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

[sturmhauke]

1 hour ago, PrvDancer85 said:

May i ask what you are using as bearing? I've tried the stock prob thing for myself but i wasnt able build a bearing that would work. I've tried the thermometers, structural parts, fairings and the small unbreakable first landinggear. Maybe i'm just to bad at building

I saw this autogyro posted on KerbalX the other day. You could download it and inspect the bearings.

[vyznev]

1 hour ago, PrvDancer85 said:

May i ask what you are using as bearing? I've tried the stock prob thing for myself but i wasnt able build a bearing that would work. I've tried the thermometers, structural parts, fairings and the small unbreakable first landinggear. Maybe i'm just to bad at building

Here's my go-to bearing design nowadays:

It's a small decoupler (with staging disabled) with eight symmetrically placed (disabled) RCS ports attached to it, and one RCS port serving as the rotor exactly in the middle. The RCS ports attached to the decoupler have been offset into it just enough so that the middle one fits snugly between them. The (empty) RCS tank keeps the rotor from just sliding out of the ring; the other bearing (not shown in picture) has one on the opposite side. (Of course, you can replace the tank with any other part that has a flat surface.)

I like this design because it's sturdier than the thermometer-based ones, can be easily duplicated without having to readjust it, can be easily adjusted to control the tightness of the fit, and can also be easily visually inspected to see if the rotor fits properly. Also, since it contains a built-in decoupler, you can also use it to detach the rotor from the main craft. Its main drawback is that it's also somewhat heavier than thermometer-based bearings.

Here's a pre-made subassembly I just pulled off the craft shown above, containing just the RCS tank, the decoupler and the ring of RCS ports. This one should already have the RCS ports properly adjusted for a fairly snug fit, but it's not particularly hard to adjust them yourself: just launch the craft, decouple the rotor and zoom in to check that the middle RCS port rotates freely but stays properly centered even with gravity pulling it down. If it's loose, move the outer ports slightly inward to tighten the bearing; if it shakes when it rotates, move them out to loosen it.

Spoiler

To make a simple rotor assembly, I'd recommend attaching one copy of the subassembly to your craft (the RCS tank is the root of the subassembly) and another directly to the first one. Then pull them apart (using the move tool and holding shift down), rotate the second copy by 180 degrees so that the decouplers are facing each other, and enable staging on the second decoupler. Then build your rotor between the bearings, attach some propeller blades (for powered props, I like to use Elevon 4's; for an autogyro you'll want something bigger like a FAT-455 control surface), and finally attach a single RCS port on either side of the rotor. Move the ports so they're exactly centered on the rotation axis (turn on angle snap for this, so that the port will snap to the axis) and then move them out (turning angle snap off and holding down shift) so that they're exactly centered in the decoupler. (You can check this by turning the camera so that the decoupler is sideways to it, and checking that the move tool arrows stick out from its middle, like in the screenshot below.)

The final result should look something more or less like this (with the rotating part highlighted):

Here's the craft file for the entire plane shown above, if you want to take it apart yourself and see how it works. Note that it's not a finished design and, in particular, doesn't actually have enough thrust to maintain stable flight. But that's not the bearings' fault -- the prop is just too small and weak for a plane this big.  If I ever get it to actually fly properly, I'll post it in the challenge thread I made it for.

Ps. For an autogyro, the rotor can be a lot simpler than the powered one shown here. Basically all you need is one root part (decoupler, RCS tank, whatever) with a bunch of blades and two axial RCS ports attached to it. Just make sure the bearings are far enough apart, or the rotor will tend to wobble.

 

Edited November 16, 2018 by vyznev

[PrvDancer85]

8 hours ago, sturmhauke said:

I saw this autogyro posted on KerbalX the other day. You could download it and inspect the bearings.

Yeah console user, sadly i cant do that but thanks. I will try if i can find something on yt

8 hours ago, vyznev said:

 

Thank you very much for your effort of writing this dude. I will try that, that's a really compact bearing.

