DennisB

In theory it's possible to start from Kerbin and Mun and to land on Kerbin, but I don't know how to land on Mun. 1. Landing on Kerbin is obviously possible with aerobraking. 2. Launch from Kerbin should be also possible. You can start horizontal with a plane, compensating the gravity with aerodynamic lift. 3. Launch from Mun would be much more difficult, because of the absence of an atmosphere. You would have to start horizontal again, and reach orbital speed, driving on the surface, or a little less, if you have a slope, which you can use as a ramp. But I have no idea, how to land on Mun, because you have to do it, with nearly orbital speed (with unbreakable parts?). And I also don't know, how you could adjust the throttle, keeping TWR=1 all the time (is there a mod for it?). I have no intentions to participate in the challenge, and I don't have KSP2. I made just some thoughts. Edit: Probably it should be TWR<=1, because with TWR=1 all the time, you will run out of fuel before you reach Mun.

It's not enough. With the transfer stage attached, I can't even reach Kerbin orbit. That rocket will be a monster or it needs a complete redesign. If it isn't a secret, how heavy was your rocket at the launch on Kerbin?

Finally, I made the ladders on my rocket tonight. Now the crew can climb up to the command pod. It looks funny, when the kerbals doing somersaults on the ladder, where the parts aren't aligned well. Now I have everything assembled, what I need to collect almost all science on Eve and get up to orbit after it. The return to Kerbin should be easy. The next huge task is, to get the whole thing to Eve and land it . I have a lot of thrust, I hope it will be enough to put on some huge fuel tanks and a lot of chutes. But.... who knows.

Struts.

Hopefully, you will see it soon (or later).

I made it already on Saturday. Why? Are there similarities to your attempt? I knew, this wouldn't be easy, but a challenge should be challenging . I redesigned my plane yesterday, now I can safely land on easy terrain, and it has another benefit too. Hopefully I won't need reloading, but good to know, it's allowed.

What difficulty settings are to be used? I've reached a point, where it could matter. Because I'm new to KSP, it takes a bit more to design the vehicles, because I do most of it for the first time. Till now, I did only the caveman challenge, so I use advanced technology for the first time, and I've never landed somewhere else than on Kerbin (I made only a Mun orbit and a small visit outside of Kerbin SOI). The first task was to make an airplane, which works on Eve in theory. To make it a bit more realistic, I made the tests on Kerbin. My first plane was simply too weak, very unstable and fragile at landing, the second one didn't work, but the third one was OK, still a little unstable, but much better than the first one. Then came the Eve ascent rocket. The delta V map shocked me at first with the value of 8k, but during the building I had more trouble to reach a TWR>1. My first rocket had a very complex engine constellation, and I had the fear, that they will break in Eve's atmosphere, and during the tests at Kerbin with the transfer stage, it was buggy too. I don't know, if it was, because of the high number of engines, but I tried to make it more simple, so I ended up with much fewer and bigger engines. Now I'm at the point, where I have to attach the plane to the rocket. I watched several videos and read several threads, until I understood, how to reroot parts and make subassemblies. I wanted to build a transport container for the plane, because it doesn't fit into the standard Mk3 container wit the wings attached. I made the wings foldable anyway to reduce the size. But my container wasn't stable. I tried also a fairing, but it made a massive destruction, when deployed on the ground. Yesterday I was close to giving up. To give my motivation a chance to rebuild, I used the cheat menu to test my vehicles on Eve. The rocket was as expected. Started at a height of 2500m I reached orbit with the 3rd stage almost full with fuel, so I think, it could work also starting from sea level. My plane was better than expected. It was much more stable than on Kerbin (thicker air), it needs only a little adjustment to make landings safer. Now I have two choices. Try further to make a stable container (I have an idea), or transport the equipment unprotected (I saw videos on YouTube, so it should be possible). In the second case I could change the concept of my plane to get really safe landings, because without a container, the plane size doesn't matter so much, but I'd have to design some kind of landing legs for my massive rocket, because my original plan was to use the container(s) for ground stability.

