Scarecrow88

Timing of the original setup generally leads to the first opportunity to land on Minmus and Mun being in the dark if using a normal transfer. This gives the player the choice of actually landing in the dark, if he is confident enough, or waiting a few orbits until the landing site is in daylight, but at the cost of wasting precious time. I hope you enjoyed the challenge and I have added you to the leaderboard.

Kerbin definitely does rotate underneath you whilst you are still in the atmosphere. I've just done another circumnavigation flight, heading east. I took off in daylight and by the time I got back to KSC an hour later, it was dark. If Kerbin wasn't rotating beneath me while I was airborne, it would still have been daylight when I got back.

I recently did a circumnavigation flight flying westwards (against planet rotation) on the basis that the rotation would bring my starting point closer by the time I was all the way round. Flight time was 1 1/2 hours, so Kerbin would have rotated through 90 degrees in that time if my understanding is correct that Kerbin has a 6 hour day.

Eorin - nice looking craft there, but they are not stock, and this is the stock repository.

The Aventador A long distance reconnaissance craft. Crew: 1 Engines: 1 Fuel Capacity: 900 Units Cruising Height: 23,500m Cruising Speed: 1100 m/s Range: Circumglobal With SAS turned on, this craft is extremely stable, needing very little encouragement to leave the runway when doing your take off run. Good glide characteristics means altitude is easily controllable on the throttle. The proving flight of this craft circumnavigated the planet at an average altitude of 23,000m, and landed back at KSC with 345 units of fuel still left in the tanks, more than a 1/3 of what it started with. Elapsed time for the flight was just under 1 1/2 hours, all flown in real time. For best results when covering long distances, the Aventador should be climbed to between 23,000 and 24,000 metres, aiming to hit 1100 m/s at that height. Once there, keep the nose 20 degrees above the horizon, and control your rate of climb using the throttle. Keeping an eye on the VSI, and anticipating ascent/descent rate changes, the throttle can be juggled between 1/3 and 2/3 power to maintain speed and altitude. As progress is made around the globe, the nose on the navball will appear to climb. If your controls are in fine-tune mode, a gentle tap on the W key from time to time should be enough to keep the nose on the 20 degree marker. Aventador is OK flying at 2/3 throttle at 24,000m with intake air down to 0.05, but keeping just below 24,000 with intake air at 0.06 is better. Album of the test flight going round the world. Aventador Craft File Aventador II Based around the original airframe, but with even sweeter handling, slightly higher ceiling and cruising speed, with the ability to go vertical straight after take off due to the improved PWR, Aventador is also available as a twin engined single seat craft (Aventador II) or as a twin engined 2 seater (Aventador IIB). Good for those medium to long range mission, where a slightly shorter endurance is not a problem. Aventador II Aventador IIB Aventador II goes ballistic shortly after take off.

The Aventador A long distance reconnaissance craft. Crew: 1 Engines: 1 Fuel Capacity: 900 Units Cruising Height: 23,500m Cruising Speed: 1100 m/s Range: Circumglobal With SAS turned on, this craft is extremely stable, needing very little encouragement to leave the runway when doing your take off run. Good glide characteristics means altitude is easily controllable on the throttle. The proving flight of this craft circumnavigated the planet at an average altitude of 23,000m, and landed back at KSC with 345 units of fuel still left in the tanks, more than a 1/3 of what it started with. Elapsed time for the flight was just under 1 1/2 hours, all flown in real time. For best results when covering long distances, the Aventador should be climbed to between 23,000 and 24,000 metres, aiming to hit 1100 m/s at that height. Once there, keep the nose 20 degrees above the horizon, and control your rate of climb using the throttle. Keeping an eye on the VSI, and anticipating ascent/descent rate changes, the throttle can be juggled between 1/3 and 2/3 power to maintain speed and altitude. As progress is made around the globe, the nose on the navball will appear to climb. If your controls are in fine-tune mode, a gentle tap on the W key from time to time should be enough to keep the nose on the 20 degree marker. Aventador is OK flying at 2/3 throttle at 24,000m with intake air down to 0.05, but keeping just below 24,000 with intake air at 0.06 is better. Album of the test flight going round the world. Aventador Craft File Aventador II Based around the original airframe, but with even sweeter handling, slightly higher ceiling and cruising speed, with the ability to go vertical straight after take off due to the improved TWR, Aventador is also available as a twin engined single seat craft (Aventador II) or as a twin engined 2 seater (Aventador IIB). Good for those medium to long range mission, where a slightly shorter endurance is not a problem. Aventador II Aventador IIB Aventador II goes ballistic shortly after take off.