Sorry for the derailing

Edited November 17, 2018 by PrvDancer85

[doggonemess]

Sorry for the delays everyone! I'll have the new challenge up within an hour. Thanks!

[doggonemess]

JOOL MOON SLINGSHOT RUN

Oye, beltalowda!

This week's challenge is inspired by "The Expanse". If you haven't seen the show, stop what you're doing and plan to do nothing else for the next two days while you binge watch it. It's that good.

Back to the challenge! Your mission is to make a slingshot run around the moons of Jool. To pull this off, you have to start from a circular Jool orbit at 248,000 km. From there, plot a maneuver that takes you past as many moons as possible without using any thrust after the initial burn.

My example below has my Kerbal flying by the three inner moons, with no control input after the starting burn. Now, I didn't get really close to any of them, and didn't get to the outer moons, but I'm positive it can be done much better! For instance, I could adjust my trajectory using RCS thrusters to get closer to the moons, using the gravity to do most of the work to get me back out to the moons I missed.

There's no scoring, but I'll be designing different badges for the basic goals, one for elite skills, and one for the true Belters out there. It breaks down like this:

• Basic: Slingshot past at least three moons. You can make mid-flight adjustments to steer your craft between the moons, but no engines may be used after the first burn - only RCS thrusters.
• Elite: Slingshot past all the moons using multiple maneuvers and RCS.
• True Belter: Visit all the moons using one burn and NO additional maneuvers - guided only by your initial trajectory. I swear, it CAN be done.

Your craft can be whatever you want to build. I went with something that looks cobbled together from junk, like the one featured in the show, but you can make it however you like! As such - any and all mods can be used, as long as they don't change the physics. If you want to check out the awesome design of the show's racer, check out the designer's website: https://gautamsingh.artstation.com/projects/LnQdw. 

You can also get your ship to the orbit any way you like. I just used the cheats menu to put the ship at 250,000,000, which is how I came up with the weird 248,000 km orbit number. That part is firm, everybody needs to start at the same point. You can, however, advance time to get the moons into a different alignment if you like.

I can't wait to see what you guys come up with! 

Happy explosions!

[PrvDancer85]

It's slingshot time baby

[Dark Lion]

Helpful notes:

You should probably have bumped the body count to at least 5 for the conic patch draw if you wanna rope the Joolian system like an AT-AT.

Edited November 18, 2018 by Dark Lion
Derped

[PrvDancer85]

A basicrun with tylo, laythe & vall

I maybe try an eliterun this week but i dont see a change of true belter, i probably lack the percision and my trajectory drawing stops after the second encounter

Edited November 18, 2018 by PrvDancer85

[sturmhauke]

I want to try this, but I'm getting on an airplane to visit the inlaws in a few hours and I may not have enough time. I mean I'm bringing my laptop of course, but you know, family obligations and all that.

[UnfortuneLess]

On 11/18/2018 at 1:12 AM, doggonemess said:

JOOL MOON SLINGSHOT RUN

Oye, beltalowda!

This week's challenge is inspired by "The Expanse". If you haven't seen the show, stop what you're doing and plan to do nothing else for the next two days while you binge watch it. It's that good.

Back to the challenge! Your mission is to make a slingshot run around the moons of Jool. To pull this off, you have to start from a circular Jool orbit at 248,000 km. From there, plot a maneuver that takes you past as many moons as possible without using any thrust after the initial burn.

My example below has my Kerbal flying by the three inner moons, with no control input after the starting burn. Now, I didn't get really close to any of them, and didn't get to the outer moons, but I'm positive it can be done much better! For instance, I could adjust my trajectory using RCS thrusters to get closer to the moons, using the gravity to do most of the work to get me back out to the moons I missed.

There's no scoring, but I'll be designing different badges for the basic goals, one for elite skills, and one for the true Belters out there. It breaks down like this:

• Basic: Slingshot past at least three moons. You can make mid-flight adjustments to steer your craft between the moons, but no engines may be used after the first burn - only RCS thrusters.
• Elite: Slingshot past all the moons using multiple maneuvers and RCS.
• True Belter: Visit all the moons using one burn and NO additional maneuvers - guided only by your initial trajectory. I swear, it CAN be done.

