With MOAR BOOSTERS to the Mun speed challenge

[Parvis]

With MOAR BOOSTERS to the Mun speed challenge

The challenge

The Challenge is to get to the Mun, plant a flag and get back as fast as possible without ANY means of propulsion but Solid Rocket Boosters.

Rules

Liquid fuel engines, ion engines and even parachutes are NOT allowed on your vehicle.

You have to land safely on Kerbin, however you manage to do that.

You can ALSO use RCS but only for getting in the SOI of the Mun (changes up to 50m/s are allowed for maneuvering) and landing on the Mun.

All means of propulsion, landing legs/gear and pods have to be stock, other mods such as Mechjeb, FAR or aesthetic mods are allowed.

Requirements

For your entry to count you must show Screenshots of:

your craft at the launch pad

your craft on the mun

the Flag on the mun

your craft safely landed at Kerbin (only the pod or Kerbal has to survive) with visible GUI so we can see the time you needed.

1. Use (the biggest) landing legs (I didn't and getting the landing speed right on Kerbin and the Mun was VERY frustrating)

2. Quicksave before landing so you have multiple attempts

3. Adjust the Delta V of the next Maneuver to the vacuum DeltaV of the current stage and shift the time back and forth for precision

4. Use Mechjeb (I think it's virtually impossible to do it without)

5. Attach landing SRBs on radial decouplers so when you've slowed down enough you can jettisson them and land safely.

Score

Your score is the time you need to get to the Mun, plant a flag and get back to Kerbin.

The most Kerbal attempt: Aphobius

Leading Board

1. Aphobius: 2 hours, 12 minutes, 15 seconds
   
2. samiamthelaw: 11 hours, 9 minutes, 16 seconds
   
3. Parvis: 22 hours, 45 minutes, 49 seconds
   
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Leading Board FAR

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Edited April 29, 2014 by Parvis
Updated Leading Board + crated mention for the most Kerbal attempt

[rtxoff]

Where is your successful attempt? You know the rules say you must have done it already and it should be possible?

[Parvis]

Here it is, I forgot to post it before, sorry.

The craft on the lauchpad:

on the mun:

and safely landed on Kerbin (I got out of the ship mid air because I thought it wouldn't make it, but luckily the sepratrons slowed it down just enough )

[samiamthelaw]

Where is your successful attempt? You know the rules say you must have done it already and it should be possible?

It sounds tough, but not impossible. Since 0.23.5 added quicksave-whenever, it got a lot easier.

Anyhow, the rules do not say that you must have done it (successfully) already.

Edited April 22, 2014 by samiamthelaw
pedantic parenthetical

[rtxoff]

It sounds tough, but not impossible. Since 0.23.5 added quicksave-whenever, it got a lot easier.

Anyhow, the rules do not say that you must have done it (successfully) already.

No offense but here is a part of sal_vagers challange submission guide:

[CITE]

Is this challenge possible?

Many challenges we see are nearly or literally impossible to achieve, and usually very little thought has gone into them, these challenges just annoy people, waste forum space and show that the submitter hasn't really tried.

So test your challenge yourself first to make sure it is possible, you don't have to be successful but you'll soon know if the challenge has a hope of being completed.

[/CITE]

We could now argue about this, but i interpret it like i said before.

So if someone submits a challenge here at least i wanna see something like "i tried" and "it is possible" in the submit and this was simply not the case here but it got fixed by now.

[samiamthelaw]

We could now argue about this, but i interpret it like i said before.

So if someone submits a challenge here at least i wanna see something like "i tried" and "it is possible" in the submit and this was simply not the case here but it got fixed by now.

I have a rough time reconciling "Where is your successful attempt?" with "you don't have to be successful". I don't think this is the sort of challenge that'd be confused for impossible (just challenging), even without a boilerplate "it is possible" marking at the top.

Anyhow, this challenge is one I've tried a few times, though I never got the timing quite right. Hopefully I'll have better luck with the new SRBs and the quicksave change! Good luck to you as well.

[samiamthelaw]

Tricky, but not as bad as I had imagined. 11 hours, 19 minutes, 16 seconds (just about two Kerbin days). The only mod I have installed is Kerbal Engineer.

