The Duna Kiathlon - now with my own entry

purpleivan · January 25, 2018

As Bill's bragging about his triathlon exploits have been getting on Jeb's nerves, so he's decide to show him a real sporting challenge.

The Duna Kiathlon

This will be a test of engineering, planning, piloting skill and bravado, taking the form of three timed journeys, each of which awards time based points. These timed journeys are as follows.

From the surface of Kerbin to Duna orbit.
Descent from orbit to Duna's surface.
From your Duna landing site to the surface of Ike.

All of this based on a single launch from Kerbin.

Scoring

This is a points based challenge, with the lower the score the better. Scoring is the total of the following.

Number of days to reach Duna orbit.
Number of seconds to descend to Duna surface.
Number of minutes x3 to travel to the surface of Ike.

The reason for the x3 on the last item is that this is likely to give the smallest number, so needs to be multiplied to have a proper influence on the score.

Example:

Time to reach Duna: 200 days
Time to descend to Duna surface: 225 seconds
Time to the surface of Ike: 70 minutes

Score (200+225)+(70x3) = 635 points

Classes

To allow a bit of variety in how people approach the challenge, the scoring will be split into three classes.

Fat Bob: No limit on vehicle mass on launch from Kerbin.

Normal Norman: Vehicle to no more than 1000 tons on launch from Kerbin.

Slim Charles: Vehicle must weigh less than 100 tons on launch from Kerbin.

Rules

This is quite a long list, but I'm trying to answer as many of the typical questions that crop up as possible.

1. The mission must be flown from a single launch from Kerbin, so no setting up fuel supplies en-route in convenient places using earlier launches.

2. The mission must be manned, with the trip from Kerbin to Duna done seated inside the vehicle and not in a command seat. However once in orbit of Duna you can fly the kerbal of your choice, "al fresco" in a command seat should you want.

3. You have to fly the whole mission, so leave Mechjeb behind for this challenge.

4. No parts or other mods that improve the performance of your vehicle compared with stock. As for aesthetic (including any stockalike parts that don't affect performance), information (e.g. KER), or convenience (KAC, timewarp etc.)... feel free to go nuts.

5. No cheating... I know that's obvious, but just in case you're thinking of it... don't. This means no Hyperedit, F12 menu shenanigans, or fakery with your timing (the Kraken witll know). However use Hyperedit all you want for testing your design.

6. All times for scoring are the whole applicable unit, so if it takes 213 days and 4 hours to travel to Duna, then the time for scoring purposed is 213.

7. ISRU is allowed, but all gear for it must be on your single launch from Kerbin.

8. Days for scoring purposes are Kerbin, not Earth days.

9. The time to Duna is the elapsed time from launch on Kerbin to when the vehicle establishes an orbit around Duna, with both AP and PE above 50km.

10. The descent to Duna surface time is from the beginning of the descent burn from orbit (the orbit established at the end of the timed trip to Duna) until the vehicle is stationary on the surface.

11. The time for travel to the surface of Ike is from when the vehicle starts it's engines at your Duna landing site, until it is stationary on the surface of Ike.

12. Provide good proof of your flight.

Video of your exploits would be great, but screen grabs showing key stages of your progress will be fine. Images or video showing the start and ends of each of the three timed parts of the flight are essential. If you plan to switch between different vehicles in your stack (e.g. if you left a vehicle in Duna orbit to rendezvous with for the trip to Ike) then set the HUD to show UT, to avoid issues with mission timers being reset.

13. Have fun... well, be miserable if you want, but i might deduct (er... maybe that should be add) points

I've completed the challenge myself today and will be posting my entry later this evening.

Edited January 26, 2018 by purpleivan

purpleivan · January 25, 2018

Ok, as promised here is my own entry for this challenge.

I decided to plan my entry around two vehicles, the main one that would take Jeb to Duna orbit, surface and back into orbit again. A second small one was dropped off by the main vehicle in Duna orbit, that the main vehicle would rendezvous with later for the final leg to Ike.

In the end my attempt was ridiculously innefficient, as I'd planned to ascend to Duna orbit using the last stage of my main vehicle, but my I ended up doing that with the landing stage, which still had plently of fuel in it. The "back to orbit" stage had almost all its 2,200 delta-v worth of fuel on board, once I met up with my little Ike dragster.

So here's my points tally.

Time to get to Duna orbit: 194 days
Time to descend to Duna surface: 243 seconds
Time for trip to Ike surface: 42 minutes

Total score (194+243)+(3x42) = 563

An Imgur album of the trip can be seen here.

https://imgur.com/a/jRvlw

Here's a few images of the trip.