Contract: Smallest Crewed Ship To The Mün

[Max von Kerman]

Our engineers at the Experimental Engineering Group, NFS Areospace and the Kerbin World Firsts Record Keeping Society wants to know how small of a ship can carry a crew member to the Mün and back, without docking with anther station or mothership. We want you to built a light/inexpensive ship that carries 1 kerbal and is capable of flying by, orbiting or landing on the Mün, while returning the kerbal home safely.

Contract Information:

Enter SOI of the Mün (REQUIRED)

Do a flyby OR enter orbit OR land (REQUIRED) (AT LEAST 1)

Bring the kerbal home safely (REQUIRED)

TIME: Finish mission by September 30 2021.

 

Contract Rules:

- No exploits such as using the controller

- No bug abusing

- CTRL F12 is not allowed.

 

Contract Requirements:

- New vessel must be built for this contract

- New mission must be carried out

- Screenshot required for flyby, orbit or landing attempt

 

Contract Rewards:

- When Finished:

Mission Badge

  

Ranking System:

All submissions are ranked based on the ship's mass.

1 - camacju 1.47 tons (Flyby)

2 -

3 -

4 -

5 -

Accept ✔                   Decline❌

Edited September 4, 2021 by Max von Kerman

[camacju]

This was pretty fun to do! I'm not very experienced with mass optimization - I focus more on cheap crafts or high payload fractions - so this mission still has room for improvement.

1.47 tons Mun flyby mission. Adding a landing shouldn't be much harder if I use the EVA jetpack also, I might try that this afternoon.

In SPH

Vertical takeoff

Accelerating at sea level

Spark engine ignition

Spark cuts out

Circularizing

Mun transfer

Mun encounters

Flyby

Reentry

Descent

Landed

[Max von Kerman]

8 hours ago, camacju said:

This was pretty fun to do! I'm not very experienced with mass optimization - I focus more on cheap crafts or high payload fractions - so this mission still has room for improvement.

1.47 tons Mun flyby mission. Adding a landing shouldn't be much harder if I use the EVA jetpack also, I might try that this afternoon.

In SPH

Vertical takeoff

Accelerating at sea level

Spark engine ignition

Spark cuts out

Circularizing

Mun transfer

Mun encounters

Flyby

Reentry

Descent

Landed

So this is a flyby attempt, still, impressive! 1.473 tons to Mün flyby!

[Andetch]

On 9/4/2021 at 12:39 AM, camacju said:

This was pretty fun to do! I'm not very experienced with mass optimization - I focus more on cheap crafts or high payload fractions - so this mission still has room for improvement.

1.47 tons Mun flyby mission. Adding a landing shouldn't be much harder if I use the EVA jetpack also, I might try that this afternoon.

In SPH

Vertical takeoff

Accelerating at sea level

Spark engine ignition

Spark cuts out

Circularizing

Mun transfer

Mun encounters

Flyby

Reentry

Descent

Landed

I presume this was done on easy with only 50% atmo-heating? Bloody hard to get a kerbal back to kerbin surface without a heatshield with 100% atmo heat! Which begs the question to the challenge creator - what difficulty/atmospheric heating level should be used? 

Edited September 9, 2021 by Andetch

[camacju]

2 minutes ago, Andetch said:

I presume this was done on easy with only 50% atmo-heating? Bloody hard to get a kerbal back to kerbin surface without a heatshield with 100% atmo heat!

I don't remember the specific heating level but in the past I have gotten a kerbal down with no heatshield with 120% atmo heat. All you need to do is take a gentle aerobrake trajectory and spin the craft as fast as possible

[Andetch]

3 minutes ago, camacju said:

I don't remember the specific heating level but in the past I have gotten a kerbal down with no heatshield with 120% atmo heat. All you need to do is take a gentle aerobrake trajectory and spin the craft as fast as possible

That's very good going! I guess I should stop with my ballistic re-entry trajectories! 

[Max von Kerman]

well i think this challenge is ded

[Max von Kerman]

On 9/9/2021 at 11:18 AM, Andetch said:

I presume this was done on easy with only 50% atmo-heating? Bloody hard to get a kerbal back to kerbin surface without a heatshield with 100% atmo heat! Which begs the question to the challenge creator - what difficulty/atmospheric heating level should be used? 

Oh yes im back. Atmo heating should be done with 100% and plasma blackout should be on. Gravity should also be set to normal.