High-Occupancy Mun Lander Challenge

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

My tourist contracts require me to put tourists on the Mun and/or Minmus, and it's economically efficient to do as much as possible with as many tourists on board as possible. Even if a few of them don't have their contracts fulfilled on the first run, you can always try again. So, I designed a high-occupancy Mun lander. Here are the requirements for this challenge:

1. Crew capacity of 5 or over
   1. Nobody gets left behind
2. Probe core required. No pilots on board means more seats available
3. Power source
4. Antenna
5. All stock parts (MJ okay, since it's just a navigation aid)
6. Final stage must be able to survive Kerbin re-entry
7. Must be able to at least land on one moon AND orbit the other before returning to Kerbin
   1. Extra points if you can land on both before returning.

BONUS: Costs less than 100 grand

Here's mine landed on Minmus. At the rocket stage before capsule ejection, it has 2,431 m/s of dV. Not enough to make secure orbits and land on BOTH moons, but it can at least land on one of them. Perfect if you want to get some extra training in for the kerbalnauts

[KingDominoIII]

Taking this on!

[Martian Emigrant]

I am on this.

 

ME

[vyznev]

On 2/23/2019 at 2:57 AM, Mars-Bound Hokie said:

Must be able to at least land on one moon AND orbit the other before returning to Kerbin

Note that landing on Minmus and orbiting the Mun is a lot easier (in terms of delta-v, TWR and piloting skills) than landing on the Mun and orbiting Minmus. From the title of the thread, ("High-Occupancy Mun Lander Challenge") I would've kind of expected the latter to be required.

Still, an interesting challenge in any case.

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

3 hours ago, vyznev said:

I would've kind of expected the latter to be required.

Yes, you're right. If you can land on the Mun and orbit Minmus, then how hard can it be to do the other way around in the same craft type?

 

I eagerly await your entries.

[HeroBrian_333]

*looks*

*sees major flaw*

*points out major flaw*

You never specified no SSTOs or ISRUs...

[vyznev]

13 minutes ago, HeroBrian_333 said:

You never specified no SSTOs or ISRUs...

Technically, there's no advantage to using an SSTO here. The challenge is just to get a bunch of tourists to the Mun and Minmus and back, with an optional 100k cost limit. But since the OP didn't explicitly say that you can deduct any funds from recovered parts, I would assume that you can't. So even if you're trying to stay under the cost limit, recoverable vessels still technically have no advantage whatsoever here.

That said, I'll probably try to make my entry fully reusable anyway, just because it fits the theme. Not 100% sure whether to go for a spaceplane or a SpaceX style rocket with two separate reusable stages, though.

[Martian Emigrant]

Hi @Mars-Bound Hokie

Here is my entry.

I played in sandbox. Hired 8 crew then edited the file to make them into Tourists.

 

The ship has a probe core, Communotron, 8 Tourist, cost 85,350 Rooots. Went to the Mun, Minmus, came back.

Thanks for the challenge is was a bit harder than I though I was good......
In retrospect I should have done Minmus first. The landing portion having a high CofG.

Spoiler

 

 

 

A bit of horizontal velocity remained. Sigh. No harm done.

 

The gimballing had been reduced in the first place as the thrust impinged on the tanks. crancking it up to 100% worked rotating the ship faster than it was moving forward....Does that make sense?

 

 

Two burns to get to minus. With another correction due to the plane not working out. Way too polar.

 

 

Minmus was facing it's dark side to Kerbin. As soon as the radio link was re-established a plane change and de-orbit burn was done to aim at one of the frozen sea on the terminator.

So as to land in daylight.

Happy Kerbals.

 

Easy return. The ship is Delta-V fat.

 

 

 

Over 1,000 Delat-V remaining a 1,000 was spent to slow down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ME

Edited March 11, 2019 by Martian Emigrant

[FuzzyHead]

I really liked the Challenge! I took a shuttle-like approach that can land on both Mun an Minmus in one flight.. Its also a VTOL (Vertical Take-Off)!

The advantages are that you can navigate back to the KSC easier and land very safely on the moons. Plus the Mk2 Passenger Cabin is really weight efficient.

1=Activate Cruise Mode (Horizontal Flght)
2=Activate Landing Mode (Vertical Filght)
3=Toggle Solar and Comms
4=Aktive Reentry Mode (Solar Panels and Antenna fold, Radiator activates, one reation wheel offline for Battery saving)

The TWR is a bit low, you have to be careful when landing on the Mun. If you slow down early enough it works fine though.

Here are some screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/ebgzpZ6

And here is the craft: https://kerbalx.com/FuzzyHead/Mun-Minmus-Express-A3

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by FuzzyHead

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

@FuzzyHead, how do you plan on getting back to Kerbin when you're done? I don't see any screenshots of that.

[KingDominoIII]

Here's mine: https://imgur.com/gallery/Xp97cIN

12 Kerbals, Mun and Minmus landings.

[FuzzyHead]

You're right. I added some landing pics (https://imgur.com/a/ebgzpZ6) I was getting dark though. The MM A3 can aerobrake and has landing gear, just enter the atmosphere rather gently.

 

[sollarflare]

Does it have to be One lander for both moons or can it be two landers designed for each moon that you move the tourists through?

