If you were assigned to go to Jool in JUST ONE HOUR...

[Kerbal Productions]

...what'll you do? What will be the components of your ship? Will you do gravitational assists? Your choice. 

[pandaman]

Assuming you mean 1 hour 'real time', not 1 hour in game flight time...

Alt F12

Other than that...   A small, simple, main craft so as to minimise design time, reduce control issues and simplify launch etc.

But mainly, Hohmann transfer, and lots of time warp.

 

[Fraktal]

I have absolutely no idea. I only just recently reached Duna myself, though, so I don't think it'd be much more complex, just more dV-hungry.

[Corona688]

tutorial.

[Ultimate Steve]

There is an exploit in the game known as IFTM (Infinite Fuel, Thrust Multiplier) (or at least that's what me and a few other people call it) which allows you to, as the name implies, construct a drive system that produces fuel and can have arbitrarily high thrust. The way you do this, if I remember correctly (It's been a while) is with extensive utilization of the KAL-1000 controller added by the breaking ground DLC. Basically, you can open a pattern, and while you cannot set points on that pattern higher than 100 or below 0, if you use those points to set a curve, the points on the curve can be higher than 100 or below 0. The usual way to do this is to put points really close to each other so you get a large vertical spike.

To set up the drive, have one engine set using the KAL to have large amounts of negative thrust (I think, it's been a while). The game will do weird things. It will actually produce zero thrust, but will generate fuel. Then, have another engine, used for propulsion, set using the KAL to ridiculous levels of positive thust. Although I usually have the timeline set so I have a good gradient between 0 and 100 (so I can throttle normally) and then a huge spike (so I can travel fast).

There, you have an IFTM drive. Sometimes the craft balances weirdly, but if you did it right, and design the ship around it appropriately, you have an infinite range ship that can reach other planets in a matter of minutes by simply pointing at them, burning, and time warping, making corrections as necessary, more like a close in rendezvous than an interplanetary transfer.

KSP has a semi-active but existent speedrunning community. One of the categories is career all trips, which means "start a new career and go on a round trip to all the planets and back as fast as possible in real time." 7 months ago, someone who goes by mrshannon (I don't know his forum tag) used the IFTM drive in this category for the first time (I think, the run before it might have used it but I'm too lazy to check at the moment) and brought the record down to just over three hours. Five months ago, I optimized the route and took it down to one hour and 18 minutes. Then, four months ago, he took it back and it is currently standing at one hour 12 minutes.

Not only is it possible (but as of yet not achieved) to visit all of the planets and return in career mode in under an hour (only need to shave like 1/6 off, that's doable), going on a Jool flyby and return mission in under an hour is a cinch, even starting from nothing in career mode.

[Superfluous J]

1. Build a ship with about 10k m/s dV and decent TWR for at least the first 2k.
2. Use the first 4.5k or so of leave Kerbin SOI.
3. Use the next 2k or so to get a Jool intercept from Sun SOI
4. Use 1k or so to slow at Jool
5. Have excess fuel for whatever.

Not very fuel efficient, but assuming no mods or transfer window calculators that should be the most real-time efficient.

Edited December 11, 2020 by Superfluous J

[Kerbal Productions]

18 hours ago, pandaman said:

Assuming you mean 1 hour 'real time', not 1 hour in game flight time...

1 hour REAL TIME.

[klgraham1013]

I'd summon the Kraken.

[kerbiloid]

I would use either KSPI-E or USI warp engine mod.

Gravitational assist is not applicable at such speeds as the trajectory is almost a straight line, and any curvature would cause lethal overloads.

[king of nowhere]

14 hours ago, Helvica_Ring_Scientist said:

1 hour REAL TIME.

I'd stick to something very simple. a lot of big tanks and some big engines, plenty of deltaV. no gravity assists, no time to plan them.

I use a gravity assist on laythe for insertion in jool orbit, though. and from there i'd make sure to have plenty of extra fuel

[paul_c]

The biggest soak of time is dealing with the cranky editor in the VAB - it slows you down frustratingly. 

