[kOS] Mission Challenges

[Pand5461]

Since this challenge seems to be dead, I decided to post a new kOS challenge thread here.

The challenges are aimed to reproduce the achievements of real-life space programs.

Rules:

Launch an automated mission controlled by kOS. Manual control is allowed on uncrewed missions in the form of typing commands into kOS console. On crewed missions, manual RCS controls and action group triggers are also allowed.

All spacecraft must have an antenna on board which is capable of reaching Mission Control (if it is in sight) or relay network.

Required mods:

• kOS
• RemoteTech

Recommended mods:

• Community Tech Tree
• SETI-UbM or other probe-first tech trees
• Kerbal Engineer Redux
• RealChute
• FAR
• Some kind of life support

Other noteworthy mods:

• KSC Switcher to launch from non-equatorial sites for extra bonuses

Since the challenge lies mostly in programming and mission planning, part mods are allowed. Mods that do piloting other than kOS are disallowed. You can still use MechJeb info panels if you need.

Notes on RemoteTech usage. Signal delay must be on. Antenna ranges must be in either in Root mode with RangeMultiplier = 0.5 or in Standard mode with RangeMultiplier = 1. Extra ground stations are allowed and their range may be increased to cover the whole Kerbol system. Number of ground stations is limited to 10. One set of extra stations can be found in the SETI pack. Missions beyond Kerbin SOI assume the existence of a relay network in Kerbin orbit. Otherwise, the launch of relay network must also be demonstrated if the mission relies on it.

Scoring:

Base score for each challenge is 100 points. Bonuses and penalties are applied in the form of score multipliers.

Manual command penalty for all challenges: score x0.9 for every command entered in terminal after liftoff (command is a sentence ended with a period)

Challenge list

(The ones that have the description marked bold)

1. V-2
2. Sputnik
3. Corona
4. Vostok
5. Luna
6. Syncom
7. Molniya
8. Gemini
9. Surveyor
10. Venera
11. Mariner
12. Apollo
13. Viking
14. Kerbal Positioning System
15. Vega
16. Cassini
17. Falcon

Mission descriptions:

Spoiler

V-2 challenge

Spoiler

Launch an unmanned probe to a suborbital trajectory.

Bonuses:

• Action! - do not use reaction wheels (except ones in probe) or reaction control system: score x2
• Altitude bonus - score x (Apoapsis / atmosphere height)
• War machine - hit island northeast of KSC (6.0 N, 62.1 W): score x2

Penalties:

• Too complex - score divided by the required VAB/SPH/Launchpad/Runway level
• Too advanced - score divided by the required RnD level
• Too many stages - score divided by the number of stages
• TLDR - score divided by the kOS part storage level

Sputnik challenge

Spoiler

Launch an unmanned artificial satellite from your home planet. The satellite must have an active omnidirectional antenna once in orbit.

Bonuses:

• Action! - do not use reaction wheels (except ones in probe) or reaction control system: score x2
• No reignitions - once engine throttle gets below 10%, it should not go up: score x1.5
• No throttling: score x1.5
• No ignitions in flight - all ascent engines start at the launchpad: score x2 (retro motors may be used to deorbit the launch vehicle)
• I sing the probe electric - do not use solar panels and have enough electric charge on satellite for more than one orbit: score x EC/(EC consumption * orbit period) (only applied if > 1)

Penalties:

• Eccentricity penalty: score x(1 - eccentricity)
• No littering! - score divided by 1.25 for each piece of debris left in orbit (satellite itself doesn't count as debris even after its batteries are dead)
• Too complex - score divided by the required VAB/SPH/Launchpad/Runway level
• Too advanced - score divided by the required RnD level
• TLDR - score divided by the kOS part storage level

Corona challenge

Spoiler

Launch an unmanned artificial satellite onto a polar orbit. The satellite must have an active omnidirectional antenna once in orbit. The satellite or its part must deorbit after not less than one orbit and land safely using parachutes.

Bonuses:

• No reignitions - once engine throttle gets below 10%, it should not go up: score x1.5
• No throttling: score x1.5
• No ignitions in flight - all ascent engines start at the launchpad: score x2 (retro motors may be used to deorbit the launch vehicle)
• Low altitude bonus: score x -log2(apoapsis [km] - atmosphere height [km]) (only applied if > 1, i.e. orbit is less than 500m above atmosphere)
• Land close to the KSC (recovery value > 90%): score x2

Penalties:

• Eccentricity penalty: score x(1 - eccentricity)
• Inclination penalty: score x sin(inclination)
• No littering! - score divided by 1.25 for each piece of debris left in orbit (satellite itself doesn't count as debris even after its batteries are dead)
• Too complex - score divided by (required VAB/SPH/Launchpad/Runway level)/2
• Too advanced - score divided by (required RnD level)/2
• TLDR - score divided by (kOS part storage level)/2

Vostok challenge

Spoiler

Launch a manned 1-seat capsule into orbit. Then land it safely after at least one orbit.

