immelman

An SSTO that takes off horizontally and visits all five moons, this is great!

That is very very impressive, I liked the parachute tango a lot!

Brilliant! Yes Eddie nails that one, it's genetic

"btw I'm working on my level1sub entry and I always feel I should make my lander look good too, even if I lose some dV... I'm close to launch my new version and I guess I will be able to make it under 100t! Or maybe much less, I had an idea today afternoon! " I look forward to seeing it. Regarding using the landing wheels I found they are more forgiving under high speed impacts and come with lights

Hi Ziv, Can I present my minimalist Jool 5 challenge? 102.44 tonnes on the launchpad, in the end I finished with the equivalent of a Rockamax 8 left, which means I could have gone to Duna too! I'm sure that this setup could be pared down at least another 6 or 7 tonnes, but not by me, that was a huge mission. All the landings went smoothly the first time, my only hiccup was lifting off from Laythe, I'd missed fully refueling the lander and reaching orbit was very close... Your challenge gave me an excellent reason to try this out, thank you! Mods: MechJeb, KerbalAlarmClock, TACFuelBalancer Here are some pictures:

I've found this very useful in working out what was the best way to approach landing on airless bodies: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/39812-Landing-and-Takeoff-Delta-V-vs-TWR-and-specific-impulse

I'd already crashed the lander when I'd first installed the game, don't suppose the command module counts

I find your lack of faith in the mighty turbojet, disturbing... Well anyway thank you for the fun challenge, got to Laythe and back using a little Dynasoar type rocket plane which was a lot of fun to fly. I used a mainsail for the first stage and used the tweakables in the VAB to reduce the thrust on the second stage to just under 1500. Kerbal alarm clock, fuel balancer and Mechjeb (for the node editing). In the end there was a lot of gas left in the tank on return to Kerbin, maybe (just) enough for Eeloo? Yep you can get far on a mainsail!

This is very helpful, I have been looking for information like this, the thread by Kosmo-not is what I needed. Thank you!

Come and join the party! Regarding the best way to return from Jool: I'd like to know how you manage 1k/s, when I looked at it I quickly checked out using Tylo for a slingshot, but could not get an intercept. Should I have explored this further?

Hi boolybooly, can I join Mesklin in the making it to Laythe party? Laythe and back in my "Big Silly Bird 3", the Joolian system is gorgeous, especially using some of the graphics mod textures out there. With more landing gears and drogues landing on Laythe was a lot more straight forward, this craft has more than 8200 delta v, so when I have time I should have a try at Eeloo. Thank you for an awesome challenge!

Hi Death Engineering, can I submit my challenge? Total mission time was 72 days from launch to return. I really enjoyed this, putting together the launch vehicle made me cackle, it was so over the top. I needed to lift into orbit a Duna mission which had enough Delta V to lift itself into Kerbin orbit and then travel to Duna and back more conventionally. In fact since this setup has enough to get to Eeloo and back I'm going to give that a try sometime soon... Basic mission profile: 50 points Three-stage, no asparagus, no SRB launch vehicle. Start with the provided save game persistent file. Single launch mission. Separate command module and lander. Powered descent + parachutes. All stock. Return at least one of the Kerbals that started the mission back safely to Kerbin's surface. Additional points for standard mission goals: 108 points +10 3-kerbal mission +10 2-kerbal lander +20 2-stage lander with separate ascent stage (descent stage stays on Duna) +10 Launch escape system (LES) escape tower +20 Duna lander stored behind the CM during ascent +5 Lander (and rovers/probes/satellites) tucked away behind some fairing +10 Perfect landing - no damage to LM +10 Dock with LM's ascent stage prior to leaving Duna's SOI +5 Ascent module de-orbited to burn up in Duna's atmosphere +3 Plant at least one flag +5 Splash-down on Kerbin (water landing) No Kerbal fatalities. Flight goals: 92 points No SRBs. +15 No LV-N's, no ions. +10 Aerobrake around Duna to achieve orbit +57 17 days 16 hours from Kerbin to Duna +10 Water sample return bonus! Rover: 34 points +5 At least one rover on board +5 Rovers can seat at least one Kerbal +9 Additional rovers +3 each: 4 total rovers +15 Drive beyond 10km of the lander Orbital Science goals: 65 points +5 Deploy orbiting satellite around Duna +10 Deploy orbiting satellite around Ike +5 Lander base powered with science +10 Deploy a science package at least 2.5km from the landing site +15 Deploy a science package at least 1000m +/- different alititude from LM or any other science package +10 Deploy a science package adjacent (within 100m) to any anomoly +10 Deploy a science package at least 10km from the landing site Total score: 349 points

Hi boolybooly, After finally coming out of my turkey overdose may I present my Duna and back in 0.23 with the "Big Silly Bird 2"? Really going to have to break this habit of getting back to the KSC with no fuel. Also landing conventionally on Duna is tough, even with a drogue and a lot of lift, it is hard to stop before crashing into another dune. If I ever do this again more landing wheels to stop the craft flipping on landing is a must, or just use parachutes for the actual landing. Apart from that a great little SSTO, very stable fully loaded or empty.

"Thanks. The support can were done by Regex so I don't really want to go messing with them. The simplest solution I have for right now is to just delete the *.TGA files for the containers. I'll see if I can get Regex's permission and package the whole texture pack together under the correct format. Done and done. All of the textures should be the correct format now so installation should be a breeze " Thank you for doing this, the new textures look great

Minmus and back to the KSC, far too exciting at the landing with a couple of minutes fuel left: Takeoff: Onwards and outwards: Minmus: Back at the KSC (just)

This really is a great idea and I hope it gets lots of exposure here: Time 3d, 13h 59m

It does vary, I have retried a descent from 148k circular orbit to 128k periapse: Revised for Jool: Heights for Jool -flight 250 m - 119500 m -upper atmosphere 119500 m - 137300 m -space near Jool 137300 m - 4000 km -space high above Jool 4000 km - SOI limit

Information for Jool: Heights for Jool -flight 2793m - 107700m -upper atmosphere None! or that I could find -space near Jool (107700 - 4000 km) -space high above Jool (4000 km - SOI limit) Obligatory "Oh my God it's full of stars quote"