Just for an experiment, last night I built a very simple multiple stage thing. At the top were 4 components: controller, fuel tank, engine, separator. Then I 'stacked' several 3-component stages (engine/fuel tank/separator ring). Repeat this until you get ~7000m/s delta V.  The engine can be the smallest, lowest TWR, it doesn't matter too much. Then do a 1st stage of about 3500m/s delta V using a couple of big fuel tanks and a big engine, to get a reasonable LKO. You'll want some solar power and an aerial at the top too.

Then launch it and park it in LKO, I am guessing inclination 0deg for ease.

Then look up the 'transfer window', time-warp to align the planets and play around with the maneouvre planning tool until there's some kind of intercept, then time warp and burn.

Once the main burn is done, play around again with the maneouvre tool to tweak it better. Then do the same at just leaving Kerbin's SOI, then about 1/4 the way there, then 1/2 way there (time warp to the next one each time). I think by the 1/2 way there, you should have gotten the Jool Pe to about 250km or so. 

Of course, that's the basics of getting to Jool (or any other planet) but the fun and skill is knowing what to take and what not to. For example, do you take a pilot so that you can be confident you can control the ship if/when it goes behind Jool (it probably will on the entry retro burn!!!) What science do you include? What about batteries, aerial(s) and transmitting power for the science stuff, or are you happy to do partial transmissions and recharge? Do you want to neatly make your stages coincide with parts of the flight, like LKO, inter-planetary burning, orbital insertion? If you took a Kerbal, do you want to get back too? If so you'll need to think of the dV needed, staging, chute, heatshield etc.....which has to be at the top...so it influence all other stages. What about taking a Science Lab module to earn (much) more science? What about the scientists, 1 or 2? What about getting them back? etc. For me, planning out that element is just as much fun as the actual getting there and the views.

[Kerbal Productions]

16 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

I'd summon the Kraken.

Good 

[18Watt]

I’d start by not aiming for fuel efficiency.   I can get a lot of dV with the nuke engines, but the burns to get to Jool are painfully long.   I’ve started using the 1,000kN engines (KS-25?).  Tack enough on to get an initial vacuum TWR of at least 0.5, or higher.

With nukes I can get about 7,200 dV pretty easy, but the burns are very long.   With the (KS-25?s), I can still get over 4,000 dV, which is plenty to get to Jool. 
 

I made one last night, with 4 KS25s (1,000kN each).  It carries 13 Kerbals, ISRU, two drills, and a MPL lab.  It has a bit over 5,400dV in vacuum, and an initial TWR of about 0.65 when full of fuel.   Even with a refueling stop at Minmus, I suspect I can get to Jool in close to one hour (real time).   

[18Watt]

Wanted to see if I could actually get to Jool in an hour.  I used basically the ship described in my previous post.  From launch at KSC to landing on Pol took me 53min 19sec.  I had my ship completely refueled on Pol 56 minutes after launch.  Here's the times- unfortunately I forgot to record the most important time- the burn time to get to Jool!  (I think it was about 5 minutes..).  Obviously I used time warp as much as possible.  I also made several time-consuming mistakes, I think because I was kinda rushing things.  Could probably shave 5-10 minutes off if I didn't make so many mistakes- worst was time-warping way past Minmus PE, and fiddling around to get back to Minmus.

00:00 - Liftoff!  Launch from KSC.

05:41 - Achieve orbit around Kerbin.  Roughly 100X100km.

14:09 - Land on Minmus, begin refueling.  2 drills, 1 converter.

17:06 - Liftoff from Minmus.  I go straight to solar (Kerbol) orbit from Minmus.

21:43 - Reach solar orbit, and set maneuver node to reach Jool.

??:?? - Forgot to actually time my burn.  I think it took about 5 minutes.

36:48 - Perform mid-course correction burn.  Tweak my arrival to correct inclination and also get a Tylo encounter.

39:43 - Arrive at Jool's SOI.  Yay!  Small burn to adjust arrival at Tylo.

43:48 - Achieve stable orbit of Jool.  My Tylo arrival wasn't perfect, had to burn about 300dV at Tylo to accomplish Jool orbit, with the AP close to Pol's orbit.

49:36 - Achieve orbit of Pol.

53:19 - Land on Pol.  Start up the drills and converter.

