VelocityPolaris

Sorry, m7, group consensus seems to be a nope on that one. We've got a pretty big team by this point, so while I hate to say no to folks, I'm sure you wanted a clear answer on that one.

Eh, good enough, the insurance covers glitches in the fabric of reality.

Yup

Well, Alpha has said that if he gets to 750 rep, he will, in fact, put us in charge of the thread. But what qzgy says rings true - we're the Kerbal Space Programme fandom, goshdarnit. We're polite, we're kind, and we come together as a team, while so many other fandoms are full of cancerous content - we're a beacon of hope in a world of great games ruined by their fanbases, and we have to act like said beacon. Pretty much everyone here wants to further one of the world's most noble goals - to have a good look at the other worlds - and I'd like to think that KSP and its community is a huge inspiration towards that, so we can't afford to stay mad at each other. Take hazard-ish, for example. When that tilt-wing SSTO video was debunked as fake, he admitted to it and apologised to everyone, and even the youtube comment section was full of people saying that they forgave him, or that they were glad he made this statement - that level of understanding is something unique to the KSP community, and we'd best continue the example. And Lo Var, that challenge idea you posted was a good one, something do-able and fun, it just was posted under the context of somebody taking over someone else's thread without permission - it might have even been a legitimate misunderstanding on what you had permission to do, but that doesn't really matter. The point is, if you really want to join the team and help out, then ask. We've got a sacred duty to the snack gods to be buddies.

Lachlan... did you get permission from alpha?

Training Challenge IIX: Instruments Only As you may know, the Kerbal Space Programme has a super-advanced chase plane/rocket which it uses to provide external camera views to all missions and vehicles. Unfortunately, this year's take-your-daughter-to-work day failed to account for the destructiveness of children, and, as a result, the chase rocket is now in the shop, meaning that we will have to fly a mission without being able to see the spacecraft in the third person. So the challenge, as you may have guessed, is to do an IVA-only (and map view) space mission. It's not exactly instruments-only, given the presence of windows, but your field of view is usually limited enough that it may as well be. What kind of space mission? Well, that's mostly up to you! The Rules Rule no.1: While you can do whatever space mission you want, the minimum requirement is to enter low Kerbin orbit. This is because a suborbital flight only requires "rocket goes up"-level thinking. Rule no.2: The spacecraft external view is forbidden, confining you to the map and IVA views, but there are exceptions to this rule. The first is that you can use the external camera if you need to right click on something, like, say, solar panels, but try to zoom in really close to the spacecraft so you don't get a good look around. Rule no.3: For cinematic purposes, you may use the external camera when pretending that it is a ground-mounted camera, for example a view of the launching rocket from the perspective of the ground near the launchpad. I did this a couple of times. Rule no.4: You are also allowed to go on EVA, and to use the Kerbal's EVA-external-view as much as you want. Rule no.5: So that we have somebody to bring back the photographs, at least one of the crew must survive and return home. Rule no.6: Pretty much all mods are allowed - in fact, the JSI/rasterprop monitor mod comes heavily recommended, as it adds a bunch of computer screens and cameras that can really improve IVA-view situational awareness. My example mission doesn't use this, though, to prove that "IVA only" missions can be done without that mod. As usual, I ask that you don't use hyperedit for this mission. Tips for Noobs While it appears at first glance that the spacecraft internal view doesn't give you much of any ways to figure out what's going on, there's actually some pretty handy instruments in there. We all know and love the navball and speed indicator, of course, and the glowy panel with buttons that light up if you activate SAS, RCS, the landing gear, and, uh, other stuff. Just in case you haven't seen it yet, there's the RADAR altimeter, which, unlike your external-view sea-level-altitude-counter, actually tells you how close the ground is. We've also got this clock-type apparatus to the right of the navball in the picture, which is the IVA-view "sea level" altimeter. It has a "second hand" for counting hundreds of meters, a "minute hand" which goes by thousands of meters, and the hour hand, where every number is 10,000 metres. Oh yes, and the "C" button allows you to switch between IVA and external view easily, with the "V" button switching between crew members. I also recommend looking up the KSP delta-v map, and using the flightengineer to know how much delta-v you have (plus thrust-to-weight ratio and altitude). Delta-V: If you don't know what it means, delta-v is kind of a way of measuring how much fuel/range your rocket has. It stands for "change in velocity", and basically means how much your rocket could change how fast its going if it used all of its fuel in space. Planning out how much you'll need beforehand is a good alternative to several trial-and-error missions. Example Mission: The Shooting Star It was back in way back in Kerbal history, before the omnipotent chase rocket had been invented, sometime in their equivalent of the early '60s. Not a lot of space missions had actually happened yet, and the Kerbals didn't have the technology or experience to do anything as crazy as a Mun landing yet, but they didn't let that deter them (That means fuel cells instead of solar panels, and RCS only). Fed up with waiting around, they just decided to put something together and take a shot at the Mun. Flying this mission, surprise-surprise, are Jeb and Bill, assisted by the making history DLC, the astronomer's visual pack (without the enhanced terrain kopernicus allows, since the kopernicus mod is currently broken), and a great deal of other mods, though, as mentioned, rasterpropmonitor is not included. Images below! Have fun, and, as always, let me know if you have any questions! EDIT: A grammatically incorrect "too" was replaced with "to".

