"Potato Phase II" - Unlocking The Rest Of The Stock Tech Tree In Just Two Missions!

[MerlinsMaster]

In my previous tutorial, I showed how you can unlock the first five tiers of the stock tech tree in just six missions.  Well, buckle up, because in this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to close out the remainder of the tech tree in two missions.

 

However, there is a caveat:  they are not short missions.  You will go to Mimnus, and then the Mun.  You will land at all of their biomes, get the Science and bring it back to Kerbin.  Each of these two missions will take several hours.

 

One thing I should mention is that in the previous tutorial, the craft designs I provided were very specific, and even though there were other ways you could go, it was a good idea to use those specific craft to get through the tutorial.  In this tutorial however, the ships I provide are just one example.  Feel free to design a ship you think might do the job more effectively.  You really just need a lander that has the required science instruments and enough dV to land, hop to a couple other biomes, and get back into orbit to dock with the refueling/transfer module, and you need a transfer module that has enough fuel to get to the Mun or Mimnus, refuel the lander about five times, and get back to Kerbin.

 

The Goal

 

So how much Science do you need to unlock the remainder of the Tech Tree?

 

Cost of unlocking Tier 6 = 13 x 160 = 2080 Science

Cost of unlocking Tier 7 = 12 x 300 = 3600 Science

Cost of unlocking Tier 8 = 11 x 550 = 6050 Science

Cost of unlocking Tier 9 = 4 x 1000 = 4000 Science

 

The Goal: Get 15730 Science

 

 

Preparation

 

Before you can start either one of these missions, you'll need to do a few other things first.

 

Work contracts until you have $600k.  Once you do, go ahead and upgrade R & D Complex to Level 2.  

 

Use satellite contracts to get some satellites in orbit of the Mun and Mimnus.  Without satellites orbiting these two bodies, you are going to have long and frequent periods of time in which you'll be without a signal to KSC.  Since a scientist will be piloting the lander, that means you will not be able to set or remove maneuver nodes, and you will also not have the ability to transmit Science back to Kerbin during these periods.

 

Research Advanced Electrics for 160 Science.  This will give you access to extendable solar panels, which may not seem that important, but it makes a big difference.  During testing, there were hundreds of times that I was cursing myself as I had to keep the ship pointed a certain way to keep my fixed solar panels receiving sunlight, or when they were totally obstructed by something else when landed.

 

 

 

Mission One:  Mimnus

 

step 1

Build and launch Mimnus Lander

 

 

step 2

Build and launch Mimnus Transfer Module

 

 

Rendezvous with Lander

Dock with Lander

 

 

step 3

Build and launch Fuel Tanker

 

 

Rendezvous with Mimnus craft

Dock with Mimnus craft

Top up all fuel tanks on Mimnus craft

 

After the Mimnus craft is completely fueled and ready to go, undock the Fuel Tanker.  You can either deorbit the tanker, or you can leave it in LKO for use as the beginnings of a space station or fuel depot.

 

step 4

Get in high orbit of Mimnus

Take the following Science readings

 

Get EVA Report, keep data 

Do Crew Report, keep data  

Log temperature, keep data 

Log pressure, keep data 

Observe Materials Bay, keep data  

Observe Mystery Goo, keep data  

 

You should get about 169 Science

 

step 5

Get in low orbit of Mimnus

Take the following Science readings

 

Do Crew Report, keep data  

Log temperature, keep data 

Log pressure, keep data 

Observe Materials Bay, keep data  

Observe Mystery Goo, keep data  

 

You should get about 240 Science

 

step 6

 

There are nine biomes to explore on Mimnus.

 

Greater Flats

Great Flats

Flats

Lesser Flats

Poles

Highlands

Midlands

Lowlands

Slopes

 

Take the Lander down to the surface, and hop from biome to biome, getting Science readings at each one.  When you're low on fuel, get back into orbit, rendezvous with the Transfer Module to refuel.  Repeat.

 

Do Crew Report, keep data

Log temperature, keep data

Log pressure, keep data

Observe Materials Bay, keep data

Observe Mystery Goo, keep data

Go EVA

Get EVA Report, keep data

Right click command pod, store experiments

Boost upward with RCS, get EVA Report, keep data

Take Surface Sample, keep data

Right click command pod, take data

Right click thermometer, take data

Right click pressure scanner, take data

Right click Materials Bay, collect data, restore

Right click Mystery Goo, collect data, restore

Right click command pod, store experiments

Board command pod

Observe Materials Bay, transmit data

Observe Mystery Goo, transmit data

Right click Materials Bay, restore

Right click Mystery Goo, restore

Board command pod

 

For every biome, you get 522 Science for the experiments that you keep, and another 82 for the ones you transmit, for a total of 604 per biome.

