Smallest Craft to Various Milestones

[HoY]

I don't know for a fact, but I think you can subtract the mass of that command pod from the submitted total. And you can lose one of the turbo jet engines and still have more than 1.6 twr on the pad

[tavert]

It looks like the 48-7S engine and FL-T100 fuel tank are getting promoted from KSPX to stock for 0.21. I'm very curious to see if the stats will be unchanged from KSPX, since that'll mean a lot of these records will drop even lower.

[pedorsf]

This is my trip to Duna and back on 2.93 tons with a Kerbal onboard. All stock, not even Mechjeb! (although I miss the nice readouts)

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i want the craft file please

[pedorsf]

my 2.09 ton to kerbin orbit

and it in orbit with a bit fuel left:D

[Captain Sierra]

I took this little ship to Vall

It's the smallest Manned ship I've seen, but unmanned could certainly be smaller.

What mods are you using? I recognize the cylindrified fuel and oxidizer tanks from KSPX but where did you get the roundified ones?

[tavert]

It looks like the 48-7S engine and FL-T100 fuel tank are getting promoted from KSPX to stock for 0.21. I'm very curious to see if the stats will be unchanged from KSPX, since that'll mean a lot of these records will drop even lower.

Was too impatient to wait for the new version, so installed KSPX instead. Return of flip-staging, 0.801 tons to stable orbit. If the part stats match KSPX when 0.21 comes out, then this design should work in stock at that time.

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[Francesco]

It looks like the 48-7S engine and FL-T100 fuel tank are getting promoted from KSPX to stock for 0.21. I'm very curious to see if the stats will be unchanged from KSPX, since that'll mean a lot of these records will drop even lower.

I don't know about the fuel tank, but from those 0.21 early access videos, it seems that the 48-7S stats will be the same from KSPX: that is, a ridiculously powerful engine.

[Fidelacchius]

I saw someone on here request an eve lander so i decided to spend my Sunday on this. I have done landing before at around 1600 tons and thought i could improve on the design.

This is my super small ship (only 740 tons!!!) ksp version 0.21

Beating Scott Manley by 523 tons!! And at a lower landing point! (10500m less) of course i have 0.21 he didn't

You should check out his channel on YouTube. He is a genius and taught me everything.

That doesn't sound like much but the only other ships i have seen do this have been 1200-2200 tons plus so this is an improvement

If someone could build a lighter lander as well that would be cool. One that is capable of lifting off from 1-3k on eve

I challenge anyone to come up with a better design to make this lighter. (seriously i would like a better one )

Mods used:

MechJeb 2 (I wanted to do it without but i don't have patience to quick save that much )

Flight Engineer

Stats:

Total Weight: 740.65 tons

Lander Weight: 63 tons

Total Delta V: 23300 m/s (approximately)

-Kerbin Orbit stage: 4500 m/s

-Transfer Stage: 1600 m/s (This could be less)

-Eve Lander: 11700 m/s (This could be less if you can get your landing just right at the highest altitude about 6k. My landing was almost sea level)

-Eve Return: 5500 m/s (this could be smaller. It is so high because it has to rendezvous with the lander once it is orbit)

Total Kerbals: 1

Scroll down to see more about the mission/craft file

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Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6gdn1a52qqlqfbl/Smallest%20Eve%20Ship%203.craft

Mission:

To Orbit

You want to aim for an orbit of around 75k around kerbin

Before launching you have to change the point of control to the unmanned prob (under the kerbal seat)

Flying this into orbit surprisingly is pretty stable. Just start your turn at around 10km.

Don't miss any staging even a few seconds carrying extra weight and this will not get to orbit.

You may have to use a few seconds of the atomic rockets to circularize.

Transfer Stage

You should have close to enough fuel to make your transfer to Eve. If you run out (like i did) you can transfer a bit of fuel from the extra tanks attached to the

decoupler (NOT YOUR RETURN SHIP)

The reason there is not a fuel line running to the main tank from these is because the ship would be unbalanced and you would have to use

a lot of RCS to keep it straight.

Once you are on you way to eve you will have to transfer all auxiliary fuel to the main tank and jettison the empty tanks

Now you can make course correction burns.

You want to aim for a Periapsis of around 72k (Eve)

AeroBreaking Stage

You now should have a Periapsis of around 72k.

The eve atmosphere starts at around 97k I think.

We are going in lower so that we dont have to burn fuel to slow down.

Once you Exit the atmosphere you should be in a very long oval orbit.

When you get to the Apoapsis you will want to do a very small burn to bring your Periapsis to around 110k

Return Stage

Once you are in a relatively safe orbit, you can decouple your rescue ship.

You can either do this before you land on eve or after (I did it after)

(Return Ship NOT main ship) You want to circularize your orbit to about 110 Apoapsis and Periapsis.

