TheEpicSquared
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Posts posted by TheEpicSquared
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6 minutes ago, TheRagingIrishman said:
One post above yours:
And this, folks, is what proves that I'm blind.
Thanks, @TheRagingIrishman
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Hey there, sorry if this has been asked before, but does this count one day as one Kerbin day (6 hours) or one Earth day (24 hours)? Thanks
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I think Kerbal Construction Time would be a good idea. Then, the scoring could be based on fastest time, with the time it would take to build the craft and rocket added to the MET. Does KCT measure time in Kerbal days (6 hours) or Earth days (24 hours)?
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@paulprogart I would download a mod for it!
And welcome to the forums!
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Never mind, ignore this! I posted on the wrong thread, sorry!
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CHAPTER 26: MINMUS
Hardfield had received some worrying news. The Kerbin Government had redesigned their regulations on space travel, and they had gotten stricter. The old Brumby capsules wouldn't cut it anymore. A new capsule would have to be developed if kerballed spaceflight was to be continued.
However, after lots of negotiations, Hardfield had managed to persuade Kongress to allow the Brumby capsules on the DOV and on SpaceLab to stay, because they were designed for long-term habitation from the beginning and therefore would not be susceptible to failure anytime soon. The same was true for the under-development Duna Descent/Landing/Ascent Vehicle (DDLAV), but the regular Brumby systems would have to be replaced.
So the Youké [Chinese for traveller] CSM was born.
It was a huge step towards the future, while still retaining simplicity due to the monopropellant being the only propellant used on the vehicle. The abort system was overhauled as well. Now, it was attached to the side of the capsule, meaning that instead of discarding it every mission, it could be reused along with the capsule.
The Youké CSM needed a new rocket to lift it into LKO. Or rather, and existing rocket, with moar boosters attached.
Enter: The Cormorant A-4.
The Youké CSM was hidden inside the fairing of the A-4.
After final testing was conducted, the assembly was rolled out to the launchpad for the Youké's first flight.
The rocket enjoyed an on-time liftoff.
The four Kickbacks quickly accelerated the rocket through the atmosphere.
Then, they ran out of propellant and were separated, leaving the core to do its job.
A few seconds later, the fairings separated, exposing the Youké CSM to the upper atmosphere for the first time.
The first stage then separated as programmed, and the second stage fired up.
Soon, an acceptable apoapsis had been established and a maneuver was plotted for orbital insertion.
Soon, the Youké was safely in orbit around Kerbin.
As Kerbol descended towards the horizon, the second stage separated from the Youké.
The second stage deorbited as per standard procedure and left the Youké in orbit.
Meanwhile, the solar panels had deployed.
When the craft was back in sunlight, it was time for the RCS thrusters to be tested.
The Youké passed with flying colours. The new docking port was also tested...
And also passed its test.
Now was the last thing on the list. The four "Puff" monopropellant engines would be used to deorbit the craft. The command was given just east of the Great Crater, and the engines fired up.
A satisfactory trajectory was reached, and the Puffs shut off.
Upon entering the atmosphere, the Youké capsule detached itself from the service module. So far, the contraption was doing brilliantly.
As usual, mission control lost contact with the probe as it became enveloped with plasma.
It turned out that the new capsule had a lot more drag than thought, and so it would land on the opposite side of the continent. Whoops.
The barometer on the spacecraft detected a change in pressure in the atmosphere. At the same time, the flight computer detected the velocity of the craft, and found that it should be safe to deploy the chute. This computerized assumption was supported by the barometer readings, and the chute was deployed.
The solid-fueled abort motors had not been necessary on this flight, so it was decided that they would be fired in mid-air to reduce velocity to make sure they functioned properly.
In normal flights, the abort system wouldn't fire on descent, so it could be reused along with the capsule.
At the predetermined altitude, the chute fully deployed, rapidly slowing the craft down to survivable speeds.
A few minutes later, the capsule safely landed in the grasslands.
The Youké's first mission was a success.
***
With the new CSM certified for kerballed flight, the next step in the colonization of Minmus could begin. It consisted of three polar communication satellites, in orbit around Minmus.
The were to be launched on a Cormorant A-1, the standard Cormorant stack, but with only a single booster on the side. Theoretically, it would work because of the Mainsail's ability to gimbal, but only a flight would prove its usability.
The three satellites were stacked on top of each other inside the fairing.
At Kerbolrise, final checks were complete.
At the predetermined time, the Mainsail and the solitary booster ignited, and the entire contraption lifted off the ground...
And immediately started tilting east. Everyone held their breath... would the rocket fail?
Luckily, the Mainsail's gimbal lived up to expectations, and the rocket was now pointing up again, leaving a rather wobbly smoke trail behind it.
The early stages of the gravity turn went well, despite the early mishap.
