Lightest Interplanetary Mainsail

[Whirligig Girl]

You must use mainsails for EVERYTHING!

The goal of this project is to get from Kerbin to another planet, land, and come back using only a mainsail. To make things harder, you can not use the throttle. you must keep the ship at full throttle and use an action group to toggle the engines. Further more, you must be light. Lighter the craft, better the score. I did the maths, it's theoretically possible. But I have only just gotten to Duna for the first time, and not back yet, so I won't be doing the challenge. The point is to see what people CAN do, not what they CAN'T. "I don't care what the LEM was designed for, I care what it CAN do." -Mission control commander for Apollo 13. I am doing this as an experiment for other people.

Points:

Moho: 10000

Eve: 200000

Gilly: 200000 (It's high because of the fact that you are using a monster engine with no throttle.)

Duna: 3000

Dres: 5000

Bop: 50000

Vall: 10000

Laythe: 10000

Tylo: 10000

Pol: 50000

Eeloo: 450000

Rules:

Pics of EVERYTHING (Launch, Orbit, Transfer, Corrections, Orbital Insertion, Landing, Takeoff, Transfer, Corrections, Orbital Insertion Touchdown) or it didn't happen.

Only allowed engine is Mainsail. You can use more than one, and it does NOT have to be SSTO.

KW rocketry, KSPX, and RLA Stockalike are allowed. RCS is allowed, but don't you even TOUCH those translation keys unless within 1 kilometer of a target vessel, and again, only Mainsail can be used.

The lighter the craft, the higher the Design score. Design score is where I grade you on how well you designed the craft.

Edited May 31, 2013 by GregroxMun

[Pugspaceprogram]

Have you tried this, OP?

It seems ok, but somewhat questionable. I think you should make it a little more specific.

As i am not a mod, i can't instuct you to do so, but i also suggest you read the challenge submission guidelines (once more) to get a full idea of what to post. Thanks! - Pugspaceprogram, leader of Team Pug.

[NASAFanboy]

Impossible, even if you had the fuel, you would fly out of the Kerbol system. Unless you have 100 Orange tanks, this is bongus.

I be call'in fake.

[joppiesaus]

So this is just a toggleble interplanetary mega-SRB sorta?

[Pugspaceprogram]

So this is just a toggleble interplanetary mega-SRB sorta?

Kinda what i thought.

[Francesco]

Impossible, even if you had the fuel, you would fly out of the Kerbol system. Unless you have 100 Orange tanks, this is bongus.

I be call'in fake.

he said you can toggle the engines. so it's just 0% or 100% throttle.

[Whirligig Girl]

Updated OP

[Holo]

Impossible, even if you had the fuel, you would fly out of the Kerbol system. Unless you have 100 Orange tanks, this is bongus.

I be call'in fake.

Mainsails don't have that much thrust. You're not going to fly out of the solar system if you switch one on without 100 tanks to weigh it down.

[Reavermyst]

"I did the math, it's theoretically possible"

Theoretically tells us you didn't DO the challenge yourself We want to know this is possible, we want you to PROVE that this is "theoretically possible" Not just say it is.

As for your rules, I have an issue with one and that's gimballing requirement. Anyone who's played this game long enough knows that gimballing mainsails(and skippers at times) with docked vessels combined with ASAS leads to violent wiggling parts and in most cases, spontaneous disassembly. So you just turned your challenge into a luck based system.

You should also consider revising your pics of everything rule to exclude parts that are meaningless. Transfers and corrections are pointless and faking them would be more tedious than actually doing it.

Long story short, do it first and make the challenge fun, not tedious.

Also, fun fact about the lovely orange tanks. They suck as rockets. If you were to do this challenge, I recommend the grey Rockomax tanks for better stability. The jumbo has weird collision issues that result in poor stability. These tanks work better for storage than active fuel.

Edited May 30, 2013 by Reavermyst

[Whirligig Girl]

Updated OP, changed rules, I am NOT doing the challenge. I am not an even remotely good enough pilot for this.

[Rockhem]

Updated OP, changed rules, I am NOT doing the challenge. I am not an even remotely good enough pilot for this.

The challenge submission guidelines say, you have to do the challenge for it to not be breaking the rules. So this challenge will be locked by a moderator.

[KasperVld]

Challenges don't get locked for not following the guideline although we do encourage it. Here's a link so you don't have to go look for it

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/24898-Challenge-Submission-Guidelines

[Whirligig Girl]

I am fully aware of the guidlines, but I am a TERRIBLE pilot, I haven't even gotten a ship back from Duna yet.