N2maniac

Hmm, a decent design challenge...

All you really need is about 4km/s delta v past orbital. Considering that getting to the Mun, landing, and taking off again is about another 2km/s, it isn't much more difficult.

...That sounds like a challenge...

I feel like the OP of this thread has abandoned it.

With a 1/r2 force law, orbits will never look from that top down. Under a r2r1 force law (positive exponent!) they will appear like this (try a mass on a spring or a long pendulum, they generally do this). There is a relation between the power of r that a force law takes and the shape of an orbit under that force law (in terms of what rotation angle is progressed as the altitude does 1 cycle), but I can\'t remember it at the moment. Many powers end up with the non-circular orbits not being closed for 1 cycle, with -2 and +2 being notable exceptions. Edit: The +r solution is r^1, not r^2. I do not know why I was thinking Hooke\'s law was r^2...

You can reach escape velocity for Kerbol fairly easily (should be about 4-5km/s over Kerbin\'s orbital speed at that altitude) but you never leave the SoI. It just becomes a slow journey at some point with a speed asymptotically approaching ship\'s hyperbolic excess velocity following its hyperbolic orbit.

Whether or not radiative heat transfer is important at 2km/s, it may be important at higher re-entry speeds or aero-capture. An aero-capture maneuver at high speed would avoid the highest conductive/convective heat flux deeper down, yet have a potentially high temperature initially (suppose it was 8,10,12, even 21km/s). Not trying to nag or negatively criticize, just bringing up a point.

You know that time warp that you use for deep space, orbital, or trans-Munar missions? Without a complex implementation it would require everyone to share a time warp setting.

Wow, suddenly it makes sense. That would just about match what I have found angle-wise.

If you start in a low kerbin orbit and try to aim at the Mun with a single burn to raise the apoapsis to its orbit, you are looking for what angle to have you vs the Mun when you start the burn. I did some calculations for this and it seems the 90 deg mark that is often quoted is a bit off. My best explanation: Looking from above, position yourself in the 6 o clock and the Mun in the 2 o clock position (rotate the camera/wait on your low orbit to come to it). From there do a prograde burn until apoapsis reaches the Mun\'s orbit. In v0.15, you should see the SoI change to know you got it right. In other words, like this you will do 1/2 a rotation in the time it takes the Mun to do 1/6 a rotation (roughly) Example: Once you see the SoI change you can figure out what corrections you need to do. My advice is wait until you are 1/3 to 1/2 of the way there since it does not work very well to adjust your course near kerbin (unless it is an arrival timing).

Last time I checked Kerbol seems to have very tall mountains. I crash well before hitting altitude=0m.

How the heck do you get it to do that?

How do you figure that? A perhaps naive assumption would be something like a=v2/(2d) However, since 10km/s is faster than the speed of sound in steel and likely whatever the ship is made of, an interesting effect will happen where the back of the ship doesn\'t 'know' the front has hit something until it also hits it.

Wait, how is VTOL defined? Is a rocket technically a VTOL?

Since nobody else seems to attempt this: Record title: World Water Speed Record Record statistic : 27.7m/s Game version when record achieved: 0.15 Screenshots: Note: That sail-like object is actually about 20 standard control surfaces. This is to keep it from going under. Mods used: none This feels like reverse steampunk or something using jet engines and aircraft parts to make a boat of moderate speed.

I am debating whether I should attempt 21km/s impact. Minimus is a small target...

My way of doing this: http://imgur.com/a/bKz1c#0 Final Stats: 18.7 tonnes 21890m/s 0.5*18700kg*(21890m/s)^2 = 4.480TJ 4.480TJ / (4.184TJ/ktTNT) = 1.071ktTNT All stock parts except for Mechjeb command module. I would like to note that aiming it at the Mun is not easy, but careful calculations and timing will do it. Of my 3 ships launched for this mission, 1 ended up off course (math error, oops), 1 missed the Mun (something wrong with my position estimate of it), and 1 hit (after some last minute orbital maneuvers to actually impact).

And with a little effort it can be done. Behold: http://imgur.com/a/bKz1c#0 Final Stats: 18.7 tonnes 21890m/s 0.5*18700kg*(21890m/s)^2 = 4.480TJ 4.480TJ / (4.184TJ/ktTNT) = 1.071ktTNT All stock parts except for Mechjeb command module. I would like to note that aiming it at the Mun is not easy, but careful calculations and timing will do it. Of my 3 ships launched for this mission, 1 ended up off course (math error, oops), 1 missed the Mun (something wrong with my position estimate of it), and 1 hit (after some last minute orbital maneuvers to actually impact).

According to my calculations, I have a method: Method: Using about orbit + 6km/s delta v, one can achieve 21km/s speed in Kerbin SoI: Escape Kerbin with Apoapsis near 120Gm n*106d later, retro-fire to reverse the velocity vector (n=3,4, etc. Kerbin then orbits that number of times, returning back to where it was) n*106d - m*38.6h (aka T minus m*38.6h to impact), adjust incoming direction towards Mun (Mun would be in the same orbital position relative to Kerbin at impact. 10-20 days should be enough to adjust) Optional: 38.6h before impact, re-adjust to fine-tune it If you don\'t trust your calculations, back up persistence file and see how badly you are off Final point: At 21km/s, 1 tonne of spaceship is 0.22TJ of energy while 1ktTNT is 4.18TJ. A craft with a mass of 19tonnes will be a 1ktTNT impact. More on testing this later if successful.

How much faster than 183km/s did you get? I see the 60km/s post, am I missing something?

Record title: World SpaceSpeed Record Record Statistic: 21978.5m/s (Kerbin SoI) Game version when record achieved: 15.2 Screenshots: Mods used: none Note, this was re-entry from a long space voyage. Record title: World SpaceSpeed Record Record Statistic: 183764m/s (Kerbol SoI) Game version when record achieved: 14.1 (?) Screenshots: Mods used: none Crashing into the sun (note Sundiver\'s name)... there ends up being a similar speed no matter how you do it. And now a made-up one: Record title: World Highest Survived Gee Force Record Statistic: 126.0G Game version when record achieved: 15.2 Screenshots: Mods used: none Apparently this happened during my 11-12km/s re-entry.

Amazing job getting the interception right with v0.14. This became easier on 0.15, though it seems the SOI switch is not detected ahead of time when going in reverse.

Minimus has some very smooth surfaces (the valleys). I managed to get a stock cart to about 150m/s along them but that was all of the 'track' that I had before hitting a hill. Unfortunately orbital speed was 200m/s, so I would have needed about 300m/s for escape. The cart speed surprised me since on Kerbin it has trouble above 100