Get to Minmus as fast as possible without crashing

[farmerben]

 

1:34:56  I have to use an RTG so I can sit on the launchpad waiting for Minimus.  This probe core doesn't allow my to set target for Minimus, for some strange reason.  However every time I add a pilot or some asparagus I get hit by the Kraken.

I'd say VYZNEV must have been going faster than 9700m/s

 

 

[vyznev]

2 hours ago, farmerben said:

I'd say VYZNEV must have been going faster than 9700m/s

Nope. I checked, and this was my highest speed during the run:

(It's relative to Minmus, since I flew most of the ascent with the navball in target mode, but that shouldn't matter much since the orbital velocity of Minmus around Kerbin is only 274 m/s, and it's at an almost exactly 90° angle to my flight path. Doing the math, sqrt(9506² + 274²) = 9510, so I shouldn't have been going faster than about 9510 m/s relative to Kerbin.)

I'm not sure why you're getting a slower time with a higher peak velocity. Maybe I'm just doing more efficient (= shorter) acceleration / deceleration burns? Mine are definitely not optimal, but I don't think I'm more than a couple of minutes off from the best my craft can do. And even that took quite a few retries to practice.

I do have a video of the entire flight, I just need to edit and upload it…

Edited December 13, 2022 by vyznev

[vyznev]

@farmerben Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgKEVLOf0go (already edited into my earlier post)

[farmerben]

Good job.  Does DLC have much higher thrust engines than stock?  

 

I keep trying a kerbal chair with 6 asparagus, and the kraken keeps striking;(

[vyznev]

7 minutes ago, farmerben said:

Good job.  Does DLC have much higher thrust engines than stock?

I keep trying a kerbal chair with 6 asparagus, and the kraken keeps striking;(

I believe all the engines I used (Spark, Terrier, Mainsail and Vector) are stock. So is most of the rest of the ship. I did use the 5m diameter DLC fuel tanks in the first stage asparagus cluster, but I don't think replacing those with a bunch of smaller tanks would've made much if any difference.

Not sure what kind of kraken attacks you're experiencing, but if it's just the ship wobbling too much and shaking itself apart, may I recommend more struts? I have quite a few of them on my ship (many aren't visible since they're hidden between the asparagus cores and the side boosters) and I also have a bunch of parts autostrutted to either "root part" (which was supposed to be the probe core on the last stage, although I think I accidentally made the fuel tank under it the root at some point) or to "grandparent part" (handy on side boosters attached via radial decouplers).

My basic guidelines when applying struts are that: 1) every side booster should be attached (by strut or by decoupler) from at least two points, one at the top and one at the bottom, 2) side boosters on upper stages should be strutted to lower stages to support their weight, and 3) if you must have a bunch of small parts sandwiched between big fuel tanks in the core stack (which tends to make that section of the stack springy and bendy), either bypass them with struts or use rigid attachment to essentially fuse those small parts together.

[farmerben]

Maybe I need a bunch of vectors instead of so many Rhino's

1:32:52, just shy of the record

 

 

 

I went to 9800m/s before timewarping and started to slowdown before entering Minimus SOI.  Probably my speedup and slowdown phases could be accelerated slightly.

The Kraken is a spinny shaky monster that strikes in deep space for no reason.  Even if the ship held steady at launch.

 

 

[vyznev]

1 hour ago, farmerben said:

The Kraken is a spinny shaky monster that strikes in deep space for no reason.  Even if the ship held steady at launch.

Could be many reasons, but I've had that sometimes happen with too many autostruts. For example, from an old mission:

Spoiler

"I originally tried just autostrutting the engines to the root part (which is the heat shield on the re-entry module), but that turned out to cause problems. And by problems, I mean...

...that everything was fine until I got to LKO and tried decoupling the second booster stage, at which point this happened...

...and then this...

...and then this...

...and finally this. Basically, a full-blown kraken attack. Oddly enough, after twisting itself out of shape, the whole thing kind of stabilized in its new configuration. But it was clear that it wasn't going to Tylo any time soon. So I got rid of the autostruts and replaced them with some appropriately placed real struts, and that fixed it."

IME, autostruts are really useful, but they're a bit like a strong spice, best used sparingly. I use them, but only on specific parts that I think will need them. And I particularly try to avoid having too many parts autostrutted to the same (typically root) part, since that seems to be a common trigger for weird physics glitches.

Of course, all this could also be completely irrelevant to whatever's messing up your vessel.

[farmerben]

On a new game and a fresh restart I can do asparagus and not die to the Kraken.  Even so I'm not really improving my times.  It probably possible to suicide burn a little more efficiently, but I don't know if I will ever break <1:30

[farmerben]

 

1:28:55

A new record!

 

Max velocity was 11,250m/s

Theoretically this vessel could make 12,500, but I decided not to push it.  

I used the gold probe core about 3 stages down, it has better reaction wheels, batteries, and navigation to target.   I knew I was good on the approach, but I took multiple attempts to do a decent suicide burn.  It should be possible to shave a few seconds by good piloting.

Edited December 17, 2022 by farmerben

[farmerben]

 

1:26:14

 

 

This time the boosters had way more aerospikes