Scarecrow88

mangekyou-sama posted up an idea for a challenge that involved visiting a number of places and/or completing some tasks. Asking for help, I offered to set up a fairly small set of outposts for him to test his concept. The result was an actual challenge thread titled The Amazing Race: Interplanetary Edition Season 1 The basic concept is that Jebediah is the only pilot available to complete a set of tasks that have presented themselves to KSC that need to be completed as quick as possible. His first is to collect his buddy Bill, who is currently situated on Kerbin station. A few artefacts have been found on Mun, which they need to check out, but they also need to transport the resident alien expert, Ripley, to Mun station. At some point they also need to pick up Bob, who is currently on Minmus station. As the stations can't be left unmanned for any length of time, Buzz has offered to transfer from Mun station to Minmus station to replace Bob. Buzz apparently has had enough of the Mun anyway. Before they leave Minmus, Bob has offered to deliver a lander at Minmus station to Minmus base. Unfortunately that means someone will have to go and pick Bob up once he's made the delivery. Duna is also on the task list, as someone back at KSC realised they didn't stake any sort of claim to the face that was recently unearthed on Duna, so they've been asked to go and plant a flag there. Meanwhile on Laythe, due to boredom, a couple of guys on Laythe station decided to have some fun by trying to automate their lander. Unfortunately whilst it worked perfectly all the way to the surface, at that point their system gave up the ghost and stranded it there, so two of our intrepid trio have been asked to pay a visit to Laythe and retrieve the lander from the surface. This is my log of that mission. Jeb sits alone on the pad, raring to go. The timer probe is released from the end of Kerbin station, as this is the most reliable way of keeping track of the MET. Jeb is still docked, to show that he didn't try to leave before starting the timer. Meanwhile, the mission lander is sitting off station just out of shot. Having released the timer, Jeb is free to set off. The first thing he does is dock with the lander, and has a final check that he has both Bob and Ripley on board before setting off for Mun. On reaching Mun, Jeb and Bob trust Ripley to take the main craft to Mun station, while they go and visit the artefacts on the surface. They find the Armstrong Memorial rather poignant. Meanwhile they rue the darkness at the arch, as apparently the view is quite good there. Having picked up Buzz, Ripley waves the boys goodbye from Mun station as they set course for Minmus. Making use of the multi-docking facilities at Minmus station, the boys top up their fuel. Meanwhile Bob sets off to deliver the Minmus lander to Minmus Base. Bob is really thankful for the low gravity on Minmus as he is pretty sure he would have had a much longer walk if he had been landing anywhere else. Jeb isn't far behind to pick him up, but it's already dark by the time he arrives. Leaving Buzz behind, the boys set off on their next leg to Duna. Leaving the main ship in orbit, Jeb and Bob set off in the lander for the face. Unfortunately, the face site is in dusk as they are coming in, and Jeb can't actually see it, so just trusts to memory that he will be able to land somewhere close. Unfortuantely it turns out he was not as close as he hoped, so someone has a long walk ahead of them. With a wry twist of humour, when Jeb finally plants the flag at the face, he comments on the flag plaque about having had to walk so far. As a matter of curiosity, once Jeb gets back to the lander, he scans the flag to see how far out he was with his landing. 6.6km! That's 13.2km he has just had to walk. No wonder his legs feel a bit wobbly. Meanwhile Bill is having it easy refuelling at Duna 32. He advises Jeb and Bob that they might want to consider docking with Duna 64 to refuel. Despite being in an inclined orbit, making it more difficult, this makes sense to the boys, as Duna 32 doesn't have enough fuel to fill them right up, and they need to use the lander tanks as reserve for the long burn to Laythe. Meanwhile the scanners show that the flag they have just planted shows up nicely from orbit. The minor inconvenience of visiting Duna 64 is offset by the fact that they can completely top off their tanks with what little fuel remains at Duna 32. Eager to make up for his slight navigation mishap when landing on Duna, Jeb manages to plot a double slingshot out of the Duna system, saving them a bucket load of fuel in the process. On their way, they take time to appreciate the views as they slingshot past Ike. Jeb is really back on form, as he manages to plot their aerobrake at Laythe straight in to an encounter for rendezvous with Laythe station. Their joy is short lived though. Heading straight for the surface to recover the stranded lander, they suddenly realise that they forgot to pack the parachutes after landing on Duna. Their pinpoint landing is some small comfort, but Jeb is acutely aware that he will be tight on fuel for getting back to orbit, having used more than normal for the landing. As Bob climbs in to the stranded lander, his thoughts are with his best mate, who he realises has a serious problem on his hands. Meanwhile Bill docks the command ship at Laythe station, completely unaware of the drama unfolding on the surface. Bob's trip back to orbit is uneventful. He slides past the station so that he is facing his chosen docking point. Completing his docking, he quickly brings everyone on board up to speed with regards to Jebediah's situation. Having thought the situation through, Jeb has come up with a solution, and finally hits the loud pedal to lift off. As soon as the external tanks are empty, he jettisons them, believing that the saving in weight will give him the edge he needs. Hurray, he was right. Bob and Bill vacate the docking point so that Jeb can fill up. With a full tank again, Jeb rejoins his two comrades and starts making preparations for their journey home. The boys have to jettison the lander much earlier than they had hoped. As a reserve tank, it would normally have lasted much longer had the external tanks still been available. They're not going to quibble though, as they are just happy that Jeb made it, and he has another plan to compensate for the reduced level of fuel. Jeb decides that a much more aggressive approach to Kerbin, digging really deep in to the atmosphere, will save them having to do such a long retrograde burn, negating the lack of fuel on board. He was right (again). A successful capture in to orbit around Kerbin has them patting themselves on the back, with plans for a big celebration meal once they are back home. Another steep burn has them slowing down rapidly for a landing right back at KSC. With all the hard work behind them, the boys can relax as they slowly drift back, reassured that they won't have to sit around waiting for a recovery vehicle to show up. And there they all are, just before they head off for a well deserved (and needed) shower. Mission log. Mission Elapsed Time 2y 188d 18h 13m 31s If anybody would like to have a go at this set of tasks, the persistent file with the base, landers, stations and fuelling depots in place, together with the two Mun flags that need to be visited, it can be downloaded here

