doggonemess

JOOL MOON SLINGSHOT RUN Oye, beltalowda! This week's challenge is inspired by "The Expanse". If you haven't seen the show, stop what you're doing and plan to do nothing else for the next two days while you binge watch it. It's that good. Back to the challenge! Your mission is to make a slingshot run around the moons of Jool. To pull this off, you have to start from a circular Jool orbit at 248,000 km. From there, plot a maneuver that takes you past as many moons as possible without using any thrust after the initial burn. My example below has my Kerbal flying by the three inner moons, with no control input after the starting burn. Now, I didn't get really close to any of them, and didn't get to the outer moons, but I'm positive it can be done much better! For instance, I could adjust my trajectory using RCS thrusters to get closer to the moons, using the gravity to do most of the work to get me back out to the moons I missed. There's no scoring, but I'll be designing different badges for the basic goals, one for elite skills, and one for the true Belters out there. It breaks down like this: Basic: Slingshot past at least three moons. You can make mid-flight adjustments to steer your craft between the moons, but no engines may be used after the first burn - only RCS thrusters. Elite: Slingshot past all the moons using multiple maneuvers and RCS. True Belter: Visit all the moons using one burn and NO additional maneuvers - guided only by your initial trajectory. I swear, it CAN be done. Your craft can be whatever you want to build. I went with something that looks cobbled together from junk, like the one featured in the show, but you can make it however you like! As such - any and all mods can be used, as long as they don't change the physics. If you want to check out the awesome design of the show's racer, check out the designer's website: https://gautamsingh.artstation.com/projects/LnQdw. You can also get your ship to the orbit any way you like. I just used the cheats menu to put the ship at 250,000,000, which is how I came up with the weird 248,000 km orbit number. That part is firm, everybody needs to start at the same point. You can, however, advance time to get the moons into a different alignment if you like. I can't wait to see what you guys come up with! Happy explosions!

Sorry for the delays everyone! I'll have the new challenge up within an hour. Thanks!

Well, you see, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of minute liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body. Air can become saturated as a result of being cooled to its dew point or by having moisture added from an adjacent source. Clouds form as a result of this process. I know I'm seven months late making this joke. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Really!? I didn't know that. That's very helpful, as it seems to come up sometimes when the control surfaces are in weird places. Thanks!

And here is the SRB to orbit badge for our lucky completionists:

It's definitely do-able. I have an awesome spy car with ejection seats. Works almost every time now! https://kerbalx.com/LevAerospace/M8-SpyRover-II-ORV Just for fun, I think I'll incorporate this into an aircraft and try it out.

I was inspired to make a Kilrathi fighter from Wing Commander. I came up with a random cat-name and built this: It's fairly stable and can do Mach 4.72. It's even got a single dumb-fire missile. Fun! It also has to be flown with SAS off, as the vertical surfaces ended up reversed, so up is down. Also fun!

Flattery will get you everywhere. It's funny, I really didn't think I did a great job on that one. I'll talk to the gang and see what they think. I'm not the biggest fan of "closing" challenges anyway.

Badges for the Chute-less Challenge are done! If you didn't use airbags (inflating heat shield) or retrorockets you can optionally use the "crater" badge.

Thanks for closing it! I'll have the medals up shortly, hopefully today.

There may be some issue with the latest KSP update not working with this mod. The author hasn't posted a message in a while, so he may not be checking the board right now. Remove the mod, and then if you can't get KSP to start you may want to reinstall the game. To take a modded game back to stock manually, you just need to remove all the folders from GameData except for the Squad and SquadExpansion(?) folders.

I am intrigued! I'll add this to my gigantic pile of Kerbal stuff I want to do.

I'd like to share one I made a while back. It doesn't meet the requirements for the challenge - I just wanted to show off. https://kerbalx.com/LevAerospace/Koffer-DR3

I built one a while back that used a similar method, and was hoping someone would go that route! Yours is very interesting as it's an open design - mine had structural panels and was covered in landing struts. I love the open design you made.

I'm thinking I didn't think that through enough. I do have to give you credit for thinking of something I didn't think of. Maybe I should have specified no heat shield, but since I didn't, bravo guys!