Your craft can be whatever you want to build. I went with something that looks cobbled together from junk, like the one featured in the show, but you can make it however you like! As such - any and all mods can be used, as long as they don't change the physics. If you want to check out the awesome design of the show's racer, check out the designer's website: https://gautamsingh.artstation.com/projects/LnQdw. 

You can also get your ship to the orbit any way you like. I just used the cheats menu to put the ship at 250,000,000, which is how I came up with the weird 248,000 km orbit number. That part is firm, everybody needs to start at the same point. You can, however, advance time to get the moons into a different alignment if you like.

I can't wait to see what you guys come up with! 

Happy explosions!

Alright, since I didn't have enough time for the past challenge, I guess I'll do this one.

Now, I know I already asked this, but how do you get the badges (I swear to god I don't know what a sig is).

Edited November 19, 2018 by UnfortuneLess

[doggonemess]

9 hours ago, UnfortuneLess said:

Alright, since I didn't have enough time for the past challenge, I guess I'll do this one.

Now, I know I already asked this, but how do you get the badges (I swear to god I don't know what a sig is).

Your sig is the space at the bottom where you can put anything you'd like to show off. It's accessed by clicking your username in the top right, then clicking on "account settings". On the account page, click on "Signature" on the left and you can paste the URL for the badge image there. Be sure to resize it if needed so it's no more 100px tall. You can do that by holding CTRL (or the Mac equivalent) and right-clicking. An option for "Edit image" appears, and you can specify the height and width in pixels.

[UnfortuneLess]

4 hours ago, doggonemess said:

Your sig is the space at the bottom where you can put anything you'd like to show off. It's accessed by clicking your username in the top right, then clicking on "account settings". On the account page, click on "Signature" on the left and you can paste the URL for the badge image there. Be sure to resize it if needed so it's no more 100px tall. You can do that by holding CTRL (or the Mac equivalent) and right-clicking. An option for "Edit image" appears, and you can specify the height and width in pixels.

Thank you!

[vyznev]

On 11/18/2018 at 2:12 AM, doggonemess said:

Back to the challenge! Your mission is to make a slingshot run around the moons of Jool. To pull this off, you have to start from a circular Jool orbit at 248,000 km. From there, plot a maneuver that takes you past as many moons as possible without using any thrust after the initial burn.

You can also get your ship to the orbit any way you like. I just used the cheats menu to put the ship at 250,000,000, which is how I came up with the weird 248,000 km orbit number. That part is firm, everybody needs to start at the same point. You can, however, advance time to get the moons into a different alignment if you like.

Wait... shouldn't that be 244,000 km? At least that's what I get when I cheat my ship to 250,000,000 meters above Jool's center of mass. And the wiki seems to agree, listing Jool's radius as 6,000 km.

[UnfortuneLess]

basicrun completed:

Initial orbit:

Laythe-Tylo-Vall-Vall encounter burn:

The encounters:

Peri-laythe:

Peri-tylo:

Peri-vall (#1):

Peri-vall (the second one, got that one by accident):

Obviously there was no other engine or RCS ignition/burn after the first burn (because that's against the rules).

Edited November 23, 2018 by UnfortuneLess

[vyznev]

On 11/18/2018 at 2:12 AM, doggonemess said:

Back to the challenge! Your mission is to make a slingshot run around the moons of Jool. To pull this off, you have to start from a circular Jool orbit at 248,000 km. From there, plot a maneuver that takes you past as many moons as possible without using any thrust after the initial burn.

There's no scoring, but I'll be designing different badges for the basic goals, one for elite skills, and one for the true Belters out there. It breaks down like this:

• Basic: Slingshot past at least three moons. You can make mid-flight adjustments to steer your craft between the moons, but no engines may be used after the first burn - only RCS thrusters.
• Elite: Slingshot past all the moons using multiple maneuvers and RCS.
• True Belter: Visit all the moons using one burn and NO additional maneuvers - guided only by your initial trajectory. I swear, it CAN be done.

