Kerbal Charter Challenge!

[SpaceplaneAddict]

@Pine, your not allowed to forget about this yet

here's my entry:

Yeah, just clicky click dis here linky link.

Or, see it here:

 

Edited August 25, 2016 by SpaceplaneAddict

[HazelPine]

I haven't forgot about this, nope! Just had a busy week so far, as is normal.

 

Anyways!

 

@Van Disaster, totally sorry about missing your crazy 3 level absurdity you dare call a plane! I guess I just didn't see it when I was updating the leaderboard last time! But would you look at that, you're first! Congrats! About RATO though, I wouldn't feel ok with penalizing people since a small amount of restrictive scoring can kill many-a-dozen creative ideas. So I guess you'll just have to take into account the cost of the SolidFuel used as well, and the cost of any RATO booster thingy you drop destructively (So if you make a RATO sled that doesn't explode once used or destroyed, it should be consdered 'recovered' or something of sorts. As long as you take into account how much fuel you used with it and how much that cost. I'll update the OP with the RATO info and stuff!

 

@SpaceplaneAddict, awesome rescue mission! That plane looks really sleek! Also I really liked the video you used to submit your entry, I wish more people did that (wink wink, nudge nudge ), and you got to 4th place! A solid rescue effort, although I may have found an issue with the airport tower I forgot to consider when I made it: The poor, sick Hayne has to jump some 15m down to the ice to get to the rescue planes! Ah well, Kerbals.

 

Also, @Baybrawler has been helping out with the challenge with something that, depending on how he feels about it, we might unveil sometime soon!

Off to update the leaderboards and OP!

PS: KSP updates levels of soon 

[Van Disaster]

Hmm, no idea how much solid fuel costs... not much iirc. Been trying to get below 1cr/pax, managed it in FAR with RATO without paying for the boost, so might squeak it with.

[HazelPine]

OP is updated! I did some quick math on some SRBs and it seems that SolidFuel costs 0.6 per unit, which is more than I thought they cost. Oh well! Lean something new everyday about KSP!

 

On an unrelated side note, I'm poking around with the idea of making a sub-challenge of sorts for this challenge if you guys are interested. The idea is adding a new flight plan of sorts, with a couple of airports scattered around closer by locations and flying kerbals in a single flight to each of them then back to the KSC, just like the single stop polar airport. I would have to change the name of the thread to something with a bit more scope, but I think it could be real good fun! Thoughts?

[Blasty McBlastblast]

I did some mucking about with RATO but in the end decided against it; even if the cost per unit was dirt cheap it was still gonna take a boat load of units to get moving

@Van Disaster had the right idea to use the grass for a longer takeoff... also if you back up the hill at the edge of the grass you can use the slope to start moving more quickly

 

also I was thinking of attempting the rescue flight, but due to the high risk of inflicting falling injuries to our patient I was considering simply transporting the entire airport back to the KSC! is there a bonus-round score for achieving this feat? 

[HazelPine]

@Blasty McBlastblast, If you somehow manage to haul the airport building back, I'll just have to give you a huge point deduction from your score, and name you king! Seriously, though, I'll give you a bonus score multiplier of sorts if you manage it! By the way, how are you planning on doing this!?

[Blasty McBlastblast]

i plan on doing it with style...  

Spoiler

also i plan to use the claw! i just need to figure out where the com is and then hopefully it is not heavier than my last cargo  i think i can just brute force the aero side of things, wish me luck!

 

[HazelPine]

Good luck! I think you'll need it, even with all the style...

[Van Disaster]

You might want to consider one of the in-flight strut mods, fairly sure KAS has kerbal-attachable struts at least.

@Pinebiggest problem I see with runways off the poles is actually getting a plane down, the terrain isn't exactly airliner friendly :p. I have a 5.5km runway model somewhere which I got in game in 0.90, but I've never tried it with recent version of KK. I suppose we could build giant flying boats...

[Blasty McBlastblast]

noooooo! there is some kind of sorcery here! 

i flew to the airport, and grabbed it successfully, but then discovered that my unstoppable force was no match for this immovable object!   turns out that airport is glued down (probably with the remains of smooshed kerbals leaping to be rescued!) and is not moving for any reason! 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[HazelPine]

@Van Disaster, I think a bit of the charm of the possible off-polar airports would be in making a rugged plane that could deal with the uneven ground, but to not make it crazy hard it would be a way shorter trip, which would mean that planes would need less fuel, I think. The different flight routes would obviously have different leaderboards for obvious reasons, I imagine. But you do bring up a good point about runway size...   I'll look around kerbin a bit sometime and look for flat areas.

 

@Blasty McBlastblast, that seems odd! I'm pretty sure it's not stuck on the floor, so I have no idea what might be making it stick. Have you checked the mass on it though? It may have a bit wee too much friction with the ice, I imagine.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Pine

[Blasty McBlastblast]

oooh! i think i got it to budge! just had to switch vessels, switch back, watch all my wheels explode, quickload and repeat with the gear up, and now i think i'm ready to try for take off! 

 

edit: i may need to go back to the drawing board for this one... 

Edited August 26, 2016 by Blasty McBlastblast

[Van Disaster]

@PineI think you may be looking a while... I drove around most of Kerbin for Elcano some time ago & uploaded reams of shots taken at 100m/s+, there's a few flatter plains-like areas but honestly the only actual flat parts are the poles & the water. The plains might work, there's some halfway round the globe from KSC.

BTW, can we send a fuel tanker up to the polar airport before the flight & refuel up there during the turn-round?

