Smallest Moon Lander Challenge -- after SpaceIL Sparrow

[Jasonden]

As part of our own Munar X-Prize, this challenge is to build the smallest (either least massive, or cheapest) Mun lander.  Inspired by the tiny Earth's Moon lander built by the Israeli firm SpaceIL, originally for the X-Prize, your job is to build a Mun lander.  Because the SpaceIL "Sparrow" lander is riding piggyback as a secondary payload on a commsat mission, you must build a mission that:

1. starts in low-Kerbin orbit, with both periapsis and apoapsis less than 100km,
2. lands on the Mun,
3. has a payload of a science thermometer
4. transmits its data back to Kerbin

Prizes will be awarded for the lowest-mass lander, and separately for the cheapest lander that you can build.  Good luck; we're all counting on you.  

 

 

Lowest-Mass Landers:	Cheapest Landers:
1:  187kg  vyznev	1:  1748   vyznev
2:  334kg  sturmhauke 3:  365kg  PrvDancer85 4:  487kg  qzgy 5:  912kg  Rocket in my Pocket	2:  1985   PrvDancer85 3:  2465  qzgy 4:  3144  Rocket in my Pocket 5:  4104  sturmhauke

 

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by Jasonden

[Rocket In My Pocket]

I'll kick this party off!

912Kg/3,144Funds

You'll notice it lands upside down on it's probe core, because amusingly enough it has the highest impact tolerance of all the parts on board! (12m/s) I started at an 80/80 Kerbin orbit with the debug menu. Fun little challenge, let's see some more entries!

Edited November 10, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[qzgy]

1 hour ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

912Kg/3,144Funds

ITS TINY. i wanna hug it.

I think your engine is too big though. (this was done in 1.3, if that matters). I got about half your weight

487Kg/2465 funds.

I think you can go lower, but this is already pretty bare bones.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Yeah, I started with an Ant, and I was like "8 min burn to the Mun?" Screw that! Lol.

Nice job! Our designs are very similar, great minds think alike!

[qzgy]

Just now, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Yeah, I started with an Ant, and I was like "8 min burn to the Mun?" Screw that! Lol.

Nice job! Our designs are very similar, great minds think alike!

8 minute burn? I only have something like a 2 minute burn.....

Thanks! I have to say I think I did take some inspiration from your design. It looks quite nice.

 

[PrvDancer85]

I've also debugt this into orbit (87×87)

365kg 1985

[qzgy]

Yup, and I think thats the limit unless you remove batteries or something.

[PrvDancer85]

22 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Yup, and I think thats the limit unless you remove batteries or something.

Dont know about this u need about 40 ec for transmiting and even in hibernation the 110 ec wont last long, u could spare some fuel, my entry has something over 2000 dv

[Jasonden]

Rocket in my Pocket, qzgy, PrvDancer85:  Awesome guys!  Thanks for getting us started!!!  These look hard to beat.  I wasn't sure anyone would get under 500kg, but it's already blown away.  Sweet! 

[swjr-swis]

4 hours ago, PrvDancer85 said:

365kg 1985

Try it with three nothes down on the LFO - it's enough for the transfer and the suicide burn. Would be 305kg 1979.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

12 hours ago, qzgy said:

8 minute burn? I only have something like a 2 minute burn.....

Thanks! I have to say I think I did take some inspiration from your design. It looks quite nice.

That first design had an extra doughnut fuel tank, a reaction wheel, and a bigger battery too. It was heavier all around, most likely why. I stripped some of that off when I decided to go for an engine with more oomph, and replace the reaction wheel/larger battery with a probe core that had both built in. (I also didn't want my entry to be "too minimal" and not leave room for improvement/other entries. That'd be less "kicking it off" and more "slamming the door" lol.)

Thanks!

Edited November 10, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[vyznev]

Here's my entry: 1748 kerbucks, 187 kg, six parts.

Mission screenshots and writeup: https://imgur.com/a/rfuczke

Craft file: https://pastebin.com/tbUg8Szn

Notable features include the complete absence of solar panels and reaction wheels. The single battery has more than enough charge to keep the probe core running (in hibernation for most of the journey) and to transmit the science data, and the single Spider engine can gimbal for attitude control.

(Also, looks like this was my 100th post here on this forum. Cool. )

Edited November 11, 2018 by vyznev

[Jasonden]

@vyznev :  impressive; most impressive.  Indeed you are powerful, as the Emperor has foreseen.  I'm tempted to declare you the winner right now; but I'll give it a day or so to see if anyone can optimize further (which looks awfully hard!).

[vyznev]

3 hours ago, Jasonden said:

@vyznev :  impressive; most impressive.  Indeed you are powerful, as the Emperor has foreseen.  I'm tempted to declare you the winner right now; but I'll give it a day or so to see if anyone can optimize further (which looks awfully hard!).

Well, I did still have some fuel left in the tank on landing... 

A bit more seriously, I do believe that at least my mass score is still beatable. If nothing else, replacing the Stayputnik with an OKTO2 should shave 10 kg off the dry mass and also allow the fuel mass to be reduced. With careful piloting, I think getting the total mass under 170 kg should be doable.

(Also, looks like you got my craft's mass wrong in the leaderboard: it's 187 kg, not 175 kg. That's a 12 kg bonus I haven't really earned.)

(Edit: You seem to have fixed the mass on the leaderboard, but now the cost is wrong. )

Edited November 11, 2018 by vyznev

[sturmhauke]

My entry would have been the new 1st place (at least on mass), but I got sniped before I could finish. Oh well, might as well post it anyway.

Munbug has a mass of 334kg and costs 4,104. Full album: https://imgur.com/a/K1oUOli

Edited November 11, 2018 by sturmhauke

[Kergarin]

On 11/10/2018 at 11:36 PM, vyznev said:

Well, I did still have some fuel left in the tank on landing... 

A bit more seriously, I do believe that at least my mass score is still beatable. If nothing else, replacing the Stayputnik with an OKTO2 should shave 10 kg off the dry mass and also allow the fuel mass to be reduced. With careful piloting, I think getting the total mass under 170 kg should be doable.

(Also, looks like you got my craft's mass wrong in the leaderboard: it's 187 kg, not 175 kg. That's a 12 kg bonus I haven't really earned.)

(Edit: You seem to have fixed the mass on the leaderboard, but now the cost is wrong. )

Really good design. 166kg should be doable by optimizing it. Have just tried it, and was 15m/s short. This could be optimized by some Mun gravity assists and a good suicide burn. (which I didn't)