Recover an asteroid to KSP

[Zipmafia]

I'm surprised I haven't seen this challenge yet! I was inspired by "Recover an asteroid after oceanic impact" by Pds314, which I attempted several times.

~Edit~ Oh, so now I find a challenge just like this one. Sorry for the duplication, but this one is scored differently than "The Pet Rock Challange!" by jmiki8 so I'm going to leave it.~

This challenge seems much simpler and more practical, get it back to KSP however you want!

Rules:

• All Stock: no mods please!
  
• No Cheats or hyper-edits
  
• Recover an asteroid back to KSP. Asteroid should end within walking distance of one of the KSP buildings.
  

Scoring:

+10 Points per ton of recovered asteroid's weight

-10 Points per ship used (after the first ship)

-20 Points for dragging/impacting/rolling the asteroid (you left part of your rock back here!!!)

-20 Points for impacting water (don't wash the asteroid!!!)

Bonus Points (I was not able to complete either of the first two, but I would love to see them done):

+25 Points if ALL ships used survive

+25 Points if NO debris created

+25 Points if you can do it with one ship

Good luck! Here's my entree: http://imgur.com/a/safvx 141 Points!

Leaderboard:

1.Beech @ 1514 Points !!!

2.mpk10 @ 726 Points !!!

3.Zipmafia @471 Points

4.HelmyJune @ 305 Points

5.Zipmafia @ 141 Points

6.TechTexN @ ~120 Points

7.NavalLacrosse@ 0 points (attempted ~13,000 points)

8.

Edited July 27, 2014 by Zipmafia

[Zipmafia]

Could someone please reply so I know what is going on and what you think of this challenge. Is it to easy or hard? Is it a stupid challenge or are you going to try it? Do I need to change the rules or scoring to make it more fun? Any response would be nice. BTW, Im trying to grab an even larger asteroid to neat my own reccord.

[HelmyJune]

There have already been a few similar challenges, that's probably why this hasn't gotten much attention. Seeing as I just completed a different once I can submit it here as well.

37.5t (+375), 5 extra ships used (-50), dragging (-20) Total: 305 points

It took me 4 of my ground tugs to drag this thing back to the space center 7 km away haha.

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[Zipmafia]

Nice!! I saw your entry on the pet rock challenge, it helped me adjust my scoring a little. I figured that every time you had to grab the asteroid or drag it you would lose some scientific value, but even with losing a LOT of material a larger asteroid is still better. Thanks for the reply!!

P.S. Any ideas on how to make this challenge better are much appreciated. I

[chrise6102]

Seems like a good challenge I'll have to give it a go once I get a little better! What about bringing a second roid to earth so that it touches the first? Or would that just be obscenely difficult?

[Zipmafia]

Somebody should try, rate, or comment on this challenge so I know if it is still alive and well. If you don't like it for some reason, I would like to hear why so that I can make a better one. I had a blast doing my own challenge and find it hard to believe that nobody else is going to. In any case have fun and good luck!!!

[NavalLacrosse]

I'll do this tomorrow! It only sucks because I've got an asteroid captured already... it would be too easy to bring it back.

-Do the rules specify the asteroid must be captured from a 'just passing by' orbit, or can I just deorbit the one i've got circulated from missions past?

[Zipmafia]

Your more than welcome to use the asteroid that you already have in orbit, you just have to include the launches you already did to get said asteroid into orbit for scoring.

[NavalLacrosse]

I i was going to grab a class E 'huge' one weighing 1300 tons. I was going to parachute it to the surface , but needless to say, the third day of orbital maneuvers I uncovered the kraken for the first time ever. My ships exploded, and the refueling tankers time accelerated into sub orbital trajectories while Jeb's asteroid command station broke in half sending him interplanetary with no means of control, despite being in a capsule.

I enjoyed this mission for leading me to do things I normally don't do, and though it was fun along the way. I met the space kraken, coordinated awkward plane of orbits operation, and had a massive congestion of ships and random engines floating around. It was a kerb-tastic mission attempt, but a mission failed in the end

[Zipmafia]

That sounds like an awesome attempt at an extremely tough mission! Im still trying to catch a C class with a single launch, I cant imagine how hard it would be with a E class. I think you should hold a place on the leaderboard just for trying though.

[NavalLacrosse]

I do have screen shots, and will post them here.

I only used three ships to get the asteroid where it was. my fourth one (a ship with two mainsails and support fuel ) was on a rendezvous course. The last ship I launched was going to be used to go a plane change and get the asteroid at 0 degrees above equator. The ship I planned next would provide additional fuel for precision(ish) targeted de-orbit burn. Odds are i would have dragged it to the space center.

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[Zipmafia]

OMG. I did it! I caught a REALLY big rock. 50.1 Tons (+501 points), 3 Launches (-30 points). Total = 471 points!!

I don't know if anybody else is having fun with this challenge, but I'm having a blast!!

Kudos to anybody who can top this one.

http://imgur.com/a/FbRop#0

Edited May 22, 2014 by Zipmafia

[NavalLacrosse]

Holy cow! I think I may have needed more than 48 parachutes.....

[mpk10]

(Apparently I posted my entry to a "dead challenge." Oops! New to the forums. So here it is again!...)

Hey guys,

Been playing with KSP only since v .23. This is my first time in the forums. I've been making challenges for myself once i finished the science tree and had no idea this place existed! Anyway, I took on this challenge myself without knowing about this thread, so i don't have any pictures of my craft in action, but here is my Asteroid "Douglas Adams" at the KSC Astronaut Complex.

