Rockomax Supremacy

[Whirligig Girl]

I've just received this letter from Elon Kerman, the CEO of Rockomax Conglomerate

I have decided that this company needn't only service the Kerbal Space Program of the United Kerbin Government. We are starting our own space program, and severing our service to the Kerbal Space Program. As such, we are developing a new agency, the Rockom - eXploration Systems. Our rocket is in development now, and we intend to commercialize space. That said, we haven't completed our launch site yet, and we would very much like to utilize your Launch Facilities and Vehicle Assembly Facilities. Thank you very much.

And then this one.

We need engineers and astronauts to build and fly our new Rockomax-only rockets. The astronauts will be contained in a stolen borrowed Mk1-2 Command Pod from Kerlington

So build a rocket using only Rockomax parts and go as far as you can with it! You are allowed only a few stolen bits and they must be returned! Including the Command Pod!

Rules

You can only use one Kerlington Mk1-2 pod

The pod can not be destroyed, even if the Kerbals survive. (It has to be put back at Kerlington!)

You can use any amount of Rockomax parts that you want.

You can use the RAPIER engine (Because both C7 Aerospace and Rockomax Conglomerate developed it)

If you do use the RAPIER, you can also steal one Ram Air Intake or two Structural Intakes, but they must be recovered. (So you can take them back to C7 Headquarters)

You can only use STOCK parts, no nerfs or buffs, or any part mods that add parts under the Rockomax name.

This is a stock challenge. No mods. (except visual ones or information mods like Kerbal Engineer.)

You can use as much as eight struts, but these do not have to be recovered.

You can use as much as two of the Clamp-o-tron Jr. docking ports.

Remember, ALL landings require a return, so Eve and Jool is very hard.

Points

Destroy the pod (-100)

Lose the pod (-75)

Recover the pod after losing it. (+60)

Use struts (-5 points per strut)

Use docking ports (-100 per port, seriously don't use these things unless the payoff is gonna be huge.)

Launch into orbit around Kerbin (+20)

--Orbit any body other than Kerbin = Landing points times 2/3 (0.666...)***

--Flyby of any body other than Kerbin = Landing Points times 1/3 (0.333...)***

Land on Mun or Minmus (+40)

Use an air intake (-5 points per intake)

Land on Gilly (+42)

Land on Ike, Dres, Bop, or Pol (+50)

Land on Eeloo, Vall, or Moho (+90)

Land on Duna (+100)

Land on Tylo or Laythe (+120)

Land on Eve (+400)

Very low Sun flyby (+100)

Land on Jool (+5000)

Orbit Jool (+400)

Lose/Kill a Kerbal (-100)

Use the Not-Rockomax Micronode (-5000)

Plant a flag (+10)

Plant a flag on Tylo, Laythe, Eve. (+25)**

Recover parts. (+1/100 points for each fund recovered from Rockomax parts only)

*Don't actually attempt this, only one person ever managed this that I know of and they used a bunch of not-rockomax stuff. If you REALLY want to try, Jool landing is when you are at 0 meters, there's no real surface.

**You must still recover the Kerbal, and you can't use any ladders. The flag must be the Rockomax flag.

***exculding Eve, Laythe, and Jool. and Orbit overwrites Flyby, Landing overwrites Orbit (they don't stack)

So where's my entry?

Javascript is disabled. View full album

My points:

70 points. (Orbit+MunLanding+Flag)

Edited March 10, 2015 by GregroxMun

[Starwhip]

Cool... I'll try it!

Recover parts. (+5 points for each fund recovered from Rockomax parts only)

Er, what? I generally get a few thousand in part recovery costs... do you mean per part?

[Whirligig Girl]

Cool... I'll try it!

Er, what? I generally get a few thousand in part recovery costs... do you mean per part?

Sorry, I meant 1/5. But really, that's too high, so I'm making it 1/100 point per fund.

[Starwhip]

Sneak peek:

"Okay, Bob. Stay still, now. This won't hurt a bit."

