nerdboy64

After seeing this post, I decided to take it as a challenge to create a proper HTOL seaplane. What I came up with, while neither very pretty nor particularly agile in the air, was still a pleasant surprise purely because it worked. Behind the shroud of steel plated are rows of structural fuselages, which provide flotation while also having a relatively high impact tolerance of 70. The secondary engines you can see in the pictures are angled so that the aircraft can slow both horizontal and vertical movement without falling victim to the balance problems that plague VTOLs. They also help lift the nose out of the water during takeoff, which is necessary given the mysterious non-Newtonian friction of doom in Kerbal water physics.

Largest thing I've ever build was probably he launcher for a battleship I designed for the Spiritwolf vs. Hanland ship submission thread. It was basically a flat row of big orange tanks, each with a mainsail at the end and a fuel line to the next row in. Lagged the hell out of my computer but it did its job. The ship itself, unfortunately, ran out of fuel while orbiting Jool on a ridiculous inclination and was abandoned when I updated to 0.21. Second place in mass and first place in height was the launcher I built for an Apollo-style mission. I wanted to preserve historical accuracy, so I used neither asparagus staging nor radial attachment for the launcher. This caused it to be very long, thin, and prone to spontaneous explosions.

I used it once on an Apollo replica to drop the boosters and fire the escape tower, thinking I would never have to use it. Spoiler alert: I was wrong. The booster was too big and fell apart shortly after launching. I hit the abort button and blasted off to safety. I took a screenshot of the event: That's about the only time I've use it, but it certainly came in handy.

5. In real life and possibly in the game, the centripetal/centrifugal/whatever-the-proper-term-is force would tear it apart as it would be more "spinning" than "orbiting."

I'll go anywhere between 70 and 90 km for stations, SSTOs, and most other spacecraft. Autonomous probes, on the rare occasion that I use them, usually go somewhere in the 100-200 km range to keep them out of the way. I almost never go higher than that unless I'm on my way to some other part of the system.

Kurt helped the game get popular because he had an established viewer base that had never heard of the game. Scott Manley didn't have that, but that's not to say he didn't contribute to the community. I, personally, would never have learned to dock without his tutorials. Either way, credits or not, they've both got a Kerbal named after them.

I put my vote in for resources and aerodynamics. I picked resources for the obvious reason of progressing toward career mode. I also chose aerodynamics because I spend a lot of time building spaceplanes and I would like them to work properly. I would also like to see a practical use for the "aerodynamic" nose cones, which at the moment just add weight. Perhaps in a later version they could be made to reduce drag, since flying what is essentially a flat wall into space is not exactly realistic. Fairings as well, though I wouldn't mind if they were purely aesthetic as long as they looked better than an array of flat, steel plates.

No from me. I don't have anything against Mechjeb in particular; I just like the challenge of doing things stock.

That seems reasonable. I'll take it.

Here's my entry. I didn't bother to give it a cool name, so it's still called "Apollo Style." It took many tries, and what you see here cuts out a significant number of reloads. In the end, though, I managed to pull off a very successful mission. Score: 3-man mission: +10 2-man lander: +10 2-stage lander: +20 Asparagus-free: no penalty Escape tower: +10 Lander behind CM during ascent: +20 Lander inside a fairing: +5 Free return trajectory: +10 (I'm not sure I completely understand the idea of an FRT, so if you think this is in error feel free to take the points off) Flawless landing: +10 MRV on board: +15 Flag planted: +3 Splashed down: +5 Rover - proper shakedown: +5 Total: 123 points

My first Mun landing was done way back sometime around 0.12 or 0.13. There was only one fuel tank size, two engines, and no landing legs. I used winglets as the landing gear and built the launcher from a tutorial. After a tediously slow landing process, I finally managed to set it down. Since there were no EVAs back then, I waited a minute then took off again and headed back to Kerbin. If I had known how to take screenshots at the time, I would have done so. Sadly, that wasn't the case.

Since saves are breaking, I'll finally have an excuse to start a new world. I'm planning on redoing the standard Mun landing, station building, and all the usual stuff. Then I'm going to set myself a challenge, perhaps some sort of colony mission or interplanetary grand tour.

One of the first things I made when seats were added. No practical use, but super fun to fly.

Everything looks good. I'll add you to the leaderboard.

I'd call that one pod with 5 kerbals in it, because the command pods can't deorbit on their own. Still, a good score nonetheless. EDIT: In other news, I've just finished up my own entry and have added it to the OP.

