Ultimate Steve

Hold my beer.

Welcome to the Three Ton Speed Run! It's exactly like the Twenty Ton Speed Run, but with a lower mass limit, because the 20t escalated quickly, exceeding 30 kilometers per second, I feel like a limit of 3 tons would make the challenge more accessible. Both challenges will continue to run, however. Your goal is to take a craft that masses no more than 3 tons (including EVA Kerbals and not including any launch clamps) and reach the highest velocity possible, relative to Kerbin. Fairly simple, so I think I can get away with not submitting something as it's fairly obvious that this challenge is possible. Rules: 3 ton limit includes EVA Kerbals and not launch clamps. Don't abuse the launch clamps. Velocity is measured using the "orbital" setting on the navball. You may not leave Kerbin's SOI for the challenge. You may be on an escape trajectory at the end, but you can't measure your velocity outside Kerbin's SOI or leave before measurement. Accidental Mun/Minmus encounters are alright, but try to avoid them. Stock and Making History only, although non physics changing mods may be installed, and other parts mods may be installed but not used. Mods which allow faster physics warp are okay. In general try to not exploit stuff. No debug menu, .sfs editing, HyperEdit, Kraken drives, etc. Proof required is a screenshot at or near your highest velocity. Other screenshots showing your vehicle and how it works are required, unless you have a video. There will be separate leaderboards for manned and unmanned entries. Leaderboards: Manned: Unmanned: Have fun!

To be fair, payload capacity on v3 is 2/3 of v2 on initial versions (100t vs 150t), but that should improve in v3.1 which will have vacuum engines.

Just HOW? Three days?

I'll be at Academic Decathlon for the launch, a state competition, so no staying up until 2 AM for me, I've got tests to take in the morning...

Okay, that will do for the Mun transfer, and I need another node at that station anyways, so I'll use that as the payload. What about the Minmus transfer, I noticed you put down Galactus for that as well? I would prefer to vary which transfers I use.

I have Mun and Minmus crew transfers coming up in my career game. I have many systems in place which can be used to transfer crew to and from the moons, and I can't decide! Please vote, and pick a different ship for each moon. Thank you! The Mun one comes first, and the ships don't need to land, as I have a lander in place, a Vau derivative, as well as an older 4 seat lander. The Minmus one requires ships to land. This career is intended to be realistic-ish, progressing slowly in order, building stations and bases, and has KSP IE installed, although not much has been researched yet, just enough to make some fancy experimental nuclear SSTOs. Ships: T-01 Spectre. The oldest option, the first and only so far transfer ship launched. Has two nuclear engines, can seat 20, and can land with no modifications. Currently stationed at my understaffed and semi-abandoned LKO station. Has been used on a few prior transfer missions, succeeding in all of them, so this method is pretty safe. Galactus. Designed to replace the 2 seat Explorers and short lived 6 seat Pioneers, Galactus can seat 6 or 8 depending on the requested configuration, but is completely expendable. Sort of like Orion. Has only flown a handful of times but is pretty safe. X-6 Voyager - Generation 2 SSTO. Can be used for LKO or farther but may need refueling to return. Needs modified cargo bay to hold enough crew. I don't think any have ever failed, but I can't remember what SN 2 was, I'm missing one, but that's probably just a paperwork error. So also pretty safe. X-8 Robinson - Generation 3 SSTO. Mk3 profile. Can go pretty far, can carry a large payload and many people, but the first two serial numbers were destroyed during landing attempts (no loss of crew though) and the third serial number has never, I think, had a flawless mission. Something has always gone wrong, usually on landing, but again, no loss of life. Considered moderately safe. Vau - Generation 4 capsule. Has a lot of Delta-V, can seat 6, features integrated LES, power, comms, etc. Can function without a service module and does for LEO missions. Designed to propulsively land and carries no parachutes. Has had a fairly troubled development, is sometimes unstable on re-entry, needs redesigned LKO lifter but not a redesigned BLKO lifter. Has flown once with crew, after several unmanned tests, with varying degrees of success. Moderately safe. Thanks for helping! EDIT: PLEASE CHOOSE A DIFFERENT OPTION FOR EACH QUESTION. I have a variety of systems, I don't want to use one twice in a row.

