Biome Hopper Challenge (Open for v0.90!)

[danrod963]

Thought I would use this for my first post. I built a stock ship at tier 4 for science missions that can managed 6 Biome stops per launch on the Mun or Minmus. My recent attempt only reached 5 on the Mun cause I screwed up a couple trajectories and didn't want to risk getting stuck without enough fuel to get back home. But I still made it back with plenty of science. I didn't get any in-flight pics, but here are some shots of the ship and the science bounty (Crew/EVA reports, Goo, Surface Sample, Temp, and Materials Bay from Highland Craters, Farside Crater, Canyons, Midlands and Midland Craters). Second stage is asparagus, I apologize if that is considered an exploit. Either way I had fun building and using this ship to unlock the rest of my science tree in just a few couple launches.

http://imgur.com/a/2VW37

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Edited December 4, 2014 by Claw
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[Superfluous J]

In spite of this being a horrible, terrible failure in both design and execution, I think I'm winning by a hefty margin after getting 19 biomes with a MIRV-style ship of my own that I dubbed "Shotgun"

The ship split in 2 after ejecting to Mun. One ship went into orbit around Mun with 15 landers, each destined to land in a Mun biome and then return to Kerbin. 9 of the Mun ships were to then visit unique Kerbin biomes, and the other 6 were backups in case it was hard to hit certain biomes like shores and badlands. 2 of these landers, I forgot to put decouplers between their engines and the mothership superstructure (oops), 2 more of them didn't have any goo containers even though (I thought) I used a subassembly. A 5th lander, I somehow managed to decouple it without any fuel in its tank. The other 10 landed on Mun successfully in different biomes, and returned to Kerbin managing to hit all 9 biomes there.

The other ship went to Minmus and had 3 landers, each capable of hitting 3 biomes and then returning to Kerbin. I forgot the thermometers so ruled out this entire ship.

Craft Name: Mun/Minmus/Kerbin Biome Sciencer (boring name) or Shotgun (What Jeb called it)

Stock / Non-Stock Entry: Non-Stock. I don't use any mod parts but EXTENSIVELY used KER and the Trajectories mod. I don't think I could bear to do this without them.

Celestial Body: Mun and Kerbin.

Number of Biomes: 19

Total Mission Cost: 338,052

Highest Science Tier: No clue. Highest? SLS parts for the launcher. Most of the rest was pretty low-tier stuff.

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Edited November 30, 2014 by 5thHorseman

[kookoo_gr]

Here is my entry. I hit all the Biomes on Mun and Minmus plus one at Kerbin at return. The lander has all the stock science packages. I only took screenshots form the first landing at each body plus any other screenshot i found interesting since it was a repetitive challenge and taking any more photos would be pointless.

Craft Name: Ion Lander

Stock Entry

Celestial Body: Mun, Minmus, Kerbin

Number of Biomes: All biomes on Mun and Minmus and one from Kerbin

Total Mission Cost: Mission ship cost 190,228 with lifter 283,502

Highest Science Tier: All tiers

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Edited November 30, 2014 by kookoo_gr

[Claw]

I've actually been working on a science SSTO for a few weeks now, and just finally finished. Unfortunately, though it's in the spirit of the challenge, it doesn't meet the rules...

Looks great. For some reason I think Millennium Falcon when I see it.

In either case, there's been a lot of incomplete or "close" posted non-entries. So I've included a list for those as well.

That module has about 3.3 km/s on it, and can safely land on a body with up to 8m/s^2. Not quite Tylo-ready, but it can do the other airless bodies.

Heh, nice rover lab. Looks like you'll be able to get nearly everything with that setup. Good luck!

Cheers,

~Claw

[Claw]

Thought I would use this for my first post.

Awesome job danrod963!

I don't see "Crew Report" in your pictures, but your craft looks fully capable of it. So as a first poster, I'm going to call it a job well done. (Also, asparagus is fine by me and allowed in the rules.)

If you have a fancy name for your craft, let me know. You've been added to the front page.

Welcome to the forums!

~Claw

[Claw]

I normally don't like triple posting, but since these three required very different responses...

In spite of this being a horrible, terrible failure in both design and execution, I think I'm winning by a hefty margin after getting 19 biomes with a MIRV-style ship of my own that I dubbed "Shotgun"

Healthy margin surpassed. However, this is still an awesome job! I'm definitely becoming a fan of the little drop pod system.

