MarcRan17

Nice Job, I'll update your score

If you manage a closer pass I'll update your score, But I made that rule change after your entry, so I think it's only fair to allow you to keep your position. Additionally, the purpose of the 1 kerbal rule is more or less to ensure someone doesn't send a single tiny piece of debris through which has minimal drag, though this is still countered by the fact that the Mark 2 cockpit has lower drag than most parts in the game if I recall... all the same it's not really an important rule, you still performed an aerobrake with a craft roughly the same parameters of a manned pod, so I'll still count it if you'd like.

I noticed it was partially mentioned earlier, but I don't suppose you ever plan on making the Light Changes, the redesigned system, and/or the comets all separate features? I really REALLY like the lighting changes, they're simply wonderful. And I love the comets too. That was something I never thought would ever be practical in KSP. And the retextures/new terrain on the planets is phenomenal. I particularly love the new Duna, and The new Tylo. As well, Jool's new coloring is really nice. I always found the stock green to be just a tad too vibrant. But all this said, there's something to be said for the stock solar system. If there was a way to add new planets, similarly to Krag's planet factory, with these awesome retextures and terrain upgrades, with new names, new orbits and new characteristics, leaving the stock system mostly intact, that'd be awesome. Or maybe once interstellar travel is implemented. But I'm rambling. What I'm saying is that I really love this mod, but for now I'd like to keep the default solar system. I'd really like it if I could have the stock system with that lighting though, and if comets could somehow be added that'd be great! All in all, I think this is absolutely fantastic work! Keep it up!

Good Question. I'm going to say yes, one kerbal, as otherwise you could just send the part with the lowest drag and call it a day. Perhaps I worded it wrong, you do NOT have to circularize, the idea is to perform an aerobrake that would make it possible, but I have no qualms about it if you just ditch the planet again afterwards. Yes, the point of the competition is more or less to see how fast you can slap the atmosphere with a command pod. And yes, in reality you'd just vaporize, but this is KSP. That's the point. I was about to correct you and say that I had banned the use of the Dev console, but it appears I forgot that. Thank you. And also a good point on applied thrust, will edit rules to match. And in Response to Obi_Juan Well done. You beat my attempt and I used Dev hacks to prove the concept. I would think that your mechjeb reading is likely more accurate as the in game altimeter seems to take just a little bit more time switching values as it has to cycle through them vertically. Your final score is Eve's altitude, 96708.574 - your lowest altitude, 35,951.3, multiplied by two for doing it without engines, = 121,515pts, putting you in first place. Well done!

Thank you for pointing that out. Considering that the challenge is based on the ultimate aerobrake, I will disallow the use of wings and winglets. They shouldn't be needed anyways.

If you wannnnnnt.... but seriously, Eve is tricky enough as it is. I chose Eve because I've seen Duna Pretty much maxed out once before, Kerbin isn't a challenge to get to, Laythe and Jool are just a long ways out and that entails all sorts of other added difficulties. Slow Solar orbital velocity, long flight time to get there, etc. Eve was in my opinion, the most suitable alternate target. Easy enough to get to, thick atmosphere, but not quite impossibly thick, and it has a high Solar Orbital Velocity.

First submission. lowest altitude, as close as I could tell anyways, was 45,573m. 96,708-45,573=51,135pts*2(because of lack of engines)=102,271pts. Because you're the only one who's submitted an entry so far, you're in first place. Not Bad at all. Bielliptic Transfer I take it, based on the speeds. Well Done.

This isn't a bad idea. Though the stock division is what the challenge basically already is. No Modded engines allowed. On this note I'm going to add a FAR category

If 3500 is what you think of as A LOT for this challenge, see the attached video above. he hit Duna's atmosphere at 39,500m/s. And he didn't cheat either, he explained his methods and they were very clever. I'm hoping I'll see something more clever this time around. The reason I chose Eve this time is because IstasPumaNevada just about hit the surface and still escaped Duna again. I figure that if I want to see better I need more atmosphere to work with. I don't expect anyone to get much within 10km above the ground heck It'd be freaking impressive if anyone made it past 45000m, but the point is that I want to be surprised by ingenuity, and dumbfounded by speed. For The record, I tried this using Dev Hacks and managed to get below 42,000m and still exit the atmosphere, and while I'm sure you're saying "that's cheating though, of course you did it" I know for a fact that this IS legitimately obtainable speed.