 

604 x 9 biomes = 5436 Science

plus 169 Science for readings in high orbit

plus 240 Science for readings in low orbit

Total Science: 5845

 

Once you complete exploring every biome, return to Kerbin orbit.  Since this Transfer Module is meant to be reusable and left in orbit, you'll need to launch a capsule into orbit to bring your Scientist home, and return all that juicy Science.

 

If you have the funds, upgrade the R & D Complex to Level 3.  If not, you will need to work contracts to raise the funds.  The upgrade is necessary in order to unlock the GRAVMAX Negative Gravioli Detector, which is needed to get enough Science to unlock the rest of the Tech Tree.

 

Heavier Rocketry

Advanced Electrics (if you don't already have it)

Precision Engineering

Advanced Exploration

Advanced Landing

Electronics

Scanning Tech

Field Science

Advanced Science Tech

 

With the Science you have left, unlock whichever nodes you want.

 

Mission Two:  Mun

 

step 1

Build and launch Mun Lander

 

 

step 2

Build and launch Mun Transfer Module

 

 

Rendezvous with Lander

Dock with Lander

 

step 3

Build and launch Fuel Tank Module

 

 

Rendezvous with Mun craft

 

 

Dock with Mun craft

 

step 4

Build and launch a second Fuel Tank Module

Rendezvous with Mun craft

Dock with Mun craft

 

 

 

Try to dock the Fuel Tank Modules as straight as possible.  But if they're just a few degrees off, don't worry.  The ship will fly straight, but it will slowly roll during burns.  It has a calming effect.

 

 

Once the Fuel Tank Modules are docked, you can decouple the launch stages (the section behind the decouplers) and deorbit them.  However, if there's still a substantial amount of fuel in them, you have the option of using them for part of the transfer burn.  It's always better to have more fuel and not need it than to need more fuel and not have it, after all.  The only downside is that they will be a contribution the your growing collection of floating space debris.

 

There are seventeen biomes to explore on the Mun.

 

Poles

Polar Lowlands

Polar Crater

Highlands

Highland Craters

Midlands

Midland Craters

Lowlands

Northeast Basin

Farside Basin

Northwest Crater

East Farside Crater

Canyons

Farside Crater

East Crater

Twin Craters

Southwest Crater

 

step 5

Get in high polar orbit of the Mun

From Polar orbit, log gravity scan from high space for each biome

You should get about 748 Science

 

step 6

Get in low polar orbit of the Mun

From Polar orbit, log gravity scan from space near each biome

You should get about 1122 Science

 

step 7

Again, take the Lander down to the surface, and hop from biome to biome, getting Science readings at each one.  When you're low on fuel, get back into orbit, rendezvous with the Transfer Module to refuel.  Repeat.

 

Do Crew Report, keep data    

Log temperature, keep data    

Log pressure, keep data    

Log seismic, keep data    

Log gravity scan, keep data    

Observe Materials Bay, keep data    

Observe Mystery Goo, keep data    

Go EVA    

Get EVA Report, keep data    

Right click command pod, store experiments

Take Surface Sample, keep data    

Right click command pod, take data

Right click thermometer, take data

Right click pressure scanner, take data

Right click Materials Bay, collect data, restore

Right click Mystery Goo, collect data, restore

Right click command pod, store experiments

Board command pod

Observe Materials Bay, transmit data    

Observe Mystery Goo, transmit data    

Right click Materials Bay, restore

Right click Mystery Goo, restore

Board command pod

 

For every biome, you get 560 Science for the experiments that you keep, and another 65 for the ones you transmit, for a total of 625 per biome.

 

625 x 17 biomes = 10625 Science

plus 748 Science for readings in high orbit

plus 1122 Science for readings in low orbit

Total Science: 12495

 

12495!  Dayumm, son!  If you're playing stock, you're not even going to need all that.

 

But many of you play with lots of mods that add advanced technology to the game.  Some of my personal favorites are DSEV, the Near Future mods, the Alcubierre Drive mod, and of course a mod that I have some small amount of direct involvement in, Deep Freeze.  Mods like these will need large amounts of Science to unlock those parts.  The tech node that contains the Alcubierre Drive alone costs a whopping 10000 Science.  It's a good thing that there are many other planets and moons in KSP to explore and get Science from.  And with everything from the stock tech tree unlocked, you can build really nice ships to take you there.

 

You'll return the Science to kerbin the same way as before.  Next, well, you know what's next.  Unlock the rest of the tech tree.  

