ihtoit

in no particular order, it's harder to pick than a broken nose but my own challenges: the stellar swan dive rescue the runway start-stop land speed record the grand tour (AKA The Kessel Run)

Mine looked like this: Yep. I say mine looks better.

I built a scale replica of Spacedock from Star Trek once... over 2500 parts, it nearly killed a quad core.

I'll get 1.3 running eventually and reboot it, hopefully before v2.0 comes out!

the runway speedrun challenges (shameless self-plug) should be on here, as they spawned a couple Ironman challenge entries on Youtube and was so Kerbal, even Scott Manley went "huh?". Links to follow, but the basic premise was: go as fast as you can on the runway and stop before you reach the end. It's insanely difficult to reach Mach 1 and *stop* in 2km without your wheels (or skids!) leaving the ground and without breaking your vehicle, but a few managed it!

I have a working model of the Su-37 Berkut for 1.1.x, I'll update and test for 1.2.x (but it won't have Mechjeb since I can't get that working in 1.2.x), it'll be cannon only - because it doesn't need missiles.

I did something similar a while back as a storyline challenge, managed to not only rescue all the kerbals from a runaway station on a death dive into the sun, I also managed to use a Munar gravity assist to return to Kerbin - without using heatshields.

Probably not... I'd defer to the OP though, this ain't my challenge.

So in case you missed it, the Ekranoplan is a Soviet-era ground effect vehicle designed to go very fast at very low altitudes with large cargoes. Originally conceived as a weapon delivery system, the Soviets realised early on that missile delivery was far more cost effective, so the Ekranoplan was relegated to moving troops and equipment in the Black Sea until the program was cancelled in 1985. These days the Ekranoplan concern builds vehicles for civilian use. Note on the above prototype: Super-stable "Ekranoplan" cargo platform. VERY nose-heavy, which is perfect with the huge amount of lift which means it goes just barely subsonic, at an indicated altitude of just 20 metres, with throttle at 15%! This thing went right around the planet (land and sea) in a little over 3.5 game-hours (with the odd diversion to avoid mountain ranges!). The only problem with a water landing meant that with it being so nose-heavy, it pitched down into the water with the slightest thrust, so it couldn't take off again. I had to slowboat it (after a water landing!) back to KSC, which took about 20 minutes. This prototype consists of a long cargo bay and two opening tail sections, and several airbreathing jets. Maximum payload length: whatever'll fit in the MK.3 CRG-100. Oh. Right. This is a challenge page. OK. Here it is: build an Ekranoplan with a surface-deployable cargo (it can be a wheeled vehicle, pop-up rocket launcher, or a narrow-winged fixed wing aircraft or rotary wing), "fly" the Ekranoplan to the Island runway and *deploy the payload there*. Then "fly" the Ekranoplan back to the KSC shoreline and make a water landing. RULES: - Ekranoplan must be crewed by at least 1 Kerbal - Ekranoplan must be internally fueled (no taking fuel from the payload) - Payload must be functional and self-contained (power, comms, control and fuel) - Cruise altitude over water may NOT exceed 20m. Usual rules about bits breaking off, physics/exploit cheats etc., apply.

It is an old challenge, it was one of mine and it spawned a couple video series (and the Reddit Challenge!). I'll edit this post and add the link once I find it. (EDIT: there are TWO legs to my challenge, one using the OLD aero model, the other using the new, both have a pretty comprehensive set of rules):