Nice work Horseman. You've been added to the front page!

Here is my entry. I hit all the Biomes on Mun and Minmus plus one at Kerbin at return.

I thought maybe someone would hit all the Mun/Minmus biomes, but I didn't think it would be so soon. Incredible job!

You are also on the front page.

Nice entries everyone. Keep it up!

Cheers,

~Claw

[Wanderfound]

I've been trying to build a rover with an integrated materials study bay for a while, and keep running into the same basic problem that I assume a mark 1 inline cockpit would have; 1.25 meter parts just have so little clearance in the mk2 cargo bay that there's virtually no room left over for any wheels. Even using the landing-gear-as-outriggers trick I used in the Hypatia II rover can't quite keep the rover wheels from clipping into either the part or the bay doors.

The same issue happens with lander legs. But if you choke down to an 0.725m diameter (as with the lander a few posts up) there's just enough room. I usually use FL-R10 or Oskar-B tanks, but octagonal struts'll do too.

[Superfluous J]

Healthy margin surpassed.

Yeah, that ship by kookoo_gr was impressive indeed! I'll happily take 2nd after that one.

[Wanderfound]

The Kopernicus was all stock parts, BTW.

FAR, DRE and the usual flight data/cruise control mods (Mechjeb, Kerbal Flight Data, Kerbal Flight Indicators, etc).

Full tech tree; carries all instruments except for the atmospheric nosecone jobbie. Cost is √149,323 wet and √144,615 dry, so a maximum flight cost of √4,708.

Craft file at https://www.dropbox.com/s/kpf0bqunm0p1kct/Kerbodyne%20Kopernicus.craft?dl=0

Edited December 1, 2014 by Wanderfound

[Laie]

--> download the craft files here <--

Rather than play the challenge, I played the game:

Started a new career, giving myself 400 science and 500k funds. That was enough to construct the Basic Science Lander on the left (310 science points will do if one is willing to forego the solar panels and run on batteries instead. But trying to collect the science without ladders to cling to is horrible, so I consider this 90-point technology to be mandatory. Also gave me thermometers.)

The top portion will take you to the Mun, including the de-orbit burn. Science from in space high/low was transferred to the pods before decoupling. Without fuel lines, I had to transfer the fuel manually. The FLT-400 is feeding the engine and a bit larger than strictly necessary, but a bigger tank makes the manual transfers more manageable. The rest is enough for a landing and two (short!) hops, like Midlands, Midland Craters and one more biome. After the third landing, the science is stored in the pods, the second stage is decoupled during ascent. All science gear is connected to that tank in the middle. So the only the pods return, carrying all science.

PROBLEMS: No fuel lines is a nuisance. Also, the science package won't seperate cleanly -- you have to be in a situation where you can enter timewarp for it to float away (above 5km and 30 seconds to spare).

---

That mission provided enough science to unlock all scientific instruments, LV-Ns, and docking. The tiers below the LVN weren't all filled out, though. I had to fly a Gravimeter-and-Nosecone mission around Kerbin in order to unlock RCS stuff. The result is the asymmetric lander; here shown with the skycrane needed for recovery.

The asymmetric lablander, sporting both a LV-N and a low center of mass:

• 9.8t dry
  
• 13t fuel capacity
  
• 6600m/s
  
• all science easily accessible by ladder from the cockpit; just jump back and forth between the vessel and the Kerbal on the ladder to repeat the experiments as often as you wish.
  
• pilot has to walk around the vessel in order to deliver the data to the lab.
  
• No advanced ladders yet! Usually the lab can be accessed when the legs are retracted, but sometimes you have to fly.
  
• one orange tank worth of fuel is enough to get to the Mun and visit every biome; requires three rendezvous.
  
• no external tank is necessary to get to Minmus, visit every biome, and return.
  
  
  Convenience is the name of the game. No need to rendezvous with a lab each time, and you can suck every biome bone-dry while you're at it.
  

  
  As pictured, it costs 58k funds, weighs 26 tons, and is a complete package for a thorough Minmus survey. The skycrane remains in LKO; it only needs ~10% of it's fuel capacity for the landing. I suggest to either launch it mostly empty or to use the spare fuel capacity so the vessel can circularize under it's own power.
  
