Minimum number of flights to open tech tree 100%

[Odo]

Eat your hearts out, you nay sayers!
(Okay yeah he didnt finish the tech tree from this, I remembered it incorrectly. But his achievement is still impressive. If he did the same thing again with more science parts he definitely could do it in 2.) Edited November 23, 2013 by Odo

[wooaa]

Scot Manly Unlocked most of the tech tree in 2 missions. He probably could have finished it in 3 if he wanted.

[Epthelyn]

The furthest I've ever gone on the tech tree was about 75% of the way through it after nearly 8 years of ingame time and 34 launches. Then the Kraken ate my save.

I could probably manage it in 8-10 if I really tried, but to be honest I'm more interested in doing science in extreme places whilst pushing efficiency to the limit than blitzing science points; after all, once I've unlocked everything I might as well play Sandbox* because I'd just use the parts I know and love (mainly orange tanks and mainsails + LV-Ns).

*All my installed mods are from 0.21, so I have no science definitions, so this isn't strictly true; career mode completion would be more of a "no mods" save for me.

[Xetalim]

Guys.

Scott Manley is not the best KSP'er.

There are many guys in there who are better than him.

[longbyte1]

Guys.

Scott Manley is not the best KSP'er.

There are many guys in there who are better than him.

Name one guy who has made a video on getting 6000 science on his second mission.

[SunJumper]

Name one guy who has made a video on getting 6000 science on his second mission.

Name one guy that has made an album on getting 5500 science on the first mission. A lot of us have done amazing things here, including Scott Manley.

[Odo]

Name one guy who has made a video on getting 6000 science on his second mission.

Well considering someones gotten te whole tech tree in 2 missions uhm..

[3_bit]

I'd wager 1 flight can do it if you spam science and do many flybys. I think the Joolian system has enough science in it alone if you plan on having your vessel's resting place be an atmosphereless moon (thus allowing you to easily circumnavigate it before crashing)

[uwcsDemo]

Name one guy who has made a video on getting 6000 science on his second mission.

[Odo]

Beautiful.

[allmhuran]

I'd wager 1 flight can do it if you spam science and do many flybys

Nope, can't be done in one flight. On tier zero you have no way of generating power other than the engine, so you don't have the electricity required to spam transmissions.

[KerbMav]

That, was an awesome exploration program!

[Jodo42]

"If you didn't understand the eve part, ask your parents."

"Next time we'll replace the probe cores with political dissidents."

You evil, magnificent Kerbal.

[Dave Kerbin]

In my main career mode I did it in 4 missions. My other aim was to do it in the shortest possible time from the kerbals point of view, under 30 kerbal days.

What about in kerbal time? I have been getting around 300-400 science a flight with just landing on the mun and then Kerbin and I am only on day 12 Kerbal time. The missions to Minmus take a LONG time. but i usually can get a Mun mission done in 12 hours game time.

Someone was suggesting a challenge for this a while ago and yes milking the Mun was the obvious solution. I started thinking of the best path to do it, which I think was doing mostly low altitude missions (very short time wise) to grab 165 science in about 30 game minutes so that you can unlock solar panels and the two basic science instruments (Basic Rocketry->Survivability->Science Tech->Electrics). Then you just start launching identical ships on a course for the Mun, switching between launches and munar insertion burns of those in orbit as needed to get a tight line of ships. Once enough are on their way you can switch back and milk a little more science from Kerbin's biomes since it will take a few hours for the congo line to reach the Mun. Once that happens they all land in different Mun biomes and beam back their data. Except for the missions to land on Kerbin biomes we don't need parachutes or any return fuel, since that would only waste time when we can just hire more kerbals. This is also why I think getting solar panels before going to the Mun is important, since we can skip the Mun return entirely making the initial transit the main time sink. So overall it could probably be done in about 7 hours and change.

In that thread I did suggest the idea of a hard mode challenge which makes things a bit more interesting by banning any communications equipment (all samples must be returned). A hard-hard mode could be only using the original 3 kerbals with respawn disabled, so you can't just spam ships but really need to decide where you want to go to get the most science. Unfortunately I think it would still come down to a lot of trips to the Mun, since going elseswhere takes vastly more time then the return.

[quietsamurai98]

Does anyone know the maximum amount of science each planet holds? IE: If you send a probe with all experiments and spam science, how much can you get from each planet?

[Force21]

It's been taking me a while to get through the tech tree because I've challenged myself to not transmit any data at all except for the crew reports because all they are to me is "Roger KSC, we are go for landing". I'm now planning a two way trip to Duna after getting bored traveling to the Mun.

[Vector]

Wow, impressive! And I like the commentary

[allmhuran]

It's been taking me a while to get through the tech tree because I've challenged myself to not transmit any data at all except for the crew reports

This was done with no transmissions other than crew reports, so you can still get a pretty good kickstart.

[Force21]

-snip-

Okay wow, that's a bit too kerbal for me x) .. I'd compare my journeys to Scott Manly's Interstellar Quest. A slow realistic progression but returning everything in the process. I think the only probes I used were a "weather" satellite which failed to collect any major amount of science, and the interplanetary transfer stage to Duna which is still undergoing testing.

[TYRT]

He's at Scott Manley x 10 Level

[Eric S]

Guys.

Scott Manley is not the best KSP'er.

There are many guys in there who are better than him.

To be honest, it breaks down to three categories plus a few "bonus" categories.

First is actual piloting. Then there's ship design, and then mission planning. On piloting, he's good, I haven't seen any that I consider better, but I haven't looked hard. Ship design, not so much. He often does something I find surprisingly effective, but at other times, he misses something or tries something I know will cause problems. Mission planning tends to fall into things that vary from straight forward to well beyond my abilities, and on the latter, I haven't seen anyone eclipse him.

The bonus categories: he's educational to watch, and not just about KSP, and he can make anything seem fun. For crying out loud, he made early versions of "Papers Please" look fun to me, and that's a game I'd hate to play.

So, I don't think he's the best KSP player in every way, but I don't know anyone that beats him in every way either, so he's definitely one of the better players and beyond my skill level.