[sollarflare]

Anyway, I'm in. Working on the challenge now. and it's challenging.

[MarvinKitFox]

Did you have something like this in mind?

 

It's only 75 Kerbals, but it is SO tedious loading them all onto the rocket at launch, I didn't want to do more.

[dnbattley]

The elegance and thought going into this challenge needs a counter-point: here is my rather more agricultural solution to the posed question - a Mk3 passenger pod strapped to two nukes. You don't need landing legs since the pod itself has a 50m/s impact tolerance, and it's just a matter of ensuring the engines survive each landing...

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Haven't gotten around to actually flying the mission start to finish yet, but I've tested it at each stage (Launch to LKO-Mun Transfer-Mun landing-Return/Re-entry) and am confident it's fully capable. Still, wanted to share as I really liked how "kerbal" this rocket came out looking! (I hadn't played KSP in awhile and after underestimating the Dv demands at first, I started to take a "MOAR boosters approach lol.)

Not sure if I'll get time to revisit this, run the whole mission, and take more screenshots, but I'd like to.

Atm I just call it the "MunLiner." Seats 112 Kerbals.

Again, I'm just sharing for fun, I haven't actually, technically completed the challenge in it's entirety yet.

Edited March 9, 2019 by Rocket In My Pocket

[sollarflare]

I may have gone a bit overboard with the screenshots. 67 of them. also, used a test vehicle before this to make sure it would work without having to delete all the screenshots. Not all screenshots uploaded for some reason. 

Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/q9JrRqb

Edited March 11, 2019 by sollarflare

[Johnster_Space_Program]

I think I will try this, sounds interesting. There should be a leaderboard though.

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

Scoring Format:

• PERFORMANCE
  • 100 pts - Land on BOTH Mun AND Minmus before returning to Kerbin
  • 50 pts - Land on the Mun and orbit Minmus
    • If you can do that, then your craft is capable of landing on Minmus and orbiting the Mun before returning to Kerbin 
  • 25 pts - Only capable of landing on Minmus and orbiting the Mun; cannot do the other way around
• CAPACITY
  • +5 points for each additional occupant past 5 (baseline: 20 pts) 
    • e.g. 25-seater -> [20 pts baseline + { (25-5=20 more occupants) * 5 pts each =100 total} = 120 capacity points]
• PRICE
  • 30 pts if price<$100K
  • 20 pts if $100K=<price<=$400K
  • 15 pts if price>$400K

AUTOMATIC DISQUALIFICATION IF ANYONE DIES OR GETS STRANDED

EVERYONE RETURNS ALIVE

Does that seem like a fair format, @Johnster_Space_Program?

[Johnster_Space_Program]

1 hour ago, Mars-Bound Hokie said:

Scoring Format:

• PERFORMANCE
  • 100 pts - Land on BOTH Mun AND Minmus before returning to Kerbin
  • 50 pts - Land on the Mun and orbit Minmus
    • If you can do that, then your craft is capable of landing on Minmus and orbiting the Mun before returning to Kerbin 
  • 25 pts - Only capable of landing on Minmus and orbiting the Mun; cannot do the other way around
• CAPACITY
  • +5 points for each additional occupant past 5 (baseline: 20 pts) 
    • e.g. 25-seater -> [20 pts baseline + { (25-5=20 more occupants) * 5 pts each =100 total} = 120 capacity points]
• PRICE
  • 30 pts if price<$100K
  • 20 pts if $100K=<price<=$400K
  • 15 pts if price>$400K

AUTOMATIC DISQUALIFICATION IF ANYONE DIES OR GETS STRANDED

EVERYONE RETURNS ALIVE

Does that seem like a fair format, @Johnster_Space_Program?

yes, sounds good. Also do they all have to be tourists or can they be non-tourist kerbals? I'm doing this in sandbox as well @Mars-Bound Hokie

Edited March 11, 2019 by Johnster_Space_Program

[Johnster_Space_Program]

Here is the first look at what I have currently. Seats 12 kerbals (but I will probably make changes so it will seat more): 

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

6 hours ago, Johnster_Space_Program said:

Also do they all have to be tourists or can they be non-tourist kerbals? I'm doing this in sandbox as well @Mars-Bound Hokie

Good question. At least four occupants have to be tourists or non-pilots (six if your craft has 7+ capacity), since the tourism contracts usually involve four or six people at once.

• If you have good signal coverage around Kerbin (I made a "Hamsterwheel" surrounding the SOI) and at least a 2G antenna, I think you can get away with going without any pilots.
• If you want to fulfill Mun/Minmus contracts as quickly and cost-effectively as possible, you might want to cram in as many tourists as you can that will be satisfied with what your craft can do.

It's okay that you do it in Sandbox. I put the "price" criteria in the rubric as an extra incentive to make it cost-effective as well as creative. Though some people may make their rockets SUPER-expensive, they could easily make up for it by performance and/or high passenger capacity.

 

Does that answer your question?

[Johnster_Space_Program]

ok, thanks

[Johnster_Space_Program]

@Mars-Bound Hokie Here is my final submission for the challenge! It meets all requirements, and was done in sandbox mode.

Here are the rocket and craft stats:

And a video of me completing and doing the challenge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JxssNQaoxw

I think I did pretty good. More than 6 kerbals are non-pilots which you can see at the end of the video.