dnbattley

I certainly wouldn't claim my design cannot be improved upon, but the extreme gravity and buoyancy on Eve make many of these designs quite... sensitive.

Does landing in a single take (i.e. with no quickloading such that the "revert to assembly" option remains available) - as well as no Trajectories mod - offer any special score bonus?

With more field tests I have somewhat optimised a submersible craft design to allow easy flag-planting (WARNING SPOILERS IF ANYONE IS TRYING TO WORK OUT THEIR OWN SOLUTION TO THIS CHALLENGE):

Feasibility study complete:

A self explanatory challenge, inspired by this discovery that Kerbals can "walk" underwater if constrained by a ceiling. Objective is to get to the bottom of Eve's ocean and either take a sample or plant a flag (or photographically evidence how close you came). Return to Kerbin is (very) optional, except for bragging rights. Standard rules apply (stock/DLC parts only); no mods which affect physics. MechJeb etc are allowed. More details to follow, once I've further investigated buoyancy effects on Eve...

Thanks for trying it out - and for helping me debug it!

Thanks... cycling is deliberately allowed, even though changing via map menu isn't, as otherwise there is a chance of getting "stuck" with the wrong ship when you decouple the landing craft from the station. The atmosphere (plus daylight) provide an urgency to the mission Anyway... file is updated on dropbox link. Shouldn't need DLC any more. These files are very fiddly: if you d/l the file again you will probably need to delete the "Saving Private Bob" folder (which is created inside the scenario folder when you run it for the first time) before running the new version of the file to ensure the start state is forced to be updated. Here is my slideshow of the challenge: just to prove it is possible! https://imgur.com/a/Ls88YZS

All good catches. Let me adjust and update.

I made some breakthroughs on this specific point - the functionality appears to be governed by a number of settings: AdvancedParams: EnableKerbalExperience = True // self explanatory and then you set their level indirectly, by building up their XP via their personal log, thus: CAREER_LOG { flight = 0 0 = Orbit,Kerbin 0 = Suborbit,Kerbin 0 = Orbit,Mun 0 = Suborbit,Mun 0 = Orbit,Minmus 0 = Suborbit,Minmus } Finally, in the same section you need to ensure: veteran = False // appears to override other settings I've used this knowledge to create a new scenario piloting challenge here.

Following on from @Missingno200's excellent discovery regarding the existence and functionality of scenarios, I am pleased to present my first challenge using this format. From the in-game description: Bob was conducting a manoeuvring test of a new Lander while on attachment to Scenario Station when disaster struck: a gravitational anomaly hit both station and lander, nudging both into a sub-orbital trajectory. Worse, Bob's lander can was severely damaged: losing both autopilot control and one of his RCS thrusters. Fortunately, Valentina was visiting the station on a resupply run, and has room to bring Bob, as well as the station's resident scientist, Bill, back to Kerbin. Bob must limp home on limited resources to meet up with Bill and Valentina, and all three need to return home safely. Your mission is to guide Bob back to Kerbin. Mission Control additionally ask if you can try to save the station, and also land near the VAB if possible, for cost-saving purposes. Usage: Download the .sfs file from the link below and place it in your Kerbal Space Program/saves/scenarios folder. The mission is the accessible from the "scenarios" menu option, under "Saving Private Bob (Hard Piloting Test)". Fair warning: this is a hard, but doable piloting challenge, with Bob's piloting skill set low meaning that SAS cannot be enabled. Worse, the single RCS thruster is off-centre, so care must be taken. You have access to the map and IVA, but cannot quicksave/load, nor EVA. https://www.dropbox.com/s/aak9ydlvzvnjw4j/Saving Private Bob.sfs?dl=0

Per challenge rules, I felt obligated to do this too . Cue up the Benny Hill theme tune...

And a text book landing, to boot I think the next stage is to attempt to land with reaction wheels off... what do you think?

I am reminded that I made an old Reddit weekly challenge video to Duna in one take (I had meant to cut and edit it, but ran out of time), so here is a slightly absurd video for the readers' delight.

Exactly so. This is meant to be accessible, but nevertheless as challenging as you wish it to be: anything up to borderline impossible... Me too, and this was the inspiration for this challenge, alongside the dawning realisation that the 1.7 upgrade has improved quality of life so much that I can almost live without any additional mods. Amazing! I clearly need to add an award for "design, build and undertake mission from scratch on one take": "The Full Monty Award", perhaps? Anyway congratulations on a great first entry.

