doggonemess

I'll submit my masterpiece of Kerbal-ish engineering, the KLF-101 D VTOL. I've got a whole bunch of lore explaining why it happened on KerbalX. https://kerbalx.com/LevAerospace/KLF-101-D-VTOL

Yup - it's been done more than once in real life. And one of those times they landed successfully. The other crash-landed, with half of the people surviving. So it is something that pilots know about, maybe even train for now.

Why would anyone go to war over Dres? Wait, I have a better one: What's Dres?

I chortled when I read this. XD

In case nobody else let you know, your signature is not showing. Just the 2G planet at the end and four 'minus' images before that.

Do we get bonus points for a levitating truck in the SPH?

Well, there's your problem!

Cool; I always put together some screenshots to tell a story, so that's fun. I'm still not clear on how the heating/blackout settings work with this. Thanks!

When you say 'not allowed', do you mean that these options have to be set to normal, or are not allowed to be the 'cause' of a death? Also, what kind of documentation is required? Video, photo, or are we going by the honor system?

Yipes! I've crashed into that mountain before. I can't imagine scaling it.

This sounds fun. Would the cruise missile category be allowed a rocket assist takeoff? Wouldn't this go against rule #6?

I was going to say, someone will take this literally and build a plane that can technically fly, then start at 1500 meters at 0 m/s and float down on four vertical engines. Then they'll act smug and make faces.

One more question regarding criteria 4 - when you say 'turning on things' do you mean control surfaces, or any action at all? For instance, can I deploy airbrakes at some point during the descent? How about robotic parts?

This sounds pretty cool. I'm going to give it a shot. I'm confused about one thing - scoring criteria 5: 5. Add points: Theoretical Orbital Speed at pe, before hitting the atmosphere: in km/s, add points as this times 100. Wouldn't this number be incredibly high? As in, so high that the other scoring criteria are irrelevant? I'm probably misunderstand something here. EDIT: I just looked again and I get it now. I was thinking meters per second - not km per second. Higher velocity at reentry would make your craft burn up a lot more easily, so it's worth way more points. Got it. Thanks!

I'm not clear on what is happening with the KAL exploit. How does that work?

They were big back in the early 2000's. It was a big Hip-Hop culture thing.

What, no spinners? Are those a thing anymore?

What I don't get is how to position the craft so you can actually maneuver or change the velocity of the comet. I tried grabbing it right over the center of mass and all it did was tumble when I started the engine.

If there's one thing I love about this forum, it's how people always take the rules and find every loophole. Granted, this is a big loophole.

I'm interested. Just one thing - since this is generally for fun, what's wrong with using science related parts mods? For instance, Tarsier has a camera that fits this rover perfectly: https://www.curseforge.com/kerbal/ksp-mods/tarsier-space-technology-continued Additionally, D-Magic has some of the experiments that are not included in the original or DLC content. I don't see how including these would make the challenge easier or unfair.

Challenge accepted! I'll get back to work on it. I can see it possibly working if I can get the control issues worked out.

Oh man... I was having a blast designing this off-kilter wing-copter lifting thingy and then read the rules more carefully - NO VTOL. DOH! I still wanted to post of picture of it. It actually got off the ground for a few seconds and set back down without blowing up without reaction wheels or SAS. Everything was in balance, I guess. There's no way to steer it, though. I'll shelve it for another goofy challenge. Earlier model: Later model, with counter-spinning balance weights:

This is one of my favorite craft. It's fairly conventional, but took some creative engineering. https://kerbalx.com/LevAerospace/HALP-20K It's the High Altitude Launch Platform, or HALP! It uses a buttload of jet engines (and surprisingly little fuel) to lift the platform to 25,000 meters and then you launch the rocket. I'm willing to bet it makes rockets a little less expensive, since they skip 98% of the atmosphere. The platform has parachutes to bring it back down for reuse. It works, more or less. Sometimes much less.

This mod is so good. Love the lore, too!

Hah, supersymmetry. That's funny. You'd have to make your plane out of dark matter.