camacju

That would be cool, but I don't have breaking ground so I wouldn't be able to try it. And turboprops won't work even at the top of Eve's mountains, because your only option for a gas generator is the Nerv and it doesn't produce any thrust. I think your only option would be drain valves

This was for a different challenge but I think it fits here also. Landing on all five of Jool's moons, using only liquid fuel. Makes the Tylo landing a bit hard, but still doable.

Okay, I landed on all five of Jool's moons using only liquid fuel. Note that on the Laythe landing I composited multiple takes because of me forgetting to record stuff. The lander obviously can orbit even from sea level. 167 parts in total, 17 rapiers, 10 nuclear engines, 0 oxidizer Also - I have absolutely no idea how the lander survived (mostly) intact at the Kerbin landing. The docking port must have absorbed the initial impact somehow?

I might try this tbh. I've done a grand tour but I don't have the DLCs. Thanks for making this challenge! The one problem is that my computer's pretty bad so I don't know if I'll be able to put together a video montage. (Takes really long to render videos) I do have one question about Mechjeb. Am I allowed to use it for plotting or executing maneuvers, or to assist with suicide burns? I prefer to fly most of landings, and all ascents, manually - but maneuvers and suicide burns are quite repetitive. Edit: I have more questions, sorry! -Am I allowed to do this in one launch? I'd prefer if that were the case, since my computer lags a lot for large crafts -Do we have to use each craft to land on 4-5 different bodies or is that just a guideline? Also if we dock the crafts together in orbit, why is there a requirement for three different crafts? If there is, I think a mothership+daughtership+specialized landers would work quite well.

Ok so I completed the entire Jool 5 with only liquid fuel. I recorded it and I'm probably gonna try to put it together into a video or something

So I slightly improved my lifter design to do a full Jool-5 mission and this is what I ended up with: Again way overengineered. Total craft has 17 rapiers and 10 nuclear engines

@ralanboyle@Arugela By the way I think the spirit of this challenge is to only use liquid fuel reaction engines. So drain valves, jets, and the nuclear rocket are allowed, but props wouldn't be (unless you're doing a liquid fuel powered turboprop).

I may have budgeted slightly too much liquid fuel for my ascent vehicle. If I hadn't detached the jets when they flamed out, I could have gotten all the way to Tylo orbit on a single stage, and not even had to use my two transfer stages. This means that I'll be obligated to land places other than Tylo. Edit: If I had planned this better, I might have been able to do an all liquid fuel Jool-5. That would be pretty cool

Yeah I got a land+return with one nuclear engine

Not close to zero, literally equal to zero. At 9km the nerv's thrust is about 1/400 of its vacuum thrust

I just realized - no EVA pack will be allowed.

Eve and Tylo are probably not gonna be landable, same with Jool Actually you might be able to land on Tylo with nerv only but that'll be pretty hard I might try to do that

OTRAG 4: Duna and Ike Crew module, Kerbin->Duna transfer stage, Duna->Kerbin transfer stage, science lab In orbit Fuel tanker and Duna/Ike lander Rendezvous 1 of 2 Duna transfer burns Duna aerocapture Lander brakes down to surface while lab transfers to Ike Duna landing Flag Lander transfers to Ike Lab arrives after lander Rendezvous After refueling, lander goes down to Ike and biome hops a bit Ike landing Short hop between mountains Rendezvous Kerbin transfer Lab is left in orbit, lander and crew module return home Chutes deployed Lots of science! Tech tree. Just over 6000 science remaining. I'll probably complete the whole tech tree in the following mission.

Wow I kinda forgot about this challenge! I'll probably have the fourth mission finished tonight

https://imgur.com/a/Npdmi5B Mini submission, 2643 funds command chair category. This was for a ksp discord challenge

@ralanboyleNow that 1.11 is out, and kerbals in crew cabins actually matter as to the weight, you may want to add a rule stipulating that all seats must be filled by kerbals

This update is going to pretty much rewrite the requirements for low mass missions. Now engineers will become the most used kerbal for these since they can detach/attach parts, detach spent EVA fuel tanks, etc.

