Minmus Contract Help!!!

[Billyk88]

Hi everyone i could use ur help to design a rocket to complete this contract. The contract says to land a liquid booster the big one that is a 1 X 2 on minmus then test it. How should i approach this i only have $179,000 to work with.

Thank you

Edited August 12, 2014 by Billyk88

[Frank327]

Well, you picked an awfully difficult mission there. These missions are randomly generated, so some are going to be almost impossible, others will be incredibly easy (and maybe still give a big reward). You're probably going to need a really big lifter for this mission.

Two tips:

1. You can drain most of the fuel out of the liquid booster to make it weigh less and make the mission easier.

2. You don't need to activate the part through the staging process to complete the contract. You can already be using it, then right click the part and "run experiment" and you'll also complete the contract even though you've been using the engine for a while.

[SRV Ron]

Hi everyone i could use ur help to design a rocket to complete this contract. The contract says to land a liquid booster the big one that is a 1 X 2 on minmus then test it. How should i approach this i only have $179,000 to work with.

Thank you

First of all, given the difficult task at hand and your limited funds, you can always decline taking the contract. However, if you want to take on the challenge, send the booster there minus its fuel load. Given that it has no attachment points at the base, it can always be mounted upside down on your lander. Do land in the sea since that is much easier then landing on a hill. A lot will depend on the tech unlocked as to how much you will need for the mission. Do use low cost SRB for the first stage and use enough to get to about 10,000 meters before relying on liquid engines.

Keep us informed on how it goes once you accept the challenge.

[Kerbart]

Most contracts have extremely long expiration dates. Wait until you have a couple more "land on Minmus" missions and execute them all at once. That should give you a much bigger budget.

[Billyk88]

Ok thank u all. Ill prolly decline it but if i dont ill let u know how it goes. I was plannin on doin the duna and ike science one all in one go any ideas for that?

[Frank327]

Ok thank u all. Ill prolly decline it but if i dont ill let u know how it goes. I was plannin on doin the duna and ike science one all in one go any ideas for that?

Sure, have your interplanetary transfer stage (with nuclear engine(s)) as dockable units. Establish an orbit around duna (after aerobreaking), then decouple the lander to do the duna mission, get back, dock them together, fly to Ike and do the same. Getting from the surface to Duna back up into orbit takes a lot of delta-V, so keeping most of the weight (in fuel and nuclear engines) in orbit will make your spacecraft a lot smaller.

Alternatively, just launch two missions (spacecraft) at the same time.

[Alistone]

To complete the mission you have to activate it under the required conditions using "staging". But you can activate it before that point by using action groups and actually use the rocket to help power your ascent and transfer. Just as long as you don't "stage" it prematurely you can still use it ahead of time to help reach the desired location.

That should help make it a lot easier.

[Billyk88]

Ok thank u everyone

[Simes]

If a part has already been activated through staging and is in the "current" stage, you can still activate it through staging again by using the + button to add an empty stage at the bottom of the list and then hit space a couple of times.