Landing is not a flyby, so no. The Idea is to do an aerobrake as low as you can. Yes, though, you CAN use engines, as long as they're stock. but you'll double your score if you don't. You just need to escape the atmosphere again doing a traditional aerobrake

Not sure why but I tried removing KW rocketry today without testing the game afterwards. Came back to play later and it crashed immediately after loading. I couldn't figure out why, and tried restarting the game about six times. I checked my recycle bin to see if it was something I had deleted, and sure enough, after restoring KW the game booted fine... I'm using a handful of other mods too, but I don't see how a parts mod like this is causing this kind of Crash.

Ok valid point, Eve is kinda ridiculous, but the alternative is Kerbin. Unless you wanna go for Laythe, which, let's be honest is WAYYYY out of the way.

THE CHALLENGE Get as close as you can to the sea level of Eve without deorbiting your space craft in a traditional aerobrake maneuver with really high speeds. BACKGROUND So over a year ago I posted a challenge here with a name I can't remember, that was wiped out by the forum massacre in April. The challenge was to perform the closest aerobrake you could to Duna without hitting the surface or deorbiting. There were some great entries, coming sometimes only 7km above the surface. Then IstasPumaNevada submitted their entry which made a closest approach of 1861m ASL and a radar altitude of a mere 143.6m and Escaped again! Needless to say, he won. Upon giving some more thought to it, I figured, that if he could make an escape after a 143m shave, there just wasn't enough atmosphere for the challenge. Where better to go for a thicker atmosphere than Eve? SPECIFICS/RULES -Because you are attempting to prevent a deorbit, your apoapsis MUST end up above the atmosphere and you must exit the atmosphere thereafter (this would be the first step in an aerobrake, the foundation of the challenge, which would then be followed by a cirularization burn at apoapsis) -There are no restrictions on entry speed, that's where your creativity comes in. (I won't specify the way IstasPumaNevada succeeded as I'm hoping someone else will figure it out, and I'm hoping that someone else will do better) -You MAY use engine thrust to assist you in escaping the atmosphere after entry, HOWEVER, your score will be doubled if you don't use ANY thrust while in the atmosphere. -As proof of your achievement, you have two possible ways of submitting your attempt. 1. As a video. This is by far the easiest way to submit an entry as I can see exactly what's going on for every second of the attempt. The video must begin shortly before entering the atmosphere, and end shortly after exiting again and upon exiting, you must show a quick view of the orbital map to prove that you have indeed escaped the atmosphere again. Be sure to have your UI visible so I can see your altitude as this is what your score will be judged by. 2. As an album of screencaps. This is harder to do, but better for people who don't have the software or the performance ability to do a video. All images must include the UI, particularly the resources dialogue, the Altimeter and the Mission Elapsed Time (MET). The first picture must show your craft before entry. The last must show your craft after escaping the atmosphere again. Any pictures included in between will be used to judge your score. the picture that has the lowest reading on the altimeter is what your score will be based off of, so take a handfull of pics as you approach periapsis. If you're attempting an un-powered aerobrake you must have the resources dialogue open at all times or else make it clear that there are no engines on your craft. -Landing isn't allowed. The goal is to aerobrake as low as possible. Dropping into the atmosphere with a 10,000m/s craft from above and then popping out again doesn't count either. Must work as an effective aerobrake - Wings and Winglets, or any aerodynamic Lifting Surface (including control Surfaces) are disallowed as one can abuse the infiniglide glitch to escape again. - One Kerbal must go along for the ride. Just imagine his face, it'll be worth it. - The Developer console, (alt-F12) is strictly forbidden. No infinite fuel, no gravity hacking. MODS - All informational mods, are allowed, such as Kerbal Engineer. - Mechjeb is allowed as it doesn't really provide any sort of performance enhancement - FAR is allowed, however, this will put you in a separate category. - Parts mods are only allowed so long as they do NOT include engines, particularily future tech engines like antimatter, black hole, or entropy engines, whatever they're called, NO ENGINE MODS. - No Savefile editing. I WILL KNOW... O_O You MUST get to Eve in a flight all the way from Kerbin. SCORING Scores will be counted as follows: According to the KSP wiki, Eve's atmosphere tops off at 96,708.574 m so We'll say that your score is that altitude minus your closest approach altitude and multiplied by two if you did it without thrust This means that the maximum physically possible score is 193,417 points. I HIGHLY DOUBT ANYONE WILL ACHIEVE ANYWHERE NEAR THAT as Eve's atmosphere is Five times as thick as Kerbin's ASL and roughly 25 times as thick as Duna's If you feel I missed anything or have any suggestions for alterations in the Rules, let me know below, other than that, good luck and happy flying. I attempted this Challenge using Devhacks as proof of concept, and While I'm certain that the speeds I achieved are possible, because of the way the stock atmosphere is scaled, I highly doubt that anyone will make it below 35km, but by all means, prove me wrong! LEADERBOARD (STOCK AERODYNAMIC MODEL): Name: Score(Atmo cap - alt(x2 sans engines): Altitude(Atmo cap - score): Powered?: 1. metaphor 150,025pts 21,696m No 2. obi-juan 121,515pts 35,951m No 3. totalitor 118,757pts 37,330m No 4. 5. LEADERBOARD (FAR AERODYNAMICS): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. BONUS: IstasPumaNevada's Duna Dive submission:

