SST Kerbol Escape

[joshudson]

To complete this challenge: Launch a probe core from KSP to Kerbol escape trajectory without dropping any parts after starting to move. (Leaving launch clamps or any other part attached to them is deliberately acceptable.)

To complete this challenge with a score > 0: have an RTG and an antenna on the probe core. Your score is 1000 * the total mass of all science parts including antennas (that is, any part by default in the science section). You may place fairings in the ship editor, but if you do you may not jettison them until you already have a Kerbol escape trajectory.

Part clipping is allowed for structural parts, but functional parts may not be clipped into each other. Exception: the size 2 reaction wheel is hollow and may have smaller parts clipped inside it.

Optional allowed mods:

KER

RemoteTech

MechJeb

MechJeb for all

BetterTimewarp

Any other installed mods that do not alter gameplay as far as this challenge is concerned.

You may use HyperEdit to place your comm network but this mission must be flown without it. No kraken drives or other physics abuses, no cheats.

My attempt failed, but got into an orbit between Dres and Jool, so I'm convinced it's possible with the right gravity assist.

Edited October 12, 2016 by joshudson
part clipping

[Foxster]

Umm, I didn't think you can get an escape trajectory from Kerbol (the Sun). 

[DerekL1963]

2 hours ago, Foxster said:

Umm, I didn't think you can get an escape trajectory from Kerbol (the Sun). 

o.0  It's pretty easy to do actually.

Though I'd try launching straight up an hour or so before dawn at KSC and not even stopping in LKO.

[Foxster]

Really? I always thought that no matter how much dV you expend you cannot escape the sun's SOI and will eventually swing back around.  

[Jarin]

11 minutes ago, Foxster said:

Really? I always thought that no matter how much dV you expend you cannot escape the sun's SOI and will eventually swing back around.  

Nope, it has a standard SOI like everything else. There's even contracts to do things like "eject this asteroid out of the solar system"

[Foxster]

From the Wiki...

The sphere of influence (SOI) of Kerbol is infinite, making Kerbol inescapable. Thus, achieving gravitation-free flight is impossible. Once the apoapsis reaches a certain point, the game will report 68 years to reach it. This oddity occurs because times in KSP are limited to 2³²-1 seconds as a consequence of how numbers are handled. With a powerful enough ship, it is possible to get to the point where the info tab will display the craft's situation as “escaping” Kerbol. The end of the patched conics path plotted by the game can be reached, at which point the spacecraft begins drawing a course behind it. But the actual escape never occurs. Presumably, this state would continue indefinitely, as the time required to find out what would happen would take several years even at maximum time acceleration. There is a possible unproven way to get out of Kerbol's orbit without waiting an insane amount of time, but it can only be achieved by editing the game's files. First thing to do is be in 1.0 or above, then edit the drag settings. The first one must be over 1.5 million, and the others must be 0. Get a spaceplane capable of hovering (VTOL) and decouple your vehicle into multiple pieces. There, get a Kerbal on EVA. There, it is possible to reach into the yottameters (Y), at an average speed faster than the speed of light squared.

[Nich]

But you can exceed escape velocity thus gravity diminishes faster then your velocity and you will continue to infinity with out returning.

 

I would think it is possible with an EVE Joul slingshot for less then 1500 dv in orbit.  Any SSTL should have more then enough DV to do it.  Are SSTLs still possible I have not tried much for SSTOs in 1.1.3 or 1.2

Edited October 12, 2016 by Nich

[Nefrums]

It is only little more than 3k m/s dV for a kerbol escape from LKO.

My initial testing points to that SSTO is a lot easier in 1.2. Heating is not a big problem anymore.

Here is one ship that i made to test what speed you can get in airbreathing mode, It was pretty easy to reach 1670 m/s.

 

 

 

About 1,7 k m/s dV left when on a kerbol escape trajectory.

 

 

 

[joshudson]

3 hours ago, Nefrums said:

About 1,7 k m/s dV left when on a kerbol escape trajectory.

Wow! Now I can't tell if I made a challenge too easy or if Nefrums is unexpectedly good. I didn't think anybody would be able to do it w/o any gravity assist. His 1700 >> my 700.

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

@Nefrums is just too good, he should be banned from the challenges forum because he beats all the other entries in every single challenge