To the Mun - under 500 tons.

[DerGolgo]

Hi there,
I've poked my head into the KSP forums a few times, though have omitted a formal introduction as such.
So here I am. I'm an engineering school dropout and had been lusting for a game like KSP ever since I had spent weeks on end playing "Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space".
I've been playing KSP (badly) for a while, sandbox only.
It's one of very few computer games I can still play, as I've lost most of my vision in a traffic collision a few years ago. Consequently, when I bought my present computer, I hadn't expected to play any graphics intense games again, ever. Consequently, not the hottest graphics card.
Which you can see in my first KSP video.
Well, more like my seventh KSP video. Just the first one that is even remotely watchable and that I didn't have "Eraser" scrub from my harddrive.

What you see here:
A mission to the mun. On rockets under 500 tons.
Yes, the plural. I'm dead certain somebody else has done this, probably when the game version was still below 1.
But here's how I did it. No engine with ISP over 310s, so in the Apollo-era ballpark. Rockets weighing about half what the RSBstock Saturn V brings.
I don't play career mode, but if you have to make a Munar landing happen with smaller rockets, here's an option.

The mission profile: Jeb flies to the Mun, alone, in a 2-seater spacecraft with plenty of ∆v to spare. In case something goes wrong.
What would go wrong would be part of Valentina's flight. On a second rocket, carrying the actual Munar landing craft.
After flying to the Mun and landing, she goes back up with the ascent stage,  and then heads to rendezvous with the waiting Jeb.
The rest of the mission should be obvious. Not so obvious, until I flew it for the video: Taking off from the Munar surface, Valentina had enough ∆v left to make it back to Kerbin without Jeb and his big rocket.
So I might use the hardware from this video to try a direct ascent flight in a later video. If such is desired, please do let me know.

Anyway, here's the video.
Caution: The title is no joke. Clumsy is, also, not something you do with your hands. It's a state of mind. So even where I had the right idea about how to do something, I certainly did it in some way that will make you cringe so loud, your neighbors will file a complaint.
So don't watch this if you don't wanna deal with being subpoenaed over noise pollution.
 

 

Edited October 25, 2017 by DerGolgo
Forgot stuff.

[Vanamonde]

Wow. That is a lot of parts and mods. Congratulations, I guess? Can't tell what's happening between all those mod panels.

Anyway, welcome to the forum.