Micro-challenges for all! (Continuation of Newbie Central.)

[Alchemist]

  On 10/13/2018 at 6:55 PM, vyznev said:

Here's a save I made with @Lucast0909's original carrier placed just about exactly 75 km due east of the launch pad (by straight-line distance, so a little more as measured over Kerbin's non-flat surface).

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Thank you!

 

The best I got so far (don't even ask to count reloads...)

at least didn't break anything. still slid off

[Lucast0909]

  On 10/13/2018 at 3:55 AM, AeroGav said:

Might be easier if the carrier is moving, since that means less speed difference between the carrier and the airplane.

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Err... That isn't exactly what I meant: my aircraft carrier is so heavy it physically doesn't have the TWR to move under its own power.

Also, @FleshJeb, provided your carrier has the same deck area and shape as mine, I see no problem with people using yours, although the carrier shouldn't be moving when you land an aircraft on it.

[sturmhauke]

  On 10/13/2018 at 10:20 PM, Alchemist said:

Thank you!

 

The best I got so far (don't even ask to count reloads...)

at least didn't break anything. still slid off

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I thought about trying to land my shuttle on the carrier too, but I think both of ours are really too wide. You might at least consider moving your landing gear in a bit, but you're probably still likely to hit the bridge tower.

[FleshJeb]

  On 10/13/2018 at 11:56 PM, Lucast0909 said:

Also, @FleshJeb, provided your carrier has the same deck area and shape as mine, I see no problem with people using yours, although the carrier shouldn't be moving when you land an aircraft on it.

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Hey, thanks for allowing it.  I tried to make the deck areas as identical as I could, including the superstructures. I realized afterward that I have the rear "bumper" sticking out about 2m longer than yours, but I don't think it makes a heck of a lot of difference.

I bent the spirit of the rules and used a VTOL, but to make up for it, I made it a helicopter (okay, okay, it's a fake helicopter). I also did it while the carrier was moving, but landing a VTOL on a target moving 25m/s isn't any harder than landing on a stationary one. Proof in album: https://imgur.com/a/fG8FO8Z

Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ao8nw73tajpdjgs/Thwop Thwop.craft?dl=0 (v1.4.5, stock)

I decided to try landing on a stationary target without the VTOL, so I took off and went around again. Due to punching the wrong action group, I smacked into the water. It landed intact, so I took off from the water, punched the wrong group again, and had an RUD.

So, I reverted, and tried it as intended:

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Multiply that experience by about 8. I'll try again with a different craft...LATER. Arrrghhh! (This thing is WAY too squirrelly, and has almost no control surfaces to tune.)

FYI everybody, I found it easier to line up on the target when landing bow to stern. I think it just works better visually or something.

@Alchemist Your images are broken for me.

Edited October 14, 2018 by FleshJeb

[Lucast0909]

  On 10/14/2018 at 12:37 PM, FleshJeb said:

I bent the spirit of the rules and used a VTOL

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Err... There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a vtol: I used one too

[sturmhauke]

I'm working on an actual helicopter, not a cosmetic one. Still trying to figure out how to fly the stupid thing.

[vyznev]

  On 10/13/2018 at 12:55 AM, Lucast0909 said:

Land on the KSS Kerman (found here:  https://kerbalx.com/LucasT0909/USS-Kerman-Class-CV-Built-by-LucasT0909) with an aircraft of your choosing, provided it has at least one kerbal aboard.

Further Stipulations:

• The carrier must be located 75km from the KSC
• The carrier must be unmodified
• You are not required to get the carrier there under its own power (it doesn't move anyway)
• The aircraft used must survive the landing (no, stopping it with the superstructure doesn't count)
• Go nuts.

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Oops. I thought I'd try to complete another challenge at the same time (and partially recreate an earlier mission I flew in January). However, I forgot to read the instructions carefully, and accidentally left all my kerbals in orbit.  

Also, I'm not 100% sure if this counts as an "aircraft". 

I suppose I could try to land the upper stage on the carrier too, since it does have parachutes.   Getting the aim right might take some work, though. Let's just say that, even with RCS control on the lower stage, the F9 key got quite a bit of use.

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This never happened...

Nor did this:

Nor this:

And definitely not the many, many variations of this: 

 

(FWIW, I do have video of the whole flight, including all the reloads. Hopefully this time it even has a two-digit FPS rate, since I'm playing on a slightly better laptop than when I flew the Falcon Heavy mission. It still probably needs a bit of editing, though.)

[sturmhauke]

I wouldn't say it's an aircraft, but it's also probably harder. Nice work!

[hoioh]

That took a sweet number of tries! Fro such a huge ship it's a very small runway...

 

Don't want to install yet another mod, so I've added some landing gear to the bottom, drained all the fuel and simply sailed the carrier into position. Then figured it needs power and life support, so added some, then added some antennae and camera's and other tat to make it look a bit cooler before I started crashing my little plane into it repeatedly untill it ended up on the deck in one piece. here's some screenshots of the carrier positioning:

https://imgur.com/a/YrSPz4P

 

[doggonemess]

Greetings, all!

Sorry for the hugely huge delay, but I finally finished the medal for the LF SSTO. Collect yours below!

Bigish version:

 

Smallish version:

[hoioh]

  On 10/19/2018 at 1:16 PM, doggonemess said:

Greetings, all!

Sorry for the hugely huge delay, but I finally finished the medal for the LF SSTO. Collect yours below!

Bigish version:

 

Smallish version:

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Well made!

[doggonemess]

  On 10/19/2018 at 4:50 PM, hoioh said:

Well made!

