adsii1970's sandbox micro-challenges (New Challenge - December 16, 2022)

[Admiral Fluffy]

  On 9/21/2021 at 10:33 AM, adsii1970 said:

Dres

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Whats that?

Edited September 21, 2021 by Admiral Fluffy
oh hey llok new page

[adsii1970]

  On 9/21/2021 at 2:35 PM, Admiral Fluffy said:

Whats that?

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Something that will eventually have a base on it. Go explore!^TM

  On 9/21/2021 at 1:41 PM, Stormpilot said:

@adsii1970 I was wondering if you intensionally left out the requirements for a stock game. This looks like a fun challenge! if I ever find time this week

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The stock requirements are there - always in the right-hand column. If you are trying to view it on a mobile device, be warned, I use tables and you'll need to scroll to the right to see the requirements. This particular thread is best viewed on a tablet, a PC, or non-hand-held device. Good question, though.

[Stormpilot]

  On 9/25/2021 at 8:41 PM, adsii1970 said:

The stock requirements are there - always in the right-hand column. If you are trying to view it on a mobile device, be warned, I use tables and you'll need to scroll to the right to see the requirements. This particular thread is best viewed on a tablet, a PC, or non-hand-held device. Good question, though.

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Ah I see it now. Thanks.

[camacju]

this Dres challenge looks really fun - I'll try to do it for as low cost as possible

edit: actually I want to make it look cool, not just be low cost

Edited September 26, 2021 by camacju

[Admiral Fluffy]

  On 3/18/2021 at 12:51 PM, adsii1970 said:

1,000 units of liquid fuel and oxygen

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This is the thing that is holding me up. Most annoying requirement. What (in my opinion) is even more annoying, is that it has to be part of the base. Working on it now though.

[Stormpilot]

  On 10/3/2021 at 7:50 PM, Admiral Fluffy said:

This is the thing that is holding me up. Most annoying requirement. What (in my opinion) is even more annoying, is that it has to be part of the base. Working on it now though.

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Well how else you gonna refuel docked craft?  

Also where is Jeb gonna top off the tank on his rocket powered go kart?

Maybe do it in multiple launches?

Edited October 4, 2021 by Stormpilot

[AtomicTech]

  On 3/18/2021 at 12:51 PM, adsii1970 said:

Minmus mining and refining outpost micro-challenge

This challenge involves creating a fully operational ore mining and refining facility on Minmus.
This particular challenge will feed into two other challenges to be released at future dates. Those two challenges will not be able to be completed without the resources (fuel) generated by this functional micro-challenge.

 

Here are the requirements for your :

Modded game	Stock game
+ The outpost must comfortably house six Kerbalnauts	+ The outpost must comfortably house six Kerbalnauts
+ The outpost may be located anywhere on the surface of Minmus.	+ The outpost may be located anywhere on the surface of Minmus.
+ The outpost can be powered by solar, nuclear (RTG), fuel cells,etc.	+ The outpost can be powered by solar, nuclear (RTG), fuel cells,etc.
+ The outpost must be able to remain in contact with the KSC (relay ok).	+ The outpost must be able to remain in contact with the KSC (relay ok)
+ The outpost must have storage capability for ore and fuel.*	+ The outpost must have storage capability for ore and fuel.*
+ The outpost must have two rovers.**	+ The outpost must have two rovers.**
+ The outpost must have a Convert-o-tron. + The outpost must have the ability to transfer fuel to and from a vehicle.	+ The outpost must have a Convert-o-tron. + The outpost must have the ability to transfer fuel to and from a vehicle.
+ Station must be able to provide food/snacks for six Kerbalnauts (greenhouse)

 

Additional information about the challenge:

