Kerbal Space Program - Only This Tall Challenge

Channel:

TroZ

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925

Published on June 16, 2020 8:49:07 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4NPBXoxv7A

Game:

Kerbal Space Program (2015)

Duration: 48:46

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I haven't played Kerbal Space Program in quite a while, however, I saw a video by Nerd Cubed where he tries and fails to get a rocket with a limited height to the Mun. His video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcwOyQ_Gf_w

So I launched KSP and made an attempt. This is basically my third iteration of the rocket, which is a LOT smaller than what Nerd Cubed was trying to launch. I use a bit of 'asparagus staging', having the outer stages feed fuel into the inner stages. This allows you to run all your engines at once, but still have full fuel for your inner stages once you jettison our outer stages. I'm actually not doing full asparagus staging, and the main engine on the rocket is only fed from the four tanks around it (although I have them set up so that two of the take are emptied before the other two, so I can drop the first two when they are empty, and the second two will still be full).

I launch, and about one minute into launch I drop the outer set of boosters with extra tanks. I then cost up to 75 kilometres, where I burn to get into orbit. About half way into this burn, i empty and drop the inner boosters, followed shortly by the one set of tanks for the main engine. Orbit is achieved with only a little fuel used from the remaining tanks.

From orbit, we plan a bur to the Mun, and carry it out, followed by a burn to get into orbit once we get to the Mun (at to somewhat correct our angled orbit). We pass over a crater and I attempt to slow down over a relatively flat area, but I overshoot a bit and waste a bit of fuel getting back to it, but not too much. At think point we are coming mostly straight down, so I extend the landing legs, and begin slowing out descent rate to prepare to land. I turn on RCS as we land to make sure we don't tip over, and slow us down to about 4 m/s as we get a few meters off the ground. We touch down without issue, with about 1/4 of a tank of fuel left, or over 2000 m/s of delta V left.

We take a few readings on the surface, but are then ready to return to Kerbin. We lift off, but after going up a bit, we turn east and burn until we achieve orbit. We make almost one complete orbit until we can burn to break orbit going nearly backwards compared to the Mun's orbit. We plan this burn so that not only does it allow us to leave the Mun's orbit, it also gets us down into Kerbin's atmosphere. We perform that burn without issue, leaving us with over 1000 m/s of thrust left.

We approach Kerbin, but before we enter the atmosphere, we perform a burn to adjust our re-entry. After the burn, we close the solar panels and drop the fuel tanks, even though they have fuel left. About 15 seconds after we drop them, they explode due to re-entry heating. Out large engine shields most of the rocket from the heat. We drop through the atmosphere, but begin to rise again. Unfortunately, we didn't slow down enough in atmosphere to land, so we orbit Kerbin once, taking about 24 minutes. Our second re-entry is enough to slow us down for a landing. Eventually we slow enough that we are no longer being heated by friction, and we start to drop rather than move horizontally. We open the parachutes, and the begin to slow us more, opening fully about one kilometre above the ground. We open the landing legs, but since there are only two left on the rocket, we tip over as we land, however, the parachutes cushion the fall.

With that, the only thing left is to recover the spacecraft!

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