A manned mission to the Mun and return with only 3.72 tons.

[nhnifong]

There was a little informal contest on reddit and so I tried to beat the reported record of 5.8 tons, and came up with this

The descriptions in the imgur album tell the story of how I did it.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited June 25, 2013 by nhnifong

[Francesco]

interesting, using ion engines for "low pressure situations" and convenional ones for landing.

but ion thrusters and their xenon tanks are heavy: is there really an advantage to using them?

wouldn't you get the same delta-v for less weight by simply using more donut tanks?

[nhnifong]

I'm not sure but I doubt it because Ion engines have such high ISP.

[Geschosskopf]

Fine engineering challenge you have there .

[nhnifong]

Lucid Lemon looks like he might beat it soon! gotta keep cutting parts

[Brotoro]

Impressive. Have a cookie.

[Spaceisbeautifulul]

Nice, bro.

What is that mod for the little orange engine? I've been looking around I can't find it.

Anyways, nice job.

[nhnifong]

Nice, bro.

What is that mod for the little orange engine? I've been looking around I can't find it.

Anyways, nice job.

This is all stock

[Spaceisbeautifulul]

Oh.

[Tw1]

That was awesome. Good job.

[nhnifong]

Oh.

It's probably the small orange radial liquid engine you're thinking of, and I just attached it in a different way, by rotating it and putting under the tank. Since it was radially attached, I was able to put a cubic under the tank as well, and that's what allowed me to connect further stuff underneath it. But I just did all that to stay stock. truth is, I'm used to the nice stack-mounted equivalent engine offered by KSPX, which has probably the thing you were hoping for.

[tavert]

Not a redditor here, but I had done it in 2.22 tons in 0.19, using a ladder instead of a seat. Using a seat in 0.20 (now that EVA Kerbals are 3x more massive), I've got a sub-3-ton version that I just need to finish running and post pictures of.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[nhnifong]

Wow! but why the plane landing gear? those are a half ton each, I don't understand how your weight at the end could possibly be correct unless those weighed less in 0.19 or something.

The strange thing is, you don't really need them. BTW I just checked, it's not mj measuring wrong, both mj and the stock weight report the same values. those wheels are 0.5 tons each.

[tavert]

Not in flight, in flight they're massless, have been since 0.18 or earlier and still are in 0.20. They can withstand harder landings than the landing struts and are essentially free - mildly exploitative, but another trick to stretch a tight fuel budget a little further.

[OUScooby]

How long were your burns to reach the Mun using only ion engines?