Suddenly, alarms went off in mission control. According to telemetry, the rocket was descending!
"Oh dammit!" Hardfield exclaimed! "What happened?"
Someone called out, "We don't know, but the computer must have spazzed out. At any rate, we're decoupling the booster now, it's out of fuel..."
Slowly, the prograde marker rose above the navball horizon.
And soon, the rocket was back on track.
However, a lot of Dv had been lost, and now the engineers weren't sure if the rocket would make it to Minmus.
Due to the mishap, the rocket was well below target altitude when the first stage separated.
Therefore, the trajectory was very shallow, and the fairing experienced ridiculous amounts of heat.
However, the apoapsis did eventually reach space, and the Skipper was shut down as soon as it did so.
A few minutes later, the fairings separated.
And soon, the contraption was in orbit.
A maneuver was plotted to get a Minmus encounter.
It was only a rough encounter, and the trajectory would be refined using a correction burn at a later time.
When the time came, the Skipper ignited again to perform the maneuver.
"Hardfield, we've got a problem... again..." called a person at a console.
Hardfield, who was now getting quite annoyed at the number of problems this mission was experiencing, replied, "Oh for SQUAD's sake, what now!?"
"It seems a tank is leaking, of MinmalSat-1, the satellite at the top of the stack."
"Well, that fuel tank isn't connected to any other tank, right?" Hardfield asked worriedly.
"No, it's isolated."
Hardfield sighed and said, "Good. At least then it won't drain the second stage. Now, I want you to start reprogramming the komputer for a possibility of detaching the two good sats in a manner that will put them half an orbit away from each other. We can use this faulty one as a backup if its tank runs dry."
"Affirmative, Hardfield. I'll tell the komputer crew right away."
Meanwhile, the burn had finished, and a rough encounter with Minmus had been confirmed.
The solar panels on the satellites were deployed, to make sure the craft had power during its coast to Minmus.
A 9.2 m/s correction burn was plotted to correct the spacecraft's trajectory.
The burn was completed on target.
A few days later, the Skipper ignited once again, and inserted the trio of satellites into a polar Minmus orbit.
Now came the complicated process of releasing the satellites, and getting them to their correct positions. MinmalSat-1 had not run out of propellant, and was hurriedly released, so it could perform its burn.
MinmalSat-1 propelled itself into a circular orbit successfully.
This greatly relieved everyone at the KSC, as now the leaking fuel tank wouldn't be a problem.
The other two satellites put themselves into good orbits as well, successfully completing the mission.
The sats wasn't perfectly equidistant, but they could all contact one another, so the system would work.
Now, it was time for the secondary objective of the mission. The upper stage would attempt to conduct a propulsive soft landing on the surface of Minmus.
The deorbit burn was a brief affair. The newly constructed comm network provided ample coverage for the upper-stage-turned-lander.
The craft quickly neared the Minmal surface.
A velocity-reduction burn was conducted at 7 kilometers above "sea" level.
This reduced the speed of the craft from 210 m/s to a measly 19 m/s.
However, the inevitable pull of gravity soon meant that the engine had to be ignited once again, to prevent a catastrophic impact with the ground.
As the spacecraft neared the surface, the engine's thrust increased...
And then, the engine bell of the Skipper rested on the surface of Minmus, making the humble upper stage the first artificial object to land on Minmus.
The craft was put into hibernation mode, to conserve the remaining electric charge. The KSC engineers were now seriously contemplating attaching solar panels to upper stages, if they were going to double as low-gravity landers as well.
And so, despite the three incidents during the mission, Hardfield could log this one as a success.
***
Hardfield was back in his place of (nearly) permanent residence: his office. As usual, he was sorting through the heaps of paperwork, wondering if he would need to get another 10-pack of pencils, seeing as his current army of wooden-clad graphite sticks was rapidly running out.
"Some new pencils would do you good, Hardfield..."
Hardfield jumped and nearly fell out of his chair. It was the Hybridium.
"Hardfield... you must tell Caldos that I talk to you as well... It is the only way.."
"I know what you're thinking... why do you have to tell him...? It is not my duty to tell you... you will find out in time..."
"And whatever you do... Do not let interest in the space program falter... You will never succeed if that happens... NEVER!"
Hardfield, not aware of his own actions, shuffled through a stack of papers, and pulled out a particular sheet. It wasn't him. The Hybridium were controlling him, and once the sheet of paper was in front of Hardfield, he had control of his body again.
The big red text on the page was the only thing Hardfield could focus on. It said:
SPACELAB TERMINATION - APPROVED
"If this continues, it will be too late... You will fail, Hardfield... DO NOT LET THIS CONTINUE..."
Hardfield was still looking at the stark red letters on the document. He had tunnel vision, and couldn't tear his eyes away from the bright colour.
