THE TEST: Are you good enough?

[RuBisCO]

How to take the test:

1. Start up KSP fresh, no mods

2. Start a sandbox game

3. Build a ship from scratch

4. Land on the Mun and Return

No saving

No redoing

No forgetting parts

One Time Shot

Just a perfect flight there and back, no preparation... and go!

If you screw up at any time: you need more practice at KSP

If you can do it: you are proficient.

This is a personal challenge, you will know if you are good enough or not.

When they ask Giotto to prove his artist talent, he drew a circle, a perfect circle, freehand and on the spot.

Edited August 10, 2015 by RuBisCO

[HoloYolo]

This challenge is too easy.

[Rocketfeline]

This challenge has alot of loopholes. You can download a ship from the fourms.

[Deddly]

This challenge has alot of loopholes. You can download a ship from the fourms.

This is a personal challenge, you will know if you are good enough or not.

I think you would know if you cheated

Edit: Back when I only had the 18.4 (I think?) demo and when I was very new to the game, I completed a Mun return trip like that because I didn't know about quicksave. The sweaty palms and that incredible feeling of elation when you actually succeed - yep, that's what made me buy the game, and that's why I deliberately play without quickloading (except for serious bugs).

Edited August 10, 2015 by Deddly

[mythbusters844]

But...stock? Can we at least have FAR and all the mods that the stock game looked at and ignored for the sake of their target age range or because they're "out of scope"?

Doing this challenge anyway. I actually can't remember the last time I went to the Mun without mods.

EDIT: Just did it and I'm trying to upload my screenshots but Imgur hates me . It was actually kinda fun though.

Edited August 10, 2015 by mythbusters844

[Pecan]

Does it count that I just did this in the demo (and the previous demo) version, with limited parts to help those that don't have the full version?

(New demo wasn't first time though, admittedly. The old one was ^^).

[GoSlash27]

All of the folks in this image have proven their proficiency at operating in stock career with no facility upgrades. Cavemen thrive on austerity!

Best,

-Slashy

[RuBisCO]

Hey if you can do it easy, then do it, but if you have to reload or restart just once...

Understand this is one the spot test, if you fail once, then you failed, there is no do over.

Also I guess if you want to prove your stuff you could record on video from start of game to return landing, no cuts, but chances are you will have practiced before hand.

This challenge has alot of loopholes. You can download a ship from the fourms.

Good point and fixed.

Edited August 10, 2015 by RuBisCO

[mythbusters844]

Imgur finally stopped acting up on me and I got to upload the screenshots. It was pretty fun!

Javascript is disabled. View full album

^{(link to the album)}

Now I wanna try to go to Duna in stock . I've only ever done that once in stock.

Edited August 11, 2015 by mythbusters844

[Superfluous J]

Seeing as the stock game doesn't give the necessary readouts to build the rocket, I'll just crazily overengineer it.

Then I'll port the ship over to a real game and see how far it'll actually go.

[GoSlash27]

Guys,

You don't have to overengineer it. Just do the math on the side.

Work the mission backwards. design each stage for the required payload/ twr/ DV. Treat subsequent stages as payload for preceding stages. Rinse and repeat until you've worked your way back to the pad.

Here's how the math works:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/121151-Help-with-calculating-delta-v-and-twr?p=2053809&viewfull=1#post2053809

Who needs KER?

Best,

-Slashy

[Superfluous J]

Guys,

You don't have to overengineer it. Just do the math on the side.

Work the mission backwards. design each stage for the required payload/ twr/ DV. Treat subsequent stages as payload for preceding stages. Rinse and repeat until you've worked your way back to the pad.

Here's how the math works:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/121151-Help-with-calculating-delta-v-and-twr?p=2053809&viewfull=1#post2053809

Who needs KER?

Best,

-Slashy

The big problem with that is it sucks all the fun out of the game.

[sal_vager]

Just install 0.13.3 and go to the Mun and back

[Pecan]

Guys,

You don't have to overengineer it. Just do the math on the side.

Hehe, it's easier to just remember the n-teenth low-tech Mun return mission I've designed. I'd be hopelessly lost if it were without manoeuvre-nodes though, as caveman is.

[Red Iron Crown]

[graybeard] This is how we played all the time back in the day. No fancy-schmancy calculator mods, maneuver nodes, reverts or quicksaves, you did the whole mission by hand in one go from launch or you didn't do it at all. [/graybeard]

I don't really miss it.

