Deep Diver Challenge!

[Red Dwarf]

That's right, folks! Let's build us some submarines!

The goal of this challenge is to get as deep underwater as you possibly can in a stock submarine. Rules: No debug menu, no hyperedit, and no mods (excluding information and beauty mods). No part restrictions other than that. Take as many pictures as you like, but we absolutely need one in the VAB with ship information displayed, one in the water, and one at your deepest depth.

Scoring

Barebones: 1 point/meter (i.e. 100 meters down, 100 points scored)

Bonus points!

Mothership: Launch your submarine from a boat, score x 1.5

Touched the bottom of the pool: Craft hits the bottom, score x 1.5

S̶l̶e̶e̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶s̶h̶e̶s̶:̶ ̶C̶l̶a̶w̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶o̶t̶t̶o̶m̶,̶ [turns out this one is impossible, silly me ]

Swimming in fuel reserves: Perform challenge on Eve, score x 2.0

Sneaking into Carl Sagan's backyard pool: Perform challenge on Laythe, score x 5.0

Sleeping with the fishes REDUX: Bring an asteroid with you! Score x 5.0

Scoreboard

1. Jarmund! Deepest depth: -334 meters, x1.5 for touching the bottom, x2.0 for doing it on Eve (!!), and x5.0 for dragging an asteroid the whole way (!!!). Final score: 5010 points! Let's see somebody top that!

2. Wooks! Deepest depth: -967 meters, x1.5 for his funky catamaran, x1.5 for touching the bottom. Final score: 1934 points! So far, he's got the prettiest sub in show.

3. Bagel Rabbit (upsilon?)! Deepest depth: -931, x1.5 for touching the bottom. Final score: 1396.5 points! I'd love to see larger craft designed around your descender technique!

4. SDJ! Deepest depth: -919 meters, x1.5 for touching the bottom. Final score: 1378.5 points! Good goin' dude!

5. KandoKris! Deepest depth: -597 meters, x1.5 for touching the bottom. Final score: 895.5 points! Sleek little submarine, and some nice views from inside to boot. Would love to see some clearer pictures!

6.

7.

Honorary Mentions!

1. Jodo! Dragged a big ol' asteroid out to Laythe, and sunk it to the bottom. Couldn't put him on the scoreboard 'cause his sub couldn't go with it. Points for getting the highest potential score so far, and for seeing the deepest depth yet. Laythe's oceans are freakin' deep.

Have fun!

Edited April 28, 2015 by Red Dwarf

[BoobyTrapGaming]

well this would be quite a hard challenge since you can't use the efficient air-breathing engines underwater. perhaps making a craft with Ion engines would be capable of staying underwater for longer durations. might attempt this myself as well.

[Red Dwarf]

Here's my first attempt, to get things moving.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Deepest depth: 313 meters. Touched the bottom, x 1.5

Final score: 469.5!

Let's fill that scoreboard up!

[sdj64]

On the contrary, jet engines do work fine underwater in KSP. Intakes are very buoyant, so you need lots of jets. I attempted another submarine challenge a while ago with this craft:

That is on the seafloor at 919 meters, though it's not clear from the image. Shouldn't be much harder on Laythe, provided you could get it there.

[Red Dwarf]

Looks pretty good, sdj! If you can get a picture of that thing with the ship information I can pop you on the scoreboard.

[Wooks]

Alright, after a lot of testing and tweaking my catamaran / submarine is ready for your challenge, I'll be recording my attempt later today.

[sdj64]

Looks pretty good, sdj! If you can get a picture of that thing with the ship information I can pop you on the scoreboard.

Unfortunately I don't think I still have the craft file. So, it can stay as a proof of concept.

[Fengist]

Define 'claw yourself to the bottom'

[Rath]

I think he means use the claw to attach yhourself to the bottom. But that doesn't work.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh and only radial intakes have uber bouyancy

[Wooks]

I knew the claw wouldn't work, but I just added it to my craft to be "rules compliant". Managed to reach 960m., uploading video and data this weekend.

