The Career Mode !SCIENCE! Challenge - Max that Tech Tree!

[allmhuran]

I don't see the point of doing Tier 0

Because we can!

[Caroliano]

@allmhuran: I thought you were going to save a little landing delta-v and "stage" those external fuel tanks in a lithobreaking maneuver! That would be even more absurd than overheat staging!

[allmhuran]

I did consider trying to empty the lowest tanks and break them off on the Ike landing. This would mean less dead weight to carry around for the rest of the mission. I was pretty close to having enough fuel for a Mun landing before returning, which would have netted rather a lot more science, and if I had broken off some mass on Ike that might have done the trick. But I figured the risk was a bit too high.

[allmhuran]

OK, I just spent an hour tediously orbiting the Mun going:

- Eva

- Get report

- Keeep or discard

- Grab ladder

- Enter pod

- Warp for 20 seconds

Over and over and over. I think I got all of them, if not then I don't care because that was extremely boring. But I did end up, now, with 1662 points instead of 1472.

[SkyRender]

OK, I just spent an hour tediously orbiting the Mun going:

- Eva

- Get report

- Keeep or discard

- Grab ladder

- Enter pod

- Warp for 20 seconds

Over and over and over. I think I got all of them, if not then I don't care because that was extremely boring. But I did end up, now, with 1662 points instead of 1472.

That's much better. With that, you could unlock Basic Rocketry, General Rocketry, Survivability, Advanced Rocketry, General Construction, Science Tech, Advanced Construction, Electrics, Space Exploration, Specialized Construction, Advanced Electrics, Electronics, and Advanced Science Tech. That would give you pretty much everything you need to run a huge Mun mission to sample and fully exploit all 14 of the Mun's biomes from the surface.

[Zeblote]

Pro tip: edit persistent.sfs to gain infinite SCIENCE with 0 launches.

[Oznerol256]

Pro tip: edit persistent.sfs to gain infinite SCIENCE with 0 launches.

Yeah...remember this one?

3. This really goes without saying, but please don't cheat...

[Zeblote]

Yeah...remember this one?

But I'm not participating in the challenge, so how could I be cheating?

[Oznerol256]

But I'm not participating in the challenge, so how could I be cheating?

You're suggesting it.

(Note to myself: Don't feed the trolls.)

[Kappa73]

tier 0 rocket, 1204.3 points upon return home, rest radioed in from space. 1712 points total for the flight.

I skipped the mun altogether, gonna go there and map out those biomes with all those science equipment im gonna get from this 1st mission.

What i did instead was Kerbin equatorial biomes eva reports, Minmus, interplanetary, Jool, Laythe, Vall, Pol, Tylo, Dres and Duna flybys, eva reports from high and low orbits, and crew reports radioed in when i burned the engine and gained power. Reports are from high Minmus, High Sun, high and low Jool, low Laythe, low Pol, low Val, low Tylo, high and low Dres and high and low Duna.

I also got the whole thing on video, tho i dread to edit that behemoth, the mission took a long time.

[Oznerol256]

Looking forward to that video!

[antbin]

tier 0 rocket ... 1712 points total for the flight.

Wow. Is that enough to buy all the scientific instruments? If so, you might have made the key to a 2 mission unlock...

[Vector]

This is a fun challenge.

I just did a mission using starting parts, high and low flyby of all Jool's moons except Bop, and got a bonus high-altitude Eve flyby on the way home. Didn't bring a transmitter for crew reports tho.

I had plenty of fuel left over, so I'll have to give it another go (with a transmitter) and see what all I can get.

[Sirine]

Mission Accomplish. Tech Tree fully unlock. Detail please refer to signature link.

Total: 11 launch. All ship file here..http://www./download/hxhhbtfpyyxrwa5/Ships.zip

Edited October 22, 2013 by Sirine

[Kappa73]

Wow. Is that enough to buy all the scientific instruments? If so, you might have made the key to a 2 mission unlock...

Yeah it turns out it is indeed enough for all of the science equipment. This is what i ended up buying, now i just got to put those experiments to good use... =)

[SharpRus]

I was doing some number crunching and have a basic outline for a two mission unlock, assuming getting research at the launch pad doesn't count as a mission.

Step 1) get a command pod on the launch pad and collect science to unlock goo containers

Step 2) repeat with goo containers

Step 3) research general rocketry for t45 engine (unless you can get a rocket into orbit without any control, in which case go for survivability).

Step 4) build a rocket to get a Minmus and Mun flyby. Using 4 goo containers per zone will yield 17.3 science with diminishing returns before multipliers, so put enough for 8 or 9 zones or 32 to 36 containers. This should yield around 500 science (800 if you land on Minmus).

Step 5) using this science create a rocket to go to the Jool system, doing flybys/gravity assists of Eve, Duna and Dres. And flyby each moon of Jool finally landing on Laythe. With the materials container and some solar panels for powering the antennae this should yield about 10000 science through transmissions. The entire tree is 10.5k science.

Note: Getting 90% of maximum science with the materials container takes 14 transmissions and 9 with the goo container. Other experiments are at 5 and below.

[ThreeMartiniLaunch]

I was doing some number crunching and have a basic outline for a two mission unlock, assuming getting research at the launch pad doesn't count as a mission.

It's the OP's challenge, so his rules, but as far as I'm concerned if you are collecting science, it's a mission.

My first of what I hope to be two missions to max the tech tree:

Minmus landing, Munar flyby, return to Kerbin.