OK, apart from the winglets and the multiple SRBs (not having the extra large ones in my module stock), this is essentially identical to the American space shuttle assembly. Flight Profile Start on the runway, at 0 roll. Throttles to max. Shut off fuel flow in the orbiter tank and the nose monopropellant tank. Immediately upon liftoff, set pitch at 60 and roll at 180. Toggle Q and Vt off! The vehicle will try and pitch vertical: this is the reason for rolling 180 - it offers better aerodynamic control, putting the centre of mass above the centre of lift and keeping it there. SRB shutoff at T+64. Set ME throttle to 10%, SRB sep at T+65, throttle to 100% at T+68 and set pitch to 0. With the new thrust vector, the craft will pitch 0. When the oxidiser in the ET runs out, the engines will shut down. Pump remaining LF into the orbiter and roll to 0, then jettison the tank. Deactivate the three main engines: orbital insertion will be performed using the small LFO OMS engines which vector through the orbiter CoM. Once in orbit (I simply circularised at apoapse), deploy mission parameters. In this case, it's a low orbit communications satellite. Note the spacelab module in the orbiter offering more accomodation, a docking port and sensor package. I haven't stuck landing yet, after 37 tries! (EDIT: Try #38, I got a safe water landing, only the ventral OMS engine broke off!)

The Big Round Thing is still up there in its incomplete state (might finish it this weekend), but here's another I sent up in one piece because I got a bit impatient with launching and rendezvousing the same shape payload another half a dozen times... As you can see, it's about as round as a bicycle wheel having just gone over a tram track. Suggestions for a name welcome.

oh my bad, it is on escape, but not from launch. No rocket that's ever existed could throw it that hard*. But a gravity assist from Jupiter could. *unless you trip the Infinite Fuel cheat.

I made a Borg cube, back on the pre-0.24 days...

dangit, I was going with a Teal'c Torus.

ooh, a "I've got a 6GHz processor and 32GB RAM" fest. Pedant point: New Horizons is on a closed trajectory which will bring it back within the orbit of Venus in about 12,000 years. Barring more gravitational assists from bodies known or unknown, it's on a 15,000-year orbit. About average for a long-period comet.

Fun challenge: put Jeb (or Valentina) in a chair and drop him from 39,000m - and land on KSC! Parameters: - Jeb is your pilot. Or Valentina. - Any method to get him/her to altitude is acceptable, HOWEVER, during the descent phase, no propulsion methods are permitted. All you get for descent is a parachute and a chair with the barest minimum of movable control surfaces and something to mount them on. Absolute weight limit of the chair assembly including Kerbal: 0.634t. No points this one, just Kudos for being willing to blow half an hour for kicks. Mine: Valentina going vertical for her drop. Yes, the plane did go ballistic to exactly 39km, separation was at 15m/s! Aiming for the VAB... Missed it by that much! Yep. Just FORTY METRES!

I had a slightly different approach. I do the drop at cruising speed and about 200m above terrain, then I send the plane vertical at full thrust. Handily, it goes into a tail stall at about just shy of the limit of physics range and hangs there, while I switch to the probe and watch it drop. The Sheer Mountain drop (I love that mountain, I am going to send a Kerbal up there one day in a squirrel suit) to the North of KSC I had to do twice because the first one fell short of the peak and rolled back about 15km. Switching back to the plane, it's doing about 5m/s and maintaining altitude... on its tail.