Bonuses:

• No reignitions - once engine throttle gets below 10%, it should not go up: score x1.5
• No throttling: score x1.5
• No ignitions in flight - all ascent engines start at the launchpad: score x2 (retro motors can be used to deorbit LV and capsule, but must run at 100% throttle and cannot be restarted)
• Land close to the KSC (recovery value > 90%): score x2

Penalties:

• Eccentricity penalty: score x(1 - eccentricity)
• No littering! - score divided by 1.25 for each piece of debris left in orbit
• Too complex - score divided by required VAB/SPH/Launchpad/Runway level
• Too advanced - score divided by required RnD level
• TLDR - score divided by the kOS part storage level

Luna challenge

Spoiler

Launch an unmanned probe into the Mun SOI. The probe must have an antenna with the range no less than 15 Mm and enough Electric Charge (or solar panels) to last until Mun periapsis/impact.

No maneuvers are allowed after trans-munar injection.

Bonuses:

• No reignitions - once engine throttle gets below 10%, it should not go up: score x1.5
• No throttling: score x1.5
• No ignitions in flight - all engines start at the launchpad: score x2
• Go to trans-munar injection from a suborbital trajectory: score x1.5
• Have an impact: score x1.25
• Have a free-return trajectory (Kerbin periapsis below 30 km, probe doesn't have to be capable to survive reentry): score x2
• Do not use maneuver nodes: score x2
• Inclined orbit - transfer trajectory has inclination above 15 degrees: score x1.5

Penalties:

• No littering! - score divided by 1.25 for each piece of debris left in orbit
• Too complex - score divided by (required VAB/SPH/Launchpad/Runway level)/2
• Too advanced - score divided by (required RnD level)/2

Syncom challenge

Spoiler

Launch a satellite into an equatorial stationary orbit around Kerbin. Orbit and satellite must satisfy the following conditions:

• inclination is less than 2 degrees
• orbital period is from 21540 to 21560 seconds (within approx. 10 seconds from Kerbin sidereal rotational period, drift approx. 1 degree per Munth)
• eccentricity below 0.05
• satellite must have working connection with KSC after deployment, meaning it's visible from KSC and has an antenna capable of reaching KSC
• with stock CommNet, satellite must have a relay antenna
• with RemoteTech, satellite must have either Communotron 16 / EXP-VR-2T + dish or Communotron 32 antenna
• satellite must have enough electric charge storage to power probe core and antennas during the darkness time

Bonuses:

• Konstellation: score x1.5 if multiple satellites are launched on the same rocket to the same transfer orbit and then spaced 120 or 90 degrees apart
• Score x1.5 if launch is from above 5 degrees latitude
• Score x1.25 if satellite is positioned within 0.5 degrees from KSC longitude
• Do not use maneuver nodes: score x2
• Score x1.1 if launch leaves no debris

Penalties:

• Too complex! - score divided by 1.5 if any of the level 3 facility upgrades is required

Molniya challenge

Spoiler

 

Launch a satellite onto a high elliptical orbit with inclination 63.5 degrees, argument of perikee +/- 90 degrees, orbital period of 1/2 sidereal day and perikee altitude no more than 100 km.

Tolerances:

• inclination from 63 to 64 degrees
• AoP from +/- 88 to +/- 92 degrees
• orbital period from 10770 to 10780 seconds

Bonuses:

• Konstellation: score x1.5 if multiple satellites are launched on the same rocket to the same transfer orbit and then spaced 120 or 90 degrees apart by the mean anomaly
• Score x1.1 if launch leaves no debris

Penalties:

• Too complex! - score divided by 1.5 if any of the level 3 facility upgrades is required

Gemini challenge

Spoiler

Rendezvous two vessels in Kerbin orbit.

Launch a target vehicle with a docking port, then send a second ship to dock with it. Rendezvous is counted as successful if two ships are within physics range and their relative speed is less than 5 m/s.

