The Mun 4 Challenge

panzerknoef · October 23, 2017

-reboot of an earlier, fairly unpopular challenge-

The Kerbal Space Program has already announced its plans to commence work on a Jool 5 mission soon, but there is an issue. A mission of that size needs pilots who have experience in similar situations. This is why "Project Mun 4" was brought to life. It is meant to be a cheap and relatively easy way to prepare pilots for eventual piloting in a Jool 5. But don't be fooled, this is by no means an easy mission either, we don't want no under educated pilots after all.

Your mission is to land on the Mun, Minmus, Duna and Ike all in a single mission. But there are varying degrees of completion, ranging from easiest to hardest. Obviously, the harder the degree you choose to complete, the better prepared you and your pilots will be for a Jool 5, so the Space Agency will prefer you to do it that way, not because it is easy, but because it is hard!

To prove that you've actually completed it, you will of course have to post with a bunch of screenshots or a video. Unmanned craft can be partially left behind, as long as the hypothetical science can make it back home. Kerbal have to return to Kerbin! Reentry has to be practiced on as well after all. For Degree four you have to be able to prove that there were indeed different kerbals present on ever body.

Refueling in orbit is only allowed around Kerbin, we're gonna presume that there was no proper preparation and that they didn't have time to put a supply of fuel in orbit before their mission. ISRU is allowed, but you'll get a bigger bonus for not using it (see scoring).

Scoring:

As suggested, I shall put a scoring system in place. It too is still kinda experimental, but we'll see how it works.

Building and planning
- ABORT! +1 point - Have a launch escape system on the crewed launch(es)
- Powwwweeeeerrrrr +3 points - Do an entire mission with every stage having at least 1.0 TWR
- One will do +15 points - fly the entire mission with an SSTO
- We'll meet up between the stars! +3 point - assemble a craft in Kerbin orbit
- Don't need more than one launch +4 points - Use only a single launch for your mission (not cummulative with using an SSTO)
- Comfortable ride +5 points - Have at least one spot for each kerbal in crew cabins (mk1, mk2 and mk3 crew cabins and the hitchhiker)
- Efficiency is for nerds +2 points - don't use nuclear or ion engines
- Standarization +5 points - Use a single standarized type of launch vehicle
- I've got it covered +6 points - don't use ISRU
- Recycle +5 points - Only use and re-use 1 launch vehicle
- Heroes +1 point - use Bill, Bob, Jebediah and Valentina in your crew
- Specialization +6 points - Have a seperate lander for each body
- Not too much! -1 point - for every additional launch

At the surface
- We're not alone +1 point for each additional kerbal brought to the surface (Calculate this with the average amount of kerbals landed over all the bodies)
- Keep surveying +2 points - for leaving a science unit on the surface (cummulative, but only one per body)
- A true discovery! +5 points - visit an easter egg
- Roll out! +4 points - Bring a rover along to at least one of the bodies(cummulative, one point for a rover on each body)
- Proper roadtrip +5 points - use your rover to drive more than 10km from the landing site
- We've been there +1 point - plant a flag on each body

Flying
- Stay in touch +4 points - Leave a communications satellite behind in orbit around every body
- I'll be back! +7 points - always keep a craft in orbit and rendezvous with it after re-ascending
- Like a brick +2 points - Don't use any parachutes in the entire mission
- Round we go +3 points - Get in orbit around each body
- No scratches +1 point - don't break off any parts in the entire mission
- Hello darkness my old friend +1 point - Land at night at least once
- Surf the red skies +6 points - use a plane to land at Duna

There will also be an honorable mention for entries which have the lowest mass, fastest time and lowest cost.

For your score you have to do the following simple calculation: Price/points

Upon completing the mission, you may use the fitting badge in your signature and your entry will be added to the hall of fame. This hall of fame will obviously be split up in the various degrees, but also by modded and stock.

All there is left for me to say now is: Good luck, and safe flight!

Degree one: Unmanned.

Obviously this is the lowest degree, only giving your pilots training in a simulator and not letting them actually be out there. All it requires you to do is to land on all the bodies with an unmanned probe.

This will grant you the following badge:

Spoiler

To get this badge, grab the image address of the following image and throw it in your signature:

Degree two: One kerbal

A single Kerbal lands on all the bodies and comes home in one piece. Rather straight forward, right?

Will grant you this badge:

Spoiler

To get this badge, grab the image address of the following image and throw it in your signature:

Degree three: 3 kerbals

Also rather self explanatory, a crew of 3 Kerbals is launched to complete the mission. Whether they all land on the bodies or one each time is up to you.

Grants the following badge:

Spoiler

To get this badge, grab the image address of the following image and throw it in your signature:

Degree Four: 4 Kerbals, one specific for each body.

Just as in the Jool 5 challenge, one different crew member is chosen to land on a specific target. You can land more than one at a time, but at least one Kerbal has to be specific for said body.

Will grant you the most honorable badge:

Spoiler

To get this badge, grab the image address of the following image and throw it in your signature:

I would also like to clarify that if anyone has improvements in mind for the challenge, the backstory or pretty much anything that is related to this post, please let me know as I'll be glad to implement them if they are indeed good. I'm also aware of the fact that the badges are far from amazing, but I'm not really a photoshop master so it's the best I can do, improved version are very welcome!

