The PBS Colonization Challenge

[SkyRender]

The PBS Colonization Challenge

 It's time for Kerbalkind to colonize the solar system!  Using the Planetary Base Systems (PBS) mod in conjunction with TAC Life Support, this has become a very real prospect.  Mission Control has taken a contract of absurd proportions for this without your consent (what else is new?), but fortunately it's pretty flexible.  As long as you fulfill at least part of the contract, they'll be happy.  Of course, if you can fulfill the whole thing (or go above and beyond), they'll be even happier.

 (How did they get a contract in a Sandbox file, you ask?  It's better you not know the answer to that one...)

The Contract

 Mission Control's really done it this time...  The contract for this mission is just plain absurd.  Rockomax has requested that you colonize every single celestial body in the solar system (except Jool and the sun, for obvious reasons).  This means at least 6 Kerbals per planet or moon, able to sustain themselves without outside resources being delivered to them.  They'd really like it if you could somehow get 300 Kerbals per celestial body, which sounds like a huge chore...

 The contract further stipulates that they should be able to traverse the planet or moon if possible via rover.  They also want full communications at all times with Kerbin via the Deep Space Network.  And every colony is tasked with being able to produce fuel for any visiting spacecraft to boot.  They're even demanding a full complement of scientific experiments, and a processing lab.  As if that wasn't enough, the contract ALSO stipulates that there needs to be an (unoccupied) orbital station for each planet/moon, and a means for the Kerbals living on the surface to return to Kerbin.  Apparently there's something in there about an orbital zero-G sports arena too, but that bit is pretty vague...

Fulfilling the Contract

 We know this contract is absurd, so we've broken the whole thing down into a more manageable system.  The priorities for the contract have been weighted, adjusted, and just generally shifted about so they actually make sense to anyone not versed in Kerbal legalese.  We've called the resulting values Priority Offering Integration Numeric Tabulations, or POINTs.

 Here's how it works out:

* Each colony MUST contain a minimum of 6 Kerbals
* Each colony MUST have enough self-sustaining life support for all inhabitants
* Meeting these two requirements is worth 10 POINTs
* Each additional colonist (fully supported, remember!) is worth 1 POINT; our cutoff is 30 total, meaning a maximum of 24 POINTs extra
* Including a rover (or rovers) is worth 2 POINTs; it/they MUST be able to carry at least half of your colonists at any given time
* You can get an extra 1 POINT if your rover(s) can carry all of your colonists at any given time
* Having a shielded storage area for the rover(s) is worth 1 POINT, but only if all rovers can be stored at any given time!
* Having a DSN connection back to Kerbin at all times is worth 2 POINTs
* Having a fully-decked-out science array (just the stock experiments) with lab is worth 1 POINT
* Having a mining system that produces fuel for spaceships (you have to have some way to actually get the fuel to them, remember!) is worth 2 POINTs
* Having an orbital station able to hold as many Kerbals as the colony is populated with is worth 6 POINTs
* We have no idea how the zero-G sports thing would work, honestly, but it's worth 1 POINT anyway; we'll leave it to your discretion...
* Having a means to return to Kerbin is worth a variable amount of POINTs, based on the body in question; see below

 This means that a fully decked-out colony with full orbital support is worth 50 POINTs.  But that's just the base score, of course; not all bodies are created equal after all!  There are multipliers involved based on which bodies you choose.  POINTs are worth:

Mun: 1x (return bonus: 2 POINTs)
Minmus: 1x (return bonus: 2 POINTs)
Duna: 2x (return bonus: 8 POINTs)
Ike: 2.5x (return bonus: 7 POINTs)
Eve: 3x (return bonus: 100 POINTs)
Gilly: 3.5x (return bonus: 10 POINTs)
Dres: 3.5x (return bonus: 12 POINTs)
Moho: 5x (return bonus: 30 POINTs)
Laythe: 5x (return bonus: 40 POINTs)
Tylo: 5x (return bonus: 50 POINTs)
Vall: 4x (return bonus: 25 POINTs)
Bop: 4x (return bonus: 20 POINTs)
Pol: 4x (return bonus: 20 POINTs)
Eeloo: 5x (return bonus: 30 POINTs)