EDIT:

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+20 for Kerbin Orbit

+40 for Minmus Landing

+10 for Minmus Flag

+13.333333... points for Mun Flyby

TOTAL: 83.3333333... points.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Starwhip

[Jodo42]

You might want to specify if non-part mods like FAR/NEAR, PreciseNode, KJR etc. are allowed, as well as part nonessential mods like KER/Mechjeb.

This looks interesting. Definitely giving it a shot. What's up with the free 25 points for putting a flag on Kerbin though?

Edited February 19, 2015 by Jodo42

[Starwhip]

Here's the album:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[Whirligig Girl]

You might want to specify if non-part mods like FAR/NEAR, PreciseNode, KJR etc. are allowed, as well as part nonessential mods like KER/Mechjeb.

This looks interesting. Definitely giving it a shot. What's up with the free 25 points for putting a flag on Kerbin though?

This is a stock challenge. No mods. Okay fine. Kerbal Engineer or other info mods are allowed.

[Jouni]

What qualifies as a very low Sun flyby?

[Starwhip]

Scoreboard coming Soon?

[Whirligig Girl]

What qualifies as a very low Sun flyby?

When you get down to only 5x timewarp. Around 3,000-5,000 kilometers (Much lower than Low-Orbit Science)

- - - Updated - - -

Scoreboard coming Soon?

I don't think I ever mentioned a scoreboard... When there are five entries I shall make a scoreboard.

Edited February 19, 2015 by GregroxMun

[Jodo42]

Javascript is disabled. View full album

There you go.

Points:

Launch into orbit around Kerbin (+20)

Land on Duna (+100)

Plant a flag (+10) (*2)

TOTAL: 140

I didn't calculate the recovery bonus because this is a sandbox save, and I don't really want to do all the math, but everything needed to do it should be there if somebody really wanted to, other than the exact distance from the KSC our ship landed at, which could be guesstimated. I'm fine with my score as is.

Edited February 20, 2015 by Jodo42

[Jouni]

Getting Low Sun science.

Then you should lower the reward below 100 points. It's essentially just a 4.2 km/s burn at LKO. If you fine tune your orbit immediately after leaving Kerbin's SoI, you get a very close encounter with Kerbin after 5 orbits around the Sun.

I already built a rocket for that purpose, but I'm taking it to Mun and Minmus instead, because that's a more challenging mission.

Edit: The Rockomax Sundiver completed its first mission to Mun and Minmus.

The launch vehicle is the good old 7-hull Rockomax Heavy Lifter. Apart from 6 struts, it's entirely made of Rockomax parts. The payload has a MechJeb for flight data.

This may have been my biggest Mun lander ever.

The ship was originally intended for sundiving, so it needed a way to recharge its batteries without significantly altering the orbit.

Landing on Minmus was harder than landing on the Mun. I had to use the top engine to stabilize the lander, as the gravity wasn't up to the task.

Score: 6 struts (-30), orbit Kerbin (+20), land on Mun (+40), flag on Mun (+10), land on Minmus (+40), flag on Minmus (+10), total 90.

I forgot the recovered parts. Because their original cost was 2100 and I landed far from KSC, it would probably have been less than 5 points. Because the parts below the command pod were destroyed, I could easily have planted a flag on Kerbin as well, if it's really worth 25 points.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Jouni

[Whirligig Girl]

http://imgur.com/a/KWR2r

There you go.

Points:

Launch into orbit around Kerbin (+20)

Land on Duna (+100)

Plant a flag (+10)

Plant a flag on Tylo, Laythe, Kerbin, Eve. (+25)

TOTAL: 155

I didn't calculate the recovery bonus because this is a sandbox save, and I don't really want to do all the math, but everything needed to do it should be there if somebody really wanted to, other than the exact distance from the KSC our ship landed at, which could be guesstimated. I'm fine with my score as is.

I'm an idiot. Remove the Kerbin flag. I only added it because I was looking at the list of bodies jetpacks don't work on. Planting a flag on Kerbin is worth the standard +10pts.

Anyway, the mission was great. Orange Tanks to Orange Planet

Then you should lower the reward below 100 points. It's essentially just a 4.2 km/s burn at LKO. If you fine tune your orbit immediately after leaving Kerbin's SoI, you get a very close encounter with Kerbin after 5 orbits around the Sun.