55:46 - Sitting on Pol, fully refueled.

 

[18Watt]

Here's some screenshots of the ship I used to go from launch (at KSC) to sitting on the surface of Pol in 56 minutes.

Not the best-looking ship.  But around here we have a saying.  She may be ugly, but she sure is inefficient!

Spoiler

That's the ship.  Has 4 KS-25 Vector engines, plus the big solid boosters to get off the pad.  2 drills, 1 converter, a MPL science lab, storage for 13 Kerbals (there's a Cupola on the other side), docking ports, RCS (vernors), antenna, RTG, fuel cells, solar panels, science experiments.

That's a shot in orbit of Pol.  The big solid boosters were jettisoned shortly after launch from Kerbin of course.

Here's my initial orbit around Kerbin.  Game time shows 15 minutes, but with time warping it only took me 5:41 real time.  I normally try to launch into an inclination close to Minmus's, but anything closer than 1.5 degrees is good enough.  This time I got lucky, and launched into an orbit only 0.1 degrees off of Minmus!

And here it is on Pol, touched down 53min 19sec after launch from KSC.  A little over 2 minutes later (real time) it was fully fueled, thanks to the ISRU stuff and time warp.   

[Kerbal Productions]

7 hours ago, 18Watt said:

Here's some screenshots of the ship I used to go from launch (at KSC) to sitting on the surface of Pol in 56 minutes.

Not the best-looking ship.  But around here we have a saying.  She may be ugly, but she sure is inefficient!

  Hide contents

That's the ship.  Has 4 KS-25 Vector engines, plus the big solid boosters to get off the pad.  2 drills, 1 converter, a MPL science lab, storage for 13 Kerbals (there's a Cupola on the other side), docking ports, RCS (vernors), antenna, RTG, fuel cells, solar panels, science experiments.

That's a shot in orbit of Pol.  The big solid boosters were jettisoned shortly after launch from Kerbin of course.

Here's my initial orbit around Kerbin.  Game time shows 15 minutes, but with time warping it only took me 5:41 real time.  I normally try to launch into an inclination close to Minmus's, but anything closer than 1.5 degrees is good enough.  This time I got lucky, and launched into an orbit only 0.1 degrees off of Minmus!

And here it is on Pol, touched down 53min 19sec after launch from KSC.  A little over 2 minutes later (real time) it was fully fueled, thanks to the ISRU stuff and time warp.   

Good! I'm very proud of you! 

7 hours ago, 18Watt said:

Here's some screenshots of the ship I used to go from launch (at KSC) to sitting on the surface of Pol in 56 minutes.

Not the best-looking ship.  But around here we have a saying.  She may be ugly, but she sure is inefficient!

  Reveal hidden contents

That's the ship.  Has 4 KS-25 Vector engines, plus the big solid boosters to get off the pad.  2 drills, 1 converter, a MPL science lab, storage for 13 Kerbals (there's a Cupola on the other side), docking ports, RCS (vernors), antenna, RTG, fuel cells, solar panels, science experiments.

That's a shot in orbit of Pol.  The big solid boosters were jettisoned shortly after launch from Kerbin of course.

Here's my initial orbit around Kerbin.  Game time shows 15 minutes, but with time warping it only took me 5:41 real time.  I normally try to launch into an inclination close to Minmus's, but anything closer than 1.5 degrees is good enough.  This time I got lucky, and launched into an orbit only 0.1 degrees off of Minmus!

And here it is on Pol, touched down 53min 19sec after launch from KSC.  A little over 2 minutes later (real time) it was fully fueled, thanks to the ISRU stuff and time warp.   

Can you tell me all your mods? I'm sort of interested on it

[18Watt]

2 hours ago, Helvica_Ring_Scientist said:

Good! I'm very proud of you! 

Can you tell me all your mods? I'm sort of interested on it

Thank you.   I just started using Kerbal Alarm Clock (KAC) and Transfer Window Planner (TWP), both are by TriggerAu.   No other mods.

For this 'speed run', I actually didn't use either one.   

