrallo]

5 hours ago, Temstar said:

Long time ago I built up this large modular Mun base which I named Von Braun City, built up of components over something like 30 launches.

That qualifies, but I'm not sure if I want to include older missions. 

No, it just qualifies. I'll put you on the board (which I've decided to make very large indeed). And you'll get a badge as soon as someone notices the subtle hints I've been not-so-subltly dropping, and tells me how I'm supposed to add a badge. 

Temstar's Score:

3x score multiplier for having a three-armed base,

10 points for sending it up in several launches,

2 points per rover,

20 points for naming in Von Braun City (in a challenge about Munar Mastery, style counts),

for a total of 8640 Units of Fuel Storage. 

Also, for future reference: have some fun on the surface of the Mun! Your submissions don't need to be bases and Godly monoliths (though bases and Godly monoliths are perfectly acceptable,) rovers and dropships and things like that are totally cool as well. 

Edited December 12, 2015 by Ehco Corrallo

[Ehco Corrallo]

53 minutes ago, HoloYolo said:

I stand corrected and I will do this.

Good for you. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. 

Speaking of which, I should probably get around to making a submission. I started this whole thing after all. I'm thinking of doing something visible from the farthest camera distance...

[Emoss55]

This challenge looks fun!  I'm going to be landing an extremely large mining rover on the mun as soon as I build it.

Edit: I am now going to land an oversized rescue mission to rescue Shelster Kerman from the moon (his large mining rover exploded when it encountered the mun at 200 m/s)

Edited December 13, 2015 by Emoss55
Change of plans

[Speeding Mullet]

18 hours ago, Ehco Corrallo said:

I'm going to make up a horribly arbitrary, totally ridiculous scoring system, and award points based on inconsistent variables. Then I'll award badges based on that [just as soon as I make a badge and figure out how to award it]. If you include the weight of the final payload, I'll factor that in. 

Speeding Mullet's Score:

x2 multiplier for using lights,

1 point per Mammoth engine,

2 points for using a Twin Boar in an unconventional stage,

and 100 points because it's a cathedral,

for a total of 216 Fervent Religious Followers. 

One thing: does your cathedral have a congregation? Every cathedral needs a congregation. 

I love the cross by the way. 

Excellent news.  No, no followers, They really only sent it to the Mun to get rid of it.

SM

[cubinator]

I did land something absolutely ridiculous on the Mun once, but it was sooooo laggy I couldn't use anything but hyperedit to get it there. It was a giant Kraken mouth that was so part-clippy that it wiggled around like it was waving its tentacles, it used lots and lots of Klaws as teeth too. I do have pics but in spirit of the challenge I refrain from posting them. If you want them I will post them but since Hyperedit is officially frowned upon I will not do that unless specifically asked.

I will sometime soon be landing on the resized Mun with Realism Overhaul and the 10x Kerbol system, in career mode. That will be interesting, although I suppose the hills will be very stretched out and flat, not very good for fun stuff like rolling down crater walls.

Edited December 14, 2015 by cubinator

[Ehco Corrallo]

1 hour ago, cubinator said:

I did land something absolutely ridiculous on the Mun once, but it was sooooo laggy I couldn't use anything but hyperedit to get it there. It was a giant Kraken mouth that was so part-clippy that it wiggled around like it was waving its tentacles, it used lots and lots of Klaws as teeth too. I do have pics but in spirit of the challenge I refrain from posting them. If you want them I will post them but since Hyperedit is officially frowned upon I will not do that unless specifically asked.

Go ahead and post the pictures. While using Hyperedit technically disqualifies you, it would be good to have more examples of more awesome things we can put on the Mun. 

On 12/12/2015, 10:49:43, Emoss55 said:

I am now going to land an oversized rescue mission to rescue Shelster Kerman from the moon (his large mining rover exploded when it encountered the mun at 200 m/s)

Sounds good, just make sure it follows an incredibly gratuitous mission plan. 

[cubinator]

18 hours ago, Ehco Corrallo said:

Go ahead and post the pictures. While using Hyperedit technically disqualifies you, it would be good to have more examples of more awesome things we can put on the Mun.

Okeydokey. Here you go:

The tentacles really wiggled, and I may one day send a Kerbal into it from orbit as a sacrifice...

[Ehco Corrallo]

24 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Okeydokey. Here you go: The tentacles really wiggled, and I may one day send a Kerbal into it from orbit as a sacrifice...

That would be a perfectly acceptable submission for this challenge. It would take a good amount of piloting skill, which is what matters in this challenge. Hyperedit is fine as long as there's still a sense of accomplishment by the mission's end. 

As a note on bonus points: the more crew the better! From now on I will [unofficially] frown on entries without crew. My reasoning: Munar EVAs are too good to leave out.

[Ehco Corrallo]

I will get around to completing this challenge myself. I'm currently building an independently-transported mega-tourism rover. But my first mission to Jool is (suddenly) taking precedence. 

I have way too many missions to work on right now.

Edit: I made it to Jool (boyah!) so I'll have that rover up and running in maybe a short-ish while. 

Edited December 15, 2015 by Ehco Corrallo
Reached Jool.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

What about a nice, fleet of SSTO's bringing in bombs to the Munar surface?

[Ehco Corrallo]

38 minutes ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

What about a nice, fleet of SSTO's bringing in bombs to the Munar surface?

That sounds perfect. 

How many is a fleet? (just out of curiosity) 

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Based on patience, I could get 4 of 'em into Munar orbit, each with two bombs each that would deorbit on their own, then boost down to the ground with their own engines, each bomb having 1.5km/s of delta-v

 

Do I have to show the flight, and travel of each one? I mean the transport craft.

[Dafni]

Always wanted a badge, and this sounds like a fun little challenge. I like your approach 

I have some ideas and as soon as I find the time to play I will report back.

Edited December 15, 2015 by Dafni

[A35K]

About to get started on this, but just one thing: How do I embed an imgur album?