Stock Career in Two Launches (38 Kerbal days)

[katateochi]

This is my variation of unlocking the full stock career tree with as few launches and in the shortest time possible. I managed to do it in two launches and by ransacking Minmus and Mun for science I was able to complete the missions in 38 kerbal days.

Mission 1 - 2194 points

The first mission was to orbit both moons and land on Minmus. I think the part of career that I enjoy the most is seeing what you can do using just the tier 0 parts. The plan had been to just land the craft on Minmus, but then I realised that I could make use of the ability to do EVA landings so was able to get readings from several biomes.

One little trick I used in this one was to do with transmitting (or rather not transmitting) crew reports. In this tier0 land power is a real problem so you don't want to waste it but you still want more than 1 crew report. So do the crew report, then go EVA and click 'take data' on the command pod and then get back inside. This basically moves the crew report from its slot into the data bank with all the other reports and now you can do another crew report.

Mission 2 - 9750 points

The second mission just focused on Mun and now I had all the science parts unlocked I could do a tactical strike against all Muns biomes and wipe out all that filthy science.

I toyed with two approaches for this mission; do I take a lab and 1 lander with 1 set of sci gear, or do I take multiple landers, one for each biome? In the end I went with the single lander and a lab approach because it was lighter, 15 sets of experiments alone outweighed the lab even before factoring in the extra engines. Of-course a single lander is a "single point of failure" if something goes wrong, but that's why Jeb piloted it.

So, yeah, its a fast way of getting a full tech tree unlock, but tbh, I wouldn't say it's a really fun way to do it. The fun is in the design, there are some great challenges to solve; working with only tier0 parts is a nice challenge, and then trying to design for optimal efficiency in the second design was great. The missions however are more of an ordeal than a pleasant session of playing your fav. game. Doing those EVA landings one after the other was quite a trial, but I'm pleased to say I didn't do a single reload on that mission. The multiple Mun landings was kinda tedious and tiring, so I spiced it up by doing suicide burn landings on most. That did cause me to need to do one reload during that mission as I overshot when landing in one of the midland craters. I had plenty of fuel on the lab (I totally over calc'd that!) so I could have gone back up and come back down again but it was repetitive enough without adding yet another launch->docking run, so I reloaded that one plz forgive me

Edit

Craft Files

I've put the craft files up if you want them

PrimOrbital - the tier 0 craft from the first mission

MoonMaster - the craft from the second mission

For the second one you need the tech tree unlocked like this;

Edit 2

Should prob say something about the way querky way these craft work.

With PimOrbital timing is everything. Throttle up to start with, it may be all SRB's but have a full throttle ready. Fire the first stage and then wait about 5 seconds before firing the 2nd this is really important. The stage that has the extra command pods (for sas) has to run out before the stage that it is connected to. Otherwise when it seps it will be unbalanced and will smash into the main craft.

To work the explody sep system you need to time it so you fire the next stage just before the current stage runs out, but it must be before it or it won't be hot enough.

Once you're on final set of 4 boosters you'll prob pick up some heat effects and when you sep that stage the explosion will knock you about and you have to compensate.

If you have taken an optimal ascent path (and you want a really wide path for this) then the final SRB can push you way up to a 500+km Ap. That maybe too high so you can cut that SRB off early by firing up the main engine (this is why I say to have throttled up already cos you suddenly want to explode the SRB).

The second craft is a bit more conventional, just has some odd action group setups.

It has extra science pods on the side which are intended for doing atmo science during the launch and are then jettisoned. Some of their action groups overlap with other functions which might seem odd. The lander will automatically run a grav report when you lower it's landing legs, this is so I didn't forget to run one from just above the biome and then its other main action group (sorry can't remember the no right now) will run all the other tests (and a 2nd grav report) and lower the ladder.

I had real problems picking up the materials and goo reports from the lander. You have to go round behind it and hover about (and break solar panels off) to get at them, I should have put a second ladder on the back to make that easier.

And for once these craft are pure stock, so I can share them with ease!

Edited July 13, 2014 by katateochi
added craft files

[Guest Fyre Flare]

[REACTION IMAGE]

That video says It all.

You is KSP Mastah.

Edited July 25, 2014 by sal_vager

[Souper]

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[sal_vager]

This is impressive, must have taken you some time to get this right katateochi, stickied for August

[katateochi]

This is impressive, must have taken you some time to get this right katateochi, stickied for August

Thanks for stickying this for me Sal! Glad you liked it!