ManEatingApe

Well, I did debate internally whether to include Dres or not...

I didn't actually think of using more than one craft...what a great idea! Updated the rules to make it explicit that this is allowed, nay encouraged.

I'm trying to use the the POSITIONAT function to calculate the relative position of planets for transfer planning purposes. When using it with planets the values returned are correct, however the values returned for moons seem a little wonky. I think I'm doing something silly but can't figure out what's going wrong. Any help would be appreciated! Here's a minimal code sample to demonstrate (running on KSP 1.9.1 Mac, kOS 1.2.0, no other plugins). I've tried moving the CPU vessel to various orbits with no effect. To double check I wrote a Kepler's problem solver script in kOS that agrees quite closely with the planet values, but differs for the moon values. https://github.com/maneatingape/kos-miscellaneous-scripts/blob/master/kepler.ks

100%. No timewarping on ladders is the core of the challenge - you'll have to figure out how to bring your Kerbal along with (or near) the ship!

Nope! It is completely up to your own sense of ethics (or lack thereof) if want to return your unfortunate Kerbal or if they become a permanent colonist. That's a good question, I've updated the rules.

Transport a Kerbal from the surface of Kerbin to the surface of another celestial body, alive and intact, without putting them in a pod, command chair, claw or inflatable airlock. Using your ingenuity and creativity, cram them into a cargo bay, shove into a service module, latch onto a ladder, entrain in an enclosure or otherwise unofficially bring them along for the ride. Scoring The further your can push, pull, poke, prod and propel your Kerbal the more points and glory awaits. Each celestial body scores the following points: Minmus 10 Mun 20 Duna 40 Ike 20 Eve 60 Gilly 20 Dres 80 Eeloo 90 Moho 100 Laythe 110 Vall 20 Tylo 160 Bop 10 Pol 10 Points for landing on celestial bodies are cumulative. The more bodies you land on, the more points you score. There is a 5 point bonus for bringing more than 1 Kerbal along outside a pod. This is not cumulative, 5 points no matter how many extra Kerbals. Rules As a convenience, your Kerbal may start aboard the craft normally when launching from VAB or SPH, however they must EVA from the craft before staging any engines. For the entire duration of the mission, your Kerbal should be a separate physics object (you can switch between them and the ship using the [ and ] keys) Returning your Kerbal to Kerbin is purely optional and not part of the challenge, although it may help you sleep at night. Your craft can be controlled normally by other Kerbals in a pod or by a probe core. CommNet is optional. Use as many or as few craft as you like e.g. the craft from surface to orbit could be different from the orbital transfer craft Stock and DLC parts only Mods that don't modify physics such as KER, MechJeb, Kerbal Alarm Clock, visual and audio mods are allowed. Keep it clean - no Kraken drives, drain thrust valve exploits, looking for loopholes or other shenanigans Post pictures or video of your attempt Leaderboard @RoninFrog Multiple robotic "klaws" pushed a Kerbal all the way to Tylo. 160 points. @Hdeedose One Kerbal safely conveyed to the the Mun. 20 points. @Vanamonde One Kerbal "bowled" from LKO to Minmus. 10 points.

That is some considerable dedication and ingenuity! I don't think anyone has completed this challenge without going to space before. Nice tactic for obtaining the "landed" science on the water.

Love the video! Especially like seeing the evolution and refinement of each design.

That is some practical progressive penny-pinching. You were also very patient with all the aero-braking passes! You could potentially save even more funds if you ditched the reaction wheel, battery and solar panel. The gimbal from the Spark engine would still allow you to steer as long as some thrust is maintained.

Great! Added you the leaderboard.

I like the SpaceX style booster recovery! Didn't recognize the fuel tanks, were those modded parts on the rocket?

No worries at all, this has unexpectedly become my longest running challenge at 3 years, 7 months and 17 days. I'm delighted that there are still dedicated cheapskates out there. After all I did originally say that versions later than 1.1.3 were acceptable! Nice video and mission. You are the first command chair entry. I've added you to the leader board in pole position.

Here's an entry clocking in at 21:50 Maximum speed was a leisurely 3,600 m/s however the auto-pilot took a shortcut...through the atmosphere! Sure there were some slight disadvantages, such as the near fatal heat, but also one very nice advantage. The wing's lift-to-drag ratio of 2 provided 120kN of down force for the cost of only 60kN of thrust to counteract the drag and maintain a constant speed. The vessel certainly won't win any awards in the looks department, but the inflatable heat shield has reasonably low drag and remarkable heat resistance as an unconventional nosecone. The journey was entirely controlled by a kOS script, derived from the script used for the Around the world in 80 minutes challenge. I'd highly recommend scripting for this challenge as it allows consistent repeatable test runs, really helping you to refine and tweak your design. For any interested folks who'd like to use it for inspiration the script is contained below.

This nifty challenge should also provide some inspiration. It's possible to do a lap of Kerbin in less than 25 minutes without even leaving the atmosphere! Tip: Flying west rather than east when you leave the runway/launchpad will subtract Kerbin's rotational velocity from your craft allowing you a higher speed relative to the surface for the same centrifugal force, allowing you to save fuel or use less wing area. @ralanboyle Are auto-pilot mods such as MechJeb/kOS acceptable?

I look forward to seeing your entry!

