Bill Zarr

Best in what sense? Cost? Mass fraction? Part count? I've seen challenges based around all sorts of things. You really need to specify what these classifications are in terms of weight to LKO. If a challenge is cost related then people using gigantic launchers to put anything in orbit are kind of stuffed. Conversely since challenges can frequently be simplified by throwing mass at the problem people with ludicrously huge launchers may find it easier. Or if you throw a "has to be single launch" criteria into the mix. Actual real world launch classification of light medium and heavy are somewhat lower than people here seem to think. Going by NASA/ESA type categories on wikipedia gives launch vehicles with the following payload to LEO abilities:- Small <2,000 kg Medium 2,000 to 20,000 kg Heavy 20,000 to 50,000 kg Super-heavy >50,000 kg Am I correct in thinking that cheats such as part clipping are not allowed? What about other physics engine abuse such as Kraken drives and other glitch powered craft?

Finally got round to doing the "Explore the Mün" contract in my career game.

Most of the burns using the ions were in full sunlight, at least all the major burns were, the periapsis kicks to get to the Mun were all full sunlight, so the power never even got to run down. At worst there was a burn that was angled badly for the ox-stat panels, and that was running the power down at something like -1.7 a sec, which would take over 8 min to run the batteries flat. If there was sunlight the pair of 1x6 panels could always be oriented to provide 4 units of power (they are only extended in one picture, but were actually out most of the time). The adaptor is massless!

Saturniscule D3: 4.371 tonnes, hybrid Turbo-jet, ion, bi-propellant. Stock (150), no autopilot (100), SAS -used (0), Easter egg (50), RCS docking (40), Launch Pad landing -Nope!(0), Final rated (?) The main reason for having the detachable ion drive was to keep with a vaguely pointy rocket shape, it meant I had to dock 3x, twice being to a totally inert target, which on the whole was a bit of a pain. The command pod had the 2 units of mono', no point taking extra mass to visit the Mün. (using ions isn't too bad if you remember to force FF with alt> )

It had occurred to me to just use massless parts for the panels, however the rules have provision for up to 80 points for being aerodynamic/aesthetics, 0.8 tonnes equivalent, (the 10 panels for the 2 ions weigh 0.175 tonnes). It seemed unlikely that a delicate lace-work of cubic struts and OX-STAT Panels would be considered aerodynamic. One problem with fixed panels is that landing requires full power while oriented with the horizontal and vertical, it would require an excess of panels to ensure maximum thrust at non optimum angles with the sun. It would probably work but might look a bit ungainly. I shall have to ponder on possible designs.

I managed to land my ion lander version at the Armstrong Memorial, but doing so used up far too much fuel. Given what a colossal pain it is to land in the first place I'm not even certain I can land it anywhere and have enough fuel to return to orbit. (4.115 tonne ship, T-jet lifter, all ion, NB - doesn't work!) Adding more Xenon kills the TWR even more, and adding another ion engine and panels pushes the weight up to the point it might as well be bi-propellant. 1 more PB-X150 should be enough but the extra 0.12 tonnes... needs either much better piloting or more mass at the moment.

The Podly-Dynojet, a fun-sized SSTO, built for orbital rescue in career.

This wasn't really designed for this challenge, I built it recently to send a Mk1 command pod to the Mün and back for a small amount of funds. In my career save I've unlocked all the science so the tech level was irrelevant for the design. No doubt it could be done with somewhat more basic tech. The entire vehicle & lander are recovered with a runway landing so the only net cost is the fuel used. Total vehicle cost including lander 26,365. (Total value of loaded fuel is 318). Cost of fuel used to go to Mün and return 263 funds. Part count is 58 (7.1 tonnes). I went back and calculated the science needed for it to be built and it comes in at a whopping 4113 science.

Built this STTO a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't designed explicitly to get to 100km, doing a rendezvous at ~90km might be roughly comparable in terms of fuel. It really needs a spot more fuel to be comfortable to use - a ROUND-8 would probably do. (Stock, & the rocket engines are on the wingtips btw) 38 funds 16,200 with fuel. 16,162 on recovery.

Back to the Mün for the umpteenth time. For science!

Decided to give this a bit of a methodical test after I discovered how much the LT-2s slump. As a rough figure the legs seem good for about a 25kN loading. So on Kerbin a 10 ton mass needs 4 legs. You just need to multiply the mass of your craft in kg by the surface gravity of the place you wish to land, then divide that by 25000 to get an idea of the minimum number of legs you'll need. - At least in theory, I've not yet tested anything in practice. (They do seem a bit on the weak side now)

The gravioli detector generates a great deal of science - ground, low, & high for each biome.

Where are Betty, Becky and Jemima? I was disappointed that there were no kerbalettes. Are Kerbal women to be forever denied heroic action in space? I wish my cosmonauts to be progressive and to have equal representation of the sexes!

There are some very nice pictures of it here.

The communications module has a junior docking port on the habitation pod, that came with a one use adaptor. The transfer stage had a junior docking port on it also so I could dock the adaptor to it when it was de-orbited. The two mini tugs are great at moving things about. I use 1 on each end of the orange jumbo fuel tanks to dock those so a couple can shift 36 tonnes about fairly well. It also makes the mass of the jumbo tank perfectly balanced with respect to the RCS, so it makes docking the full orange tanks pretty easy. The large vehicle docking hub was connected using only one mini tug, so they can handle fairly ungainly loads with no RCS thrusters on the load.

Got my first station mostly finished. Still has space for a science module and 4 more jumbo tanks. Currently 259 parts (not including the 2 docked ships). Construction Album

I like floating about in nebulas. Excellent mod, oh and thanks to 5thHorseman for posting the link to Cube the Sphere. re. 180 flipping if you follow the skybox reference that comes with the mod you'd think that the top edge of NegativeY would match seamlessly with the bottom edge of PositiveZ. If it does it looks wrong in the game. If you flip NegativeY 180 it matches seamlessly in the game but not in the reference diagram.

I found a nice free program called Spacescape that can make skyboxes. So I built myself a green nebula to float about in as a quick test of concept. Imgur album