Career Mün Landing speedrun.

[Pds314]

Challenge:
Start a new career mode save on at least the default difficulty settings.
Build up whatever tech, facilities, and money you need to reach the Mün, then launch and return as quickly as possible.
And get back to Kerbin safely by the earliest possible in-game date and time.

Rules:
1. No hax.
2. No turning down the default difficulty settings for a new career mode save in any way. You may turn them up if you so desire.
3. Quicksaves and quickloads ARE allowed.
4. All dates and times must be in the Kerbal date and time format: 426 days to a year and 6 hours to a day.
5. Abuse any stock in-game mechanics you want as much as you can.
6. Document all launches with a screenshot or video.
7. Making History and Breaking Ground are allowed.
8. Killing or stranding Kerbals is allowed on any launch that doesn't go to the Mün. The actual Mün-landing must, however, return them safely to Kerbin and recover them alive.
9. No physics or parts mods that affect gameplay.
10. Flags and Footprints or it doesn't count.

Leaderboard:
1. Day 2, 0:13:38, Pds314.

Edited August 21, 2019 by Pds314

[Pds314]

My entry:
I return by Day 2,  0 hours, 13 minutes, 38 seconds.

That's almost a Day 1 return.

Spoiler

The Making History spherical soviet-style capsules are lighter, and have integrated decouplers and ablative heat shielding. However, they do not have integrated reaction wheels. This doesn't matter for our first mission though, as we definitely don't need to control our launch profile. Why is our flag Republic Spain? Because I saw it in my folder for some unknown reason, that's why. Did I put it there? No. But there it was.


Boosting ourselves a few thousand meters into the air to get science and fulfull the first launch contracts.


A second launch that is recovered on the pad is done just to get science from the ground. At this point we can get most of the tech we need to go to the Mun. But we are still just shy of the Terrier engine and the bigger fuel tank.


A quick mission control upgrade later and we are sending out this monstrosity. Every single non-science function of this rocket fulfills a contract.


About to splash down.


Science and money!


Attempting an orbital mission:


We can't go on an EVA yet.


But a quick escape to the space center and a mission-funded upgrade to astronaut complex later lets us download a door. That makes total sense...


After being E-mailed a door, Jeb realizes that he is just shy of being able to circularize. He briefly considers heroically stranding himself in orbit with his EVA pack, but decides making sure the science gets to the ground intact matters more than achieving the orbit contract.


Reentry, with Jeb still onboard. Ironically, the thermometer is destroyed by the heat.


A safe return.


The rocket we will use to reach the Mün. We needed to upgrade the launchpad to make it work. But we can't afford to upgrade the VAB yet so those boosters will not be getting nosecones, as the rocket cannot exceed 30 parts.


Boosters are boosting harder than I expected.


Starting to circularize. We will need to dip into the atmosphere a bit as well as into our transfer stage's fuel.


950 m/s transfer. That is definitely not a Hohmann Transfer, but it is a lot faster than one.


Using the transfer stage to slow down.


And because this is a direct ascent mission, we will be landing immediately. I did consider using Apollo-style rendezvous, with the return stage using a spherical Soviet-style capsule to save on weight, but decided against it because the rendezvous would take longer.


A nice spot to land ahead of us between the craters.


One quick step for a Kerbal...


And... the flag of Republican Spain. Why? Who knows. Maybe Luna Multiplayer gave me it. Maybe HOI4 installed it directly into my KSP folder. Who even knows.


And it's time to leave for Kerbin.


Coasting to Apoapsis.


A nice tight orbit.


1000 m/s burn home. This will save us a lot of time falling toward Kerbin, as we will already be at over 1400 m/s by the time we enter its SOI.


1500 m/s dash away from the Mun and we ditch the lander stage.


Sunrise at 3.4 km/s.


A faster-than-usual reentry.


And I forgot to put away the Antenna. Oh well. We don't need it.


The Lander stage we ditched at the Mün is now sneaking up behind us.


And flies within half a kilometer of us, looping around in front of us before flying backward.


We are now below mach 1. We didn't bring a parachute, however, so this capsule definitely will not survive impact.


We leave the capsule behind and jump for it.


A dive at the water to improve our time just by a minute or two.


And splash down!


Yay! Jeb leveled up! We now have prograde and retrograde stability augmentation. Too bad we didn't have that before we launched.

 

[astrobond]

Hi @Pds314 and all

I made a Full science normal career mode speedrun about a week ago, but i'm sure my first Mun landing was not as quick as you

Less than 9 days to unlock all science  

 

Fly safe with Valentina !