Bonuses:

• Perform automatic docking - score x2 (Soyuz challenge)
• Score x1.5 if target vessel inclination is above 5 degrees
• Score x1.5 if the second ship is launched directly to rendezvous (less than 1/4 of orbital period between stable orbit and getting target into physics range).

Penalties:

• No littering! - score divided by 1.25 for each piece of debris left in orbit
• Too complex! - score divided by 1.5 if any of the level 3 facility upgrades is required

Scoreboard:

1. @Pand5461 - 300 points

Falcon challenge

Spoiler

Return a rocket booster stage to ground for reuse. The stage must reach at least 500 m/s ground speed before return maneuver. Use of FMRS mod is encouraged.

Bonuses:

• Return to launch site - land stage within KSC: score x1.25 (x1.5 for landing onto a launchpad/helipad)
• Limited throttle - do not throttle the main engine below 70%: score x1.25
• Do not use landing legs: score x1.5 (stage must stand upright for at least 5 seconds after engine cutoff)
• Score x1.5 if remaining propellant mass is less than 1% of the total stage capacity.

Penalties:

• Score divided by (1 + number of exploded parts + 0.5*number of broken parts). Broken/exploded parts do not include decouplers and separators
• Score divided by (2*number of main parachutes + number of drogue chutes) if they are used

Scoreboard:

1. @tseitsei89 - 61 points

Mission badges

Sputnik

Spoiler

Vostok

Spoiler

Luna

Spoiler

 

Edited September 17, 2017 by Pand5461
Reformatted

[Dunbaratu]

One difficulty of setting up a challenge in which you use the RT mod is that it will vary greatly from one savegame to the next.  Can the player have a pre-existing satellite network set up or is that part of the challenge?

[Pand5461]

@Steven Mading, fair point.

For the challenges posted so far, I guess, there is no need of relying onto a satellite network.

I think, it's safe to assume a relay network in Kerbin orbit for missions beyond Kerbin SOI. For Mun missions, I'd encourage use of extra ground stations because this is how it was in real life.

I've added a clarification to the OP.

[tseitsei89]

Not directly fitting to the challenge but,I tried to make a Falcon 9 like booster using kOS. Best I have managed at this point is a booster that can put any (reasonably shaped) payload that weighs under 45 tons to orbit (SSTO) and then the booster deorbits and does a powered landing somewhere in the KSC area.

The problem I am facing is that, even when I am running exactly the same script starting from exactly the same orbit, I get about whole runways worth of distance between different attempts...
 So sometimes it lands very near the shoreline and sometimes it lands in the middle of the KSC buildings and everything in between.

If I could just get it to start the "landing burn" / "final hovering" stage with 0-100m (horizontally) or something like that from the launchpad everytime I'm quite sure I could write a script that could hover it above the launchpad and land it smoothly. But hovering from 1km+ away would just waste enormous amounts of fuel.

Not really sure how to proceed at this point.

 

But yeah it could quite easily orbit many satellites and return safely near the KSC at this point.

[Pand5461]

@tseitsei89, it does fit (was in the TBD section).

For more precise landings, you may add RCS thrusters facing prograde/retrograde to fine-tune the landing spot from the last few kilometers.

Another way to decrease the spread of landing points is using a steeper reentry but I don't know how it affects fuel economy.

[Guest]

Ok

[tseitsei89]

11 hours ago, Pand5461 said:

@tseitsei89, it does fit (was in the TBD section).

For more precise landings, you may add RCS thrusters facing prograde/retrograde to fine-tune the landing spot from the last few kilometers.

Another way to decrease the spread of landing points is using a steeper reentry but I don't know how it affects fuel economy.

Steeper reentry causes overheating issues for this design. But I found a netter logic for the braking burn and no I get quite good results longitude wise. And yeah I will add some vernor engines to try and hit the correct latitude also. I'm slowly getting there...

Edited July 23, 2017 by tseitsei89

[tseitsei89]

Ok it is finally done.

I now have a lifter that can lift anything (reasonably shaped) that weighs less than 37tons (tested with orange tank and ~1t worth of extra accessories) to orbit and land itself back on the launchpad just by using kOS scripts I wrote!

Here you can find the craft file and the scripts:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/o3s2h4ufn0n2qsi/AACYg-U7srVNZ53OiepoggUta?dl=0

Some user instructions:

1. Before launching attach the payload on top of the rocket and REMEMBER TO AUTOSTRUT PAYLOAD TO HEAVIEST PART!

2. Tweak fuel levels on the booster so that it has about 3900m/s dv. So if you only have a lighter payload you have to pull out some fuel before launching.