Please excuse any errors in posting protocol. I don't know what i'm doing. (I even had to google how to do a screenshot. )

Only mod I use is the Flight Engineer.

Below is the Capture and Lander Craft at the Launchpad with a Lifter. Then Just the Capture and Lander. Then just the Lander. The "Lander" Section is only to kill the last couple hundred or so of velocity at around 8,000m. Then I blew it off and pulled 8 chutes set to expand at the maximum of 5000m.

The "Puller", once I landed near KSC. I had to pull it about 2.2km.

The Ladder to Go stand on Top!

Bill on Top!

And here is the size (75.6 Tons)

[Zipmafia]

Holy Moly!! I thought the rock I caught was huge!! looks like I lose #1 spot and have to think about my designs a little more. Good job and kudos!! 726 Points!!

[MarvinKitFox]

I suggest you take a look at the "best rock garden" and "land an asteroid on the VAB" challenges for entries...

[Zipmafia]

I suggest you take a look at the "best rock garden" and "land an asteroid on the VAB" challenges for entries...

I did, and honestly most of the posts on this challenge are cooler (in my opinion). I did see a few E class Asteroids though. . Can't imagine the time required to get one of those to KSP.

By the way, if you are enjoying this thread please feel free to give it a rating. I try to check up on it every couple of days, even when it gets forgotten about.

[TechTexN]

It may be a Class A asteroid, but how I brought it back is the challenge I enjoyed. The only Mod was for Kerbin clouds, no other mods nor mechjeb:

[Zipmafia]

That looks like a bunch of fun! I had thought of this a while ago but figured it would be too hard to align the wings, good job!

I don't have good enough internet at home to watch this video, so it would be awesome if you could take a couple of screen shots of it so I can score you. Otherwise I will just wait until I go to work next to score you.

In any case I am impressed, and wondering if this would work with a larger asteroid?

[TechTexN]

With mods, anything is possible. Without mods, maybe. It would require some major parts. Other people suggested making similar to biplane models (two sets of wings) to help maintain lift. Shear weight is an issue and would need plenty of thrust just to keep her up, but at least there is more surface to work with on larger asteroids. Problem with more thrust is it is easy to put the asteroid into an uncontrollable spin. Make sure there are plenty of control surfaces. I added a requirement to the challenge, though, and that was the jet has to be able to take off again. I have the video of that on the same channel of this video. To take off again with a bigger asteroid would be the hardest part. You would definitely need plenty of extra long gears to make sure the belly of the asteroid doesn't bottom out on the runway.

I'm at work too, so I can't send those screenshots just yet, but I have some from a previous jet that worked, except I forgot the extra long gears on that one

[TechTexN]

Here are some old pics of the asteroid jet. I built two versions. One that landed successfully (the second one I built), one engine broke off because my nose was too high, but I did eventually land it and take off again (takeoff video on my channel). The first one I built was a semi-success in that it flew just fine, but the landing gear was too short so it was a very rough landing. The second ship I fixed the landing gear problem...

Take note the Kerbal standing on the front wing. This gives relative size and proportion of the asteroid jet:

Construction in space... using claws:

How the parts were assembled:

First jet that was semi-success:

A crash a pilot can survive in. No wings since the asteroid rolled off the runway:

An original design that just didn't work at all and I had to start over:

[Zipmafia]

Well, I can't give you an exact score without the weight of the recovered asteroid. But since you said it was an A class, I'm guessing somewhere around 7 tons? So 7 tons (+70 points), spacecraft survived (+25 points), used one ship (+25 points).

120 Points!!!

Bonus: since I really liked the way you completed this challenge, I decided to throw in a selfie of Jeb with his new pet!!

https://imgur.com/a/XC8Hv

Edited July 9, 2014 by Zipmafia

[RocketBlam]

Here's the thread from when I did it:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/75072-Sir-Your-Asteroid-Has-Been-Delivered-to-KSP

I don't have the save anymore, but it was a Class B asteroid, and I did it with one ship. It was also a manned mission.

[Beech]

So on my first post I thought I'd share my asteroid retrieval that I've been working on for quite some time and finally finished this week.

My first intercept, class C....much bigger then I expected 157 tons.

Managed to de-orbit it and by fluke landed it 80ish km from ksp.

After attempts to move it via a rocket propelled pushing apparatus failed miserable, I settled on multiple jet engines attached to the sides. The vehicle below is what I used to attach individual jet engined probes.

Flying it felt similar to pushing a shopping trolley with all wonky wheels.

A huge shovel type vehicle used to pick up and push it to its final resting place.

Somewhere along the way the "roid" became a probe. But it still says, 1 part..157 tons.

Before a score can be worked out, one quick question. Does the "ships used" condition include the ones that failed as well?

[Zipmafia]

!?!?!?!?!?! Now THAT is a big rock!

Holy cow, what do you feed that thing!?

Before a score can be worked out, one quick question. Does the "ships used" condition include the ones that failed as well?

The only ships that count against you are the ones that actually contributed to the rock being saved in that save file, so if you reverted after a failure then the ship doesn't count against you. I had to try so many times with my first rock that I would have a negative score otherwise. That being said, I am going to use the ships you provided to score you.

Score Break-down: 157.44 Tons (+1574 Points), 3 ships used (-20 Points), Asteroid impacted/rolled/dragged X2 (-40 Points). Total = 1514 Points! Great job!

p.s. I can't help but wonder what happened to the three brave kerbals who caught the rock. Also, I bet Frank was nervous as heck having 157 tons sitting right above his head!!

Edited July 27, 2014 by Zipmafia