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Link to the original Ultimate Challenge thread by Just Jim Link to the first continuation thread by HoloYolo Link to the second continuation thread by IncongruousGoat This is the fourth version of the Ultimate Challenge, a challenge created by Just Jim. The goal is to complete a grand tour of the Kerbol system, landing on every planet and moon in one mission and returning to Kerbin alive. Rules: 1. Mods are allowed, but only mods that are closely balanced to stock parts, like the Near Future mods. Additionally, life support mods like Kerbalism are allowed for additional challenge. If you're unsure if a mod is allowed, ask. 2. No cheating (debug menu, KAL overclock, kraken drives, etc.) for obvious reasons. You can use the debug menu to test designs, but it is not allowed in the final mission. 3. Every landing must have at least one kerbal present. You can have as many or as few kerbals as you want, as long as there is at least one. 4. Planet packs are allowed but will be in a separate category. 5. LKO assembly is allowed and encouraged, however once any part of the mission leaves LKO you can not launch any more vessels to assist your craft. Additionally, you can only have one active vessel when leaving LKO (your ship must be one giant ship, not a collection of small ships leaving at similar times). The only exception is launching a crew vehicle at the end of the mission to retrieve your kerbals. 6. The rules are flexible and subject to change. If you're trying to do something that might bend the rules, ask me. When submitting an attempt, include a list of mods, version, and any DLCs installed. Additionally, provide a video or screenshot album showing your mission. Completing the challenge will grant you the official challenge badge, as well as a spot in the Ultimate Challenge Hall of Fame. Official challenge badge for your signature: Ultimate Challenge Hall of Fame: @18Watt 1.12, Stock+DLC - Single launch mothership with ISRU and a few landers. Creatively used modules for the main lander for Moho and Tylo instead of a completely separate lander. Link @Alpaca Z 1.12, Stock+DLC - The first single stage grand tour ever done in stock KSP, using a craft made by @Lt_Duckweed. Link @camacju 1.12, Stock - A low mass grand tour, completing the challenge with a craft that only weighs 14.4 tons. Link @fulgur 1.12,Stock+DLC - A grand tour done entirely with one spaceplane, except for the Eve landing. Link @camacju and @Ultimate Steve 1.12, Stock+DLC - Another low mass grand tour, halving the mass compared to the previous one at 7.6 tons. Link Modded Hall of Fame: @king of nowhere 1.12, Kerbalism, OPM, Near Future Electrical - A third grand tour using Kerbalism spanning 6 real life months and 324 in-game years. Radiation, stress, part failures, and KSP weirdness resulted in a very close mission that nearly failed several times. Link @jimmymcgoochie 1.12, Snarkiverse, Near Future, Kerbalism - A grand tour of the stock system, except it's rearranged by the Snarkiverse mod. Kerbalism is present too, adding another layer of challenge. Link @Leganeski1.12, JNSQ (1x rescale), GPP, GEP - A very long grand tour of the JNSQ enhanced stock system, Galileo's Planet Pack, and Grannus Expansion Pack. Link @king of nowhere 1.12,Kerbalism,RSS,NFLV,NFE - A grand tour of Real Solar System, but with Kerbalism and only stock parts (except some NF parts). 49 bugs, RSS with stock parts, and Kerbalism make this an extremely challenging mission. Link @king of nowhere 1.12,Whirligig World - A grand tour of Whirligig World, with 44 total landings and a lot of gravity assists. Link

So, I haven't been to every planet in stock KSP yet. And KSP2 is coming out pretty soon, so I'll have to visit them all in one go. Might as well visit all the rest of them, too. The ships I will be using are: 1. A 40m long capital ship, named the "Astley" after the one who told us to never, ever, give up: 10 NERVs at the back push the 200 ton ship at about 0.3G, but that's gonna change once the landers are installed. The module at the back carries ISRU equipment, and is capable of landing on its own or with the main ship. The next post will show the landers I plan to use, as soon as I'm done making them. I plan to have a small ion ship, an SSTO, an Eve lander, a Tylo lander, and one more rocket-powered lander for the medium-sized moons. Maybe also a ship with a klaw to go to a comet or asteroid.

THE GRAND TOUR Story: The KSC is out of money and the flat kerbiners are becoming more and more popular, make a spaceplane and land (with EVA) on every planet and moon (Jool excluded), returning to Kerbin to prove they're wrong. Make a spaceplane (SSTO) to spend less. Rules: -No cracken drives -No mods (if not told in the difficulty) -No cheats -No part detachment Difficulties: Easy -KSP set on Easy -All the engines allowed -Landing on every planet (except for EVE) -Docking allowed -at least 3 kerbals on board Normal -KSP set on normal -only Mk1 (or smaller) or radial angines -No docking -EVA on every planet -at least 5 kerbals on board Hard -KSP on full difficulty -No ion engines -EVA and science on every planet -No engineers on board -Return to the KSC runway -at least 15 kerbals on board Crazy -No nuclear engines -No Mk3 or rocket fuselage - At least 20 kerbals on board Insane - No landing gears (only legs) - No autostruct - At least 30 kerbals on board Impossible - Engineers allowed -Following mods installed: 1- Kerbalism (or TAC life support) 2- Real Fuels 3- External Solar System (more planets to land on, except for the gas giants) 4- Dang It! Interstellar - Mod Galaxies Unbound Nova Kirbani to install -mods "near future..." allowed -mod trajectory allowed. If you want, write down here you achievements and, if you want, some footage. Obviously all the difficulty is more and more difficult, so if in normal mode docking isn't allowed, it isn't allowed for all the difficulties that are harder, I just forgot that docking IS allowed for Interstellar travel (I don't know if it's possible otherwise), but if someone of you can do it without docking write it here

IT'S ABOUT TIME! I've been playing KSP for almost 3 years! 3 YEARS AND I HAVEN'T GONE TO ALL THE PLANETS YET! So, I will stop all my other projects to do a grand tour. This is a bad choice. Anyway, the first log will come through soon.

