Majk

I've managed, thanks everyone for ideas and encouragement! I've basically made a macaron out of two heat shields and avionics and a parachute for the filling. One of the heat shields exploded, but the other one just barely survived reentry from 180x40 orbit.

Great idea, but that didn't really work for me as I can't really build planes. So I tried one of the stock vehicles, but when I swapped the engine for something than I can unlock (I unlocked the first two plane nodes), I can barely reach supersonic speed. Not to mention, the "supersonic speed" experiment actually requires 450m/s, well over supersonic. Also, I got hit by the "Game thinks vehicle is landed but you're actually flying"). I guess I'll borrow the missing science using Alt+F12 ...

Is it expected that there are a couple of career points where it becomes increasingly hard to get more science if you don't rush the science gathering nodes? I am playing my first career and I am in the year 1958. I am currently struggling to get ~16 science point in order to unlock the fourth science node (the one with IR radiometry) and am frankly unsure how to get it, even though I am progressing quite well on other fronts: I've finished Early satellites in 1957 I have got Orbital engines, and first generation heat shields and solar panels 30000 money in the bank, 900 reputation and 1500 confidence I have a ~30 ton launch vehicle that can get reasonable payload to 300 x 2000 km orbit However, where do I get the science? From space low I can only get Advanced Biological sample that requires recovery. Since the experiment takes 1 day, I have to get to orbit and then re-enter. I can reenter without using propulsion (by simply leaving my Pe below 140 km), but the first gen heat shield doesn't seem good enough to protect my rocket from LEO. There is a lot of science awaiting me at space high, but my launch vehicles cannot get there. I don't feel I have the tech to put that extra 1500 m/s on my launcher. Even if I shoot straight up, my Ap only gets to something like 7000 km. There is some flying high (biome) science left to collect but only in biomes far away from Cape Canaveral -- not sure how to get there without planes / reentry. I don't have any crew modules or astronaut to get crew report or EVA report. I recall I was running out of options when unlocking the previous science node as well, and I only had a handful of science points left when I finally unlocked it. Any pointers on how to get out of this pickle?

The air-breathing mode doesn't use oxidiser. This means that you carry some dead weight. You should drain some of it, or better yet use some lighter tanks that only carry fuel. This way, you can add more fuel while maintaining reasonable TWR. Still, this will likely be insufficient. You can try adding even more fuel and engines, but only up to a point. I don't know whether single-stage-to-Mun-surface-and-back is possible with just rapiers. Perhaps you need to add some more efficient engines to the mix. I'd suggest aiming for Minmus first. UPD: I just made a quick assembly with 9 RAPIER engines, 2x Mk3 Rocket Fuel Long, 1x Mk3 Liquid Fuel (Medium) and managed to get to LKO with 1700 m/s left, which was sufficient for Minmus sample return. I suspect single-stage-to-Mun-and-back with just RAPIER is possible with better ratios and/or piloting.

The delta-v reading you see is based on the ISP of air-breathing mode of Rapier. The closed cycle has a vacuum ISP more than 10 times lower, which also means 10 times lower delta-v.

When Starship is done, exactly where will the Super Heavy Booster be recovered? The sources (such as https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-super-heavy-landing-plans) seem to indicate that it will be caught by the very same launch tower from which it started. However, this doesn't make much sense to me from orbital mechanics point of view. The booster doesn't have enough delta-v to become orbital on its own, so it cannot complete a full orbit to come back to the launch site. The booster must gain some horizontal velocity. If it was merely lifting the second stage to orbital altitude, this would be incredibly wasteful. Furthermore, the upper stage has about 7km/s delta-v, which is less than the orbital velocity at LEO, so it wouldn't become orbital even if it used up all of its fuel. Will the booster simply cancel all horizontal velocity it got, gain a comparable amount of horizontal velocity in the opposite direction to come back to the launch site? Again, this sounds incredibly wasteful, even one could argue that by staging the payload, the dry mass decreases significantly, thus improving delta-v of the booster. A naive solution would be to have a separate landing site to "catch" the booster. This is not without issue, because either you need to have a network of evenly spaced launch sites all around the world (clearly impractical), or haul the behemoth over land. Furthermore, you're severely constrained in the inclinations you can launch into. Last but not least, this would contradict the claim here in https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/30/elon-musk-says-spacex-will-attempt-to-recover-super-heavy-rocket-by-catching-it-with-launch-tower/ What am I missing?

You have wheels!

I can imagine a couple ways of cheating the delta-v readout: stow your engines and install them while you're in orbit choose a weird root part empty all the tanks connected to engines, haul the fuel in some other tank, perform a resource transfer and then stage it off hide your fuel behind a decoupler and enable crossfeed only on launchpad use engines with an awful sea level ISP use RCS thrusters use EVA pack If any of these are allowed, I'm not sure what's the point of the challenge. Even Dres can be done with just an EVA pack and a ton of patience. If they're all forbidden (along with the already suggested propellers), then I'm not sure what's the point of the challenge either. Have you read the "Challenge Submission Guide"? Not trying to be a dick, but this is not the first challenge of yours that's rather confusing.

I've landed on all 13 planets, dwarf planets and moons with a surface. I thought you guys would appreciate it.

When I tested without the radiator, it started overheating and I heard some explosions. Maybe you can do it with a smaller drill / smaller ISRU? I tried with a single tank as well. However, when the tank is vertical on top of the ISRU, the whole thing is simply too unstable to land anywhere but Minmus flats. If you put the tank horizontally and clip it through, you can land this. However, aside from the no clipping rule, it is difficult to position the drill such that its deployment doesn't make your ship roll. I'm not saying it is impossible , but it likely needs much better piloting skills.

I've cut the record in the low part category to 8 parts, and managed to bring a camera this time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cFz-VrsNlk Important info: KSP 1.11 + Making History Mods: Chatterer, BetterBurnTime + visuals 8 parts (Or was it 9? Hard to say.) Launch mass of 310,310 tons ISRU (duh) Two kerbals to each moon The design is so simple that it's almost an insult

I always try to do the smallest capture burn possible, so that I can get a good understanding of how much I actually need in order to minimize future designs. Plus the reentry fireworks are fun to watch!

Absolutely! Although I think there is a lot of room for improvement on the part count front.

@Superfluous JThank you! I really enjoyed the challenge!

Eve is done. I couldn't do it without ISRU and I also needed inspiration from Bradley Whistance's Grand Tour design, but it's over!