Mun Candidates.

[hachiman]

I really don\'t want this to turn into a vanilla versus modded parts thing. If vanilla parts get your engine revving that\'s sweet, If you like modded parts that\'s sweet also. People enjoy this game for different reasons, lets respect that.

EDIT: speaking of modded parts, props to the first guy that gets to the Mun with the Saturn V pack.

What about the N1? It never had a chance in rl.

[mojoey]

I present to you, \'dawn\' part of the trinity family of wockets! capable of going from 0 to OMG WERE GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in ten seconds flat. I do have a max-q problem that needs to be ironed out. the solution? MOAR POWER!

[frenchie16]

Here\'s my attempt. It can send the lander and ascent stage to escape velocity, as well as land on Kerbin, so I think it\'ll make it to, and possibly be able to land on, the Mün, as well as get back into Mün orbit. Not sure it\'ll be able to return to Kerbin, though…

Has anyone calculated the delta-V needed for flying to the Mün, or written an explanation of lunar transfer orbits for those of us who aren\'t experts on orbital mechanics? That would be a very helpful thing with 0.12 on its way.

[Tiberion]

Here\'s my attempt. It can send the lander and ascent stage to escape velocity, as well as land on Kerbin, so I think it\'ll make it to, and possibly be able to land on, the Mün, as well as get back into Mün orbit. Not sure it\'ll be able to return to Kerbin, though…

Has anyone calculated the delta-V needed for flying to the Mün, or written an explanation of lunar transfer orbits for those of us who aren\'t experts on orbital mechanics? That would be a very helpful thing with 0.12 on its way.

Yeah, some more info on how to intercept the Mun properly would be swell. I understand and can peform Hohmann transfers, and transferring up to a 12,000km orbit isn\'t too hard, but I\'m not sure how to time it so the Mun is there when you are - I guess you\'re going pretty slow at the top of a 12Mm elliptical orbit, so you can linger out there a while..?

[derhp]

Mun stats and discussion on missions:

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=2346.0

Personally though, I\'m going to have a couple of goes at guesstimating it. If the frustration of that begins to out weigh the fun had, then I\'ll resort math.

[derhp]

Also, from another thread.

The moon will be stationary relative to you when you\'re on or near the surface

[Tiberion]

Also, from another thread.

I assume that means once you have been captured into orbit?

You could be in a kerbin-orbit close to the Mun\'s and go blazing by at 100m over the Mun\'s surface, I assume

[frenchie16]

Also, from another thread.

This sounds like it\'s referring to the method 0.12 will use to prevent issues with PhysX when you\'re landing on something that\'s moving really fast. Basically, it sets the frame of reference to the nearest celestial body, so when you are near the Mün, the Mün isn\'t moving. This shouldn\'t change anything as far as getting there and landing goes, though; it should be totally invisible when you\'re playing the game, as newtonian physics work the same regardless of your reference frame. Unless it refers to something else?

[bloodydollar]

The Hyperion III-H rocket has orbited with Apoapsis at 13,000,000m and Periapsis at 11,000,000m. Well enough to get to the Mun.

The complete rocket, get\'s out of the atmosphere and starts orbit

The orbit engine, makes final adjustments to orbit

And the lander module lands, with fuel enough for descent and ascent*

*Powered landing tests done on Kerbin, Ascent power was enough to get the lander to 15,000m, probably will be enough in 1/4 gravity on the Mun.

Rocket uses The challenger pack, NovaSilisko\'s pack, Sunday Punch 1.09, and Assorted hardware (lander legs, radial stack decoupler, and maybe more)

Craft file below.

[derhp]

I think that rocket could fly well with one ASAS rather than the one you have. ASAS is the shizzle my nizzle, I\'ve never needed more than one.

[Guest GroundHOG-2010]

EOR-LOR is the best way to go. I am not going to go to the mun without it being a EOR-LOR. And I want to be the first to do so (Via EOR-LOR). All I need is 3 of my best ships.