Borderline stable is still stable, just more sensitive to input, so you have to be gentler with the controls. Practice is really the key, however with a script flying for you this is less of a problem. "set steeringmanager:pitchpid:kp to 5.0" increases the proportional constant of the kOS cooked steering PID controller, see: http://ksp-kos.github.io/KOS_DOC/commands/flight/cooked.html#tuning-cooked-steering If your next question is "But Ape, what is the proportional constant of a PID controller?" then that is a complex subject. These links can help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller https://www.csimn.com/CSI_pages/PIDforDummies.html https://www.machinedesign.com/automation-iiot/sensors/article/21831887/introduction-to-pid-control Well spotted. The "lock steering to <expression>" statement evaluates the given expression on each physic tick and assigns it to the steering controller. The "until <expression> { block statement }" also evaluates the given expression on each physics tick, and if false, also executes the given block statement. So the following code block: local desiredCompassAngle is 0. local desiredPitchAngle is 0. local desiredRollAngle is 0. lock steering to heading(desiredCompassAngle, desiredPitchAngle, desiredRollAngle). until false { set desiredCompassAngle to <expression>. set desiredPitchAngle to <expression>. set desiredRollAngle to <expression>. } is functionally equivalent to this code block below. However the 2nd code block has the advantage that the 3 variables desiredCompassAngle, desiredPitchAngle, desiredRollAngle are local to the scope of the loop, rather than the scope of the script. Keeping mutable variables as local as possible reduces the chance of programmer error, so I went with that approach. until false { local desiredCompassAngle is <expression>. local desiredPitchAngle is <expression>. local desiredRollAngle is <expression>. set steering to heading(desiredCompassAngle, desiredPitchAngle, desiredRollAngle). }

Took your craft for a test spin, problem is: script needs tuning to match craft (or alternatively craft needs tuning to match script ) My craft was borderline unstable i.e COL and COM were very close. This made the craft very maneuverable and enabled the wacky acrobatics that the script depends on. Your craft is very very stable, I can see from the screenshot (and messing around in the VAB) that COM is very far ahead of COL. This is great for stability but means the craft reacts slower. 2 suggestions: Adjust script: Change the line set steeringmanager:rollpid:kp to 1.6. to set steeringmanager:pitchpid:kp to 5.0. Your craft has plenty of roll authority but the slow reactions mean that more aggressive PID control is needed. I did a test flight with a value of 5. The craft no longer crashed into the ocean but overshot the max altitude so you will still need to tweak this value. Adjust craft: Move the side pontoons forward or adjust your wing shape to make your craft less stable and more maneuverable. Unrelated to stability I would also suggest waiting to stage your nuke until at least 10,000 meters altitude. Below that altitude ISP and thrust is low, so you're wasting fuel.

Hi @OverClock, welcome to the forums and to this challenge! Quick forum tip: You can type an "@" symbol to mention a forum user by name. A little box will popup that searches forums users as you type. That user will then receive a notification the next time they login that you mentioned them and their name will be outlined in blue (just like yours above). Regarding your plane, there any many things that could be going wrong - COL ahead of COM, insufficient control authority, script needs tuning. In order to help you I'll have to see pictures of the plane or better yet the craft file itself. The forum doesn't allow uploading files directly, so you'll have to use an image sharing site such as imgur.com and a file sharing site such as dropbox.com or Google Drive. So I'd suggest you do the following: Upload a screenshot of your craft to Imgur Upload your craft file to Dropbox Post to this thread including both these links (you can use the "Insert image from URL" button to display an image inline)

Sheesh, kids these days, it has to be vi of course Just kidding, Sublime with kOS syntax highlighting plugin...

This challenge has plenty of entries that may inspire you:

Quick question for folks participating on this challenge - what version of KSP are you using? The reason I ask is that I'm having trouble pushing a fairing past 3,150 m/s without it exploding on version 1.8.1. Wondering if it's something silly I'm doing or some changes in the aero-model.

My 2 nominations are... SSTO to laythe and beyond by @panzer1b Description Build a spaceplane that can reach Laythe in a single stage, and optionally, return to Kerbin or visit other celestial bodies. The first challenge I ever entered and still fondly remember. Why should this be run again? It's a natural evolution of the ever popular K-Prize challenge thread for space-plane builders who want to really challenge themselves. It encourages players to really improve and hone their space-plane skills. There's a really detailed and fun points system to encourage folks to try different approaches and go the extra mile. Ōsumi Challenge: Get to orbit, SRBs only, totally unguided by @Snark Description Launch a ship to Kerbin orbit, completely unguided using nothing but SRBs. Why should this be run again? Incredibly original and well thought out challenge with a fascinating real life backstory. There are new SRB parts available since this challenge was last run (Shrimp, Mite, Pollux, Clydesdale and Thoroughbred). There are new Breaking Ground parts (especially the KAL-1000) that would add a new dimension to this challenge

Thanks! It's not super obvious from the photo but the wings are at a slight incidence of about 3 degrees.

I think the inflatable heat shield as a nose cone is the way to go for maximum raw speed. With a quick and dirty test craft I managed to get it up to 3,500 m/s without even breaking a sweat heat-wise, so it could be pushed even further.

Here is my compact entry in the Lightning division weighing only 10.6 tons (plus 6kg of snacks ). Top speed was restricted to 2,670 m/s due to the limited heat tolerance of the Mk1 parts, but acceleration and braking was high due to the low mass. The last minute pull-out of the dive when approaching the KSC was dramatic! Total elapsed time was 27:37. A fun fact is that the entire journey was completely automated using a kOS script. If anyone would like to use the script and tweak it for their own entry then please feel free, source code is included in the spoiler below.