• The outpost must be able to store at least 1,500 units of ore, 1,000 units of liquid fuel and oxygen, and 500 units of monopropellant. *
• The outpost must be able to transfer fuel, liquid oxygen, and monopropellant to another craft/vehicle (the vehicle will be constructed in another challenge).
• The outpost must be able to transfer ore from a rover to ore storage tank/tanks.
• The outpost must have two rovers:**
  • One rover must operate with a Kerbal crew of two and be capable of mining ore and transporting it back for refinement into fuel.
  • One rover must have a surface scanning module to locate ore deposits from the surface and must have the capacity to conduct other surface experiments on Minmus.
• Your settlement must be constructed on the surface of Minmus but with parts from Kerbin.
• There is no preferred shape for your settlement! As long as it meets the above criteria, you're good to go. There are a couple of observations for your consideration:
  • Convert-o-trons use a lot of power. Make sure your facility can generate and store enough power!
  • Make sure you have a lot of batteries. One of the mods I use is @Nertea's Near Future Electrical mod. The capacitors and larger batteries (and more powerful nuclear reactors) are definitely a help.

The sandbox micro-challenge badge:

Participant Board:

@Spaceman.Spiff: "I'm going single launch" (it actually took 3)
@GuessingEveryDay: "MinStation Challenge"
@Lewie: "Here's my entry!"
@STORMPILOTkerbalkind: "Here's my official submission..."

 

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I'm going to start working on this on friday.

Edited December 9, 2021 by AtomicTech

[Admiral Fluffy]

  On 12/9/2021 at 8:52 PM, AtomicTech said:

I'm going to start working on this on friday.

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I've already done this, I'm just procrastinating on posting the pictures.

[Admiral Fluffy]

Took me long enough.

Now, I prouldly present, 

Admiral Fluffy's Minmus Base

Here it is!

It can hold 12 Kerbals, and has two many parts.

Resorces tab open.

Mining rover mining.

Requested a Surface Scanning Module.

Science dodads

Fuel truck!

Truck by SSTO.

The truck does not have monoprop storage, although i will add that.

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https://imgur.com/a/8Ak6Xd3

 

Edited December 20, 2021 by Admiral Fluffy
Album

[AtomicTech]

  On 9/6/2018 at 6:39 PM, adsii1970 said:

Mün Arch Settlement micro-challenge

I almost ran out of week before I had a chance to post this week's micro-challenge. This challenge involves constructing a fully operational settlement near one of the arches on the Mün.

Here are the requirements for your space station:

Modded game	Stock game
+ Settlement must comfortably house ten Kerbalnauts	+ Settlement must comfortably house ten Kerbalnauts
+ Settlement must no further than 1 Km and no closer than 500 m to arch.	+ Settlement must no further than 1 Km and no closer than 500 m to arch.
+ Settlement must be able to process ore into fuel.	+ Settlement must be able to process ore into fuel.
+ Settlement must be able to remain in contact with the KSC (relay ok)	+ Settlement must be able to remain in contact with the KSC (relay ok)
+ Settlement must have a science lab.	+ Settlement must have a science lab.
+ Settlement must be able to refuel a lander or other craft.	+ Settlement must be able to refuel a lander or other craft.
+ Settlement must have an airlock to allow passage from outside/in, etc.	+ Settlement must have an airlock to allow passage from outside/in, etc.
+ Station must be able to provide food/snacks for ten Kerbalnauts (greenhouse)

Additional information about the challenge:

• Your settlement will need power. You will need to use nuclear power, solar power, batteries, or whatever to assure your Kerbalnauts aren't left in the dark and to have enough power to process ore into fuel.
• You must provide housing for all ten Kerbalnauts - no hot bunking!
• There's no predefined shape for your settlement. Have fun!
• You will need to have some sort of rover which can be used to drill for ore and bring it back to the settlement for processing (for future micro-challenges).
• You will need a docking port (unmodded) or the hose connector found in KAS/KIS (modded) on your settlement. This will allow you to transfer ore for processing and refined fuel to be exported to various craft.

The sandbox micro-challenge badge:

@Kerbolitto -  Mün Settlement

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Will attempt this weekend!

[adsii1970]

  On 12/8/2022 at 3:15 PM, AtomicTech said:

Will attempt this weekend!

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I quit posting the challenges because no one seemed interested. If you want, I'll start working on these again.

