Fastest Time to Orbit Minmus and Land Safely

[mustwinfull]

This has probably been done before but I just wanted to see who could get the fastest possible time to get to Minmus and land safely. It needs to have 1 Kerbal onboard (It will be a manned mission but it can be a one way trip). Make sure to include proof in the form of a video or screenshots in which the guidelines are below. Also, I need the total mission time in the screenshots/video so you can be added to the leaderboard. The mission concludes when you land safely on the surface and that time will be put in the leaderboard. I will try this myself in a few days time and see what time I get.

EDIT: Since this is looking dead, these are the final score unless it gets revived pretty quickly, otherwise this is the final standings.

Screenshot requirements:

1: On the launchpad.

2: On the way there. (Could be anywhere from leaving the atmosphere of Kerbin to orbit of Minmus).

3: The landed spacecraft on Minmus with the total mission time.

Stock Leaderboard:

1: maltesh - 7:57:12 (7h, 57m, 12s)

2: ramipro - 16:33:24 (16h, 33m, 24s)

3: Kode - 2:01:57:17 (2d, 1h, 57m, 17s)

4: Ziff - 3:08:17:24 (3d, 8h, 17m, 24s)

5:

Mod Leaderboard:

1:

2:

3:

4:

5:

If something is not clear, tell me.

Edited August 25, 2012 by mustwinfull
The thread is dead.

[Ziff]

Well, I gave it a fairly decent shot I think. If I timed Minmus's orbit just a tad better I could do a direct injection straight from Kerbin , as I was pretty close to doing that on this mission.

Look who showed up, by chance, after the last pilot accidentally exploded against the launch tower?

I managed to do a burn from just a few minutes after Kerbin Apoapsis, while still in a decaying orbit. However, there is room for improvement as I hit Minmus on my return leg, I could have shaved a lot of time off had I hit it on the first leg.

Touchdown! Er, OMG, JEB, you crazy son of a- What did you do to the landing legs?!

Jeb amazingly manage to take off again and get her upright and stopped on a slightly better part of the hill. On a side note, wtf happened to my landing gear?

MET: 3:08:17:24

[Kode]

Minimus SpeedCraft #0 - 2d 1h 57m 17s

Sorry about the fact the spacecraft isn't visible on last image... It was a perfectly safe landing.

Autopilot would probably do this in much less time - I had tons of fuel and 2 stages left when I reached minimus that could've been used to speed up the craft.

[mustwinfull]

EDIT: Its fine now.

Edited August 19, 2012 by mustwinfull

[The-Bean]

I cant seem to edit the main post so do you know what's wrong there?

You need a minimum of 5 posts IIRC.

[mustwinfull]

You need a minimum of 5 posts IIRC.

Ok, thanks for telling me.

[ramipro]

Hello world! I just tried this, and at my first shot, I got 2:11:31:11! I might try this again, but not sure if I can do it better

At KSC

Simple Hohmann transfer

About to land

And Succesful landing is successful (Landing legs not so much)

[mustwinfull]

Added your score to the leaderboard.

[ssTALONps]

are the mods allowed? I want to use NP for this challenge...

[mustwinfull]

are the mods allowed? I want to use NP for this challenge...

If the acroymn stands for Nova Punch then fine but I might put people who use mods on separate leaderboards.

[ramipro]

Well, so far, everyone has used only stock, so I think using NP might give a slight advantage, but not absolutely sure. I approve the idea of a second leaderboard

[mustwinfull]

Ok then. Im adding the new leaderboard now but I still don't want people using autopilot features of mods.

Edited August 20, 2012 by mustwinfull

[ssTALONps]

Ok then. Im adding the new leaderboard now but I still don't want people using autopilot mods.

I'll post my try asap but what do you mean by autopilot? I guess MechJeb Autom8 feature?

I'm not going to use MechJeb's autopilot for entire flight but wanna use some of smart A.S.S. (like Prograde) and orbital information display... is this ok?

[mustwinfull]

I'll post my try asap but what do you mean by autopilot? I guess MechJeb Autom8 feature?

I'm not going to use MechJeb's autopilot for entire flight but wanna use some of smart A.S.S. (like Prograde) and orbital information display... is this ok?

Sure. Go ahead. I did mean the automate feature. I edited the previos post to say what the main post said. That I don't want you using the autopilot feature of certain mods but go ahead.

Edited August 20, 2012 by mustwinfull

[maltesh]

All stock, no Mechjeb.

7 hours, 52 minutes, 12 seconds from launch to touchdown.

I present the Minrunner.

By day

and just prior to launch

I warped time until Minmus was practically overhead, burned down to one tank in the pre-lander stage and the lander. Finding the Minmus SOI was a bit of a bear.

I figured I could land if I started braking at ~200 km up and /still/ almost crashed it.

I didn't actually have a stable orbit around Minmus until I decided to see if I could return to Kerbin.

And it turns out, I did have enough fuel on board for a successful return.

[mustwinfull]

Added your score to the leaderboard.

[ramipro]

Holy crap, that was fast!

[mustwinfull]

Yes, It was. Maybe everyone should try the same method as him/her and get a direct route to Minmus.

[ramipro]

I just tried it that way, and I can´t seem to get under 2 days Doing that method, I got 10 min later than my best. I can´t seem to see how he did it

[mustwinfull]

Did you start when Minmus was overhead and all the the same cicrumstances as his/her's attempt? Or, is he/she magic?

[ramipro]

What I did was this:

And still the transfer time was about two days!

[mustwinfull]

Hmmm...might try this myself in a bit to test if he/she forged it or not. It seems legit but it might not be.

[maltesh]

Aye, two days is basically the limit on the Hohmann transfer, so I tried the straight-on route that seemed to be so popular with the people who were hitting the Mun in under an hour (Though I didn't build a spacecraft fast enough for that, those guys were building spacecraft that hit 6km/s in transit.)

I can't tell how high you are in the image, but it looks like you're moving somewhat slower than I was at that altitude. The specific orbit energy equation means small differences in velocity very close to the planet result in high velocity differences at distant points. Or you can think of it as "spending more time deep in the well gives gravity drag more time to steal your velocity."

The spaceraft's Asparagus-stalk staged once the boosters go. If you want, here's the .craft file.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4057920/KSP%20Shipshare/Minracer.craft

I didn't bother getting into orbit, or doing a gravity turn (though, admittedly, that probably would have helped for more speed). My orbit was hyperbolic, basically straight up from Kerbin. I didn't try to find the SOI on launch, I figured Minmus wouldn't move too much on the ascent, and it would be easier to look for it when I was moving slower.

At about 20,000 km I made the plane adjustment to try to make sure I went through Minmus orbit, but it still took a few more adjustments on the way up to find the SOI and punch straight through to the satellite. And as I said, I didn't slow down until I was only a few hundred kilometers off Minmus' surface.

[mustwinfull]

Ok, I know you aren't faking now and that is a good time. Now everyone else has to beat a very low time. Sorry for being a bit skeptic of your post but I'm like that.

Edited August 21, 2012 by mustwinfull

[ramipro]

I'm not saying it's fake, I was just asking how you did it to learn. I'm not a rocket engineer, and I obviously don't know all the options. So you basically overshot the Minmus orbit and then slowed down when you got there?