Exactly that - you just keep going.

Coming back from Jool I've gone down to 29K for aerocapture in to Kerbin orbit. Had to thrust a bit at Apo to bring peri up out of the atmosphere to stay in orbit though.

Nice going Mesklin - I didn't even think of trying with a SSTO. For anyone wanting to try this challenge I've made a small amendment to Kerbin station and attached a small satellite. If this is detached before undocking your own craft after picking up Bill and the scientist, and a screenshot taken to show that you were still in Kerbin orbit at that point, the satellite can be used as a timer for your mission in case you have the same problem that I ran in to.

Zero Zero and probably around 100 or so

I used a much smaller ship than some of those shown above, and quite happily made it to the surface of Mun, with plenty of fuel to return to Kerbin.

As it was me that created the persistent file so that this challenge could take place, I suppose that it's only fair that I post my attempt to show that it can be done. Craft was all stock, and all flights/landing/docking were conducted manually. Only mods used were Kerbal alarm clock to avoid missing manoeuvre nodes, docking indicator to give additional visual clues for docking, and protractor to give information for transfer windows. I claim points for: Collecting Bill and Ripley from Kerbin station (Jeb had to go back to Kerbin from the Mun as when he dropped Ripley off, he suddenly twigged that Bill should have been with him as well! Not sure if that would incur a loss of points for not collecting both at the same time. As Jeb incurred a time penalty by having to retrace his steps to Kerbin I would ask for leniency from the judges.) Visiting the Armstrong Memorial flag Visiting the Arch flag Delivering Ripley to Mun station Transferring Buzz from Mun station to Minmus station Delivering the lander to Minmus base, with bonus points for landing <5km and <1km away Plant a flag on Duna with bonus points for planting it on the face (Jeb had a bit of a walk for that one because he couldn't remember exactly where the face was and landed just over 1km away) Returning the Laythe lander to orbit with bonus points for docking it back with Laythe station Spot landing back at KSC 215.6 metres from the launch pad with all three top guys in one piece. For maximum 170 points Mission time on the f3 popup shows as 319 days 19hrs 26mins 48secs though I have a sneaky feeling this may not be accurate for the entire mission, but just the elapsed time for the final flight from Laythe. Be interested to see what others post up. ETA: I have just been checking the tracking station details at the end of my mission, and that is showing the mission time for an engine stage that I jettisoned between Minmus and Duna that is still floating around as debris as 2yr 71d 7h so the info in the flight log on the craft that landed back at KSC can only be keeping track of it's last flight and not the entire mission. Thought it looked wrong. May need to speak to the OP on amending something within the scenario that can stay in orbit somewhere and be used as a timekeeper. Maybe a small satellite attached to Kerbin station that has to be detached in to it's own orbit, which the tracking station will keep time for. Proof of mission start would be a screenshot of your own craft docked at Kerbin station with the satellite being deployed.

Rather than risk any more Kerbals trying to rescue the guys that are already stranded, I would try sending an unmanned craft with a capsule or hitchhiker can with room to bring them all back. You can fly something like that as many times as you like, without worrying about crashing when trying to land close to make a rescue possible. Given the difficulties you are already experiencing, whilst a rover might be nice, it's probably as difficult to get one of those on the Mun safely as it is to perform a spot landing.

The persistent file link above doesn't appear to be working. The file can be downloaded here.

