Before I get into it yes I know this is a really dumb idea. It would be much wiser to do this as two separate missions, but I got the idea in my head and have spent too long trying to figure it out to not try. So before I try, I ask you all: is this feasible, and does my plan look sound? For context I’m at about 100hrs in a (very) modded career save, I’ve got a good handle on flight but still struggle with design, especially launch vehicles. Here’s what I’ve got:

Mission goals:

In a single launch, take 30 Kerbals (26 Tourists and 4 Crew) to orbit. Drop 2 back to Kerbin, drop 4 and a scientist to land on the Mun, bring the other 23 to land on Minmus, and return them all to Kerbin in the span of 14 days before the contract deadlines. While landed, set up deployed science on the Mun and Minmus (tourists want to sit for like 2 hours anyway)

The Payload:

29 Kerbals and their seating:

2 Tourists to LKO

4 Tourists to a Multimoon Flyby

5 Tourists to a Minmus Flyby

2 Tourists to a Mun Landing

2 Tourists to a Mun Landing at an old lander
crashsite (the game considers it a base to be visited)

10 Tourists to a Minmus Landing at the Flats biome

4 Crew - Two pilots, two scientists. (Jeb is underlevelled so he’s being taken for the ride)

Lander with 5 kerbal capacity and 2000dV (capable of a targeted Mun landing from orbit and return to Kerbin)

Staging Plan / Mission Itenerary:

3400 dV worth of SRBs and heavy LF engines to reach LKO

LKO tourists dropped back down in a tiny remote-controlled re-entry pod to save mass moving forward

Vessel Core (upper engines and payload) goes to Mun and slows down just enough to capture. It reaches a periapsis of under 60km to satisfy the flyby tourists, undocks the lander, and accelerates to an escape trajectory lined up to impact Minmus.

Lander descends to surface, crew sets up science, then returns to Kerbin. At this point we should be just entering day 2 of elapsed mission time.

After assessing mission time and remaining fuel at this point, consider accelerating the Vessel Core toward Minmus to save some time.

Land on Minmus, deploy science, then launch retrograde relative to Minmus to return to Kerbin’s SOI with as low of a periapsis as possible. I intend on landing the entire Vessel Core rather than having a second lander that needs docked in order to save time.

Burn retrograde until periapsis is at 45km, making sure to keep heat shield forward once in atmo. Continue burning retrograde at periapsis until all fuel is spent or until apoapsis reaches atmosphere.

Decouple engines/fuel tanks and land!

DeltaV Math

3400 to Low Kerbin Orbit

1200 to low Mun orbit (will just be reaching an elliptical orbit to drop off the lander so will actually not need all that)

600 to Minmus landing (dV calculator/map say ~300, but not sure how the plane change and potentially non-optimal transfer window play into that, so being extra safe.)

Approx. 350 to return (extra insurance from previous steps that wasn’t used can be used here to reduce the number of aerobrake passes, hopefully down to just one)

Total of 5550 dV required, not counting lander

Mun Lander should have 2000 dV. Expecting to use at minimum 780 to land and 850 to return to Kerbin, with a margin of error of 370 to fine-tune the landing location to reach the target landmark.

Stage Parts Checklist

- Launch Stage(s)

3400 dV

Payload will be very heavy so this may need insane thrust and loads of fuel. Thinking I’ll try a Y shaped assembly of 3 Mainsails around a Swivel for control, with 3 SRBs in the radial gaps.

- Re-entry pod

2 Kerbal Capacity - most likely will use either a Making History sphere pod or a plane cabin with tiny heat shields on either end

Probe core and antenna as there will be no pilot

~100dV to drop back into atmosphere. Might just throw a handful of Separatrons on it tbh

Parachute

- Vessel Core

2150 dV

! Remember: deltaV will increase when lander is dropped! Start by building it with 2150, then remove 1200dV worth of fuel to simulate the trip to the Mun, then take off the lander. Then remove enough fuel so that what remains only provides 1000dV. This should be enough for the actual trip.

Large electricity supply - enough to support the power draw of so many passengers (playing with USI Life Support) and still provide for the control systems. Consider a small reactor instead of solar.

! Note: We are not packing much if any life support for this mission. Crew Kerbals will stay on-task for 15 days without it, and this mission will hopefully not run past that. If it does, a probe core is attached to initiate remote control.

Seating for 22 Kerbals, as tightly packed as possible to minimize mass and volume (without resorting to the silly “chairs in a cargo bay” method because it feels cheaty and cruel.), and one command pod for Jeb.

! Maybe a couple radially attached rings of the little plane crew cabins? Their radius is pretty small so I could probably fit a few on top of 2.5m engines. If not then just whatever the smallest actual habitation parts are that I can get away with.

Deployable science equipment as cargo

Landing legs for Minmus landing.

Small engines facing retrograde. Assuming the passenger seating is wider than the main engines, we’ll need these in order to land on Minmus wider-side-down.

Heat shield and chutes for Kerbin re-entry

- Mun Lander

5 Kerbal Capacity (4 tourists 1 scientist. Make sure the correct tourists are loaded into these seats at launch!)

2000 dV

Batteries and small solar panels.

Parachute(s) and heat shield (?) for Kerbin re-entry

I’m not even like INTO into this show like some of you but it was literally good. The pacing made sense, >!the abstraction of one character and return of another made sense!<. The abruptness of certain things was literally the point if you take two seconds to consider the implications of >!abstraction a as suicide allegory!<. Humans are messy but we need each other. That’s it that’s the show. You are all so fucking stupid if you can’t grasp that and see how the writing decisions made illustrate that. >!Also Jax is a trans woman and anyone who says otherwise can die mad about it!<

Edited because my spoiler tags vanished, sorry to anyone that affected

I downloaded a bunch of stuff from various sources, starting with Bogue’s 2026 pack and bits of the Community Lifeboat Pack, and at some point I ended up with Rational Resources. As a result I have like no vanilla ore in my save and a ton of metals and gasses and stuff I don’t really know how to collect or use. I’m also admittedly not quite to being ready to mine and make stuff anyway so if it becomes more self-explanatory then that’s great, just hoping to get ahead of it so I don’t get frustrated with it. So my questions are:

What mods make use of these materials? I have the near and far future part packs, kerbal atomics, MKS, and USI Life Support which I think use them but I’m not sure how.

Is this something I should even have if I’m not doing a super technical realistic playthrough? This is my first time with this game since release and I’m still learning some of the stock mechanics. While I did want some additional challenge, I’m not looking to get into any insane chemistry stuff.

Thank you for your help!

Had this thought for stuff like staying in the sun to need less solar panels and batteries, keeping visibility for SCANsat imaging equipment, staying out of the sun in Quackpack planets’ orbits where proximity to the sun may be harmful. In theory I believe you’d just go the opposite direction from the body’s spin (ex launch left/clockwise over Kerbin) and achieve the same altitude you would for a synchronous orbit. But I’m not sure if you’d then have to account for the planet’s spin, and I’m not sure how you’d accomplish that if you do. I’m also not sure if this has any applications to be worth doing or if it’s just a fun challenge. Please help!