Is it allowed to leave back something in orbit and dock with it after leaving the atmosphere?

Completed vanadium level too. After the first two, this was quite easy. I did nearly the same, as last time. I only made a new rover, because I used it before I had the rover wheels, so I mounted two jet engines on it in opposite directions, and I grabbed the science also from the buildings, not only from the KSP areas.

I was happy about the discovery, but I realized soon, that my concept doesn't give a benefit with the part and weight limit. So, what does a caveman do, if he can't do a better rocket with a new technology? He makes a more powerful rocket with the old parts . The new rocket doesn't have as good handling as the old one, but it was enough to send a science probe with all experiments to a Mun fly-by and bring it back, and also to interplanetary space and back. I think, it's powerful enough to land on Minmus and get home, if I get the maneuvers right. The crewed version reached only high Kerbin orbit, I don't know if it could reach Mun without science experiments, because that mission wasn't necessary. Apatite level completed. In this round I didn't use an airplane, but I will need one on the next level. On Kerbin I got science only at KSC and where I landed after the missions. This time I took instead of the science for money the science for reputation strategy, but it's not as good, as the other one.

I've started on apatite level. The start was nearly the same as last time. I took the time to optimize my KSC science harvester rover. I think, the next time I have to think more about my science strategy. I didn't make a new plane, so I wanted to go to Mun, but realized, that I don't have ferrings. So I started to complete contracts. After my science probe for high Kerbin orbit had some dV left, I took a contract for an engine test at Kerbin escape. Now I have my first deep space probe, but because it was unplanned, it had only the small antenna on board, so I couldn't transmit science data from interplanetary space. I also accepted a contract as a challenge, to place a satellite in a specified orbit. That was a successful mission On the way to Mun. The first probe made only a fly-by, because the solar panels didn't have sunlight. The second one transmitted the science data successfully as planned, but as I made correction maneuvers, I lost connection while engine burn, so it ended in a Mun impact. I think, everyone made such mistakes at the beginning, I see it as part of the learning process. With the recent unlocked technologies I will try to make a better rocket for a returning probe or maybe a crewed fly-by to Mun. Only 400 science points to get to the finish.

Learning minimalism is a task for the future.

Thank you for the award. I will continue on the next level soon.

Here are the screenshots for validation And some impressions from Jebediah's first orbit. I wasn't satisfied with my rover and airplane, but this rocket was really good.

I've finished the talc level. I made the necessary screenshots, I can post them, after someone tells me, how to do it. My strategy: - activate the strategy science for contract revenues - make science on the launchpad and on the runway to unlock more science experiments and do it again - make some small rocket flights to unlock the rover wheel - get science with the rover at KSC to unlock the rocket sciences - make suborbital and orbital flights to unlock the aeronautical sciences - get the final science points by flying around and landing at some bioms on Kerbin I think, my vehicles doesn't really follow the caveman philosophy, because they are very close to the parts and size limits, and they use high-tech (for caveman standards). This is, because I'm playing the game for the first time, so I have a lot to learn, and I don't want to be a caveman forever. I think, I have to design new vehicles on the next level, because probably I won't get enough science to build them, when I would need them. But that's the caveman challenge about.

I'm new in KSP and decided to make this challenge in my first career play. At first on easy level. I have only 2-3 techs to unlock. Today I made my first rover, my first rocket, my first suborbital and orbital flights (crewed and uncrewed) with some explosions but without deaths. I think, to complete the challenge, I have to build an airplane or I have to go to Mun.

Hi everybody I discovered this game around 7 weeks ago. Since then I watched 150 hours of YouTube videos of Master Hellish and later of wintermancer. I waited until last weekend to buy it, because it was cheaper after the release of KSP2. In the last days I made some of the training stuff and some of the scenarios, and now I feel ready for the first career play. There are interesting challenges on the forum, so I will start with some of them.