A shiver ran down his spine, and he dropped the paper.
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On 30/01/2017 at 8:20 PM, KAL 9000 said:
When you get time, post a screenshot of it in the VAB. I want everyone to BASK IN ITS SHEER AWESOMENESS!
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52 minutes ago, DarkOwl57 said:
Which thread has the most comments/posts/likes on the forums? (Basically, which is the most famous thread of all time?)
notamod
Probably the What Did You Do In KSP Today thread.
/notamod
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11 hours ago, nascarlaser1 said:
let the Team members all have 1 shared save (via DMSP or other method?) that they work on their craft together?
No, the idea was that I'd provide the save where all missions are held. If people want to team, they can design their vehicle together but on one save.
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Note/Disclaimer/Whatever it's called: This is not a full-fledged challenge just yet, this thread is for discussing how a KSP version of the Google Lunar X Prize challenge could be held on this forum.
Also, please excuse the mess.
Right, so a few days ago, I heard the news about the final teams in the Lunar X Prize, and I thought, why not make it a KSP challenge? Obviously, there are quite a few complications, which is why I'm making this "discussion" thread first.
So, I'll be taking the guidelines from this website, and adapting it so it can be done in KSP. If you disagree with something feel free to comment and discuss. After all, that's why I'm making this "challenge development" thread first.
Anyway, let's get to it:
So far, this is how I'll score the challenge:
Players would have to use Kerbal Construction Time, and the build+rollout time of their rocket and spacecraft would be added to the MET after all the mission requirements have been completed. Shortest total time wins.
Unfortunately, due to fact that the MET clock resets when undocking, I'll have to ban the use of docking ports.
Sorry guys.
Maybe, completing the optional "prize purse" challenges would earn the player a set amount of time deducted from their total time - so for example, maybe visiting a monolith (the Apollo Heritage bonus prize) would take off a certain amount of time from the total time (say, 1 kerbal day deducted).
Mission requirements
Land safely on the surface of Minmus
I'm thinking Minmus because there's more stuff to do compared to the MunMobility
Here's where it gets tricky. The real LXP states that the craft must move at least 500 meters from the landing site. Hard enough in real life, very easy in KSP. Therefore, I think a suitable mobility requirement would be to drive 25 kilometers from the landing site. However, this could get tedious very quickly, so if anyone has any other ideas, please share!Mooncasts
The real LXP states that two 8-minute pieces of video must be taken by the vehicle, one directly after landing and one after the mobility requirements have been completed. Instead of this, I think one video documenting the entire process of launching, landing on Minmus and completing the mission requirements would be good. In this video, the KCT build+rollout times would have to be shown, along with the MET after all the requirements have been completed.Data uplink
I have no idea how this can be done in KSP. I guess I'll leave it alone for now.Payload
Not too difficult, I could make a small craft that would need to be hauled over to Minmus along with the main vehicle.Private funding
Yeeaahhh... judging that there's no government in KSP, I guess I'll be leaving that alone. Maybe instead have a maximum cost limit, like 50,000 kerbucks for the vehicle only (the rocket, supplied by me, would not be included in the cost)?Deadline
Not sure what the deadline would be just yet, but there would be one deadline for when submissions should be designed and ready for launch (with screenshots included), and one deadline after that before which all missions should be launched to Minmus (with a video of the mission included).Prize purse
In the real LXP, the first team to complete all the mission requirements gets $20 million, and the second team gets $5 million. Since this is KSP, and there's no significance in money, completing these bonus objectives will result in a specific time being deducted from the total time (these times are of course subject to change based on feedback).
Apollo heritage bonus prize (1 kerbal day - 6 hours - deduction)
For this one, instead of visiting landers, the player could visit monoliths instead.Range bonus prize (2 kerbal days - 12 hours - deduction)
Instead of having your vehicle move the required 25 kilometers, maybe travelling to the highest elevation on Minmus? Not sure where that is, though.
Survival bonus prize
Since things in KSP are pretty much indestructible unless you blow things up, I'll ignore this one for now.Water detection bonus prize (3 hours deduction)
Instead of water, maybe the vehicle would have to detect for ore instead? If concentrations above, say, 10% (subject to change) are found, this bonus objective had been accomplished?Team/Player Requirements
The real competition required teams to acquire launch contracts by Dec 31 2016. Of course, in KSP there is no need for this; you can just build your own rocket in a few minutes. Therefore, I'm thinking (bear with me, this is complicated) that we have a limited number and design of rockets, just like in real life. I would provide these rockets, which would have different payload capacities to LKO (100x100km), different costs, different KCT build times, etc. It should be noted that when doing the mission, you are only allowed to use the rocket to get you into a 100x100km orbit around Kerbin. At this point, the rocket that got the submission into orbit should be discarded, and any further maneuvers should be completed under the submission vehicle's own power.
