Micro-Lunar Rocket Challenge

[RealFakeRealGDCat]

Five months ago, I successfully landed and returned 16.3t to the lunar surface in stock sfs scale. Three days ago, i cut that down to 9t, and now, my record is 7.4t to the moon and back. How small can YOU go? That’s what this challenge is for. Try to beat me in terms of the world’s LIGHTEST lunar rocket! (No mods or cheats other than build cheats and burn marks are allowed, and no glitches/exploits.)

Right: 16.3t PROTON I mission
Middle: 9t PROTON II mission
Left: 7.4t PROTON III mission

 

[RealFakeRealGDCat]

Mods, apologies if i accidentally broke a rule, when it said challenges in the category, I thought it meant you could challenge others

 

[Altaïr]

Mods, apologies if i accidentally broke a rule, when it said challenges in the category, I thought it meant you could challenge others

You're doing right, that's what the challenge section is for
However, not that I don't believe you, but we usually ask people that post a challenge to prove that they did it themselves. By posting a few screenshots of your Moon mission in this case.

 

[Catalyst_Kh]

So, i carefully adhered to your rules - no cheats of any kind, no custom parts, no bug exploits like acarii drive or anything else. Only default game parts with edited sizes, nothing more was edited besides sizes. And fair game with mission to the moon at Normal difficulty level in default stock Solar system.

Here is start:

Here is landing:

As you can see, i still have 25% of fuel left when already landed on Earth. Thus i could redo it all with starting rocket as low as 1.4 tons only.

And now this challenge is back for you - tell me what is my rocket, which parts i have there, which parts do not have, and how those parts were deformed.

If you guess close to correct - i will show the picture of my rocket and i will upload blueprint itself.

 

[Sportgus]

I think there is a fuel tank or two, an engine, and a probe probably

 

[Catalyst_Kh]

Probe and fuel tanks are mandatory. Or how would i control it without probe? Or where would i take fuel without tank?
But specifics are important.

So your version is that i have no parachute and no heat shield, only 3 objects - probe, tank and engine? and what engine? how much fuel?

 

[Catalyst_Kh]

I made optimizations to this rocket. Now entire mission is done with 1.21 tons launcher and i still have 11% fuel left after landing on Earth.

What i want to say with all this - don't make challenges with cheating. Because part editing is still a clear cheating, even if you only edit sizes and nothing more. If at least one cheating is allowed, of any kind - that is totally ruined challenge. It is not worth it.

=====

I propose fair challenge instead - with no part editing of any kind, no part clipping of any kind, no custom parts, no bug or glitch using, no acarii/kraken/magnetic drive, no free rotation drive, nothing else like that. And no ion engines. And of course no cheats of any kind.

What would be smallest rocket to the Moon and back with these rules? (with landing on the Moon)

What would be smallest rocket to Mars and back with these rules? (with landing on Mars)

That would be much more interesting, since you are challenging yourself with navigational and engineering ideas, instead of challenging yourself with how effectively you can cheat.

 

[RealFakeRealGDCat]

You're doing right, that's what the challenge section is for
However, not that I don't believe you, but we usually ask people that post a challenge to prove that they did it themselves. By posting a few screenshots of your Moon mission in this case.

is it ok if if i upload a video to yt to send here?

 

[RealFakeRealGDCat]

I made optimizations to this rocket. Now entire mission is done with 1.21 tons launcher and i still have 11% fuel left after landing on Earth.

View attachment 102940
View attachment 102941
View attachment 102942
View attachment 102943

What i want to say with all this - don't make challenges with cheating. Because part editing is still a clear cheating, even if you only edit sizes and nothing more. If at least one cheating is allowed, of any kind - that is totally ruined challenge. It is not worth it.

=====

I propose fair challenge instead - with no part editing of any kind, no part clipping of any kind, no custom parts, no bug or glitch using, no acarii/kraken/magnetic drive, no free rotation drive, nothing else like that. And no ion engines. And of course no cheats of any kind.

