Moho Economy Challenge

[Wanderfound]

Nice and straightforwards: land on Moho, come home to Kerbin, do it as cheap as you can.

 

Three categories:

Basic: land and return any vessel. No Kerbals required.

Intermediate: land and return alive a Kerbal. Plant a flag while you're there.

Advanced: land and return alive a Kerbal scientist (so a probe core or copilot will be required for SAS) plus one of every scientific instrument (ie: materials bay, goo pod, thermometer, barometer, seismometer, gravity detector, atmospheric sampler)[1]. Plant a flag while you're there.

 

Stock parts only and Wheaton's Law applies. Autopilot and visual mods are fine, but nothing physics altering. Try to keep part-clipping and similar trickery to cosmetic levels; minimise the cheese factor.

You can use any method you like; single launch, multiple launch, refuel in orbit, nukes, ions, ISRU [2] whatever. But the cost-minus-recovery of every launch involved goes against your score. Post VAB screenshots of every vessel involved to show the price; also post proof of the journey and proof of recovery for any parts recovered. Distance from KSC does matter for recovery value.

Cheapest mission wins.

 

SCOREBOARD

Basic

@Clancy, √4,996

@ManEatingApe, √7,925

 

Intermediate

 

Advanced

 @Clancy, √4,523.6

@ManEatingApe, √28,628

@Physics_Student, √55,218 (no recovery)

@Wanderfound, √86,770

 

 

[1] As in, send scientist and experiments, return scientist. You don't need to bring the goo pod etc. home; just the data wil do.

[2] No ISRU mining on Kerbin to offset fuel costs, however.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Wanderfound

[Wanderfound]

Just finished the demo mission, getting the pictures ready now. It's a good 'un.

Edited March 24, 2017 by Wanderfound

[Wanderfound]

Demo flight done, album at 

Cost is one Moho ship for √69,374, two droptanks at √7,390 each, plus spaceplane fuel consumption of 29,592 units of LF, 20,942 units of O and 332 units of monoprop (costing √27,842 combined). Writing off the value of the capsule because I can't be bothered calculating it. So, total cost for the mission is √111,996.

Edited March 24, 2017 by Wanderfound

[Clancy]

Looks pretty good! i like the repeated use of the Cargo Plane design. I might have a go at the basic mode sometime soon.

[Wanderfound]

Y'all feel free to try for subcategory records, BTW. "Cheapest non-nuclear", "cheapest single launch", etc.

[Wanderfound]

Got it down to two launches:

Cost is one Moho ship for √69,364 plus spaceplane fuel consumption of 18,564 units of LF, 13,624 units of O and 84.7 units of monoprop (costing √17,406 combined). Writing off the value of the capsule because I can't be bothered calculating it again. So, total cost for the mission is √86,770.

 

 

[Hypercosmic]

Are Kerbal Joint Reinforcement and FAR okay? (Well, I shouldn't asked about that obvious first one... But is FAR also forbidden?)

Edited March 25, 2017 by Hypercosmic

[Wanderfound]

9 minutes ago, Hypercosmic said:

Are Kerbal Joint Reinforcement and FAR okay? (Well, I shouldn't asked about that obvious first one... But is FAR also forbidden?)

Fine by me; I'll run separate stock vs FAR leaderboards if we get more than a handful of entries.

As you guessed, KJR is out. Autostrut if you need to, though.

Edited March 25, 2017 by Wanderfound

[Hypercosmic]

And Life Support mods for extra mission stars? 

[Wanderfound]

1 minute ago, Hypercosmic said:

And Life Support mods for extra mission stars? 

If you want to carry it, go for it.

Take a laboratory and ISRU refinery if you really want to show off...

[ManEatingApe]

Needed an excuse to go visit the demon planet Moho again, this challenge was a fun way to do it!

 

Bob took all the science there and back again. I learned a valuable lesson the hard way - a non-pilot Kerbal can no longer create manoeuvre nodes. Had to scrub the mission then restart from scratch after sticking an antenna on the craft . 

 

The return journey was challenging, the lander had 3,200 dV left but this was not enough to directly transfer from Moho to Kerbin and survive re-entry. A Kerbin gravity assist boosted the orbit nicely and meant a 2nd encounter was at a reasonable speed. Even overshooting the KSC by a large margin on the re-entry recovered a reasonable fraction of costs.