Mun 4 Challenge Hall of Fame:

Unmanned stock:

Unmanned modded:

Degree Two stock:

Degree Two modded:

Degree Three stock:

1. Panzerknoef: 16 164

Degree Three modded:

Degree Four stock:

Degree Four modded:

Lowest mass:

Lowest cost:

Fastest time:

Edited October 24, 2017 by panzerknoef

Cpt Kerbalkrunch · October 23, 2017

A challenge that's not particularly challenging can still be a lot of fun. If you want people to participate, a good key is to encourage competition (we all love to compete with one another to some extent). You can best do this through some kind of scoring system. One of best examples of this that I've seen is the Roads to Duna challenge on this page. Scoring can be difficult, but Sevenperforce came up with a really good system of bonuses. This provided not only a way to improve your score, but a multitude of different ways to do the same mission. It made something fairly mundane (a trip to Duna) into something really cool, and a bit of a challenge as well. I would recommend you take a look at it, think about the different ways you can implement a similar system, and come up with a way to score it. The standard stuff like low cost/low mass, is ISRU allowed, is refueling of any kind allowed, single launch or orbital construction, bonus for SSTO, same lander for each body or separate lander for each body, multiple Kerbals landed on each body, shortest mission duration, and so on and so forth. This challenge could be a lot of fun, you just need to add some incentive to spice it up a bit. Once you have an idea, coming up with a scoring system is probably the toughest part of a good challenge. Give it some thought and see what you can come up with.

panzerknoef · October 23, 2017

47 minutes ago, Cpt Kerbalkrunch said:

-snip of pure knowledge-

Thank you very much, good sir! I shall put my time and effort into making up a good scoring system for it then. Could take some time, but I'll get there eventually. I'll look into everything you've suggested.

Haruspex · October 23, 2017

"I'd like to die on Mars. Just not on impact."

I was just planning my fourth expedition to Duna when this came along. While I do have a lot of experience with the airless moons of KSP, hauling along something that's capable of coming back from Duna surface with a payload is still a daunting task. I just might land a merry party of Kerbals everywhere except Duna and then drop a probe lander on some yet unsurveyed biome there.

So, the question is, on the Unmanned level, does anything have to return physically from the surface of Duna to Kerbin? OR, if there's a Kerbal who successfully lands and plants flag on Duna and then stays there as a permanent colonist or whatever, would that score as Unmanned?

Edited October 23, 2017 by Haruspex

panzerknoef · October 23, 2017

50 minutes ago, Haruspex said:

"I'd like to die on Mars. Just not on impact."

I was just planning my fourth expedition to Duna when this came along. While I do have a lot of experience with the airless moons of KSP, hauling along something that's capable of coming back from Duna surface with a payload is still a daunting task. I just might land a merry party of Kerbals everywhere except Duna and then drop a probe lander on some yet unsurveyed biome there.

So, the question is, on the Unmanned level, does anything have to return physically from the surface of Duna to Kerbin? OR, if there's a Kerbal who successfully lands and plants flag on Duna and then stays there as a permanent colonist or whatever, would that score as Unmanned?

Yes, there has to be something coming back from the surface for it to count, critical surface information has to be collected. And for it to count as a fully fledged manned attempt, you have to land on every body with Kerbals. It's not prohibited to land an unmanned craft on at least one body, but that shall immediately put you in the unmanned category.

Scoring system is also in place as of now! Any commentary on it would be very much appreciated!

Edited October 23, 2017 by panzerknoef

Haruspex · October 23, 2017

Just now, panzerknoef said:

Yes, there has to be something coming back from the surface for it to count

Ah, I see, thank you. That wasn't immediately obvious from the original post, so i thought that I can just drop an one-way simple probe on Duna and be done with it. Thanks.

panzerknoef · October 23, 2017

Just now, Haruspex said:

Ah, I see, thank you. That wasn't immediately obvious from the original post, so i thought that I can just drop an one-way simple probe on Duna and be done with it. Thanks.

Yeah indeed it wasn't very clear, I updated the OP with said information now. And there's a scoring system now

sdj64 · October 24, 2017

Cool challenge, I totally approve of a less-challenging "proving ground" for the Jool 5! I do like the scoring system, it seems to reward more interesting solutions and give it more excitement for the veterans as well.

4 hours ago, Haruspex said:

hauling along something that's capable of coming back from Duna surface with a payload is still a daunting task

Take a single stage Mun lander. Add a parachute. You now have a Duna lander! okay you have to add about 200 delta V but that's not so hard to do

panzerknoef · October 24, 2017

7 hours ago, sdj64 said:

Cool challenge, I totally approve of a less-challenging "proving ground" for the Jool 5! I do like the scoring system, it seems to reward more interesting solutions and give it more excitement for the veterans as well.

Thanks man! It's a nice thing for pilots who haven't got the skills yet to do a Jool 5 yet, while it still offers some satisfaction when finished. I'm glad you like the scoring system as well, I'll probably add more conditions as I come up with them too.

panzerknoef · October 24, 2017

Here's my own entry, just to prove that it's indeed very much possible to actually complete this challenge.

Anyway, what have I done? I've taken Jeb, Bill, Bob and Valentina out for a space journey of 2 years, 332 days and 58 minutes. Visiting and landing on respectively Duna, Ike, Minmus and the Mun.

Using up the rather big amount of 7700m/s of dV. Keep in mind that this is an estimate rather than the actual number. The fuel transfers to the lander kinda messed with that number so yeah...

The cost of the mission is...big, given my rather bad skills in building small and efficient rockets. The main ship cost 307.210, the lander had a price tag of 40.734, the parachute attachment to get home was 25.424 and finally the crew ship cost 46.902. Bringing the total cost of the mission up to 420.270

And now for the screenshots, the full album can be found here but the most important screenies shall be posted below.

The main ship: