How small can you go?

[WhiteWeasel]

I guess I should start a thread to help get people talking. What is the smallest:

-Rocket you built (number of parts or size or both)

-Stable orbit, I can just imagine how low can you go contests on muns/no atmosphere planets

-Satellites/rovers/landers

-Aeroplanes

My personal challenge is to design an object that achieves its goal with the least amount of space used. For example, a rover with all the science stuff, an antenna, solar panel/power source(s) on it. There isn't a limit on parts, just got to be compact. Also if you do a rover only the rover counts so you don't have to worry about the rest.

My munar lander:

I could add more RCS spheres, it starts getting top heavy and hard to control if you have 6 or 8. 4 is my limit, but 2 is enough for the flight and landing.

Lander:

Lander landing: (older model)

Rocket with payload:

Edited April 22, 2013 by WhiteWeasel

[Vanamonde]

Three parts to Kerbin orbit.

[WhiteWeasel]

Scottie took the cake:

[RoboRay]

My smallest manned Mun mission...

More pics.

Can be done with all demo parts, I believe, but I was carrying the extra weight of a heat shield for the Deadly Reentry mod.

[Camelotking524]

If mods are allowed

My smallest SSTO One man lander.

[stibbons]

My mapping satellites use ion drives, so I'm a little heavy handed with the batteries and prefer solar panels to charge them. But they're still pretty compact little things. The antenna next to the ISA dish is a RemoteTech omni.

The launch vehicle I use for these is pretty modest too. 31 parts total, all stock apart from the ISA MapSat dish and two RemoteTech antennas. It's gotten these MapBoys in orbit around Kerbin and Mun so far, fairly sure I can get to Duna without modification.

EDIT: Here's a craft file for a stock version of my satellite and lifter.

Edited April 22, 2013 by stibbons

[ROFLCopter64bit]

Can someone provide a small launcher to get a satellite to GEO? I have difficulty.

[stibbons]

Can someone provide a small launcher to get a satellite to GEO? I have difficulty.

Sure, just edited my post to include the craft file. That lifter will probably start to have trouble if you stack much more weight on, though.

[tavert]

Here's my lowest-mass rocket, 1.64 tons, that gets 2 Kerbals (on ladders) to orbit and safely returned to KSC with a powered landing.

[Dweller_Benthos]

My mapping satellites use ion drives, so I'm a little heavy handed with the batteries and prefer solar panels to charge them. But they're still pretty compact little things. The antenna next to the ISA dish is a RemoteTech omni.

Yeah, my mapping sats are about that small too. The first few I didn't even bother with ion engines because a mothership placed them in polar orbit and left them there, no need to maneuver after that. But the next few I did put ion engines on just in case I wanted to change orbit afterwards. They are still pretty small though.

My launch vehicles, though, are huge, I don't bother trying to make them small.

[Qumefox]

Lander:

You can actually forgo the landing legs on that design and increase your delta-V pool considerably. When dealing with ultra light craft, every little little bit of weight savings has considerable effects on delta-V.

[SmallChange]

This is the smallest lander I've actually used. It's designed to sit on the end of the Mk 1-2 Command Pod. Able to land and take off from Minimus easily, but I recall not having enough fuel to get off of the Mun.

[WhiteWeasel]

This is the smallest lander I've actually used. It's designed to sit on the end of the Mk 1-2 Command Pod. Able to land and take off from Minimus easily, but I recall not having enough fuel to get off of the Mun.

Do it like a jeb and use whatever's left to get of the ground, eva & jetpack it the rest of the way

[WhiteWeasel]

You can actually forgo the landing legs on that design and increase your delta-V pool considerably. When dealing with ultra light craft, every little little bit of weight savings has considerable effects on delta-V.

Actually those legs are pretty important; The lander has a wierd control vector, (translate it left or something and it starts spinning) so it's difficult to kill lateral speed, and in short landings aren't gentle. The legs are put there to absorb the impact due to their high tolerance-plus i'd rather have a leg breaking off than an explosion that could kill jeb.

Secondly, they act as ballast for the four rcs tanks on the top to help the poor control.

EDIT, and about my delta V pool, 2 is enough, and I have 4 on there. Probably could do it with one if I were better at this game.

Edited April 22, 2013 by WhiteWeasel

[M5000]

Well, I have your "lowest orbit" right here:

3.8Km circular on the Mun. Everything seems to be remaining stable after several orbits. Which makes me happy because that means the high TWR I originally designed in case of emergency corrections isn't needed.

I plan to go lower and try a larger, flatter planet. Maybe Vall or Tylo, or possibly Moho or Eeloo. Something flat though.

Or maybe Gilly.. Hmm...

[Van Disaster]

Has a full science kit, antennae are also protection if it rolls ( which is why there's a few ) but it takes concerted effort to flip it anyway. I've no idea how to actually get it anywhere other than throwing it out of a cargo door though.

[WhiteWeasel]

Has a full science kit, antennae are also protection if it rolls ( which is why there's a few ) but it takes concerted effort to flip it anyway. I've no idea how to actually get it anywhere other than throwing it out of a cargo door though.

Perhaps put it in a box? @36:00

http://youtu.be/BGicirMdomQ?t=34m40s

[Spatzimaus]

Yeah, my mapping sats are about that small too.

Mine are a little bigger than that, with quite a bit more xenon. Partially this is because I need to carry a Kethane scanner as well (and those things are quite a bit heavier than the ISA scanner), but mainly it's so that I can do some major orbital adjustment. I dropped five of my satellites at Jool, and sent one to each moon. I sent one to the outer planets and, after undocking, one of the satellites flew to Dres and the other to Eeloo. This required a substantially bigger probe body.

[automcdonough]

my mappers:

It can one continuously. Then I discovered I only needed one so...

It's like a little solar barge.

My rover is not maximum "compact" but IS lightweight for the speed it can safely handle.

It's also short. I'm working on a nice lander to drop it off.

I think your lander would be better off using the small side-mount engines instead of so much RCS.

Edited April 22, 2013 by automcdonough

[WhiteWeasel]

Kinda off topic, but it's my thread, so everyone keeps talking about kethane & drilling etc... What mod is it?

[Stargate525]

Kethane is the kethane mod.

the mapping is the ISA mapsat.

[SalmonellaDingDong]

Brilliant info, stargate

mapsat: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/9396-0-17-ISA-MapSat-Satellite-mapping-module-and-map-generation-tool-v3-3-1

kethane: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/23979-Kethane-Pack-0-4-3-Download-link-now-up-to-date-after-forum-catastrophe

[BeowolfSchaefer]

Here's my little rover. Could be simpler but I like to have battery for the night, sensors and a headlight

[automcdonough]

So. The game is inexpensive. It's provided countless more hours of entertainment than many $60 games. The developers are constantly working on it and rolling out more features. And you're into it enough to be posting here.

Having just the demo version is nonsense.

just sayin.

[WhiteWeasel]

Yeah, but I don't have $20 on me right now.