Death Engineering

I had fun playing it.. and, still using my Ares V as the primary lifter for the Vall challenge. But don't take my word for it... This recent review of KSP is a fun little read. Kerbal Space Program, go where few have gone before.

Hmmm.. KAC has been lying to me since I updated it, too.

It didn't feel "right" using a career mode save file where I didn't legitimately unlock the tech tree, so I started a new Vall Space Program save for this challenge. Just finished unlocking the tech tree and will be resuming the Vall challenge once RL lets me.. Historical account of Jeb, Bill, Bob and Gusly unlocking the tech tree. Landing next to the Munar transfer stage that amazingly didn't blow up.. ...where's the "Death Engineering" fun in that?!?

Excerpts from the book "In the Shadow of the Mun", a historical overview of the missions that unlocked the secrets of space travel.

Cool station you got there! Thanks for fixing the sound on your vids but keep em coming... looking forward to Mun and Duna vids! That was quite an impressive precision landing on Duna! I thought I was good getting under 500m Congrats on completing the challenge! Were you using Protractor, KAC or eyeballing it?

Your lander was ridiculously stable. I don't think I've put that much stability into a lander but since there's really no penalty to making a wide footprint in KSP, why not..?

Made a few "upgrades" by adding the other science parts and a crew pod instead of the probe core. I also disabled the torque on the command pod to avoid having too much extra control. I didn't actually look too close at it until it was on the pad - didn't notice it was all solid first two stages! I throttled up anyways but then the ascent was so perfectly straight I started playing with the throttle (because I could..) until the liquid engines kicked in. I kinda forgot I was going to the Mun's south pole until long after beginning the gravity turn, but even messing up the ascent trajectory there was plenty of delta-v to cherry-pick my landing site. Shoulda brought lights, though. I hovered just above the LZ then dropped the last stage before landing but forgot to throttle down first. Oops... the booster stage started chasing me back to orbit! Luckily I was able to get away and resume landing. The site is the largish crater near the south pole and is quite flat for that region. Got some good readings and a pocket full of dirt and headed back. The craft was a dream to fly and the ascent was very fast but still easy to get into orbit. The solids made me think "Ooooo.. giant model rocket!" I think for this challenge it was not the right rocket, but as a low-tech career mode rocket it was excellent. Well done!

Death Engineeringâ„¢ - "A little chaos in every stage!" If it loads in my career, I'll take it to Mun's south pole.

Now, that's what I'm talkin' about! Two aerospikes? I bet it does!

Oh.. so that craft of yours is starting-tier parts? NICE.

Exactly my point - anyone who jumps into career isn't going to be able to load these craft until they've unlocked a considerable number of parts. By the time they've unlocked the required tiers, they're not "newbies" anymore and don't need stock craft.

Tossed my vote at Deathsoul097 Kerbal Z.Z. Not only did it meet all my minimum requirements for this challenge, but also because of some quite ingenious design choices. Xeldrak's entry was a very close second. Still having a problem wrapping my head around the current leader. While I'm sure its a fine craft, science has no place in sandbox.

It's interesting you asked.. I've been thinking about The Amazing Race 2.0. I've been pretty much waiting until I had more experience with both building and doing interplanetary transfers to some of the more "exotic" locales. I wonder if the persistent file is 0.22 friendly..

Good idea to stay away from 'Ike the Impertinent'.

That's a tough landing zone! I see why you're testing there, though. I recall my first landings were pretty much "It's going to land where it's going to land". Even if you don't get to mine, I'm enjoying reading your write ups.

Agree with borisperrons.. 8 days is still in the window. I sent a mission to Duna on day 91 by boosting the payload out most of the way to Duna, but not all way. By mid-course correction time, the craft had pretty much caught up to Duna's transfer window and required just a short burn to push the orbit out the rest of way. It was a long trip, however! Over 100 days if I recall.. have to check my spreadsheet. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-elliptic_transfer Edit: The launch left Kerbin on day 91 and arrived in Duna orbit on day 196 = 105 days

Personally, I just check their mass once I get the parts into LKO. Alternately, you could "launch" just the payload and check the mass while still on the ground. To view the mass, go to 'map' view and click on the 'i' button to get the part count and mass of the 'focussed' vessel. "SMART" - Science Measuring and Automated Remote Transmission: Not a mod. Anything can be SMART if it includes a continuously powered probe core, any science part and a communication part (probe, lander, rover, etc..). That's a pretty cool idea! Unfortunately, it really wouldn't be fair to add those points this far into the thread due to the the mass-restriction and that some people have already designed much if not all of their spacecraft. That doesn't prevent you from doing it without scoring and incorporating your Duna mission findings into "I have a theory: Using observations made at an anomaly, develop a theory around the anomaly and write a post about it +5." Other "Duna" challenges (not a definitive list): Duna Permanent Outpost Mission Architecture Challenge, Kapricorn One !!!, Duna Apollo Style

I have an urge to look for my slide-rule and pocket protector after reading this...