[SkyRender]

Yeah, any time you're putting hardware out on the pad, it's still a launch. Even if it doesn't have engines, you're getting science to unlock the tech tree. Anyway, our current top-place holder has 11 missions, so even at that your plan will top the list if you go through with all 5 steps there.

[ThreeMartiniLaunch]

Oops...

Does my entry count? I use Kerbal Alarm Clock and Improved Maneuver Nodes. Both partless mods that do not affect performance.

[SkyRender]

Oops...

Does my entry count? I use Kerbal Alarm Clock and Improved Maneuver Nodes. Both partless mods that do not affect performance.

Stock-only refers to parts used in flight on your rocket. I have no way of really knowing when you use Kerbal Engineer Redux to aid in rocket design, Kerbal Alarm Clock for keeping track of launch windows, or Improved Maneuver Nodes to make your planned operations easier. None of these mods actually affect your ability to pilot and all of them are just time-savers. So yes, "untraceable" mods like those are fine.

[SharpRus]

Yeah, any time you're putting hardware out on the pad, it's still a launch. Even if it doesn't have engines, you're getting science to unlock the tech tree. Anyway, our current top-place holder has 11 missions, so even at that your plan will top the list if you go through with all 5 steps there.

Well then it's just a matter of building a tier 0 rocket that can land on Minmus and come back. Even without the goo it should be possible to get 400-500 science with a Minmus landing. Currently though, all my tier 0 high delta-v rockets either break apart mid flight or turn into ICBMs. I think I need to experiment more with overheat staging.

[SunJumper]

Yeah, any time you're putting hardware out on the pad, it's still a launch. Even if it doesn't have engines, you're getting science to unlock the tech tree. Anyway, our current top-place holder has 11 missions, so even at that your plan will top the list if you go through with all 5 steps there.

For someone with sufficient skill, three launches ought to be very attainable. It has been demonstrated by allmhuran (I believe) that it is possible to build a tier 0 rocket that lands on Minmus and Ike, and achieves orbit around Duna and the Mun. The 1660 science points, therefore, should be enough to unlock most of the scientific equipment, most of the good engines, and solar panels. Scott Manley did his 6000 science mission after an initial 350 science or so, therefore a start of nearly 1700 science could allow the best of us to finish the tree in one go, and the moderately skilled of us could still unlock enough of the tree that the last of it would be exceedingly trivial.

Hmm... I'm wondering what I can do with a 1660 head start now...

[Ekku Zakku]

EVA reports, crew reports, and surface samples are worth more than their weight in gold...

Goodness, when I read that, I nearly had a heart attack... XD good thing that the "crew report" part was a mistake, otherwise I would have killed myself over missing something like that. I did figure out you could only store one per pod beforehand, but I thought I missed something somehow lol.

Anyways, now to explain why that nearly gave me a heart attack; I'm working on a tier-0 mission right now that's already done a Duna/Ike flyby and is working on an Eve flyby with a gravity assist to head out to the Jool system (if I had missed some easy science, I'd flip a table). I'm hoping to pull in ~2000 science, with EVA landings on Bop and Pol. Also if I have enough fuel when I get back to Kerbin, hopefully some Mun orbits (to get all the biomes) and an EVA Minmus landing will be possible as well.

I'm using a slightly modified version of allmhuran's ship (so much dV for tier-0!), with a couple extra tanks on the final stage. I figured that instead of landing on such a high-gravity moon such as Ike, it would be worth much more to use that dV to go to Jool instead, and do some EVA landings to get the crew reports and surface samples. However, with my math for the fuel I have left over, it looks like I won't have enough to escape Jool and get back to Kerbin. I suppose I'll have to get there and find out. If not, a couple of flybys would still net me quite a bit of science.

Of course, I am going for 2-launches to max my tech tree ;3

Edited October 24, 2013 by Ekku Zakku

[Sirine]

Goodness, when I read that, I nearly had a heart attack... XD good thing that the "crew report" part was a mistake, otherwise I would have killed myself over missing something like that. I did figure out you could only store one per pod beforehand, but I thought I missed something somehow lol.

Anyways, now to explain why that nearly gave me a heart attack; I'm working on a tier-0 mission right now that's already done a Duna/Ike flyby and is working on an Eve flyby with a gravity assist to head out to the Jool system (if I had missed some easy science, I'd flip a table). I'm hoping to pull in ~2000 science, with EVA landings on Bop and Pol. Also if I have enough fuel when I get back to Kerbin, hopefully some Mun orbits (to get all the biomes) and an EVA Minmus landing will be possible as well.

I'm using a slightly modified version of allmhuran's ship (so much dV for tier-0!), with a couple extra tanks on the final stage. I figured that instead of landing on such a high-gravity moon such as Ike, it would be worth much more to use that dV to go to Jool instead, and do some EVA landings to get the crew reports and surface samples. However, with my math for the fuel I have left over, it looks like I won't have enough to escape Jool and get back to Kerbin. I suppose I'll have to get there and find out. If not, a couple of flybys would still net me quite a bit of science.

Of course, I am going for 2-launches to max my tech tree ;3

I bet you can't do that. Min 3 launch.

[SkyRender]

I bet you can't do that. Min 3 launch.

Not so. I've identified the required tech to basically break the Mun wide open science-wise and get an absurd amount from it. It takes around 1705 science to unlock (potentially 1615 if you can do without fuel lines).