Back in the foggy mists of time, as some of you might recall, someone laid down a LAPES challenge (0.24 era?) which seems to have been mislaid. Sooo... for v.1.0.5: Scenario: Something's happened in the Kerbol system which means that robot probes are useless as are long range communications. This means we have no satellites. We need to fix this, as we have an expedition at the North Pole which absolutely relies on unbroken communications with KSC. Unfortunately the issue with the computers means there is no engine management system capable of tuning rockets either, so they're unavailable with the exception of the hardened MechJeb units. The Green Brigade have kyboshed the idea of sending rovers out to plant relays, as they claim the tyres rip up their fairways and disturbs the groundhogs. The Mission, should you choose to accept it: Deploy, using a low altitude parachute ejection system or a LALO (Low Altitude Low Opening) wingdrop, a series of relay probes on the surface of Kerbin, which should be line of sight to each other and relay back to the KSC from the North Pole. The proof of a successful mission lies in your being able to see a yellow line (indicating a comms relay) from your plane to the KSC in map view. The Rules: 1. Stock parts only with the exception of RemoteTech and informational/autopilot mods such as MechJeb. 2. Relay probes should consist of, at the absolute minimum, a probe core, a short range antenna, a parachute and an RTG. 3. Relay probes should be deposited on land masses ONLY. I will accept a maximum of 10% water deployment but only in sight of shore. 4. Relay probes should be allowed to fall where they may once released (ie no terminal guidance). You may want to orbit the descent path keeping the probe in physics range until it touches down, I've found they like to disappear if you just drop it and fly on. 5. I am aware of a bug that causes a CTD if you try and drop something on a peak near the Pole. I will accept relays beyond the ice cap boundary. 6. Your carrier aircraft should be propelled by airbreathing LF jets. RAPIER systems or rockets not permitted (see scenario). 7. Your aircraft should be landed on the ice field and showing, in map view, communications established via relay to KSC. [Challenger's Note: Randomly dropping probes definitely doesn't work - the curvature of the planet defeats just dropping probes on large "flat" plains. You have to know how fast you're going and the path your probe is taking on the way down. Obviously the lower you are the more accurately you can drop the probe. It is possible to drop one on top of a mountain. Finding out if the chain is working or not is a continuous process of clicking back to map view and checking for that magic yellow marker between aircraft and KSC.] The plane: Dropped right on the side of the mountain... that's KSC off in the distance, about 35km away: I crashed while trying to turn the plane up a mountain (it tripped over the front landing gear, not pretty), but the relay is started - most of those probes are in the wrong place! I could have got another 600km with 'em!

nice, did you land the plane, or was it a LAPES deployment?

done and done. This is about half my constellation, there is another GX128 sharing the track with the one in the outer orbit (situated at the antipode), and 16 more birds each with one of the short range (400km?) antennas at 100-140km orbit (tracks 2.5km apart at apoapse) to cover the planet for short range out to the Tropics. I'm good with total coverage out to 11000km (with polar coverage as well!) and systemwide coverage with narrowband relay from the GX128s which are set to "Active vessel". The topstage burning for first deployment, carrying the 3-part microsats: A Microsat, deployed: How they stay in orbit I don't know, apart from the probe core these things are basically massless!

Think you're pretty smart? Think your uber-fast plane can outrun a wall of flak? Think you can do it at 1,000m? Here's my challenge: build a plane that can dodge ground-based flak at an altitude of between 900-1100m while flying directly over it. The Rules: - Game Version: 1.0.5 - Stock parts only. - BDArmory Weapon Manager required. - minimum of 400LF to be carried per engine. - Aircraft must be crewed by a Kerbal. - Aircraft will be flown at full throttle at all times. - Send link to your .craft file here. The video below will show you what you're going against, and my challenger entry using a stock aircraft with a slight modification to the engine (using a Panther TF in wet mode). I'll fly the plane over the turrets from a 5km approach and from random directions until it either runs out of fuel or it gets hit by flak to the point where controlled flight is impossible. For those interested, link to mobile flak turret (AKA CIWS-x) .craft file: https://rbfi.io/dl.php?key=/deoI/CIWS-x.craft (Note: to use it, you do need RemoteTech). Leaderboard: 1. ihtoit in a stock Aeris 3A (modified) carrying 600LF, 2 passes

and then there's this (not me, but consider that due to the weirdness of the local system it actually requires LESS delta V to do a return mission to Minmus with landing than it does to the Mun): Oh yes, and I think there is a smattering of infiniglide exploitation there as well. Which they fixed for 1.0.5, that could make life interesting...

I'm up for this. Considering the fact that I've got a highly inefficient 29-part 4-stage Minmus craft hanging around from .23...

You might find this useful. As you can see from the image, the LOX tank blew after the outbound midcourse correction which threw the craft off course. You can get the same effect by jettisoning a full size 0 LF tank and detonating it with a Whack-A-Kerbal. Thus a second burn was needed to bring it back on course. The burn at 79h27m was made prograde to ensure a return trajectory, rather than retrograde which would have closed the lunar capture and set the craft up for circularisation and descent orbit. The final two burns were done using pencil and slide rule to correct the HUGE misburn at 79h27m which would otherwise have occurred a few days later from the back side, with much lower dV requirement, to put the CSM/LEM on a perfect coast to re-entry.