Background: It has been long known that a plethora of "unusual gravimetric readings" recorded within the Kerbol system suggest the possibility that time travel is not only possible, but regularly occurs. The rival religious cults "Protection of the Five" and "The Choice of Nine" both claim insight into these effects, and while neither agree on their meaning, both claim that they are a divine effect that inevitably occurs as a result of leaving the atmosphere. The Kerbalist Movement have hired the services of the KSC to demonstrate that the occurrence of such fourth dimensional intervention is not inevitable, and to search for, and if possible, bring evidence of this back to Kerbin. The mission: build and execute a manned mission from the KSC, leaving the atmosphere and returning back to Kerbin for recovery without using any form of saving/reverting as demonstrated by an ability to "revert to launch" upon arrival. Impress us with your derring-do. Rules: Stock parts (including Making History) only, no mods that change game and parts physics All other flight and aesthetics mods OK (except of course, NO Hyperedit, config file editing, etc) The mission must includes at least one Kerbonauts. What they do, and where they go is up to you. No clipping of parts in a way that will change the physics / aerodynamics of the craft. Minor clipping (e.g. into fairings) is OK. ISRU/refuelling is allowed Note that in addition to normal mission evidence you will be asked to evidence the "return to launch" button at the end of the mission: NB videos of your mission are not (of themselves) sufficient to evidence completing it in one take. Please also be aware that switching vessels or going to the space centre or tracking station will usually "clear" the revert ability, but that EVA, normal decoupling and re-coupling should not cause issues. You are strongly encouraged to check complex mission vessel designs carefully e.g. testing any reconfiguration while in LKO, before embarking on the proper mission. There will be no leaderboard per se, but a number of awards/Halls of Fame will be available to make this mission as widely available as possible: Halls of Fame (and indicative mission type, subject to change): One Take Participant (e.g. return safely from orbit) One Take Silver (e.g. return safely from landing on Mun/Minmus, or from orbiting a solar system body) One Take Gold (e.g. return safely from landing on one/more solar system body) One Take Platinum (e.g. return safely from Eve, or having landing on both of Tylo and Laythe) Additional Discretionary Awards: The Jeb Award - for exceptional riskiness (please try to document with photos) So Near Award - for crashing on Kerbin (after an impressive mission) Masochist Award - for using console, or undertaking without mods Methusula Award - for exceptional mission duration Skeleton Award - for an exceptionally bare-bones mission design Given the self-evidence of this challenge being possible, I beg for the indulgence of the mods in allowing me to submit my own attempt at a later stage.

Why thank you sir. On a related note, I only just yesterday realised why, when I ran the mission, it seemed slightly harder to leave Laythe than I had designed for during my testing, as I only just noticed the slight nerfing (particularly in atmosphere) of the Spark in 1.7!

Brilliant! Thank you very much!

These look great! Thanks @jinnantonix for suggesting and @vyznev for putting them together! I'll proudly add this to my profile page Do you object to my putting the words "¢ertified ¢heapskate" on/around/near it

I spent a little time looking at the scenario files this evening to try and understand them, and see what you mean about the flexibility (you can set it up to roll the in-game credits!!!). On the specific point of disabling SAS for the piloting challenge did you consider a low skill engineer/scientist-manned lander, instead of a probe? They should be prevented from engaging SAS in career (/science?) mode, if the scenario set up determines that. I'd like to contribute to moving this forward, and to that end would like to see a space to discuss and share understanding of the language: it may be that a separate forum is overkill and discussion can be restricted to one or two posts, though.

Very cool find/re-discovery! Done, with 95m/s in the tank at T+5:23. Piloted by hand, but KER and better burn time both assisted. Would have been better dV but for nearly landing in the crater and having to "hop" beside it. Some spoilers/pointers for others who might be struggling: PS. Love the snark in the .sfs file

It's an inverted engine plate.

Thanks! I'm pretty sure you'll be able to beat it eventually, but in the meantime my latest (and, I suspect, last for now at least) result is 8,977m/s: tantalisingly close to, but not quite attaining, 9km/s.

8.9km/s Edit: now with a little more time to outline the additional innovations used to get this improvement. Use of engine plate as a very cheap decoupler Creating a series of weight-balanced "rings" of baguettes which can be released to slip off the craft backwards using a single off-centre hardpoint decoupler 3 x thumpers, instead of 1 x kickback, with a slight offset of stage 1 thrust providing the gravity turn

Very nice. Glad I got my entry in first before it was blown out of the water... I also considered the stayputnik, but without using MJ it proved too hard to maintain a non-reaction wheeled course without using a more advanced (and hence expensive) probe. How did you maintain an initial flight trajectory without fins/control for the SRB? Regarding Ants: I am not surprised it was tricky to engineer something here: despite their weight and hence dV advantage, they have a surprisingly low "cost/thrust" ratio that is also an important factor in these sorts of challenge (c.25% of spark)

My starter for 10: a shade over 7.8km/s. Unmanned. Exactly 5k credits (re-reading the rules I now realise I should have clarified that 5k was allowed since it actually says "less than") Mk 2: 7.87km/s. Unmanned. 4,977 credits Mk 3: 7.9km/s. Pictures to follow (time for bed now).