Longest KSP mission duration (in real life) that you ever done in one session

[ARS]

What's the longest real-life time that you ever spent in KSP for a single mission in one session?

For me, it was the grand kerbin scientific exploration, starting from KSC, circumnavigating kerbin equator while collecting science along the way and then goes straight to north pole before planting flag there (and do some science). It's done using a small jet aircraft (I need 2 droptanks for extra fuel supply for the whole trip). The total time spent in real life is around 5 hours

What about you?

Edited October 27, 2018 by ARS

[Francois424]

In one session?   good question.
Pretty sure it was my original rover on the Mün in 0.23.5.  I had landed it the previous evening, and spent like 16 hours straight hitting different biomes.
It was a science truck (M27 cockpit from B9 Aerospace) a science lab, a few solar panels and powered wheels (on a suspension of small struts, which gave it much needed flexibility).

Followed closely with my Solar Cruiser (unmanned) Jool-5 fly-bys of all the moons.  It had 6x2 goo+science JR + many science instruments, 3 ion engines (yes only that) a TON of solar panels, a few RTGs, and the engine/power module would be ejected upon returning to Kerbin.
I think this one was 12 hours, give or take.  Most of it long burns from ion engines tho. I do remember I had 127 dV left in the tank when I encountered Kerbin, with all my monoprop having been burnt as well.

[Ultimate Steve]

I did a speedrun of the game (Kerbals on all planets/moons and return, career mode) a while back which required playing KSP very intensely for almost 8 hours straight.

[SiriusRocketry]

About 2 to 3 hours when flying a KSP south to north pole mission in realtime. Very relaxing with good music.

My most time on a single project is the 40+ hours I've sunk into my Theta program (kerballed manned exploration of Duna). Currently ongoing, we've constructed the Danube interplanetary spacecraft in Kerbin orbit, with over 4k DV, and flown Theta I and II which landed in the Midland Sea and just south of the northern ice cap, respectively. Funding has been confirmed for two, possibly three more missions.

[purpleivan]

If this includes missions in which I'm not at the machine, but the mission keeps running, then me it was some kind of speed run (can't remember where to) involving a last few stages that were ion drives. Some of the ion stages took about 4 hours to complete, so I burned one on Sunday evening, then left another overnight and finally one left running while I went to work the next day.

If we're sticking to play that occurs when you're at least in the same building as the machine running the game (who hasn't gone off to grab coffee/dinner in the middle of a long burn) then I guess it would be a speed run to Eve (again involving ion burns) that lasted 5.5 hours.

Other notables would be my Mun Double challenge entry (single vehicle flies to Mun, to Kerbin, to Mun and back to Kerbin) which was 5.25 hours.

I also spent an enjoyable day hunting anomalies on the Mun in a rover/lander that lasted 5 hours.

The most time I've spend on a single mission in a single day (with breaks for lunch and dinner) was that of the Eve Party Boat. From leaving Kerbin orbit to returning to Kerbin with the 4 kerbal crew, it took 4,25, 2.25 and 4.5 hour play sessions on one Saturday in 2014. Launching and gassing up the monster in Kerbin orbit took several hours before that, but was spread over a few days.

[MR L A]

Honestly... probably not that long for an actual mission, but I'm quite capable of spending an entire day in the VAB/SPH, performing test launches and optimising my designs

I really want to do a video to show a few of them off but my potater can barely run KSP at 30fps, never mind KSP whilst using screen capture software and a mod or two like scatterer and real plume to make it look good too

[Pecan]

I've played KSP for 48 hours straight several times (I'm like that) and 72 hours a couple of times.  Over that period I'd dispatch various moon and interplantery/transplanetary missions and mess about in Kerbin orbit while they drifted through space.  Sometimes I'd time-warp as well because I've never seen the point of real-time doing nothing.

Or, I might just have spent 48 hours trying to get one particular launch vehicle to orbit as reliably/efficiently as possible.  Why can't it be both?

[FrostedShoe]

I spent a whole day getting a space station that would travel to Dres to orbit in one launch so I wouldn't have to assemble it in orbit. Most of the time was spent trying to work out what broke half way up before it disintegrated so I could fix it on the next go. Did it eventually so time well spent.