Colony Extensions

 The contract has an additional clause concerning multiple colonies!  Once you've filled an entire colony on a planet or moon (ie. you have 30 Kerbals living there), you can add another site.  And once that site's full up, you can add another!  For sanity's sake, the population is capped at 10 colonies per planet or moon.  That's a lot of Kerbals, after all!

 Sites at least 5KM apart from one another can be designated as separate colonies, scoring an additional 10 POINTs for the first 6 colonists at that new site (and of course, 1 POINT per additional Kerbal up to 30 total colonists and 24 POINTs extra).  However, separate sites like this MUST have rovers that can reach one another, present at all sites!  You can't get any additional POINTs for DSN connection or rover storage or anything from this, either; anything your colonies as a whole have for a planet or moon for those sorts of things, that's it for those bonuses.

 You do NOT need to provide additional space on the orbital station for the extra colony's Kerbals, but (assuming you want the return bonus) you DO need to provide sufficient facilities to allow for all Kerbals present to return to Kerbin in one grand exodus if the need arises.  In other words, you need to be able to get all resident Kerbals off the surface of the planet or moon they're on within a reasonable timeframe and get them all back to Kerbin within a very close timeframe to one another.  No Kerbal left behind, in short!  The upshot is, you get the return bonus amount for each colony built when the requirements are met.  Now that's generosity!

Limitations and Bonuses

 Time is of the essence in this contract, or at least that's what they keep telling us.  Rockomax has set a hard time limit of 25 years to get all of your colonies in place.  Any longer than that and they're not interested.  What a bunch of skinflints!

 (That's 25 years from the first launch to any given body for that body, mind.  They're not crazy, just strict.)

 For some reason Rockomax really wants that zero-G sports thing to happen.  They said something about "bonus POINTs for really creative entries".  We asked them how they knew about POINTs, but they didn't have an answer for us.  There may be a covert Rockomax agent in Mission Control...

Proof of Delivery

 To get credit for all of your hard work, you need to show:

* At least 1 shot of the launch process; you don't have to show every single one!
* At least 1 shot of the completed colony, showcasing all features
* At least 1 shot per orbital feature included (station, relay, etc.)
* A map shot showing the DSN connection, if you're going for that bonus; we'll let you skip this requirement for the Mun since it's Kerbin-synchronous
* A map shot showing the distance between colonies for multiple sites

 You can expand locations at a later date, and enhance what they offer as you see fit.  For sanity's sake, it's recommended that you have separate save files for each planet or moon colonization effort.  Otherwise, you're going to have some serious slowdown issues by your fifth or sixth colonization effort...

Mods

 You can't really participate in this challenge without the mods required to do it.  Those mods are:

Planetary Base Systems (obviously, right?)
TAC Life Support

 Some recommended mods include:

Kerbal Attachment System
Kerbal Inventory System

 As for other mods, go for it!  The only stipulation I have is that you not use any "cheat-y" mods (ie. with parts or functionality that either let you bypass the game's challenges entirely or are just plain overpowered).  MechJeb, Kerbal Engineer Redux, Kerbal Alarm Clock, and other "assistance" mods are allowed, BUT you have to specify that you've used them so I can list them alongside your score.  I don't have any beef against those sorts of things (I use KER and KAC both!), particularly for something this massive in scope.  However, there is a certain point of pride for some players in doing something like this entirely on their own.  For their sake, let's all be honest about what tools we're using.

Some Useful Information

 This can be a pretty daunting challenge for newcomers, so here are a number of handy tips to help your efforts along.