You can also get your ship to the orbit any way you like. I just used the cheats menu to put the ship at 250,000,000, which is how I came up with the weird 248,000 km orbit number. That part is firm, everybody needs to start at the same point. You can, however, advance time to get the moons into a different alignment if you like.

Of course, I went directly for the True Belter goal.  As they say, if you aim your rocket at the Mun and miss, you'll still end up in space. If you aim for the ground, you won't miss!

And as it happens, I didn't miss, and I wasn't aiming at the ground, either! So, without further ado, here are the screenshots:

Spoiler

Note: The two extra maneuver nodes visible in the screenshot above have zero delta-v, and are only there to make the maneuver planner show encounters that happen more than one full orbit from the previous one.

Not shown above: the second and third encounters with Vall and Tylo, and the numerous orbits spent waiting between them. For more screenshots and commentary, see the full album at https://imgur.com/a/W3AqhVL.

The total mission time from the initial maneuver burn to the last encounter was a little over 1 year and 169 days. During that time, I flew by Pol, Tylo, Bop, Vall, Vall again, Tylo again, Tylo yet again, Vall one more time, and finally Laythe.

Out of those encounters, only the first three (Pol, Tylo and Bop) were planned ahead. After that, I just trusted that I would get more encounters with the inner moons and hopefully encounter all of them before getting flung out of the system or crashing into Jool or one of the moons themselves. As it turns out, that worked out just fine, although getting that last Laythe encounter took quite a bit of waiting.

The only mods I used were Precise Node for planning the maneuver and KER for precisely executing it. Of course, I also used Alt+F12 to initially cheat the craft into a circular Jool orbit with a 250,000,000 meter radius.

(Unfortunately, the challenge statement seemed a bit contradictory on the exact altitude / radius required, and I never got a reply to my request for clarification, so I just decided to go with what I already had. Still, I don't feel it really made any difference in the end; the challenge would have been no easier or harder even if I'd started at a 254,000,000 meter radius instead.)

Edited November 24, 2018 by vyznev

[UnfortuneLess]

2 hours ago, vyznev said:

Of course, I went directly for the True Belter goal.  As they say, if you aim your rocket at the Mun and miss, you'll still end up in space. If you aim for the ground, you won't miss!

And as it happens, I didn't miss, and I wasn't aiming at the ground, either! So, without further ado, here are the screenshots:

  Hide contents

Note: The two extra maneuver nodes visible in the screenshot above have zero delta-v, and are only there to make the maneuver planner show encounters that happen more than one full orbit from the previous one.

Not shown above: the second and third encounters with Vall and Tylo, and the numerous orbits spent waiting between them. For more screenshots and commentary, see the full album at https://imgur.com/a/W3AqhVL.

The total mission time from the initial maneuver burn to the last encounter was a little over 1 year and 169 days. During that time, I flew by Pol, Tylo, Bop, Vall, Vall again, Tylo again, Tylo yet again, Vall one more time, and finally Laythe.

Out of those encounters, only the first three (Pol, Tylo and Bop) were planned ahead. After that, I just trusted that I would get more encounters with the inner moons and hopefully encounter all of them before getting flung out of the system or crashing into Jool or one of the moons themselves. As it turns out, that worked out just fine, although getting that last Laythe encounter took quite a bit of waiting.

The only mods I used were Precise Node for planning the maneuver and KER for precisely executing it. Of course, I also used Alt+F12 to initially cheat the craft into a circular Jool orbit with a 250,000,000 meter radius.

(Unfortunately, the challenge statement seemed a bit contradictory on the exact altitude / radius required, and I never got a reply to my request for clarification, so I just decided to go with what I already had. Still, I don't feel it really made any difference in the end; the challenge would have been no easier or harder even if I'd started at a 254,000,000 meter radius instead.)

Amazing work! I could've waited for the encounters myself, I just didn't want to ;).