KAC is extremely useful  when you have multiple ships going places.   It keeps you from forgetting about a ship, and having it float past a point where you needed to do a burn.  For the speed run, I was only focused on a single ship.   But normally I have a bunch of ships to keep track of.   I suspect KAC may be the most popular mod of all time for KSP.  Definitely in the top-10.

TWP helps plan transfer burns, for example if you wanted to burn from a low Kerbin orbit directly to Jool, to take advantage of the Oberth effect.  For this 'speed' run, I didn't need it, because after refueling at Minmus I just hopped out of Kerbin's SOI and burned directly to Jool from a solar orbit.   Otherwise, if you are doing planet-to-planet transfers, TWP is incredibly useful.   You can get the same information from websites, but it's handy to have in the game.

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Transfer Window Planner

[Kerbal Productions]

1 hour ago, 18Watt said:

Thank you.   I just started using Kerbal Alarm Clock (KAC) and Transfer Window Planner (TWP), both are by TriggerAu.   No other mods.

For this 'speed run', I actually didn't use either one.   

KAC is extremely useful  when you have multiple ships going places.   It keeps you from forgetting about a ship, and having it float past a point where you needed to do a burn.  For the speed run, I was only focused on a single ship.   But normally I have a bunch of ships to keep track of.   I suspect KAC may be the most popular mod of all time for KSP.  Definitely in the top-10.

TWP helps plan transfer burns, for example if you wanted to burn from a low Kerbin orbit directly to Jool, to take advantage of the Oberth effect.  For this 'speed' run, I didn't need it, because after refueling at Minmus I just hopped out of Kerbin's SOI and burned directly to Jool from a solar orbit.   Otherwise, if you are doing planet-to-planet transfers, TWP is incredibly useful.   You can get the same information from websites, but it's handy to have in the game.

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Transfer Window Planner

Oh, thanks!

[foamyesque]

On 12/11/2020 at 2:50 AM, Helvica_Ring_Scientist said:

...what'll you do? What will be the components of your ship? Will you do gravitational assists? Your choice. 

 

Load up the torchship I used to insert into a retrograde Kerbin orbit, wait for Kerbin to rotate to the correct angle, then launch more or less straight up. When you have 22km/s of 1+g thrust you don't need precision.

 

I might be caught by the game having to slow down during the launch sequence, though.

 

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by foamyesque

[Kerbal Productions]

2 hours ago, foamyesque said:

 

Load up the torchship I used to insert into a retrograde Kerbin orbit, wait for Kerbin to rotate to the correct angle, then launch more or less straight up. When you have 22km/s of 1+g thrust you don't need precision.

 

I might be caught by the game having to slow down during the launch sequence, though.

 

 

That's a great (and unhealthy) amount of boosters you have

[Dirkidirk]

2 hours ago, foamyesque said:

 

Load up the torchship I used to insert into a retrograde Kerbin orbit, wait for Kerbin to rotate to the correct angle, then launch more or less straight up. When you have 22km/s of 1+g thrust you don't need precision.

 

I might be caught by the game having to slow down during the launch sequence, though.

 

 

art.

I am voluntarily paralyzed by of it's beauty, and involuntarily incinerated  by your computer's heat.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Dirkidirk

[Mikenike]

On 12/11/2020 at 3:50 AM, Helvica_Ring_Scientist said:

...what'll you do? What will be the components of your ship? Will you do gravitational assists? Your choice. 

Easy, MOAR BOOSTERS, LOTS MOAR BOOSTERS. Small command pod.

[SpaceFace545]

i've been playing since 2014 and haven't been further than the mun, not even minmus. It's pretty embarrassing.

[The_Rocketeer]

16 minutes ago, SpaceFace545 said:

i've been playing since 2014 and haven't been further than the mun, not even minmus. It's pretty embarrassing.

Honestly, I'm impressed. I haven't left Kerbin atmosphere in years. Too much to do!

If I had to hit Jool in an hour I'd probably spend at least 30-45 minutes in the VAB tinkering, 5-10 ascending to LKO, and the rest at high warp.
 

[Popestar]

On 12/12/2020 at 4:48 AM, klgraham1013 said:

I'd summon the Kraken.

This.  A ladder/kraken drive is the easiest way to get there.