Mun Rocked

[Wild Cobra]

Looking forward to seeing this beastie landed.

LOL... So am I. I spend many hours working on this.

Polar orbital scanner, three rover missions till I got it them right.

The station and five tankers, three to Kerbin orbit and two to Munar orbit. Scrapped my first lander design and started completely over. This last tanker, I barely made it with enough fuel to tip things off. The program glitched, and I was messing with RCS maneuvers not going right before I noticed my indicators were changing to docking mode, but when I went to go laterally, I got yaw or pitch instead. I saved and restarted, and it was good again. Didn't lose much fuel, but I think I will have only about 1/4 remaining fuel in this last tanker than the first one here in Munar orbit when I'm done refueling.

Now refueling is proving to be tedious too. I didn't think about the implications of docking this tanker on the end of the other. Now I have to move the camera positions and zoom to move fuel around. At least my intent of doing so will still be valid. I can keep the two tankers together, just undock at the lander. the RCS away at maybe 0.1 meters/sec. One less item that maybe i can refuel for the ore mining station and use later, and they will be kept together. I almost used a six port hub like I brought with the second tanker of three for my Kerbin orbit tankers. I will bring one on a third tanker, or something else if needed. I might just bring an orbital mun refueled with several docking ports to accommodate at least a dozen ships.

This was all tedious and time consuming.

I'm a bit apprehensive. It's one heavy contraption and deceleration will be slow. Then there is the frame rate lag, which increases when I turn the RCS thrusters on. I hope I can use them sparingly and cycle them on and off as needed.

I have enough thrust for it to land, and as long as I touch down soft I'll be OK. Anyone know what orbital height well be best to start at? I have a thrust to weight ratio of 13.045 with the tanks full. Don't even know how much fuel I'll lose on the way down.

Just how fast can 24 Mainsails burn fuel anyway... Ouch... quite fast!

Edited October 22, 2015 by Wild Cobra

[Wild Cobra]

http://i.imgur.com/6391eQih.jpg

I used Mechjeb to get somewhere remotely near a 6000m plateau that I'd found, but it was making a mess of the part of the descent on chutes, so I took over manually for that part.

My first landing ended in disaster, but on my 2nd attempt I made it, but almost destroyed the rover.

Did you bring an engineer with you to fix the wheels?

I like you idea with wheels. I wonder if I could have put enough wheels on my ore station?

[purpleivan]

Did you bring an engineer with you to fix the wheels?

I like you idea with wheels. I wonder if I could have put enough wheels on my ore station?

There was an engineer on board, but I didn't bother to fix the wheels, as I only used them as a way to reduce the part count. A few huge wheels instead of a huge number of landing legs.

The tanks the that the legs were attached to were the ones fuel was pulled from in the landing, so they were dropped immediately on take off.

[Wild Cobra]

Well, I'm not getting enough time with this game lately. However, I finished refueling the lander in Munar orbit about 21:40 local time.

Here are some slideshows of progress since post 31:

More refueling in Kerbin orbit:

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Traveling to the mun:

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Refueling in Munar orbit:

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Wow...

I need a break!

The apprehension of it all...

The next step is to adjust orbit and land!

How do you guys get IMGUR to show the slideshow?

Edited October 24, 2015 by Wild Cobra

[purpleivan]

You know it's impressive when the launcher for just one of the tankers is ridiculously big

Here's how to get the IMGUR albums to show up in the thread... but remove the big X that I added to stop the examples being interpreted as albums.

To get the IMGUR album to show up in the forum you need to enter the info in text in the message in the form of [imgURX]identification number of album from the last part of its URL[/imgUR]

For example for your 1st album it would be [imgURX]fHnKW[/imgUR]

Like this.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[MGCJerry]

I've been trying this on and off for awhile now... But KSP keeps giving me the hell kraken whenever it messes up. 4146t on the pad. Lander is planned at 1500 tons.

[purpleivan]

I've been trying this on and off for awhile now... But KSP keeps giving me the hell kraken whenever it messes up. 4146t on the pad. Lander is planned at 1500 tons.

I know what you mean about KSP cracking under the strain. I recently starting playing it with RSS/RO and my build was horribly unreliable withe the recommended addons installed (any change of scene VAB/pad/Space Center etc. had about 30% chance of killing the game) until I switched it to run under OpenGL and that was with a simple, Mercury style vehicle.

[Wild Cobra]

You know it's impressive when the launcher for just one of the tankers is ridiculously big

Here's how to get the IMGUR albums to show up in the thread... but remove the big X that I added to stop the examples being interpreted as albums.

To get the IMGUR album to show up in the forum you need to enter the info in text in the message in the form of [imgURX]identification number of album from the last part of its URL[/imgUR]

For example for your 1st album it would be [imgURX]fHnKW[/imgUR]

Like this.

http://imgur.com/a/fHnKW

Thank-You

- - - Updated - - -

I've been trying this on and off for awhile now... But KSP keeps giving me the hell kraken whenever it messes up. 4146t on the pad. Lander is planned at 1500 tons.