What would be smallest rocket to the Moon and back with these rules? (with landing on the Moon)

What would be smallest rocket to Mars and back with these rules? (with landing on Mars)

That would be much more interesting, since you are challenging yourself with navigational and engineering ideas, instead of challenging yourself with how effectively you can cheat.

Ions are not cheating its just a part
bp edit is essential for these challenges otherwise we are stuck with cruddy default sizes
and i really wanna see how a 1.4t rocket can be that big compared to the pad

 

[RealFakeRealGDCat]

You're doing right, that's what the challenge section is for
However, not that I don't believe you, but we usually ask people that post a challenge to prove that they did it themselves. By posting a few screenshots of your Moon mission in this case.

Wait nvm i have images

 

[RealFakeRealGDCat]

First batch

 

[RealFakeRealGDCat]

Second batch

 

[Altaïr]

is it ok if if i upload a video to yt to send here?

Yes, it's fine.
The screenshots you posted are good too. Usually we don't even post that much.

 

[Catalyst_Kh]

Ions are not cheating its just a part
bp edit is essential for these challenges otherwise we are stuck with cruddy default sizes
and i really wanna see how a 1.4t rocket can be that big compared to the pad

This rocket is much smaller that rectangle size. And it is 1.15 tons rocket now. And it does the job. That is the result of you rules, where some cheating is named "not cheating" with excuses like "this is just to make rocket model less crude".

For example look how elegant and not crude the rocket is with all default sizes:
Moon mission with the smallest launcher at Realistic level

 

[Catalyst_Kh]

First batch

At your screenshots i see, that you not only edited part's sizes, but also edited fuel tank to have 600%+ of fuel in it. Which is new kind of cheating i did not even considered. This cheating allows to have the tiniest possible fuel tanks with like 1000000% of fuel, and then this tank has almost zero of it's own empty weight, and we can put hundreds of tons of fuel in this almost zero weighting tank, that would be fuel for free, without 10% extra of empty tanks weight. While my model had only fair 100% fuel in the tank.

I need to improve my rocket with this new additional cheating, let's see what i can squeeze from it.

So, i made as small fuel tanks as allowed by editor, and decided to fill it up to the 1 ton of total launcher's starting mass. For a nice record - only 1 ton and that is all. Here is the entire mission:

Spoiler: 1 ton launcher record

And if i will eliminate extra fuel, that i still have after landing on Earth - this entire mission can be done with 0.95 tons starting launcher. At least 0.95 is a record i can do, i have no idea how to make it even smaller than 0.95, if there exists such a way at all. For example, if you allow some more ways of cheating - there is good chance a new way will present itself and then entire mission could be done with less than 0.95 tons launcher.

If you still like this challenge with cheating - then i will upload blueprint with my new 1 ton launcher as soon as anyone will guess correctly how it is made, precision is not important, correct general details of the construction is enough.

 

[RealFakeRealGDCat]

Similar to mine but using ions instead of valiants? Barely visible tanks? little to no faring? Idk

 

[Marmilo]

At your screenshots i see, that you not only edited part's sizes, but also edited fuel tank to have 600%+ of fuel in it. Which is new kind of cheating i did not even considered. This cheating allows to have the tiniest possible fuel tanks with like 1000000% of fuel, and then this tank has almost zero of it's own empty weight, and we can put hundreds of tons of fuel in this almost zero weighting tank, that would be fuel for free, without 10% extra of empty tanks weight. While my model had only fair 100% fuel in the tank.

I kinda expected that lol

 

[Catalyst_Kh]

Similar to mine but using ions instead of valiants? Barely visible tanks? little to no faring? Idk

If it is similar to yours, then replace your engine to ion and show a picture of a rocket near 1 ton +- with enough amount of fuel in it (1/3 of all rocket must be pure fuel).

 

[ayoshot]

dlc allowed?

 

[Smokescreen501]

dlc allowed?

They are using ion engines so yes.