purpleivan

I've no idea why I didn't notice that... can't for the life of me understand what was making me think it was the correct time to make the burn. Of course trying to make a burn over a relatively short distance four days early would make the info from TWP pretty much useless. Thanks for pointing out my embarrassing mistake

I included "mining camps" with the intention that these were launched as part of the challenge entry, rather than using infrastructure that is already in place (pretty standard for challenges) otherwise it would be possible to rendezvous with a bunch of conveniently placed fuel stops, to make a trip to pretty much anywhere in the system. I've now made the wording of the rules clearer that this is the intention. BTW... one option would be for you to launch a fuel store into Kerbin orbit from the ISC, then rendezvous your expedition vehicle with it to top up before heading to Mun and Minmus.

This is making me think about taking another crack at my "Plan - B" challenge, but aiming a little further than Mun this time. I still really want to airdrop my rocket at the KSC2, but I might have to give up on that as your launcher delivery method looks so much more reliable.

Took a slimmed down version of the Eve Redux, named the Eve Aero to the purple planet for a return mission. The image of the launch appears to show that the pilot has gone on vacation, but this was due to game remaining focused on the base section, that contain the ISRU components and an empty lander can, rather than the departing ship. Not what you want when taking off from Eve, but thankfully swap active ship keys came to the rescue. Gilden is now sitting happily in a near 170km orbit.

Sent a slimmed down version of the Eve Redux (the Eve Aero) for a return mission to the purple beast. Launched it back up into orbit this morning and even managed to avoid the tumbling that its predecessor suffered from.

Well everyone knows those suborbital launches are whisper quiet aren't they

Here's my design, although fundamentally it's the same concept as Foxster's (lots of liquid fuel and nukes). The TWR at launch is horrible at 0.11 but it does in theory match the specification. One question though... what would you be transporting that weighs 35t but has no fuel and needs to be sent in one piece?

For the Eve Party Boat (a 4 man Eve return lander) I attached a pair of big nuke powered tugs with 6 LV-N apiece . This was back in the days of v0.24 though. They didn't provide 10k dV but the lander they were transporting was 1200t I might have a go at putting something together that better matches your specification.

I launched the less than svelte Eve Redux (minus the guide fins at the top and the parachute packs) a few weeks ago from 1100m and it provided some 5200 dV at sea level (9800 vacuum) It wasn't particularly aerodynamic and I tumbled twice in the ascent forcing me to cut the engines each time, once between 27 and 29km and again between 60 and 85km (managed to get a few squirts of thrust during this one though). The final orbit was at 120km

I use a pretty standard nuke powered tug to haul my vehicles around the system. My first step was to use these to put in place mining and orbital storage of fuel at Minmus and Ike. Station component in flight to Duna Tug at Ike Mining base that was delivered to Ike using the tug Fuel storage section headed to Minmus I even used a couple of modified versions of these to push my Eve return vehicle there and used one of them as the return vehicle.

I'm fully expecting that I've just done something stupid, but my first attempt at using TWP in New Horizons is giving me what appears to be a completely incorrect maneuver. I set TWP to give me a burn from Aptur to Serran but the time for the burn is clearly far too early. To help show what I mean I've put a couple of screenshots of the instructions output from TWP in the map view. Any ideas appreciated.

Did this as part of the Old Control Tower Expedition challenge.

Proof of it working fine... sent up the first module of a space station around Kerbin and took a quick trip to Aptur.

Installed the New Horizons planetary pack this evening and took it for a quick spin and I'm liking what I'm seeing

Ah... that would be Kopernicus that I'm missing then (didn't notice it listed as a dependency). All working fine now... thanks.

There's probably a really simple reason for this but after installing New Horizons I'm only seeing the stock planetary system. Here's what I did. Downloaded the latest version of the mod v2.0.0 Created a copy of my game install and extracted the New_Horizons folder to the GameData folder in the copied install structure. Following this I ran the game from a new shortcut to the 64bit version of the game in the new folder structure. So far it's just the stock system that I'm seeing. Is there anything in addition to installing the mod that I need to do access the changed to the planetary system?

Interesting... looks like you're set for fuel. You might want to get the An-225 out as the challenge is for manned missions Looking forward to seeing what you get up to.

For straight forward news the BBC website is very good, but in my experience the "magazine" sections of the website including BBC future are often complete drivel.

Not a lot of work done for this, but a fun little title image for the Time for Plan B challenge.

The Eve Redux firing it's outboard engines to begin the descent to the surface.