Hello everyone! The capstone of stock KSP missions is the “grand tour” - landing on every planet and moon in the Kerbol system. (You can technically land on Jool but that’s not traditionally counted). A single launch grand tour is a feat of precision engineering, careful mission planning, and the dedication to actually fly fifteen landings and return safely. The first mission I'm really proud of was a grand tour mission (which was also my first ever Eve return), and I posted an album of it on this forum. The mothership looked something like this: And this was the entire craft: Like most grand tours, this is a very large rocket, and I completed this mission mostly through pure brute force. I did use some gravity assists, but this rocket absolutely conforms to the "More Boosters" philosophy more than anything. This was done in October of 2020, shortly after I started playing the game, and you can see that in the distinct lack of optimized craft design. But that was two years ago, and since then I've gotten much better at craft optimization, gravity assists, piloting, and the game in general. Probably the best example of this was the Eve lander of this early mission, which looked like this: It’s a pretty large lander and way overbuilt for Eve, but it got the job done. And then a while ago I did a 7.5 ton Eve mission, which I later cut down to just under 7 tons. This is still the record for lowest mass kerballed Eve return without abusing “magic wing” type glitches, even without ISRU. It gave me an idea - since this Eve lander was so much smaller than my first one, could I make a grand tour mission, but this time putting a special focus on minimizing mass? I first started thinking about a minimalist grand tour in February of 2022, but exams prevented me from doing much more. I revisited the concept in June, and managed to cobble together something vaguely resembling a craft - but I was occupied with graduating college, and it never flew. Here’s a picture of it anyway - it is similar in concept to my final design: This was only part of the final craft, and was already projected to be much smaller than my previous grand tour - at the time I estimated a final mass of around 20 tons. As far as I’m aware, this would still be the lowest mass grand tour ever, as the lightest I know of is Brad Whistance’s 25 ton craft which made heavy use of ISRU. But this was unsatisfying - I was still leaving a lot of mass on the table. My original grand tour mission used Mammoth engines on the first stage. I wanted to have the mass of my entire craft be less than the fifteen tons of a single one of those engines. About a month ago, I finalized the design of the craft: 14.45 tons - well within my mass goal of 15 tons. As you’ll see, I could have pushed this even lower, but I chose not to because I had already met my goal. A breakdown of the craft design is below. I made a video showcasing this mission, also. I've put my comments on it (time stamped) in a spoiler box below.

After seeing the Week World Planet Jam on the KSP subreddit, I decided to do a grand tour of it. I immediately regretted it after seeing Mindo's gravity. Despite that, I'm still going to do the mission (or try to). Mod list: Week World Planet Jam 0.7 Near Future Technologies (except Aeronautics and Propulsion), Station Parts Expansion Redux, Restock+, Simple Fuel Switch Full mod list: Part 0: The Craft The craft is split into 7 parts, the booster, the main lander, the utility module, a scanner/service probe, two atmospheric landers for Elaan and Reticulum, and the Mindo lander. Launch 1: Booster Module Launch 2: Main Lander + Utility Launches 3 and 4: Atmosphere landers The plan is to go to Reticulum, then split the craft. The craft has to be split after leaving Asite Par to comply with Ultimate Challenge rule 5. The booster and Mindo lander will go to Mindo, while the rest of the craft does landings in the Reticulum system. After the Mindo lander is dropped off, the nuclear booster will return and the whole craft will go to Elaan to drop the second atmospheric lander. Next time, I launch the Mindo lander and some extra parts, then go to Reticulum.

Part 0: Mission goal and craft This mission will attempt to land a Kerbal on every body with a surface in all three Team Galileo planet packs: Galileo's Planet Pack, Grannus Expansion Pack, and JNSQ. This mission does not qualify for the linked challenge, due to JNSQ's changes to the stock solar system. Nevertheless, I will try my best to follow its other rules (although I may need to use the debug menu for the purpose of circumventing a bug; I'll note each time this occurs). Update: the rules of the challenge have been changed, and now allow planet packs! I did end up using the debug menu to circumvent two bugs, but I doubt that breaks the spirit of the "no debug menu" rule. The mission includes ISRU, but as an additional challenge, each refueling stop must be on a different celestial body. In order to make the systems fit together properly, JNSQ is included at 1x scale (using JNSQ Rescale 1x), and GPP is included in its secondary configuration (using GPP Secondary). Unlike my previous mission, I am using some other mods as well, selected to ensure a mix of realism and balance with stock parts. Notably included is Explodium Breathing Engines, which is so important to the mission that I can justify its use only because its engines, following the path of realism, are strictly worse than their stock counterparts (except for the range of bodies on which they can operate). Full modlist: There are a lot of places I need to visit, so I've compiled a list of all the celestial bodies with their most important properties. (0.0) List of celestial bodies In total, there are 77 celestial bodies, of which three are stars and six are gas giants, leaving 68 for me to land on. The mission craft is composed of seven modules, which are launched separately and assembled together in LKO. (0.1) Mothership (Team Galileo Grand Tour) (0.2) Oxygen-breathing plane (0.3) Methane-breathing plane (0.4) Eve lander (0.5) Nara lander (0.6) Tellumo lander (0.7) Taranis ferry