Having seen how the voting went, I wanted to circle back and explain why I voted the way I did and what I based my minimum requirements on. The craft loads from original, official zip on a fresh install. Deadlines are deadlines and stock is stock. Supports direct-ascent Minmus landing. Getting out to Minmus is good inclination change practice and it is a great place to practice precision landings. Sure, landing without legs on Minmus is trivial, but a lander should have legs. No legs, no votes. Staging works. Stock craft should work out of the box. Capable of Munar orbit. Two things people always ask when starting out in KSP: "How do I get to the Mun?" and "How do I dock?". A craft that is Munar-orbit capable and has a docking port is a good starting place when developing a Munar lander. Alternately, two craft that can dock together can be used for a Munar landing and return mission by using one craft to perform the MOI burn. 3 crew capsule. The original Kerbal X was three crew. Less than three crew, no votes. Includes a docking port + RCS. Based on the fact that most people want to try docking, I think a stock craft should allow for some docking practice. No docking port, or a docking port without RCS, no votes. Despite the above points, there were some really creative and fun craft to fly! I wish that I could agree with the results, but I feel that an 'improved' stock craft should not have less than the original and should include some extras things (docking/RCS, landing legs) that newcomers are going to want. I also exluded any craft which had "science" parts - sandbox is no place for science.

I totally dig the SR-71-look on Vall! If you start a thread somewhere, drop in the link. I did consider creating specific rules for life-support, but I don't know enough about the mods to know how to accommodate it in the rules in a balanced way. Got ideas? Getting out to Jool is no harder than getting to Duna, just takes more delta-v. I just use the Interactive Illustrated Interplanetary Guide and Calculator for KSP and Kerbal Alarm Clock. The harder part is performing the aerocapture around Jool to a prograde orbit on Vall's inclination.

Nice job getting those +2 points. By the time my Orion B2 was completed, it was too heavy to carry to orbit without firing its SPS enging. I like the video tours of each craft! Totally get that. That lifter is a monster! How are the 'mission' points looking so far? Maybe it was all a dream? Good luck on the next launch.

Duna Space Program - Second attempt completed The final launches which brought supplies to the Duna surface team and to the Duna orbiting station, another surface-return craft, and an Ike landing mission were all successful. The surface team exhausted their surface supplies on day 711 and ascended to the Phase B Kerbin return craft in Duna orbit. During their short stay in Duna orbit while awaiting their Kerbin return window, the Ike landing mission earned no points in the challenge, but was successful all the same. Once the Ike landing crew member (Bob!) made it back to the return vehicle, the crew headed for home. After a rather long transfer from Duna to Kerbin, the crew landed on Kerbin on day 822. This second attempt at this challenge was intended to have a much higher score for Kerbals on Duna, but issues with how docking-port crossfeed (didn't) work meant that a second landing team was not feasible. Then, complications with the 0.21 -> 0.22 update caused the loss of the Duna return craft, requiring another one be sent out to Duna as a replacement. These problems caused the 'Mission Execution' score to be just '1', but did earn scores of '2' for both 'Crew Safety' and 'Mission Robustness', since everyone made it back despite losing two spacecraft and one rover. In the end, this was a good rehearsal for the mission profile of returning crews to Kerbin using different spacecraft which got them there and doing precise inter-planetary orbital insertions. It was also a realization how much flexibility comes from using more, smaller launches instead of fewer, larger launches. Final Scoring to Day 1000 Mods used: Kerbal Alarm Clock Until Day 500: 14 launches 336t NIMLKO Early Mission Value: 888 Efficiency: 2.64 Until Day 1000: 14 launches 336t NIMLKO Sustained Mission Value: 1266 Efficiency: 6.41 Achievements: Mission Execution: 1 Crew Mobility: 2 Base Mobility: 0 Crew Safety: 2 Mission Robustness: 2 Score: 7

Thanks for the votes I have so far! For my votes, the minimum criteria I established was: The craft loads from original, official zip on a fresh install. Supports direct-ascent Minmus landing Staging works Capable of Munar orbit 3 crew capsule Includes a docking port + RCS Additional quarter-points were awarded for: Is stable to 800m stable without SAS (less than 10° from vertical) Includes action groups Is terminal velocity safe without throttling down during ascent Has a level of aesthetic appeal Gets Jebediah's Seal of Approval™ (he grins during ascent) I loaded (or attempted to load..) every craft and flew every one which met the minimum criteria on a Munar free-return flight. My voting was spread out on four craft, with each earning two points. Thanks for managing this, Xeldrak!

Awesome! Welcome to the leaderboard..

Looked like a clean launch.. nice! I've never thought of building SRB clusters like that; neat idea. Say.. is that Hamster's and Capt. Slow's Reliant Robin Shuttle on your avatar? TopGear is very kerbal..