[Lukun7Rocket]

I'm a noob so it took me a couple hours to land on duna and 30 minutes to get into sun orbit. Then i didnt have enough fuel to get home so I turned on the cheats. This was in sandbox, though. I think playing career helps you to get better at the game.

[Chel]

My longest mission was from when I loaded up KSP at about 9am, designed a Dres station, Dres base, and rovers (took me about an hour). Then I launched the space station, and because it was so big it took me about 5 RTLs (Revert To Launch) to send it on it's way to Dres (timewarping approxiamately 3 minutes). The base I sent in modules, docking them in orbit and then sending them to the surface, and the rovers were easy to land. So the mission took me about 4 hours from designing to getting on the surface

[Sharpy]

Probably one of Duna Elcano sessions. The entire thing took me like a week, I was sick, staying at home and playing KSP nearly all the time I didn't sleep. Putting some electronic music (Jarre, Oldfield) on, and just driving over Duna, trying to keep my speed within 18-22m/s (the trucky would get flippy when driving any faster) in 3x phys-warp, staying the night whenever batteries ran out for the night, planning the route using Scansat maps, stopping to pick science or screenies of a next anomaly or just a stunning piece of landscape, it was an incredibly tranquil experience. I believe I did put some >12h segments into the trip. Let me tell you driving through Duna dust storm with Oxygene 3 playing is some unforgettable experience.

[Chel]

1 minute ago, Sharpy said:

Probably one of Duna Elcano sessions. The entire thing took me like a week, I was sick, staying at home and playing KSP nearly all the time I didn't sleep. Putting some electronic music (Jarre, Oldfield) on, and just driving over Duna, trying to keep my speed within 18-22m/s (the trucky would get flippy when driving any faster) in 3x phys-warp, staying the night whenever batteries ran out for the night, planning the route using Scansat maps, stopping to pick science or screenies of a next anomaly or just a stunning piece of landscape, it was an incredibly tranquil experience. I believe I did put some >12h segments into the trip. Let me tell you driving through Duna dust storm with Oxygene 3 playing is some unforgettable experience.

Sounds fun, I might try it!

[Sharpy]

7 minutes ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

Sounds fun, I might try it!

Must-have mods:

EVE and Scatterer,

ScanSat

RasterProp Monitors (and pick a cockpit that gives you a good view for IVA driving and at least two of the monitors. Also use the camera RasterProp provides, for a 'rear mirror').

KIS and KAS (and take a crate of spare parts. Things *will* break. Never mind I took a hopelessly bad antenna and scavenged a better one from a lander/flyer that went to Duna before that run.)

And make sure your rover is robust, fast, rather durable and fun to drive. Before going to Duna test if you can use it to cross the mountain range west from KSC, through the mountain pass there. If you can, reliably and without extreme caution, you're ready for Duna.

 

[Chel]

3 hours ago, Sharpy said:

Must-have mods:

EVE and Scatterer,

ScanSat

RasterProp Monitors (and pick a cockpit that gives you a good view for IVA driving and at least two of the monitors. Also use the camera RasterProp provides, for a 'rear mirror').

KIS and KAS (and take a crate of spare parts. Things *will* break. Never mind I took a hopelessly bad antenna and scavenged a better one from a lander/flyer that went to Duna before that run.)

And make sure your rover is robust, fast, rather durable and fun to drive. Before going to Duna test if you can use it to cross the mountain range west from KSC, through the mountain pass there. If you can, reliably and without extreme caution, you're ready for Duna.

 

I'll try it on Enhanced Edition, for bonus points

[Not Sure]

I’ve done some that too a lot longer, but my most BORING mission was flying 50m/s to the South Pole 

Took about 2 hours with physics warp

and when I got there I realized I forgot something and had to revert

[Raptor42]

I remember spending 8-12 hours building and launching my Ike surface base for contract in my first career game. It was real pain, because I didn't know how to dock (effectively) which means I spent 20 to 40 minutes docking each module.
I had only the 1,25m docking ports and I didn't know about autostruts, so the whole ship was unstable, and wanted to summon Kraken at any given moment, mainly during trans-Duna injection.

