Show me brute force: Launch a viable population of Kerbsicles into solar escape!

[gabyalufix]

Let\'s try this one last time, shall we?

Kerbal\'s sun is going to go nova within a few short decades. Only you can save kerbalkind. The minimum viable population is around 3-6 thousand for most vertebrates. So you need to launch at least 3 thousand kerbins into an escape trajectory. And even then, they\'ll be facing some inbred 4-thumbed kiddies after a few generations on alpha kerbtauri.

This is made vaguely possible by the development of Cryogenic freezing. Let\'s say a frozen human takes up 2 cubic meters of space each (giving enough space for refrigeration, maintenance tunnels, pressure seals, luggage, etc. Scaled to the 1/4-scale kerbins, that\'s 32 kerbins per cubic meter. This works out pretty nicely: standard 1m habitation mods will store 40 frozen kerbins each, and my 2-meter by 2-meter hab mods will store 200.

So ideally, you\'d want to launch at least 15 big hab mods, or 75 lesser mods, or some combination of the two. Get them out of the solar system. Even if you can\'t manage that many, species have been known to occasionally survive surprisingly-tight genetic bottlenecks, if they\'re lucky. Genetics is anything but dependable. Also: maybe they can bring along a few tons of frozen kerbo-sperm, to add to the genetic diversity (though where, exactly, one would GET a ton of kerbo-sperm is best left to the imagination).

But the bottom line is thus: the more Kerbsicles you send, the more likely they are to survive. All kinds of things can hit new colonies: plagues, predation by xeno-fauna (or -flora, they\'re alien, we don\'t know), accidents, cryogenic malfunctions, micrometeors.

So launch as many as you can, and get them out of the doomed solar system.

Bonus if you can supply power, bring extra fuel/air/luggage, etc. You should probably have a few habitation mods for the ship\'s non-frozen crew, also.

Use the reasonably balanced mod packs. Silisko, Novapunch, KW, Down Under, Probodyne, C7 only for the hard points and RCS, etc.

And yes. It is possible to save the species.

See that star that has the lense flare? That\'s the sun. I\'m making a note here: Huge success. I\'m gonna leave this running on 10kx overnight, see how far I get.

12 (non-functional) NERVA engines were used as a placeholder for my nuclear reactor. I figured, they were big, heavy, and had a radiation warning on the side: CLOSE ENOUGH!

Silly is my middle name. Also overkill. And 'Strut'. My point is, I have a lot of names.

Also: I seriously love the kerbylon launch thingy. Best part ever. Stupid launchpad tower always breakin\' my stuff! No longer!

I honestly can\'t believe I managed to do it. When I started I really did think it was completely impossible. Is solar escape velocity really that easy?

Do be careful. Somewhere past 10k m/s or so, your controls may start to freak out. Apparently it\'s a known bug.

Come at me, bros! Or not. Maybe instead, make a smaller, cheaper, more elegant design, that can be launched as a fleet. Or something else entirely. A ship that fires railgun ammo at the sun to punish it for nova-ing. A ship designed to intercept and destroy mine. A ship with a massive pile of fuel tanks on one side, to serve as a radiation barrier against the nova. A C7 plane with an ion drive, designed to eternally stay on the dark side of the planet.

Whatever! Open call. Surprise me.

[Guest Flixxbeatz]

You win. No contest. Definite overkill

[Asaman]

Hmm, I might give it a shot to create something very ridiculous to out-ridiculous your creation

[Guest ThatCrazyPilot]

That\'s nuts!

[Guest Flixxbeatz]

That\'s nuts!

From what I\'ve observed, he mastered the art of overkilling more than almost everyone here =P

[Guest ThatCrazyPilot]

From what I\'ve observed, he mastered the art of overkilling more than almost everyone here =P

Yeah, I figured that out

[Asaman]

Uh, I can\'t seem to find the 'kerbylon launch thingy' anywhere, and my rocket keeps getting jammed in the original launch pad >.<

Anyways, right now I just tried to see how far I could go, without actually caring about the size of final stage.

So yeah I got bored after I reached ~230 billion meters away from the sun.

Ze ship.

You can hardly see the sun from here

ADDED: whoa, my ship was in space for 3.5 years before I got bored. Not bad.

This orbit is ridicilous. I spent 4-5 hours running KSP in background at highest time warp, and it did not even get to apogee

[gabyalufix]

@Asaman: Nicely done. I approve wholeheartedly.

