Shoot for the sun!

[boolybooly]

P.S. If I complete the challenge and have video proof, do I get a cookie?

Yes if I can get it into the ethernet socket... else you might have to make do with a special credit in the ticker tape parade. 8)

Personally I wouldn\'t recommend version 14x yet or even 13.2, IMHO 13.1 is the latest viable version and a KSC landing is fiddly but seems to work if you are having trouble with unexpected pyrotechnics on splashdown.

[PakledHostage]

I played around with this between Christmas and New Years, back when I was still running into the altimeter blanking bug on every flight (thankfully that went away when Rev 0.13.1 was released...). These were some of the screen shots that I captured then:

I did it a bit differently than some of the other posts that I\'ve seen here, but I too went for minimum time in space while using the smallest rocket that I could get away with.

The boys are hoping that they\'ll still be asked to join the ticker-tape parade!

I could probably build a better rocket than this now that I know that LFT stacks can be connected to a radial decoupler, but that was how I did it then... All parts are stock except the one Silisko Industries LM-03 fuel tank on my middle 'orbit circularisation stage'.

I use that intermediate “orbit circularisation stage†to enable me to trim my parking orbit without having to activate the RCS or top booster stage. That way, I have a precise starting mass for my inter-planetary orbit insertion burn and the spacecraft will accelerate the way I expect it to.

The reason that I needed a precise starting mass for the inter-planetary orbit insertion stage was because I flew a quasi-free return trajectory. I had only 4 RCS thrusters and one RCS tank to steer the boys back to Kerbin. They needed to be on exactly the right heading when they left Kerbin so that they\'d make it home 106 days later.

Yes, this image is photoshopped! But it saves me having to upload one image each for periapsis and apoapsis.

I understand that heating effects have been added in v0.14. It may no longer be possible to get within 3.4 million km of Kerbol. But it was possible in v0.13.

100 days and two orbits of Kerbol later

Trimming for a survivable re-entry

Just before splashdown after 106 days in space.

They boys made it home to Kerbin, but they\'re still a long way from KSC!

[DeadlyPear]

I played around with this between Christmas and New Years, back when I was still running into the altimeter blanking bug on every flight (thankfully that went away when Rev 0.13.1 was released...). These were some of the screen shots that I captured then:

I did it a bit differently than some of the other posts that I\'ve seen here, but I too went for minimum time in space while using the smallest rocket that I could get away with.

The boys are hoping that they\'ll still be asked to join the ticker-tape parade!

Yes, this image is photoshopped! But it saves me having to upload one image each for periapsis and apoapsis.

I understand that heating effects have been added in v0.14. It may no longer be possible to get within 3.4 million km of Kerbol. But it was possible in v0.13.

Spoiler 1: I cannot thank you enough for this, I tried it out and it worked ANd it reduces the previous mission time by 2/3rd\'s! (for the most part, my apoapsis was a bit too low)

Spoiler 2: It is still very possible, I wish I took a picture. But anyway, time to start the recording once I get into the stupid orbit.

[boolybooly]

The boys are hoping that they\'ll still be asked to join the ticker-tape parade!

Tell the boys congratulations, they are Star Pilot Dudes and no mistake and are welcome in take their place on the back of the pickup truck as the parade tours Kerbalville shopping center.

Also DeadlyPear, nivvydaskrl also said he would be working on some single orbit solutions. They do exist, at the very least you can raise the AP so that Kerbin catches up, but its got to be just right or you miss the rendezvous...

[nivvydaskrl]

Hmm. Clearly, my original thought that a single-Kerbin-year rendevous would be impossible is incorrect. I suppose the period doesn\'t scale linearly with the length of the semi-major axis of the orbit. That would...make sense, actually. Derp. XD

Well, played, sir. Well played.

Maybe I\'ll try to do a sub-year intercept by tweaking my orbit around Kerbol. Be interesting to see how that\'d work. If nothing else, I can leave some junk in low Kerbol orbit!

[PakledHostage]

Hmm. Clearly, my original thought that a single-Kerbin-year rendevous would be impossible is incorrect. I suppose the period doesn\'t scale linearly with the length of the semi-major axis of the orbit. That would...make sense, actually. Derp. XD

It happens... Who\'s going to throw the first stone? Not me.

Maybe I\'ll try to do a sub-year intercept by tweaking my orbit around Kerbol. Be interesting to see how that\'d work. If nothing else, I can leave some junk in low Kerbol orbit!