* Each greenhouse module produces enough food for 6 Kerbals, and needs 1 algae farm, access to ore via a rock drill, and access to water via a water drill to function (plus standard life support resources)

* You should probably also add a carbon extractor and water purifier, as well as space to store life support and life support byproducts (and ore too!)

* Powering the lot of this is going to take around 15 electric charge per second at all times; prepare accordingly

* You have to activate greenhouses and the like for them to do anything, and you need Kerbals manning greenhouses in particular to get anything out of them

Colonization Hall of Fame

 Here you can see who's who in the PBS challenge!  Every colony's value, as well as the grand total value of all colonies founded, can be found here.

Eidahlil - 225 POINTs (using KER and MechJeb)
 Vall Colony - 225 POINTs

Sky Render - 43 POINTs (using KER and KAC)
 Mun Colony "Shelby" - 43 POINTs

 And here's my own first contribution!  Basically, this is just a sample of how the whole thing generally works.

 Here's the core of the first colony sent up, straight to the Mun!

 The nice thing about the Mun is, if you land in just the right spot (ie. anywhere on literally half the Mun), you always have connectivity to Kerbin via the DSN.  Ergo, easy 2 POINTs right there!

 The launch stage is ditched just before landing, so it blows up in a pleasing manner and lets me soft-land this colony base.

 For assembly, I basically relied on reaction wheels and the Mun's low gravity to allow me to rock-and-roll these things off the sides and top of the rocket stack.  Then I used the wheels to roll them over to the hub, and link up!

 Here's the colony as it ended up.  Nothing fancy, but ripe for expansion.  And expanded it will be, of course!  That's half the fun of these challenges.

Mun Colony "Shelby"
6 Colonists + Life Support - 10 POINTs
DSN Connection - 2 POINTs
Total - 12 POINTs

Edited November 1, 2016 by SkyRender

[SkyRender]

Just to show how easy it is to work with this particular colonization kit, I've made a quick expansion to Shelby.

This time I'm sending up some auxiliary equipment: science lab, mining/conversion unit, and extra power.  It's kinda lopsided...

An old trick for rendezvous taught by Scott Manley is to use a maneuver node over your target to kill your lateral velocity, then fire at the halfway mark of total burn time.  It works pretty well!

This time decoupling was a bit trickier since I couldn't do heavy rolls thanks to the solar panels.  But I managed it in the end!

All linked up!  Shelby is better-equipped now for survival and science.  Huzzah!  The mining unit, incidentally, has a KAS winch on it for fuel transfer to any visiting spacecraft.  See why I recommended that mod?

Mun Colony "Shelby"
6 Colonists + Life Support - 10 POINTs
DSN Connection - 2 POINTs
Science Array - 1 POINT
Fuel Refinery - 2 POINTs
Total - 15 POINTs

Edited October 27, 2016 by SkyRender

[SkyRender]

The example continues!  Shelby has had two new expansions.

They may look similar on the outside, but on the inside they couldn't be more different!  The first contains a garage with an 18-Kerbal rover along with 6 more Kerbals and their life support.  The second contains 6 more Kerbals and their life support, plus additional power.

Construction for both works the same as the previous ones: drop, rock-n-roll, wheel over.  I took a different approach for the new hubs, though: I linked two sides of the hub with modules and used their combined wheel power to bring the lot of them over!  Module #3 in each case just docked afterward.

Here's the results after expansion #3...

And after expansion #4!  Shelby's score just jumped like crazy thanks to all those new Kerbals!

Mun Colony "Shelby"
6 Colonists + Life Support - 10 POINTs
+12 Colonists - 12 POINTs
Full-Capacity Rover - 3 POINTs
Rover Garage - 1 POINT
DSN Connection - 2 POINTs
Science Array - 1 POINT
Fuel Refinery - 2 POINTs
Total - 31 POINTs

Edited October 27, 2016 by SkyRender

[TopHeavy11]

Looks cool! When (or if) PBS gets upgraded to 1.2, I'll be sure to attempt this challenge!