Explorer: An Extended Grand Tour WHAT'S NEW? - I added part 6 After over two years of development, testing, failure, and rebounding, I am proud to finally show off my grand tour of Kerbal Space Program. This is an extended grand tour, so in addition to the stock planets and moons, I also hit up some planet packs. It took about 2-3 months to complete, and one of the most difficult things about it was launching all the fuel I would need in one go, as this was one single launch. In the end I didn't return to Kerbin as I still have lots of fuel left and plan on traveling to more planet packs in the future with this same mission. Basic Mission Profile - Launch - Separate craft into main hub and two fuel reserves, keep launch stage in orbit to use it's fuel if needed. - Decide to keep Hub attached to one of the fuel reserves - Land everywhere PART 1 - Stock System and Outer Planets (33 landings) Planets and Moons visited: - Stock planets - All OPM moons/ planets (by @Galileo) - The Spud Moon mod (by @MrChumley) - The More Gas Giants Mod (by @Alaygrounds) - The Apollo System Mod (by hihowareya) To everyone who made these planets, thank you for making the ride more interesting. PART 2 - Dwarf Planets (34 landings) Planets and Moons visited: - The Trans-Keptunian Mod by @Gravitasi - The Dwarf Planets Plus Mod by @UranianBlue - The Plod System by @JacobJHC - The Planet Nine Mod by @GregroxMun - The Morimee System Mod by @Mythical Donuts - The Kluto System Mod by @Alaygrounds - The Ripple Moon Mod by @JacobJHC (Currently unreleased) To everyone who made these planets, thank you for making the ride more interesting. PART 3 - Many Moons of Kerbin (10 landings) Planets and Moons visited: - The Scott Münley Mod by Linecraftman - The Trike Mod by Throwhound - The Corxet Mod by @Mythical Donuts - The Systemic Body Collection by @DeltaDizzy - The Outer Kerbin Mod by @dxeh - The Stock Planet Expansion Mod by @The White Guardian - The Muun Mod by SimogKerman and RoB9 - The Gemini Mod by @daniel l. - The Moao Mod by Throwhound PART 4 - (9 landings) Planets and Moons visited: - The Asclepius Mod by @MrChumley - The Moons of Eve Mod by @Xenonclave - The Strangely Recognizable Eve Moons Mod by @GregroxMun - The Stock Planet Expansion Mod by @The White Guardian, broken worlds repaired by me and @Shawn Kerman PART 4.5 - (0 landings) Planets and Moons visited: - None. This video only served to get the ships from part 4 back to Kerbin, so part 5 didn't have clutter in the beginning. PART 5 - The 100th Landing (20 Landings) Planets and Moons visited: - The Kronkus Mod by @MrChumley - The Corelian Mod by @WarriorSabe - The Dreskiller Base Mod by @RJVB09 - The KIP-2995 Mod (A Special variant that only includes Retrorsum, and reparents it to Kerbol) by @Heliocentric - The Saru Planet Pack Mod by @tygoo7 (The forum page states it is a dead mod, but it worked pretty well when I tried it!) - The Mios System Mod by @Xenonclave, Revived by @Shawn Kerman PART 6 - (29 Landings) Planets and Moons visited: - The More Moons mod by... Unknown (if you know who made this please tell me!) - The Stockalike Martian Moons Anaglogues Mod by @Beale - The Moons of Duna Mod by @Xenonclave - The Stock Planet Expansion by @The White Guardian, broken worlds repaired by me and @Shawn Kerman - The Heroilis Planet Pack by @kramken - The Miranda Moons Pack by @TomPN - The 6th Planet Renewed Mod by @RJVB09 - The Salus Mod by @JacobJHC - The Crankyjedi's Planet Pack by @CrankyJedi - The Kerbol Expanded Bodies mod by @Andem - The Paradox Mod by @Heliocentric

(This was first posted on the Space Exploration StackExchange and the AskScienceDiscussion subreddit first, but I want more input, so I'm posting here as well. As forewarning, the most integral details of this question are bolded.) For context, I have been writing an alternate history involving the accelerated development of spaceflight technology for over 5 years now (one with quite different assumptions from other examples of the subgenre), and one of its long-standing elements has been a wildly-ambitious space probe that would be sent on a Solar System Circumnavigation through a Grander Tour. What does this mean? Well, here are the mission objectives: The main spacecraft body (which I will obfuscatorily name “the Spacecraft”) must fly by every planet (1930–2006) in the Solar System save Pluto. At least a subprobe (“Subprobe A”) must fly by Pluto. Double points if it manages to do so while flying by all 8 other planets. A sample, no matter how miniscule (probably micrometeorites or ring particles), must be returned to Earth by a subprobe or sub-subprobe (“Subprobe B”) after flying by all 8 2006– planets. The course correction to do so may involve as much as an orbital-scale (~9000 m/s) multi-stage solid rocket together with aerobreaking and/or a brutal gravity assist. Double points if it is on or launched from Subprobe A. Triple points if it is on or launched from Subprobe A after the Pluto flyby. Each flyby in the Outer Solar System should preferably be at least 1 synodic period before that of the real-life Grand Tour users the Voyagers in order to prepare for the arrival of a vaguely equivalent program. The base of the spacecraft’s conception was that it would be launched around the time of or before the first outer planets and interstellar probes in real life (Pioneer 10/11) to make time for it to engage on a more proper Grand Tour trajectory. This was reinforced by the fact that said time range roughly overlaps with the 450th anniversary of an Earth circumnavigation expedition done by the crew of a certain navigator, who happens to be the namesake of a far less impressive real-life space mission. So, the rock-hard minimum and maximum are the 450th anniversary of the start of that navigator’s voyage (September 20th, 1969) and the launch of the latter Pioneer, Pioneer 11 (April 5th, 1973). However, it would ideally be launched before September 6th, 1972, exactly 450 years after what was left of that expedition returned, yet as close to that date as possible (i.e. within 1972) to allow as much advanced technology to be used in it as possible—the spacecraft would include developments like 8-bit microprocessors, helical-scan tape data storage, robotic arms, synthetic aperture RADAR, and possibly non-solid-state radioisotope generators. And yes, the first asking of this question was deliberately timed to match with the 50th anniversary of that date and the 45th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 1. (I’d have preferred it to be earlier, but ehh…) Also, the spacecraft’s original conception had it launched on a Saturn IB–Agena D (what I thought was the highest-capacity high-velocity non-Saturn V notional “drop-in” vehicle that could have been made at the time… ignoring that either a Saturn IB–Centaur or earlier Titan IIIE would have greater capacity and could probably be made with similar R&D), but as its size and capabilities grew, its proposed launch vehicle was progressively upgraded until it became the “Saturn 1E-SB”, which consists of 4 stages (more details on which could be provided if required), the last one, not considered integral to the launch vehicle’s identity, being the main course correction stage of the spacecraft. The first 3 stages would have the capability to put the 4th stage and ~5.5-ton spacecraft complex—~28.5 tons in total and ~6.75 tons dry mass—on a trans-Cytherean or potentially trans-Martian injection (up to 3650 m/s tested in KSP RSS RO using a penultimate version of the launch vehicle, probably ~3800 m/s), beginning its Grander Tour… A Saturn V could do so, too, and to be honest I now find justifying the existence of the Saturn 1E-SB somewhat difficult, so I may bite the bullet of switching away from a “Saturn one” platform. Now, how much ∆v would the course correction stage be capable of supplying? A measly… ~5500 m/s. And that’s with the subprobes still attached. So there is a very beefy, though not unlimited course-correction capacity. Now, orbital mechanics is a complex business, and I don’t know if it would even be possible to fulfill even the barest mission requirements given the ∆v budget within that launch window, let alone how it would be done. However, the existence of trajectory designs like this, a flyby of all 2006– planets launched in the same vague timeframe with a negligible course-correction budget, indicates its likely possibility. Note that the 5500 m/s and 5.5 tons payload is a maximum and minimum, respectively—the more optimized the trajectory can be made, the smaller the fuel mass of the course correction stage needs to be, allowing a greater scientific payload, so the more optimized the mission is, the better. And so, the question. Ideally, I’d like to have the specifics of this drilled down by April 5th, 2023 for some sense of timeliness. For more context, this is the encounter order as planned when the conception of this mission reached its modern form: Main spacecraft: Earth→Venus→Mercury→Venus→Mars→Jupiter→Saturn→Ouranos→Neptune→Interstellar Subprobe A: 〃→〃→〃→〃→〃→〃→Pluto→Interstellar Subprobe B: 〃→〃→〃→〃→〃→〃→〃→Ouranos→Neptune→Earth