So... the Gilly challenge is now closed to new entries. The next challenge is a bit late (my fault, sorry), but it will be up very shortly, I promise.

Doggoness won't be able to post the medals 'til Sunday, so you've got a bit of time.

Oh, well, uh, that's not a lot. Especially if Bill finds the snack cabinet, he does have that unfortunate habit of eating whenever he finds something to get nervous about, like, say, razor-thin ration margins. But you're the boss, you decide where the budget cuts hit hardest.

Yes! Sure, go right ahead! I'd give ya bonus points if we had 'em! Minmus, I'm sorry, I was super-confused, I didn't understand that you just wanted to do the Skylab launch from Gaia. Poor little tiny space rock, you probably feel all pushed around and bullied by the big planets. I say go right on ahead. It's just Kerbin with some rings and weird bits about the mun, right?

@The Minmus Derp Minmus, Minmus, Minmus. You can do the current challenge we've posted in this thread, and if you wanna do other stuff, you can play the game yourself, or start your own challenge. Sorry.

YESSS!!! Just this once, EVERRRYBODY lives! Well, except for the Kraken, but, eh, who's gonna miss her? Well, as they pointed out, the Krakenfolk might mind a bit, so, er, soon it'll be time for the War of the Worlds musical edition (that actually exists). Also, sorry for the slight off-topic but it's necessary: Good luck with the dust storm, Opportunity. We're with ya, you tough li'l rover. EDIT: WAIT a minute, I just remembered that you kinda have a rule against killing characters.

Well, I have to thank you for not somehow getting the scientists infected with carar. That cliche had me in fear for their sake.

Ohhh boyyyy, just finished chapter 96. Here's hoping that the KSC has a security department.

Sorry, Folks, but the glider challenge is now closed! Congratulations, and thanks to all of you for your contributions to innovation! (TM) Sorry this was a bit of a mess, but, eh, look at it as a science experiment. @Alpha 360 will handle the distribution of medals, and @Lucast0909 will be posting the next challenge sometime this decade.

Well, I have to fly to Britain in around 30 minutes, so we'd best decide fast. Personally, I'm all for keeping the challenge open for a couple more days, any chance we could get an @Alpha 360 ruling?

Hmm... I guess you're right. Oh no, what have I dooooooooone But I put a lot of work and time into modifying the medal, even though it's not very good. What else are we supposed to do with it? And should we withhold medals from people who worked hard to make their gliders because the fine print said no? I'm sorry, this kinda turned into a mess.

I kinda made this a confusing mess, and I didn't catch it until, well, now, so maybe we should just let this slide. @Alpha 360, what do you think?

I'm pretty sure firing sepratrons as soon as the launch vehicle is released is against rule #3, which specifies that no more engines may be activated in-flight. Sorry. And the limitation would be for whatever maximum TWR will occur during the mission.

Sorry. I didn't announce it until yesterday 'cuz I wasn't sure I'd actually get it done.

Uh, no. If these sepratrons are only fired to help detach the stage and don't help propel the craft, those are free. If they're on the detaching stage and propel the craft, you can have 200 KN of them for every 10 tonnes of detach stage+glider mass.

I don't know how it's supposed to work, either, but I'm assuming each person individually gets a picture of the medal sent via personal message once the challenge has ended. We could hand those out before, I reckon, but as for the special pilot edition medals that go to the top 3, I'm trying to wait until the challenge is closed to find out, definitively, who the top 3 are.

"you have 53+ new replies on the thread 'newbie central - microchallenges for newcomers'" Heeeeelp the ghosts of Christmas past are trolling me for all the nitpicking, 'cuz I'm being all scroogelike with the medals. EDIT: Oh good, now it's scaled it down to a more realistic "you have 36 new replies" Also I can apparently edit my challenge post now. I'm think the challenge will end today, so if anyone wants to make an entry, they'd best do it quickly.

Waiiiiit a minute - 163.2 KN thrust, should, according to the rules, require a minimum craft mass of around 8.something tonnes, I think. And this says it has a mass of like 3.225 tonnes, yeah? That is in violation of that 200 KN per 10 tonnes rule, I think. Maybe we should let this stuff slide, though, as I'm only catching any of it at the last possible second. The imgur link isn't working, by the way. Another meannitpick. Obviously, you flew pretty far, but do you know that you flew 70 KM? The "ground distance covered" value in the f3 tab usually reports a number greater than what a reference object on the runway would tell you, hence why I made the reference object thing a rule. Or did you actually have a reference object that told you 70 KM, and I'm just making crazy assumptions here? Either way, you've definitely won an ENCCC medal, though I'd really like this to be cleared up. My guess is that you flew around 53 Kilometres, still nothing to scoff at.

Sorry for the late reply. Yeah, sorry, @Ho Lam Kerman, but Zeiss has a point. That's what, a 4000 KN engine, 3700-something at sea level? And that's an 81-tonne fuel tank assuming it was full, a 15-tonne engine, I think - doing some rough rounding, I'd guess that craft weighs about 100 tonnes. The maximum TWR is 200 KN per 10 tonnes, so your max thrust in that case would be 2000 KN, which this is in grand violation of. What is the meaning of this? -------- Again, sorry for the late reply. Is this a challenge entry? Any chance we could see the rest of the craft? (replies were automatically merged BTW)