Will it Bounce?

[Highlad]

Will it Bounce?

Hello and welcome the 'Will it Bounce' Challenge!

In this challenge you will be required to design a craft capable of falling to the mun from space WITHOUT engines or RCS.

Now, I know that kerbals can do this and some ships can do this also, but your entries will have to push the limits of kerbal design.

Your score will be set as the speed your ship is travelling at 5km above the surface.

Rules:

You are allowed to use infinite fuel to put your craft into the required orbit.

You are NOT allowed to use engines or RCS to slow/manipulate your decent.

You MUST have one kerbal onboard your craft as it hits the ground (and he must come out alive).

You are allowed to use rockets to propel yourself towards the Mun so that your entry speed is higher.

The ship that passes the 5km mark must be your final ship and as such, all propulsion methods must be decoupled/undocked.

No cheats other than infinite fuel are to be used.

To enter you must show:

Your initial craft.

Your speed at 5km (more or less)

Your craft after landing.

Any other screenshots are welcome

Good Luck!

Leaderboard:

Right - 308.7

Vector - 188.4

Edited November 25, 2013 by Highlad

[GraviTykillz]

Were is your entry?

[Kasuha]

Does the Kerbal have to survive, or is it just optional?

Kerbin atmosphere is special; the speed at which you enter it doesn't matter, it will still slow you down to 100-200 m/s before you touch the ground. Not so long ago I tried that with about 8 km/s when returning from Jool, expecting I'll crash really hard. So it really surprised me that I had enough time to open parachutes and land normally. That's also the reason why I won't enter this challenge - it's just matter of preparing a lander which will match the rules and send it from high enough point in the system. Something like this entry of some other challenge. I don't see the point of entering with some half-effort entry if I know what to do and just don't want to spend the time on it.

[Dunbaratu]

Every entry will have to re-enter the atmosphere on the same trajectory; falling straight back to kerbin. Your orbit in the map view must show a strait line from the planet kerbin to apoapsis and back (more or less).

Technically, what you just described there about the orbit path is impossible once you get back into the atmosphere. The atmosphere will enforce your conformity to the surface frame of reference (which won't be a straight blue line down, because the map view operates on the orbital frame of reference, not surface frame). The atmosphere does this by pushing sideways on you until you match horizontal velocity with the ground, because atmo drag calculations use your surface velocity, not your oribital, on the presumption that the air around the planet moves mostly with the planet.

By the time you get to sea level that's a pretty huge difference. It's 174 m/s different.

[Epthelyn]

Were is your entry?

This challenge is known to be possible; it's been done before with far less resilient parts than the structural panels we have now.

-----

Anyway, the scoring system is, as Kasuha described, flawed. You can come into Kerbin's atmosphere at 70km/s or 2km/s, and you'll still be going the same speed in both cases when you reach ground level. This is makes this particular challenge more of a "how fast can you hit the atmosphere" challenge than the original idea.

[Highlad]

Does the Kerbal have to survive, or is it just optional?

Kerbin atmosphere is special; the speed at which you enter it doesn't matter, it will still slow you down to 100-200 m/s before you touch the ground. Not so long ago I tried that with about 8 km/s when returning from Jool, expecting I'll crash really hard. So it really surprised me that I had enough time to open parachutes and land normally. That's also the reason why I won't enter this challenge - it's just matter of preparing a lander which will match the rules and send it from high enough point in the system. Something like this entry of some other challenge. I don't see the point of entering with some half-effort entry if I know what to do and just don't want to spend the time on it.

You have a point... Let me have a quick think. I shall revise the rules. Cheers for the correction

[Highlad]

Right, I have revised the rules. I'm quite thankful that you folks pointed out my error this early! I have changed the target to the Mun so that there is no atmosphere to slow ya down

I shall post my entry shortly.

[Vector]

Lithobraking challenge? Interesting...

I got 188 m/s, might have been higher but I was too chicken to try faster.

And yes, it did bounce.

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[Pds314]

Hmm...

Well, I did once use landing gears to attempt a Munar landing at ~600 m/s. The craft wasn't vaporized, but it was shattered into lots of pieces and the Kerbals didn't live through the initial impact. The trouble with that strategy is that you need to get to LMO so low that you are flying by craters and such, my craft nearly vaporized itself a about 10 times from almost smashing into a crater wall at orbital speeds. At one point, I was within less than the height of a landing gear of a crater rim, having only been saved by the fact that I had temporarily retracted the gear.

Edited November 25, 2013 by Pds314

[Highlad]

Lithobraking challenge? Interesting...

I got 188 m/s, might have been higher but I was too chicken to try faster.

And yes, it did bounce.

Haha! I love it! I never thought of using lots of landing legs. Mine is more of a roll cage...

[Right]

I ran this craft a couple of times and this was my best score:

Screenie just over 5k since I was about to hit terrain

After first bounce

Stationary!

[Epthelyn]

You revised the challenge, great!

I don't have time right now but I'll submit an entry 3-4 hours from now.

[Dave Kerbin]

Have you considered a hard mode - after landing on the Mun, the Kerbal must return safely to Kerbin using only what was brought to the surface.

[Vector]

Have you considered a hard mode - after landing on the Mun, the Kerbal must return safely to Kerbin using only what was brought to the surface.

Given that engines are disallowed, this would be quite hard indeed.

If engines were not disallowed, and if lithobraking is even marginally successful at protecting the craft, then it shouldn't be much harder to return to Kerbin.

[Blaster]

Screenshot of landed lander with fuel tank contents full should suffice for hard mode