[vyznev]

I just thought of another challenge suggestion: launch and dock two vessels in Kerbin orbit, like in the earlier "SRBs to orbit" challenge, but this time using no reaction wheels or RCS. (If your command pod or other parts have built-in reaction wheels or RCS, disable those. And yes, Vernors count as RCS.)

That basically means using only engine gimbals for steering. (Aero surfaces are OK too, of course, but of rather limited use in space. Not sure how I feel about abusing time warp to kill rotation. Probably I'd say it should be regarded as permitted but cheesy. )

It's definitely doable, and teaches a useful skill.

For a bonus challenge, turn SAS off and fly the whole mission 100% by hand. 

(For easy mode, could maybe allow reaction wheels but still forbid RCS.)

Edited November 26, 2018 by vyznev
+ easy mode

[doggonemess]

The challenge is now closed!

Great work for those who tried it, I'll have the badges up soon. And, sorry to have missed the question about altitude - it doesn't really matter, the main thing was getting the craft to a starting point that worked well and could be replicated. 

 

Standard badge:

 

True Belter badge:

 

 

Edited November 27, 2018 by doggonemess

[sturmhauke]

Challenge suggestion: In honor of NASA's InSight lander, I suggest the following mission:

Using a single launch, send one unmanned lander and two relay satellites to Duna. Each probe takes its own course to Duna after separating from the launch vehicle in LKO. The lander must have at least one experiment onboard that can be performed by a probe (unfortunately this does not include surface samples in the stock game), and then it must transmit its data back to Kerbin via one or both relay sats.

[vyznev]

1 hour ago, sturmhauke said:

The lander must have at least one experiment onboard that can be performed by a probe (unfortunately this does not include surface samples in the stock game), and then it must transmit its data back to Kerbin via one or both relay sats.

A seismic scan seems reasonable enough to me.

(The really annoying thing here is that the DTS-M1 antenna is not relay-capable. )

Edited November 26, 2018 by vyznev

[UnfortuneLess]

22 hours ago, sturmhauke said:

Challenge suggestion: In honor of NASA's InSight lander, I suggest the following mission:

Using a single launch, send one unmanned lander and two relay satellites to Duna. Each probe takes its own course to Duna after separating from the launch vehicle in LKO. The lander must have at least one experiment onboard that can be performed by a probe (unfortunately this does not include surface samples in the stock game), and then it must transmit its data back to Kerbin via one or both relay sats.

So, is this a suggestion or an actual challenge (because I'm very tempted to do it).

[vyznev]

26 minutes ago, UnfortuneLess said:

So, is this a suggestion or an actual challenge (because I'm very tempted to do it).

It's a suggestion; @sturmhauke is not on the micro-challenge team (see first post in this thread).

But it did occur to me that recreating the InSight mission in KSP would have plenty of targets for a full-blown "tick the boxes" challenge. I couldn't find one on this forum yet, so I just might try my hand at making one, if sturmhauke doesn't call dibs. Anyway, that would be something for a separate thread.

[sturmhauke]

Dibs have been called!

[Lucast0909]

New Challenge!

Tactical Ballistic Missile Chunkin!

It's that time of year ladies and gentlemen! While those earthlings busy themselves with chunking pumpkins with all manner of siege artillery KSC has opened its ballistic missile range to all comers. The goal is simple: build a ballistic missile and hit something with it. I don't care how you do it, cluster warhead, kinetic penetrator, it's all on the table.

Some rules (you can't escape 'em):

• The missile has to take a suborbital (70km+) trajectory which means:

1. No deorbiting it on top of the baddy
2. No jet-powered long range cruise missiles

• The missile has to actually hit something be it an airplane, building, carrier, or what have you
• The target has to be at least 50km away from the launch point
• The missile must be unmanned

On a substantially different note, sorry this one's three days late, I totally forgot I was on the hook for this week. (It wouldn't have mattered much even if I had remembered, I was traveling, but...)

Medal:

Edited January 3, 2019 by Lucast0909

[sturmhauke]

So I made that InSight challenge. Come check it out: