SRV Ron

Oh, it is most noticeable when one is used to flying using the old time scale. Also, Mun appears to be in the same relative orbit in relation to Kerbal rotation. That means quickly setting up intercept or waiting nearly a orbit to get a more efficient intercept.

That is going to make planning and flying multiple interplanetary missions a lot easier.

ThisIsTurtle. Cheapest so far, no doubt. Only criticism is your probe, due to having the larger tank and engine attached, is four times the weight of the others. That much difference, unfortunately, works against you in scoring. Debris should crash into Mun or Minmus which is usually the second stage. Eliminating the SAS on the booster, to save cost, results in being unable to perform a gravity turn, so launch time to get to Mun is critical. Fortunately, there is enough delta V in the design to overcome the inefficiency in that launch as well as stability to fly which is what is essentially is having control at all during the SRB stage. Never though of using a docking port to cut cost. Novel idea. All the top designs are proving they have sufficient fuel for a return to Kerbal. Keep at it with testing and tweaking.

Exactly. One does not count the cost of the required equipment as this is the same for everybody. You have fuel enough for a under 20,000 meter minmus and deorbit. You don't need to drop it down. My launch pad testing indicates 0.11 tons probe weight using cheapest cost to 0.10 tons for lightest design with all fuel gone. The LADEE is so light that the engine in use can lift it off from Kerbal. Fuel left over is a plus in this mission. Testing on Mun mission is placing the LADEE in orbit with a good reserve of fuel in the second stage. Will post more tomorrow. Keep up the research. I have to recalculate to confirm that my test design has only $3,060 in added parts.

Just looking at weight, fuel left, and bare bone design, you have first at present. There is still room to trim some cost. Congratulations on the Minmus encounter. It beats my test flight at present.

There is still the restriction that the S1 SRB-KD25K has to be the first stage. However, I tested using a BACC in the second stage just to see if it was possible to get my LADEE into Mun orbit. With tweaking of the thrust, one could get a much better flight then I got with the quick test. Still, I was able to get to the required Mun orbit with fuel left for deorbiting. So, there is lots of room to experiment to find the lowest cost design. I'll test a RT-10 later

I did something similar with the mods before tweakable thrust. Now that we have the stock equivalent and tweakable thrust, give it a try with the stock only restriction. Edit, Keep in mind the cost factor which means that the LADEE design in this challenge doesn't have to look like the real thing.

As others have said, too much effort is being used to lift the three stacks of fuel instead of some of that thrust going into lifting the payload. The SRBS could go into a ring configuration that gets the entire rocket up to 5 to 10 k for additional efficiency. I did that with this mod setup. And, this was an experiment with stock in 0.23 Experiment with getting a higher TWO. And, onion staging is an option when adding large number of liquid boosters.

A better challenge, put a fixed weight, say 200 tons, heavy payload in 100k orbit with scoring based upon the lightest lifter that can get the job done. You might need several categorizes such as vertical launch with rockets only, one with jet engines for the boosters, one for lowest cost, and one for aircraft. Also, stock only? or mods? Anyhow, from version 0.23 stock only, 200+ tons.

They can be used, but in the spirit of the Minotaur 5, only on top of the mandated first stage SRB booster. No mounting using radical decouplers in this challenge. The S1 SRB-KD25K has to lift everything until it has consumed all of its fuel. In the interest of cutting cost, I see no reason for not using an RT-10, sepratron 1, or even a BACC if you can get enough control to steer the non vectoring SRBs to get into a Mun insertion. Still working out the scoring. I am looking at removing the mass of unused fuel, oxidizer, and, or Monoprop from the satellite in order to give a lower overall score as opposed to having no fuel left. After all, your LADEE has to be capable of being deorbited into Mun. Edit, Quick testing, The S1 SRB-KD25K can easily lift an RT-10 or even a heavier BACC with ease as part of its upper stages. The real Minotaur 5 uses SRBs in its first three stages represented by the S1 SRB-KD25K. You are free to experiment with additional SRBs on top.

The six hour Kerban day is throwing the old schedule all out of whack. You will either have to adapt to the new Kerbal day and year or go into Settings and set the clock for a 24 hour 365 days a year calender.

You have until April 21. That is the day NASA sends the real one crashing into the Moon. Plenty of time to design something for the mission.

With the boosters mounted so high on the radical couplers, twisting is causing the flip over. It happened in this design until braces were properly installed.

An update on the challenge, My LADEE stage with all instrumentation, solar panels, extra battery, fuel can, and engine, weighs in at 0.26 tons. It currently is in under 20,000 mun orbit. Due to being half the weight of the first test launch, the second stage had sufficient fuel to place the LADEE into the required orbit, so I was able to place it into a sub orbit, return the LADEE to its proper orbit with its own engine, and achieve the removal of the second stage debris by crashing it into Mun. I will withhold design pictures at this time so as not to influence challenge designs. Also the reason for removal of the resource from the posted pic which proves the concept for orbit and debris removal. There may not be much room left to beat the mass placed in Mun orbit, but, there is certainly room for cutting cost.