Okay I'm going to take a slightly lateral thinking approach to this challenge. I assume the challenge is to see how much or how little fuel is needed to circumnavigate Kerbin while never leaving the atmosphere. So I think the best solution is to go into a 69999m orbit and coast around Kerbin a few times before landing. https://imgur.com/a/ZntUz6B I got really impatient and decided to timewarp which vastly increased my orbital decay. With proper station keeping I bet I could have lasted at least two months in the atmosphere before running out of fuel. But I don't have that kind of time. Total ground distance covered: 140703910 m Kerbin circumference: 3769911 m Number of circumnavigations: 37 Amount of fuel used: 85.5 oxidizer and 70 liquid fuel Highest altitude: 69989 m Liquid fuel used per circumnavigation: 1.89 Oxidizer used per circumnavigation: 2.31 If the craft is kept orbiting long enough, the initial fuel cost will be amortized to nearly zero. This is probably the most efficient way to do this using only liquid fuel and/or oxidizer.

OTRAG Launch 3 - Kerbin orbit rendezvous followed by Apollo style landings on Mun and Minmus. After this launch I use my second CRPU slot and make a 2.5m booster, consisting of an orange tank, a half size tank (X200-32), and a Mainsail. The CRPU I have makes a surprisingly capable single stage lander. First stage - six CRPUs Second stage - three CRPUs Third stage - one CRPU that acts as a lander In orbit Same booster, lifting a fuel tank to orbit Circularizing in a high orbit Docked Mun transfer Mun descent Mun ascent Who needs an efficient transfer when you have this much fuel? Minmus orbit Landed on Minmus Rendezvous Aerobraking At this point I realized I forgot parachutes. Propulsive landing it is More science than expected Tech tree.

Second OTRAG style launch. Analogous to Apollo 8 - going into Munar orbit and collecting some science. I also try to eyeball a Minmus encounter but fail Like craft 1 but with strap on boosters and fins added Launch Korolev cross? Eyeballing the Mun transfer Bad capture but I have lots of fuel Trying to encounter Minmus but I can't quite get there Reentry Tech tree summary

First OTRAG style launch. I only use one CRPU design because I'm saving the other for a bigger 2.5m rocket. 1200 units of fuel and a Reliant engine. Mission profile is roughly analogous to Apollo 6 First rocket is two CRPU stacked on top of one another and some stabilizing fins. Exactly 30 parts Grabbing some science Taking a relatively steep ascent profile but this design has a lot of delta-v. Getting into orbit. I also boost upward to the height of Mun but don't encounter it, as preparation for the next mission. Aerobraking Chute deployed Tech tree summary

@Beriev I have a couple of clarifying questions. -Is fuel transfer between docked crafts allowed? I don't want all my missions to be direct ascent style -Am I allowed to launch a fuel tank target vehicle using CRPU's and then dock to the fuel tank in orbit? (Like Gemini/Agena) The fuel tank itself will not have any thruster other than a standard CRPU. This relates to the first question. If the answer to the first question is yes and the answer to the second question is no, then I'd just launch a bunch of CRPU's with docking ports and steal fuel from each of them individually so I don't expect the questions to have different answers.

Here's my first mission. I unlock the first two tech tree levels here. Craft is a pretty standard first career craft - a bunch of Fleas and explosive decoupling Blastoff In space Parachuting down Tech tree

I think Bradley Whistance got a prop plane to 1200m/s using reaction wheels and wings. Not sure how much better it's possible to get without using heatshield lift

Reducing the fuel load in the plane and putting it on an orbit-once-around would be more fuel efficient but the lander would still need a detachable tank with no way to recover it. This way when the tank is exhausted I can glide it back to KSC and recover it. Since the plane bits are a small part of the total wet mass of the ship it isn't that much less efficient and I feel like the gains from recovering the entire tank outweigh the fuel losses.