Minimus Tower Challenge

[Kuansenhama]

10 hours ago, Nich said:

HA HA whoops wrong docking port lol Very nice base I started with something very similar but part count killed me.

 

Well I guess I never did say in the rules that your tower had to be connected all the way up because I didn't think anyone would be crazy enough to try something like that.

If part count is limiting factor, then to beat the record, you're going to have to find low part count solutions. I know that MK3 cargo bays and fuselages (in their full length forms) are pretty long. (About 2x length of a Jumbo if i'm not mistaken, maybe a little less.) so that might be the way to go if we want to keep setting new records. You might also look to jettison your engines, RCS ports and basically everything else once your sections are docked to reduce part count even further.

19 hours ago, CallisTrOn Entertainment said:

After 17 hours of uploading there is my entry in form of a video. Still very long and not that entertaining, but therefore it shows everything well detailed. Hope that one not properly docked stage won't keep me from getting accepted. To stand on top of the tower is still very safe ;-)

 

 

Over an hour of video, seems pretty legit. I see you included the failure of your launcher when you sent the bottom. Thank you for following the rules of the challenge.

The Kerbal's face at 59:50 says it all...

[CallisTrOn Entertainment]

14 hours ago, Nich said:

HA HA whoops wrong docking port lol Very nice base I started with something very similar but part count killed me.

Yeah, during the construction I noticed that everything is much more stable than I thought. I went too much for a realistic and nice tower design instead of just stacking the biggest parts :-)

[Nich]

hhmmmm..... well improved my record but things were getting buggy as heck.  Every ship I had to get it perfectly lined up then go to space center, then restart KSP and when I came back they might be docked.  Huge pain in the but.  In addition my kerbal landing on top almost knocked it over had to restabilize it with gyros :/  I included a pic of a joint that was not connected until my kerbal landed on top lol.  Just enough to finally push it in i guess. 288m

 

[totalitor]

My tower height is 117 m. I docked small parts on Minmus surface, that wasn't so hard. But as I increased height of my tower it become unstable. So in the end I have to make it one piece smaller. Nice challenge thank you.

 

 

[ag3nt108]

Impressive Piloting skills Callistron.  Earlier today I posted about the length of KAS piping since Im worried I won't be able to reliably land near to my drill.  you put me to shame sir!

[CallisTrOn Entertainment]

1 hour ago, ag3nt108 said:

Impressive Piloting skills Callistron.  Earlier today I posted about the length of KAS piping since Im worried I won't be able to reliably land near to my drill.  you put me to shame sir!

Thanks a lot :-) Haven't done this before with such huge crafts but it still works ;-) But doing this e.g. on the mun with limited fuel is the real challenge ;-) (Which I did with smaller crafts :-D )

[Val]

I'm never doing this again.  At least in 1.0.5. Hours upon hours at horrid framerates. It's almost self mutilation. 

Anyway here's my entry: 245 m.

Made from 5 pieces that were assembled in Minmus orbit, then topped up and landed. Took a bunch of attempts before I got lucky. And nearly half an hour before the tower stopped swaying and I was able to grab the kerbal in the orbiting lander.

Edit: Darn, I'd forgotten about MechJeb. In my defense I did the important things manually. Docking and Landing.

Youtube playlist has 5 clips showing launch of the last piece, rendezvous and final orbital assembly. Then Landing and Inspection.

Sorry for the music, but the original audio was worse.

Edited March 13, 2016 by Val
MechJeb

[Nich]

So a couple things

1.  Loved the music

2. Tower is absolutely amazing how many parts? Has to be close to 1,000 at least.

3.  Looks like someone types while looking at the keyboard lol

[Val]

4 hours ago, Nich said:

So a couple triple things

1.  Loved the music

2. Tower is absolutely amazing how many parts? Has to be close to 1,000 at least.

3.  Looks like someone types while looking at the keyboard lol

Fixed that for you.

It's actually "only" 490 parts in total.

Yeah, I never got around to learn typing without looking at keyboard... 

[Nich]

haha clearly I never learn Engrish lol

[CallisTrOn Entertainment]

On 13.3.2016 at 3:40 PM, Val said:

I'm never doing this again.  At least in 1.0.5. Hours upon hours at horrid framerates. It's almost self mutilation. 

Anyway here's my entry: 245 m.

Made from 5 pieces that were assembled in Minmus orbit, then topped up and landed. Took a bunch of attempts before I got lucky. And nearly half an hour before the tower stopped swaying and I was able to grab the kerbal in the orbiting lander.

Nice to see that somebody else is caring about the look of his tower. Yours looks really amazing, good job. Must have taken a while already in the VAB ;-)

The problem is that's where the high part count is coming from. The pieces are just too small. Realized that with my design as well.

And like I wrote (and showed in my attempt ;-) ) the key is docking the pieces on the ground to eleminate the shaking.

I might go for another try to beat your numbers hehe ...

[Val]

12 hours ago, CallisTrOn Entertainment said:

Nice to see that somebody else is caring about the look of his tower. Yours looks really amazing, good job. Must have taken a while already in the VAB ;-)

The problem is that's where the high part count is coming from. The pieces are just too small. Realized that with my design as well.

And like I wrote (and showed in my attempt ;-) ) the key is docking the pieces on the ground to eleminate the shaking.

My biggest problem was weak connection between the pieces. I used only 3 Jr. docking ports per joint. I think it would have been more stable if I'd used more and bigger ports.