Fastest time to space and return Challenge

[linuxgurugamer]

Jeb wants to go to space, but he has an appointment back on Kerbin.  But he wants to get to space before the appointment.

So, here are the rules (updated 4/18):

 

Build a manned stock craft and send it to space as fast as possible and as always rules are simple :

1. No cheats
2. stock only
3. Must be manned
4. Must return safely to kerbin surface
   1. Going EVA at the last minute is not allowed.  All kerbals must return in the command pod they started in.
5. Additional points for number of crew members on board.  All crew must return safely
6. No pictures, no mission.

I suggest using the AutomatedScreenshots mod to take automatic images (I usually set it to every 5 seconds), then prune the images and post an Imgur album.

Disclaimer:  I wrote AutomatedScreenshots.  It's a suggestion, not a requirement.

I'll keep leaderboards in this post, for the following categories:

1. Fastest to space, for each number of crew
2. Shortest total mission, for each number of crew

The initial leader boards are listed below, if someone does more than 3 crew in a ship, I'll create more

Fastest to Space, 1 crew
tseitsei89 32 seconds

Fastest to Space, 2 crew
Gojira1000 1:55.42

Fastest to Space, 3 crew
Norcalplanner 1:15

Fastest to Space, 4 crew
imasquare 44.7s

Shortest total mission, 1 crew
Tseitsei89  1:57

Shortest total mission, 2 crew
Gojira1000 4:03

Shortest total mission, 3 crew
Norcalplanner 3:04

Shortest total mission, 4 crew
purpleivan 3:09

Edited June 1, 2016 by linuxgurugamer

[linuxgurugamer]

So here is my very simple entry, I look forward to it being beaten quickly

Time to 70k: 1:40
Time to landing: 7:08

I lost a minute by opening the chute too soon.

 

Edited April 17, 2016 by linuxgurugamer

[purpleivan]

Argh... just got a (in theory) good time but then found I'd forgotten to load the crew.

[purpleivan]

Ok.... with a full crew compliment this time of four brave kerbals I am posting a to space and return time of 3:09.

The critical part now is not the launch or even the descent as such, but getting a decent balance of the two. The first few attempts I had at this, my vehicle went whooshing past the 70km mark, out to over 100km before turning round, even with a bunch of retrograde thrust.

The other big factor is the how suicidal you feel with the base jumping type deployment of the chutes. I actually had a better deployment on my previous (accidentally) unmanned flight, but made a better job of when to turn the ship around this time, so the overall time was actually better, but I my time would have been over 10 seconds better, had I hit the chutes at the right time.

 

Just realised that there isn't a category for a crew of 4, so I guess my submission would be the crew of 3.

Also only just notice that there are separate leaderboards for time to space and return, so my time to space was 54 seconds.

Edited April 17, 2016 by purpleivan

[linuxgurugamer]

1 hour ago, purpleivan said:

Ok.... with a full crew compliment this time of four brave kerbals I am posting a to space and return time of 3:09.

The critical part now is not the launch or even the descent as such, but getting a decent balance of the two. The first few attempts I had at this, my vehicle went whooshing past the 70km mark, out to over 100km before turning round, even with a bunch of retrograde thrust.

The other big factor is the how suicidal you feel with the base jumping type deployment of the chutes. I actually had a better deployment on my previous (accidentally) unmanned flight, but made a better job of when to turn the ship around this time, so the overall time was actually better, but I my time would have been over 10 seconds better, had I hit the chutes at the right time.

 

Just realised that there isn't a category for a crew of 4, so I guess my submission would be the crew of 3.

Also only just notice that there are separate leaderboards for time to space and return, so my time to space was 54 seconds.

There is now leaderboard for 4.

Congrats

[hikoriyami]

One Kerbal to space in 1:02
Returned to Kerbin at 4:26

Definitely room for improvement. I have an idea that will speed things up, but for now I'm happy with it.

 

[Foxster]

Just to be sure: What is "space"?

[max_creative]

Above 70 km.

[Norcalplanner]

Interesting. Have to give this a try this weekend.

[hikoriyami]

AHA! After taking a break from it and modifying my old rocket the "Fastback", I have improved my time.

Time to space: 1:04
Time to landed: 2:48

I look forward to watching the crazy techniques that come after this.

 

[max_creative]

3 minutes ago, hikoriyami said:

AHA! After taking a break from it and modifying my old rocket the "Fastback", I have improved my time.

Time to space: 1:04
Time to landed: 2:48

I look forward to watching the crazy techniques that come after this.

 

YOU MANAGED TO SCARE JEBEDIAH!!!

[Gojira1000]

Right - 2 crew it is. Not as fast as I could have, probably, but fun! 1:55.42 up, on the ground in 4:03

I had to add the Aliens reference. I'll get my coat.

 

 

[ManEatingApe]

Very entertaining challenge @linuxgurugamer! 

Reached space in 1:09 and back on the ground at 2:20

Jebediah remained calm even when descending 400 m/s at under 1 km altitude!

 

Edited April 23, 2016 by ManEatingApe

[purpleivan]

2 hours ago, ManEatingApe said:

Very entertaining challenge @linuxgurugamer! 

Reached space in 1:09 and back on the ground at 2:20

Jebediah remained calm even when descending 400 m/s at under 1 km altitude!

 

Nice!

I liked the mounting of the descent stage "upside down".

[Norcalplanner]

Here's my entry - the Upgoer 3.  Up to space with three kerbals in 1:15.  Up and back in 3: 04.  It's a bit unique in that it only uses Mainsails.  I also credit the good time largely on luck when deploying the parachutes.

