The KSP Interstellar Proxima Centauri Challenge

[FreeThinker]

The Challenge: Plant a flag on this planet, Proxima Centauri!

 

Its the nearest real possibly habitable planet located near Alpha Centauri, about 4 lightyears  distance which is made accessible by

Alternatively use Centauri Dreams Updated to: https://www.dropbox.com/s/spyd3qnc6ppnocn/CentauriDreams.zip?dl=0

Although Alpha Centauri is our closest neirbour, traveling 4 light years though the interstellar medium might be further than you think

The main constraint would be that FTL drives are not allowed, but you are allowed to use any slower than light (STL) engine from KSPI Extended, Far Future or Photon Sailor

If you want to chat about the Interstellar challange you can do it at our KSP Interstellar Discord Server

like KSPI-E Daedalus engine and/or magnetic nozzle.

Here is an simple example :

Here is a more advanced example

For more info see:

The alternative, travel by photon sail

Preferred method of proof would be video.

The preferred method of win is to be the fastest, but style also plays a large role

 

Entry	Player	Proof	Duration	Max Speed	Launch Mass	Dry Mass	Wet Mass	Part count	Cost	DeltaV
3-1-2017	@Nansuchao	youtube	690 y	?	61.152 t	129 t	439 t	161	41.963.000	?
5-3-2017	@superdavekerman	imgur	299 y 330d	1.027.340 m/s	9.068 t	129	108 t	129	13.361.780	2,767,705
3-4-2017	@proteasome	imgur	69 y 91 d	4,164,000 m/s	4,123 t	68	4,123 t	68	1.236.987.000	0,165,752
9-12-2019	@pmborg	youtube part 1, 2 ,3	26 y 23d	119,755,559 m/s	94.705 t	12,977 t	553,788 t	99	4,451,096,064	142 M
19-4-2021	@Zapataz	youtube	17 y	149,000,000 m/s	?	59 t	80 t	25	11,543,300	?
14-11-2021	@GenerallyCompetent	imgur	13 y	0.783c	838,198 t	270,554 t	383,896 t	57	7,469,861	275 M

 

unofficial entry: Slow Boats in style

Another unofficial entry:

Not an entry but it does show how to buid your insterstellar craft in space

 

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by FreeThinker

[Spartwo]

I've done the math on this before and you're going to have to allow a higher rate of timewarp.

Edited July 7, 2016 by Spartwo

[FreeThinker]

The Current version of KSPI-E should be capable of handling higher timewarp than the default 100000, so yes, it is allowed

[Noel32]

What mods make higher time warps possible?

[FreeThinker]

 

Edited February 3, 2017 by FreeThinker

[Nansuchao]

@FreeThinker I've did it!!!!!

Here's the proof, more than 12 hours of gameplay in 23 minutes.

 

[FreeThinker]

@Nansuchao  Congratulation on achieving the first landing on the first interstellar planet 4 light years away without FTL drives. This by itself by any measure is not an easy thing to do. But like the first Moon landing, we don't do it because they are easy but because they are hard. Just to see the interstellar spacecraft beeing launched into orbit was epic. The video accurately shows one of the major problems of interstellar travel, distance. There are many lessons to be drawn from this great video and I see a lot of room for improvement

For posterity, I still would like to know the following stats:

• total launch mass
• total launch cost
• total launch part count
• interstellar vessel dry mass
• interstellar vessel wet mass 
• total launch part count
• total travel time
• maximum achieved speed

Edit: Added maximum achieved speed

 

Edited February 3, 2017 by FreeThinker

[Nansuchao]

Thank you! This was a big lesson for me too, now if I have to do the same travel I'll achieve a better result in the matter of needed years. I had that trouble with the SRBs during launch that is unexplained for now and the massive difficulty of RSS.

Total launch mass: 62.142 tonnes

Total launch cost: 41.963.000 credits

Total launch part count: 161 parts

Interstellar ship dry mass: 129.006 kg

Interstellar ship wet mass: 439.091 kg

Total travel time: 690y, 55d.

 

[FreeThinker]

2 hours ago, Nansuchao said:

Thank you! This was a big lesson for me too, now if I have to do the same travel I'll achieve a better result in the matter of needed years. I had that trouble with the SRBs during launch that is unexplained for now and the massive difficulty of RSS.

Total launch mass: 62.142 tonnes

Total launch cost: 41.963.000 credits

Total launch part count: 161 parts

Interstellar ship dry mass: 129.006 kg

Interstellar ship wet mass: 439.091 kg

Total travel time: 690y, 55d.

 

 

Damn, that's a lot. That means that just getting the interstellar vessel into orbit required 100 times the mass of the vessel itself 

Edited February 3, 2017 by FreeThinker

[Nansuchao]

1 hour ago, FreeThinker said:

Damn, that's a lot. That means that just getting the interstellar vessel into orbit required 100 times the mass of the vessel itself 

Something less, seen that the last part of the orbital insertion was accomplished by the Daedalus itself. Something can be improved there, however. I'm sure that with FAR and some tweaking to the lifter, thing would be different.

[FreeThinker]

36 minutes ago, Nansuchao said:

Something less, seen that the last part of the orbital insertion was accomplished by the Daedalus itself. Something can be improved there, however. I'm sure that with FAR and some tweaking to the lifter, thing would be different.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indeed but besides that I think a more significant mass reduction can be achieved when most chemical engines are replaced by Timberwinds on Methane, possibly in combination with Wrapper fuel drop tanks. Still you have proven it 'could' be done with chemical rockets, which makes it interesting benchmark

Edited February 3, 2017 by FreeThinker

[Nansuchao]

You're completely right. 

My original plan was to include TAC LS and Deep Freeze, harvest Antimatter and Helium3 and finally to create an Interstellar ship in orbit. 