[Wooks]

Here's my entry

Download link for the submarine + catamaran: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/114209-100-Stock-fully-functional-Submarine-with-transport-ship

[Pds314]

Hmm.. So is it allowed to use multiple launches? Specifically:

Step 1. Build a giant rocket.

Step 2. Put the rocket in orbit.

Step 3. Use the rocket to [redacted] a medium-small [redacted] to the KSC.

Step 4. Build a truck.

Step 5. Get the [redacted] and put it on the truck.

Step 6. Build a bouy that outweighs the truck.

Step 7. Drive the truck into the water with the [redacted] on top.

Step 8. Put the bouy on top of the [redacted]

Step 9. Drive the truck around the bottom of the ocean.

[BagelRabbit]

Attention, Sub-Builders!

The Mk3-to-3.75m adapter is negatively buoyant when full of fuel. It will, when detached from a boat, slowly sink to the bottom of the ocean. You don't even need an asteroid! Or more than one part for your sub! Just be sure that the decoupler isn't attached to the adapter, as this will make it approximately neutrally buoyant (depending on the size of the coupler).

If you want to use this negative buoyancy to assist your descent with a manned (or at least controllable) craft, that's also a good idea.

Anyways, just wanted to throw that out there. I'll upload pictures tomorrow, if I have the time.

-Upsilon

[Red Dwarf]

Hmm.. So is it allowed to use multiple launches? Specifically:

Step 1. Build a giant rocket.

Step 2. Put the rocket in orbit.

Step 3. Use the rocket to [redacted] a medium-small [redacted] to the KSC.

Step 4. Build a truck.

Step 5. Get the [redacted] and put it on the truck.

Step 6. Build a bouy that outweighs the truck.

Step 7. Drive the truck into the water with the [redacted] on top.

Step 8. Put the bouy on top of the [redacted]

Step 9. Drive the truck around the bottom of the ocean.

Anything goes, dude. All that matters is the depth!

[Red Dwarf]

Also, I've decided to strike the VAB Info rule, cause the entries so far haven't really done that. Doesn't really affect the challenge, so I won't be a stickler.

[BagelRabbit]

Alright, here's my entry. I could easily improve upon this, if I actually dropped this "submarine" off in a deep part of the ocean.

Here's the craft on the surface, being kept positively buoyant by air intakes. Notice how low it sits in the water.

The beginning of the descent. The Mk3 adapter descends at the steady speed of 0.9 m/s at 1x warp, though it drops to 0.7 m/s when running at 4x acceleration.

After a bit more than ten minutes, the craft hits the bottom (I left KSP for a while and did other stuff while it was descending and didn't return until long after it had landed, which is why the MET clock says eighteen minutes). Final depth: 513m.

Again, this could easily be improved if you dropped off the craft in a deep part of the ocean. The only limiting factor is the ocean's depth and the amount of time that you have.

...in the future, I would love to see someone make a manned (Kerballed?) version of this craft. I have a feeling that slapping an external command seat on there would still leave the craft with satisfactory negative buoyancy...

[CitizenAerospace]

Do we get any bonus points if it can fly like a plane

[Red Dwarf]

Do we get any bonus points if it can fly like a plane

That's a good question. I dunno. It seems like most of these would work as VTOL's if you just flipped them upside down. My entry is actually just an engine assembly from one of my heavy lifters. I don't think there's much of a challenge in making these things fly.

[CitizenAerospace]

That's a good question. I dunno. It seems like most of these would work as VTOL's if you just flipped them upside down. My entry is actually just an engine assembly from one of my heavy lifters. I don't think there's much of a challenge in making these things fly.

As I found out, not really... The wings throw of the center of buoyancy (Cos thats a thing now) and so you have to offset the downwards thrust to account for this otherwise some weird stuff starts happening.

[Red Dwarf]

As I found out, not really... The wings throw of the center of buoyancy (Cos thats a thing now) and so you have to offset the downwards thrust to account for this otherwise some weird stuff starts happening.

It would definitely depend on the design. If you kept everything compact, stubby wings and junk like that, you could probably do it. If it was more along the lines of a Cupcake-style VTOL, it'd be a lot different. If the center of buoyancy is the same as the center of mass, there'd be no problems at all. Just flip the thing upside down and submerge!

