Challenge: KASA funds Jeb's Mock Mun Shot

[Omnivore]

Well the first version of this challenge didn\'t go over too well. Hopefully this new version will attract a few competitors.

KASA released funds today for Jeb\'s proposed Mock Mun Shot to test the practicality of delivering a lander sized payload into Munar orbit.

Rules:

• 
  [li]Stock \'vanilla\' 1.11.x parts[/li]
  [li]Deliver a 6+ unit mass payload into circular Munar orbit of 14km +/- 500m[/li]
  [li]Return to Kerbin[/li]
  

The payload represents the descent and landing portion of a future lander.

Bonus for surviving the landing and for landing near or at the launch facility.

Hint: 3 LFEs make a 6 unit mass payload.

Old version of challenge:

KASA released funds today for Jeb\'s proposed Mock Mun Shot flight to test their Mun Lander Mock I ship design.

Rules:

[list type=decimal]

[li]Vanilla parts only except for Captain Slug\'s Lander Legs.[/li]

[li]Ship must include the Mun Lander Mock I ship as the lander (attached).[/li]

[li]Ship must reach an altitude of at least 13000km (13 million meters).[/li]

[li]Ship must land under power (hopefully successfully but at least with crew surviving).[/li]

[li]Successful flights ranked according to shortest total mission time.*[/li]

The attached craft file for the Mun Lander Mock I is pretty much the easiest vanilla design (except legs) I\'ve found to land under power with the current version (0.11.1). It is setup so that you can pop the chute before the final capsule decoupler and optionally use it to assist an otherwise powered landing.

My first shot at this ended in a futile attempt at a powered water landing. The crew survived and oddly enough so did the ship... for about two seconds then it blew up, ???. End of mission pic attached.

General description of my ship, I\'d be real interested to hear of smaller solutions:

Boost stage: 12 SRBs, 36 LFTs, 9 LFEs and assorted duct tape and glue. Orbital insertion stage: 6 SRBs. Cruise stage: 2 LFTs, 1 LFE. All topped, of course, with the Mun Lander Mock I. It is about the biggest ship my setup with current settings will handle and stutters quite a bit for the first minute or two.

Good luck and have fun.

*Would prefer to rank by mass or price but those don\'t show up in the mission reports (yet).

[icefire]

Why would a lunar lander have a parachute and winglets. If you\'re going to attempt simulating a moon landing it should at least be entirely powered.

[Omnivore]

It is much harder in 0.11.1 to do a powered landing than in some previous versions, the winglets are attached to make it a bit easier. The parachute would be there regardless for parachute landing on the return trip. If someone gets too frustrated with trying to land fully powered, the staging order is such that, for this challenge, the parachute can be popped to make it a bit easier - still by no means a sure thing.

For Munar landings, the winglets would be replaced by RCS units to allow for lateral thrust. In fact, I\'d not argue a bit if someone wanted to replace the winglets with RCS units for this challenge. I gaurantee it\'ll be far more challenging. Regardless, landing on the Mun is going to be much different than landing on Kerbin due to lack of atmosphere and much lower gravity, so simulation is not what this challenge is about, rather it\'s a mock run with a similar sized payload and a powered (or power assisted) landing.

EDIT/ADDITION:

After doing some tests today, the following landing craft is offered as an alternative for those offended by the first design as well as for those looking for a harder challenge. This lander has two stages, the uppermost will not be used in the challenge it is just payload, in an actual Munar landing it would be the return vehicle. The bottom stage has RCS units instead of the original version\'s winglets.

Once again, all vanilla except for Captain Slug\'s Landing Legs. Munar Lander Mock II craft file attached as zip, enjoy!

UPDATE:

Added screenshots from a typical 'successful' landing... successful as in any one you can walk (or be carried away in mostly one piece) from.

[Omnivore]

Due to the underwhelming popularity of this challenge, I\'ve redefined it into something a bit more useful and hopefully interesting. See first post in this thread for details.

My attempt at this challenge worked great right up until the end when I lost my mind, deployed my parachute way too early, and managed to find a puddle of water in the midst of a landmass on the dark side of Kerbin. I don\'t think the ending could be brought off in a worse way lol.

Ooops posted wrong landing pad screen shot - corrected now.