This could be an interesting challenge... It might come down to who\'s got the fastest computer (i.e. who can launch the biggest monstrosity without lagging out their system), but it would also require navigational skill.

[nivvydaskrl]

This could be an interesting challenge... It might come down to who\'s got the fastest computer (i.e. who can launch the biggest monstrosity without lagging out their system), but it would also require navigational skill.

Yeah. So far I\'ve noticed some slowdown in the X releases for .14, and getting anything on the pad without it randomly exploding is a 50/50 on a good day. Once the stable\'s out, I might consider this again. (Though once the stable\'s out, I may also plunge my head into a lake of C#.)

[Teiwaz]

So...

It may be new for 1.4, but it seems that the Sun is, indeed, a physical object. I\'m not sure what the radius of it is, but it\'s pretty small. (I crashed into it at high time compression, the number on the altimeter is significantly higher than it was when I crashed, I think it\'s actually something like 12KM in radius)

*ahem*

I believe that this forum should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this month is out, of landing a kerbal on the sun and returning him safely to Kerbin.

Actually, let\'s not bother with the second half. Landing a Kebal on the sun is good enough. Not sure how we\'d do that, as I was up to 186KM/sec when I impacted. Unfortunately, the sun also appears to have no atmosphere for... uh... Plasmabreaking? But firing Kerbals into the Sun seems like a worthwhile project to me, anyway.

[Carnivrspigbat]

Neither Bob nor Bill were overly concerned with setting down in proximity to KSP. Bob\'s exact words when it was suggested are unfortunately unprintable. Bill\'s were 'JUST GET US DOWN FROM HERE SWEET MOTHER OF KERBIN!!!'

Sigg\'d

[Carnivrspigbat]

I\'m glad that I found that sentence. XD

[PakledHostage]

I\'m going to submit a new entry for this challenge. As chuffed as the boys are about being invited to ride in the back of the pickup truck in the parade around the Kerbalville shopping centre, they\'re still hoping for better... Maybe some commercial endorsements? (Jeb says his dream is to make it onto the Wheaties box.)

Here goes:

Does this count as the smallest standard parts rocket? 10-1/2 LFTs and an RCS tank? I could have saved a bit more fuel by going for a 2-year mission rather than a 1-year trip.

I strive to bring my spent stages down over water. I wonder if damage to greenhouses, etc resulting from falling boosters will ever be considered in the game?

Orbit closed down to an 85 km high circular orbit after four aerobraking passes. Ready for re-entry.

Jeb somehow managed to misplace the post-it note with the splashdown coordinates but it was on the order of 5 km from the pad. I generally aim a little long so that they come down in the water.

While I\'m on the subject, I created a handy spreadsheet for calculating Great Circle distances between any two points on Kerbin. I previously posted it in the How to land where you want on kearth thread for anyone who wants a copy.

[nivvydaskrl]

...you must have done the patched conics for your escape burn to ensure you\'d insert into the proper Kerbol orbit, or you\'re the Lord and Master of Seat-of-the-Pants flying.

Either way, I\'m done. You win at everything. XD

[PakledHostage]

...you must have done the patched conics for your escape burn to ensure you\'d insert into the proper Kerbol orbit, or you\'re the Lord and Master of Seat-of-the-Pants flying.

Yup, patched conics together with rudimentary celestial navigation for the escape burn... I timed my burn with reference to Kerbol\'s rise time from my 196 km high circular parking orbit. I then used a numerical model to plan the aerobraking manoeuvres and de-orbit burn upon returning to Kerbin.

I\'ll admit that I blew the aerobraking manoeuvres twice before this successful mission though. On the first try, the capsule re-entered on the first pass, then on the second try the capsule wasn\'t captured at all and I lost the crew... If I get a chance this weekend, I\'m going to try to modify my aerobraking prediction so that it can handle hyperbolic starting trajectories. Currently it assumes an elliptical starting trajectory.

PH.

Edit: After finally getting around to modifying the aerobraking prediction to handle hyperbolic starting trajectories, I used it to find some interesting results:

Intercepting Kerbin from a 1/2 year orbital period Kerbol orbit with the stack that I used in the mission described above, your aerobraking window is only about 2.4 km wide at periapis. Specifically:

- Hyperbolic periapsis of ~28.5 km results in capture on the first pass

- Hyperbolic periapsis of ~30.9 km results in a roughly parabolic escape trajectory.

(These values were calculated assuming a Hyperbolic excess velocity of 3314 m/sec.)

In my first attempt, I used 25 km and re-entered directly.