The problem with having the instructions on the flag plaques is that anyone can just look in the persist file and read all the instructions without visiting the flag. You could insist on a screenshot of the plaque to prove you've been there, but that just makes the instructions public anyway. I'm not sure insisting participants follow a pre-set path to complete the task is a good idea either. Surely a player's ingenuity in finding their own optimal path is part of the challenge. I'd be happy to set up a fairly straight forward challenge that extends outside the Kerbin system to include some of the other planets/moons to test the concept. If that proves to be successful, it wouldn't take much to make it more difficult by adding some objects in more inaccessible places or by reducing the number of fuel dumps.

"Bomb 20, you are out of the bomb bay again!" Anyone name that film?

A couple of images of my manned lander on Tylo, and getting back to orbit. All stock.

It got buried in the latest update terrain re-map.

I actually made a manned landing on Tylo for the first time, and even had enough fuel in the lander to get them back to orbit to rendezvous with the command ship. They're now in orbit around Jool waiting for a window to transfer back to Kerbin. I thought getting a probe on to the surface of Tylo was difficult, but that wasn't fuel sensitive because I knew once it was down it wasn't coming back up. Putting a manned lander down had me feverishly watching the fuel gauges and trying to be as efficient as possible, as I knew fuel was tight for getting back in to orbit. Great sense of achievement when it all worked out.

It could take a bit of setting up, but this could actually be quite a good challenge. Flags could be placed at the points needing to be visited, with a screenshot of the plaque on each required as proof of having been there, unless they are being used to provide directions to the next objective as mentioned above by OP - wouldn't want to give the game away by posting screenshots of instructions. Fuel dumps shouldn't be too difficult to provide. For anything that needs visiting that is not situated on the surface of a body, maybe whatever it is can be fitted with docking ports, and a screenshot of the visiting craft docked to it can be used as proof. I'm not sure I would make it quite as difficult as PDS is suggesting, as you want to encourage people to have a go without having to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to complete the task. I would suggest having to do it with a single craft with the only proviso that once you land back on Kerbin that's the end of the attempt. For anyone reaching all objectives, places are decided on total mission time. For anyone who lands back at Kerbin before visiting all objectives, maybe award points for each objective visited, with tie breakers being decided by mission time.

Irrespective of the fact that your craft start off in different orbits, by the time you are close enough and slow enough to actually dock, your orbits are in fact matched. That's how it works, because if the orbits weren't matched the velocity differential between the craft would just lead to a big explosion when they met. My biggest offset in starting orbits was a craft that was in an eccentric orbit with Peri near Kerbin's orbit, and Apo out near Jool. I had to send a refuelling tanker, that started off in a 85k circular orbit around Kerbin. There's no way those two would have been dockable without matching orbits at some point in the proceedings. If you reckon you can do it without matching orbits, take a screenshot just before the craft dock, showing relative velocity, followed by a second immediate screenshot of the map view, showing the orbits of the two craft.

My version .19 ships worked in .20 so I don't see why not. I guess the overriding factor is that all the parts used in the construction of your craft are still available without change in the updated version. If any of the parts get changed or are no longer available in the new version, I guess it won't work.

Before I put a base on the Mun, I practiced my landings with a small craft trying to put it down next to a flag or craft that was already on the surface. My first attempts put me several kilometres away from my target, but slowly I got better until the distance could be measured in metres rather than km. At that point I felt comfortable in sending up the parts for my base, and it all went swimmingly, with no long hikes/drives to get the parts in the same place.

Could you take it any more seriously if I told you that 'ARS' was a prefix and not a suffix?

A simple mod to help you would be Navyfish's Docking Alignment Indicator. You don't need to add anything to your craft, and it switches on automatically when you select a docking port to dock with. It doesn't dock your craft for you, that still has to be done manually, but what it gives you is a fairly easy to read indication of when you are lined up with your selected docking port. Once it comes up, all you need to do is use the W,A,S,D keys to get the orange ball in the middle, use the Q,E keys if you need things lined up in the roll plane, and then its a simple matter of keeping the yellow circle on the point where the green lines cross using the translational keys I,J,K,L until you are docked. Easy. Docking Alignment Indicator

I know this is an old challenge, but I don't build SSTOs very often, and this gave me an excuse to have another go. I named the craft I created Diablo, and it's capable of reaching orbit and returning without dropping anything anywhere. Images of flight to orbit and return to KSC.

Further to my post above, I finally got round to putting a mission out to Bop with a manned landing to plant a flag. Shots of all visited bodies can be found here: Kerbals go Large and I claim Grandmaster.

I was disappointed that the Aztec temple on Kerbin is now underground due to the new textures. Would have liked to have seen that one in all it's glory.

I think mine is up to date.

Here's my ship I use for getting to Jool. Single nuke engine to eke out the fuel, and the lander usually has some left over after visiting a moon and coming back to orbit which is transferred back to the command ship. That gives more than enough fuel to get back to Kerbin.