 

[18Watt]

Here's some screenshots from my attempt at the Minmus Mini Challenge.

First things first:

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I'm starting a new sandbox save for these mini challenges.  I'll be doing the Minmus space station challenge first.  I don't have any relay satellites in place yet, and I'll want some.  Five should be plenty. 

Oh, for this challenge, the entire station and relay sats will be delivered to LKO via SSTO spaceplanes.  Just because.

Satellites in orbit, ready to deploy.

Five relay satellites in LKO, next stop Minmus orbit.

Here's one of the relay sats in orbit of Minmus.  The magenta blips in the background are the other 4 satellites.

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about how to get perfect coverage- I just drop satellites into random orbits and hope for the best.

Spaceplane delivery vehicle returning to KSC.  I launched into Minmus's inclination, so the re-entry doesn't take me directly over KSC, I need to maneuver in the atmosphere just a tad.

Lined up with the runway.

Back at the hangar.

The tug is going to need to refuel at Minmus a few times.

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I'll deliver an ISRU truck to the surface of Minmus.  I haven't taken a Survey Scanner to Minmus yet, so I have no idea where the ore is.  I'm going to just guess, and hope for the best.

Fuel truck in LKO.

Descending to the surface of Minmus.  When the main booster tank runs out of gas I drop it.  The truck has a small engine to do the final landing burn.  The dropped booster tank will impact the surface and be destroyed.  Or will it?

Nope!  The booster tank bounced right off the surface, and is coming back up at me!  I think it missed my truck by about 100m, maybe less.  Phew!

ISRU truck safe on Minmus, doing it's thing.

Next I'll need a tug to deliver components to Minmus.

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We're pretty deep into the space-station mission, and we haven't delivered a single station component!  And we're not going to with this mission either.  Patience grasshopper.

Launching the tug from the runway.  The tug is only a little over half full of fuel, which will be plenty to get to Minmus.  I can refuel the tug at Minmus.

While deploying the tug from the cargo bay I damaged an antenna.  Tekin goes on EVA from the spaceplane to repair it.  Repair kits really come in handy, if you remember to bring some along.  

Antenna is repaired.  I'll leave the tug in LKO for now.  The next launch will finally have some actual space station parts.  Hooray!

The crew of the plane returning home.

Delivery of the first station component:

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Taking the Science Lab first.

Gently wiggling the Lab out of the cargo bay.  Gently!

Hooked up to the tug, and burning for Minmus.

I'll leave the station in a roughly 60X60 km equatorial orbit of Minmus.

The tug still has plenty of gas, but I'll refuel it anyway.

ISRU truck refueling the tug.

And back in LKO, waiting for the next component.

Habitation Module delivery:

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The habitation module does not have any LFO engines, those fuel tanks are just to have a little fuel storage aboard the station.  Just in case.  The habitation module will have to maneuver to dock with the station using RCS only.

In LKO, getting lined up with the tug.  The tug will take the habitation module to within 100 m or so of the station.  The last 100 m will be powered by the module's RCS thrusters.

Ok, now it's starting to look like a station.  Science Lab and Habitation Module are docked together.

I'll fuel up the tug before taking it back to LKO.

Lander delivery:

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This is pretty close to the Lander I actually used.  The photo shows the small flat solar panels.  I got it to orbit, then managed to align the Lander facing exactly away from the Sun, and completely drained my batteries.  No way to recover.  Grr.  Back to the drawing board- I'll end up using deployable solar panels instead,  Otherwise, the lander in the screenshot is identical to the one I ended up using.

There's a fine line between going just fast enough, and too fast.  With really heavy payloads the plane will only reach about 1,550 m/s in air-breathing mode.  This is a lighter payload, so I was able to top 1,600 m/s.

Before I bring the Lander to Minmus, I need to add a tiny docking port to the station.  I wasn't sure what size docking port everything would use when I started.  Luckily, I planned for this, and brought several spare docking ports just in case.  Carzon went out on EVA and attached a small docking port to a short girder section.  Now the Lander has a place to dock to when it arrives.