In my second attempt, I used 35 km and didn\'t manage to get captured by Kerbin\'s gravity. May my crew rest in peace...

In my third attempt, I used 31 km and closed down the orbit to about 12000 km apoapsis using the RCS. That used up about 25-30 percent of my RCS fuel. Fortunately, I had enough left over to make another three aerbraking passes and to align the orbital plane to the equator.

If I were to try it a fourth time, I\'d probably aim for a 30.1km - 30.3 km hyperbolic periapsis.

[Guest Flixxbeatz]

So...

Kerbals to the sun.

NOW.

[Salda007]

Sigg\'d

( ;D :w00t: Thanks! Happy St. Patty\'s! :cheers: )

---

On-topic, I launched another Kerbolar-flyby mission a while ago, but I\'ve got some missions going in LKO that I don\'t want to just leave up while I run the Kerbol mission on 10kx acceleration. So I\'ll type it up and share it once those projects wrap up.

[marko dash]

if the sun is a solid object now the challenge becomes CAN YOU LAND ON IT!?!

[NovaSilisko]

if the sun is a solid object now the challenge becomes CAN YOU LAND ON IT!?!

In theory? Yes.

[mincespy]

In theory? Yes.

WHAT THE-

Did... You... Just... Land... On... The... SUN?!

[boolybooly]

Seems I have some catching up to do.

Packled, that is quite an achievement, you deserve a medal! That is certainly the smallest v14 stock parts ship I have seen and a very efficient orbit too, I am in awe of your precision. Masterly use of aerobraking and a close landing to KSC terrain... just a bit closer... next time! You also have the fastest round trip I have seen in your earlier v13 mission @ 106:20:57.

Hard to compare apples and oranges so its time to write off v11 achievements, they are remembered in italics but new honours are in order so you have the smallest v14 stock parts ship prize, which looking back at the previous award is an I.O.U. for one packet of peanuts from Mary-Lou Kerman, barmaid at The Dog and Booster. lol

Also the fastest round trip prize was the engraved (and polished) hubcap of Bob Kermans Korris Kinor, but apparently it is in orbit now so you can have the bean bag in Pa Kerman\'s office instead, once the family dog has gotten off of it. Ma Kerman said she would wash it first.

Nova what can I say, only in KSP ... looking at the MET is that some kind of TARDIS you are flying? Thanks for the screeny & proof of concept.

For purposes of the challenge, landing on the sun is admissible imho and counts as an orbit at a very close periapsis. Good luck getting back to Kerbin

[Ydoow]

WHAT THE-

Did... You... Just... Land... On... The... SUN?!

Judging by how he said 'In Theory' I\'m assuming he just adjusted the .sfs file to make his craft on the Sun.

Maybe I\'m wrong though.

[NovaSilisko]

Judging by how he said 'In Theory' I\'m assuming he just adjusted the .sfs file to make his craft on the Sun.

Maybe I\'m wrong though.

Quite. Upon loading the flight, it says 'waiting for ground contact to resume physics' in the console - but that ground contact never comes because technically there\'s no ground to speak of. The result being the game is permanently locked up while it tries to find the ground.

[boolybooly]

Packled, my efforts in stalking vying for the heart of Mary-Lou Kerman made it necessary to become the rightful trophy holder for the smallest craft prize. Hence I launched three unwitting Kerbals into the void with only ten full tanks (9 full and 2 halves) of fuel and 5.5 units weight of engines in the Sunbather 01 craft.

http://youtu.be/dYKl926o8VA

[PakledHostage]

Packled, my efforts in stalking vying for the heart of Mary-Lou Kerman made it necessary to become the rightful trophy holder for the smallest craft prize. Hence I launched three unwitting Kerbals into the void with only ten full tanks (9 full and 2 halves) of fuel and 5.5 units weight of engines in the Sunbather 01 craft.

Impressive! By improving my first stage booster, I\'ve managed to get down to 9 and 1/2 tanks but you\'ve still got me beat on the propulsion end. I\'m still using 7.0 units (3 LV-T30s and 2 LV-T45s) of engines on my latest design... I could cut that down to 6.5 units of engines without changing the flight plan, but topping your performance is clearly going to take some drastic measures!

[boolybooly]

Well lets make it total craft weight. I make mine 33.6. Do your worst!

[PakledHostage]

Well lets make it total craft weight. I make mine 33.6. Do your worst!

Jotting some figures on the back of a 'Dog and Booster' paper coaster, I think I might be able to get it lower. Until then, enjoy your peanuts and all the prestige of your current status as record holder!