The "Douglas Adams" Challenge

[mystifeid]

Eventually made it to Eve and back. Pretty glad this one is finished and 'Eventually" seemed like a good name for the ship.

The Eventually is like that whimpering three legged dog you felt sorry for when you saw it. You wanted to give it a pat to cheer it up but didn't really want a stray mutt following you home so you contented yourself with a look of concern as you passed it by. But that was enough. It attached itself to you and you looked after that dog until the day it died despite it's obscene vet bills, the appetite of a small horse and an almost constant, eye-watering and silent flatulence. Take it home to meet the family? You bet.

Probably the hardest thing about this challenge was coming up with something a bit different to those designs already submitted. Difficult when there are so very few engines capable of lifting off from Eve. I did my best though. In contrast to previous solutions, I did not kill or leave behind any Kerbals. I did not use any pilots - auto or otherwise. Bill went there and back by himself. This was a single Kerbal mission. No mods were used in the mission - this includes MH parts. And neither KER nor MJ were used to design or test the craft.

Courtesy of the Twin Boars, the Eventually may be the heaviest craft to lift off from the surface of Eve so far. Handles like a dream too. It is a two stage ascent vehicle with three Twin Boars in the first stage and a single aerospike in the second. Staging occurs around 20km up after being progressively throttled back once velocity reaches about 500m/s . Because of the weight, like @Laie, I was forced to refuel on Minmus before taking a dive to Eve.

I had quite a few false starts to the mission - something always went wrong, forcing me to start again. On this final attempt I couldn't jettison my top heat shield without destroying my craft. Finally I tried leaving it deflated and reentered without incident. Possibly I could have left it off but I'm not sure what I would replaced it with.

Testing designs gave me a lot of practice launching from Eve so after refueling I made orbit on the first try - almost matching the plane of the return vehicle. It would have been easy to provide a bigger tank for the return. I just never got to practice that part. As it was, Bill made capture at Kerbin with 3.55/4.34 LOX remaining. And after about fifty shallow dips through the atmosphere, Bill finally splashed down.

Imgur album - https://imgur.com/a/hUtEmhJ

Craft - https://kerbalx.com/mystifeid/Eventually

The upside-down bottom heat shield - when deflated, it doubles as landing gear.

Liftoff

Eventually..

 

Edited September 28, 2018 by mystifeid

[IncongruousGoat]

Well, it's finished. I did a 42-part Jool 5 with no ISRU.

Mission album is here: https://imgur.com/a/0V7TogV

Craft file is here: https://kerbalx.com/IncongruousGoat/Amalthea

The mission was... honestly, pretty unpleasant to fly. Delta-V margins were often razor-thin, TWRs and accelerations were never what I wanted them to be, and using ion engines out at Jool is a painful experience in general. But I did it anyway, to show that it can be done. Also because designing it was fun.

Edited September 30, 2018 by IncongruousGoat
Added craft file

[sturmhauke]

Dude, that's seriously impressive. I think I'd tear my hair out trying that.

[dnbattley]

@mystifeid and @IncongruousGoat: your dedication and inventiveness has further advanced the achievements of 42-part craft everywhere: congratulations and thanks for sharing these two platinum submissions. I'll add these up to the leaderboard as soon as I can get to my pc (I am currently traveling).

Overall, I think the hypothesis of 42-part craft being able to "go anywhere and do anything" has been comprehensively proven. I hope everyone who has submitted so far enjoyed the unique challenge the design limitations offered, and feels they have learned something new from it.

For anyone who has not yet but wants to, please note that I will curate this particular thread for the foreseeable future, and once filled will be replacing designs on the leaderboard where newer, improved, or simply more interesting versions of the same concept are submitted, so please feel free to participate.

[ManEatingApe]

Presenting the Ark B, a no MH, no ISRU, no gravity assists, no added preservatives, no added flavorings, stock chemical engine only Jool 5 mission.

@5thHorseman's Tylo technique was just so good, that I followed it to the letter, dropping a mother-ship into high Tylo orbit. Thanks 5H!

For maximum part re-use the centre stage of the Tylo lander returned to the mother-ship and was refuelled and reused as the Vall, Bop and Pol lander.

The Laythe landing craft also did double duty as the Kerbin return vehicle.

Highlights in the spoiler and full album link.

Spoiler

Tylo

Vall

Bop

Pol

Laythe

 

[IncongruousGoat]

@ManEatingApe Well, great. Now I just feel silly.

But, seriously, congratulations. You clearly thought the whole "42-part Jool 5" thing through a lot more thoroughly than I did.

[ManEatingApe]

@IncongruousGoat Ditching the landing gear to save parts on your Laythe lander was ingenious.

Climbing atop the flag to get back on your Tylo lander was also a nice touch - I chuckled at that one, it was very Kerbal!

Edited September 30, 2018 by ManEatingApe

[mystifeid]

@dnbattley - launch mass of the Eventually is 290t and imho should be listed as KSP version 1.4.5 - not 1.4.5MH.

[Space Nerd]

@dnbattley

(A necro)

are wolfhund engines allowed since it got nerfed to an isp of 380?

[dnbattley]

20 minutes ago, Space Nerd said:

are wolfhund engines allowed since it got nerfed to an isp of 380?

Good question: given the nerfing I am now happy if they are used in this challenge.

[QF9E]

Can I still submit a craft to this challenge? I completed a 42-part flight to Eve's Eastern Sea and back: https://imgur.com/a/fzHlZ44. I used version 1.8.1 without any of the DLCs. Craft file here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1909683319

My craft, "Up goer 42-III" in the VAB. I tried this challenge twice before, but both times the lander malfunctioned despite lots of testing.

Splashdown of my lander into Eve''s Easern Sea. I found that a 10 meter heat shield makes an excellent raft and launch platform.

Jeb and Val safely back on Kerbin. They had to bail out and use their personal parachutes as I did not have any parts to spare for a chute on my craft.

Edited November 9, 2019 by QF9E

[dnbattley]

On 11/10/2019 at 8:18 AM, QF9E said:

Can I still submit a craft to this challenge?

You certainly can, and what a great submission it is too! A platinum award to you sir, and I'll update the leaderboard accordingly.