I already built a rocket for that purpose, but I'm taking it to Mun and Minmus instead, because that's a more challenging mission.

Edit: The Rockomax Sundiver completed its first mission to Mun and Minmus.

http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/0.90/rockomax_01.jpeg

The launch vehicle is the good old 7-hull Rockomax Heavy Lifter. Apart from 6 struts, it's entirely made of Rockomax parts. The payload has a MechJeb for flight data.

http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/0.90/rockomax_02.jpeg

http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/0.90/rockomax_03.jpeg

http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/0.90/rockomax_04.jpeg

http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/0.90/rockomax_05.jpeg

This may have been my biggest Mun lander ever.

http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/0.90/rockomax_06.jpeg

http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/0.90/rockomax_07.jpeg

The ship was originally intended for sundiving, so it needed a way to recharge its batteries without significantly altering the orbit.

http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/0.90/rockomax_08.jpeg

http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/0.90/rockomax_09.jpeg

Landing on Minmus was harder than landing on the Mun. I had to use the top engine to stabilize the lander, as the gravity wasn't up to the task.

http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/0.90/rockomax_10.jpeg

http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/0.90/rockomax_11.jpeg

Score: 6 struts (-30), orbit Kerbin (+20), land on Mun (+40), flag on Mun (+10), land on Minmus (+40), flag on Minmus (+10), total 90.

I forgot the recovered parts. Because their original cost was 2100 and I landed far from KSC, it would probably have been less than 5 points. Because the parts below the command pod were destroyed, I could easily have planted a flag on Kerbin as well, if it's really worth 25 points.

This is brillitant! Love that lifter, reminds me of the good ol' Pre-0.23.5 days. I also really like the power generator. Wasn't sure what it was for. Seems like it'd be really useful on a longer trip!

Edited February 19, 2015 by GregroxMun

[McFarnsworth]

*ahem* You missed a part.

Not sure how much use it is with the constant power drain and no easy way to replenish it, but it seemed worth mentioning.

Edit: Nope, no use whatsoever. Keeping the power up requires more dV than you'd save by using it. Forget I said anything

Edited February 20, 2015 by McFarnsworth

[McFarnsworth]

I lied! It does have a use.

... depending on the validity of this attempt though.

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Scoring:

Kerbin Orbit +20

Eve flyby +133.333...

Plant flag +10

Recovered parts: no idea, but let's say 0.666...

Total: 164

I could have gone for a Minmus/Mun landing too but since this entry is pretty sketchy as it is, I couldn't be bothered.

[Dres]

Can MechJeb be used for making maneuver nodes? Its just that I really suck at planning interplanetary transfers, so my plan would be hopeless without it. If the answer is no, I'll just do stuff in the Kerbin system.

[Whirligig Girl]

Can MechJeb be used for making maneuver nodes? Its just that I really suck at planning interplanetary transfers, so my plan would be hopeless without it. If the answer is no, I'll just do stuff in the Kerbin system.

Hmm. I guess, but you have to return the MechJeb unit. And it will be -10 points.

[gigaboom2]

Ummm... I am orbiting Jool, so if I come back, that is 5000/3 = 1666 points?

[Whirligig Girl]

Ummm... I am orbiting Jool, so if I come back, that is 5000/3 = 1666 points?

Yes, exactly. Of course, if you don't come back, Kerlington will sue you and then your lawyer will have a bad day and not show up to work. You will fail the challenge, and your entire space company will crumble just so that Robert Kerlington can have a new yacht.

Edited March 9, 2015 by GregroxMun

[gigaboom2]

Here is my submission. It definitely won't work in the 1.0 update. (New Drag)

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Very original design.

POINTS:

Orbit Kerbin =20

Flyby Mun = 13.333...

Orbit Jool =400

6 Struts = -30

TOTAL = 403

Edited March 10, 2015 by gigaboom2

[Whirligig Girl]

So far, you have won. You have raised the bar for all future missions.

EDIT: Oh I'm so sorry. I didn't think of that. Orbiting Jool shouldn't be that high. You didn't make a mistake, I did. So I am sad to say I have to nerf your score. Jool orbit is now 400 points.

[gigaboom2]

Thought that score was a little unbalanced.