Mine was 8766.8 tons at launch. I had to launch it from the runway because it was too big for the launch pad.

I'm lucky my i7 4790 3.6 ghz is rated the 5th fastest processor for single thread processing. I just wanted a nice tower and if I bought if for this game, would have stepped up the processor to the 4 ghz version, the i7 4790K, which is in first place. Without it, these monsters I create would probably be impossible.

I doubt it helps, but I have 32 GB of memory too, so there are more areas it can use without fragmenting it. With the usage of the game and other things going on, I'll bet at least 6 or 8 GB is needed to to run these large beasts without breaking.

- - - Updated - - -

LOL...

I just noticed all my spelling/typos as I went though those images.

I should fix them...

[Wild Cobra]

Well, my landing spot is currently on "The dark side of the Mun." I have to wait a few Kerbin days before attempting my land. Meanwhile, instead of advancing those days, I built effectively a 1/24 scale lander. I have one instead of 24 mainsails, six extensions, and one instead of 24 Vernor engines in about the same 18 positions. One solar panel instead of 24, etc...

Instead of 2579.7 tons, it's 115.9 tons.

I gave it infinite fuel until I achieved the same orbit as my lander. Then I turned infinite fuel off. My first attempt, my engines stopped working... A glitch? I still had fuel. It happened when I went to docking mode for sideways maneuvering. Anyway, I didn't save while in the proper orbit. I did the second time. My purpose was to check when to start my decent, and how well the craft decelerated.

Not really sure what was best, I started about 90 degrees before my target and adjusted my orbit with anti-normal to get over may target. This used up about 675 of my fuel... Ouch... I then went retrograde to fly low over my target. Now I've used 900 units, which would be about 21,600 units for my lander.

By the time I got close to my target, I may so many mistakes. About to land, I accidentally hit full throttle and really messed things up. Going up and out of control for a bit... I'm down to about 20% fuel.

I have plenty of thrust for everything. This is completely do-able at full scale as long as I don't screw up.

Anyway, I landed 2 km from my intended target which is still pretty rich in ore. Just not the sweet spot I found. When i planted my four flags, I took my biggest reading, and went four directions from it, and put a flag where my number dropped by 0.01%.

I'm good with the one test landing. When I'm ready, I'll land the beast. Maybe tomorrow.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Wild Cobra

[purpleivan]

I'm good with the one test landing. When I'm ready, I'll land the beast. Maybe tomorrow.

Best of luck

[xendelaar]

Here's my SSTO entry.

Weight on the launchpad: 4497 t

Weight on the mun: 704.9 t

I lost two engines on touch down... but we made it

Here's the complete imgur album for those who are interested.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[purpleivan]

Here's my SSTO entry.

Weight on the launchpad: 4497 t

Weight on the mun: 704.9 t

A nice and (relatively) simple entry which gets you the number 2 spot on the leaderboard.

A shame about the two engines but accidents will happen... especially when landing things this size

[Wild Cobra]

Here's my SSTO entry.

Weight on the launchpad: 4497 t

Weight on the mun: 704.9 t

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

I lost two engines on touch down... but we made it

http://i.imgur.com/ZQ9iYgQ.png

Here's the complete imgur album for those who are interested.

http://imgur.com/a/9gb6C

I wonder how much weight you could have had if you refueled in in Munar orbit?

- - - Updated - - -

I decided to take another stab with my test lander.

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I'm much happier with my remaining fuel.

Time to land the real thing!

[Wild Cobra]

OK...

I did it. Didn't land as close as I wanted to, but it's down in one piece. I drained the tanks of 196,241 units of fuel/oxidizer. I don't have the fancy mods to tell me my landed mass, but at 200 units to the ton, I lost 981.2 tons in fuel weight from my starting 2,795.7 weight of the lander portion, full.

I calculate my landed weight to be 1,778.5 tons.

Someone check my math please.

Here is the evidence:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[xendelaar]

A nice and (relatively) simple entry which gets you the number 2 spot on the leaderboard.

A shame about the two engines but accidents will happen... especially when landing things this size

All my designs lack creativity and are simple. That's how i roll XD

The two engines would have given me 60 t extra weight... i believe. The refuel idea around the mun would have been a good idea. After refuelling, the ship should weigh more than 4000t. It would take me days to fill that tank though haha

Edited October 26, 2015 by xendelaar

[Wild Cobra]

All my designs lack creativity and are simple. That's how i roll XD

The two engines would have given me 60 t extra weight... i believe. The refuel idea around the mun would have been a good idea. Then it weigh more than 4000t. It would take me days to fill that track rough haha

I refilled my entry with five tankers before attempting the landing.