3. Launch and run orbit.ks script. That should take it to ~77kmx76km orbit.

4. Decouple payload.

5. Run fuel.ks script. That transfers fuel so that it leaves exactly 2000 units of OX and 1637 units of LF to the booster and transfer rest to the upmost tank called DItchTank.

6. Decouple DitchTank. We just get rid off the "extra" fuel this way since the game won't allow you to just pump it straight in to the space from your tanks. This way we can always get exactly identical ship with same drag characteristics and same mass for reentry. And that is very important for consistency.

7. Run deorbit.ks and enjoy the view. (make sure that reentry.ks is in the same folder since deorbit.ks runs that automatically for you...)

 

Please forgive me the blatant ugliness and horrible state of my code if you ever look at it (I do not recommend it). I'm really really not good at coding (and it was second time I tried to use kOS) but at least it works

 

 

As a demonstration I took some of the missions above (didnt read those too carefully so probably I'm breaking / not fulfilling some of the rules) and carried a satellite and manned pod (3-man pod). Returned the booster for powered landing on the launchpad and then simply returned the satellite and the crew pod using a simple parareturn.ks (also included in the dropbox link) script I quickly wrote.

Screenshots:

To orbit and returning the booster stage:

Returning the satellite and the pod:

Oh. And one more thing. If you need a bigger lifter scaling up is easy. This Heavy version of the lifter is already capable of orbiting 100+tons. Then in orbit all 3 boosters seperate and can individually return to the launchpad. And if need be you can also add even more boosters with symmetry...

 

[Pand5461]

@tseitsei89, that's a lot of airbrakes!

So, the bonuses are: x1.5 (landing at launchpad). I can't see fuel levels from the screenshots - if it's less than 1% of total stage capacity, then another x1.5 multiplier must be applied.

Penalties: /2 (I include droptank to the count of parts exploded at landing) x0.9² (two commands issued manually).

Total score (Falcon challenge): 60.75 points (rounded to 61).

You can call fuel.ks and deorbit.ks from the boot script to reduce the needed manual input.

[tseitsei89]

15 hours ago, Pand5461 said:

@tseitsei89, that's a lot of airbrakes!

So, the bonuses are: x1.5 (landing at launchpad). I can't see fuel levels from the screenshots - if it's less than 1% of total stage capacity, then another x1.5 multiplier must be applied.

Penalties: /2 (I include droptank to the count of parts exploded at landing) x0.9² (two commands issued manually).

Total score (Falcon challenge): 60.75 points (rounded to 61).

You can call fuel.ks and deorbit.ks from the boot script to reduce the needed manual input.

Yeah that would indeed be quite trivial.

run orbit.

stage.

run fuel.

stage.

run deorbit.

 

But I didn't really even try to go for big score. I justed wanted to see if I can make it hit the launchpad  I also landed it on a drone barge few times for fun

I might do rendezvous + docking script next.

[Pand5461]

@tseitsei89, I've added KEOSat and rendezvous + docking challenges at last

[tseitsei89]

40 minutes ago, Pand5461 said:

@tseitsei89, I've added KEOSat and rendezvous + docking challenges at last

I have rendezvous done and I started working on docking script. Then I got sucked away by rss/ro and usi kolonization on normal ksp and writing a hovercraft driving script for kos...

But yeah. This is stillinteresting. There are just too many interesting thongs going on for me in ksp right now 

[Pand5461]

17 hours ago, tseitsei89 said:

I got sucked away by rss/ro

That is going to take a long time, I guess

[Pand5461]

Well, now time to make my own entry.

Automated docking on the inclined orbit (Gemini / Soyuz challenge).

First, an unmanned probe sent to 21.5 degree inclination from the inland KSC.

Then, a chaser spacecraft (not) piloted by none other than Jebediah Kerman was sent to rendezvous and dock with it.

Docking algorithm mostly borrowed from the CheersKevin's Kerbal Space Programming series, with minor improvements (IMO).

Scripts:

Spoiler

Unmanned target: https://github.com/pand5461/kOS/tree/master/Dockee

Manned chaser craft: https://github.com/pand5461/kOS/tree/master/KOT/D

Docking: https://github.com/pand5461/kOS/blob/master/liborbital/dock.ks

Total score 100 x 2 (automated docking) x 1.5 (launch from 20.5 degree latitude) = 300 points

Edited August 13, 2017 by Pand5461