 

Feel free to let me know in the comments how this approach works out for you, or if I got anything wrong, or if you have an idea for how this approach can be improved.

 

Example ships for all of the missions in this tutorial can be found here.

 

01 - Mimnus Explorer - Lander

 

02 - Mimnus Explorer - Transfer Module

 

03 - Mimnus Fuel Tanker

 

04 - Munraker Two - Lander

 

05 - Munraker Two - Transfer Module

 

06 - Mun Fuel Tanker

 

 

Edited May 30, 2018 by MerlinsMaster

[vladiano]

Hi and thank you for the extensive tutorial! Tried using the craft you supplied but getting an error that I'm missing a part called "EngineerChip" - is this part of a mod?

Edited May 27, 2018 by vladiano

[BigFatStupidHead]

29 minutes ago, vladiano said:

Hi and thank you for the extensive tutorial! Tried using the craft you supplied but getting an error that I'm missing a part called "EngineerChip" - is this part of a mod? Thought this was a stock thread...

EngineerChip is probably from Kerbal Engineer Redux. You can find a download in this post. If it is the same chip in this .craft, all it does is is display useful information about your ship while in flight.

Edited May 27, 2018 by BigFatStupidHead

[MerlinsMaster]

2 hours ago, vladiano said:

Hi and thank you for the extensive tutorial! Tried using the craft you supplied but getting an error that I'm missing a part called "EngineerChip" - is this part of a mod?

Oh, boy.  My sincerest apologies.  I was using Kerbal Engineer Redux when designing the craft for this tutorial, and I forgot to take the KER parts out before posting them.  I will remove those parts and repost the craft files ASAP.

[vladiano]

Highly appreciate the guide, MerlinsMaster - it is exactly what I needed to get me out of a "what's next" moment and excellently captures the concepts of assembled-in-space craft, space stations and orbiter/lander for us <100hr noobs just clawing away at KSP. I now have a much better understanding of all of this, thanks to this post.

A couple of questions though:

Why did you place two OKTOs in the lander? Maybe something I'm not familiar with but I'd rather spend the 100kg on sth else if there is no direct advantage.
Is the Minmus tanker supposed to fly to Minmus together with the Transfer Module or just refuel it in LKO and undock? If it's the latter, it's a bit overbuilt considering the TM gets into orbit with just 0.5-1 of its final stage 3 fuel containers but I do appreciate that once in orbit it the tanker is an asset that can perform its role in plenty other future missions or as starter for a space station.
On the Moon tankers, is that decouple ring between tanks to jettison the empty fuel container and engine after docking with the Moon Transfer Module? If so, brilliant idea -thank you- but it's not really clear if that is the point in guide or if I'm better off holding onto the extra 2 Poodles for extra thrust... maybe it's a preference thing, sacrifice a bit of dV to be able to perform maneuvers faster and thus more precisely around the node.

Again - thank you for the guide!

[MerlinsMaster]

10 hours ago, vladiano said:

Why did you place two OKTOs in the lander? Maybe something I'm not familiar with but I'd rather spend the 100kg on sth else if there is no direct advantage.

Sorry about that.  When I was designing it, I originally had it clipped in the Materials Bay, but then changed my mind and forgot about it.  I'll update the craft file ASAP.

10 hours ago, vladiano said:

Is the Minmus tanker supposed to fly to Minmus together with the Transfer Module or just refuel it in LKO and undock? If it's the latter, it's a bit overbuilt considering the TM gets into orbit with just 0.5-1 of its final stage 3 fuel containers but I do appreciate that once in orbit it the tanker is an asset that can perform its role in plenty other future missions or as starter for a space station.

The Mimnus tanker is intended to dock with the Transfer Module in LKO, refuel it and then undock.  I designed it so it can be deorbited afterwards, but I like your idea of keeping it in LKO for use as part of a space station or fuel depot.

11 hours ago, vladiano said:

On the Moon tankers, is that decouple ring between tanks to jettison the empty fuel container and engine after docking with the Moon Transfer Module? If so, brilliant idea -thank you- but it's not really clear if that is the point in guide or if I'm better off holding onto the extra 2 Poodles for extra thrust... maybe it's a preference thing, sacrifice a bit of dV to be able to perform maneuvers faster and thus more precisely around the node.

You can jettison those before you leave LKO, if you like.  The original intent for those was just to get the fuel tanker into orbit and rendezvoused with the ship, but there is plenty of fuel left in those and it seems silly to let it go to waste.  And the extra thrust, while unnecessary, is always nice.  The only downside is that once you decouple them, they will be forever in a large, highly elliptical orbit between Kerbin and the Mun.