I was thinking the Mun rewards were a tad low at 10 pts per biome for crew reports. I think I may be starting a new game once you readjust those values. Good, there's things I want to do better the next time around.
So I just completed my attempt at a 1 man Mk1 Pod Mun Orbit. It took 5 hours and 5 versions of ever increasing rocket size. The one that finally did it was this monstrosity. It has 34 engines, anymore fuel and I loose Delta V instead of gaining it, anymore engines and it shakes apart on launch.
The Mark 5
The Munar transit portion of the Mk 5
The problem is power, as in you need a fuck ton of it. The Mark 5 has 42 battery pots which was just about enough. Couple that with needing to fly everything as optimally as possible. Perfect launch and orbit. Perfect intercept with the Mun. Perfect reentry. Any of these are off and your Kerbal dies of lack of life support or fuel.
I managed one Low/High orbit, anymore and you run out of life support. I managed to scan 4 biomes and a high orbit report, anymore and your Kerbal runs out of life support juice.
Reentry required two passes, first at 36km. Which shed about a kilometre per second delta V. Leaving me with about a 120 km apoapsis.
Second pass I re-entered after one skip. I burned off my engine and fuel tank on the second pass (Which had fuel in it, because I forgot to retro with the last of it before hitting the atmosphere, oops). I had 360 power left before separating the command pod. Though I accidentally sent a crew report twice, wasting some juice. Also I think there might be something up with octo strut's ability to withstand heat. I feel I should have burned them off but didn't, not sure though.
Munar orbit and return plot
Bill touched down safe on the plains. Hero and fool.
It was a tough challenge which required a lot of work. On the bright side I now have a launch vehicle which has serious legs in terms of lift capacity, even if it handles like a brick. It has a very very fat ass. It's very easy to flip it out while launching if you over-turn at all.
All in all, I enjoyed the challenge a great deal and damn was it great to succeed at it. Though in the time I spent figuring it out and testing different methods and ships I could have gotten a lot more science with probes, plus there was a lot of trial and error which many would find frustrating. One wrong move anywhere along the line and Bill died. Personally I loved it and I learned a lot about reentry from the Mun which will serve me well later when the manned landings begin.
