Do the Kerbal Landing

[TwoThe]

Just came up with this idea when reading the "Why I will not go to space today" thread: what if I completely forgot any landing plans? Let's make that a challenge.

The idea: to the Mun and back with free-fall landing. That is: no parachutes, no burning to slow down, just a happy Kerbal doing free fall and crashing into the ground with happy explosions.

Is this even possible? Yes it is. All parts absorb a certain impact force when crash-landing till either the impact force is completely absorbed or the vehicle is. Here is a small demonstration that it is very possible when using i.E. girders (80 m/s impact) together with landing gears:

Spoiler

 

 

The exact rules are:

- Only unmodified stock parts.

- You must not use any form of assisted landing other than inevitable aero-breaking. No parachutes, no wings, no burning.

- Wings can be used for steering and stabilization but not for landing purposes. If you want to make sure to qualify, decouple them at 5 km height latest when landing on Kerbin.

- Your vehicle must reach and land on the Mun. The entire vehicle, not just a lander.

- Your must do at least 3 km free-fall on the Mun. Burning before that is ok.

- You must land the entire vehicle (or what's left of it) on Kerbin afterwards.

- No further landing assistance other than inevitable areo forces may be used when below 5 km on Kerbin. It is however perfectly ok to not be aerodynamic.

- The final remains of your vehicle must contain at least a command pod or similar (no seats or EVA)

Winner is the one dropping the vehicle with the most mass, measured after the final landing on Kerbin. Use a mod like KER to show that mass in the screenshot or video.

Note that using girders + landing gear is just an example, you can crash-land on anything you like as long as it is a stock part. Also if you come up with even better ways (like Scott Manley's wheeled landing) that's fine as well. In my testing I found that auto-struts will relay the force right to the what the part is strutted to and therefore might be a problem when crash-landing.

[AccidentsHappen]

Hmm... I have an idea, but I'm not giving anything away

[TwoThe]

14 hours ago, AccidentsHappen said:

Hmm... I have an idea, but I'm not giving anything away

The name and title are perfectly fitting this challenge. XD

[4d4Garrison]

Perhaps you should add that the lightest Kerbin lander gets more points as it would make it where one could not just strap 1000 iron beams to a capsule.

I will start working on my entry shortly.

[TwoThe]

14 hours ago, 4d4Garrison said:

Perhaps you should add that the lightest Kerbin lander gets more points as it would make it where one could not just strap 1000 iron beams to a capsule.

We remember: F = m*a, since a is constant (gravity) in free-fall, the impact force is tied solely to the mass of the vehicle. Or in other words: the higher the mass of the vehicle, the more difficult it becomes to land it in free-fall.

[NSEP]

Tip: Try landing a kerbal on his/her head.

[TwoThe]

1 hour ago, NSEP said:

Tip: Try landing a kerbal on his/her head.

Possible (I've seen the video, really fun!) but would disqualify as the landing pod is missing, also would give the minimum amount of points, as there is no way to have less mass when landing a Kerbal than if you land only the Kerbal itself.

[foamyesque]

The real killer here is the Mun landing, but I'll poke at it

 

EDIT: I assume the "entire vehicle" comments don't prohibit standard staging, though?

Edited November 3, 2016 by foamyesque

[Rath]

I think it's about docking.

[TwoThe]

14 hours ago, foamyesque said:

EDIT: I assume the "entire vehicle" comments don't prohibit standard staging, though?

Staging is fine. I just wanted to rule out builds that have a dedicated low-mass landers on the Mun.