Enigma179

Leaderboard updated, and I'm a bit iffy adammada, but I *guess* that's alright?

Worked just fine for me

So inspired by Thrfoot's automated mission challenge, which I also discovered kOS through, I came up with this little challenge. Simple enough, get a vessel of your design into a stable orbit around Kerbin, without using any input beyond typing out the execution command line at the beginning, and do it in the most (delta-v) efficient manner possible. It's not *quite* mechjeb, but it's a foundation! RULES: 1. No mods that directly affect gameplay aside from kOS itself. Alternatively, say which gameplay-affecting mods you used, and that'll be fine too. 1a. You're gonna want to have kOS, obviously (get it here), and another pretty-much-required mod for this is Kerbal Engineer, as you need to know your (vacuum) delta-v before you launch, and after you're in orbit. 2. No user input! The only thing you can do is at the beginning of the launch, when you open up the command line, copy the program to the ship, and run it. 3. Your final orbit must have an apoapsis and a periapsis around Kerbin, and both must be outside Kerbin's atmosphere (that is, 69,078 metres above sea level). 4. You must have screenshots that show your delta-v from inside the hangar (Engineer shows your in-atmosphere delta-v when in flight mode), and your delta-v after achieving orbit, as well as proof that at least your periapsis is outside the atmosphere. Aside from that I can't think of any other restrictions. Your ship can be as large as you like, as complex or simple as you like, and can operate whichever way you like. I'd be impressed to see a robotic spaceplane, myself. Your score is the difference between your hangar delta-v and your orbital delta-v at the end, so obviously the lower the better. Also while this isn't required, it'd be super nice for you to post your code alongside your screenshots, help other people figure out the basics of the language. Maybe I can learn a thing or two as well. And it wouldn't be a challenge if I didn't get in on it myself first, now would it? Starting delta-v: 4,855 m/s (I play it safe alright) Final delta-v: 282 m/s So I have a score of 4,573 m/s. And of course, here's my code. No comments because who needs good style right? lock STEERING to UP. lock THROTTLE to 1. declare TermVel. declare Speed. until APOAPSIS > 75000 { wait 0.01. if ALTITUDE < 10000 { set TermVel to 10 * ((1250 * 6.647 * (10^(-11)) * (5.292 * 10^(22))) / ( (1.2231 * 2.718^(-1 * ALTITUDE / 5000) * 101.33) * (600000 + ALTITUDE)^(2)))^0.5. if VERTICALSPEED > TermVel and THROTTLE > 0.8 { lock THROTTLE to THROTTLE - 0.01. }. if VERTICALSPEED < TermVel * 0.99 and THROTTLE != 1 { lock THROTTLE to THROTTLE + 0.01. }. }. if STAGE:LiquidFuel = 0 { stage. }. if ALTITUDE > 10000 and ALTITUDE < 15000 { lock THROTTLE to 1. lock STEERING to HEADING 90 by 60. }. if ALTITUDE > 15000 and ALTITUDE < 20000 { lock THROTTLE to 1. lock STEERING to HEADING 90 by 30. }. if ALTITUDE > 20000 { lock THROTTLE to 1. lock STEERING to HEADING 90 by 15. }. }. lock THROTTLE to 0. print "Apoapsis of 75km achieved". lock STEERING to HEADING 90 by 0. wait until ETA:APOAPSIS < 4. wait 0.01. lock THROTTLE to 1. until PERIAPSIS > 70000 { if STAGE:LiquidFuel = 0 { stage. } }. lock THROTTLE to 0. print "Launch Complete...". LEADERBOARD (1). adammada, -434 m/s (Maybe? Some staging shenanigans) 1. Bobnova, 4413 m/s 2. Enigma179: 4,573 m/s

You can change the conics so you can predict past the Ike encounter. Alternatively wait a couple of orbits then burn, so Ike is behind you as you leave. Alternatively do the math and figure out how to save a bit of fuel with a gravity assist through Ike.

I use kerbal attachment system and a small ship; pull out the electromagnets, winch the debris up, then fire into an orbit that will crash the debris, before releasing it and readjusting to the proper speed. If the debris is big it's super hard to control but for the most part it works just fine.

Aren't those canards? Doesn't that mean you just broke your own rules? EDIT: actually maybe they're tailfins never mind

Batteries are essentially extra electric charge storage, so that you can last longer in situations when you don't have power (or don't have sufficient power) being supplied. For example, when you've got solar panels your command pod is being charged up but once the body you're orbiting (or even the one you're not, as a kerbin eclipse once taught my mun orbiter) obscures the sun, you're running off whatever you've got stored until it's in view. For short-term craft (such as extensions to a space station which already has solar panels or generators) I can just strap on a battery instead of a few solar panels or generators, but for anything long term you can't just live with the batteries; they extend your life, they don't make it infinite like a generator or panel will.