Lander being deployed from the cargo bay.  I swapped the crummy flat solar panels for deployable ones.

Getting some distance from the plane before going full-blast with the engines.

Lander is docked to the station.  

Another shot of the completed station.  I used the 2-crew capsule for the lander.  I originally was going to use lawn chairs to save weight, but the lawn chair landers I came up with were really ugly.  This lander weighs a little more, but is not as hideous as the lawn chair landers I came up with today.

 

[18Watt]

Ok, I've knocked out my second Adsii Micro Challenge- the Mun settlement one.  That one calls for a base housing at least 10 Kerbals, a lab, refinery, and a Mining truck.  Oh, it also calls for a separate refueling truck.  And the whole thing has to be between 500 and 1000 m of the Mun arch.

First things first:

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To start out, I'll want some relay satellites around Mun.  5 seems to be adequate.

5 relay sats in orbit of Mun.

Next, I'll want to figure out where the ore is located.  I also need to actually find the Mun arch, which I've never done before, at least not that I remember.  So I brought the rover body as a probe core, because it has 100% chance of detecting anomalies.  After scanning Mun, I've decided there are actually three Mun arches.  I need to explore them all, to figure out which arch is most suitable for a large settlement.

To explore the area around the arches, I send rovers to each one.  The rovers are unkerballed at this time, but they do have lawn chair seats so I can use them with my Kerbals later.

There's one!  Hard to see, it's a short dark line just right of the fuel tank in the screenshot.

First rover ready to explore around an arch.

Second rover, preparing to land next to a second arch.

And a third rover landing at the third arch.  (Edit- I just noticed in the next photo that the rover already has two flat tires.  Must have been damaged when I deployed the fairing.  I originally thought I just de-mounted the rover from the fuel tank poorly.  But now it appears it was just a bad fairing design.  I think)

Next, I need to decide which arch I'll build my settlement next to.  I have a few criteria I'd like to have:

• A flat spot to build my settlement, which is the required distance from the arch.
• High ore concentration.
• Would be nice to be close to the equator to make trips between surface and orbit simpler.

After a lot of consideration, I chose the arch which had the flattest spot nearby.  Unfortunately, it has a fairly low ore concentration (~3.9%), and is about 12 degrees south of the equator.  Better than trying to set up a large base on a hillside though.

Storage tanks and refinery:

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Here's the refinery and storage tanks on the launchpad.

Orbit of Kerbin, burning for Mun.

Looking at the nice flat landing zone.  I'm aiming for about 750 m from the arch.  The green target near the arch is the rover I left earlier.  It has two flat tires..

Landed.  Looks nice and flat, I don't think I'll need to move the refinery, looks fine here.

Ore drilling vehicle:

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Ore driller ready to launch.

Lining up for landing next to the base.  I don't want to get too close, and risk damaging the base.  500-1000 m is a good distance to aim for.

Landed.  I'll need to carefully decouple the truck, and let it gently flop to the ground.

Docking ports aren't perfectly lined up, I'll need to use the engineer to adjust the height of the port on the refinery tank.

Rats, that didn't go well.  KSP still makes the landing gear or wheels freak out sometimes during surface docking.  Very frustrating.

After a little fiddling and finger-crossing, I managed to get the two things docked together.

Tekin hops over to the rover with two flat tires, and repairs them.  Then she will drive the rover over to the base.

Just a few more components to go!

View from the cupola, which is on one end of the drill truck.

Habitation and lab module:

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Big launcher for the habitation and lab module.

Approaching the base.

Landed.  I'll need to do another careful and gentle flop to the ground with the habitation module.

Housing for 14 Kerbals, including 2 in the lab.  This module does have lots of battery storage, and solar for charging.  But once it's docked to the main base, most of the electricity will come from the refinery module, with it's giant solar panels.

Refinery, storage tanks, drill truck connected, and habitation/lab module connected.  

Last, I need a truck to refuel ships:

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The fuel truck on the pad, ready to go.

Climbout.

