Going Interstellar

[stanleywinford]

The Kerbals decide they want to visit another star. Even if it takes a hundred thousand years, they are willing to wait--after all, for immortal beings, any length of time is a mere blink of an eye. Even so, they'd like to arrive as soon as possible to escape the boredom of being trapped inside a pod for countless millennia.

Challenge: Send a Kerbal + craft out of the solar system at the fastest possible speed. Your score will be your speed relative to Kerbol at infinite distance. This speed can be calculated using v_inf = sqrt(v^2 - 2GM/r), where v is your current orbital speed around Kerbol, r is your distance above Kerbol's center (NOT its surface), and M is Kerbol's mass. If you don't know how to use this formula, time warp until you are at least 300 million km from Kerbol and report your orbital speed. If you're too impatient to wait this long, I'll calculate the speed for you based on the screenshots you submit.

Rules:

1. Crafts must be 100% stock. You can use MechJeb or other mods to design your craft, but can't use them to fly it.

2. The Kerbal MUST be in a pod or command chair; a free-floating Kerbal isn't OK.

3. You can't exploit glitches

4. To submit your entry, post 1) a screenshot of your craft at launch or in the VAB, and 2) a screenshot of your craft as it's leaving the solar system, after burning all its fuel. In the second screenshot, make sure the orbital speed and altitude above Kerbol are clearly visible. I need this to verify your orbital speed at infinity.

Scoreboard:

1. FlipNascar: 63.12 km/s

2. cryogen: 43.69 km/s

3. myself: 27.720 km/s

4. Ferdoni: 21.165 km/s

Edited June 17, 2015 by stanleywinford
enumerated rules, forbade glitches

[MarvinKitFox]

I was about to submit an older mission log of mine, that used a sun-grazer ion drive to get more than 68000m/s

.

.

Then I remembered that the sun is now *hot*.

This will add a whole new dimension to the attempt...

[stanleywinford]

Here's my own attempt. Poor Katline Kerman is shooting out of the solar system at 27.72 km/s. She's already 2.7 billion km away, where the sun looks almost like a star and the solar panels gather no light:

http://i.imgur.com/FgbVne8.png

And here is the craft that took her there:

http://i.imgur.com/43BmUzJ.png

- - - Updated - - -

I was about to submit an older mission log of mine, that used a sun-grazer ion drive to get more than 68000m/s

.

.

Then I remembered that the sun is now *hot*.

This will add a whole new dimension to the attempt...

I did the same thing in 0.23--I used an ion drive to leave the solar system at 65 km/s. I tried the same strategy in 1.0.2 because I didn't know about the change, and needless to say, it didn't go well...

[cryogen]

Might to be useful to know, Kerbal EVA suits violently explode at 800 Kelvin.

Sorry Jeb!

[cryogen]

Here's my amateur-ish attempt. One surviving Kerbal in an EVA suit, at v_{∞}= 43.69 km/s. Here's a screenshot with precise numbers.

Disclosure -- my album mixes screenshots from several attempts. After a few failures, I stopped taking screenshots from the steps I was repeating. Sorry about this probable rule violation!

KSP version is stock 1.0.2, no mods, "normal" difficulty in sandbox. No debugs, except for the debug setting that shows thermal information (to figure out why things were exploding ).

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited June 10, 2015 by cryogen

[stanleywinford]

Wow, 44 km/s! I've never seen so much ion propellant in my life--and you staged it! How long did the burn take?

[vitekc45c]

Are propelantless propulsion metods allowed? (K-drives, bouncing off Jool/ Eve 's atmosphere etc.)

[Ferdoni]

Love this challenge!!! Accepted ^^

[psyberduckling]

Are propelantless propulsion metods allowed? (K-drives, bouncing off Jool/ Eve 's atmosphere etc.)

I'd imagine so, not very efficient compared to burning all your fuel as close to the sun as you can get without burning up.

Then again no harm in getting a little boost off Jool on the way out (I don't think it'll be that much of a boost, you'll be going that fast that it's gravity won't deflect your orbit enough to get a very significant gravity assist).

