Doing It Constellation Style

[Mythical Donuts]

what I meant was basically a super tiny planet, so it would have it’s own gravity and would be on a resonant orbit with Kerbin. If that’s not allowed, then I might just do that and a stock asteroid rendezvous in the same mission

[septemberWaves]

@Mythical Donuts That is not the intention of the challenge; you should use a stock near-Kerbin asteroid.

[Mythical Donuts]

Ok that's fine

Edited January 15, 2019 by Mythical Donuts

[Death Engineering]

Ares I / Orion

 

Orion high speed re-entry test

Okay, I'm in. 

[michal.don]

Alright, I decided to give this another shot, and do it properly this time. I'm going to play this in a modded, 3.2x rescaled 1.6.1 install, with focus on hopefully good looking spacecraft

What I have so far:

Orion and Altair lander, WIP

Ares I

 

A question though - with CommNet turned on, is it possible to send a few commsats in advance, or is it required to struggle with signal blackouts?  

Thanks,

Michal.don

[septemberWaves]

@michal.don These vehicle designs are looking good. Which mod adds that solid rocket on the Ares I?

And regarding Commnet, it is of course permitted to send satellites in advance (and all of the interplanetary challenges actually necessitate that if you are going for maximum score); you do not need to use the Constellation lifters for satellite launches either, since satellites are typically much less massive payloads. The reason there is no task in the Munar Sortie mission for communication satellites is because if players choose to land on the Kerbin-facing side of the Mun, the lander will always have a connection to Kerbin when landed (and planning Mun missions this way can be interesting).

[michal.don]

Yes, I meant that specifically for the Mun mission, the lander requires signal to operate.

The SRB (with thrust curve, yay  ) comes from this one:

 

That's where the Orion capsule is from, too.

I'll share the full modlist when the first mission is submited, it might grow a bit until then

Thanks for the reply,

Michal.don

[Kerbolitto]

@septemberWaves Hey ! Is it possible that I design a new Altair to build the second Mun base or do I have to keep the same one ? I'll get into trouble to land the heaviest modules with the first iteration !

[septemberWaves]

@Kerbolitto The idea is to use the same descent stage, though obviously without the ascent stage since base modules do not need to leave the Mun. If you redesign your Altair descent stage for the Mun base, you should apply the same upgrades to the one you use for the Mun base crew. Alternatively, you could try to reduce the mass of the base modules if you can. The design philosophy I used for my new Altair involves a significant cargo capacity, specifically to avoid this issue with base modules (and also to probably allow enough extra fuel mass in future for Tylo).

[Kerbolitto]

2 minutes ago, septemberWaves said:

@Kerbolitto The idea is to use the same descent stage, though obviously without the ascent stage since base modules do not need to leave the Mun. If you redesign your Altair descent stage for the Mun base, you should apply the same upgrades to the one you use for the Mun base crew. Alternatively, you could try to reduce the mass of the base modules if you can. The design philosophy I used for my new Altair involves a significant cargo capacity, specifically to avoid this issue with base modules (and also to probably allow enough extra fuel mass in future for Tylo).

Okay thanks, I'll see what I can do !

[michal.don]

So, my first entry:

I used the following mods:

Spoiler

And I think my score should be as follows:

Launch vehicles +10

Ares I +5

Ares V +5

Stage recovery I and II +7

Orion +6

Crew safety and mobility +5

Larger than life +5+3.2

CommNet +10

=56

 

Objective +20

KOR +8

Accurate Altair +7

Fuel cells +2

Descent module +4

KDS +3

AOI +3

Mun rover +3

=50

 

It was fun flying, I should go asteroid hunting soon  

Michal.don

 

 

[septemberWaves]

@michal.don This is an excellent mission; your vehicle designs are very good. I agree with your calculated score, although rounding is not intended with the upscaled Kerbol system so your total score for the Munar Sortie mission is 106.2.

 

To everyone interested in this challenge: it is worth keeping in mind that I will be changing the rules regarding surface science bonus points very soon.

Edited January 22, 2019 by septemberWaves

[septemberWaves]

I have changed the rules for science bonus score.

[Death Engineering]

Looking forward to playing with Constellation-y designs this spring again. 

On 2/16/2017 at 5:19 PM, septemberWaves said:

Collect as many science points from your target celestial body as possible using only stock science experiments.

This sounds more or less wide open, as long as the science! is captured by a crew member, yeah? So, roving the surface good too, presumably..

Thanks for revamping and reviving this challenge! 

 

And the high-altitude testing...

                                                                      ..continues.

Edit:

This mod is part of why I'm back in the Constellation game. Having a proper selection of LF tanks is going to make designs better.

 

Edited January 24, 2019 by Death Engineering

[septemberWaves]

14 hours ago, Death Engineering said:

This sounds more or less wide open, as long as the science! is captured by a crew member, yeah? So, roving the surface good too, presumably.

It is indeed. You have to send kerbals to wherever you are collecting science from, and you have to return your science to Kerbin with your crew (or, in missions where you can use two Orion spacecraft like the Duna missions, with at least some of your crew), but rovers are perfectly acceptable to use; part of my reasoning for the changes to this category were to encourage people to use the rovers that some tasks require.

As a side note, I would advise anyone who is planning on exploring the same celestial body twice to save their science collection until the second time, since the return missions for Mun and Duna are much larger.