Reporting
This can be ignored for now, I wouldn't need weekly/monthly updates on the vehicle progress.Access to facilities and information
Again, this can be ignored for nowSpacecraft communication
Every submission vehicle should have an antenna with a range capable of talking to Kerbin from Minmus. Also, what do you guys think about the vehicle having to be in contact with a Kerbin ground station at all times? I would set up a (half-decent) relay network around Minmus, so it would be in contact with Kerbin even when direct line of sight is occluded by Minmus.
Other rules
1. Complete all of the mission requirements.
2. All the team/player requirements must be met.
3. Only stock parts and aerodynamics, apart from the KER and Mechjeb parts (I'll add a separate FAR category if people want that).
4. KER and Mechjeb are ok for informational use, but Mechjeb cannot be used for piloting.
5. No autopilot mods. In this challenge, you'll be flying by hand, the good old-fashioned way.
6. No Alt+F12 menu, hyperedit, or any other shenanigans.
7. Commnet must be on throughout the mission, with both occlusion sliders set to 100% (I know I'll be providing the save file, but the Commnet settings can be changed from within the save and I want to make sure nobody does that).
8. Multiple forum users can be in a "team" and work together on the same vessel (I don't know why people would do that, but I'm just putting the option out there).
9. All submission vehicles must be uploaded to KerbalX, Dropbox, etc. As per the forum rules Mediafire isn't allowed due to ads.
10. The rocket will only get the vehicle into LKO. The trans-Minmal injection burn and other maneuvers will have to be completed under the submission vehicle's own power.
11. All submissions must be ready by the deadline (haven't thought of one yet, but will be in the format of MM-DD HH:MM:SS (month-date, hour-minute-second), time zone GMT (probably).
12. All missions must be completed using the provided save file (not provided yet, I'll make one when I have time).
13 and onward. Any other rules that I might come up with (I probably definitely will).
That's all for now folks, and remember, this isn't the actual challenge thread, it's a discussion thread for a future challenge thread. Leave suggestions to make this better, and hopefully, soon we can make the Minmal X Prize challenge a proper challenge!
Thanks for reading!
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5 minutes ago, nascarlaser1 said:
Does this change the stock planets/their positions, or add new ones?
Only add new ones. as far as I know.
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10 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:
Do you remember when MkII parts had thermal tiles?
Mk2 parts used to have thermal tiles??
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Hello there!
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20 minutes ago, DarkOwl57 said:
Dear mods, I have a question for you. So as you may know (Or at least @sal_vager), there was once a great thread called the Number War. Due to some careless mistakes by some of my fellow 'soldiers', we idiotically got the thread closed. I will be willing to accept the hits, but I am asking- BEGGING you to at least consider re-opening the thread.
Probably better to PM a mod about that.
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I accept @DarkOwl57's offer.
My half of a planet
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I play god and found a race of intelligent organisms called humans, who take over KSP and put their universe into a video game.
My human race.
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In Koviet Krussia, moon crashes into you!
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10 minutes ago, Deddly said:
Definitely PM a moderator. Opening a thread discussing the issue would only invite comments from people who don't know what they are talking about.
Yup, thought so. Thanks
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If I want to start a discussion about re-opening a thread, is it better to start a thread discussing the issue or PM a moderator? I'm thinking PM a moderator, but I wanted to make sure.
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2 minutes ago, NSEP said:
Deaths are not fun for family and friends, but people can still learn from failure, wich keeps the death rate lower and lower, untill its as safe as sitting on a chair.
Sitting on chairs is never safe...
SpoilerJokes aside, it was a tragic loss. Rest in peace.
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@DV-13 Congrats!
Sorry guys.
Mission Idea - Minmal X Prize
in KSP1 Challenges & Mission ideas
Posted · Edited by TheEpicSquared
That's good that it's in kerbal days, that means that the build+rollout time can be added to the MET time properly. Perfect. Unfortunately, that would mean I would have to ban docking ports, since undocking resets the MET clock. Does the same happen with decouplers too (If you decouple a rover and switch to it, does the rover MET reset to 0)? I hope not, that would make this a bit difficult.
Thank you!
Good point, but don't monoliths spawn in random locations for each game? Or are there any that are at the same location for every game? I think it would be easier if I provided the savefile (I wouldn't have to put the rockets on KerbalX, I could decide the build rates of KCT, the monoliths would be in the same place for everyone, etc.).
And I agree with you that circumnavigation is too long, so I think something like 25km would be good. The issue there however is how tedious it would be.
Anyway, I think the scoring will be based on fastest time, with the KCT build+rollout time added to the MET when all mission requirements have been completed. I'll edit the OP to reflect these decisions.
EDIT: OP has been updated