The aim of this challenge is to design an escape pod to save Kerbals from a no-longer-habitable space station. Scoring is based on the part count and Kerbal capacity of each pod, according to the rules below. Minimum Requirements: In order to qualify for the challenge, each escape pod must do the following: Deorbit under its own power from an orbit of 80 km (periapsis) or higher. Land on Kerbin without killing any Kerbals. Have a docking port*. Consist of no more than 30 parts. * If the pod cannot dock under its own power, then its launcher must be capable of docking it before it is discarded. You do not actually have to dock it to anything, but it has to be possible. Scoring: 10 points will be awarded for every part under the 30-part limit. Multiply this number by the number of Kerbals each pod can safely return to Kerbin to get your basic score. Example: A 20-part escape pod that can save 4 Kerbals would earn 4 * 10 * (30 - 20) = 400 points. Additional Points will be awarded for completing the following challenges: (If you don't want to write the full name, just say "challenge 1," "challenge 4," etc.) Precision landing - Land on KSC terrain or the water immediately surrounding it.- 50 pts. It's so cute! - Escape pods weigh less than 2 tonnes each. - 50 pts. One rocket to rule them all - Deploy at least 5 individual escape pods in a single launch. - 100 pts. Now you're just showing off - Launch your escape pod(s) by SSTO. - 100 pts. Role player - After your pod lands, send a vehicle to retrieve its passengers and bring them back to KSC terrain. (Does not count if they land at KSC in the first place) - 200 pts. More challenges coming as I think of them. If you submitted a design before a challenge was invented, let me know and I will update your score. Rules: All designs must be 100% stock. No exceptions. You may use part clipping, but nothing else from the debug menu. No config or persistence file edits, deliberate exploitation of bugs (e.g. infiniglide), or any other nonsense like that. I have the final say on what is and is not allowed. If I think something isn't right, I'm not going to argue with you. To Submit: Post a comment with the details of your design, including the weight, part count, and kerbal capacity of each pod. Also include screenshots of your craft before launch (focusing, obviously, on the actual escape pod(s)), your orbital trajectory (showing periapsis > 80 km), and your final landing site. There must be at least one kerbal aboard the pod to prove that it is safe, however the pods do not have to be fully loaded. Leaderboard: Kermunist - 840 pts. with "Pod, Escape, MKII Heavy" nerdboy64 - 630 pts. with "No. 2 Escape Pod" Sigma117 - 550 pts. with "Cluster Pod" Here's my own entry, the rather blandly named "No. 2 Escape Pod" (The No. 1 was a prototype). Each one seats 4 kerbals, weighs 0.62 tonnes, and is made up of a mere 14 parts. They have no onboard power generators, and the probe core is there only to provide torque. On the launch pad. The pods are launched in clusters of 6, which can dock as a whole or release the pods on their own. Orbital trajectory. Landed safely. I only had one kerbal on it because I was too lazy to send any more than that. That gives me a basic score of 4 * 10 * (30 - 14) = 480, plus 150 for doing challenges 2 and 3, for a total of 630 points.

SSTOs are probably my favorite thing to build in KSP. I have made quite a few, but these are my latest designs: HS-210 Photon Stable, agile, and incredibly easy to fly, the Photon is a good all-around SSTO. HS-830 Hercules This unwieldy brute of a spacecraft was designed with coolness before efficiency. It uses 8 turbojets and 3 rockets to get into orbit, and doesn't have much fuel left when it gets there. After refueling, though, it has a large fuel capacity and seating for 15 kerbals, making it a great shuttle for carrying crews around the Kerbin system. HS-211 Superdart Based on the design of the Dart high-altitude jet, this SSTO is much more efficient than the Photon, but is very risky due to its small fuel supply. The pilot must be very careful with their ascent profile if they want any hope of achieving orbit.

It's a new day, and I've started it off right: a nice cup of coffee and several spectacular explosions. The latter were brought about primarily by my attempts to create an all-stock helicopter. Due to what can only be called witchcraft physics glitches, the "structural pylon" part has a very flexible connection which is useless for construction but perfect for rotor bearings. After several attempts, most of which ended in an impromptu fireworks display, I finally managed to create this thing: With a truly blistering top speed of 42 m/s and a nasty habit of not going where you want it to, it isn't an easy craft to fly. Trying to be precise won't get you anywhere; you really have to grab it by the scruff of the neck and fly it like you mean it. Landing is especially difficult as the throttle has no bearing on how quickly the rotors turn. It's either "on" or "off," with nothing in between. After a fifteen minute flight and eight more of landing, I managed to wrestle it to a halt somewhere vaguely near the island runway, much to the relief of Jorwise Kerman.

Hold shift and use WASDQE to rotate them in small increments.

Make a big circle out of girders, then put docking ports all the way around it, along the lines of this: No practical purpose, but it does look rather cool.

I don't do very much interplanetary stuff, so I tend to have a lot of small, short-range SSTOs and orbital runabouts. I've sent a few things to Duna, but they were all once-use rockets to deliver probes and rovers. Thus, by default, the only ship that can be awarded the title of "most traveled" is the FAS Hyperion: I built it for the Spiritwolf vs. Hanland fan submission thread. It was doing pretty well until it ran out of fuel on a wildly eccentric orbit somewhere in the Jool system. It's still there because the only thing I have with enough delta-V to reach it is another one of those ships, never mind actually getting them back again.

I did some work on my space station, the Fusion Aerospace Orbital Research Center. It currently has 5 modules: Command Module - Cupola capsule for station commander Huddan Kerman, solar panels, ASAS, etc. Refueling/Docking Module - Fuel tanks and plenty o' docking ports. Habitaion Module x2 - Hitchhiker containers for additional crew. RCS Fuel/Small Docking Module - Lots of RCS fuel, plus some Jr. docking ports for smaller craft. Docked to it are my R-80 Orbital Tug, which I use for toting around the station parts, as well as two R-10 Runnabouts, my single-Kerbal station-hoppers.

My work-in-progress station. That thing docked on the bottom left is my brand new orbital tug. It has two sets of engines so you don't have to flip the whole craft around when you're hauling large objects, as well as both a small and large docking port for added versatility.

I discovered that the joints they have are super flexible. No good for holding things, but you can exploit them to make helicopter rotors... albeit not very good ones. I call it the Dummkopfter, a portmanteu of "helicopter" and the German for "stupid-head." If Spiritwolf ever decides to reconquer the fjords of Laythe, they won't be doing it in these things.

I did this challenge a few updates ago, and I figured I'd give it another go in 0.20. My craft is the HS-210 Photon, a small, agile, and fairly efficient spaceplane. It was actually created at the request of someone on the Fusion Aerospace thread. The mission wasn't originally intended to be used for the K-Prize so there aren't any screenshots from the launch phase. I used no modded parts, docked with a station and landed back on the runway without refueling at any point. I did use part clipping on the intakes (there are 8 in total), but I didn't see a rule against it, and there is no doubt in my mind that, if they were placed differently, the plane would still work as intended. Imgur album with the screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/MsRT6#0