bitslizer

Big fan of your SSTO's from pre1.0 days Is there still any SSTO that can say goto Duna and Back with a modest payload?

When is part 2 coming out?

What kind of thrust is it producing? Kitchen by 32k it's already slowing down instead of acclerating, it is worthy of investigation though

a copule unmanned lander here http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/103925-Lightest-Mun-Lander-%28-return%29-you-can-build-w-o-upgrading-Buildings manned lander with multiple material labs and goo pods for science gathering http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/103297-0-90-Mun-science-challenge

Kind of feel the clipping rules are out of date especially given that 0.90 the dev tweeted that they allow clipping by default and that now we have the offset tool. Just my 2 cents

power landing, terminal velocity near sea level is about 120m/sec? the landing gear can take upto 50m/s impact, even without mechjeb you have a pretty wide margin of error to do the power landing as long as you can save about 2 secs worth of fuel, (2 quick blast by the engine is enough to put the craft in upward velocity again). Note that I tested this landing on solid ground, not sure what would happen if you try to land in water at <50m/s I actually tried using radial decoupler mounted on the bottom of each cylinder tank, since those are lighter than the stack decoupler, but they causes the craft to spin out on staging *shrug*

Only allow to reset instruments with a stock science lab. The key point of this challenge is to design something that can do a min required amount of science with the limited part counts in stock (mechjeb ok, as my view is that mechjeb doesn't do anything a human can't do with sufficient time/math/quick save/load)

Haha, try no weight The imgur album works fine for me..... Is it just my album or you have problem with imgur in general?

Congrat! I've added you to the Jeb level on the first page. FYI, I was able to improve on your design on the lightest mun lander challenge

Yemo, your design can be further enhanced by replacing more parts with mass-less parts (landing gear, battery). This end up being 2.5Ton as display by 0.90 info dispaly, or 2510kg. Make it to orbit with 3k+ dv left in final stage, which is plenty for Mun and return (only need about 2000 to 2300dv to transfer to mun, capture, land, launch, and return to kerbin), we can also delete the chute... if you have 2 seconds of fuel left in the tank you can do a power landing..... that save another 100kg, the landing gear can take 50m/s impact without breaking with a ship this light. Optimizing the fuel load some more we can probably trim this down to below 2500kg for sure

I've been mulling about specifying an tech level limit to limit the challenge to low tech parts, specifically to address the issue you brought up, bu then I'll have to resubmit my own entry lol.

you can reach 400k+ AP (or possibly even more) just from turbojet alone with the right design/ascend profile, like the othe said you still need other mean (rocket... ion) to raise your PE though. see the top entry in this contest all had very high AP just from turbojet engines http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/102468-The-MachingBird-Revive%21-0-90-update

I think I may have figured out a technique to do what you guys wanted to do without structs..... Start out with a cylinder fuel tank as root part I have tried FT and Rockomax it may even be possible work even with a Oscar B Attach a Mk2 tank and orient it however you like, center it in relation to the cylinder fuel tank if you plan to keep that tank Make sure to press F and set Radial Symmetry to Vessel mode Attach side tanks as before and profit. Illustration done use an FT800 tanks, 1 this allow you to easily select the root to move the entire craft around, this is not necessary as you can use the shift+click on ship to select the whole ship to move, and if you need to access the root you can move the ship until the camera can clip inside the main body so you can select the root part (i.e. tiny Oscar B or FT100 tank.) using a a Oscar B or FT100 tank allow you to work on the top and bottom of the craft adding docking port and such but make it harder to select the root as you need to clip the camera inside the craft every time you want to select the root When all editing is done Set new root parts to something else, now you can get rid of the FT800 tank if you like

That's a very interesting design, do you have additional screenshots/mission report? I can add you to the first post if you have a good report documenting the mission, and I think this would qualify as the Medium level!

I see! I tend to build one side then alt-click to clone it to the other side, so I guess that's why it wasn't affecting me. It does have some limitation, I can't build it as small as the NEWT with only stock parts for example, but I can imitate a PIXIE fairly well

Anyone else getting this problem? The DV calculation seem to be buggy when using radial attachment instead of vertical node attachment. Adding fuel pipe doesn't seem to help or hinder either way Vertical vs Radial comparison

Is this the symmetry issue you guys are having problem with that result in needing the Octo struct? I seem to be able to do it without the struct?

Yes you are allow to eva and leave the science parts behind, just collect samples/data and bring them home

Francisco's design is proof that at least for the easy level, this can be with near starter tech. I was able to make slight modification to his design and based in the dv budget should be able to yo do the munar round trip. At the time I posted this challenge I was stuck with many low post grindy contact and low tech, and the mun mission was the only contract with decent pay

Yes, 3 of each that's why it's so hard to fit under 30 parts

Its an interesting take to use jet lifter, but where's the material bay?

I think you could have saved 2 parts if you did not do the free material bay return... 1 less decoupler and don't need a chute, just leave them with the transfer stage and EVA to collect the data? that would give you the necessary part counts to fit in 2 more goo pods? I'm going to have to give your design a try tonight edit - OK, so I see why I did not thought about your design initially when i was stuck. I had unknowingly mentally imposed a restriction on myself where I have a transfer stage to carry the 2 pods, with the lander stage merely doing the mun landing, mun launch and kerbin return. so I had to design something that had enough DV for the kerbin launch, mun transfer, and mun orbital insertion burn. Where your design just need to launch into Kerbin orbit with the lander stage handling everything else from that point on!

How was your dv budget? Could you have replace the 2 control surfaces with 2 more goo pod? What was the control surfaces for anyway? It is good that your attempt did not resort to using heavy rocketry parts

Happy to report that I was able to complete the easy level finally, but it required parts from Heavy Rocketry to get the job done. Mission technically is not completed yet as i have not yet return to Kerbin... but its way past my bed time so I'll have to do the kerbin return tomorrow.... plenty of delta V for the trip so it shouldn't be a problem -edit I was able to return without a problem

The new offset system seems pretty powerful... you can clip parts like crazy.... !