The Antship Challenge

[TheOptimizer]

During a conversation with Werner von Kerman, he said to me that once you are in orbit, the TWR is not important, and can be as low as necessary. I replied him that many celestial bodies need trust to land on them, but said that "anyway, on most airless worlds, kerbals weight like an ant".

It happens that threre exists an engine specifically made for ants, the Ant engine. The challenge is to test how much the assertion is true. The conditions are

-A kerbal needs minimal confort, so will not tolarate anything less than mk1 lander can.

-The only propulsion allowed is a single Ant engine (and no rcs, no eva pushing).

-A single ship begins from LKO, with periapsis/apoapsis between 70km and 80 km. It can be hyperedited there. The ship can split, but then only one part will have the Ant engine.

-The mission ends when the ship (which should consist at least of the command module containing the kerbal) lands safely on Kerbin.

 

Tylo is impossible as the Ant engine is not even capable of lifting the mk1 lander can. Making history is allowed as it does not seem to allow anything useful here. For the others worlds, here are the levels of glory

-Easy: Minmus

-Medium: Gilly, Bop, Pol, Ike, Mun, and Minmus with Mk1-3 command pod

-Hard: Eeloo, and Gilly, Bop, Pol with Mk1-3 command pod

-Ant-man: Vall, Moho

 

Remarks: Its not clear if Vall/Moho are possible, but I cannot prove it isn't... Heavy ships are essentially useless, as their terribly low TWR make orbital maneuver difficult. For Jool/Eeloo, using eve assists is very useful as it decreases necessary V infinity at Kerbin, and long trusts lowers Oberth effect. On high gravity worlds like Mun/Eeloo, an orbital rendez-vous seems necessary. I have personnaly managed to land on Minmus, Gilly, Bop, Pol with mk1 lander can, let's see your creativity!

[Aeroboi]

The challenge seems restricted. I think people would still desire mission freedom, so to land at as much places as possible.
Why require a Mk1-3 command pod then? I think it's better in terms of rules to say a mk1-3 command pod is used to transfer the kerbals interplanetary but can use a command chair to land on Vall, Bop or any place.

For one thing, I don't understand how a single ant can lift a mk1 lander can from Moho, or is it the goal to get to a stable orbit?
If this is the case then the challenge offers very little creativity, just how good one is at orbital maneuvring and packing enough Dv.

[TheOptimizer]

I do not require the mk1-3 command pod, just no command chairs. The problem with command chairs is that they are overpowered, and even more here were mass is very important: If you can keep high TWR at landing, then landing is not difficult.. I can however change the statement about the Mk1-3 command pod by requiring instaed landing more kerbals at once.

Look at the numbers, an Ant can lift a mk1 lander can on Moho. And I have also managed to land such ship on Moho (but not going back to orbit, and this I'm not sure it's possible, maybe using wheels?). On lower gravity worlds like the mun, it is much easier because an Ant can lift more than 1t, thus levaing much more margin for fuel.

[Pds314]

Why didn't you mention Dres?