Alright, maybe I haven't heard about the newest advances. If NASA found a clone of earth exactly fifty light years away with a perfect trajectory for us to fly to it, and they had to pack up a probe and launch it by the end of 2013, what's the most advanced technology (regardless of cost) that one: we know for sure will work, two: has a realistic fuel/energy requirement, and three: actually exists as a full sized working example or prototype? I'm not even being a jerk or anything I genuinely would like to know what you have in mind.

The fastest (I believe) spacecraft we've actually launched are the Helios probes, reaching a speed of 70.22 km/s because of the sun's gravitational pull. That's 0.000234c. That's pretty impressive. The calculation isn't difficult though; if there's a planet within 50 light years that can support life, IF we were to somehow get a craft to escape our solar system with that velocity (Voyager 1, fastest spacecraft to leave the solar system, is moving at around 17 km/s relative to the sun at the moment), it would still take about 213,675.2 years for the probe to show up, not to mention the other 50 years it takes for any signals to get back (okay that's a minor thing on the grand scale though). The Homo genus, the one which includes us, Homo Sapiens (but back in the past they would have looked pretty different, obviously) is 2.5 million years old. Modern humans are 500 thousand years old. The subspecies (that is, humans that look pretty much exactly like us without the differing structures and all), Homo Sapiens Sapiens is 200 thousand years old. Now I understand that there's some efficient high speed engine technology on the drawing board, in particular that warp drive that bends space time in a way I don't fully understand to travel faster than light, but until that stuff gets loaded up into a rocket and fired, I'd say we aren't going to send a probe out 50 light years away. 213,675 years is a long time for something unplanned (or even literally impossible to anticipate) to go wrong.

Bermuda triangle is a terrorist plot it's all to do with 9/11 and the earth is flat and time is a cube timecube time is four dimensional and the aliens are here to rescue us. Seriously though anything in favour of the bermuda triangle actually having a real influence is purely anecdotal evidence.

Honestly that's the only way that makes sense. I love KSP, but I'm likely to love it less if I'd have to sit through 30 minutes of empty space on full time warp to hit up new systems (or 30 minutes of grabbing a coffee and doing other less fun things). What would make the most sense to me is either an abstract way of doing it, where there's a hub, and once you escape the system you pick where you want to go (breaking realism a little bit there), or alternatively have the system be one of many other systems in a galaxy, where you still have to plan your trajectories to get to other galaxies! Once you reach the escape of a system it would zoom out, and you'd have all the normal options of timewarp plus a few extra high speeds; small burns would be enough to alter your trajectory hugely out in open space I'm guessing, so guestimating and then burning on the way out would probably work reasonably well. And then when the game gets bigger those galaxies could be part of the UNIVERSE where all the galaxies are rotating around and you can travel from system to galaxy to other galaxy and then you can go to the center of the universe if you want and fight the kraken and and and yeah.

Named my station the Artemis Space Station. Didn't realize the problem with that until three days later. There's a ship docked there at the moment, but this image is a bit out-dated; added an orange tank for re-fueling along with some other stuff recently.

Yeah, as stated in a different thread, the issue isn't computer load. Your computer could handle it just fine. The issue is that if it weren't on rails, gameplay would be significantly less fun; if you sent a probe out to Jool, you'd have to timewarp a year forward, only to find that over the thousand or so orbits that occurred with your LKO station in orbit, the Mun and Minmus managed to jerk it quite a ways around, possibly even de-orbiting it. This means you'd have to constantly be stationkeeping, instead of just hitting time warp and getting a coffee.

It'd be cool if there was a mod or something so that multiple people could watch the same game, or even better if one person could operate the map (maneuver nodes and such) while the other pilots. I can imagine one person in cockpit view while the rest look at the map and give him prograde/retrograde/maneuver directions to be quite entertaining. This sounds really cool though! I think I might just watch it.

Basically you're gonna want kerbal engineering or something to figure out delta-v numbers, and then you're gonna want to look at a delta-v map (search delta-v map KSP on images and it'll be the first one). Alarm clock is also useful so you can figure out exact transfer times. I believe the best bet for a Duna land and return is an apollo style thing, with LKO rendezvous; build a lander/ship combo in the VAB, then send up the lander on its own, and the ship on its own, use the ship to fly the lander to Duna orbit, use the lander to land (use chutes to cut down on delta-v requirement for landing) and return, ditch the lander and come home. With nukes, Duna is a pretty easy trip to make, especially if you just build the ship in orbit.