The breakdown was:

Gross cost	+ √72,574
Booster recovery	- √15,154
Lander recovery	- √28,792
Net cost	√28,628

 

Some highlights:

Booster recovery

Moho flag planting

Gravity assist shenanigans 

 

Complete album

 

Craft File

Edited April 1, 2017 by ManEatingApe
Craft File

[Wanderfound]

1 hour ago, ManEatingApe said:

Needed an excuse to go visit the demon planet Moho again, this challenge was a fun way to do it!

Very cool. I've seen basic Munlanders costing five times that. 

Reckon you can get a probe-only version down to √10K?

[ManEatingApe]

6 hours ago, Wanderfound said:

Reckon you can get a probe-only version down to √10K?

Challenge accepted! 

[ManEatingApe]

As promised, here's a probe only "Basic" entry for less than 10K net - 7,925 funds to be precise! This required a completely different approach from the previous attempt.

A robot SSTO the Slightly used Spaceplane carried a small Xenon powered probe the Fly By Night into LKO. The probe went to Moho and back bringing the small science experiments (thermometer, barometer, seisometer and gravity) then rendezvoused and re-docked in Kerbin orbit. The spaceplane then de-orbited and landed on the runway for full recovery costs.

Interestingly the initial upfront cost was higher than the previous entry, due to the use of pricey aerospace parts and the ion thrusters. However as the only parts not recovered were a single FL-T400 tank and Spark engine, the net cost was mostly comprised of the fuel expended in the mission.

Cost summary:

Gross Cost	√84,848
Spaceplane and probe recovery	√76,923
Net cost	√7,925

Cost breakdown:

Slightly Used Spaceplane	560 Liquid Fuel + 374 Oxidiser	√515
Disposable Booster	FL-T400 + Spark	√740
Fly By Night	1,667 Xenon	√6,670

 

Some highlights:

VAB

Hilarious accidental Minimus intercept

Landed on Moho

Docking:

Even more Docking

Landing

Recovery

 

Full Album:

 

Craft File

Edited April 2, 2017 by ManEatingApe

[Clancy]

 

 

Ok, here’s my entry for the Basic level. It’s very basic, an OCTO2 and a battery to Moho and back with a NERV engine. The whole thing is lifted into orbit by a drone piloted spaceplane. I didn’t do any kind of gravity assist maneuvers, but I searched the launch window planner for the cheapest windows in the first ten years. The probe leaves some extra fuel in Moho orbit while it lands, then grabs the tanks back in orbit before leaving orbit. Returning to Kerbin, the probe rendezvous with the plane, which has been in orbit this whole time. The probe is loaded onto the plane, which de-orbits and lands at KSC. All parts launched are recovered at the runway, so the only costs are fuel costs.

 

The Stats:

 

Moho Probe Lifter 1b:

Mass (without cargo): 57t

Liquid Fuel: 3595

Oxidizer: 1842

 

Moho Probe 1b:

Mass: 16t

Liquid Fuel: 2200

Monopropellant: 24

 

Total Fuel Costs: 4996.36

 

It could be even more efficient if I spent some time finding gravity assists, and did some really efficient piloting. If I have some time next week, I may try and adapt this method to the advanced category.

[ManEatingApe]

1 hour ago, Clancy said:

Ok, here’s my entry for the Basic level. It’s very basic, an OCTO2 and a battery to Moho and back with a NERV engine. The whole thing is lifted into orbit by a drone piloted spaceplane.

Neat - firing the probe's engine through the open cargo bay is SO Kerbal!

Edited April 2, 2017 by ManEatingApe

[Clancy]

3 hours ago, ManEatingApe said:

Neat - firing the probe's engine through the open cargo bay is SO Kerbal!

It happened by accident on the previous run, so on the final run, I left out some Oxidizer and made it part of the plan.

[Clancy]

 

It was surprisingly easy to upgrade the probe to carry crew. I added the command pods and the sciencey stuff, then I added a drill and ISRU and removed the extra fuel needed for the return trip. As it turns out, the stuff I added has almost the same mass as the return-fuel, which leaves it with about the same total mass as the original probe. It’s a bit longer, but I could basically use the same lifter with some minor tweaks. It actually ended up using less fuel than the original probe. For bonus points, I took two Kerbals. Mainly because I needed an Engineer to run the drill.