New Challenge! Lithobrake capsule return! Due to a shortage of materials (partially due to the Great Nylon Glut of '06) parachutes have become more expensive than antimatter. With the desire to still reach (and return) from the stars, our mission is to send a Kerbal to space and return them home using the most efficient, fastest method without parachutes. While this could be achieved using an SSTO, landing a winged craft takes a large amount of skill. We need a drop craft that brings the crew home rapidly and without any complicated methods, so our scientists with no hand-eye coordination can still get things done. We would prefer to collect the craft on land rather than a water landing to further reduce cost and complexity. To meet this challenge, the craft must: Design a craft with one or more crew and no part mods (except for Squad expansion parts). Reach orbit and deorbit (you can cheat the craft to orbit to save time, since it's not part of the challenge). Reenter the atmosphere above 1600 m/s. Ballistic descent through atmosphere (no gliding, but aero parts to induce drag are fine). Land on the same continent as the Space Center. Part loss on 'landing' should be minimal to save money. While challenges are usually unranked, a special badge will be awarded to engineers who can manage the landing without using engines. Happy landings! (hopefully)

Thanks! I took me forever. For some reason the idea wasn't coming to me, and then I just figured "Go for it, make a ship over a planet and see what comes out". It sort of made itself while I worked. I just had to try putting something down and see where I went with it.

Greetings, all! Sorry for the hugely huge delay, but I finally finished the medal for the LF SSTO. Collect yours below! Bigish version: Smallish version:

I think the one mentioned above: Find the highest spot on Gilly. (Fact of the day: it's located at about 124° W, 29° S, on top of a ridge that runs roughly north-south. Now you know.)

Way to go! This is almost exactly what I did, and this totally counts. Timing the shutoff for the thrusters has to have a little leeway, as we're only human, so it's going to be off by a second or so. Your lessons learned were the same ones I came away with! I tried for other moons, too, but none had the low gravity to allow this. I wonder if there is one where you could do a RATO-car version of this and get it into orbit. You are definitely a badge winner. Thanks for the post!

That's the fun part! If you "jump" off the correct peak, the rotation of the moon will carry that peak out of the way and you'll complete one orbit. I've managed to do four orbits before hitting a peak.

Working off of the ramp jumping idea, I came up with something a little more... Kerbalish. Your challenge is to take a rover, land it on Gilly, then use the natural topography as a ramp, and jump into ORBIT! It's totally possible, I have an imgur album to prove it. Check out the complete album: https://imgur.com/a/7P0r3Xi The low gravity and ease of landing make this a fun but tricky stunt. Keeping the wheels on the surface is impossible at even the lowest speeds, so you'll need some thrusters to provide downforce. You have to make sure that the point you 'jump' from is at the right angle to carry you around the planet. Your final speed is critical - too slow and you impact on the surface, a little too fast and you achieve escape velocity! Rules - the glue of life that regulates the fun for everyone: 1. Your thrusters have to turn off the instant you leave the ground for your final launch. No using them to adjust your orbit! You can see from my screenshots that I came off the ground and kept them on - that was because I was still trying to reach the right slope. After that shot, I set back down and rode on the wheels. 2. Mods are fine, as they'll have little affect on this challenge. 3. You can get your rover to the surface of Gilly however you like. I used the cheats menu to put it in orbit, then landed it with a skycrane. You can use the same method or Hyperedit, or whatever you prefer. The challenge isn't getting their, it's getting off! 4. You have to get at least one full orbit. Because the surface is so irregular, what looks like a good orbit might have a mountain the way when you make it around the planet! 5. Wheels can be your only form of locomotion! No rockets or maneuvering thrusters pushing forward. Rockets pushing down are okay - as you'll need them. Kudos if you can dock with your skycrane after the orbit! I'm putting together a cool badge, hope to have it ready in a few days. Happy explosions!

Okay, so I missed the morning deadline. I'm working on finishing up now!

I'm working on finishing up the challenge now - it'll be up this morning!

My apologies, that's not my Rapier craft - that's the Vector engine. I'll try it with a Rapier and see if my result matches yours. I'm on the latest version, 1.4.5.