If you get the problem again, press f3 to bring up the flight log. If something has broken, effectively severing the 'brain' of your ship from the rest, resulting in a loss of control, it should be listed in the log.

Good luck but have fun. Don't make the mistake that Kasuha made, and check the destination that each vehicle is intended to take you to.

Thank you for the endorsement Sirine. Maybe the 'no MechJeb' rule is why people aren't taking part - there are very few pilots amongst us. Kasuha, good attempt. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I see that by designing craft for a specific task, I nearly caught you out when you realised the taxi between stations wasn't designed for landing. Have now added you to the leaderboard.

You're a lot closer than 50m. My attempt looks to be a little closer than yours, though I landed on the opposite side of the monolith and am only 40.5m from Jeb's attempt, so he is probably only 21 or 22m away. Timer shows more than a minute, but most of that was working out what angle to take the screenshot from. Design used was as supplied in the save file. ETA: I drove a rover out and parked it under the obelisk. The distances shown are now measured from the rover, putting your benchmark at 24.3m and my attempt at 17.3m. If you put a rover or, as Jeb is already there, possibly plant a flag under the obelisk in your save file, people will be able to use that to measure their own attempts.

I've just had a go with a small test design, and whilst it works and got me back to Kerbin safely after a single press of the staging button to launch it, it showed me a couple of things. Sitting at the mid point of the Mun surface, so that Kerbin is directly overhead needs a lot of DeltaV to get the periapsis down to a level where you get captured. Having a launch site east of that position requires a lot less DeltaV, but you will need to fine tune it, as it's possible to have too much. An attempt facing approximately 45 degrees retrograde had too much, and that used a FL-T200 tank and three of the small Rockomax engines - two radially mounted and one of the new in line ones. The peri came down to the surface at Kerbin, but kept going and came out the other side, way too high for a capture! For a second attempt from the same spot, I used a FL-T100 tank and just 2 of the radially mounted baby Rockomax engines, and it worked a treat. Both power designs were attached to a one man lander can fitted with two radially mounted parachutes, the skinny ladder, and three micro landing legs.

Despite having visited all the planets and moons, Mun still holds a special fascination for me, especially since the surface re-texture in the latest release. No waiting for transfer windows, loads of anomalies, and a fascinating surface to explore. Wonderful.

I thought the injection stage was the bit that took you from orbit around one body to orbit around another. If that is the case, TWR will only affect your rate of acceleration. How long are you prepared to wait for your burns to complete?

I knew there was one near KSC from what I had read in forum posts, but I didn't know where. I stumbled upon it a couple of days ago when setting up a challenge that I have just put together. Great feeling.

That's a lot of screenshots. Hope you enjoyed the challenge.

Quick save and quick load are permitted to recover a situation that has resulted in a position from which you are unable to continue i.e. complete fireball etc., but I would ask that people don't use the f5 and f9 option to try and improve their times by having a 2nd or more attempt at a landing or whatever in an attempt to improve their time. The score I posted was achieved in a single play through. It definitely can be bettered, as I waited for a few orbits around Minmus before landing so that I could do so in daylight.

So go and play a different challenge.