Perform a Grand Tour to everywhere except eve jool and kerbol! Points: Exploits for fuel->100 points Kraken drive->50 points Touch kerbin's surface(lol)->1 point Return to kerbin->2 points Eve landing->10 points Going below jool sea level->10 points for -249m, and 10 for getting under jool sea level Going below kerbol sea level->50 points For every planet flyby->5 points For every planet landing->10 points With a kerbal for pilot->10 points for being manned and 2 extra points for every extra kerbal(must be driving the craft) With a kerbal for passenger->1 point for every passenger(must not touch the controls) Dead kerbal->-50 points each Unmanned->5 points Parts thrown away->-2 points each Intended part breaking(eg:explosive decoupling or lithobreaking)->-1 points each Unintended part breaking->-5 points each And the most important,mass restrictions: More than 3 tons->disqualified Between 1 to 3 tons->20 points for each ton less than 3 Less than a ton->100 points for each ton less than a ton(means that if ur craft weighs 0.5 tons,u can have 200 points for this) For every planet soi not entered:-50 points(its called a grand tour,not a massless counterweight) Debug menu->disqualified Modded parts except AR202 cases:-500 points each I made a craft that had only 0.365 tons and landed on every planet but jool kerbol and eve(eve's dense atmosphere made the ant engine not providing enough thrust even with kal overclocking) and used kal overclocking for fuel(negative overclocked engines make fuel but not thrust) but not a kraken drive

[This challenge can be completed in stock I believe. I've never tried, not good enough XD, also good if you are using an interstellar mod as well.] Here at Sloth Exploration Technologies, we believe that we could do with expanding our sphere of influence across the system. We have a large challenge, but nothing you shouldn't be able to handle! We want you to set up full colonies on every body in the Kerbol System, so we can expand beyond! Objectives: Fully Colonise Kerbin: Put 5 relay probes into Kerbin orbit. Build a space station in Kerbin Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Kerbin's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise The Mun: Put 5 relay probes into Munar orbit. Build a space station in Munar Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on The Mun's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise Minnmus: Put 5 relay probes into Minnmus orbit. Build a space station in Minnmus Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on The Minnmus's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise The Sun: Put 5 relay probes into Solar orbit. Build a space station in Solar Orbit. Fully Colonise Moho: Put 5 relay probes into Moho orbit. Build a space station in Moho Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Moho's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise Eve: Put 5 relay probes into Eve orbit. Build a space station in Eve Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Eve's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise Gilly: Put 5 relay probes into Gilly orbit. Build a space station in Gilly Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Gilly's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise Duna: Put 5 relay probes into Duna orbit. Build a space station in Duna Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Duna's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise Ike: Put 5 relay probes into Ike orbit. Build a space station in Ike Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Ike's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise Dres: Put 5 relay probes into Dres orbit. Build a space station in Dres Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Dres's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise Jool: Put 5 relay probes into Jool orbit. Build 2 space stations in Jool Orbit. Fully Colonise Laythe: Put 5 relay probes into Laythe orbit. Build a space station in Laythe Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Laythe's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise Vall: Put 5 relay probes into Vall orbit. Build a space station in Vall Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Vall's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise Tylo: Put 5 relay probes into Tylo orbit. Build a space station in Tylo Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Tylo's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise Bop: Put 5 relay probes into Bop orbit. Build a space station in Bop Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Bop's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise Pol: Put 5 relay probes into Pol orbit. Build a space station in Pol Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Pol's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface. Fully Colonise Eeloo: Put 5 relay probes into Eeloo orbit. Build a space station in Eeloo Orbit. Build 3 EVA experiments on Eeloo's Surface Build and launch 3 ground bases for landing on the surface.