The Stats:

 

Moho Probe Lifter 1b:

Mass (without cargo): 58.4t

Liquid Fuel: 3595

Oxidizer: 1842

 

Moho Probe 1b:

Mass: 16t

Liquid Fuel: 1600

Monopropellant: 30

 

Total Fuel Costs: 4523.6

[Human Person]

I'll give this a Try with IRSU on Minmus and maybe even Gilly

Dammit, another challenge that can only be won with SSTO Spaceplanes. I'm terrible with Spaceplanes.

You know what, I'll do this completely disposable. Nothing will be recovered except for pod, heat shield and parachute.

Edited April 8, 2017 by Physics Student

[Laie]

On 4/8/2017 at 4:35 PM, Physics Student said:

Dammit, another challenge that can only be won with SSTO Spaceplanes. I'm terrible with Spaceplanes.

Hey, so am I ...and I still spent my entire KSP time tinkering with the idea, even though Clancy blew us all out of the water.

That said, it's still possible to make a respectable score with a tailsitter rocket.

[Human Person]

2 minutes ago, Laie said:

That said, it's still possible to make a respectable score with a tailsitter rocket.

*read with grandfatherly voice*: 

No boy, what about the olden days, when kerbals were kerbals and rocket stages used to be disposed? Well I do remember and there were good times. All these younglings flying rocket stages more often than they should, wich is certainly not more than once. All this "SSTO" madness, that's destroying a perfectly good game. Have you ever seen someone fly an SSTO in RSS or even in 6.4x Kerbol System? It doesn't work, it's unnatural!

*read normal again*

Jokes aside, I'm actually just jealous

[MarvinKitFox]

On 2017/03/23 at 10:35 AM, Wanderfound said:

Nice and straightforwards: land on Moho, come home to Kerbin, do it as cheap as you can.

You can use any method you like; ..... ISRU [2] whatever. .....

Cheapest mission wins.

[2] No ISRU mining on Kerbin to offset fuel costs, however.

Ummm... ISRU allowed?

It should be possible to build a SSTO, Load it 90% full of fuel. Fly to orbit.

ISRU probe flies to Minmus, mines, flies back, refuels SSTO. Repeat as needed.

Flies to Minmus, refuels itself, flies to MoHo. (possible detour via Gilly if you feel it worth it)

Refuel itself on MoHo, back to MinMus

Refuel to brim.

Back to SSTO. Dock, return to Runway.

Recover MORE than you launched with.

 

Tedious, but should be doable...

Will I do it? nah....

But allowing ISRU on a pure economy run opens your scoring to exploitation.

 

[Clancy]

18 hours ago, MarvinKitFox said:

But allowing ISRU on a pure economy run opens your scoring to exploitation.

If I might suggest a new rule:

If ISRU is used, fuel recovered does NOT count towards recovered cost.

Conveniently, I won't have to alter my score, because I sort of already assumed this rule was in place...

[Human Person]

Finally, my entry:

As promised, it's a fully disposable rocket, no IRSU. However, I expanded the "no mods" rule slightly (two parts I used are from the stock part revamp, the spacecraft`s fuel tank and solar panels). This is a balanced mod, stats are stockalike. I didn't use modded engines.

Category: (Super) Advanced (I brought a Scientist, Materials Bay, Goo and all 4 small experiments)

 

Cost: 55.912 - 694 = 55.218

Launch Mass: 79 t (The Launch Vehicle is simply an orange tank with a skipper and two Thumper boosters)

Crew: 1 Bob

 

Long Story Short:

I build an exteamly light and cheap Rocket to do an Apollo-Style Moho mission. Delta v budgets were tight in every aspect. The lander was actually designed to fail reaching orbit again and even Bob's EVA propellant was nearly empty when he did so.

I spent an awful lot of time in solar orbit to do more efficient maneuvers. Therefore, the total mission time was over 8 Years. I'm not going to do this again.

 

Edit: I just realized, I did this using only 3 fuel Tanks.

 

Pictures:

Spoiler

Full album here:

http://imgur.com/a/CDYvn

 

 

Edited April 15, 2017 by Physics Student