Challenge file has been updated for compatibility with v.0.22 It seems that most of the challenge threads test the player's building skills as much as anything else; who can build the fastest/biggest/smallest etc. I've created a challenge that provides all the craft you need, and they are all stock, so everyone starts in exactly the same place, with exactly the same kit, making it a test of how well you can play KSP using craft designed by a complete stranger, hence the Test Pilot Challenge. The challenge involves some rover driving, a bit of atmospheric plane flying and of course good old rocketry. The challenge stays within the Kerbin system, so can be played by anyone who is able to get to the Mun and Minmus. Being able to dock will be an asset, though sending your Kerbals on EVA to transfer between ships is a possibility if your docking skills aren't too hot. Either way, you will need to be able to perform rendezvous manoeuvres. The other skill that will earn you a good score is the ability to perform spot landings, as some of the required crew transfers take place on the surface, and we all know how Jeb hates long walks! Challenge Outline At the outset Jeb is in the field at one of the remote KSC sites, doing a bit of maintenance, when a job for which his unique skills are admirably suited comes up. He's not answering the radio, so the Remote KSC Crew Shuttle is to be sent out to fetch him. At the moment, the Shuttle is on the launch pad, because some wag thought it would be funny to recharge it using the power backup systems on the pad. Further instructions to continue the scenario will be found on the plaques of the flags you will come across. Where it has not been possible to plant a flag, such as on the space stations, your next destination will be revealed in the name of the craft you have transferred to once it undocks from the station. To Start To play the challenge, I suggest you start a new game, and replace the persistent file in your newly created game folder with this one. If you are still playing v.21.1 use this file instead Upon starting the game, and being presented with the Space Centre screen, click on the launch pad and select the first option. This will take you to the Shuttle on the launch pad with which you should go and fetch Jeb, who is working out at the old Observation Tower at site 9, to the NW of the runway. Your timer will start when you release the Shuttle rover from the launch clamp. RULES No MechJeb. This is a challenge in the style of the old school test pilots, who didn't use computers Mods that give visual aids for docking are allowed, providing they don't control the craft and do the docking for you. Crew Manifest can be used for transferring crew, as this will encourage people to dock rather than leaving their craft floating nearby while they do an EVA transfer. Quick save and quick load are permitted to recover a situation that has resulted in a position from which you are unable to continue i.e. complete fireball etc., but I would ask that people don't use the f5 and f9 option to try and improve their times by having a 2nd or more attempt at a landing or whatever. The screenshot required for proof of completion is detailed within the challenge. It's important that the screenshot posted is as requested. Most of the craft within the challenge are of a reasonable size and easy to manoeuvre. All have enough fuel to complete their individual tasks, though one in particular may be a bit marginal if you tend to fly as if you owned an oil company. The stations have lights directed at the docking ports to assist if you happen to be trying to dock whilst on the dark side, and most of the craft that need to dock are also fitted with lights for the same reason. Action Group key 1 will toggle the ladders on all craft that are fitted with them. You should be able to complete the challenge in just over 2 hours of real time game play. My own attempt during a proof of concept flight, gave a time of 3d 22h 24m 28s, which I will put on the leaderboard as a target for others to beat. Leaderboard Dodrian 1d 19h 55m 54s SirJodelstein 2d 11h 15m 31s Pluto101 2d 22h 2m 1s immelman 3d 13h 59m 55s Scarecrow88 3d 22h 24m 28s Caswallon 4d 20h 2m 42s Highlad 5d 12hrs 27m 39s Kasuha 5d 13h 59m 17s Sirine 6d 18h 40m 10s zorque 7d 6h 49m 24s Sirrobert 9d 8h 01m 01s mcirish3 11d 1h 55m 56s Xiphos 12d 20h 15m 28s

1) Having an orbit where your peri is lower than your target and your apo is higher is counter productive, as one cancels out the other. If you are behind your target, your overall orbit needs to be lower so that you catch up. The converse is true if you are ahead of your target. When the two are relatively close to each other, at that point you should add a manoeuvre node to your orbit and adjust it so that it intersects your target orbit. Hopefully you should get an encounter marker come up, which you can try and improve by dragging the complete manoeuvre node around your orbit to see where you get the closest encounter. 2) Most people recommend using chase camera view as the view in relation to your craft remains constant. 3) Without using mods the only way to build a structure outside the VAB or SPH is to use docking ports. However, if you use the senior ports you can build quite sturdy structures.

For me, if it doesn't make orbit, it isn't an SSTO. The description is in the name and says it all really.

I copied your second flag and used it in game with no problem. Didn't resize it, but I did change the name to something I could remember, so perhaps it's the filename that's giving you problems.

If you absolutely have to do it, keep your fingers crossed that your original orbit still has a really high apoapsis, as it cost less deltaV to change inclination the further out you are.

Didn't find it creepy exactly, but when I landed on Eeloo, I definitely got the feeling that I was a very, very long way from home.

Did a mission challenge that involved transporting people, visiting a few different places and ferrying a couple of landers around. Completed mission log with pictures.

As I wasn't happy not having a definitive mission time, I had another go at the task, and recorded a time of 2y 188d 18h 13m 31s, with all tasks completed and full bonus with no penalties. Rather than post the mission screenshots here, I created a thread in the mission forum, and put them in there. I've linked back to this thread so hopefully It might encourage a few more people to have a go.