[Kerbolitto]

I've finally built all the stuff to complete 4-Mun Base, just to be sure, Kerbals have to return in orbit using the Mun Ascent Vehicle from Munar Sortie to dock on Orion ? I have to capture using Altair own propulsion ? Also there's a little mistake in the description, it is required to get room for 3 kerbals (stock) but the rover has to carry 4 :p I can use OrionEXT to get 4 on the Mun if needed, with a larger MAV

[septemberWaves]

4 hours ago, Kerbolitto said:

I've finally built all the stuff to complete 4-Mun Base, just to be sure, Kerbals have to return in orbit using the Mun Ascent Vehicle from Munar Sortie to dock on Orion ?

The crewed part of the mission is identical to the Munar Sortie mission, except for the fact that the kerbals will land at the Mun base and stay on the Munar surface for more time. So yes, the same spacecraft designs should be used for that.

4 hours ago, Kerbolitto said:

Also there's a little mistake in the description, it is required to get room for 3 kerbals (stock) but the rover has to carry 4

I will update this; thank you for pointing it out.

[Kerbolitto]

I finished 4 Mun Base yesterday, there's more than 50 pics so I put everything in a report here :

 

 

I hope you'll like it I had lots of fun to get a flexible outpost design, as I wanted something very compact, light, with few parts and most important : easy to pilot   (and also shiny !).

As usual I spent lots of time in the SPH, to get the most out of my previous Altair, and also to find creative solutions to move modules around and I think that the Utility Rover is a great success !

 

Here's a few pics !

 

 

General Score : 48

Spoiler

Launch vehicles +10

Ares I +5

Ares 5 +5

Stage recovery 1 & 2 +3 +4

Orion +6

Crew safety +4

Surface mobility +1

Commnet +10

Mun Base Score : 105

Spoiler

Objective +30

Base size +25

Crew quarters +8

Science module +8

Total mobility +8

Pressure preservation +3

Carefull planning +4

Phone home +3

Power systems +9 (the base has around 2000 electricity left after a full night with lights on).

Anomaly survey +3

Long term stay +4

 

Edited January 29, 2019 by Kerbolitto

[Death Engineering]

Very cool. 

@KerbolittoHow many parts is your Altair? Mine is over 150 with two little single seat rovers which makes my landing fps kinda bad.. Might need to rethink it some.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Death Engineering

[Kerbolitto]

Thank you

Altair EXT is 79 parts 24t. and 1600+ dV with no cargo. The augmented version I used to move the MAV + Orion is 33t. with 2200+ dV.

Once the modules of the base were docked my fps was a bit better, but I had to get rid of 2 empty Altairs !

[septemberWaves]

@Kerbolitto Congratulations, you have completed the Mun Base mission and earned the relevant badge. I like the design of your base a lot, and your unconventional lander design was certainly interesting.

Did you forget to include points for the crewed part of the mission in your total? "Crewed Mission: When sending crew to your Mun base, add all relevant points from the Munar Sortie challenge (points which apply for this new mission, not your previous Munar Sortie attempts)." I cannot calculate your total score without that; the main issue is fuel cells, since I cannot immediately discern whether they are the power source of your Altair lander.

[Kerbolitto]

17 minutes ago, septemberWaves said:

@Kerbolitto Congratulations, you have completed the Mun Base mission and earned the relevant badge. I like the design of your base a lot, and your unconventional lander design was certainly interesting.

Many thanks !

This is the most compact design I created to deploy a land base and also probably the most effective Without all the cosmetic parts on Altair it could be improve a lot !

17 minutes ago, septemberWaves said:

Did you forget to include points for the crewed part of the mission in your total? "Crewed Mission: When sending crew to your Mun base, add all relevant points from the Munar Sortie challenge (points which apply for this new mission, not your previous Munar Sortie attempts)." I cannot calculate your total score without that; the main issue is fuel cells, since I cannot immediately discern whether they are the power source of your Altair lander.

That's right I forgot to include those points ... ! ><

Kerbin Orbit Rendezvous  +8

Accurate Altair  +7

Fuel Cells  +2 (you can barely spot one on Altair EXT landing and deployment 2nd pic where Altair lands near the Arch : they are on the innerside of the lateral white fuel tanks just above the fairing, there's a cell on each side)

Descent Module  +4

Kerbin Departure Stage  +3

Altair Orbital Insertion  +3

Surface Sample  +8

----> 35

That should be it ? Should I count the rover ?

 

Edited February 4, 2019 by Kerbolitto

[septemberWaves]

1 minute ago, Kerbolitto said:

Should I count the rover ?

The rover that you landed as a base module? No. Those points are specifically for a rover brought by the crewed Altair lander.

This gives you a total score of 188 for the Mun base.

[Kerbolitto]

18 hours ago, septemberWaves said:

The rover that you landed as a base module? No. Those points are specifically for a rover brought by the crewed Altair lander.

This gives you a total score of 188 for the Mun base.

Thank you =)

I got lots of ideas for Dres landbase, I'd like to create a foldable multi purpose rover but I lack experience with axis and hinges ... We'll see

[Willer Kerman]

Hello, I'm interested in participating in the challenge, but I have a question about the rule below.

On 2/16/2017 at 8:19 PM, septemberWaves said:

Orion: Orion is launched on the Ares I rocket and has space for at least three kerbals for stock entries, or four kerbals for modded entries. (+6)

 

I'm going to make my application using mods, but none of those I use have a capsule with a capacity of 4 kerbals, so I wonder if this rule is mandatory.