Wanderfound

Reversed the kerbucks/ton numbers for me and @NightshineRecorralis there, @Abastro.

Declutter the design, use the bigger fuel-holding wing pieces. You don't need that much engine, and all of those intakes are making a lot of drag. One shock cone or intercooler can feed three RAPIERs. Consider squeezing a nuke between the RAPIERs: You also don't need anywhere near that much monoprop. A small tank in the cargo bay is more than enough.

Do you have much in the way of 0.625m parts? You can get crazy dVs from tiny amounts of fuel with those things. Otherwise, shave your payload. You've got a service bay and a structural nosecone there; those are a bit luxurious for an ultralight probe. You've also got at least three more SAS units than you need (really, you shouldn't need any for a ship this size).

If you want to carry it, go for it. Take a laboratory and ISRU refinery if you really want to show off...

Fine by me; I'll run separate stock vs FAR leaderboards if we get more than a handful of entries. As you guessed, KJR is out. Autostrut if you need to, though.

Got it down to two launches: Cost is one Moho ship for √69,364 plus spaceplane fuel consumption of 18,564 units of LF, 13,624 units of O and 84.7 units of monoprop (costing √17,406 combined). Writing off the value of the capsule because I can't be bothered calculating it again. So, total cost for the mission is √86,770.

Y'all feel free to try for subcategory records, BTW. "Cheapest non-nuclear", "cheapest single launch", etc.

Something like this is what you're after: Batteries, science instruments and probe core (so you can crew it with a scientist and reset the experiments) in the service bay. Spin before decoupling the drop tanks to give them some radial momentum. For Minmus you could afford to lose 3/4 of the engines; this one is built for Moho.

I'm describing how to reach an orbit of whatever altitude you want. Pull the nose down once the apoapsis reaches 55km, but keep the engines burning until you've got the apoapsis where you want it. It's about minimising drag and maximising gravity lift.

It's a good tip if you're having trouble, but it's not compulsory. If you've got sufficient tailplane and appropriate weight distribution, it shouldn't flip even if you do have a bit less incidence on the canards than the wings. Most of mine are done with inclined wings but flat tailplanes and canards. RCS Build Aid, Kerbal Pilot Indicators, Kerbal Alarm Clock, Kerbal Engineer Redux.

Moho on the cheap:

SSTO, droptanks, asparagus, heatshield...this mission has an identity crisis.

Moho on a budget:

Demo flight done, album at Cost is one Moho ship for √69,374, two droptanks at √7,390 each, plus spaceplane fuel consumption of 29,592 units of LF, 20,942 units of O and 332 units of monoprop (costing √27,842 combined). Writing off the value of the capsule because I can't be bothered calculating it. So, total cost for the mission is √111,996.

Just finished the demo mission, getting the pictures ready now. It's a good 'un.

Good enough.

It depends on the plane; different ships require different profiles. If you're flying with RAPIERs, though, 30,000m is the altitude you need to be thinking about. You don't want to switch to rocket mode until you've extracted the last possible Newton from the jets, and about 30,000m is where they die. You want to hit that altitude carrying as much horizontal speed as possible. However, in a draggy plane like a big cargo bus, you also want to hit it with a fair bit of vertical speed to get you out of the high-drag zone as quickly as possible. If it's a plane with enough thrust/drag that it doesn't need to level off to get through transonic, what I like to do is this: 1) a 10° climb until 10,000m. 2) Drop the nose to the horizon (0°) and crank the speed up to 1,500m/s. 3) Lift the nose to 15°. Keep the jets airbreathing until switching mode at 29,000m. 4) Keep the nose at 15° until the apoapsis reaches 55,000m, then drop it to surface prograde and keep it there until you reach space. (note, I build wing incidence into my planes; add 5° or so to those angles if you're in a ship that requires substantial AoA for level flight. You want the drop in step 2 to almost completely negate your climb rate, but not actually put you into a dive) If it's a plane that does need to level off to break the sound barrier, then you just add an extra couple of steps at 5,000m or so where you level off, accelerate to 450m/s, then resume climbing. You need to be careful of overheating in step 2 (just raise the altitude if it's too hot) and you'll lose a bit of speed during the change of direction in step 3, but the lower the altitude at which you do step 3 the more time your jets have to regain that lost speed. Get it just right and you can go past 20,000m at 1,600m/s with the apoapsis already well over 30,000m.

Close: https://kerbalx.com/Wanderfound/Kerbodrone

Nice and straightforwards: land on Moho, come home to Kerbin, do it as cheap as you can. Three categories: Basic: land and return any vessel. No Kerbals required. Intermediate: land and return alive a Kerbal. Plant a flag while you're there. Advanced: land and return alive a Kerbal scientist (so a probe core or copilot will be required for SAS) plus one of every scientific instrument (ie: materials bay, goo pod, thermometer, barometer, seismometer, gravity detector, atmospheric sampler)[1]. Plant a flag while you're there. Stock parts only and Wheaton's Law applies. Autopilot and visual mods are fine, but nothing physics altering. Try to keep part-clipping and similar trickery to cosmetic levels; minimise the cheese factor. You can use any method you like; single launch, multiple launch, refuel in orbit, nukes, ions, ISRU [2] whatever. But the cost-minus-recovery of every launch involved goes against your score. Post VAB screenshots of every vessel involved to show the price; also post proof of the journey and proof of recovery for any parts recovered. Distance from KSC does matter for recovery value. Cheapest mission wins. SCOREBOARD Basic @Clancy, √4,996 @ManEatingApe, √7,925 Intermediate Advanced @Clancy, √4,523.6 @ManEatingApe, √28,628 @Physics_Student, √55,218 (no recovery) @Wanderfound, √86,770 [1] As in, send scientist and experiments, return scientist. You don't need to bring the goo pod etc. home; just the data wil do. [2] No ISRU mining on Kerbin to offset fuel costs, however.

As others have suggested: 1) High AoA cobra reentry. The pointy Mk1 cockpits are perfectly adequate for this if you do it right; lightweight Mk1 aircraft lose speed very quickly in these conditions. 2) To make it easier, stick something in front of your cockpit. You need intakes: why not use the nose for that? Alternately, it's also a good spot for a shielded docking port or a nosecone LF tank.

Even in stock aero, Mk2 ships aren't overly draggy if you build and fly them right. The key is that you need to keep that broad, flat fuselage aligned with the wind as much as possible. Hence, wing incidence: With a bit of that, you can climb to altitude while keeping your nose on prograde the whole time.

To get the most out of it: 1) Begin with a 10° climb until 10,000m. 2) Drop the nose to the horizon (0°) and crank the speed up to 1,500m/s. 3) Lift the nose to 15°. Keep the jets airbreathing until switching mode at 29,000m. 4) Keep the nose at 15° until the apoapsis reaches 55,000m, then drop it to surface prograde and keep it there until you reach space. 5) For reentry, set the periapsis to 0m right on top of KSC. 6) Keep the nose about 5° above the horizon until you're in sight of the KSC mountains (you can slow down much more quickly if you instead reenter at 30°, but it's a bit trickier to judge the trajectory to arrive at KSC in an unpowered glide if you do that). 7) Come over the mountains at as close as you can to 10,000m, then descend immediately afterwards, aiming to get down to about 150m comfortably before the runway. 8) When empty, the ship can comfortably maintain level flight down to about 70m/s. 9) Aim to land at 70m/s with a very small amount of engine power applied to maintain that speed. Use the spoilers (linked to the brakes) to control your descent rate.

Each shockcone can feed three engines, BTW (two for the ram intakes).