KSP Caveman Evolved Challenge

[Superfluous J]

12 hours ago, Physics Student said:

I wanted to refuel the ship!

I breezed over this in my Let's Play, but I totally expected to be able to transfer fuel as well

8 hours ago, Jetski said:

I've finished everything now except of course the Eve return, all upgraded except the last runway upgrade

Amazing, only the hardest thing in the game left to do and you're our first winner!

2 hours ago, GoSlash27 said:

I have landed on Minmus, earning my first upgrade.

You've also earned your way off of the "Statement of intent" list

I hope you get as much enjoyment out of this as I did from the original Caveman Challenge!

[Tattiebogle]

My first KSP Challenge..Hard difficulty!!

Modded Basic d/v , Alarm Clock, Kis, Kas, Better TimeWarp Planet shine and texture packs stuff.

Faffed about the KSC collecting science. Successfully completed the sub-orbital and orbit contracts.

Next the Mun....

A few pic of Jeb completing the First Orbit contract.

 

[Human Person]

to make it short:

Mun and minmus landing. What was I thinking, I wanted to do manned return missions at any cost!

I choose to upgrade the tracking station.

 

Btw, the caveman is mine

 

Edited June 21, 2017 by Physics Student

[GoSlash27]

I was crunching numbers and weighing my options for the next flight. Gilly is do-able in a single manned launch, but Ike has an earlier window. Unfortunately, Ike is at the ragged edge of the capabilities of caveman tech in a single launch with zero margin for error, so I'd have to Voltron in orbit with a pusher.

 If I do that, then Duna becomes a realistic target, giving me a 2- fer on upgrades. So that's what I'm going to try.

 I propose sending a kerbal to Duna before this year is out and returning him safely to Kerbin...

Best,
-Slashy

[Human Person]

31 minutes ago, GoSlash27 said:

I was crunching numbers and weighing my options for the next flight. Gilly is do-able in a single manned launch

How? I can't even make a manned Minmus return Mission in a single 18 t launch.

Edited June 21, 2017 by Physics Student

[GoSlash27]

2 hours ago, Physics Student said:

How? I can't even make a manned Minmus return Mission in a single 18 t launch.

Well... I don't have my numbers with me, but...

Figure a capsule with no monoprop, 4 panels, a chute, ablator, and decoupler weighs somewhere between 1.02 and 1.22 tonnes, depending on how much ablator you put on it.
 A Spark with 3 tanks can push that 2,100 m/sec DV, which is plenty to get to the surface of Gilly and back.
The orbital stage weighs 2.8 tonnes, or 2.9 tonnes with decoupler.

A 2 stager at caveman level can orbit that mass within the 18t pad limit. Terrier with 5 tanks upper stage and Reliant with 17 tanks comes in at a hair over 17 tonnes.

Feel free to try that combo on Minmus. It should bring you home with plenty of gas.

*edit* yeah, I just tried that combo in sandbox. My orbital stage wound up in LKO with 2099.8 m/sec DV, and my insertion wasn't very efficient.

Best,
-Slashy

 

Edited June 22, 2017 by GoSlash27

[Tattiebogle]

Mission update.

After a long struggle finally managed to get a probe to return from the mun.

Minmus should be a breeze.

 

[Tattiebogle]

We have landed on Minmus. Hurrah!!!

Time to upgrade.

 

[GoSlash27]

I was crunching numbers and ruminating, and I began to wonder just how much payload it's possible to chuck into orbit in one shot with caveman tech.

 Sounds like a challenge...

Best,
-Slashy

[Human Person]

13 hours ago, GoSlash27 said:

Sounds like a challenge...

The best I could do with my eve and duna crashers is 3.92 t in LKO. Yes, I landed probes on Eve and Duna today

Who said I need probe control to land on an atmospheric world?

 

I spent my upgrades on  VAB  R&D and Launch Pad. I can live without maneuver nodes for now.

 

Edited June 23, 2017 by Physics Student

[Human Person]

I'm going to set myself a sub-challenge. What does an Eve Return take?

Next up will be:

Gilly

-> Astronaut Complex 2

-return from Duna + Ike

-> VAB 2, R&D 3

 

And after that: Eve Return! Yes, I set myself the challenge of returning from Eve before going to Moho, the Jool system or even Eeloo!

Edit: Ohh, and Dres.

 

Edited June 23, 2017 by Physics Student

[GoSlash27]

1 hour ago, Physics Student said:

I'm going to set myself a sub-challenge. What does an Eve Return take?

Next up will be:

Gilly

-> Astronaut Complex 2

-return from Duna + Ike

-> VAB 2, R&D 3

 

And after that: Eve Return! Yes, I set myself the challenge of returning from Eve before going to Moho, the Jool system or even Eeloo!

Edit: Ohh, and Dres.

 

Physics Student,

 An Eve return is crazy- difficult, especially if you don't do it from the highest mountain.

Best,
-Slashy

[Human Person]

15 minutes ago, GoSlash27 said:

An Eve return is crazy- difficult, especially if you don't do it from the highest mountain.

It's not that hard. It's easier than a Jool 5, let alone a retro solar rescue. Presice landing on the highest mountaintop takes more effort than building a sea level-capable craft and just droping it somewhere.

However, you need the vector and/or aerospike engine (that's why I need R&D 3)

The biggest challenge really is to make your craft survive reentry, but I found a nice solution for that.

To get it done with only the Launchpad 2, I'm going for orbital assembly.

