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Kerbal Submarine Program


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Your mission: Build a submarine without mods that can dive and rise to the surface, without breaking, glitching out, or exploding. Seems simple? Wait for the next part.

Bonus mission: Using either stock KSP or a weapons mod (BDArmory, NAS, etc), add weapons to your vessel, and successfully fire them on the surface, and underwater, without anything going wrong.

You have no time limits, but the part count must not exceed 500 parts (as that will probably cause big framerate issues or glitches). Nominations also go to the fastest submarine, the quickest to rise/dive, the deepest submarine, the most fuel-efficient submarine, and the submarine with the best explosion if it fails :P

Note: To post pictures of your sea-faring creations, you must link them to a photo sharing site (e.g. google photos, imgur)

 

GOOD LUCK AND GODSPEED!

Edited by The_Cat_In_Space
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2 hours ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

The pictures aren't showing up. Could you please link them to an image sharing site or something instead?

Whaddya mean? I see them fine....

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I was planning on embarking on a long-term mission report based on recovering a downed satellite using a submarine, I'll have to post my sub design when I finish with it. At the moment, I have no easy way of delivering my sub prototype to the ocean besides launching it in a rocket and attaching an ungodly amount of parachutes. 

My other thought was to build a wheeled delivery system that would 'launch' from the Runway and wheel out to the ocean-front, deposit the sub there. Any thoughts on a delivery system?

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1 hour ago, Smokey the Bear said:

I was planning on embarking on a long-term mission report based on recovering a downed satellite using a submarine, I'll have to post my sub design when I finish with it. At the moment, I have no easy way of delivering my sub prototype to the ocean besides launching it in a rocket and attaching an ungodly amount of parachutes. 

My other thought was to build a wheeled delivery system that would 'launch' from the Runway and wheel out to the ocean-front, deposit the sub there. Any thoughts on a delivery system?

You can get Vessel Mover released by @gomker and it will solve your problem of moving vessels around. Press the Tab key to change movement speeds hope this helps out.

Edited by Next_Star_Industries
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Here's my sub(mission) for the challenge, the XSEV-Mk1.1

Part Count: 25

Sub Weight: 19.47 Tons

Length: 5.7m

Height: 2.6m

I should note that I've never made a sub before, but this was quite fun!

Spoiler

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So, If I did my math right, It took me 79 seconds to go from the bottom of the ocean at the KSC (Approximately 632 meters) to Sea-level, 0 meters. Odds are, there's a much deeper place on Kerbin, but this location worked for me.

 

One of the things I'd like to improve on in this craft is better buoyancy. The rear of the craft was floating higher than the front, meaning I have to shift the rear-ballast forward to counteract it.

Edited by Smokey the Bear
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UV-14 Submersible "Cudafish"

Parts: 46

Mass: 10.583t

Ht Wth Ln: 3.3m, 3.0m, 8.7m

Surface Speed: 59 m/s

16.3 m/s on 30° dive

14.7 m/s on 45° dive

Deepest recorded depth was 1368m with a level cruising speed of 20.7 m/s.

32.9 m/s top speed on an emergency run to surface

Munitions Test 1:  underwater test launch of Mini-Polaris rocket - check!

Munitions Test 2:  surface torpedo launch test - check!

Transport to and from Challenger Deep via KC-09 seaplane.

Compatible with all Untied Technologies Overhead Gantry transport systems...

(stock craft, no hidden clipped parts or need for ballast tanks)

 

Full mission report with pics:

Cudafish, Mighty Duck, and the Mission to Challenger Deep!

Edited by XLjedi
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7 hours ago, Smokey the Bear said:

I was planning on embarking on a long-term mission report based on recovering a downed satellite using a submarine, I'll have to post my sub design when I finish with it. At the moment, I have no easy way of delivering my sub prototype to the ocean besides launching it in a rocket and attaching an ungodly amount of parachutes. 

My other thought was to build a wheeled delivery system that would 'launch' from the Runway and wheel out to the ocean-front, deposit the sub there. Any thoughts on a delivery system?

I used a wheeled delivery system for my stock Sea Dragon: 

 

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  • 2 months later...
Quote

Your mission: Build a submarine without mods that can dive and rise to the surface, without breaking, glitching out, or exploding. Seems simple? Wait for the next part.

You're right, it does seem pretty simple. One EZ-mode sub coming right up.

Spoiler

ERuEokj.jpg

 

Quote

Bonus mission: Using either stock KSP or a weapons mod (BDArmory, NAS, etc), add weapons to your vessel, and successfully fire them on the surface, and underwater, without anything going wrong.

Oh yeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, now you're speaking my language!

Spoiler

PcBDZ3d.jpg

Yep, that's 12 cruise missiles. They'll launch safely and effectively from ~100 meters under the surface, so you can rain destruction from long distances without risking your boat.

Spoiler

YpSk6aT.jpg

Just in case you don't have anything else nearby that can get the GPS co-ordinates for you to target your cruise missiles, I stuck a disposable scout drone on there. Fast, cheap, and works equally well in the air or underwater.

Spoiler

WMlKoZa.jpg

You're not limited to cruise missiles either, by any means. I've loaded it up with all kinds of missiles, rockets, and torpedoes with no issues. Want to put a big stock weapon in the cargo bay? Oodles of room. If I was doing actual combat scenarios with this boat, I'd add at least a couple gun turrets and a dozen torpedoes, but there's no chance of them exploding the boat when fired, so I didn't bother loading for bear in the pictures I took. Darn boat's already so heavy it wouldn't even notice another 20-30 tons of weapons.

Since it's a heavy boat, it won't be winning prizes for speed (~12 m/s without diving while at max weight), but the agility is much better than you might expect thanks to big control surfaces, reaction wheels, and gimballing engines. It'll dive as deep as you want with no issue; 1368 meters (the deepest you can go on Kerbin) isn't even a warm-up.

I've got a upsized sub with 24 cruise missiles that's basically two of these things glued together side-by-side, but it's just under the part count limit (~450 parts) and it turns my game into a 1 fps slideshow so I'm probably not going to be driving it to the bottom of the ocean to take pictures, sorry.

Edited by Samwise Potato
Mayk grammer gooder
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  • 2 weeks later...

So I finished tweaking all the fiddly bits, here's a craft file: https://kerbalx.com/SamwisePotato/SF-Thor

Really imaginative name, I know, but my naming convention for ships and subs is Norse deities and I'm running out of names, so...

Also, I made a little video using one of the scenarios from Inter's Bombing Challenge to demonstrate what this sub can do:

Spoiler

 

 

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