JAFO

I like the concept.. wishing you well with it.

Excessively long filenames.

An impressive amount of work you've done there! Kudos! @Jacke, I've added your Science Checklists to the Help Resources list in the OP.

I seem to recall trying that once. The antenna stayed up until the transmission ended, and then it retracted.

This one of mine would probably give you the heebie-jeebies then... If you go back through this thread, you will come across 3 different techniques for nailing a Minmus transfer. All of them work well.. just take your pick.

I would agree with that assessment. Especially since it is not enabled by default. (And also since those who've already done the challenge in 1.11 did so without it.) Edit: I've I've updated the rules on the OP to reflect this. According to Reddit, "if you enable that, Kerbals keep their inventory even after you recover them. If you take the EVA jetpack off of Jeb and then put him in a different mission, he won't have the EVA jetpack in the new mission either." Hmm.. I see no problem either way with that.. heck, I'll probably use it myself to keep from having to constantly take their toys away from my Kerbals every single time they launch! (or is that the default-off behaviour? Not sure now. Will have to check!)

Congratulations, @SpaceShane11! Welcome to the Clan! We've carved your name on the cave wall, and your Talc badge has been sent to your inbox. Unga-bunga!

While I had a feeling I understood this, I decided to google it just to be sure. An exact-phrase search turned up exactly ONE reference to it. Fortunately, it confirmed what I thought.

Since yesterday, the images are showing just fine for me. Sometimes the internet is just weird.

Congratulations, @Blaarkies! A very impressive run. And I loved your idea of building a reusable "fuel magazine" that you could just slot new tanks into as needed. Truly inspirational! Your name has been carved into the cave wall for 'Diamond', and a new badge has been sent to your inbox. Well done!

Excellent! You are hereby cordially invited to take on the Caveman Challenge, at whatever difficulty level you like.

Thanks! Good to see one of us has a decent memory at least. (Hint: Don't get old.. it sucks.) Can't say for sure, but I suspect not. At least, I don't recall ever noticing that the capsule end wobbled less than the other. Empirical testing called for, perhaps? I believe Scott demonstrated in the video that this is one of those times when KSP actually does match reality. Yes! Also.. it's shinier. I'm pretty sure Cavemen regard that as an important factor.

Hmm.. I wonder if it's my VPN that's causing things to be weird? Although now I think about it, after you made that first pic public, I could see it no problem. Weird. Anyhow, the album link works fine for me.

Umm.. nope. I'm aware of that particular fallacy... but this was most definitely that there was zero advantage to having a reaction wheel at the extreme end, as opposed to the centre, of a long craft. Like so much about how things work in zero-g, it's totally counter-intuitive, but apparently that's the case. The lever/torque thing doesn't apply. He did go into a detailed explanation of it all, which naturally I can't remember. Even worse, I searched, but can't find it, so it seems that it wasn't the subject of a dedicated video, but was merely discussed in the course of one of his regular KSP videos. Excellent! I'll go check it out after I finish my cyber-sec class tonight.

The best of all possible reasons! Shall I go and whip up a combo Apatite-Topaz badge for you now, in anticipation of you doing so? I heartily approve of this ambition! Hmmm.. maybe I ought stick an NC-Diamond opposite the Apatite and Topaz stones, in readiness! Hmmm... I seem to recall a Scott Manley video, a long time ago, where he explained why in real life, this was faulty logic, and demonstrated that even in KSP, it doesn't work like that. I might have to go looking for it.

Awesome! I have GOTTA get me a set of those! Thanks! I like this, too.

Am I the only one these images aren't showing for?

Link is borked. I get a 403 error on that.

I ran a couple of tests just now, and found that in my description above, it turns out I was just flying it badly on that first attempt. Just rusty, I guess. The correct launch procedure is; SAS on. (forget this, and it's game over) Hot-stage the first 3 stages one after the other, without any delays between them. You want to shed excess weight/drag as quickly as possible, and also build up all the speed you can. Your apoapsis will top out at around 19-20km. Coast up as close to this altitude as you feel comfortable with.. but you want to kick off the fourth stage before you get too slow.. 50m/s is as slow as I feel comfortable with. Again, light both stages off one after the other, and coast up to space. But to address your questions; The girders burn off quite easily. With the girders on, it reaches about 80km. Without the girders, the launch gets a little hairier, as one of the side-mounted burnt-out fleas will explode before the other side does, so it gets a bit of side-to-side wobble up, which is scarier than it looks, as the craft will sort itself out after a few seconds, and keep going up. The girderless version can reach an Ap of 95-100km. (The same craft WITH decouplers can reach an Ap of 120km or so.)

I'm pretty sure he meant EVA.

Heh heh.. I ran into that problem a while back. But managed to find a solution that didn't require decouplers. May I present to you, the good ship "Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory". (Bonus points if you get the reference!) The craft file can be downloaded from KerbalX here. (Yes, I put all my own favourite Caveman craft on KerbalX, so that I can easily import them into new challenge attempts, using the KerbalX mod, thus saving me a lot of time. Yup, that mod is allowed in a Caveman Challenge attempt, as all it lets you do is upload/download craft.) The fins on top help prevent the Capsule + Flea from becoming a lawn dart on re-entry. Of course, they do make the craft a little less than atmospherically stable on the way UP. The tiniest deviation away from going exactly straight up will result in disaster. (And yes, there are 4 goo canisters. Symmetry is essential in this instance.) Successfully getting this thing to space is strictly a matter of "Keep your hands and feet away from all controls that are NOT the space-bar." Also, the last 2 stages should not be fired until it is well above up around 20,000 metres. Just how far above 20,000 is necessary, I'm still determining. Something (maybe the atmosphere) appears to have been tweaked a little since I first flew this baby back in v1.4.2. My first use of it in 1.11 was unsuccessful due to me getting the staging timing wrong (see my next post), and so the second try, I waited until it had lost most upward velocity before firing up the last 2 Fleas.

That... is both interesting and irritating. Now you've got me curious how the other NCD cavemen got past this point. And wondering if something has changed since they completed it. Time to go do some reading, I guess... Well done on finding a solution, and best wishes for future "rare biomes" landings!

For once, the report wasn't kidding! Nice job!

Kudos! Bon voyage!

Truly an amazing effort, mate! Outstanding, even. Congratulations on being the first to achieve Diamond level in this iteration of the Caveman Challenge. Your new custom Topaz/Diamond badge is in the mail, and your name has been carved on the cave wall.