Actually that makes more sense than my idea; landing the plane with the rocket in it, rather than dropping the thing on parachutes. I think I just had it suck in my mind "airdrop airdrop airdrop" As I can see the placing of a vehicle in Kerbin orbit being a lot more popular than say a mission to Eve, I've added an award of 10 Spirit of Exploration points for this. This would give your expedition 10 SOE + 1 TBC = 11 points and the first entry on the leaderboard. One question about your launch is did it take place from the pad and ramp (it looks like it was from the grass)? The rules of the challenge were that launchers must stand on the pad/ramp structure and not the grass (i.e. after launch, no contact is had with the grass, except for detached stages), however I've amended the rules to allow takeoff from the grass and added an x2 points multiplier for launches from the pad, due to the additional difficult of getting a vertical vehicle onto it. So congrats on being the first on the board and kicking off this challenge

What I ideally had in mind was dropping a rocket off of a ramp out of the back of a plane and have it parachute serenely down to a landing on the ISC pad ready for a launch. But the likelihood of that was pretty slim

The idea was to allow people to use as many launches as they wanted (mainly because the pad is so small) and assemble an exploration vehicle in orbit. Perhaps my rules could be simplified a bit, I was just trying to be thorough, although my rules might have ended up seeming like legalese. As for delivery method, my original plan was to fly the launch vehicle in on slung under an aircraft, but my winged piloting skills (and my winged construction skills) weren't up to it.

I post then manically edit for the next few minutes when I realise the state of what I've posted. Mainly the odd typo and grammatical mistake. But I do that for regular posts too.

Leaderboard 1: Foxster: 11 points 2: 3: 4: 5: The challenge Due to complaints from the new neighbours about the noise of orbital rocket launches from the KSC, the KSP has decided, they will now have to revive the facilities at the Inland Space Center (ISC) to act as the sole site for orbit and beyond launches So the the challenge is to launch the most impressive manned, single vehicle mission you can from Kerbin orbit, with all components of it (including fuel and crew) being launched from the ISC with all crew returning safely to Kerbin. The impressiveness of submissions being determined by a points system. The points system Spirit of Exploration: SOE points are awarded as follows. Stable orbit of Kerbin = 10 For landings on bodies other than Kerbin or being in a stable orbit of Kerbin (in a single vehicle) Minmus = 15 Mun = 20 Duna = 40 Dres = 50 Eeloo = 80 Moho = 90 Laythe = 120 Eve = 300 The Brave Crew: 1 TBC point for every kerbal landing on a body or for being in a stable orbit of Kerbin, who is returned safely home. Launch multiplier To allow for a takeoff from the grass the rule limiting entries to a launch from the pad has been removed and replace with an x2 multiplier for launches that are totally from the pad/ramp (i.e. after launch, no contact is had with the grass, except for detached stages) and x1 for a takeoff that makes use of the grass Points calculation The calculation of a submission score will be as follows. (SOE points + TBC points) x Launch multiplier = total score All points are cumulative, including those for Kerbin orbit Example: for an exploration that places 6 kerbals in a stable Kerbin orbit, followed by a landing on Minmus with 6 kerbals and Duna with a crew of 1 kerbal, then the score would be as follows; (10 + 6 the kerbin orbit points + 15 + 6 the Minmus landing points + 40 + 1 the Duna landing points) x 2 the launch multiplier = total score of 156 points The rules All vehicles including any that support the exploration vehicle must achieve orbit via a launch from the Inland Space Center. No launches from anywhere other than the ISC may achieve kerbin orbit (an AP and PE of greater than 70km) Launch as many vehicles as you like from the KSC that do not achieve Kerbin orbit Launch as many vehicles from the ISC as you like, for assembly of your exploration vehicle, fuel support etc. Mining for fuel is allowed on any body including Kerbin (so you can set up a mining camp at the ISC launch site) so long as it is done with equipment launched as part of the challenge entry Your submission must include an exploration vehicle that is the core of your expedition and enters orbit of all bodies that are counted for the points calculation. i.e. if you plan to fly to Duna and Dres you can't split you're vehicle up and send one part to each planet separately Once the exploration vehicle has entered the SOI of a body it can be separated into as many vehicles as you like, including landers Only one landing per body and stable orbit of Kerbin counts for the points calculation, but you can land as many vehicles as you like if it helps your exploration The re-use of SSTO vehicles is allowed Pics or it didn't happen. I want to see a good collection of images, showing key moments like launches, landing locations, plus map views of the interplanetary burns, the with the resources displayed. See the album of my mission below as an example, however as I was not flying this for the purpose of a proper challenge, it's a bit light on essential information (e.g. it doesn't include any images of the Map view showing burn information). Any other amusing or spectacular pics are appreciated... no extra points for these (well... if you manage to take one of tap dancing three headed aliens on Eve that's gotta be worth something I suppose), but they'll keep us entertained. Addons All visual or informational addons are allowed (including Kerbal Engineer) Mechjeb is only allowed for provision of information and not control of the vehicle (in other words fly it yourself) Stock parts only on all vehicles, with the exception of any that are purely aesthetic (e.g. SurfaceLights) Obviously no Hyperedit to be used in the mission, but use it as much as is needed for testing If you have any questions about the rules then let me know. I came up with the idea of this challenge when a few days ago I decided to attempt a landing on the Mun and a return to kerbin for Rinzer Kerman using the ISC, to coincide with the 47th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon. Here is the album for the mission that I flew, which if it had been an entry to the challenge would have been awarded 21 points (20 SOE plus 1 TBC) If you've not seen the Inland Space Center yet, be warned that the album below contains images of this location.