Landing Stage

With the amount of fuel we have brought along it will be impossible to get a good orbit to land where we want to.

Therefore what i did was about 3/4 the way back from our Apoapsis i did a retro burn to get the landing as close to

the equator as i could and still landing on land. (Cant plant a flag on water )

As soon as you get your target decouple the transfer stage.

Lander Stage

Now you are speeding into the planet.

You want to activate your engines for the lander stage but DO NOT USE THEM.

You need every drop of fuel to get back to orbit.

The atmosphere will slow you down to almost 100m/s so don't worry

Once you get to about 4k from surface (NOT ALTITUDE!! THE SURFACE!!!) This is where mechjeb is very useful.

You can deploy your high-altitude parachutes.

When you get to about 1k you can deploy your low-altitude chutes.

When you get to about 40m you should do your landing burn. The lower the better or you will use to much fuel. (EVERY DROP!!!!)

Now you can extend your latter's and plant the flag

Eve Assent

Once you get your kerbal back in his seat. You need to switch control from the seat to the computer under the seat.

Liftoff!

I start my gravity turn at 20km and aim to stop my turn at 90km

Aim for a near 0 degree orbit (unless your rescue ship is in a 180 degree orbit. then do 180)

Note: If your fancy matching the rescue ships orbit would be most efficient but we have plenty of fuel in that thing.

When i did this i was short about 2.5 m/s which was no big deal.

If you are short more you will have to use your kerbals RCS (can get you 600 m/s if needed)

don't use it all or you will not be able to board your return ship (we don't have any fancy docking ports).

Rendezvous Stage

Once your kerbal is in orbit you want to switch to the return ship.

First you will want to match inclinations. Mine was off around 10-15 degrees

You will have to use it to come close enough to your kerbal that he can

jetpack his way to the ship. Mechjeb 2 makes this much easier. Mechjeb 1 will not do this for you.

Once you are in range switch back to your kerbal leave the seat and RCS you way over to the return ship.

Return to Kerbal Stage

Now you can line up a return burn to kerbal.

You may have to change your inclination. I made the mistake of going with a 0 inclination

Kerbin is not in a perfect orbit with eve so you actually want to match that.

I had to burn more fuel later on to hit kerbin(luck i added extra fuel to the return ship for human error)

Make sure to jettison the empty fuel tanks on the side once they run out.

You may have enough fuel to do more aerobreaking and actually land at KSP headquarters.

I am okay with making my kerbal walk across the planet so i just landed wherever.

Edited August 5, 2013 by Fidelacchius

[SunJumper]

Let's see if I can make it to the Kraken in ~27 tons...

I can, pics coming tomorrow.

Edited August 25, 2013 by SunJumper

[Respawn]

This is my super small ship (only 740 tons!!!) ksp version 0.21

Interesting.

I just attempted a eve return here the other day with a 150t lander.

The whole thing was massive.. hehe..

Was unable to get it fully back into orbit, my best attempt gave me a pe that was still within the atmosphere.

My starting altitude was at about 400m

However after looking through this thread i think I've come up with a new minimalist design

which should be able to beat your eve design by potentially hundreds of tons.

I shal call it: "the not so magic carpet."

stay tuned..

[SunJumper]

So, pictorial visualisation of my journey to the Kraken.

On launchpad, 28680kg.

In orbit, 2930kg.

In stable Jool orbit, 310kg.

In Bop Orbit, 240kg.

(Barely visible) By the Kraken, 210kg.

[Fidelacchius]

Interesting.

I just attempted a eve return here the other day with a 150t lander.

The whole thing was massive.. hehe..

Was unable to get it fully back into orbit, my best attempt gave me a pe that was still within the atmosphere.

My starting altitude was at about 400m

However after looking through this thread i think I've come up with a new minimalist design

which should be able to beat your eve design by potentially hundreds of tons.

I shal call it: "the not so magic carpet."

stay tuned..

That would be epic i'd like to see it

[blueshark15]

sorry everybody, i have been on a trip leaderboard will update today

[Respawn]

That would be epic i'd like to see it

Here it is

Finally made it.

I went through 4 different versions of the craft with no success.

However "The not so magic carpet mk5" did make it and I recorded the whole thing.

Lots of hours of video, not easy to compress down to a short.

Finally ended up with something that is almost watchable, sorry it's 43 min long.

And most of it is 4x speed with some 2x and some 8x speed parts. hehe..

Anyway.

Kerbin -> EVE landing -> Kerbin return (with crew)

Craft:

Starting mass: 255.36 tons

Total dV: about 20km/s (depends on eve transfer and what you are left with in return vehicle.)

3 major parts in 1 launch.

