Out Of Science!

[NewtSoup]

I decided to start a new game, I will continue my "Going Mostlywhere" but I've not been well again and just felt like starting over.  To make things interesting I decided to turn off reverts, make Kerbals not respawn and play on 10% of the science rewards!.  I decided to not make it career though.  The idea is that I won't simply finish the tree on Mun, Minmus and Duna and that I'll have to work harder and more creatively to get to where I want to go and earn those oh so scrumptious science points ( this should make the lab actually useful too ).

Early game though I hit a snag.  Pretty much Out of Science as the title says.  Time to stop being "standard" and think a way  to get more science when you  have no rover and just a 2 boxes along the science line.
 

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2018 by NewtSoup

[NewtSoup]

 

I want the next bit to be a separate post and not combined with the original

Aha.. and so after waiting long enough I can post the next video.   Just for giggles and because I'm going to need the science I decided to see if I could get to the Mün on just  3 tech boxes.  I was completely optimistic from the outset and an no point did I blow up on the launchpad, randomly deconstruct or fall out of the sky.

I proudly present the "Kraken Tempter"

Craft file available on request! (I'm sure she'll be very popular )
 

 

Edited December 7, 2018 by NewtSoup

[NewtSoup]

She's a little squirly low down, and in the mid atmosphere, and higher up to be quite honest.  I gets far to boring after 3rd stage separation though.  Just a bit standard really.  I'm not sure I'll be able to land on the Müm with just this tech. Well, Land, yes.. get home, probably not.

Edited December 7, 2018 by NewtSoup

[Zhetaan]

9 hours ago, NewtSoup said:

She's a little squirly low down, and in the mid atmosphere, and higher up to be quite honest.

Is that to say that it flies well, except for the everything?  It reminds me of this.

If you should find yourself pressed for additional ideas, you may wish to look at challenge threads and mission reports for the phrase 'nanocrystalline diamond'.  That's the cheeky name for the hardest possible career difficulty, and you may find innovations that interest you.  I think there's a satisfying challenge in devising new ways to use only the first ten parts to progress the game:  the venerable ScienceRoller has pride of place there.  Congratulations on inventing it independently!

I look forward to seeing your landing mission!

[NewtSoup]

Thank you for the info.  I will resist looking it up though in case it turns out to be a bit of a "walkthrough" for me.  I'm currently trying to work out how I can land on the Mün with just those 3 tech boxes.  I'm not sure I can but I can now afford General Rocketry and have a more powerful main engine.  OR I could take stability and have a radial decoupler, a nose cone and a new fin!.  Choices choices!  I may have to take the roller out for another spin to get both.

[NewtSoup]

Quick test in Sandbox and I think I will go for the nose cone. 
Hammer SRB 4 basic fins and an OKTO reaches 12,292 meters
Hammer SRB 4 basic fins and and OKTO with an aerodynamic nose cone reaches 15,134 meters
With a flea and the same setup the nose cone was detrimental to max alt, but that was because it didn't have enough power to go transonic.
Once you're into transonic speeds ( and when pushing through the sound barrier ) the nose cone really pays off it seems.

[NewtSoup]

This is a really interesting way to play.  With only 10% of the science rewards available the emphasis becomes on being able to get to more places to do what little science you can rather than maximising your science potential.

I did a mun mission.  I did not document it as everyone has seen a mun mission.  I got 57 science whereas normally that would have been 570 and opened up a slection of around 5 6 boxes.  This time I could choose just one tier 3 box and so it was Advanced Rocketry for the Terrier and Thud Engines and the larger fuel tank which will help stop "concertina" behaviour in my ships. 

I did not have enough science to get electrics.  I could have gone aviation and scavenged further points around Kerbin but this time, that is not the efficient way.  Better to extend my range and open up more space opportunity.

Also - Pilots are much more useful now.  I can't just slap a probe on because I don't have the comms or electrics available.  So it's got to be krewed missions to keep the stability options open. 

So now I have 7 tech boxes and I can think about going to minmus now.  Or at least exploring more biomes of the Mün.

I wonder if I can do Duna on 7 boxes?

Also learned.  Micro Landing struts are pointless.  Land on fuel tanks very gently or on girders.  You do not need all that bounce even when their sliders are  upped.  Micro struts are really only good for probes which you can't make at this low tech.

[NewtSoup]

Science Vessel II - The strut free version.  Also features no alternators on the terriers.

However, dumping the Reliant engines in favour of Terriers upped the dV by over 1000.  This ship has ~8200 dV now.   Also changed fuel tanks for bigger ones and fewer of them, this does not affect the dV only the rigidity of the ship, still woeful though and no struts or autostruts.  Also removed the landing gear, now relying entirely on Landing Tanks!  Upped the battery capacity to 700.  Hopefully will be enough!.   I think the next electronics box really should be next on my purchase list.

Time to sample the finest cheeses of Minmus.

Edited December 16, 2018 by NewtSoup

[NewtSoup]

Turns out those SRBs were producing some unwanted torque effects this time ( AKA rotating uncontrollably ) so It got changed to this:

Same everything except the SRB's just boost together at full power whereas before the inner ones had a smaller max thrust to burn for longer and this time everything is pseudo onion staged.

[NewtSoup]

So, a quick jolly to Minmus was in order as science points were in demand.  The cheese containers were primed.  The batteries were charged. The rocket was fuelled.  Batteries were feared to be the deciding factor in mission length as once the main engines were jettisoned and the ship was on terriers only, batteries would be the only source of power and must last.  After a quick "spin" through the lower atmosphere the onion was finally peeled leaving only the core.  This brought tears to the Krew's eyes but not too many.

An uneventful and undocumented hop through local space later Valentina settled the imaginatively named Science Ship II down on its landing tanks and then stood with Devis on the surface for the obligatory selfie.

After visit to 5 of Minmus' 8 biomes fuel in the lander war running low.  Battery power had lasted well however with judicious use of SAS and was at just under half capacity.  Although the return vehicle was replete with go juice and some could have been transferred to the lander the mission was to return to LKO before landing so it was decided to say farewell to the great cheese planes and minty mountains of Minmus and return to Kerbin.

Thanks to Valentina's fine piloting skills ( and not repeated reloads in LKO ) the ship was dropped within spitting ( well a short bus journey ) distance of the KSC.

One last Selfie was in order to celebrate a safe return with no unplanned explosions.

With a haul of 290 precious science points bringing the total to 305 the mission was declared a resounding success.  Next stop.  Duna!  ( now that we can afford solar panels )

 

Edited December 19, 2018 by NewtSoup

[NewtSoup]

So my choices were as follows:

Electrics - for solar panels 
Miniaturization - for a docking port 
Flight control for fins and an inline reaction wheel
General Construction for STRUTS, FINALLY SOME RIGIDITY.

My tree now looks like this:
 

Yeah.. Duna and Ike are going to be easy peasy!