[jarmund]

I had to give this ago, and i reached -334m on EVE, using a class C asteroid as pudding-weight.

Bonuses claimed:

Sleeping with the fishes REDUX (x5)

Swimming in fuel reserves (x2)

Touched the bottom of the pool (x1.5)

334m x 5 x 2 x 1.5 =

5010 points.

Screenshots of the entire ordeal can be found here (How do i make those nice and convenient albums i see all over?)

Sorry about the poor angle of some of the screenies, but i was fighting a bug where the trajectory wasn't showing up if i zoomed too far away in map mode. In addition, the Kraken attacked me severely several times: Once was a plain crash, and when i entered EVE SOI my ship refused to move. Got around both by restarting, ofvcourse.

I doubt it can be argued that my orange tank can be considered a mothership, but if it does, add another 1.5 multiplier.

Edited March 31, 2015 by jarmund

[Red Dwarf]

I had to give this ago, and i reached -334m on EVE, using a class C asteroid as pudding-weight.

Bonuses claimed:

Sleeping with the fishes REDUX (x5)

Swimming in fuel reserves (x2)

Touched the bottom of the pool (x1.5)

334m x 5 x 2 x 1.5 =

5010 points.

Screenshots of the entire ordeal can be found here (How do i make those nice and convenient albums i see all over?)

Sorry about the poor angle of some of the screenies, but i was fighting a bug where the trajectory wasn't showing up if i zoomed too far away in map mode. In addition, the Kraken attacked me severely several times: Once was a plain crash, and when i entered EVE SOI my ship refused to move. Got around both by restarting, ofvcourse.

I doubt it can be argued that my orange tank can be considered a mothership, but if it does, add another 1.5 multiplier.

http://jarmund.net/stuff/deepdive/2015-03-31_00023.jpg

Dang dude! That is seriously impressive. I'm thinking you might be enjoying the top spot for a while

Oh, and about that album. Make a free Imgur account. This forum is set up so you can post whole galleries from there. You can find some helpful tips here. That embed code works on single images too. It's super handy!

[CitizenAerospace]

I had to give this ago, and i reached -334m on EVE, using a class C asteroid as pudding-weight.

Bonuses claimed:

Sleeping with the fishes REDUX (x5)

Swimming in fuel reserves (x2)

Touched the bottom of the pool (x1.5)

334m x 5 x 2 x 1.5 =

5010 points.

Screenshots of the entire ordeal can be found here (How do i make those nice and convenient albums i see all over?)

Sorry about the poor angle of some of the screenies, but i was fighting a bug where the trajectory wasn't showing up if i zoomed too far away in map mode. In addition, the Kraken attacked me severely several times: Once was a plain crash, and when i entered EVE SOI my ship refused to move. Got around both by restarting, ofvcourse.

I doubt it can be argued that my orange tank can be considered a mothership, but if it does, add another 1.5 multiplier.

http://jarmund.net/stuff/deepdive/2015-03-31_00023.jpg

wow! Thats amazing!

[jarmund]

Actually, it was fairly easy. I eyeballed the rendezvous and transfer. The hardest part was deploying the parachutes without yanking my craft apart - i had to deploy one chute at a time via the right click menu after burning up the rest of my fuel to get under 60m/s surface velocity.

[Jodo42]

Not entirely sure if this counts, due to the interesting buoyancy mechanics in Kerbal, but here's my submission, regardless:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Score important images are 1, 68 and 73.

If it DOES count...

1556 (1556m)

x1.5 (Touched the bottom of the pool)

x5.0 (Sneaking into Carl Sagan's backyard pool)

x5.0 (Sleeping with the fishes)

------

58,350

So, for future submariners, some advice:

-A class asteroids are pretty easy to work with, and will sink small probes. I had tested an extremely similar probe with Hyperedit and it had worked, so I had assumed Calypso would as well. It's finnicky, so I'd highly recommend testing your final design before doing the real launch.

-Laythe's oceans are extremely deep pretty much everywhere. If you can get some kind of ballast (like that Mk.3 part) then you can easily get rather high scores thanks to its great depths and high score multiplier.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Jodo42