My probe did weigh more then yours due to the use of two RCS cans where one was not needed. Still working on how it will score. Since everyone has to have the required booster and scientific instruments, everyone can remove their cost from the score as that remains fixed. I am still working on a multiplier for the final orbital weight and bonus for remaining fuel so its weight doesn't penalize overall score. Score will be based upon cost of all other parts minus fuel units left times weight of probe in orbit. I don't want to penalize fuel left as excess weight since it is required for deorbiting later on. I'm open for suggestion on how to remove its weight from the overall score. Just supply the cost, fuel units left, and weight of the probe for now. BTW, nice design. I also ran out of fuel by design and stage to use RCS for final orbit. May experiment with ant engines and Oscar B in place of RCS.

NASA's LADEE Lunar Mission Challenge; Build a Minotaur V rocket and place its payload into low Mun orbit, under 20,000 meters. Minotaur and LADEE payload systems are based upon low cost components and the use of surplus dated rocket technology. http://www.ask.com/wiki/Lunar_Atmosphere_and_Dust_Environment_Explorer?qsrc=3044 Mission Objectives; A successful LADEE mission will be using off the shelf stock Kerbal technology from version 23.5. You are to build this rocket as light and as cheap as possible. As the lowest score will be declared the winner, your score will be based upon the total cost, and weight of the payload minus the amount of fuel and or mono propellant left once low Mun orbit has been achieved. (This is going to be tweaked in order to encourage fuel efficiency, but not at the expense of spamming fuel cans on the payload.) A bonus will be awarded for leaving no debris in space. In addition, you must have enough fuel or mono propellant left in order to crash LADEE into the far side of Mun on April 21, 2014. Three photos should be enough to prove your concept; 1. Photo of the rocket in the VAB 2. Photo of the payload in low Mun or Minmus orbit. 3. Map mode showing orbital data, weight, and units of fuel left. Bonus mission, use the same rocket and go for Minmus low orbit. Required components; 1. The new S1 SRB-KD25K SRB. This booster very closely simulates the SRB component of the recycled first three stages of the Minotaur V launch vehicle. When properly tweaked, it will place the rest of your rocker into a high suborbital trajectory for a efficient orbital insertion. Required payload items to simulate the LADEE instrumentation; 2. Commrotron 16 antenna 3. Double C Accelerometer 4. PresMat Barometer 5. Gravamax Gravity Detector 6. 2 Hot Thermometer 7. Solar panels and spare batteries. Use any type needed to maintain power throughout the entire mission. You do not want dead batteries when on the dark side of the moon or Kerbal. You may use any other stock component to make up the rest of your rocket. Originally, I did this mission using KW Rocketry and NovaPunch Mods. With 23.5 I was able to recreate it April 4th using all stock. Photos below. While I will peek in to see what designs are flying, the real goal of this challenge is to have fun seeing how small and light you can go using the required components. Lets see who is the best engineer comes crash day.

Single stage to Mun orbit based upon the cheapest rocket to orbit challange. (Stock) If mods were allowed, this goes just about anywhere. With the more powerful ion engine, a two stage variant of this would certainly go anywhere. (although this might yet yet hit Voyager with enough time to escape Kerbal SOI)

As a challenge using only stock, 5 full orange fuel cans. Over 200 tons. And, only one SAS to stabilize it during flight.

A set of SRBs will give you the extra push to attempt a lander. Suggest Minmus first due to its low gravity and flat surface. Once you get fuel lines, this Demo Ship, use the bigger SRB in place of the twin cans, makes Mun with lots of fuel for landing and return. You should be able to pack Goo canisters and a science bay.

Go for a fly by, then orbital mission of Mun and Minmus before building a lander. This early Career design will do both. Fly by free trajectory return. A simple ship that did the mission. Edit; Current basic Career Mun orbiter and next tier Mun orbiter.

With the new engines, I built a stock Minotaur 5 NASA moon rocket. It flew as designed. So well, thanks to tweakable thrust, that I removed one of the RCS tanks. In close Mun orbit looking for trace gases. Also, tested the twin engine booster. Had to add fins to the second stage due to instability of the observation capsule. However, with a three Kerbal capsule of about the same weight, second stage was stable. Removed the decoupler under the RCS tank and added a second set to complete the design. Easy two stage to orbit. Launcher; Sepatrons needed for staging separation. Stable in orbit; (The first decoupler removed and a set of thrusters added.) Unstable stage without fins in atmosphere;

Which is why I play from a copy and only use Steam to update the unmodded original.

Sounds like you have a glitch. Otherwise, the answer is no. Jool has no solid surface. You just slowly fall through it until your lander get crushed at about -250 meters.

Use Steam to update, then placed a copy in my Game folder and named it KSP 0.23.5. That way, I keep a original in the Steam folder and can play with the updated game in the Game folder. Will play with the stock items before adding any mod parts.

The problem is how fuel is drained from the tank. The results, a fuel tank on its side tank gets lighter on one end then the other resulting in the uncontrolled rotation.