duna small fuel landing 0.24

[bobby droptables]

enter duna's atmosphere traveling at 1400 m/s or more with at most 20 liquid fuel. then land on duna above 5000 meters using no PARACHUTES.

This is very much an engineering problem and requires a little skill.

rules:

1. use only liquid fuel

2. NO cheating

3. screenshots to validate, please.

4. no mods

5. rules do not apply until in atmosphere

6. have fun

yes it is possible

score system:

top speed in atmosphere/fuel used to land + altitude.

to the nearest one hundredth

mine was 5293.52

hint: new rcs thrusters,

and use a probe core

Edited August 20, 2014 by bobby droptables

[chengong]

No It's impossible.

[Zipmafia]

I do believe chengong is correct, unless you mean that we can only use liquid fuel ENGINES. Which means no monopropellant, xenon gas, or solid fuel. otherwise I don't think it is possible to get enough velocity to escape kerbin's SOI with air breathing engines. And if you are talking about liquid fuel engines, than this challenge is to create a spaceplane.

[Kasuha]

20 (units) of liquid fuel is very relative. This ship below can hold exactly 20 units of fuel and has dv of about 1800 m/s - it could be possible to land it even with no atmosphere on Duna.

The challenge is more about hitting a high enough spot.

[Cat Biscuits]

***5. rules do not apply until in atmosphere***

keke, outside the box peeps. OP doesn't say anything about take off weight, space station refueling etc etc you just have to enter duna's atmo at the speed and fuel levels specified.

[chengong]

20 (units) of liquid fuel is very relative. This ship below can hold exactly 20 units of fuel and has dv of about 1800 m/s - it could be possible to land it even with no atmosphere on Duna.

The challenge is more about hitting a high enough spot.

http://i.imgur.com/I7QrrSn.png

This ship is against the rules because it uses oxidiser. The rule says ONLY liquid fuel.

[Ziv]

oh, is it really like that? I was trying to do my best... btw if you hyperedit your ship into orbit then you will go with ~850 m/s so how can we go with 1400 if we are allowed to use jets only?

Also, there's no rule about a Kerbal... do we have to land a Kerbal or just a probe?

[bobby droptables]

oxidizer is need to land on duna.

[Ziv]

I made it without any fuel. I guess it ruins the speed/fuel ratio in the point systems so I'm not sure if it's infinitely good or not good.

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[EdFred]

I considered just building a huge lattice of girders, with a central core where the Kerbal sits. However, since a 0 fuel craft has already been done...

[Ziv]

I considered just building a huge lattice of girders, with a central core where the Kerbal sits. However, since a 0 fuel craft has already been done...

I like the idea of the lithobraking! I think it worth to give it a try!

[Yakky]

He says no parachutes but doesn't say no wings. Is it possible to aerobrake with a winged craft, maybe dipping below 5000m during the initial deceleration, then climb or coast back up to 5000m for the final touchdown? I don't see any immediate reason why this wouldn't be possible (but am not in a position to test the theory right now).

Edited September 29, 2014 by Yakky

[Ziv]

Yakky: I did it, see the previous page! And EdFred said it may be possible with lithobraking too (without wings), and I think that's an interesting idea too! I think it's possible too!

[Yakky]

Yakky: I did it, see the previous page! And EdFred said it may be possible with lithobraking too (without wings), and I think that's an interesting idea too! I think it's possible too!

Nice! And you didn't even have to dip below 5000m before landing. I wasn't sure whether there would be enough atmosphere above 5000m.

[EdFred]

There's not enough atmo above 5000 to do a 0 fuel lithobraking with a girder lattice. At least not my first go. There wasn't even any debris. All of it obliterated immediately.

[Ziv]

were you coming in very shallow, almost just touching the surface for the first time?

[EdFred]

This was from a standard MechJeb LDO deorbit. Velocity was around 600m/s or so. I know my vertical velocity at impact was around 450m/s at about 6300m.

Test #2: I hit at just under 600m/s and about as shallow as I could go. It took over 1/2 an orbit of aerobraking, and then upon hitting the surface, it went poof again. I think it could work at well below 5000m, but above it, there's just not enough air resistance.

Edited September 30, 2014 by EdFred