[Nils277]

Nice challenge!  
Should i make a badge that the winner can show in their signature?

@TopHeavy11 PBS is ready for 1.2 for more than two weeks now  

Edited October 27, 2016 by Nils277

[TopHeavy11]

21 minutes ago, Nils277 said:

Nice challenge!  
Should i make a badge that the winner can show in their signature?

@TopHeavy11 PBS is ready for 1.2 for more than two weeks now  

Oh... .

[SkyRender]

1 hour ago, Nils277 said:

Nice challenge!  
Should i make a badge that the winner can show in their signature?

Sure, that sounds great!  I fell in love with your mod the moment I saw it.  It's exactly what I was looking for, and it looks very stock-alike on top of everything else!  The included TACLS compatibility (complete with custom-molded parts for the base system's quarter-pipe side-mount modules) sealed the deal for me.

[SkyRender]

And one last sample update!

This time I'm sending the Mun its own orbital station!  It also has a relay network attached, just to show what that might look like.

PBS is even useful for orbital purposes.  I had this cool idea for a spoke-arm station, but...

With no Kerbals on board to help guide the process, it wasn't going to happen.  Maybe later...

Here's one of the relays, incidentally.  Pretty basic, but it does the trick.

I also added another expansion to Shelby!  6 more Kerbals, life support for them, and another rover.

Decoupling and assembly went... mostly as usual.  Shelby has a bit of a haunting from the phantom force ghouls now, being so big and all, so docking this lot actually took almost an hour...

In the end, they all got assembled.  Shelby is done for now, standing as an example for others on how this challenge might work.

Mun Colony "Shelby"
6 Colonists + Life Support - 10 POINTs
+18 Colonists - 18 POINTs
Full-Capacity Rovers - 3 POINTs
Rover Garages - 1 POINT
DSN Connection - 2 POINTs
Science Array - 1 POINT
Fuel Refinery - 2 POINTs
Orbital Station - 6 POINTs
Total - 43 POINTs

[Eidahlil]

My Vall Colony, named "Vall Colony", is finally on the ground and running.

http://imgur.com/a/MSfv4 (Sorry, the imgur image sorting is completely broken, so the order is off.)

The planetary base was shipped all in one piece and has hanging skyways as a core design point, to take advantage of the low gravity of Vall. It is staffed by 30 KSC personnel, but it's long-term life support is rated for up to 32.5, to allow for visitors. It also has proper planetary habitats for 32 kerbals, though more can fit for short periods in the various planetary observation cupolas. It has two planetary docking ports and can be extended with planetary modules, but currently no such extension is planned.

The support modules include 16 greenhouse containers, 6 algae farms, a water drill, 4 elektrons and 4 hydrogen fuel cells. It also has 3 ore drills and an ISRU unit, to allow replenishing the greenhouse soil and making fuel for the shuttle and any other spaceships.

It has two garages containing one 16 seat rover each. The base also has a lab unit and a full suite of the stock experiments.

The orbital station can accommodate 32 kerbals but has no long term life support. However, it's supplies module can be detached and carried to the planetary base by the shuttle for replenishment (usually using those 2.5 extra kerbal capacity). The station also has a 800G rated communications array and can support orbital and ground operations throughout Kerbal space. Due to the low efficiency of solar panels, electricity is provided by 4 RTG generators, rated for one eternity each.

The orbital station also has fuel storage and can be used to refuel spacecraft, though the fuel has to be brought up from the surface by the shuttle.

It also has a sports area in the form of a repurposed Mk3 cargo bay, complete with a Stayputnik brand smart ball. Just don't forget to dock the ball back in place before warping.

Travel between the two is facilitated by an orbital shuttle with a capacity of one pilot and 32 passengers (remote control autopilot available). The shuttle usually hails between the planetary base and orbital station, but, after refuellng at the orbital station, it has a range of 2.8km/s dV and can be used for expeditions within Jool SOI. It also has powerful RCS to allow aggressive maneuvers and translation in non-zero-G environments, such as when landing back on the elevated pad in the planetary base.