The goal of the challenge: Go to any star system in GU and land on all planets (including there moons, choose which system wisely!) there. Refueling is allowed ONLY in the star system you are exploring! Mods are allowed and you MUST have GU to enter. There's no prize as this is unofficial but you may do for the fun of it. RULES: Number 1: Ignore max temperature is the only cheat that is allowed! Number 2: GU Home Switch is not allowed as it puts you in the star system. You are also not allowed to use GodParts Mod and no editing configs! This is considered cheating and results in your submission being ignored! Number 3: NO FTL DRIVES (Rule suggested by @Grimmas). Number4: NO USING THE WARP DRIVES INCLUDED IN KSP-IE OR ANY ORTHER MOD BECAUSE THATS CHEATING AS WELL! Recommend mods: GU Parts (included in GU download), KSP-IE OR far future tech and near future tech and Deep Freeze if using life support. System rescaling (Larger only) and life support is allowed and will get you a better badge (if this becomes official). Please submit your submissions by the end of April please!

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered at the big questions of life? Is there anyone else out there in the cosmos? Are we doomed to die as a single-planet species? Does Jool have too many moons? Wait... what? That's right! JEXA, the Joolian EXploration Association, is working to solve these big issues so you don't need to! When they're not torturing acronyms, JEXA is diligently toiling away to bring Pol's delicious crust and-or mantle to your doorstep! As the smallest and loneliest moon of Jool Pol has few friends willing to come to its defense, thus making it the perfect victim location for industry-scale strip mining respectful utilization of its available resources. This playthrough takes place in a modded 1.10.1 career mode save with about 40 hours plalytime and 9 years of elapsed in-game. I've already done missions to every planet, two comets, and fully unlocked the tech tree as a result; I find that sort of thing to be generic and so will not focus on those activities in this mission report. Primary mods are Nertea's legendary Near Future suite and Stockalike Station Parts Expansion Redux, not to mention Strategia and the various Contract Pack expansions which are integral to a meaningful career playthrough. The Polony "Sand Castle", a nuclear-lithium Pol miner designed to harvest 40 kg/s of ore and loft 160 tons of payload to the refinery "Ion Fairy" a temporary Jool mothership assembled from 4 different modules, deploying a smaller exploration frigate for a tourist contract "Ion Godspeed", the second of two Nuclear Ion ferries, visits intermediate-period comet Gilong-1 after dropping off two advanced probes at Jool Program Objectives: Establish a refinery in Pol orbit to produce general fuels like LF/O, monoprop, and lithium Construct advanced Pol surface bases to produce exotic fuels like argon, xenon, and enriched uranium Build reusable surface-orbit freighters to ship highly refined products from Pol's surface Construct a fleet of nuclear lithium MPD tugs to freight cargo and passengers from Kerbin to Pol and back using fast transfer orbits (<1 year each way) Fund activites through Tourism Plus contracts to take tourists on flybys and landings of Jool's moons and ISRU extraction contracts to ship ore from Pol Support these initiatives using existing infrastructure like the nuclear-ion Fast Crew Ferries and Argon Giant superheavy nuclear propulsion bus Redirect intermediate-period H-class comet Gilong-1 around Kerbin using infrastructure staged and supported from Jool

I proudly present to you my latest project. A manned grand tour of the Uranus system. The time has come... The year is 1992, the main goal of the Othrys program - landing humans on the moons of Saturn - has just been accomplished. A new, even more ambitious goal has just been set for NASA. Landing astronauts on each of the 5 moons of Uranus: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. Coelus Program just began... Modlist in the description.

When is there a window for a grand tour Voyager 2 style, in the Outer Planets Mod? Sorry if this is too off topic.

Prologue Seems that everything after the Sheep v3 mission went very well, Wernher gained a profit of 100 Million Roots as a reward from President Kyle Kerman, thus, the Space Program are free to continue what they want, they renewed their facility items. However...something happened, it was in the midnight when Wernher and Mortimer are discussing about a Badurra Lander. BAM !!! “Who’s tha- ?! Oh...President Kyle !!! What brought you here ?!”, said Mortimer. “*Breathes heavily* Sorry everyone, i have a bad news...”, answered Kyle. Mortimer and Wernher are shocked...“Bad news ? What do you mean ?” “I lost it...The Grand Tour files...i accidentally deleted it before publifying it, the only physical file i printed was lost in a stack of document that i burnt on the chimney”, Kyle said it with a feeling of guilty. “WHAAA...!!! That was the only file !”, Wernher seems to nearly lose his patience. “Sorry, but can you...start another one ? This might be hea-“, Kyle asked before someone interrupted. “I’ll take it...” “What ?”, All are confused, and gave a confused stare at the Kerbonaut than suddenly interrupted. “I, Simone Kerman, shall take this offer”, said the Kerbonaut who turned out to be Simone. “Good thing you’re here, Simone, as what i can always expect from the likes of you”, said Kyle, he actually knows who Simone was, which surprised the two other Kerbals. “Ok, i guess i’ll just...grab this book, i left it at this room...”, said Simone as he took a Manga book from Mortimer’s table and left without much hassle. “Excuse me President, but do you REALLY know who Simone is ? I mean...he barely explained himself when he applied”, asked Wernher curiously. “Yes...he was...The Space Driller...”, answered Kyle proudly before turning back and said “Sorry to bother you, Wernher, Mortimer, Good Night...” “Did he just said...that Simone...was...The...Space...Driller ? The Warhero that defeated The Kraken and saved The Universe ?”, asked Wernher, and Mortimer answered with “Maybe...” The Next Day...after The 6 Head staff discussed about the details on how they should call the mission and how it goes, all but Wernher and Gene stayed and called the 5 Kerbals who used The Sheep v3, they all responded The Sheep v4 project in different ways, some agreed and some refused, but in the end, they agreed to do it. “Some Landers in Sheep v3 will be reused here, although some of them might be modified, alright, i’ll show you what we got...”, said Wernher while giving instructions. “This is the renewed Mercury Mothership, also known as the Pegasus Mothership, its Rod has been removed to increase Efficiency greatly” “Joologium Mothersheep without Landers mounted at it, it has more Delta V supply than the Joologist and more stable” “Bullet Multi Stage Tylo Lander, we won’t need it after landing on Tylo” “Enchanced Megawatt as a Counterweight to the Vendetta” “And finally, Godspeed Badurra Lander, sorry that we brought a picture of its Prototype, we forgot to bring the latest version because we were too busy to finish the simulation” “Pretty much everything assembled, all this is what all of you will be using for a really long, long time, any questions ?”, said Wernher. “No”, answered everyone almost simultaneously. “Good, tommorrow, we’ll make history...”, replied Wernher. “All those will be carried to Orbit using the Bellerophon Lifter”, stated Gus who just came across them. Landings : (14+51 Landings) Simone Kerman (13) : Eve, Tylo, Eeloo (+Ebenus, Badires, Badurra, Putto, Plod, Gonia, Shrek, Uba, Tiras, Arella) Jebediah Kerman (13) : Dres, Laythe (+Pherph, Fecuria, Tekcate, Mez, Rheis, Arane, Oob, Ovis, Bask, Akel, Nuuma) Valentina Kerman (13) : Duna, Ike, Vall (+Durus, Epam, Tekova, Dhar, Nuu, Lia, Ogol, Kerbyll, Vra, Vulkan) Bill Kerman (13) : Gilly, Moho, Pol (+Ceric, Anziephus, Tekili, Oorma, Tebos, Ollin, Farquad, Namira, Lotus, Vulkie) Bob Kerman (13) : Mun, Minmus, Bop (+Spade, Dauble, Eiwei, Phoe, Ninkle, Olloa, Flo, Es, Naira, Ikaro)