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Thanks! I took me forever. For some reason the idea wasn't coming to me, and then I just figured "Go for it, make a ship over a planet and see what comes out". It sort of made itself while I worked. I just had to try putting something down and see where I went with it.

[Kerbalstar]

The challenge is now closed!

Thank you to everyone who participated! Here is your badge:

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(Writing this from my phone, I’ll embed the link when I get to my computer.)

 

 

Edited October 20, 2018 by Kerbalstar
Embedding picture.

[doggonemess]

New Challenge! Lithobrake capsule return!

  Quote

I believe that this world should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this week is out, of sending a Kerbal to orbit and returning them safely to Kerbin... without a parachute. We choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are harder than they need to be.

- John F. Kerman

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Due to a shortage of materials (partially due to the Great Nylon Glut of '06) parachutes have become more expensive than antimatter. With the desire to still reach (and return) from the stars, our mission is to send a Kerbal to space and return them home using the most efficient, fastest method without parachutes. While this could be achieved using an SSTO, landing a winged craft takes a large amount of skill. We need a drop craft that brings the crew home rapidly and without any complicated methods, so our scientists with no hand-eye coordination can still get things done. We would prefer to collect the craft on land rather than a water landing to further reduce cost and complexity.

To meet this challenge, the craft must:

1. Design a craft with one or more crew and no part mods (except for Squad expansion parts).
2. Reach orbit and deorbit (you can cheat the craft to orbit to save time, since it's not part of the challenge).
3. Reenter the atmosphere above 1600 m/s.
4. Ballistic descent through atmosphere (no gliding, but aero parts to induce drag are fine).
5. Land on the same continent as the Space Center.
6. Part loss on 'landing' should be minimal to save money.

While challenges are usually unranked, a special badge will be awarded to engineers who can manage the landing without using engines.

Happy landings! (hopefully)

[vyznev]

  On 10/21/2018 at 1:20 PM, doggonemess said:

To meet this challenge, the craft must:

1. Design a craft with one or more crew and no part mods (except for Squad expansion parts).
2. Reach orbit and deorbit (you can cheat the craft to orbit to save time, since it's not part of the challenge).
3. Reenter the atmosphere above 1600 m/s.
4. Ballistic descent through atmosphere (no gliding, but aero parts to induce drag are fine).
5. Land on the same continent as the Space Center.
6. Part loss on 'landing' should be minimal to save money.

While challenges are usually unranked, a special badge will be awarded to engineers who can manage the landing without using engines.

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Well, that was pretty easy.

I call this seven part wonder the Floating Saucer, for reasons that should be obvious from the screenshots below. It consists of a mk1 command pod, two sepratrons for the re-entry burn, a single inflatable 10m heat shield for aerobraking and three small landing gears to absorb the remaining impact force.

The one perhaps non-trivial feature of this craft is that, despite appearances, all the other parts are actually attached directly to the command pod (since you can't actually attach things radially to the heat shield) and just translated to make them look as if they were mounted on the heat shield. Also, because of this, the heat shield itself has rigid attachment enabled; without it, it tends to hit the ground and explode on landing, since the gears are not actually directly attached to it.

Mission screenshots below:

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And here's the craft file, if anyone else wants to test it.

Honestly, I kind of feel like the 10m heat shield makes this a little too easy. Although I'm pretty sure similar results would also be achievable through airbrake spam as well.

Edited October 21, 2018 by vyznev

[sturmhauke]

I made this crazy thing that can litobrake on Tylo a while back:

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I don't have screenshots of this part, but I also tested the core portion (the pod with the landing gear cube) in Kerbin's atmo and it did fine. I'll trim down and do another run.

[AeroGav]

What about a pod that has an asymmetrically attached wing part and spins down like a sycamore seed ?  Might be a bit hard to predict landing point,  but i've created such things inadvertently before,   usually mid air, from what was once a symmetrical, intact aircraft with the same number of wings on each side....

[Daylight4449]

Lovely! I'll get right to it!

[TheFlyingKerman]

@vyznev has beaten me in posting...

 

 

Edited October 22, 2018 by TheFlyingKerman

[doggonemess]

 

  On 10/22/2018 at 9:54 AM, TheFlyingKerman said:

@vyznev has beaten me in posting...

 

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I'm thinking I didn't think that through enough. I do have to give you credit for thinking of something I didn't think of.   Maybe I should have specified no heat shield, but since I didn't, bravo guys!

 

[PrvDancer85]

This is just a droppod

It can carry 4 kerbals back down to the ground, at least at kerbin, dont try that at the mun.

Lithobreaking Droppod

[Lucast0909]

I have a submission too!

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The last set of airbrakes is technically supposed to be discarded before landing, but considering all the issues I had with debris strikes I kept it for this attempt.

[sturmhauke]

Here's mine. I didn't bother with the launch portion, but if you want to see the original Tylo mission this is derived from look here: https://imgur.com/a/wDXsKiX

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[doggonemess]

  On 10/26/2018 at 6:31 AM, sturmhauke said:

Here's mine. I didn't bother with the launch portion, but if you want to see the original Tylo mission this is derived from look here: https://imgur.com/a/wDXsKiX

 

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I built one a while back that used a similar method, and was hoping someone would go that route!

Yours is very interesting as it's an open design - mine had structural panels and was covered in landing struts. I love the open design you made.

[sturmhauke]

  On 10/26/2018 at 4:42 PM, doggonemess said:

I built one a while back that used a similar method, and was hoping someone would go that route!

Yours is very interesting as it's an open design - mine had structural panels and was covered in landing struts. I love the open design you made.

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Thanks! The Kerbals can theoretically get out of the capsule, but in practice it's a bit dangerous because it tends to slide around on the ground and crush them.