  Tech used. Note that retractable solar panels are a byproduct of researching high-tech science gear. They're not strictly necessary.
  In principle, this vessel can land on every moon except Tylo; it can't do much hopping around on Vall, though. As a proof of concept, I've attached an orange tank and took it to the Mun. I could visit thirteen biomes with only one rendezvous for refuelling. On the next rendezvous, I couldn't quite top off the tanks, but almost: More than 5000m/s would surely suffice to visit the remaining two biomes and return home with a lot of delta-v to spare. However, being totally bored by this time, I skipped the last two biomes and called it a day.
  PROBLEMS:
  

  • Having to walk around the vessel in order to dump the results on the lab is a nuisance; the more so because the ladder isn't always accessible from the ground. A simple telescopic ladder could remedy this, though. When the ladder works, you can just go up and down in order to pick up soil samples and put them into the lab, it's not necessary to let go of the ladder.
    
  • the LV-N fairings may or may not seperate cleanly. This can be circumvented if you touch off the decoupler and start the engine through right-clicks rather than staging.
    
  • when pushing an orange tank, the TWR is getting quite low: 1m/s², making it necessary to split the munar injection burn. It can be done, but I certainly won't do it again.
    
  • some munar biomes are quite elusive. I wasted a lot of fuel hovering around while trying to hit the right spot.
    
  • hint: hotkeys to get and discard gravimeter readings help with finding out which biome you're over.
    

  Summary:

  This vessel works well on the Mun, and if given 1.25-1.5 orange tanks of fuel it can cover Mun and Minmus in a single mission. But given the low TWR, getting to the Mun in the fist place isn't fun. I recommend to just send it to Minmus and call it a day. It can get there and back again and needs to dock only once, for recovery. Minmus' biomes are easier to to hit with a lander, too, while the Mun really demands for a rover.

I've put a booster on top of the engine to make the CoT arrow come up. Tanks should be drained so as to not dilute the readings. Then it's only a question of adding enough stuff on the other side so that the CoM ball moves over to be pierced by the arrow (not quite there yet in the picture). You can slip around the Goo containers for fine tuning; also remember the monoprop in the pod (and lock it when done).

Don't worry too much about rigidity -- in the end, the craft will be held together by struts anyway.

When it looks right, just attach a stronger rocket (or booster) below the LV-N and make a test launch. SAS enabled at first, and look at the pitch/yaw indicators in the corner: if they're off by no more than one notch, the craft will already be good enough for everyday use. It's easy to get there just by watching CoM/CoT.

That shouldn't stop you from refining it a bit more, though... but once your vessel takes more than ten-twenty seconds to tip over even without SAS, this is as good as it gets -- don't waste your time trying to improve on that.

---

Taking the above lander to Minmus will let you build the science lander to end all science landers.

Lab Rover: The Moon, and Beyond the Infinite

• 14t dry
  
• 16t fuel
  
• 5974m/s
  
• low CoM even when empty. Can handle 16m/s on the Mun, 21m/s on Duna -- at 4x warp!
  
• science as accessible as with the assymetric lander, but can be transferred to the lab without much ado.
  
• soil samples can be gathered while standing on the vessel, and loaded up just as easily as everything else.
  
• works well on Duna. Should be perfectly adequate for every body except Eve-Laythe-Tylo.
  
• enough thrust to power it's own mission to everywhere.
  

Similar delta-v as the small lander, but much better TWR. It can do anything the small lander can do, and then some more. And that's not even considering the wheels. Not only useful for visiting biomes, btw: it can (e.g.) land in a deep valley on Duna for maximum parachute utilization, then drive up the nearest mountain for the launch.

Where the Canyon enters the East Farside Crater, there's a checkerboard of biomes. With the ordinary lander above, I had a hard time hitting the Canyon, ending up in Highlands or Midland Craters again and again. Getting the biome I wanted took much more delta-V than expected. I also had troubles finding Polar Lowlands, wasting a lot of fuel howering around. A rover solves that problem nicely, saving a lot of delta-v.

The above and following picture show the predecessor, still using normal fuel tanks as outriggers. The benefit of the Mk2 parts you see at the top of this post: a wider stance and higher crash resistance. Not that you'd need that much, but the ordinary tanks' 7m/s is a tad little at times (rough landings for example, and sometimes the terrain is bumpy enough to brush against the undercarriage). As a side benefit, the lander legs become obsolete.