[GoSlash27]

[graybeard] This is how we played all the time back in the day. No fancy-schmancy calculator mods, maneuver nodes, reverts or quicksaves, you did the whole mission by hand in one go from launch or you didn't do it at all. [/graybeard]

I don't really miss it.

I read this in my "Grandpa Simpson" voice

Best,

-Slashy

[Scarecrow88]

Just completed. Design, launch, orbit Mun, land, return to Mun orbit and return to Kerbin all in one, no saves, reverts etc. Over engineered slightly as I had way more fuel left than I needed. Also chose to do it Apollo style, though my lander was single stage rather than 2-stage, but it was fun.

This is the basics of my design, minus the lifting stage, shortly after Munar Excursion Module extraction during the transition to Mun.

[GoSlash27]

The big problem with that is it sucks all the fun out of the game.

5thHorseman,

Comments like this remind me of how many different ways to enjoy this game

When you posted this, I actually scratched my head and puzzled over it because this is the part I enjoy *most* !

I get more enjoyment out of the engineering part of the mission than the execution itself, but others love to fly the rockets and still others love to watch the world burn.

What an awesome game!

Best,

-Slashy

- - - Updated - - -

RuBisCo,

For clarification, suppose I wanted to conduct a LKO rendezvous mission instead of an all-up single launch. Would that be legal? Multiple launches would increase the difficulty, since all of them have to work acceptably the first time or the mission fails.

If that's not acceptable, that's cool. A single launch would reduce the likelihood of a mistake ruining the mission.

Thanks,

-Slashy

Edited August 11, 2015 by GoSlash27

[Dr Farnsworth]

I am not sure I understand the challenge. If what I have listed below is correct, please let me know.

I need to build a single rocket that can take off from Kerbin, fly to and land on the Mun, and then return said rocket (probably just the capsule now) to the surface of Kerbin?

No mods allowed that would affect part ability.

No mods that would provide engineering assistance during the initial rocket build.

I need to perform this feat in one shot with no saves.

[Superfluous J]

I am not sure I understand the challenge. If what I have listed below is correct, please let me know.

I need to build a single rocket that can take off from Kerbin, fly to and land on the Mun, and then return said rocket (probably just the capsule now) to the surface of Kerbin?

No mods allowed that would affect part ability.

No mods that would provide engineering assistance during the initial rocket build.

I need to perform this feat in one shot with no saves.

You are correct.

[Sirine]

If you know me. You know I can do that. If you don't know me. I can tell you that I can do that.

[Mister Dilsby]

I read this in my "Grandpa Simpson" voice

Best,

-Slashy

Me too.

"YEAH WE DIDN'T HAVE CLOUDS, BUT WE YELLED AT 'EM ANYWAY!"

[RuBisCO]

Again people this is a one time shot, if you design and build your rocket, save it, and load it, you failed

You need to boot up the game, build the ship from scratch, fly it, land it and return all in one take In theory you could videorecord your self booting up the game, starting a new sandbox and building the ship, fly it, land it and return, with no cuts.

This is not about showing off to others either (unless you can do the videorecording) this is a personal challenge, you your self know if you can do it or not, you your self know if you failed.

I failed, sure I got a working design first try, but it took several tries for me to land it, needed to work on flying, specifically launching.

Edited August 12, 2015 by RuBisCO

[Superfluous J]

I've actually done this. It was quite a while ago (0.24 maybe even) and I didn't record it, and it was in a "Science Mode" game which was what career was back then, midway through the tech tree. I wanted to take a screen shot of a ship on the surface of Mun, so I loaded that game, built a ship from scratch, flew it to Mun, landed, took the screen shot, and then right before reverting realized I'd done it all in a single try, without even realizing it or thinking about it.

I'm going to try this again, and of course because I'm far more aware of the cost of failure, I'm going to be far more capable of screwing up But I still think that as long as I don't let my own worst enemy (me) come along for the ride, it'll be pretty simple.

[mythbusters844]

Guys,

You don't have to overengineer it. Just do the math on the side.

Work the mission backwards. design each stage for the required payload/ twr/ DV. Treat subsequent stages as payload for preceding stages. Rinse and repeat until you've worked your way back to the pad.

Here's how the math works:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/121151-Help-with-calculating-delta-v-and-twr?p=2053809&viewfull=1#post2053809

Who needs KER?

Best,

-Slashy

That really doesn't fit into the theme of this challenge and kinda violates the "no preparation" rule.

Unrelatedly, I've actually written a Ti-84 program to do those calculations, and it's proven incredibly handy.