MeticulousMitch

You should see the real Earth

The lowest possible stable orbit is 69,077.55 metres. Flying manually I just managed an almost circular orbit with an apoapsis of 69,219 metres and a periapsis of 26,214 metres. The map view was so jittery that the numbers were almost unreadable, and as soon as I warped to 5x, it recalculated the apoapsis and periapsis with about 100 metres of error.

Race to Proxima Centauri For version 0.17 Let's assume for a moment that the Kerbol system is an analogue of our own solar system, and that corresponding star systems exist outside it. Your challenge is to reach Proxima Centauri, the nearest star at a distance of 4.24 light years, as fast as possible. So how do you do this? First you need to escape from the sun, that is (for the purposes of this challenge) achieve a distance of 1 Billion Km, and then record your velocity. Then use that velocity to calculate your travel time to Proxima Centauri. I'll kick off this challenge by posting my first attempt: Velocity at sun escape: 29.307 km/s Distance to Proxima Centauri: 4.011x10^13 km (4.011x10^13km) / (29.307km/s) = 1.3687x10^12 seconds = 43,402.14 years. I personally only fly stock craft, but I'm quite interested to see what times you can achieve with mods, so I've made two categories. Challenge Leaderboard: Stock: 1.) Max Schram - 22,214 years 2.) Bluejayek - 25,330 years 3.) maltesh - 26,681 years 4.) Andydouble07 - 38,222 years 5.) MeticulousMitch - 43,402 years Mods: 1.) - 1of6Billion - 2,515 years 2.) -Hammer Bridges - 2,721 years 3.) - Mars9000000000 - 19,740 years 4.) - maltesh - 25,931 years 5.) - You can of course use any craft you like, but if you want to try mine or improve on it, the file is attached below.

On the first page there is a spoilered image showing the craft just after lift-off. That's what it looks like on the pad. DrLucky: that's a pretty powerful looking ship! The original version of the ship is actually capable of landing and returning from Duna - I was referring to Eve, which is next to impossible with stock parts. To take off from Duna, reach orbit and return to Kerbin, you'll want about 1800 litres of fuel. By the time you touch down on Duna you should have 2400 litres of fuel still remaining, so that gives you 600 litres to use cruising around in lander configuration if you still want to return home. I'm currently exploring Jool's moons in a slightly modified version that replaces the outer parachutes and LV-909 engines with 3 additional small fuel tanks. This thing has easily enough fuel to get out to Jool's orbit and return home, but probably not enough to get get back after landing on the moons, except Bop.

Hey, that's an unusual and interesting concept! It reminds me of the Z-variants of some German WWII aircraft.

Jeb, Bob and Doncott (hey, where's Bill?) had a fantastic time on Eve this afternoon. After touch down, with the lander now in rover mode, it was just a short drive to the beach. With the boat rocking gently in the liquid mercury ocean, Jeb decided to go for a swim, although he only managed to get wet up to his ankles! Craft is available here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/21351-Stock-0-17-Fun-3-man-Interplanetary-Lander-Rover

It certainly can get to Eve. Here's some pics from Jeb, Bob and Doncott's (who the heck is that guy?) Eve luxury cruise vacation. It's probably worth noting that while in boat configuration, I unintentionally set the record for worst fuel efficiency in history, at approximately 3.75x10^-4 miles per gallon. Edit: No, this can't make Eve orbit again. I've yet to see any stock craft do that, let alone a medium-sized lander/rover/boat with only 139 parts on the launchpad. If you want a return trip, this craft is only really suitable for Duna, Ike, and maybe(!) Moho.

Saitek X52 Pro also

Thank you! I have a couple of struts securing the tricoupler, but apart from that the engines seem to stay on pretty well by themselves. I suppose the fuel line might provide a little extra rigidity. Ah, I was wondering when someone would ask that question. Basically there were 3 factors that made me decide against jettisoning the SRB's. 1.) The empty weight of an SRB is fairly small, and somewhat negligible compared to the weight of the lower stages. Carrying a few empty boosters for 60 seconds doesn't make a huge difference to the delta v. 2.) Decouplers supporting SRB's tend to be either too flimsy or too heavy for my liking. I don't like seeing them swaying around on the rocket. 3.) I wanted to keep the craft as simple, user-friendly and safe as possible. Decoupling SRB's at the wrong time can be disastrous. I guess you could say that this craft is less about extreme efficiency, and more about simplicity, adaptability and ease of use.

Ah, it's all good now. There was about an hours delay before it appeared. The thread is here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/21351-Stock-0-17-Fun-3-man-Interplanetary-Lander-Rover

Hello everyone, I'm Mitch and I've been lurking here a while. I just tried to create a new post over at the spacecraft exchange, but It'll have to get approved by a moderator first. I'm wondering though, should that post be visible to me in the mean time? My profile still reads "posts: 0", and I'm a little worried that with all the forum hiccups lately it might have been lost.

Hi everyone, as you'll notice this is my first post, although I've been lurking for months. I'm here to present my latest creation! Destination Duna: It's a combination lander, rover and return vehicle, which is extremely efficient (in rover configuration it has enough fuel to circumnavigate Mun), easy to fly, and runs well on slower computers due to its relatively small number of components (139 parts). The ship has 3 stages, and is powered by 3 NERVA engines and 3 detachable LV-909's, which are only used for landing and takeoff assistance. Low Kerbin orbit, and starting the transfer burn: Landing - transitioning from lander to rover: Exploration - getting some air time in the low gravity! It's a good idea to keep the rover under 30m/s to avoid losing control. Return to orbit - 'ramp' assisted takeoff! Plenty of fuel left for the return voyage. Tips: 1.) Activate the LV-909 engines just before landing, and jettison them once you leave the atmosphere to save weight. 2.) Use the atmosphere and gentle thrust to slow yourself to under 300m/s before opening your parachutes on Duna. 3.) Move the stages around in-flight to suit your particular mission - if you're landing on a world without atmosphere, you might want to discard the LV-909's early on. Let me know what you think of it! p.s. - I've tried to keep the images as small as possible - all together they're only 800kb, so I've left them out of spoilers.