Minmus speed racing

[Othuyeg]

Jebediah has grown very fond of Minmus. The huge flat surfaces have captured his imagination. Jebediah loves speed almost as much as he loves snacks and therefore he has autohized the scientists to build the fastest wheeled vehicle imaginable and send it to minmus. A few very rich investors have also contacted KSP as they believe this could spark a massive business in Minmus tourism. Even televised racing competitions have been suggested.

This here, guys and girls is our playground.

Challenge: Beat everyone else with your rover. (don't take it too literally, we don't want violence.)

- use STOCK parts on the rover, you can use non-overpowered parts etc. on your transport ship. No mod can interfere with the rover.

- get a rover on minmus

- Highest speed done with the rover on minmus wins (starting from a stationary position, not taking off the ground at any point during the run)

- If the craft leaves contact with the ground, the run ends there and even if it returns back into ground contact the run has ended the moment it leaves ground. So no skipping off the ground.

- It does not matter how you get there, just the end speed of the rover matters. Must however be sent there without cheats etc. (During transfer to minmus, Mechjeb can be used, even the autopilot.)

- No cheats means, no unlimited fuel, unbreakable joints, etc.

- must have some sort of wheels (a sledge/sleigh/sled will not do) and a kerbal attached to it during the speed run

- No exploits

- no cheats or godlike mods

- Special pin awarded to those who keep their kerbal alive. Pins have been approved by health and safety department. (We still don't know who hired those people. We need to get rid of them.)

Post as extensive evidence as possible. Video is naturally the best form of evidence, but screenshots may be the easiest. Scoring is easy. Highest speed during the run, while still connected to the ground, wins.

Edited March 14, 2014 by Othuyeg

[Othuyeg]

Oh and just a note: those who did the challenge in the other thread, you can send your scores here as they will fill the requirements.

[Pds314]

Hmm. I'm gonna calculate the maximum possible score.

The R 48-7S can get 300 m/s^2 of acceleration (hypothetical maximum). This means that one can go up to 4243.94864025 m/s sustained as long as one has fuel.

Have fun trying to actually reach that speed though.

EDIT: I guess, however, that with some very careful planning, one could "land" a vehicle on Minmus for a brief fraction of a second during a hyperbolic trajectory with a periapsis of zero meters. If that is allowed, there is really no limit to speed besides the speed at which a landing gear will explode on contact with the ground due purely to floating point errors.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Pds314

[KvickFlygarn87]

Well, given enough time and fuel, it could reach infinite m/s; at that point a bump would send you on an escape trajectory from the universe though.

[Othuyeg]

Hmm. I'm gonna calculate the maximum possible score.

EDIT: I guess, however, that with some very careful planning, one could "land" a vehicle on Minmus for a brief fraction of a second during a hyperbolic trajectory with a periapsis of zero meters. If that is allowed...

The rules of the challenge define "starting from a stationary position, not taking off the ground at any point during the run"

[Kasuha]

Here, have an entry. I'm not sure if the lifter I used to get it there is or isn't part of the challenge but it was pretty average craft. I actually underestimated the task and did not mount enough electricity which resulted in some problems getting the "rover" ready for its run.

I claim 1160 m/s because in the last image wheels appear to be leaving the ground already. I did not save Jeb although there was an ejection system and I tried to use it, unfortunately it was not effective enough.

Probably not hard to beat with more boosters.

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[zarakon]

Damn

I have a racer of similar weight and two engines, and I can barely reach 1000 before just running out of flats to drive on

Judging by your heading, I'm guessing you're starting in the northeasten tip of the Greater Flats and racing southwest? I'll have to try that

[Kasuha]

I used the trajectory marked in red. Not very good actually as there are two "islands" in the way with quite narrow passage between them so I started there instead of all the way to the east. It's even shorter than north-south one in the other flats. Next time I'll try the one along the blue line and I'll bring more fuel. And something more capable of deploying a rover because I managed to drop it upside down and then spent half an hour trying to kick it to position with an EVA Kerbal.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Kasuha

[Kasuha]

I think I hit a wall. At around 1300 m/s the rover starts clipping into the lake surface and explodes. Maybe it's speed, maybe it's place, I don't have time to investigate now.

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