I Had A Dream

[HoloYolo]

Remember when you had your first rocket design you thought would work? Remember the massive failures that rocket brung to your newb space program? I sure do. It was called Project Mun, designed and failed in my first version, 0.23.

Project Mun's Mission Plans:

1. Use the 4 jet engines to boost it up to 10km

2. Decouple payload, which was a 3-man pod, big fuel tank, and nuclear engine (was unaware of low thrust and terrible ISP in atmosphere)

3. Fly into an orbit, and fly to the Mun.

4. Option 1: Land and wait for rescue. Option 2: Orbit and study the surface for future missions *cough* my first landing

5. If I chose Option 2, go home.

It failed miserably, it's highest altitude was 72m, as it crashed every time.

Let's not drift away like a noob's EVA now. This challenge is to pull that first rocket idea out of the vault, and recreate it to be successful. Let's bring out DA RULES now.

1. 100% Stock (You most likely did not have mods)

2. No cheats or edited configs, don't forget the debug menu.

3. Parts relating to the update of design only (I would use any parts circa .23, because it was my first version)

4. No Commando Seats or Probe Cores (To be honest, all of us just stuck a 3 man pod on and stuck with it)

5. Have Fun (Not having fun will disqualify you)

Scoreboard (lowest cost)

1

2

3

4

5

Maybe I'll get a badge soon ;D

Follow rule 5, I'm serious.

Happy flying!

[Fengist]

You're asking me to remember something I did years ago? Dood, I can't remember what I did 5 minutes ago.

[Windspren]

About the no cheats part: My first craft was a 1-man pod with the Kerbodyne Engine Cluster underneath. I may or may not have used Infinite Fuel.......

[Lhathron the Elf]

What did I eat this morning....?

Yeah, definitely not remembering that.

[Foxster]

I hesitate to say it but I think this can't be done.

A Mk1-2 (3 man) command pod can't be put into orbit with a single LV-N engine. Even with only a FL-T100 fuel tank, the TWR is just 0.88. You need at least 1.0 to make it to orbit from 10km.

It can be done with three LV-Ns but that wasn't what you asked for. Even then there's only just enough dV to get to orbit (I think) but not enough to get to the Mun.

[jarmund]

Once I learned the basics of gravity turning, I actually did OK: On my first attempt at landing on the moon and getting back again, I actually made it. However, there were quite a few areas that, in retrospect, were successful purely based on luck:

a) I happened to already know the very basics of transfer orbits, thanks to The Mechanical Universe

Suicide burn? orbital insertion? Nah.... i'll just do straght down after killing my horizontal speed (based on visual observation). Then make sure that big grey thing doesn't smack me (That actually happened with my less successful minimus mission. I ended up in front of minimus, and the planet ran over me)

The munar terrain where i ended up happened to be relatively flat. I had no reaction wheels other than what the pod contained, and i didn't know how to use RCS

c) Takeoff from the mun happened to be retrograde relative to orbit around kerbin, so finding my way back was easy once I had left mun SOI.

How I managed that is still beyond my understanding. I didn't know you could click the speed indicator to see surface velocity high up, so i'm suprised that I eyeballed it correctly, which I was pretty far away from managing with minimus.

EDIT/UPDATE:

I looked, but unfortunately I don't have that save and its ships anymore. However I remember the basic construction:

1-man pod

antenna

chute

a decoupler may or may not have been present here

FL-T 800-tank

4x landing legs

a few small batteries and solar panels

most likely a 909 engine. Possibly a LV45

decoupler

FL-T 800 tank

LV45 engine

decoupler

FL-T 800 tank

FL-T 800 tank

maybe some fins

Radial decoupler of some sort

MOAR BOOSTERS

LV45 engine

Parts that I'm sure was not included:

RCS tanks + thrusters

reaction wheels

science equipment

mod parts

struts!

Edited April 9, 2015 by jarmund

[Whirligig Girl]

You're asking me to remember something I did years ago? Dood, I can't remember what I did 5 minutes ago.

This.

[HoloYolo]

I hesitate to say it but I think this can't be done.

A Mk1-2 (3 man) command pod can't be put into orbit with a single LV-N engine. Even with only a FL-T100 fuel tank, the TWR is just 0.88. You need at least 1.0 to make it to orbit from 10km.

It can be done with three LV-Ns but that wasn't what you asked for. Even then there's only just enough dV to get to orbit (I think) but not enough to get to the Mun.

I was a noob then, read the parentheses.

- - - Updated - - -

You're asking me to remember something I did years ago? Dood, I can't remember what I did 5 minutes ago.

If you wanna joke around on a serious challenge, leave. Not your place.

[Mister Dilsby]

If you wanna joke around on a serious challenge, leave. Not your place.

Another, more civil interpretation of Fengist's post is that he is following your Rule 5 to the letter...

This is a really interesting challenge and I think it'll be fun for those who still have those save files (I don't) or can remember enough to reconstruct that first ship. It got me reminiscing about my trip to the Mun in the free demo. First I crash-landed, stranding Jeb. I slapped two Mk1 capsules onto a rescue ship (there being no Mk1-2 in demo) and sent Bill to get him. Success! But I ran the ship out of fuel in Mun orbit. Following the rule of 'leave no Kerbal behind' even in demo, I sent Bob with with THREE Mk1 capsules (stacked in line, with the middle one upside-down) and made the rendezvous in a crazy elliptical Mun orbit without benefit of navball markers. Jeb and Bill had to EVA 10km to get to the rescue ship, and all splashed down safely on Kerbin. I learned a lot about KSP that day, and I bought the full game immediately afterwards.

Thanks Kaboom for reminding me of that

[Jean Deaux]

I couldn't figure out if your challenge was to recreate your first mission, or if you were just recalling your first mission as an example. I took it as you wanted us to recreate our own first missions. My first real mission attempt was to make it to Kerbal Orbit, so here's a modern recreation of that flight. Landing wasn't pretty in this case, but the pilot survived! Feel free to handle the (what?) scoring.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Jean Deaux

[Fengist]

I was a noob then, read the parentheses.

- - - Updated - - -

If you wanna joke around on a serious challenge, leave. Not your place.

Wait. You used the word serious... in a Kerbal forum... in a serious manner? Are you serious?