Lou

Thank you Starhawk! Also, thank you Laie for running this great challenge, and additional thanks to Kuzzter and Norcalplanner for helping Laie. I appreciate the complements from Starhawk and Kuzzter, too. This was the third or fourth time I tried to do this mission, lots of hours and explosions to finally get it right, which makes success all the sweeter! FYI, the landing gear on the rovers was to help protect the wheels when the rovers disconnect and fall from the lander, and they also keep the rover from rolling away while the Kerbals plant flags and such. I planned for the return pod to use Xenon starting from a low-Eve orbit, but the high altitude landing spot (6 km) and my paranoia from previous failures resulted in the launcher reaching not just orbit, but very nearly escape velocity! If I'd seen that coming, I would have brought a few more Kerbals! Again, thank you to everyone who makes this such a great challenge!

Cool vehicle, it reminds me of the lunar lander research vehicle:

Hi! Can someone please recommend software to capture KSP videos? Preferably free software... Thanks!

My entry... FOR SCIENCE!!! Overview: A single big launch sends two brave Kerbals to Eve. Once there, they use the three science rovers to strip-mine three biomes for their science and return the results to Kerbin -- in duplicate! The first entry made For Science! Landing Site: Altitude: 6010m Latitude: 10 deg, 46', 15" N Longitude: 17 deg, 46', 17" W Biome: Eve's Peaks Site 2: Roughly 15.1 km west of Landing Site Altitude: 2759m Latitude: 11 deg, 18', 14" N Longitude: 378 deg (or maybe 18 deg?), 52', 8" W Biome: Eve's Midlands Site 3: Roughly 13.3 km west of Landing Site Altitude: 2892m Latitude: 11 deg, 15', 9" N Longitude: 378 deg (or maybe 18 deg?), 43', 25" W Biome: Eve's Impact Ejecta Weight on the launchpad: 9574 T Part count on the launchpad: 1101 Weight awaiting liftoff on Eve: 559T Part count awaiting liftoff on Eve: 415 Approximate price tag of the mission: 4,476,451 Game version: 0.9 Mods used: No mods How I found my landing site: First I scouted potential landing sites using www.kerbalmaps.com, and decided I wanted to aim for the isthmus that has the large crater sea to the east because 1) It had high altitude terrain 2) I assumed the variation in terrain would provide multiple biomes close to one landing site 3) It was a feature I could clearly identify during navigation My first landing attempt placed me on too much of a slope, but the second attempt gave me a perfect spot! Notes: Driving downhill from my landing site to the other two biomes (Site 2 and Site 3) required a lot of saveloading because the rovers tended to get up to high speeds (> 40 m/sec) going downhill, which frequently resulted in crashes. I did survive a drive with a top speed of 94 mph (42.1 m/sec)! In retrospect, adding some small wings and control surfaces might have made the rovers into nice rover/gliders. I'm proud of the Eve launcher, which uses repeated modules. The Eve launcher module consists of a Rockomax X200-32 Fuel Tank coupled to three Toroidal Aerospike engines via a TVR-400L Stack Quad-Adapter; the fourth port on the Quad-Adapter attaches to a Structural Fuselage with two LT-2 Landing Struts via a TR-18A Stack Decoupler. Overall the rovers worked great, the Eve launcher worked great, and I'm very happy with how things went. This was a great challenge, right up there with the Jool Five challenge! Click here for all images

That looks awesome!

Here's another variation. No rush on making a decision on a badge, I'm just doing this to amuse myself in between crashes on Eve! Feel free to provide feedback, too.

Variation on idea for a badge, I won't be offended if you don't use it!

Backup option like one of those spare tires you're not supposed to drive on for more than five miles... yeah, sounds right!

If you want a good badge, then I can't help you. If you have really low standards, feel free to use this (or not):

If the entire station can land and return to orbit, that counts as a "shuttle," right?

No badge? You'll get more entries if your challenge has a badge.

Obviously I'm not an artist, but I figured what the heck...

My entry, the "LX2." 53 parts, 13.45t on the runway (including a satellite): Click here for more images demonstrating SSTO capability. ...and I vote for Overfloater's gargantuan creation. Note: This replaces my previous entry, the "LX."

I ran into the same thing (no pun intended) the first time I tried to land on Pol in my Jool-5 attempt (Ver 0.90.0.705): I crashed into phantom ground way above the apparent ground. That attempt was near a big mountain ridge, so I reloaded and tried again (successfully) further away from that ridge in a fairly flat area. My guess is the data used to render the ground and the data used to detect collisions with the ground have some sort of unintended offset at Pol... Or, you know, maybe it's ghosts.

Thanks for continuing to run this challenge, Ziv! I really enjoyed it!

That looks awesome!