Sun synchronous orbit. It's a polar orbit where, due to the gravitational irregularity of Earth, the orbit will process (not sure if its the right word) once a year, meaning satellites can operate pretty much forever on the day/night terminator, always be in sunlight, and always have a view of Earth where the shadows are at the same angle they were the previous day.

Gemini: They were mostly for landing in the paraglider thing, but the paraglider was replaced with a parachute and the ejection seats were retained, as they had been extensively tested and there were a few scenarios where they might be useful, because the Titan II exploded differently from SRBs or something. But the testing was done with the capsules pressurized with nitrogen. After soaking in pure oxygen for hours before launch, if an ejection seat was used, it may have spread rapidly and cooked the astronauts alive.

As the title says: You have to provide a description of what your profile picture is in case someone doesn't know what it is. You may also describe how you would win or how you would lose. Example: User 1 - I have a pineapple. User 2 - I have a bundle of pencils, which would stab the pineapple. User 3 - I have a star which would vaporize the pencils. It may also be a stalemate. To start, I have Apollo 8. There is no user above me so I would win by default!

I tried an ion ship too, but it was very small... I might as well get on the leaderboard before you steal it! My submission: 12929.1m/s. In depth:

There are small oofs and, well, there are big oofs. I thought initially that the Russian space program was just having bad luck, but, yeah, it's all of the old guys leaving and the new guys not knowing what to do combined with management, etc. Basically, unless they can get their act together, the Russian space program is about to become one very, very big oof.

Yup! @The Alchemical Man

Chapter 6

@kerbiloid Can't tell if you're joking but that's a render in case you aren't.

Which one?

That's fine, as long as you do not leave Kerbin's SOI before you measure your velocity.

Welcome to the Twenty Ton Speed Run! Your goal is to take a craft that masses no more than 20 tons (including EVA Kerbals and not including any launch clamps) and reach the highest velocity possible, relative to Kerbin. Fairly simple, so I think I can get away with not submitting something as it's fairly obvious that this challenge is possible. Rules: 20 ton limit includes EVA Kerbals and not launch clamps. Don't abuse the launch clamps. Velocity is measured using the "orbital" setting on the navball. You may not leave Kerbin's SOI for the challenge. You may be on an escape trajectory at the end, but you can't measure your velocity outside Kerbin's SOI or leave before measurement. Accidental Mun/Minmus encounters are alright, but try to avoid them. Stock and Making History only, although non physics changing mods may be installed, and other parts mods may be installed but not used. In general try to not exploit stuff. No debug menu, .sfs editing, HyperEdit, Kraken drives, etc. Proof required is a screenshot at or near your highest velocity. Other screenshots showing your vehicle and how it works are required, unless you have a video. There will be separate leaderboards for manned and unmanned entries. Leaderboards: Manned: @Aeroboi, 33,718.2m/s with an ion/rapier hybrid, probably approaching the limit of what can be done with this challenge. @dnbattley, 15,893m/s in the 20T flyer, using the EVA jetpack at the end. @Magzimum, 6856.9m/s, EVA seat, using a three stage liquid fueled design. @Andetch, 3322.3m/s with a capsule! Unmanned: @GRS, 21,109.2m/s in the "Something Mk2," like the Something but improved. @GRS, 17,772.2m/s in the "Something," a three Rapier, terrier, ion ship. @Ultimate Steve, 12929.1m/s, unmanned, five staged Rapier, LF, and ion hybrid. Have fun!

90% of the way to actual space... I wonder if they can get 10% more power out of it.

The Lunar Module Descent Engine had a thrust of 45kN maximum, for comparison purposes. So, without hoverslam/suicide burn/extreme throttling/etc. BE-3U is way too big for something LEM sized. I don't see hydrogen being used on a lunar lander, but it could work... I see all of the others working maybe in clusters of 2. Also AFAIK Rutherford vac is ablatively cooled, which is fine if you don't want to reuse the lander.

Right here! @Right @heregoes

I haven't been keeping up with this launch, is it RTLS or ASDS?

I've been working on a huge project for the past few weeks. Should all go well it will be concluded this week, at the earliest, Wednesday, but if we don't have school due to snow I can't do it thursday, and the class schedule will be off so I can't conclude it Friday. Then there is other stuff. But eventually.