Bill to orbit and back in 671 kg and probe to orbit in 543 kg + probe to Minmus in 763 kg | Lowest mass record New

[Alpaca Z]

In the two videos below, I delivered Bill Kerman to orbit and back with a 671 kg craft (excluding pilot mass), and a fully functional probe (with a solar panel and a battery) to orbit with a 543 kg craft. 

The manned craft involves a magic trick (Bill holding jetpack on his hands). The unmanned one is completely legit.

 

These two missions break records of lowest mass to orbit for both manned and unmanned (controllable) missions, both set by myself a week ago.

Previous manned mission record: 713 kg by ZG Alpaca; 874 kg by Bradley Whistance.

Previous unmanned controllable mission record: 0.645 ton by foamyesque(prior to v1.7 when spark hasn't been nerfed); 659 kg by ZG Alpaca.

The second video also contains an unmanned mission to Minmus with only 763 kg.

I initially wanted to challenge the 776 kg manned Minmus record by Lark Kerman, but his magic flag wings are too powerful to beat.

Nevertheless: this mission should still be the world record of unmanned probe to Minmus (w/o magic). 

Due to the lack of orientation control of the solar panel, I had to use infinite electricity in the last part of the mission. 

I could have replaced the antenna with a battery and provide communication through relay satellites. The weight and delta v are not affected. The battery should provide enough electricity for the whole mission, as long as you put the probe core on hibernate during time warp. However, it is so painful to do it all over again, and I really apologize for that.

Previous manned mission record: 776 kg by Lark Kerman (a lot of magic); 1.2 ton by Bradley Whistance (no magic).

Edited July 31, 2022 by Alpaca Z

[Vagrant203]

On 7/31/2022 at 2:47 PM, Alpaca Z said:

as long as you put the probe core on hibernate during time warp.

I use a mod that changes the default "auto-hibernate in warp" setting to on. I suspect it wouldn't count as a mod for challenge purposes, since you can also just do it manually (unless you forget like I always do.)

[Alpaca Z]

2 hours ago, Vagrant203 said:

I use a mod that changes the default "auto-hibernate in warp" setting to on. I suspect it wouldn't count as a mod for challenge purposes, since you can also just do it manually (unless you forget like I always do.)

Since you can do it with stock game, it should be acceptable.