The shuttle can also be used for an emergency return to Kerbin. It only has passenger seats, which are rather uncomfortable, but our surveys show 80% of kerbals would choose sitting in super-economy class for 2 years over certain death. After refuelling at the orbital station and docking with a sealed emergency supplies module, it has over 2km/s dV, which should be enough to get back to Kerbin with a gravity assist from Tylo or Laythe and some aerobraking in Kerbin. The supplies module would be jettisoned before landing, and the shuttle was tested to require only about 100m/s dV to perform a hot landing on Kerbin.

Communications is provided by two Communotron 88-88 dishes on the planetary base and a relay satellite in geosynchronous orbit. The relay satellite can sometimes be blocked from direct sight to Kerbin by Jool, but most of the time it will see another satellite within the Kerbol system and can establish a link. However, as the communication satellite ring between Duna and Dres is yet to be completed, an outage is possible, if unlikely.

In all fairness, this was initially planned as a Gilly base, however, upon deeper inspection Gilly was found to lack water in any sort of shape, so it was quickly redesignated as a Vall base instead. Bonus that I have not done a Jool mission in a long while. Gus quickly slapped on a few more boosters for the launch, switched the Terriers on the shuttle for Aerospikes, Gene declared that this is sufficient, as the base will use aerocapture when within Jool SOI, and the base was launched.

A few weeks later Linus sheepishly entered the mission control, and admitted to doing the math on that aerocapture maneuver. Turns out the craft would be entering Jool at 8km/s, which is too fast for anything but the space gym to survive. We would have a choice of not slowing down at all, being on fire, or both. So, after a year of panic, it was determined that using a gravity assist to get captured is, indeed, possible.

Also, turns out that, while using an Elektron and a Fuel Cell at the same time produces oxygen and electricity at the expense of tiny amounts of water, the Fuel Cells don't actually like working. If you are in space, and want to turn that hydrogen back into water, the fuel cells won't work because your electricity is full. If you are on the ground, and want to turn that hydrogen into electricity, the fuel cells won't work because the water drill has filled up the water containers. So, in short, they work practically never. A local engineer ended up modding them with a script he calls "dumpExcess = true" to fix that, but only after two weeks of sending gravity experiments home to use up electricity to get some water to drink and make oxygen out of.

Ah, the scoring, I think the mission fulfills all the requirements, if ~99.95% DSN coverage is good enough, and has a (not fully tested) way to return home.

Lovely challenge and mods, I instantly fell in love with the bigger 6 way PBS connector, and, as you can see, used it everywhere. Also, the PBS life support guide is really nice and helped a lot.

[SkyRender]

Wowza!  You went whole-hog on that bad boy!  Let's get your tally up, then...

Eidahlil's Vall Colony
6 Colonists + Life Support - 10 POINTs
+24 Colonists - 24 POINTs
Full-Capacity Rovers - 3 POINTs
Rover Garages - 1 POINT
DSN Connection - 2 POINTs
Science Array - 1 POINT
Fuel Refinery - 2 POINTs
Orbital Station - 6 POINTs
Zero-G Sports Arena - 1 POINT
Vall Multiplier - 4x
Return Bonus - 25 POINTs
Total - 225 POINTs

The maximum score for Vall!  Not bad at all, I must say.  I'm doubly impressed that you did all of that in two whole launches!  Well done indeed.

Edited November 1, 2016 by SkyRender

[Nils277]

Oh, here is the banner for the winner

 

Edited November 2, 2016 by Nils277

[Zachary13]

Question,

Can we use the orbital station as a return vehicle? Also, are BetterBurnTime and Transfer Window Planner "Cheat-y?"

Edited November 21, 2016 by Zachary13