Here's my entry for the Jool5 Challenge - Level 2 - Game version: V0.90.0.705 Beta (however, I didn't use any SLS parts). - What mods: No mods used. - How many Kerbals: 2 Kerbals that landed on all the moons. - How many launches: 1 ridiculously big one (8075 T, 1152 parts on the pad at launch). - Did you need a refueling mission: Nope. - Did you bring a Living Quarters: Nope, but each Kerbal had a stately Mk1 Lander Can for most of the trip. - Did you bring additional stuff like satellites, rovers, etc: Well, there was a Laythe rover... - Share the delta-V information too, if you tracked it: Uh, well, I have lots of pics that show fuel levels during the mission, hope that's good enough. - Any additional notes or description: The mission starts with one big launch that must have used every orange tank and Mainsail engine in existence. After launch, nine LV-N Atomic Rocket Motors take Bill and Bob to Jool. A very lucky aerocapture delvers the mission to an orbit around Jool with apoapsis that was perfect for Tylo interception. Note: I did make a 3 or 4 attempts at this capture, aiming so low each time that a catastrophic Jool landing was inevitable; this one just happened to be perfect, which was blind luck! Anywho... After Jool aerocapture, the mission proceeded to Tylo interception. Around Tylo, Bill and Bob migrated to the Rover section, and the Rover section separated from the Main section. The Rover section then orbited and landed on Tylo, and Bill and Bob planted a flag. The Rover section then launched from Tylo and proceeded to land on Laythe, where Bill and Bob planted another flag. At this point, the autonomous Main section landed on Laythe roughly 10 km from the Rover section. Bill and Bob drove to the Main section, boarded, and launched. They then landed on Vall, Bop, and Pol (in that order), planted flags, and then headed home for a landing near the North Pole of Kerbin. Side note: there were no in-space dockings or rendezvous. - If I had to do it again... 1) I'd put more solar panels on the ion-thruster part of the Main section so I could run my four ion thrusters at fulll thrust at Jool. 2) I'd put four Rockomax 24-77 on the Vall-lander part of the Main section: I had to waste a bunch of fuel to get the mass of the Main section low enough (under 26 T) before I attempted to land on Vall so that the thrust from the single LV-N Atomic Rocket Motor I had would be enough to overwhelm Vall's gravity (waste of fuel = bad design). Click here for 100 pics from the mission!

Do destination bonuses stack, for example if I send Kerbals to Gilly and then an asteroid in one mission?

New and Improved Entry! SSTO to Eve and Gilly. Dropped a lander probe on Eve, put an orbiting probe around Eve, put an orbiting probe around Gilly, landed on Gilly, and dropped lander probe on Gilly. Also planted a flag on Gilly and made it safely back home. Starting mass of 22.94 T, final mass of 11.36 T. No mods. Click here for all 40+ images.

Crap! Can't believe I forgot to take that screenshot! Yes, it landed fine, but I wouldn't ask you to take my word for it. Besides, I think I can do better! New entry inbound...

Fair enough, I've made a separate non-stock leaderboard. Is there a good way to know which mods have "fair" parts and which ones have "overpowered" parts? I have zero experience with mods.

All good points, I've made updates. Hope you give this challenge a shot!

The Challenge: Have one or more Kerbals outside their ship during aerocapture. Stock Parts Leader Board: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Non-Stock Parts Leader Board: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) From wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com: Aerocapture is special form of aerobraking which is used to go from escape velocity into an orbit instead of adjust an already stable orbit." The Rules: 1) Use a single launch from Kerbin. 2) Launch at least one Kerbal. 3) Conduct aerocapture at one or more of the following targets: Eve, Duna, Jool, Laythe, Kerbin. 4) At least one Kerbal must be outside the ship during aerocapture. Sitting in an external command seat does not qualify as "outside." 5) Return all Kerbals to Kerbin safely. 6) Post images showing the following: 6a) The starting mass of the ship prior to launch from Kerbin. 6b) All major events during the flight (stage separation, etc.). 6c) Pre-aerocapture and post-aerocapture trajectories. 6d) The Kerbals outside the ship during aerocapture. 7) List all the mods you used. To be eligible for the Stock Parts Leader Board, the only acceptable mods are: MechJeb, MechJeb 2, Kerbal Alarm Clock. 8) No use of the F12 menu, glitches, exploits, etc. Note: During aerocapture, Kerbals will be pulled away from the ship. I built up a "catcher" to keep the Kerbals near the ship during my demo mission; you are not required to build something similar, but you might want to! Scoring: Your Score = 10x(10 + Kerbals outside during Eve aerocapture) + 5x(10 + Kerbals outside during Duna aerocapture) + 15x(10 + Kerbals outside during Jool aerocapture) + 5x(10 + Kerbals outside during Laythe aerocapture) + 1x(10 + Kerbals outside during Kerbin aerocapture) For example, my demo mission had 2 Kerbals outside during Duna aerocapture, and I did not attempt aerocapture anywhere else, so my score is 60 = 5x(10+2). Earning points for Kerbin aerocapture requires the ship to approach Kerbin from outside Kerbin's sphere of influence (just like all the other targets). You only get points once for each target (for example, doing ten Kerbin aerocaptures in a row won't help your score). If you don't visit a particular planet/moon, then you get zero points for that target. In case of a tie score, the entry with the lower starting mass wins. My demo mission started with a mass of 327.38 T. It sent 2 Kerbals to Duna and back, and both Kerbals were outside during Duna aerocapture. Click here for all images Why are the scores for various destinations what they are? I tried to factor in the difficulty of getting to each planet/moon, and also the difficulty of returning from that location (delta-v from Kerbin, depth of gravity well, etc.). It's not very objective, just "Jool seems harder than Duna, if you get to Jool you'll probably pick up Laythe too, etc." Delta-v needs to get to Eve and Duna are comparable, but Eve has a deeper gravity well and Duna is sort of "on the way" to Jool/Laythe, so I give more points for Eve.

Cool! Does that score include the 150 points for the 2 Kerbals?

2 Kerbals, 2 trips to Minmus, inital mass of 909.26 T, final mass of 2.62 T. I made no effort to minimize space junk. No mods. Click here for all images