For performances reasons I had to abort that plan, then it was logical to use a single launch to reach the goal.

If I redo the launch, I'll use just Interstellar engines all the way from the ground to Proxima Centaury B

Edited February 3, 2017 by Nansuchao

[Andi K.]

Seeing as it seems to be very difficult just to get to the nearest solar system, even with distances divided by 10, I suppose a method of getting to further systems would be to gradually build stations around closer systems, and launch space craft from there using extraplanetary launchpads? I say this because I'd think it would be very difficult, maybe even impossible, to create a spacecraft that goes straight from Earth to, lets say, HD 10180.

[Nansuchao]

1 hour ago, AndrewDrawsPrettyPictures said:

Seeing as it seems to be very difficult just to get to the nearest solar system, even with distances divided by 10, I suppose a method of getting to further systems would be to gradually build stations around closer systems, and launch space craft from there using extraplanetary launchpads? I say this because I'd think it would be very difficult, maybe even impossible, to create a spacecraft that goes straight from Earth to, lets say, HD 10180.

Extraplanetary Launchpad and/or Ground Construction would be needed for any kind of Interstellar Colonization. About the travel, if I make the challenge again, and maybe someday I'll do it, I'm sure I can reach Proxima Centauri in a lot less time, probably less than 1/3 of the time, without WarpDrive or any FTL.

[FreeThinker]

4 hours ago, AndrewDrawsPrettyPictures said:

Seeing as it seems to be very difficult just to get to the nearest solar system, even with distances divided by 10, I suppose a method of getting to further systems would be to gradually build stations around closer systems, and launch space craft from there using extraplanetary launchpads? I say this because I'd think it would be very difficult, maybe even impossible, to create a spacecraft that goes straight from Earth to, lets say, HD 10180.

This is not a new idea

But first need to learn walk before we can run. It should be our goal that a interstellar vessel is able fly to another system, build a colony, reload the ship with fuel and resource and repeat

Edited February 3, 2017 by FreeThinker

[Andi K.]

1 minute ago, FreeThinker said:

This is not new idea

But first need to learn walk before we can run. It should be our goal that a interstellar vessel is able fly to another system, build a colony, reload the ship with fuel and resource and repeat

True. And to do that, we need to create an effective method of delivering sizable payloads to Proxima Centauri b. Much easier said than done

Also, hold your horses with the Proxima Centauri b screenshot! The new Proxima Centauri b hasn't come out yet, so use this screenshot instead:

[superdavekerman]

I have an attempt at this in progress and I'm at the point where I wonder the best way to navigate once you're interstellar. Just point at the target and go?  It seems like the only option available. I did manage to get a maneuver node out of MechJeb when I was still in a circular orbit but it was going to take over 2.2 million years!

[Andi K.]

On 3/3/2017 at 0:14 AM, superdavekerman said:

I have an attempt at this in progress and I'm at the point where I wonder the best way to navigate once you're interstellar. Just point at the target and go?  It seems like the only option available. I did manage to get a maneuver node out of MechJeb when I was still in a circular orbit but it was going to take over 2.2 million years!

Yeah don't even try to use maneuver nodes. Best way to go about it is to just to aim and shoot.

[superdavekerman]

Here's a screenshot of my mostly successful attempt.  I have videos but I'll need to piece them together.

total launch mass	9068.11
total launch cost	13361780
total launch part count	129
interstellar vessel dry mass	26.569
interstellar vessel wet mass	108.381
interstellar vessel part count	70
interstellar vessel cost	10859690
total travel time	299y330d
maximum achieved speed	1027339.7m/s
deltaV	2767705

RSS_ProximaCentaurib.png

Gallery: http://imgur.com/a/KJ3OT

Edited March 11, 2017 by superdavekerman
add imgur link with launcher

[Coolinee Kerman]

Alright I'll try.

WARNING: My video proof will be with my phone and not a screen recorder!

[Andi K.]

16 hours ago, HiThere!2 said:

Alright I'll try.

WARNING: My video proof will be with my phone and not a screen recorder!

NNOOOOOOOO!!!! 

But actually, please dont. Windows 10 comes with a basic video recorder, just use that.

[Coolinee Kerman]

4 hours ago, AndrewDrawsPrettyPictures said:

NNOOOOOOOO!!!! 

But actually, please dont. Windows 10 comes with a basic video recorder, just use that.

No, I use OSX

[Andi K.]

1 hour ago, HiThere!2 said:

No, I use OSX

I think there is probably some free screen recording software out there. I just really hate it when people use phones to record laptop screens.

[Coolinee Kerman]

23 hours ago, AndrewDrawsPrettyPictures said:

I think there is probably some free screen recording software out there. I just really hate it when people use phones to record laptop screens.

I ain't using a laptop. Also, it's a 27" screen.

But fine.

[FreeThinker]

On 5-3-2017 at 2:22 AM, superdavekerman said:

Here's a screenshot of my mostly successful attempt.  I have videos but I'll need to piece them together.

total launch mass	9068.11
total launch cost	13361780
total launch part count	129
interstellar vessel dry mass	26.569
interstellar vessel wet mass	108.381
interstellar vessel part count	70
interstellar vessel cost	10859690
total travel time	299y330d
maximum achieved speed	3003370747
deltaV	2767705

RSS_ProximaCentaurib.png

 

2

 

 

2

What exactly do you mean by maximum speed 3003370747? m/s? that would mean you traveled many times faster than the speed of light which is at 299 792 458 m/s. Have you been using FTL?

But this contradict with you DeltaV, which is only 2767705 m/s, which means you traveled at most 1383900 m/s which is only 0.4% of speed of light

Edited March 10, 2017 by FreeThinker