Funny fact: I never completed the mission, because I started playing another career with MOAR mods and more exciting stuff.

[invision]

the outer planets mod, forget the name of the planet but it took 45min just to time  warp there. i flew a craft to the planet and  refueled at its moon, landed on the target planet and  collected science, and then proceeded back to kerblin  when i was done. the entire mission took just under 4hrs but about half of that was waiting for time warp....RIP

[Sharpy]

20 hours ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

I'll try it on Enhanced Edition, for bonus points

No EVE and scatterer means Duna looks far less impressive. No dust storms. No methane lakes. No oppressive eclipses. These are things you're gonna miss.Also, if E.E is indeed based on 1.2.2, AFAIR 1.2.x had the worst, most broken wheels in history.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Sharpy

[Chel]

16 minutes ago, Sharpy said:

No EVE and scatterer means Duna looks far less impressive. No dust storms. No methane lakes. No oppressive eclipses. These are things you're gonna miss.Also, if E.E is indeed based on 1.2.2, AFAIR 1.2.x had the worst, most broken wheels in history.

But I'll be exploring it in it's original 'glory'. 

[Mukita12]

Munar Amphibious Research Rover(or MARR)

It took me 5 Kerbin year and explore the largest crater on Mun. i gather a thicc ton of science and then i silent the mission for good

(by deleting the craft Of course

Edited February 24, 2019 by Mukita12

[GKSP]

Either I'm stuck in the editor or going through quite a few missions at once.  For the most side-by-side missions at once, I used KAC to time my maneuvers without overlap: Multiple Minmus base parts and relay parts, along with an inclination change on my Eve Relay and Probe lander package.  My longest completed mission overall as of now has been my circumnavigation of Minmus for the Elkano Challenge.  I started kinda early last summer and got at least 6 hours through in one day.  After that, I didn't play KSP for a while: I had 11 kerbals on Minmus and too few spare crew to do anything else.  Whenever I'd load KSP to continue, I'd realize how patched together my in-situ repairs were and didn't want to think about all the quicksave and loading I would do.  A few months later, I put in a few hours each day until I finished.

[Ultimate Steve]

On 10/27/2018 at 9:59 AM, Pecan said:

I've played KSP for 48 hours straight several times (I'm like that) and 72 hours a couple of times.  Over that period I'd dispatch various moon and interplantery/transplanetary missions and mess about in Kerbin orbit while they drifted through space.  Sometimes I'd time-warp as well because I've never seen the point of real-time doing nothing.

Or, I might just have spent 48 hours trying to get one particular launch vehicle to orbit as reliably/efficiently as possible.  Why can't it be both?

Just HOW? Three days? 

[Pecan]

21 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Just HOW? Three days? 

Sleep is over-rated ^^.  Seriously, anyone should be able to go without a night's sleep without too much trouble.  Going without for two is harder but it depends on what you're doing.  One weekend I was on a roll and did a month's work* at home, emailed it in on Monday morning with test instructions and told them I was finally going to bed and would probably wake-up on Wednesday, be in the office Thursday.  (Predictably, several people objected to me not coming in for 3 days.  Equally predictably, they looked silly).

When I did the 72-hour KSP sessions I was writing a book about it and wanted to get to specific points before going to bed.

(*writing some database system.  Not exactly exciting but inspiration struck, everything was fitting together nicely, it was good, interesting, elegant, fast and not something I wanted to lose by going to sleep).

[GRS]

@Pecan, no joking...? (You might get fired if you're Indonesian, and for leaving without a reason)

My longest in a session was an Eeloo-Dres Direct Ascent mission with like 9 Hours of real time, back when i was using 1.0.5, my first Jool 5 extended my times into around 12 Hours but not in one session...

On 10/30/2018 at 6:13 AM, Sharpy said:

No EVE and scatterer means Duna looks far less impressive.

Try SciFiVE, You'll still have Storms.

[Pecan]

38 minutes ago, GRS said:

You might get fired if you're Indonesian, and for leaving without a reason

Indonesian bosses must be very silly then, as I said.  Generally companies that like achievement and profit don't fire people who do 30 days work in 3 days, at home, in their own time.