Edited June 23, 2017 by Physics Student

[Superfluous J]

Big video today. I hit 4 worlds and pick up an unlock from... well from 3 of them. Nobody's perfect

Spoiler

 

 

[Human Person]

@5thHorseman 50 to 60 km is a good altitude for an Eve entry.

[Superfluous J]

6 hours ago, Physics Student said:

@5thHorseman 50 to 60 km is a good altitude for an Eve entry.

During my testing, from interplanetary with that probe 80km exploded. Would 50/60 slow down faster so have less overall heat?

I may need to run more tests.

Edit I actually thought of sending like 10 of them, and having them go in at 5km intervals over the course of a day or so.

Edited June 24, 2017 by 5thHorseman

[Human Person]

On 24.6.2017 at 3:11 PM, 5thHorseman said:

On 24.6.2017 at 9:00 AM, Physics Student said:

 

During my testing, from interplanetary with that probe 80km exploded. Would 50/60 slow down faster so have less overall heat?

I may need to run more tests.

Edit I actually thought of sending like 10 of them, and having them go in at 5km intervals over the course of a day or so.

 

 

 

The problem is a different one: even though a heat shield protects you from atmospheric Shock heating, it still gets extremely hot itself.

My guess is that a probe core directly attached to the heat shield overheats because of heat transmission.

The part that is directly attached to the heat shield should be quite heat tolerant (like the cargo bay I used)

Edited June 26, 2017 by Physics Student

[jonny]

Hello all together,

I decided to take on this challenge and combine it with the  Munless Night Challenge . So I guess it will take a while

So far, i made my first 5 missions:

Mission 1: very standard first hop
Mission 2: First Orbit
Mission 3/4: 2 Suborbital hops to get to some Biomes
Mission 5: The longest mission so far took me into a solar orbit for a couple of hours and gave me a whopping 216 science points.

Edit:

Mods
- [X] Science!
- KAC
- KER -- only in VAB so far

Edited June 26, 2017 by jonny

[Human Person]

11 minutes ago, jonny said:

I decided to take on this challenge and combine it with the  Munless Night Challenge .

Ambishious, but It means you're missing one upgrade opportunity. Maybe you can work a solution out with @5thHorseman.

 

Meanwhile, I have had a coulpe of failures in my playthrough.

As a result, Jeb is stranded on the surface of the mun and can't go on EVA. I either have to upgrade the astronaut complex or develop the Claw to get him home.

Edited June 26, 2017 by Physics Student

[jonny]

1 minute ago, Physics Student said:

Ambishious, but It means you're missing one upgrade opportunity. Maybe you can work a solution out with @5thHorseman.

Well, I guess I have to upgrade the R&D center and unlock the whole Tech Tree before I visit Mun and Minmus and therefore complete "Munless Night" prior to "Caveman"

[Tattiebogle]

Mission Update.

 Rejoice!!!  We have landed a probe on Duna..Her Majesty has been informed and a statement is expected soon.

After many many attempts I finally got a probe to Duna. No contract though so just the worlds firsts.

I choose to upgrade the Launch Pad.

So Far- Probe to the Mun and back

            Probe to Minmus and back {Comms network upgrade}

            Probe landed on Duna {Launch Pad upgrade}

Things to do....Rescue Val from Minmus orbit

                       Do contracts Need money

                       Send Val to Ike

http://imgur.com/a/weTQr

                     

[Superfluous J]

8 hours ago, jonny said:

I decided to take on this challenge and combine it with the  Munless Night Challenge . So I guess it will take a while

Welcome to the Evolution!

8 hours ago, Physics Student said:

Ambishious, but It means you're missing one upgrade opportunity. Maybe you can work a solution out with @5thHorseman.

I'm not sure the best way to handle this. If the Munless guy says it's okay to just land a probe and do no science on Mun and Minmus, I'm of course cool with that. Any change I would make though would just make it easier. One of the challenges of the challenge is to land on both Mun and Minmus with no upgrades, and you'd just skip that if I gave you a free unlock to start.

8 hours ago, jonny said:

Well, I guess I have to upgrade the R&D center and unlock the whole Tech Tree before I visit Mun and Minmus and therefore complete "Munless Night" prior to "Caveman"

Two things:

1. Watch out. From what I read of the Munless challenge, even entering Mun's SOI is forbidden. Without patched conics (which you'll need to go interplanetary to unlock) you could pass through Mun's SOI without even realizing it.
2. Yikes. I do not envy you this attempt

[jonny]

Some more progress:

I made one more science mission to high Kerbin orbit, and assembled my Duna mission in orbit.
The Duna mission consist of a Duna lander and a Ike lander which will bring Jeb back home. And three drop-tanks.

 

[Human Person]

Soo ... My playthrough is going to take a bit as I'm starting to do casual gameplay instead of focusing on the challenge. 

I have a Lab on its way to Minmus and finally managed to get a fuel-delivery to Jeb.

Jeb being Jeb decides to do one or two suborbital hops with his filled up Lander. That's exactly what caused his emergency in the first place!

I did more than this, I just wanted to show this rescue as a highlight.

 

Edited June 28, 2017 by Physics Student

[Tattiebogle]

Mission Update

Sent Val to Ike with good intensions of returning her safely to kerbin. Unfortunately I screwed up at Duna and time warped straight through the atmosphere.

Recovered the situation and eventually achieved orbit around Ike.

I choose to upgrade the Tracking Station. When I have the money. I'm need maneuver nodes.

Things to do....Rescue Jeb from Minmus difficult without EVA

                       Rescue Val from Ike

                       Do contracts. Need money to upgrade the Tracking Station.

Bob is Dead