you aren't, haha.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Oh yeah I only saw like the first half of that movie. But if you want sci-fi horror, turn off the ships lights before you go on EVA, then use just the Kerbal's Headlamp.

This is a totally stock Starship that I spent yesterday afternoon putting together. It is mostly for aesthetics, as the Delta-V is a mere 10,000m/s (appx.) The interior is the highlighting feature in my opinion. It has space for 24 passengers below-deck (26 if you cram the leisure observatories) and 5 command staff on the bridge. Believe it or not, this craft is balanced and will fly almost perfectly straight, though I have seen a few phantom forces at work so SAS is a good idea to have on (it's equipped with ASAS by the way...) It's not very fast, and a Kerbal on EVA can easily outfly it even when it's engines are on full power, but once again, the ship isn't really intended to fly well so much as it is to look good. to experience the interior, just simply zoom in during flight so that your view clips through the front of the ship so you can see the interior hallway. From there, select a cabin, and EVA a Kerbal. use the EVA pack to fly down the Hall. The bridge is accessed via the ladders in the main hall, and to exit the ship just jet pack down to the end past the power station, and go down through the gap. To lower the ladders in the bridge hit 1. Do this before playing around on the inside for simplicity sake. I strongly recommend using Crew Manifest to load the ship prior to take off, and it should be noted that I did NOT design a legitimate way to launch this thing. My means of getting it to space was editing the savefile. If you have Hyper edit, it will be much easier to enjoy this ship, while avoiding the pesky savefile editing. It should also be noted that there are two mods which were present in the version I used for the pictures, but these mods are no longer there. The KSPX tanks are replaced with stock Monopropellant tanks, and the Engineer chip is gone. WARNINGS AND GLITCHINESS: For some reason, probably a side effect of mild part clipping, if the ship is moving, and a Kerbal hits it on EVA, the Kerbal is very likely to be killed. There are also some tight corners here and there that can achieve this effect, so I advise caution when moving about the craft. Also worth note, the Bridge is on structural pylons with built-in decouplers, so if you stage, the bridge will be ejected, however, not without tearing the ship to shreds and scattering over 340 parts into space. The engines also tend to get a little warm when running at max throttle But I haven't yet had an overheating issue. DON'T EVA THE CAPTAIN! The crew member in the main cupola on the bridge is kinda trapped... Unfortunately, EVA-ing him will pop his head through the front panel on the top of the bridge and he'll be stuck. A lot of wiggling can free him but it's very likely that he'll die, or break the bridge before this happens. (see the pictures for an example of this mishap) A Kerbal can enter the Captains seat however, it just takes a little wiggling to get up the ladder, and once on it's a breeze to enter the Cupola... just don't plan on leaving. Pics Craft File

Ahaha That one's pretty awesome!

My turn! This is the flag I'll most likely use at the space center And this one's probably gonna be used for EVA flags Flag Generator + GIMP + MSPaint = TSEI Flags

probably my awesome probe joking aside, I don't know either, I really like your most recent three ones with the lava planet, sunrise over Kerbin, and the fuel tanker over Laythe.

When was this lava planet announced? I haven't seen anything about it...

Ah yes thank you for reminding me of that. I made the graph a while back and I had meant to correct that but yes, you are correct. With all of the standard liquid tanks (except the Oscar B and the Toroidal one) the mass ratio caps at nine, but with the aforementioned exceptions, it's something like 5.3, and with Xenon tanks it is, as you said, 2.4, which is not very high.

short video... a Kerbolrise over one of the atmospheric planets? the Moons of Jool spinning slowly? A lander landing on say the Mun? An Aerobrake (might be super tricky, though)? Don't know if it's possible, but sandstorms over the surface of Duna? That's all I can muster.

JUst thought I'd ask, in the 5th pic (mun Landing) is it just me or is the nozzle of that poodle engine missing?

God, they get better and better! Awesome job!