The Grand Triathalon

[gabyalufix]

Ok. Here is the biggest challenge I have ever conceived. I have determined that it is at the very edge of being possible, with reasonably-balanced parts. I don\'t think anyone\'s ever done this, but I could be wrong. Jellycubes is a witch.

It\'s deceptively simple. Design a rocket that launches to orbit, then lands on kerbin, then launches to orbit, then lands on kerbin, then launches to orbit, then lands, at long last, on Kerbin. Edit: Apparently this has been done. So let\'s try an adjustment: No water landings. Kerbin\'s oceans are (apparently) made out of liquid mercury (or else KSP rockets are made of solid air, hard to say which.). Everything floats, and everything floats really really well. Land on land. (unless you\'re a witch, in which case you will float. Like a duck. Or very small rocks.)

That\'s three launches, three landings.

I\'ve successfully completed all the individual components of this mission, but I\'ve never successfully strung it all together into a single attempt without messing up at some point. I used Foamy\'s instant orbiter to successfully test my ability to go from orbit -> kerbin -> orbit -> kerbin -> orbit -> kerbin, and in a separate mission I have launched the same full rocket into orbit, but I have yet to do it all in one mission without catastrophically messing up one of the landings or launches. The first stage of the launcher consists of 19x 3-meter LFT\'s and 36 of those jumbo KW SRB\'s. The first stage, alone, weighs 5000 kerbin tons.

There are no bonus points here. To even imply that any successful execution of this mission could possibly be made more awesome is sacrilege of the highest order. If you succeed, then you have won. Post lots of pictures, or a video, if possible.

Only balanced parts allowed. KW, downunder, novapunch, the kerbalon launch tower (you\'ll need it), my miscellania pack, etc. Silisko edition engines are allowed only if they get all their fuel from silisko-edition tanks. No C7, except for the hardpoints and RCS. And don\'t use the ultra-RCS for thrust. Maybe use foamy\'s instant orbiter to test the lander stages, so you don\'t end up having to rebuild your launcher because you need to rebalance the lander.

Good luck. You\'re going to need it. Or maybe not.

I\'ll post pics of my attempts later.

[witeken]

U, U mad bro? [/offtopic]

I first tought I would be: Launch to orbit around Kerbin, land, Go to orbit around Mun, land, Go to orbit around Kerbol, land back on Kerbin.

Tommorow I\'ll test it. First with my cheat ships: My UFO, tweaked Kerpollo, Jetpack, Kerrari GTO,... Afterwards with a legal ship.

But... Maybe bonus points for doing this with stock ships?

[gabyalufix]

Yeah. If anyone successfully manages this with stock parts, then I\'m afraid we\'ll have to burn them.

'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.'

[JellyCubes]

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=5506.msg75818#msg75818

Yeah. If anyone successfully manages this with stock parts, then I\'m afraid we\'ll have to burn them.

'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.'

Video unrelated:

[Iskierka]

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=5506.0

This challenge has already been proposed, in the more generic form of 'launch as many times as you can', and has achieved the three required by this challenge.

IE. Already been done, nothing to see here.

On another note, you disallow C7 for balance reasons, but allow the RCS from it. The same RCS that very, very easily goes to the moon and back.

[gabyalufix]

Holy crap! Burn the witch!

Hmm. It never occurred to me to try water landings.

Meh on the high power RCS. I find a small number of high-power RCS are less laggy than tons of small RCS, and thus prefer them for that reason. Using the RCS as primary thrust wouldn\'t be particularly effective for getting into kerbin orbit except maybe for the last launch. And honestly, the last stage is such a tiny fraction of the total mass, it\'s a moot point.

Ok, challenge adjusted: no water landings. Water landings are only possible because the water is so unbelievably dense compared to all KSP rocket modules. (for example: decouplers are solid metal, yet float extremely well.) You\'ll need landing legs, and a slower landing, plus you have to waste delta-V aiming for a flat landing site. I think that ramps up the difficulty a bit. Plus, the fact that jellycube weighs the same as a duck won\'t help him.