Edited August 26, 2016 by Van Disaster

[Blasty McBlastblast]

bwahahahahar!! 2 claws and some guide rails later...

[HazelPine]

This is too glorious!

 

@Van Disaster, I think there's no harm if you send a fuel tanker ahead of your attempt, as long as you take into account how much fuel you use in total for the attempt flight.

[Blasty McBlastblast]

done!  

here is my entry to the Emergency Rescue Flight (FAR edition), total time: 2hrs 12mins 23sec

link to imgur album

 

[W. Kerman]

On 7/18/2016 at 0:05 PM, Pine said:

Great job @Adelaar! You're first on the rescue leaderboard!

I can't download save files really, so could you give me the N° W°s?

That way I could do this challenge, I could use that scanner to show when I'm at the "airport".

[Van Disaster]

For anyone using Navutilities, here's a rough runway entry; save it as "PinePolar.rwy" or something like that ( name isn't important, extension is ) in GameData/KerbalScienceFoundation/NavInstruments/Runways. I didn't spend much time with the glideslope ( or indeed fine positioning ), the important thing for me was the nav beacon & DME parts.

Runway
{
	ident = POL 32
	shortID = PL32
	hdg = 320
	identOfOpposite = POL 14
	body = Kerbin
	altMSL = 30
	locLatitude = 74.826
	locLongitude = -95.028
	gsLongitude = -94.3284
	gsLatitude = 74.6018
	
    outerMarkerDist = 10000
	middleMarkerDist = 2000
	innerMarkerDist = 200	
	
}

Runway
{
	ident = POL 14
	shortID = PL14
	hdg = 140
	identOfOpposite = POL 32
	body = Kerbin
	altMSL = 30
	locLatitude = 74.826
	locLongitude = -95.028
	gsLongitude = -95.733
	gsLatitude = 75.05
	
    outerMarkerDist = 10000
	middleMarkerDist = 2000
	innerMarkerDist = 200	
	
}

The entries will show up as POL 32 & POL 14.

Can't seem to get under 1.12/Kerbal at the moment - I even managed to glide the last 300km & still that wasn't enough.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Van Disaster

[MunGazer]

This is my first time back in the forums in quite a while, but I just happened to be working on a cargo plane when I saw this awesome challenge.  So, I decided to refine it and use it in this challenge.  I wanted to give you guys a heads up that I'll make a video entry of it hopefully sometime this weekend.  In the meantime, I've got a couple questions:

1.  Is it alright if I use an NRAP Procedural Test Weight for my cargo?  It makes it a lot easier to get the exact weight I want on my plane.  I'll certainly deploy it at the polar site with good form.

2.  NavUtilities with the HSI isn't working for me in 1.1.3;  Van are you using an earlier KSP version that is compatible with the mod, or can someone point me to a version of NavUtilities that works with 1.1.3, or perhaps a substitute?

[HazelPine]

@MunGazer, glad you want to try the challenge! Many people have had fun with it, and I hope your experience is fun as well!

 

To answer you question about NRAP: I have no problems with you using it, as long as you don't make an obscenely tiny black hole of sorts as your cargo. If it looks about as heavy as it is, it's fine! After all,fuel and ore aren't the densest materials available in the universe, so anything goes-ish.

Looking forward to your entry!

[Van Disaster]

7 hours ago, MunGazer said:

2.  NavUtilities with the HSI isn't working for me in 1.1.3;  Van are you using an earlier KSP version that is compatible with the mod, or can someone point me to a version of NavUtilities that works with 1.1.3, or perhaps a substitute?

I'm using KSP 1.1.3, not too sure about the Navutilities version - possibly 0.6.1 with a 3rd-party recompiled NavUtilLib.dll.

Good idea about NRAP, will have to look at that.

Edit: Navutils fix:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/77062-11-navutilities-ft-hsi-instrument-landing-system/&do=findComment&comment=2653745

Also, busy place up at the pole

Spoiler

 

Edited August 27, 2016 by Van Disaster

[MunGazer]

For the benefit of others looking for cargo solutions, I've discovered two key things:

1.  The NRAP Procedural Test Weight is extremely problematic/glitchy inside cargo bays with anything attached to it, I would definitely not recommend it as your actual mission cargo, although it is definitely useful during load testing of your airframe as a simple static load that you don't intend to manipulate/move, unless you're just dropping it straight on the ground or something.

2.  The Umbra Space Industries (USI-Rover Division) Karibou Cargo Crate filled up with the EnrichedUranium and DepletedUranium resource (there are a plethora of different resources you can fill it with) weighs in at a very nice 27.825 tons per crate, has very nice cargo bay friendly dimensions, and although I've only just begun working with it, I'd bet that it will be much more easy to manipulate in cargo bays and is also very lore friendly to this challenge.

[zolotiyeruki]

On 8/25/2016 at 9:29 PM, Blasty McBlastblast said:

bwahahahahar!! 2 claws and some guide rails later...

HAHAHA!  I think you broke the challenge right there.  That's brilliant!

[zolotiyeruki]

I have a slightly quicker time to turn in.  25:17.  Just before sending the plane off, the KSC staff realized Hayne had left the coffee machine going, so they had to send a replacement scientist to make sure the airport didn't burn down.

http://imgur.com/a/PutAB

[MunGazer]

Nice, zolo.  Well guys, for the CF FAR it looks like I won't be able to deliver anytime soon.  I got a very nice airframe going but the way rover wheels interact with the cargo bay is ridiculous, things keep exploding and slipping everywhere.