[nivvydaskrl]

My plan is to take a bunch of extra delta-v and use the orbital map to eyeball it, more or less. You can always do correction burns en-route if you figure out you\'re gonna smack into it or miss it entirely.

[frenchie16]

The Hyperion III-H rocket has orbited with Apoapsis at 13,000,000m and Periapsis at 11,000,000m. Well enough to get to the Mun.

This actually gives me an idea… Because it\'s currently impossible to run out of life support, you could easily get to the moon by getting into an eccentric orbit from 11000km to 13000km and just put it in high warp until your orbit coincides with the Mün\'s (since your orbit would have a slightly shorter period than the circular orbit of the Mün, they should eventually come pretty close)…

Not a great idea if you\'re going for realism, of course.

[derhp]

Just a few tweaks. Sorted my excessive delta V by adding some mass. I even put parachutes on the SRB\'s for shits and giggles.

[frenchie16]

Just a few tweaks. Sorted my excessive delta V by adding some mass. I even put parachutes on the SRB\'s for shits and giggles.

What\'s inside that payload shroud? Will it actually be able to land and then fly back to Kerbin?

EDIT: Nevermind, I saw in the first post that it uses NovaSilisko\'s lander parts. If that rocket can make it to the moon and back with dV to spare, that\'s pretty impressive. I kinda feel like you should need a massive, frame-rate-murdering colossus to reach the moon…

[derhp]

I\'m using Moaches long SRB with a few tweaks (mainly less heat production). It has a 90 second burn time which gives you MUCH more breathing room. I would like to reconfigure the thrust and burn time to be more like the Space Shuttle SRB, but I\'m not sure of the Earth to Kerbin ratios lol. I\'d like to have it performing a ~2 minute burn, but I\'d have to reduce the thrust to the point where the whole thing might not lift off the pad.

Also I can\'t stress this enough, control your throttle! When you lift off it should be at a slow crawl, slowly accelerating upwards. I don\'t go to full throttle until 10 seconds before SRB burnout, at which point I\'m usually at 10000m or a bit lower. At that altitude the most fuel efficient 2m engine from the Challenger pack is more than enough to keep the thing moving.

Lastly, I\'m very particular about wasted weight in my insertion / lander stage. And in fact I\'m sure there is weight to be saved in the configuration I currently have, but I have to wait until the mun is actually out before I find out for sure. I\'m 60% sure I have too much fuel for my insertion engine, but then again my insertion engine may not provide enough thrust in which case I\'d have to use a heavier, less efficient engine.

[frenchie16]

I\'m using Moaches long SRB with a few tweaks (mainly less heat production). It has a 90 second burn time which gives you MUCH more breathing room. I would like to reconfigure the thrust and burn time to be more like the Space Shuttle SRB, but I\'m not sure of the Earth to Kerbin ratios lol. I\'d like to have it performing a ~2 minute burn, but I\'d have to reduce the thrust to the point where the whole thing might not lift off the pad.

Also I can\'t stress this enough, control your throttle! When you lift off it should be at a slow crawl, slowly accelerating upwards. I don\'t go to full throttle until 10 seconds before SRB burnout, at which point I\'m usually at 10000m or a bit lower. At that altitude the most fuel efficient 2m engine from the Challenger pack is more than enough to keep the thing moving.

Lastly, I\'m very particular about wasted weight in my insertion / lander stage. And in fact I\'m sure there is weight to be saved in the configuration I currently have, but I have to wait until the mun is actually out before I find out for sure. I\'m 60% sure I have too much fuel for my insertion engine, but then again my insertion engine may not provide enough thrust in which case I\'d have to use a heavier, less efficient engine.