The airplane landing gear looks a bit silly, but it's this what allows the rover to go over all terrain at high speeds. Ordinary tires can't stand a serious bump in the terrain, reducing the effective safe speed to like 8m/s. I dare everyone to take the vessel for a ride around KSC: the landing gear is so effective at taking all kinds of punishment, the only ways of breaking this vessel I found is running into the pool or trying to cross the crawlerway.

Again, convenient science collection is a must. Only downside is that the Kerbal has to board and leave the lab each time the experiments need to be reset. The Lab VII tries to remedy this by placing the Pod so that the pilot can recover the science, while the lab crew may stay inside. It is currently untried, while the Lab IV was used to explore the Mun and Lab V has gone to Duna.

I've also happened across a picture of the first incarnation of this lander. I don't expect that the 100 small improvements are obvious to anyone but me, but development has come a long way.

FUN FACT: if you swap the LV-Ns for aerospikes, the vessel can take off from Tylo. The Skycrane to put it down will be a beast, though.

---

Again, all craft files (and a few more) are available for download. Great care was taken to remove all MechJeb Modules &c before uploading the craft files, so this should be stock vessels. If I missed something, drop me a line and I'll update the archive.

Edited December 2, 2014 by Laie

[Kesa]

Wow, nice topics, and excellent entries. I was looking for a challenge which promotes and low tech designs. I'll have a try!

[Laie]

Rather than update my previous post, I'm making a new one with the briefest of mission reports.

The Lifter

Mun Arrival

one of many landings

a quick overview (just notice that I picked red/green -- sorry about that)

how it returned

Launch cost 211k; 96k for the lifter could be recovered on the same day, later 58k when the lander returned (lots of fuel left). Total mission cost: ~57k.

I have pictures from almost every landing, if necessary (I hope not). For required tech, weight etc. see my first post showcasing the lander, or download the craft file.

Edited December 1, 2014 by Laie

[Kesa]

I just love your lander Laie!

[Wanderfound]

PS: I've updated my entry post with some more details.

[Claw]

The Kopernicus was all stock parts, BTW.

Hmm. I'll have to figure out how to word the rules. (I'm not sure if you're asking it to be listed as stock.) I'm not a "hardcore" stock kind of person, but with the number of mods, I wasn't sure how stock compatible your craft is. Especially with FAR installed. Not that I'm anti-FAR, but given the differences I didn't know if the stock aerodynamics would still allow it to fly.

Launch cost 211k; 96k for the lifter could be recovered on the same day, later 58k when the lander returned (lots of fuel left). Total mission cost: ~57k.

I have pictures from almost every landing, if necessary (I hope not). For required tech, weight etc. see my first post showcasing the lander, or download the craft file.

That's a very unique looking craft all around Laie. I will add you to the front page shortly. Nice (and unique) job!

Cheers,

~Claw

[Wanderfound]

Hmm. I'll have to figure out how to word the rules. (I'm not sure if you're asking it to be listed as stock.) I'm not a "hardcore" stock kind of person, but with the number of mods, I wasn't sure how stock compatible your craft is. Especially with FAR installed. Not that I'm anti-FAR, but given the differences I didn't know if the stock aerodynamics would still allow it to fly.

Stock parts, definitely not stock aero.

However you wanna call it is fine.

[drewscriver]

Looks great. For some reason I think Millennium Falcon when I see it.

In either case, there's been a lot of incomplete or "close" posted non-entries. So I've included a list for those as well.

Glad you like it. FWIW, my mission tagged four biomes (Three pods, plus one permanently attached set of data from the landing site). The gatecrashers list doesn't have it, but if you're curious, a launch costs 220,343 (oh hard), though I'm not sure what the recovery cost was. There is also a screenshot in the gallery showing the necessary science.

[Laie]

Once more into the breeches, all Minmus this time:

The lifter, two hops, and the near-catastrophic landing.

The vessel will do on the Mun (see above), but it rules on Minmus.

Starting in LKO with 6650m/s, and 2300m/s left when I returned to LKO. OK, so I had Mechjeb support, and have been honing my lander skills these last few days. But with a 30% safety margin, I think that even a less-than-stellar pilot in the stock game could still explore all of Minmus without refueling.

LKO 6650
minmus 5567
1: midlands 5373
2: slopes 5099
3: flats 4973
4: lesser flats 4849
5: lowlands 4581
6: poles 4323
7: highlands 4053
8: great flats 3750
9: greater flat 3402
LKO 2675

All numbers given are delta-v left at each biome / orbit. The jumps 4-5 and 7-9 are pictured above.