@Everyone else: I am disappoint. Are there truly so few amongst you that dare try their hand against me?

The trick (I have found) to getting those really huge rockets up into space, is thus: Staggered Stages. My most recent designs have 3 layers, a ring of solid boosters, a ring of 2m liquid fuel rocket stages (with the hab mods at the top), and the central liquid 3m stages. I fire all the bottom-level stages on liftoff, and drop them off as they run out (starting with the solids, then the 1st stage outer liquids, then the 1st stage inner liquid, then the 2nd outer liquid, etc.), and immediately firing the exposed stage beneath. The gimballing keeps the ship on target (using asas, no RCS until you get into orbit). It\'s also important to keep making your stages lighter, smaller, and more efficient, as you rise, since up there you need more delta V out of each stage, but you don\'t need it to happen as quickly.

Btw: the Kebylon lauchpad is part of the black sun pack. It comes with some uber-heavy struts to hold you upright long enough to hit spacebar. I\'m also a big fan of their heavy decouplers used for project firelark. They\'re heavy as all hell, but they are strong and they hold the part far enough out that they don\'t get in the way of your RCS and landing legs and such. Also they look much better than the other heavy decouplers.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=2750.0

[Gojira]

You\'re on.

[Gojira]

I\'m gonna assume that Kerbals breed quickly, considering their endless supply of rocket pilots, and I am gonna use only about 5 of your capsules things.

[RedDwarfIV]

Interesting. But I had a chat with my dad about this a while ago. Simply using solar panels won\'t cut it for powering cryo units.

Which is why I like your design, Gaby.

Of course, with nuclear fuels you have to keep them SCRAMed until they are needed. Solar panels are ok for triggering reactor startup though.

[foamyesque]

From what I\'ve observed, he mastered the art of overkilling more than almost everyone here =P

It isn\'t overkill until you break the game. This looks interesting.

EDIT: A link to the parts would be nice. I suppose I could use something as a placeholder...

[Panichio]

I got a start. Nine habitation modules but I just couldn\'t get enough thrust to escape Kerbol. Oh well for the very first design I think it went very well.

Should I burn at Ap or Pe for maximum efficiency?

[foamyesque]

Real men do direct ascent. >

[gabyalufix]

I\'ve often wondered something: I know that perigee burns are optimal for making a transfer orbit, but what about hyperbolic escape trajectories? Perigee is best until it goes hyperbolic, but once it has, what is the best way to improve your exit velocity?

The way I actually did it in mine, is I accelerated myself to (almost) stellar escape velocity while still in Kerbin\'s sphere of influence. That way I mostly avoided the weird sun-tide / high velocity control wig-out problem.

[foamyesque]

Welp, I tried building a DA stock parts rocket, but though I think I had a planform capable of it (skin-connecting liquid fuel tanks make things so much easier!), my computer decided that the VAB should essentially stop working \'round about the 1100th fuel tank.

So I think I\'ll have to resort to mod packs. We\'ll see where things go!

[Panichio]

I\'ve often wondered something: I know that perigee burns are optimal for making a transfer orbit, but what about hyperbolic escape trajectories? Perigee is best until it goes hyperbolic, but once it has, what is the best way to improve your exit velocity?

The way I actually did it in mine, is I accelerated myself to (almost) stellar escape velocity while still in Kerbin\'s sphere of influence. That way I mostly avoided the weird sun-tide / high velocity control wig-out problem.

Ahh, I might try that.

[Panichio]

A little better...

Any tips on how do get this thing into escape velocity?

[Newman]

There should be bonus points if there\'s fuel left in the craft after achieving solar escape velocity. There\'s little point in this exercise if the 'ark' ship is unable to do a breaking burn once it reaches it\'s destination, after all

[Tim_Barrett]

A little better...

Any tips on how do get this thing into escape velocity?

If you wip yourself around the mun, you get some extra free velocity.

[gabyalufix]

@newman: if you\'re good enough with aim, couldn\'t you just get captured by the destination gravity well? After all, you bleed off most of your speed on the way out of the solar system.

Hmm, pretty sure the margin of error would mean you would need inhuman accuracy with your escape burn, though. Possibly straight-up diefic accuracy.

[cardgame]

If you wip yourself around the mun, you get some extra free velocity.

Not necessarily free though, now is it? How much fuel would someone burn up to angle themselves right to get to Mun? I\'m not well-practiced in that department, myself, so I\'d use up way too much fuel maneuevering for a Munar obrit...