What is the minimum number of missions required to max out the tech tree?

[jamgoth]

And how do you accomplish this?

Edited February 24, 2014 by jamgoth

[louddifference]

i think scott manley got it finished in 3 missions, might be wrong but its some low number like that

[UmbralRaptor]

The changes in 0.23 mean no beamspam, but I wouldn't be surprised if 2 was still doable. Especially now that Minmus has biomes.

[jamgoth]

thanks, that was an interesting watch.

[Superfluous J]

If you can get to Minmus and home in tier 0 (before unlocking anything. i.e., in your first mission), I'm sure you could do it in 2 missions. Both would be doozies though and would likely not be any fun. The idea is to get to Minmus and bounce around the biomes getting surface samples and EVA reports in all the biomes, then returning in the first mission. The second mission you'd go back to Minmus and repeat that with all the science you unlocked, hopefully all the way up to gravioli detectors. Then you'd go to Mun and do the same thing (which is more expensive) and then maybe if you're a Godly-tier player also go to Jool to get all the science there. Without too much extra dV you could probably stop at Gilly on the way home.

More reasonable is to do it in 3 missions. The first is a polar Kerbin orbit where you EVA report all biomes. Then do the above with your 2nd and 3rd missions instead of your 1st and 2nd.

I personally have not tried these nor do I have any plans on it. It doesn't sound fun at all. If I were to try it, though, I would try it in 3 missions because I can barely get out of LKO without unlocking anything.

[TheGeoninja]

Depending on how good your rocket building is you probably could get max science in 2-4 missions it also depends on how ambitious you want to go.

[Kasuha]

The question is, what is a mission. Is it one launch, or one recovery?

Thanks to "thermal decoupling", you can send dozens ships to orbit in single launch even with tier 0 tech. Send them to various Mun and Minmus biomes and you can theoretically have the whole tech tree open in single launch.

Personally though I believe it is much easier, faster, and more fun to deploy command pod on launchpad, make crew report, EVA report (two), take surface sample and unlock tier 1 just for science acquired by not flying anywhere.

[Superfluous J]

The question is, what is a mission. Is it one launch, or one recovery?

That's an interesting question that I hadn't thought of before. To me, it's always been one launch no matter how many recoveries. When I toyed with this in 0.22 (before giving up shortly after achieving LKO with 0 science because the exercise simply wasn't fun for me) one ship I had had 4 capsules, each with a Kerbal in it. Before launch, I sent one Kerbal each to the runway, "KSC" grass, and the launch pad to get the science there before actually launching the ship.

Thanks to "thermal decoupling", you can send dozens ships to orbit in single launch even with tier 0 tech. Send them to various Mun and Minmus biomes and you can theoretically have the whole tech tree open in single launch.

That's an interesting idea I hadn't considered. I will admit I *BARELY* got to LKO. Like, I fought the ship the entire way up and when I got my periapsis out of the atmosphere I had like 100 dV left. Making a bigger ship to launch seemed pretty impossible, but making multiple ships that take off from the launchpad... Hmm...

Personally though I believe it is much easier, faster, and more fun to deploy command pod on launchpad, make crew report, EVA report (two), take surface sample and unlock tier 1 just for science acquired by not flying anywhere.

Totally agreed.

[Dave Kerbin]

I would agree it's between 2 and 3 depending on how big a ship you can manage.

Transmission spamming is gone, but in it's place Minmus has a bunch of biomes now. So the first mission uses thermal decoupler party tricks to visit Minmus and explore about 6 biomes (5 might be enough if you've picked up science on the way and can charge enough for some crew reports, might even stretch to 4 if you do a bunch of EVA's in orbit and maybe do a Mun gravity assist with EVA). That gives you 1300 science so that you can unlock a line straight down to the GravMax, plus enough left over to grab the 2HOT and radial decouplers. If you did more then the minimum science you can also grab fuel lines and the little rockomax engine. Now it's much more straight forward to build a ship that will grab science from the Mun and Minmus. Either one massive ship to get everything in one mission (yet another party trick ship), or 2 more reasonable ones (do Minmus with the first one, use that science to reach docking ports, then build a second one for the Mun)

Edit: I also agree (somewhat) that it's much easier to do it if you avoid the tier-0 mission to Minmus though that pushes it to a minimum of 3 missions instead of 2. The only difference is I don't think need to limit yourself to just collecting stuff on the pad, you can get into orbit and do EVA's over a bunch of biomes without any tricks - Mk1 capsule, parachute and antenna then add 12x T200 fuel tanks and the LV-T30 engine. It turns like an oil tanker (just be gentle on the gravity turn) but it will get you into low orbit safely where you can do an EVA over all the biomes on the equator. You can also grab 2 'flying over' EVAs, one on the launchpad and one after landing.

Edited February 24, 2014 by Dave Kerbin

[KerikBalm]

Maybe a more interesting question is what is the earliest in game time that you can max out the tech tree?

The journey to the mun is much shorter, and given the lack of an economy at the moment, you can spam launch all the ships needed.

A 20 minute orbit around LKO and some launchpad picnics would boost their science output considerably

[jamgoth]

The question is, what is a mission. Is it one launch, or one recovery?

Thanks to "thermal decoupling", you can send dozens ships to orbit in single launch even with tier 0 tech. Send them to various Mun and Minmus biomes and you can theoretically have the whole tech tree open in single launch.