Launch cost were 100k (99,990 to be precise), recovery 57k.

[danrod963]

Awesome job danrod963!

I don't see "Crew Report" in your pictures, but your craft looks fully capable of it. So as a first poster, I'm going to call it a job well done. (Also, asparagus is fine by me and allowed in the rules.)

If you have a fancy name for your craft, let me know. You've been added to the front page.

Welcome to the forums!

~Claw

Thanks! Crew reports were transmitted for science in-flight.

I don't really have a fancy name for it the craft, the code name I gave it in game was the Biome Hunter.

[Claw]

Thanks! Crew reports were transmitted for science in-flight.

I don't really have a fancy name for it the craft, the code name I gave it in game was the Biome Hunter.

Ahh. I guess I didn't say you couldn't do that.

Great job for your first post.

---

---

On another note, I updated the Accomplishment Board a bit. There was some bad info and broken links. (Sorry about that, my internet was bad the other day and looks like my cut and paste edits got all messed up.)

Cheers,

~Claw

[bakanando]

Presenting the Diaspora:

Disclaimer: AV-T1 winglets not included in final product.

Science tech required:

-Basic Rocketry

-Survibability (for LV-909)

-Stability (for radial decouplers)

-Science Tech (for the Science Jr. modules and batteries)

Optional:

-All other science techs

-Electrics (for OX-STAT panels)

Grey area (not really sure if required or simply a comfort option):

-Advanced Rocketry (for FL-T800 and opening fuel lines)

-Fuel systems (for mini-asparagus)

Haven't decoupled the pods yet, but with normal maneuvering it can drop in mountains(with some luck), highlands, plains, desert, and water/shore for the five pods' use. I don't know where the badlands are located so I don't include them.

The Diaspora is currently on a 80x85 orbit (with 100 units of oxi left on the main section), just waiting for pod deployment. I was going to shoot it in a highly inclinated orbit to drop at the poles, but I wanted to first test whether it would be able to achieve orbit or not.

Edit: I just realized that if you unlock the Fuel lines, you can replace the LV-909(each basic pod has around 1000 vacuum delta-v, less if you use the in the pic as include the sensor array which with the radial chutes adds about 0.3t) with the Rockomax 48-7S (each pod would have around 1200 delta-v, again same logic)

Edit2: I was creating a more advanced version for polar dropping with proper landing legs, and I overwrote the ship file

Update: First pod drop was done yesterday.

The pod landing was rough. Had to lower the landing speed to less than 6m/s with the engine. It still buckled because I forgot to turn SAS on before landing and I was distracted to cut thrust just as he landed. The pod dropped in a highly inclined slope and fell Goo-side(?). I was surprised that nothing broke even though the thing did a full roll before stopping.

I already had done to death the science from kerbin higlands so I basically got no new science for it.

Still three pods to launch. Two will drop to kerbin and one will attempt a Mun Flyby. I don't think it has enough d-v to return though.

Edited December 10, 2014 by bakanando
Mission Update

[Claw]

Presenting the Diaspora

This is looking nice! Good luck, and I can't wait to see how it turns out.

[bakanando]

Even though I got no more feedback, I present the Diaspora MK2!

I forgot to plant a flag :'(

[Laie]

I like the MkI better. Haven't tried either, but I have tried winglets on landers and it's truly amazing how much mobility they add. You can glide and take crew reports until you're over the right biome, then nose-dive / pull the rope. I found the badlands that way, and also a lake in the mountains to splash down in.

[bakanando]

I actually removed the wings from the final version, as they were adding drag and instability for the ascent. I didn't even know if they were going to work or they would just spin wildly, which was the second reason I removed them.

The low-tech landers are nice, but the mk2 ones saved 1 ton each that I changed for more fuel for the ascent. They land a lot smoother too.

Either pod returns around 60 science per new biome visited with all science. Low tech nets you about 30 per pod.

Doing a crew report and thermometer reading while flying low over the biome, then all science while landed (twice, take the data from every part once) plus EVA while "flying" and landed, and finally take a surface sample transmit and take one more you could get a little bit more science per pod.

Will post it when I land on the tundra with the next (un)lucky kerbal.

Btw, I forgot the costs for both.

For the MK1: without high tier science modules (everything over the thermometer), about 55k. With all science parts, 170k.

For the MK2: low science tech, around 65k. high tier, close to 180k.

Science is expensive.