Edited June 12, 2015 by psyberduckling

[stanleywinford]

Are propelantless propulsion metods allowed? (K-drives, bouncing off Jool/ Eve 's atmosphere etc.)

No exploitation of glitches, so the K-drive isn't allowed. You can certainly use the atmosphere to your advantage by aerobraking.

[FlipNascar]

The design is somewhat ripped off from inspired by cryogen... Clocks in at 63.119km/s

Javascript is disabled. View full album

This challenge proved to be a PITA - thanks to launcher problems. In the end, moar boosters was the approach. Could've done better with a lower solar PE. But still... Maxrie is now on her way to somewhere. Poor little thing, all cold, hungry and lonely. The VAB shot doesn't show true delta-v because most of the xenon tanks are disabled in order to achieve proper staging.

[cryogen]

Wow, 44 km/s! I've never seen so much ion propellant in my life--and you staged it! How long did the burn take?

Only two stages, because the asparagus wasn't installed correctly!

The burn was about 3 hours of simulated time.

- - - Updated - - -

The VAB shot doesn't show true delta-v because most of the xenon tanks are disabled in order to achieve proper staging.

Ah, that's an idea!

[caryplane]

Attempting now gotta time it right so i can use minimus and the mun to slingshot like i accidentally did before

Dint line em up properly gonna use the sun to slingshot instead

Used mechjeb to check delta V while flying btw does that count as using it to fly?

Edit: creating a new one which is actually designed for this challenge

Edited June 14, 2015 by caryplane

[Ferdoni]

After 3 consequently hours still burning all my stages at 4x time warp... my entry comes tomorrow!!

[Ferdoni]

So here is my entry!!

After 14 simulated hours of burning...

I used a gravity assist from Tylo but i'm a little dissapointed at my orbital speed...

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Around 21.000 something.. but you can check it for yourself

[stanleywinford]

Used mechjeb to check delta V while flying btw does that count as using it to fly?

Yes, because if you put the mechjeb module on your craft while flying (and it's not a simulation run), the craft is no longer 100% stock. I'll let it slide if you've done the challenge already, but if not, please don't do it.

- - - Updated - - -

So here is my entry!!

After 14 simulated hours of burning...

I used a gravity assist from Tylo but i'm a little dissapointed at my orbital speed...

http://imgur.com/a/BsoPy

Around 21.000 something.. but you can check it for yourself

Cool design! Your speed at infinite distance is 21.165 km/s.

Did you do a burn near Kerbol, or was most of your burn in Jool orbit? Also, what were the toroidal fuel tanks for? I thought those couldn't hold xenon fuel...

[Teilnehmer]

Yes, because if you put the mechjeb module on your craft while flying (and it's not a simulation run), the craft is no longer 100% stock.

Is it legal then to use StockPlugins making MechJeb available without any special parts?

[A_name]

Here's my own attempt. Poor Katline Kerman is shooting out of the solar system at 27.72 km/s. She's already 2.7 billion km away, where the sun looks almost like a star and the solar panels gather no light:

http://i.imgur.com/FgbVne8.png

And here is the craft that took her there:

http://i.imgur.com/43BmUzJ.png

- - - Updated - - -

I did the same thing in 0.23--I used an ion drive to leave the solar system at 65 km/s. I tried the same strategy in 1.0.2 because I didn't know about the change, and needless to say, it didn't go well...

She seems pretty happy about it

[Ferdoni]

Cool design! Your speed at infinite distance is 21.165 km/s.

Did you do a burn near Kerbol, or was most of your burn in Jool orbit? Also, what were the toroidal fuel tanks for? I thought those couldn't hold xenon fuel...

Thanks!

I did my burn in a Tylo gravity assist.

The toroidal fuel tanks are for providing the electricity for the ION propulsion. Because you need tons of solar panels so far away from Kerbol.

But I will redo and burn near Kerbol

[stanleywinford]

Is it legal then to use StockPlugins making MechJeb available without any special parts?

If you're flying with MechJeb just out of curiosity about your stats, or to improve your design, that's fine. But if you have a flight plan that involves checking delta-V in-flight, you can't use MechJeb. I hope that makes sense. The idea is that someone without any mods (like me) should be able to take your craft file, fly it, and get almost exactly the same result as you.