Definitely lots of room for improvement, as some of the fuel tanks aren't full, and I went zooming up to over 100 km before heading back down again.  Still, pretty good for three kerbals and a heavy Mk 1-2 capsule.

 

Edited April 23, 2016 by Norcalplanner
typos

[Cunjo Carl]

Reached space in 43 seconds, and returned in *ahem* 36:18. The design can certainly be pushed from here. It utilizes immolative decoupling and conflagratory dry mass reduction. It's also on fire, like, the whole time. Fun to run, thanks for the challenge!

Sorry the window's so big, I can't seem to make it any smaller...

 

Edit: I followed my heart and added some more boosters. Now it goes up and back with one Kerbal in 2:11. I keep aiming for the swimming pool so I can do Kerbal high diving, but I haven't hit it yet! .... Here's a video of two runs: https://youtu.be/80scXqLfVzk. I was going to post pictures, but the insert attachment button doesn't seem to work.

Edited April 28, 2016 by Cunjo Carl
Made a better entry, and didn't want to double post.

[xendelaar]

Very nice challenge! And more challenging than i thought! I'll post an entry when i finally beat cunjo carl.. which is pretty darn difficult hehe. 

[imasquare]

With great difficulty I beat Cunjo Carl's time but not by very much

Record for fastest time to space for one kerbal of 40.78 seconds.
Splashdown 28:14

https://youtu.be/NrOPZLS4_dQ

Because this time was so close to Cunjo's I ran a little kOS script to print out the mission time when 70km has been reached.

CLEARSCREEN. 
WAIT UNTIL SHIP:STATUS = "FLYING".
PRINT "LAUNCHED".
WAIT UNTIL SHIP:ALTITUDE >=70000.
PRINT "MISSION TIME @ 70,000M:".
PRINT MISSIONTIME.
 

Ok it should be uploaded now

Wait how do you embed a video?

Edited May 26, 2016 by imasquare

[imasquare]

Going to be uploading a fastest for 2,3  crew (They're the same record aren't they?) before too long to reach 70km @ 43.54 seconds. Splash down is 27 or 28 minutes so no record there.

Upload times are a pain...

[imasquare]

Four man 70km @ 44.7s landing @ 24:12

Three man 70km @ 43.54s landing 28:14

 

I'll post the video for the three man time tomorrow. I've got to do some downloading overnight.

[linuxgurugamer]

@imasquare very nice, you are leading for 1 & 4 manned to space

[tseitsei89]

Lead result for 1 kerbal to space and back sub 2 minutes  1:57

Here you go:

Could probably get 1-2s faster time just by optimizing the moment of opening the chutes, but this is good enough. sub-2min was my original goal.

Next I'll tackle the other category (go to space fast and return whenever)

 

EDIT: Ok that didn't take much after the first craft. Just slight alterations to the top section of the ship.

But here you go. To space in 37s and safely back home at 3hours 56minutes:

At the last seconds of 2nd stage the craft comes very close to exploding but survives just long enough

I actually reached escape velocity from kerbin in order to get up there that quickly so I had to save some delta v for braking burn to get back home

Edited May 26, 2016 by tseitsei89

[imasquare]

@tseitsei89

Nice job. Looks like I'm going to have to add more rockets to my design...then add some more...and even more again.

 

[Cunjo Carl]

All the rockets! This has them.

I was going to refer to this one as ikebana hanabi (spike bed firework- it's a pun), but my wife beat me to it by coining it "the hairbrush." It regularly does 34 seconds, but after a short millennium of tuning, I got a 33 second space shot out of it. I think it's nearing the limits of this design, but did you know the twin boar has a 1atm TWR of 27.3 discounting it's fuel tank? It's the best TWR engine in the game! I think using twin boars for 'fuel storage' will mark the beginning of a new design paradigm. I made a two stage prototype in 1.05, but after tuning hairbrush I don't think I have the guts to really bring it to life! Either of you guys wanna give it a go? Also, a handful of the mini struts can be used to completely halt a 140m/s crash landing in lieu of chutes, saving a bit of time (and a lot of effort!) on the there-and-back runs.

For the hairbrush, I took the liberty of putting Valentina into a service bay to serve as her command pod for launch, and while it's way better furnished than a mercury capsule it's also not technically a pod. I was having stability + heating issues with the 1 kerbal pods, and thought this a keen work around. I think it fits with the OP's intents, because Valentina stays in the service 'pod' the whole flight through, but it's definitely cheeky, so some arbitration might be in order. I take no offense either way- it's a sweet ship and I had a great time building it, which was the whole point!

Coming round full circle. All of the rockets, this has them.

 

Twin boar fuel tank ship file "Bad Monday": https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4VfTCvq4M80eG1jcjhQbjVUNVE
It also has the advanced lithobraking system for deceleration. Though this craft can't even make it to space, I hope the engine concept lets someone get a sub 30. That would be sweet!
 

Edited May 28, 2016 by Cunjo Carl
Edits for clarity. Then update with better file.

[linuxgurugamer]

19 hours ago, Cunjo Carl said:

For the hairbrush, I took the liberty of putting Valentina into a service bay to serve as her command pod for launch, and while it's way better furnished than a mercury capsule it's also not technically a pod. I was having stability + heating issues with the 1 kerbal pods, and thought this a keen work around. I think it fits with the OP's intents, because Valentina stays in the service 'pod' the whole flight through, but it's definitely cheeky, so some arbitration might be in order. I take no offense either way- it's a sweet ship and I had a great time building it, which was the whole point!

 

The requirement was "must be manned".  I didn't specify how, so this is good.

Leaderboard updated