Donmy Kerman

About the launch clamps, I think that they should be limited to the height of the mountains west of the KSC (around 5.5 km). I think we should also consider this, however: What if someone makes a craft with "feet" offsetted down several kilometers so that when they spawn in and decouple them, they end up several kilometers in the air (effectively a launch clamp, but not using a launch clamp). Should this be allowed?

By the infinite electricity glitch, I mean the glitch where you set the turboprop's rpm limit to 0 and it starts producing infinite EC.

I also have a second question: is the infinite electricity glitch allowed?

Does the kerbal have to survive?

Is there a height limit for the launch clamps or can I offset my craft to the edge of space?

You can use 4x physics warp, so you only ned to go around 2-3 km/s

How exactly would a hyperbolic trajectory not break the rules (you have to stay within atmosphere)?

If I may, how exactly have you calculated the time needed to get up to orbital speed?

In my opinion #3 and #4 seem far too restrictive and arbitrary. I would say to do #2 for the normal leaderboard, and include a second leaderboard that uses #1 just to see what happens. All of the old records would also be included on the new leaderboard (as they don't violate #1). If #1 proves too cheaty however, we can remove that second leaderboard.

Keep in mind that doing so would make the challenge pretty trivial - one could always do it around Gilly, for instance.

I tried doing dome calculations on my own (with timewarp this time), and on Kerbin and Eve, it seems possible to just do a retrograde orbit just inside the atmosphere - no downforce needed. However, this doesn't account for the time needed to get to orbital speeds, so downforce is likely still needed in practice.

Might try this challenge. I did some calculations about the difficulty of doing this for various bodies, and here are the results (in order of decreasing difficulty): Kerbol - This would be insanely hard, requiring tens of millions of m/s of delta-v and well over 5000Gs of acceleration. This is simply impossible to do without glitches (Kraken drives, KAL overclocking, drag/thermal occlusion glitches in order to not overheat... etc.). In addition, it would require insane piloting skills to not fly out of the solar system at 3.8 million m/s. Jool -Much easier than Kerbol, though not easy at all. The task would require 700000 m/s of dV and 130Gs of downforce to stay near the surface. This is likely impossible to do without glitches. Tylo - About as hard as Kerbin, Eve, and Laythe in terms of dV and downforce, but there's no atmosphere for magic wing use. Eve, Kerbin, Laythe - All of these are about 10 times easier than Jool, in both dV and downforce. You would definitely want to use glitches for these ones, but it's getting easier. Duna, Vall - About twice as easy as Kerbin or Laythe, in terms of dV. The downforce is manageable, but one should still use Kraken drives. Mun, Eeloo, Moho - All of them require between 20 and 30 km/s of dV and between 4 and 5 Gs of downforce. This is very much possible without glitches, but would be a monumental challenge. This is what I'd call Stratzenblitz levels of difficulty. Ike, Dres - Require around 15 km/s of dV and 2-3 Gs of downforce. This is possible with a big rocket. Bop, Minmus - Require around 7 km/s of dV and about 1 G of downforce. This is possible with a small rocket, probably in a single stage. Pol - Requires around 5 km/s of dV and about 1 G of downforce again. This is easily possible with a single stage. And finally, the easiest of all: Gilly, requiring about 2.5 km/s of dV and about 0.5 Gs of downforce, so low that it's trivial to design a Gilly circumnavigator to go around the Moon in less than 7 minutes. TLDR: Pretty much impossible: Kerbol, Jool Kraken level: Eve, Tylo, Kerbin, Laythe Semi-kraken difficulty: Duna, Vall Stratzenblitz: Mun, Eeloo, Moho Hard: Ike, Dres Medium: Bop, Minmus Easy: Gilly Edit: I re-read the rules and realized only atmospheric bodies are allowed. In that case, this challenge is pretty much impossible without glitches.

@Hotel26 Eve's rotational velocity at the equator is only about 50 m/s, so the mountain being 25 S means a 4m/s loss. This is not a handicap for ascent.

@camacju I was wondering where you landed your Eve SSTO.

@farmerben Last time I remember, heatshields can survive down to 40 Mm

@QF9E The KerbalX link doesn't work so I don't know the cost of your craft. Edit: found craft cost.

@OJT Nice SSTO! This is pretty much what I envisioned when making this challenge. Will add to leaderboard.

@RoninFrog Cool loophole! Will add to the leaderboard. What's the cost of a kerbal though? I'm assuming 6 funds for the EVA fuel but the rest of the kerbal is expendable.

@RoninFrog You don't have to fill both rules 1 and 2. Eve/Jool craft are totally fine.

I think the root fairing glitch counts as an exploit. Anyways I'll probably try doing a submission using ordinary heatshields and radiators.

Suggestion: reach both poles?

Can I have a spin? Stock+DLC, one Difficult spin and one Hard spin.

Here is a submission: Went 599,995 m from the Sun's "surface" Uses the root fairing glitch to protect from the intense solar heat Gallery:

Currently flying, Jeb is nearing the Sun.

@QF9E Let's just say the slight lithobrake at the end was intentional and call it a win. Will add to leaderboard.