Some tips:

• You won't have alternators, so remember to bring a decent battery or a solar panel.
  
• Two sepratrons on a lander capsule are enough to decelerate from terminal velocity on Kerbin reentry.
  
• You can fire balanced sepratron pairs to fine-tune maneuvers and landings (I didn't have RCS).
  
• A single RT-10 is enough to get from Mun's surface back to Kerbin.
  

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Edited April 23, 2014 by samiamthelaw
noting installed mod

[ThinkOutsideTheHangar]

Where is your successful attempt? You know the rules say you must have done it already and it should be possible?

It is. Scott Manely got to Minimus with it in career and unlocked the whole frigging tech tree, in one mission!

[Parvis]

Tricky, but not as bad as I had imagined. 11 hours, 19 minutes, 16 seconds (just about two Kerbin days). The only mod I have installed is Kerbal Engineer.

Good work! I'll update the Leading Board now.

[chrise6102]

Impressive work! I'm a bit confused though, how did you land back on Kerbin using only solid boosters? Wouldn't they just fire you straight back up again?

[samiamthelaw]

Impressive work! I'm a bit confused though, how did you land back on Kerbin using only solid boosters? Wouldn't they just fire you straight back up again?

Once the atmosphere had slowed the module down to about 110 m/s, I fired two of the smallest SRBs (sepratrons). I still hit the ground at near 50 m/s, but the landing legs graciously exploded to slow me down the rest of the way.

You can use bigger SRBs for landing (e.g. an RT-10) if they're thrust-limited or if you decouple them before they've burned out. (fireworks!)

Edited April 24, 2014 by samiamthelaw

[Parvis]

Impressive work! I'm a bit confused though, how did you land back on Kerbin using only solid boosters? Wouldn't they just fire you straight back up again?

There are two methods on how to do this:

1: Get Mechjeb and find out the returning part's terminal velocity. now you need to attach some SRBs (preferably sepratrons) and adjust the weight so the DeltaV of that final stage matches the terminal velocity.

2: Put SRBs on radial decouplers and when you've decreased your surface speed to 0m/s jettison them. (You should do

Both ways need a couple tries so you activate the boosters at the right altitude (Surface info -> altitude true on mechjeb) so I'd recommend quicksaving when you've entered the atmosphere

Good luck!

[Zipmafia]

I imagine that you would need to eject them regardless of how much fuel they had left when you got to the speed you need. This would require a lot of suicide burns.

[Aphobius]

Nice challenge, but you shouldn't put stock and FAR in the same leaderboard.

[Parvis]

Nice challenge, but you shouldn't put stock and FAR in the same leaderboard.

Thank you for the tip, I just created a seperate leaderboard for FAR users.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Parvis

[Aphobius]

Here is my entry.

I had to use quick load a few times so I've separated the videos.

Launch

Landing

Return

2 Hours, 12 Minutes, 15 Seconds

I can do it much faster, but I'll wait for competition.

PS: Sorry for the intellectually disabled voice.

Edited April 29, 2014 by Aphobius

[luizopiloto]

let me see... till now, the best time is:

samiamthelaw:11 hours, 9 minutes, 16 seconds

now we have Aphobius with 2 hours, 12 minutes and 15 seconds... who can ever do it faster?

[Parvis]

Very impressive work! Also you get an extra mention for the most Kerbal entry.

[Aphobius]

Very impressive work! Also you get an extra mention for the most Kerbal entry.

Thank you.

Unfortunately I don't think anyone else is going to try it. But would be nice to have some competition. My time is pretty far from being competitive, that rocket can be optimized much more. So the ... competition should have just started.

[KvickFlygarn87]

No offense but here is a part of sal_vagers challange submission guide:

[CITE]

Is this challenge possible?

Many challenges we see are nearly or literally impossible to achieve, and usually very little thought has gone into them, these challenges just annoy people, waste forum space and show that the submitter hasn't really tried.

So test your challenge yourself first to make sure it is possible, you don't have to be successful but you'll soon know if the challenge has a hope of being completed.

[/CITE]

We could now argue about this, but i interpret it like i said before.

So if someone submits a challenge here at least i wanna see something like "i tried" and "it is possible" in the submit and this was simply not the case here but it got fixed by now.

Challenge guidelines, not Challenge rules.