Valentina's mission to rescue Jeb from orbit. My first shot at retouching a KSP screenshot, since my computer is a potato and scatterer kills my fps. Please go easy on me Image contains the following mods: ReStock ReStock+ Universal Storage II Near Future Electrical USI Life Support Surface Mounted Lights Environment Visual Enhancement (EVE) Craft file: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2086376915 Background: I started playing KSP since the pre-release days. I didn't know what kept me lurking all those years, but here's my first contribution to the community. However I'm still ashamed now that KSP 2 is announced, I still haven't gone any further than the Mun, Minmus and Duna. During that time I've developed quite an "expertise" in designing Apollo-style spacecrafts. This is my latest iteration, creatively named the "Mk1-3" (Believe me I went through every name possible ). As a way to encourage myself to fly further than my previous destinations, I've decided to dedicate some my free time to take and enhance screenshots of my future missions with my Mk1-3 and its derivatives. My goal is to do a grand tour and visit every celestial bodies in the Kerbol system before KSP 2 releases. My current rules: Sandbox mode with USI Life Support Keep cost down to a minimum Feedback from everyone is greatly appreciated. Let me know what I should do next! Thank you! - Your fellow Kerbal

The Ultimate Challenge...A massive boulder...whoever beat it literally beat the game, and i'm currently into it. Here's The current Challenge Thread. Werhner finished all the Landers, he later called Simone, Jeb, and their friends to discuss about the names, and where each of them will go to in the mission. "Alright, here is The Eve Lander, it's 44 tons and will take a Kerbal to Eve surface and get to orbit with its own power from above 2100 meters ASL, who will get there and what shlould we call it ???" Werhner said. "We can't let Simone hog all the glory, we'll show him what we can do !" Said Jeb, others replied "YYYYEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH", and Simone responded "Whatev, give me a break and i'll leave everything except Eve and Tylo to you guys, i'll call it 'Grizzly Reaper'". "This is our Duna Lander, it will also Land on Vall, who wish to get there ???", Val replied "MEEEEHHHH, i'll be using that Lander all the way in this mission, i'll call it 'Vendetta' and i'll go with Duna, Ike and Vall". "This is our Moho Lander, we don't have to worry about electricity in Moho, it'll also be used around Eve system and Duna system, who wants to land it ???", Bill answered "Me, i'll land that on Moho, it'll be fun, i'll go to land on Gilly, Moho and Pol, and won't use anything but EVA pack to land on Pol, i'll call it 'Electra'". "This is the Ion Lander, it will take on Eeloo, Mun and anything smaller, who wants it ???", Simone replied "Jeb and Bob will need that, i'll call it 'Megawatt'". "Our best Laythe Lander up to date, who wants ???", Jeb replied "Yes, me, like Simone said, Bob and i'll need the Megawatt, i'll call this 'Hex' and i'll go to Dres, Eeloo and Laythe, Bob will go to Mun, Minmus and Bop". "Simone...how are you going to call your private Tylo Lander ???", Simone answered "Big Boi it is". "This is how the smaller recoverable Landers being recovered. Simone, you have my trust and you're allowed to recover The Landers" Said Werhner, which Simone agreed hesitatelessly. -Mothership : (2 Types) Mercury (Moho and everything else, has only 1 or 2 Landers attached to it, released in Eve). Joologist (Jool 5, bigger Mercury with real pods, more engines, more tanks and has 4 Landers attached to it). -Lifter : Sheep v3 Ascent Stage (AKA Chimera). Conclusion : 5 Kerbals to a WHOLE Kerbolar System Tour and back...With NO ISRU !!! Landings for each Kerbals : -Simone Kerman (9) : Eve, Tylo. (+Anziephus, Spade, Putto, Ovis, Shrek, Lotus, Duran) -Jebediah Kerman (9) : Dres, Laythe, Eeloo. (+Ebenus, Rheis, Arane, Nuu, Akel, Nuuma) -Valentina Kerman (8) : Duna, Ike, Vall. (+Pherph, Tekcate, Dhar, Vra, Dauble) -Bill Kerman (8) : Gilly, Moho, Pol. (+Epam, Oorma, Phoe, Flo, Durus) -Bob Kerman (8) : Mun, Minmus, Bop. (+Eiwei, Tekili, Tekova, Mez, Es) Status : Mission Accomplished !!!!!!

