[STOCK] MicroSat Challenge

[HalcyonSon]

Splitting off from NotAgain's thread.  What's the smallest STOCK satellite you can manage that is still useful?  How many can you launch at once for new exploration?  Forgive me for not posting my designs until I get back from a quick trip.

No TweakScale, no Parts Packs, no MechJeb, no KOS, just plain old KSP.  We all know it's stupid easy to pop a probe core with a solar panel into orbit and call it a satellite, so none of that.  I want to see actual, interesting exploration designs.  Probes to go where no Kerbal has.  I play on Career, so my plan is to experiment on Mun and Minmun with various manned and unmanned designs, before launching a large carrier with as many small probes as I can to other bodies.  Each MicroSat must be able to communicate and transmit science back to KSC... how they do that is up to you.  Below are suggestions for science packages - innovative packaging is a plus, as is ease of use.  Ideally, A Carrier should arrive in system, pop it's cargo bay or fairing, and then KSC just has to take command of each probe briefly to slurp up that delicious science.  Keep in mind that this is exploration at its best - the only place with a communications network is Kerbin.

Points will be awarded for most MicroSats in a single carrier rather than outright mass.  More science returned gives more points.  Identifying specific landing locations for future manned missions earns more points.  Setting up a full commnet around the new body / system in the same launch earns more points.  If you can do everything in one launch with a bunch of little probes, you win the internet for the day.  Call it 25 points per probe attached to the carrier, 5 points for each science experiment on a representative probe (one probe each representing comms, orbital science, and landed science), 50 points for setting a full commnet, and 10 points for each degree of ease-of-use.  The lowest being full user control of each probe, next being high-level control (like put SAS in retrograde and hit the throttle) and best being zero user input needed (or at least just a few action groups).

We have thousands of probe droids searching the galaxy. I want proof, not leads!" ―Admiral Kendal Ozzel

 

[Mr. Peabody]

Sounds like an interesting idea. I may try it the next time I'm on KSP.

[Foxster]

It's not quite what you had in mind perhaps but here's something that I was playing with recently...

Its a kind of Mun (and some other airless bodies) science bomb. 

The idea is to take along 1/2doz of these and deploy to different biomes from orbit. Do the science and then return to a pick-up point, which could be an orbiter or a manned lander. The crew then collecting the science from each bomb for return to Kerbin. 

Has lots of dV and TWR so that it can cope with a fair bit of flying, such as a polar landing and return. 

Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yitb257fcxmrxq2/test1.craft?dl=0

Edited January 14, 2017 by Foxster

[DoctorDavinci]

So I did a challenge a few months ago that touches upon this challenge ... 147 comsats to LKO in a single launch with escape pods for each of the four Kerbals onboard

I'll try and beat this number as well as actually set up a comsat relay network that covers Kerbin, Minmus and the Mun all in a single launch

I'll just leave this here for now ....

 

[HalcyonSon]

On 1/14/2017 at 1:58 AM, Foxster said:

It's not quite what you had in mind perhaps but here's something that I was playing with recently...

Its a kind of Mun (and some other airless bodies) science bomb. 

The idea is to take along 1/2doz of these and deploy to different biomes from orbit. Do the science and then return to a pick-up point, which could be an orbiter or a manned lander. The crew then collecting the science from each bomb for return to Kerbin. 

Has lots of dV and TWR so that it can cope with a fair bit of flying, such as a polar landing and return. 

Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yitb257fcxmrxq2/test1.craft?dl=0

That's exactly what I had in mind.  It looks like it will be more successful than some of early attempts too.  My first probe to Minmus didn't carry as much Science or dV - in fact, it may still be waiting for a Klaw to grab the return container and make the Kerbin reentry burn.

On 1/14/2017 at 11:04 AM, DoctorDavinci said:

So I did a challenge a few months ago that touches upon this challenge ... 147 comsats to LKO in a single launch with escape pods for each of the four Kerbals onboard

I'll try and beat this number as well as actually set up a comsat relay network that covers Kerbin, Minmus and the Mun all in a single launch

I'll just leave this here for now ....

 

147!?  My computer would go up in smoke if I tried that!  Very nicely done.

[HalcyonSon]

Played KSP a small amount yesterday, and have an entry that I hope to get posted tonight.  It won't score terribly high, but it is the smallest package I've managed with the M700 Survey Scanner.  It's quite difficult to cram enough EC onto a MicroSat for that large a data dump.  Funny looking thing, what with that huge Scanner dish dwarfing all the other components.  This one is only a single MicroSat in a 250 km polar orbit around Kerbin, but I have one built into a carrier that's on its way to Minmus now.  

[HalcyonSon]

Finally getting around to posting a few of mine.  The two below work well enough on airless bodies and travel in a single large 2.5 m fairing.  I'm toying with the idea of combining the two and creating a stack of 2.5 m service bays or fairings and popping them off like Pez in orbit of target body

Mun Rover Mk. 1 - Meant to explore without leaving the surface.  Incorporates rover wheels, small control wheel, 200 EC inline battery, solar panels, antenna, thermometer, barometer, and two goo.  Faster than is perhaps reasonable, easily achieving speeds (20 m/s+) that result in broken wheels on crater hops.  Not the sturdiest design, but very tolerant of damage.  One plucky little rover continued its mission after losing the entire forward third of the rover (two wheels, the rocket engine, fuel tank, half the science, etc.)

Minmus Biome Hopper - larger science package, meant to land and return to the mothership for Kerbals to collect science and renew experiments for another hop.

 

Mun Biome Hopper Mothership - includes four relay satellites, four unmanned rovers, and a manned lander.

The Minmus Biome Hopper Mothership is very similar, but replaces the rovers with mini science hoppers, and includes a resource scanner built into the scaffolding.

Edited February 13, 2017 by HalcyonSon