[xendelaar]

I refilled my entry with five tankers before attempting the landing.

I would have definitely given this challenge another go, if my processor was a bit more powerful. It was as if I was like looking at slide show haha.

[Wild Cobra]

I would have definitely given this challenge another go, if my processor was a bit more powerful. It was as if I was like looking at slide show haha.

Mine was pretty slow too. Especially when I used the RCS. As long as I had the RCS off, the slide show was pretty fast... for a slide show. Once I activated those 432 Vernor engines, wow... It was crawling...

- - - Updated - - -

I refilled my entry with five tankers before attempting the landing.

Did you see the size of my tankers?

[purpleivan]

OK...

I did it. Didn't land as close as I wanted to, but it's down in one piece. I drained the tanks of 196,241 units of fuel/oxidizer. I don't have the fancy mods to tell me my landed mass, but at 200 units to the ton, I lost 981.2 tons in fuel weight from my starting 2,795.7 weight of the lander portion, full.

I calculate my landed weight to be 1,778.5 tons.

Someone check my math please.

Here is the evidence:

http://imgur.com/a/E0wCy

Congratulations... the beast is down

If you want to check the mass, load a save focused on the lander and click the "i" info button in the map view. You'll get some basic information on the vehicle including the mass.

[Wild Cobra]

Congratulations... the beast is down

If you want to check the mass, load a save focused on the lander and click the "i" info button in the map view. You'll get some basic information on the vehicle including the mass.

Well, I'll have to figure out which save file it is and try that. Meanwhile, I spent a few days doing other things on this save file. After touchdown and presenting my entry, I took off and moved it to the richer ore area, and started harvesting. I am also harvesting from an asteroid, moving it, and making more fuel/oxidizer than I am using with five Rhino engines. Is that normal?

Anyway, I've also been filling the beast up. I don't have any good means of transferring fuel. I one some small docking ports near on one of the bottom habitation unit. I'll have fun designing a large combination rover/tanker that can land same move and take off again.

Anyway, the Monster is almost full now:

Looks like I need to suspend operations until sunrise.

- - - Updated - - -

Yep, I was off on the mass I calculated 1778.5... It is 1778.52 hehe...:

This gives me first place so far, right?

Edited October 26, 2015 by Wild Cobra

[purpleivan]

Yep, I was off on the mass I calculated 1778.5... It is 1778.52 hehe...:

http://i.imgur.com/dspMev7.png

This gives me first place so far, right?

Indeed it does (Leaderboard updated with you in the number one spot).

[Wild Cobra]

Indeed it does (Leaderboard updated with you in the number one spot).

Thank-You for updating it!

In the event someone tops me, I was considering a new design yet. With the action groups, I was considering not using the large numbers of Vernor engines, but using strategically positioned rocket engines. These big designs really slow down when turning on the RCS when it controls 432 Vernor engines...

I'm sending a ore extractor/tanker to Minmus that is 1,544 parts and 11,313.4 tons at launch. After the three stages detach, it's wet weight is still 4,174.5 tons with 1,092 parts. I stopped the game coasting to Minmus after setting course. Fuel usage was extensive on the last stage so far, and it's sitting at 1,531.39 tones as it's drifting to Minmus.

Oh well...

I know how to make big tankers. I have two parked in orbit over the Mun.

I landed on day 12 for the lander for the Mun Rocked challenge. It is now almost refueled. After moving it to the "sweet spot," which is 8.5+% ore, at almost day 20, it is almost full. I have to wait a few days for the sun again, as I depleted my batteries, still processing some ore in the dark. It appears I need about two mun days to fill it, already using about 1-1/2 light cycles. It's currently at 2817.62 tons with the ore I extracted and fuel I made.

I should be able to lift off back the the Mun's orbit and refill one of those tankers, set down again, refuel, and refuel the other. Sending them on their way from the Mun to Minmus.

Maybe I should have sent it to the Mun.

Oh... I can make another!

The center core has loads of batteries and wheels, and if you look closely, you can see one of four ore drills:

Edited October 27, 2015 by Wild Cobra

[CAKE99]

I will try this soon, after Halloween I would like to maintain the challenge.

[Wild Cobra]

I forgot.

I made an album of my failed attempts to put this Hercules inspired design up:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[xendelaar]

Thank-You for updating it!

I'm sending a ore extractor/tanker to Minmus that is 1,544 parts and 11,313.4 tons at launch. After the three stages detach, it's wet weight is still 4,174.5 tons with 1,092 parts. I stopped the game coasting to Minmus after setting course. Fuel usage was extensive on the last stage so far, and it's sitting at 1,531.39 tones as it's drifting to Minmus.

http://i.imgur.com/Gh4Vfjb.png

1500+ parts.. that's crazy haha! What is your framerate? you must have super extra special patience skills! !

Edited October 27, 2015 by xendelaar