After designing my previous craft, the Eve Infinity (https://kerbalx.com/EveMaster/Eve-Infinity). I thought that this craft could be altered to make a grand tour possible. The main changes were a full mining equipment also in the upper stage and two landing legs so that the upper stage could land vertically. The result is the Reusable Grand Tour Vessel (https://kerbalx.com/EveMaster/Reusable-Grand-Tour-Vessel) The mission is performed on a new sandgame game with normal difficulty. The surfaces of the bodies are visited in the order: Minmus, Mun, Minmus, Ike, Duna, Dres, Laythe, Pol, Tylo, Val, Bop, Eeloo, Gilly, Moho, Eve, Gilly, Kerbin. Mission Report: The kerbals on the mission a the pilot Jebediah and the Engineer Bill. Firstly the whole craft flies as a single stage to the surface of Minmus. There the upper stage decouples and flies to the Mun surface. This landing one the moon is the only one where no mining is done because the upper stage still has enough fuel for the way back to Minmus. Then the whole craft flies to and lands on Ike. After that the upper stage lands on Duna and docks back to the lower stage in Duna orbit. On the next destination, Dres, only the upper stage lands. The craft reaches the Jool system with an intercept tangentially to Laythe orbit an can easily aerocapture and land. The ascent from Laythe takes quite some fuel so the next stop is the low gravity moon Pol to get full on fuel again. For the Tylo landing the lower stage is left in an elliptical orbit. The Tylo landing succeeded on the first try. The fuel runs out as the craft is hovering closely above the surface and it lands without damage. Back in orbit the lower stage is about 20m/s short of reaching the other stage. The other stage only has reduced control because it has neither long range antenna nor a kerbal on board. So Jebediah goes on EVA to fly to the other stage and bring it back. Flying from elliptical Tylo orbit to low Val orbit it does not take that much delta-V so there is enough fuel left to be transferred to the upper stage. After the upper stage has visited Val the whole ship flies to the last of the Joolean, Bop. The next stop is Eeloo. Only the upper stage lands there. Now Jebediah and Bill would like to go to Moho. But the delta-V requirements for going directly are way too high and the ship isn't even full on fuel. So Bill has the idea to stop at Gilly to refuel. But Jeb responds: "We don't have enough fuel to reach Gilly either." "Then let's use gravity assists." Bills responds. So they leave Eeloo and head for Duna. After leaving the SOI of Eeloo they notice that the Duna encounter won't get them anything useful. So they change their plan and make a course correction to make a Kerbin gravity assist. That works and brings them on a course to Eve. At Eve the speed is more than 5km/s and too high for an aerocapture. So the capture is mostly done by retroburning at an height of 81km above Eve. The apoapsis is now on the height of Gilly. After putting the periapsis out of the atmosphere and correcting the inclination to match the one of Gilly they notice that they don't have enough fuel left to reach Gilly. But Bill has an idea: "Lets transfer fuel to the upper stage, so that it can reach to Gilly and shuttle fuel back to the other stage." That works and after redocking the craft has enough fuel to reach Gilly as a whole an finally get refueled up completely. The craft leaves Gilly at a point in time where Eve's and Moho's orbit intersect. The ejection burn contains a normal component to match the inclination of Moho's orbit. When the craft reaches its Kerbol periapsis which is at the height of Moho's orbit, Moho is not there. Performing some retroburning in deep space however gives an encounter with Moho one orbit later. When reaching orbit around Moho, Bill and Jebediah notice that they don't have enough fuel for landing the whole ship. So they do the same trick as for reaching Gilly. After two shuttle missions there is enough fuel for the whole ship to land. After refueling, the ship ascends to low Moho orbit. Bill notices: "Going to orbit has cost us quite some fuel. We could shuttle more fuel up by using the lower stage. I don't want to get stranded in deep space." Jeb: "You can do that if you want. I stay in the orbital stage while you do that." After around seven refueling runs the ship is as full on fuel as possible. Jeb got routine in doing so and by using the board computer he found it easy to rendezvous back and dock back with the orbital stage even without maneuver nodes. Jeb even risked putting less than 1000 m/s of delta-v into the tank some times when leaving for Moho surface. Nearly full on fuel it is easy to transfer to Eve. There is even enough fuel for lowering the Eve apoapsis with a retroburn instead of mulitple aerobrake passes to save time. They make a final retroburn of more than 1000 m/s to descent to the highest mountain of Eve. They decided not to land directly on top but at the side of the mountain because there is a better landing area. After mining a bit of fuel they roll up to the very top of the mountain. Now it is time to say goodby for Bill and Jeb. Bill would stay on Eve to operate the lower stage that can push an upper stage into a suborbital trajectory. Jeb promises to come and visit Bill soon. Bill takes a seat in the lower stage and Jeb in the upper stage. They disable the fuel crossfeed so that the upper stage is full on fuel when decoupled. The craft takes of horizontally and quickly climbs to an angle of around 70 degrees then switches to prograde for a gravity turn. The throttle is at 100% all the time. When the fuel runs out in the bottom stage the vehicle travels at around 1700m/s and has an apoapsis at around 105km. Jeb pushes the upper stage into orbit while Bill returns the lower stage to the surface of Eve. The high wing area of the lower stage is needed to survive the reentry. The speed vertical component exceeds 1km/s at times and the resulting g-forces reach 9g. Nevertheless Bill manages to land it safely. Jeb flies the upper stage from low Eve orbit to Gilly. When approaching Gilly Jeb becomes a bit worried. The current speed relative to Gilly equals the remaining delta-V left. Jeb decides to continue anyways but without capturing into an orbit first. He waits with the burn until he is very near the ground. After burning all his fuel, the speed is down to 1m/s and he is 3m above ground, safe for Gilly. After landing horizontally he puts the lander up vertically using the reaction wheels. This is only possible to the low gravity of Gilly. The vertical position has the advantage that the craft does not mystically wise sink into the ground when time warping during mining. Full on fuel again Jeb heads back to Kerbin. He descends at a steep angle because the craft does not glide as well on Kerbin as on Eve. With the landing on the runway of the KSC he has completed the 'Grand Tour' in less than 60 years. Screenshots of the mission: https://imgur.com/gallery/phYIcHw

