Twitches to the Mun ... Sepratrons to the surface

[Geonovast]

As the result of a half put together challenge idea on a whim, I decided to do this.  Launch 5 Kerbals to the Mun (But not back) using nothing but Twitch engines on the launcher and transfer vehicle, and nothing but sepratrons on the lander.

I spent entirely too long on this, with some interesting "bugs" on the way.

 

Monkey flips the switch.  A full 2 seconds later, 192 Twitch engines roar to life.  Keep in mind I do not have  a potato.

First stage dump, just some fuel tanks.

Start gravity turn after dropping the tanks, grab an undercarriage shot.

Drop boosters.  There were some explosions as I wasn't using any sepratrons to push them away, but a quick inspection shows we're all good!

After a gravity turn I'm rather proud of considering the low TWR, we ditch the fairing and set up for 110 m/s circularization.

Circularize, then trans munar burn to a booster disposal orbit.

Separate, and do some housekeeping for setting equatorial munar orbit.

After ditching the transfer vehicle.  We wait for a good departure time, as terrain height is fairly critical.  Any less than ~3km above "Sea Level", and the lander will crash.

Fire de-orbit stage.

Fire first main braking stage

Fire second braking stage

Several (18) small shots later, she's down!  With zero engines left over.

 

Might be interesting to see if I could get it so they came back.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 18, 2018 by Geonovast

[Pretorian28715]

Awaiting news of the rescue attempt.....

[HansonKerman]

On 9/18/2018 at 12:02 AM, Geonovast said:

 

While for me, the pics have not all loaded yet, this one looks AWESOME!

[Fraston]

I know what you could do for the rescue mission; you could get a ssto with a claw, fly it to the mun, latch onto the lander on the swoop down, transfer the crew, then ditch the lander in the atmosphere! 

[Kerbalstar]

Waiting for rescue with same criteria...

[Geonovast]

Wait, I have to go get them now?  Ugh...

[Ultimate Steve]

Hmm... I don't want to dig out the pictures, but I did make a small mun base with just SRBs once, and I even started a mostly SRB grand tour (minimal vernors for docking) that I never finished due to time. I got to Eve and Gilly before putting it on hold until I could find the patience to launch and dock at least 10 giant SRB segments so I could "refuel" the mothership and take it to Moho.

So I'm saying is that the sepratron landing is not as hard as you think it will be, the real challenge is to make it small enough as to not melt your computer!

EDIT: Thought I was commenting on a challenge thread and was giving advice, so post is weirdly worded for a mission report response. Great job on the mission!

Edited September 28, 2018 by Ultimate Steve