Launcher:

engines: 5x skippers and 8x LV-T30

dV: 4386 m/s

Transfer and return vehicle: (also used for finalizing Kerbin orbit)

engines: 1x LV-N

dV: (depends on use) (not optimal use gave me about 4k-4.5k)

Eve lander and launcher:

engines: 37x Rockmax 48-7S

dV: 9334 m/s (Just abit shy of what was needed.) (jet-packed last part of Eve circularization.)

Craft file: The_not_so_magic_carpet_mk5.zip

You need the Engineer mod to load.. I think.. maybe not?

I've added the engineer module to all the command parts

so I don't need to add that annoying chip all the time, so maybe anyone can load it up.

EDIT: Turns out you don't need the engineer mod to load this craft. Works perfectly fine in a stock KSP install.

Here's the video. (For those interested.)

Edited September 4, 2013 by Respawn

[Fidelacchius]

That is... Sexy. With one exception. You need more satellites around Kerbin

I love the design. I had a new design in the works that would land about where yours did.

It still weights over 400 tons so i think i'll work on it some more

The "Magic Carpet" design i'm an deff going to try using in my future missions.

Doing this under 300 tons i did not think would be possible. Beautiful.

[Respawn]

That is... Sexy. With one exception. You need more satellites around Kerbin

-hehe XD ..the satellite grid is a collection of 21 satellites with gps transmitters (part of a gps mod)

and was used to test out an alternative orbit spread rather than the normal 60º spread.

They used to be 120º apart (3 satellites in each orbit x 7 orbits), worked pretty well.

However after several years of time-warp they have drifted quite a bit out of their desired positions.

The "Magic Carpet" design i'm an deff going to try using in my future missions.

-The first design I used the smaller tanks and 1x 48-7S engine for each tank,

Without the kerbal, fewer and smaller landing legs it has about the same dv.

As a result of the lower lander mass, both the transfer and the launcher had less weight.

So the total mass of the mk1 was less than 200t.

However the smaller landing legs broke on impact and with the kerbal in his seat the dV just got to low.

[Fidelacchius]

I plan to reclaim my title

It might involve a shameless copy/paste of your idea but i will make this for around 150 tons

...it might take a few months but be afraid!!!!

[tavert]

Eve and back in 12.71 tons.

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[Guest]

Tavert, that's amazing. I have stayed away from the Eve return missions because I thought they were to close to impossible to even try. You just made it look like another trip to Grandma's.

[numerobis]

Eve and back in 12.71 tons.

Wow; that's rather a lot less than the best in 0.19 !

I wonder if you could save a tonne or so by ditching a turbojet in favour of a small stage with sepratrons to boost you up to speed. That or a horizontal launch.

Edited September 13, 2013 by numerobis

[tavert]

Thanks. I designed the Eve ascent vehicle as soon as I saw the Rockomax 48-7S and FL-T100 tank were coming from KSPX to stock in the 0.21 preview streams (and discovered the perpendicular-ladder trick), see http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/41584-Tiny-Eve-ascent-vehicle-6-23-tons-KSPX-MechJeb (and the taller mountain allowed me to remove another ton of fuel)

I just hadn't done the full mission yet. On the second page you can see I had an 8.14-ton design using a single jet and an ion transfer stage, but the 5 hours of ion burn time (and I might've needed another xenon tank) was putting me off from actually flying the mission. Using the lander's bipropellant engines with some drop tanks for the transfer made the mission much more bearable.

@numerobis I wouldn't want to lift this contraption with a horizontal launch, if you can get an oddly-shaped flimsy 9-ton payload to orbit on only one jet I'd be interested to see how. Sepratrons are an interesting idea, I've never tried them with a low-TWR jet but now I might have to...

Edited September 13, 2013 by tavert

[numerobis]

If you can drop a jet and half the fuel (which I suspect you can since you had fuel left, and now you'll be using half as much per second), that saves you 1.7 tonnes and gets you to 11.1t. A turbojet at a standstill develops 112.5 kN. That's TWR > 1.0, so you might not even need the sepratrons.

[tavert]

Tried it with only one jet. It got off the ground, barely, but was moving so slowly that it ran out of fuel before getting far enough. Adding any more fuel dropped the TWR to under 1. With 2 jets the TWR is just right to stay slightly under terminal velocity at full throttle, so the fuel consumption is less than double.

[numerobis]

Oh well; it was worth a try! Ion would be the way to go, but without mechjeb and alarm clock it would just be too painful.

[Fidelacchius]

Craft:

Starting mass: 255.36 tons

Total dV: about 20km/s (depends on eve transfer and what you are left with in return vehicle.)

:

I plan to reclaim my title

It might involve a shameless copy/paste of your idea but i will make this for around 150 tons

...it might take a few months but be afraid!!!!

My 150 Ton lander is done!!! let me just post it...

Eve and back in 12.71 tons.

Edited January 9, 2014 by sjwt