I had planned to fly these myself before proposing them, but with my shuttle in development limbo and OJT racing ahead I thought I should share them sooner rather than later. These are merely proposals and will probably want some tuning and balancing.
In the shadow of the fixed worlds of the solar system are a myriad ever-changing asteroids and comets. While one highly-challenging mission already involves them, there is surely room for spending more time with these varied objects. Though the series is called Asteroid STS, comets are OK too.
Asteroid STS-1: Can you visit me?
Your first mission is as simple as it gets here. Identify an asteroid or comet, visit it, and return to Kerbin. Nonetheless the mission creates orbital rendezvous scenarios not often seen otherwise. If you have already completed Kerbin STS-9 you may choose to use that as your submission for Asteroid STS-1, but do see this mission's Commander requirement.
Asteroid STS Pilot - Rank 1. Intercept an asteroid or comet with your shuttle and take a sample. Return home with the sample, capturing however you like and landing where you want.
Asteroid STS Commander - Rank 1. Intercept an asteroid or comet outside of Kerbin's Sphere of Influence with your shuttle and take a sample. Return home with the sample, perform an aerocapture and land at either at the KSC runway, the Island Airfield off the KSC coast, the Dessert Airfield from MH, or at any Kerbal Konstructs airport.
Asteroid STS-2: Can you ARM me?
Only a small sample was obtained in your previous mission, and landing asteroids on Kerbin contaminates them. For more detailed study it is desirable to get an asteroid somewhere in outer space but not too far away. Munar orbit would be perfect.
This mission requires you to have a space station orbiting the Mun. You may use your space station from Mun STS-5-7 if you have it, alternatively you may place a space station in the required orbit by any means.
Asteroid STS Pilot - Rank 2. Launch your shuttle. Using either your orbiter or a craft carried by it, intercept an asteroid or comet and connect it to a space station in any Munar orbit. Rendezvous your shuttle with that same space station if it is not there already and take two samples*. Return home with the samples, capturing however you like and landing where you want. You may not mine ore from the asteroid/comet.
Asteroid STS Commander - Rank 2. Launch your shuttle. Using either your orbiter or a craft carried by it, intercept an asteroid or comet of Class B or larger, and connect it to a space station in a polar munar orbit (inclination of at least 85°) with periapsis and apoapsis between 600 and 700 km. (Matching the requirements for Mun STS Commander Rank 3). Rendezvous your shuttle with that same space station if it is not there already and take two samples*. Return home with the samples, perform an aerocapture and land at either at the KSC runway, the Island Airfield off the KSC coast, the Dessert Airfield from MH, or at any Kerbal Konstructs airport. You may not mine ore from the asteroid/comet.
* If you have a game mod that provides other asteroid-related science experiments, you may instead use one of those plus a single sample.
Asteroid STS-3: Can you Armageddon me?
It is a good thing you carried out those studies because Kerbin is now in peril. An asteroid on a collision cause threatens to obliterate Some Area of the planet. Only a crack team of unlikely characters can save the world, or at least the space program's reputation, from certain doom. And you only have 18 days to do it.
This mission requires you to have a space station orbiting Kerbin with fuel (any type) available. You may use your space station from Kerbin STS-5-8 if you have it, alternatively you may place a space station in the required orbit by any means.
Destruction is much more awesome than deflection, but I'm not certain it's possible for the larger objects. If it can be confirmed possible then the deflection option should be removed.
Asteroid STS Pilot - Rank 3. Identify an asteroid or comet on a collision course with Kerbin. Less than 18 (6-hour) days before impact, launch your shuttle. Rendezvous and dock with a space station in any Kerbin orbit and transfer some fuel to the shuttle. Intercept the asteroid/comet and extract some ore from it, then deflect or destroy it. Dispose of the ore as you see fit and return home, capturing however you like and landing where you want.
Asteroid STS Commander - Rank 3. Identify an asteroid or comet of Class E or larger on a collision course with Kerbin. Less than 18 (6-hour) days before impact, launch two shuttles. Rendezvous and dock each with a space station in a Kerbin orbit above 300 km with an inclination of at least 50 degrees and transfer some fuel to each shuttle. With each shuttle, perform a Munar flyby then intercept the asteroid/comet, extract at least 1500 units of ore from it, then deflect or destroy it. Dispose of the ore as you see fit and return at least one shuttle home, performing an aerocapture and landing at either at the KSC runway, the Island Airfield off the KSC coast, the Dessert Airfield from MH, or at any Kerbal Konstructs airport.
The blog post is rather waffly and hard to follow. In terms of the challenge, presumably it'll be RSS+RO-specific (or it has even less basis to call it a "sim"). Do you have a specific design in mind, or just a general idea of "Starhopper on top of Starship" and leave the details up to the players? As for why the real lunar Starship plan is how it is - I think it comes down to being an opportunistic modification of the already-designed Starship architecture, which was built with heavy lift and interplanetary in mind. If SpaceX had been building a moon rocket from the start they'd never have done Starship as we know it. Also, the cynic in me thinks that by pitching the enormous Starship lander with the proposal for multiple Superheavy launches, SpaceX hope to make SLS and Gateway look superfluous and NASA look just a bit silly even as they ostensibly support the NASA program.