My Mün rocket actually does lift off quite slowly, and I keep the throttle at 50% until SRB burnout (around 30km, with the 90-second SRBs from KSP Silisko Edition). I\'ve got waaaaay too much mass on my lander, though; mostly this is because I wanted to attempt an Apollo-like flight profile, leaving the descent stage behind, and also because I find it helpful to have both SAS and RCS on my landers. The result is a rather large and wobbly configuration at launch, which can be a bit annoying to fly, but is also lots of fun!

[Shedao]

After a lot of work explosions, it is finally done!

I present you the Saturn C7 (it uses C7 parts, but the name is rather coincidence as there were a Saturn V, a row from Saturn K1 to K7 [K for Kerbal ] and with use of C7 parts the Saturn C1 to C7.... don\'t ask how the other rockets performed)

The complete rocket in VAB:

Seperation of the Munar Transfer Stage:

As you may noticed the lander stage between the two bigger engines include a booster. This will not fire, but be left fully functional on the Mun surface (kind of the Kerbal version of the American flag on our moon 8) ), while the upper rest of the stage leaves the Mun with the escape tower rocket.

Jeb has also edited the texture for the booster because he is so proud:o :

The rocket is very easy to handle as you just have to go straight up around ~60km, decouple and make a Hohmann transfer to the Muns orbit without touching the fuel of the lander stage. The mods I used were C7 (of course), Wobbly rockets (only escape tower), NovaSilisko (decouplers), Assorted Hardware (Lander Legs and Aerospike Engine), Quabits (mini vanilla-rockets).

Besides, if someone says it is cheating with all these mods. I think it is way more easy to build a Mun rocket with vanilla parts, as it was really a lot of hard work until this rocket could get there.

[derhp]

My Mün rocket actually does lift off quite slowly, and I keep the throttle at 50% until SRB burnout (around 30km, with the 90-second SRBs from KSP Silisko Edition). I\'ve got waaaaay too much mass on my lander, though; mostly this is because I wanted to attempt an Apollo-like flight profile, leaving the descent stage behind, and also because I find it helpful to have both SAS and RCS on my landers. The result is a rather large and wobbly configuration at launch, which can be a bit annoying to fly, but is also lots of fun!

Yeah, If I wasn\'t using modded parts I would need far more stages. KSP silisko edition is sweet, but would still require far more parts than I have currently. Also, I think I mentioned it in the first few posts but I\'m still iffy about getting back to kerbin. I\'m not sure if I have anywhere near enough DV on the lander to descend, ascend and then return home. If it turns out I don\'t, then I\'ll adding more mass to the to the lander stage that might equate to at least one more SRB, or another liquid stage. I\'d probably lean towards another liquid stage to keep the symmetry 8)

[derhp]

Besides, if someone says it is cheating with all these mods. I think it is way more easy to build a Mun rocket with vanilla parts, as it was really a lot of hard work until this rocket could get there.

No one is going to say that, this thread is about sharing idea not about being a dick to others because they play the game differently. Right guys?

/looks around menacingly.

[frenchie16]

Wait a sec. Sorry that this is a bit off-topic, but I build a rocket almost exactly like the first stage of this, to see if I could do single-stage-to-orbit in KSP Silisko Edition, and it would have worked great except it stuck on the pad. (I could get it to lift off by tipping it 30° or so with RCS with the engine on full power, at which point it leapt away from the pad…)

How did you overcome sticky pad syndrome without boosters or a decoupler on the bottom?

[CarolRawley]

[Guest Flixxbeatz]

Here\'s my Lunar Munar Module Prototype:

From top to bottom:

Plague Return Module

Pestilence Lander Module

Catastrophe Orbiter Module

Design was thoroughly planned to make it fit a 3m payload fairing shroud.

STATUS: Still on testing stage. Other design prototypes are being tested already.

[greencross]

And here is my baby.

Gilgamesh-I heavy lifter and Argo-I spacecraft.

Ready to roll out!

[Zeroignite]

The last of those is a beautiful shot, worthy of being on game promotional material.