What's thermal decoupling, how would I use it to send multiple ships into orbit. Would these ships be returning home?

[KerikBalm]

Its placing a rocket directly underneath another rocket. To decouple the "lower stage" you light the rocket on the stage above it. It doesn't take too long to overheat the part of the lower stage that is attached to the rocket nozzle above it.

Ie, since you can't decouple parts, you use your rocket engine exhaust to destroy the parts linking your stages.

[Superfluous J]

What's thermal decoupling, how would I use it to send multiple ships into orbit. Would these ships be returning home?

Its placing a rocket directly underneath another rocket. To decouple the "lower stage" you light the rocket on the stage above it. It doesn't take too long to overheat the part of the lower stage that is attached to the rocket nozzle above it.

Ie, since you can't decouple parts, you use your rocket engine exhaust to destroy the parts linking your stages.

And if you build 3 (for example) rockets on the launch pad that are each attached to their own SRB "decoupler" in a structural girder base, you can light up one ship's engines and the SRB decoupler under it, and that decoupler will explode and allow one of your 3 rockets to lift off. Get it into orbit (or even do its entire mission) and then go down and do the same thing with part 2. Repeat again with your 3rd part and bam, 3 "launches" in one "mission."

For specific definitions of "launch" and "mission" of course

[xcorps]

You can store more than 1 EVA report???

[Specialist290]

Provided they're from different biomes / environments, yes.

[xcorps]

Provided they're from different biomes / environments, yes.

*facepalm at terminal velocity*

[Superfluous J]

*facepalm at terminal velocity*

Get ready to have your mind blown: You can store more than one crew report too. Though you gotta get out, right click and grab it from the capsule, and then right click and store it again. Apparently, you can't access the infinite storage container from the inside of the ship

[Xavven]

Get ready to have your mind blown: You can store more than one crew report too. Though you gotta get out, right click and grab it from the capsule, and then right click and store it again. Apparently, you can't access the infinite storage container from the inside of the ship

No! You are breaking the law of Conservation of Crew Report Notebook Pages!

[UmbralRaptor]

No! You are breaking the law of Conservation of Crew Report Notebook Pages!

The weak force (of holding onto ladders) violates some conservation laws. Clearly a more fundamental physics is needed.

[MarvinKitFox]

Get ready to have your mind blown: You can store more than one crew report too. Though you gotta get out, right click and grab it from the capsule, and then right click and store it again. Apparently, you can't access the infinite storage container from the inside of the ship

You... can????????

SO MANY times i've cursed myself for not having the batteries, or the radio, to beam a crew report out so as to make space for a next one.. and NOW you tell me I could have packaged it using the exterior USB storage port? WHY didnt you tell me 137 missions ago!?

Im off to sulk, now! Totally unfair of you not to have predicted my problem and solved it earlier.

[MarvinKitFox]

If by "mission" you mean sending something out to the pad......

Possibly one, definitely can be done in two.

As mentioned in a previous post, even tech zero allows thermal staging, you can build two vehicles, link them with a pair of SRB butt-joined to each other, and seperate your vehicles by mutual selfdestruction of the SRB join.

If you can do it for two vehicles, you can do it for 3. or 7. or 193 if you want.

I have myself build a combo of 2 * bunnyHopper surface explorers (each good for reaching maybe 3 Kerbin Biomes), plus my bunnyHopperJr KSC explorer (gets landing pad, runway, ksc, shore and water biomes), plus 2 Mun/Minmus orbital explorers, plus one Kerbin polar Orbital biome explorer. Im still trying to get a MinMus landing module glued onto it, to allow return after an EVA whole-MinMus trip...

[[ yes, both of the adjectives in my sigg are accurate ]]

Currently my tech-zero launch aggregation is good for about 3500 science from one "mission"(in 6 launches)

A second horror like that , with the new tech available and gong to Jool system in addition to Kerbin, would maxx out with a big margin.

Of interest:

Design your monster in the VAB, but launch it from the runway.

Runway has LOTS less buildings, cliffs and flagpoles to self-destruct your sprawling "thing"

[Superfluous J]

If you can do it for two vehicles, you can do it for 3. or 7. or 193 if you want.

While in theory that works fine, in practice there is a part limit. I personally have never hit it but I was getting pretty laggy once with two 200+ part ships in the same physics window. Let's say 600 is my max. If I wanted 193 ships, each could only have 3 parts If you want a basic LKO orbiter, that's 15 parts or so (maybe 20 when you consider needing to "decouple" it and support that decoupler) which means you can "only" have 30 of those ships. However, you dont' need to get to LKO, you need to *land* on Minmus and Mun. I never made a teir-0 mun/minmus lander so have no idea the minimum parts, but I'd guess 40 (just doubling the LKO cost) which means "only" 15 ships.

15 ships capable of landing in a biome on Mun or Minmus and returning safely to Kerbin for the crew report(s), eva report(s) and surface samples.

15 perfect launches with crappy ships and the first few will have horrendous lag for the first 2.5km. Sounds like a blast. Probably literally.

Thank you, I was considering trying this until I thought about it logistically, and now I'm cured of that ailment

Edited February 26, 2014 by 5thHorseman

[ArmchairGravy]

Get ready to have your mind blown: You can store more than one crew report too. Though you gotta get out, right click and grab it from the capsule, and then right click and store it again. Apparently, you can't access the infinite storage container from the inside of the ship

Well I just learned something. Gracias and +1