Please rate my GT SSTO Craft file: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1717638434

Grand Tour of the extended Kerbol system Many of us have done a Jool 5 mission, or at least have attempted one. Some of us may even have done a grand tour, visiting every celestial body in the Kerbol system. The latter is what this challenge is about, but with a big twist. Using a couple of planet mods, namely Xen's Planet Collection and Outer Planets, I propose a mission of a scale that few players have ever attempted. That mission: using one enormous spacecraft, explore every planet in this new extended version of the Kerbol system. My attempt at this challenge is ongoing here. The extended Kerbol system With more than double the number of celestial bodies than a stock grand tour, this is truly a monumental challenge. Rules Mods Any mods not listed below are prohibited. Please notify me if there is a mod that you think should be allowed and is not listed below. Challenge categories There are several different ways that you can complete this challenge. Leaderboards Notes There is likely to be a badge for signatures in future for those who have completed this challenge. The rules are currently subject to some change.

The invention of Debug Drive (pioneered by one Cheiter "Alt-F12" Kerman) has rendered the complexities of orbital mechanics virtually obsolete. Now, spaceships can simply turn on their Debug Drive and zip almost instantly from any orbit to any other celestial orbit, without consuming a single drop of propellant. Some have decried the use of this technology as "too easy", but most have embraced it with enthusiasm. The new tech has only one limitation: it can only be used once a stable orbit has been established, as the Tunnelizer Particles used by the drive will rip the ship apart if exposed to too much gravitational imbalance. So while orbital mechanics is no longer a concern, rocket science remains alive and well. THE CHALLENGE: Build a ship capable of deorbiting and orbiting at many worlds as possible, without refueling, staging, or docking. Your ship is only responsible for the deorbit and orbit; it does NOT have to perform transfer or capture burns. You may use the Debug Menu to "jump" from any stable orbit to any other stable orbit, but you cannot jump from the surface (or from a suborbital trajectory) to orbit. Your vehicle must be manned. At no point can any parts explode, break off, or otherwise leave your ship. Absolutely no part mods. This challenge is about design, so you do not have to fly your ship into orbit; you start the challenge in LKO, fully-fueled. You decide what order to visit worlds in. SCORING: You gain points each time you land and reorbit from a given world. Each world is worth a certain number of points as shown below. Gilly: 6 Pol: 26 Minmus: 36 Bop: 46 Ike: 78 Dres: 86 Mun: 116 Eeloo: 124 Duna: 145 Vall: 172 Moho: 174 Laythe: 290 Tylo: 454 Eve: 800 (if anyone can pull it off) Good so far? Don't get started just yet. You can earn bonuses based on vehicle design and mission parameters. Each bonus is a 10% increase to your final score, and they multiply, so two bonuses means a 21% increase, three bonuses means a 33.1% increase, and so forth. OP reserves the right to add new bonuses in the future. Homeward Bound: Return to the surface of Kerbin from LKO at the end of your mission. Infinity and Beyond: Your vessel consumes neither xenon nor ablator, meaning it could conceivably refuel at any ISRU station and continue its mission indefinitely. In the Neighborhood: Visit each planetary system only once. In other words, you complete all landings within a given system before moving on to the next one. Baby Grand: Visit every world but Eve. Kerbin's Sweet Caress: Land within visual range of the KSC at the end of your mission. No Surly Bonds: Your vessel is capable of SSTO from Kerbin, independent of your main mission. Rocket Scientist: Be the first person to post, in this thread, an accurate explanation for how I arrived at the scoring for each world. Hera, Wife of Zeus: Land on all the moons of Jool. Powerhouse: Your vessel carries no solar panels. Disembark: Your Kerbals can leave the vessel and plant flags on every world without needing their jetpacks. Regular Ace: Fly the entire mission without relying on informational or piloting mods. Pickup Artist: Your vessel is capable of EDL at Eve and re-ascent to orbit if Infinite Fuel is enabled after landing, independent of your main mission. One Stop Shop: Your vessel consumes only a single type of propellant (e.g., xenon only, LF only, monoprop only, or LFO only). Killing Me Smalls: Your vessel has the lowest dry mass of any submission. To qualify, you must land on either Laythe or Tylo. Rule of Cool: You have a dual-thrust-axis lander, capable of vertical takeoff and landing perpendicular to your main engine thrust vector using dedicated engines. Good luck, everyone! LEADERBOARD: @Wanderfound Touches down on Laythe and the Mun before coming home to Kerbin for a pinpoint KSC landing. For now, the smallest submission capable of Laythe, so 791 points!

This is it, I have finally built a ship that should be able to complete a grand tour. The mission has no drills and will not mine, nor will it refuel from a craft on Kerbin. The ship will be completely on it's own. Here I will list the images of the mission while I edit the videos for it. Part 1: Launch of the Artemis Part 2: Jool Departure

This doesn't really come up with the stock game, as the only place to "get to" beyond Jool is Eeloo, but with OPM it would be really nice to know when to launch so-as to plan a Voyager type fly-by of all the outer planets. Now we can predict one transfer window with a planner, and it wouldn't be *too* hard to guess at positioning to hit a second planet, but doing 3 or 4 would be ridiculously hard. Even if we knew the "clock dates" for auspicious alignments, navigation would still have a huge fudge factor at each world due to inherent imprecision in flights. I bet if I knew the window precisely, I'd still need a ~ 200 dV burn at each world to ensure I encounter the next, as opposed to Voyager's very small attitude adjustments. Has anyone every seen found, or created a list of such "keyhole" dates that has been published here?

Hey guys, check out my new video i made this night!