Approaching the base.  The truck is basically an orange tank with a Klaw Jr. on the nose.  Although power will mainly come from the solar panels, I also put a small fuel cell on the truck as well, in case I need to operate at night.  The fuel truck doesn't need much power, the only big drain is the wheels.  If it's not moving, it doesn't need much power.

Fuel truck landed.  I'll drive over to the base and park it.  Besides the inflatable airlock on the fuel truck, the rest of the base also has several inflatable airlocks.  I like those things.  Sometimes it's hard to get ladders positioned well.  With an inflatable airlock, I can just have an engineer place it somewhere near the ground, where the Kerbals can easily reach it.  The fuel truck, drill truck, and habitation module also have ladders.  Can't have too many ways for Kerbals to get back into the ship- that's really frustrating when you have a Kerbal on the surface and they can't get back into the ship.

Anyway, that's my second Adsii Micro Challenge.

[18Watt]

Second Minmus micro challenge complete.  (Surface refinery base)

Completed the second Minmus micro challenge, setting up a refinery fuel base on Minmus.  I re-used several components from the previous Mun surface base project, as the specifications for both bases are very similar.

Recon:

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Hmm, I didn't take very many photos of this phase.  I already have a relay satellite constellation around Minmus (from the first Minmus challenge), but I never actually did a resource scan.  Time to do that.

I'm scouting locations, with the following desired attributes:

• Flat place to land and set the base up.  Hopefully in one of the Minmus Flats regions.
• High ore concentration.
• Near the equator, to make orbiting/de-orbiting less complicated.

I found a good location, which appears to have high ore concentration, and is nice and flat.

First batch of ships:

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Launching the refinery and habitation module.  This project does not require a lab, so I just added the habitation components to the refinery from the previous Mun surface challenge.  I also slightly reconfigured a few parts, but nothing major.

Separating the refinery from the booster.  The refinery has four radial engines to take it to Minmus and perform a landing there.

However, before I bring the big refinery to the surface, I want to make sure there is actually ore near my selected base site.  So I send a rover.  The rover is currently un-Kerballed, but it does have two seats for future use by the base occupants.  Turns out there is a very good ore concentration at the site I've chosen- 14%.  The survey work I did paid off!

Now that I've determined the site has plenty of ore, I'll bring down the refinery.  It is possible to move it if needed, but it's a pain to maneuver the thing, and I'd prefer to just land it once, and leave it where it sits.

In the next screenshot, you can see the habitation units I've added to the refinery.  The solar panels are enough to power the thing during the day.  At night it also has 4 large fuel-cell arrays, which also can completely power the refinery if needed.  Shouldn't run out of fuel for the fuel-cells..

A few more pieces to deliver:

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Launching the drill and ore collection vehicle.

The vehicle has 4 drills, and several ore storage tanks.  The two solar panels are plenty to power it during the day, and it also has fuel cell arrays to power it at night, if needed.

Flopping the truck over to the surface.  Even in Minmus' low gravity I still need to be careful not to damage anything.

Next shot shows the mining vehicle docked to the refinery, and mining ore.

I'll also need a vehicle to transfer fuel from the storage tanks to visiting ships.  One thing I should have done is add a bigger MonoProp tank to the refueling truck.  The cupola holds 10 units, so I can indeed transfer a little MonoProp to visiting ships if needed.  But a bigger tank would have made more sense.  Maybe I'll add a bigger MonoProp tank to the truck in a future mission.

Landing the refueling truck.

Gently!

Next screenshot shows the refinery in action.  The refiner is refining, the drills are drilling, and the fuel truck has taken a full load of fuel from the storage tanks.  The fuel truck attaches via a Klaw Jr. to whatever it needs to.  Not seen in the photo is the 2-Kerbal rover, but it's not far away, ready to go exploring if needed.

 

[18Watt]

Eve Probe and Lander Micro Challenge:

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Here's the probe in the VAB.  The top-most assembly is the lander, which will detach at Eve.  Below that is the relay satellite, which also acts as the transfer stage.  The lower booster stages have a 2 orange tank core with a Vector engine, and 4 SRBs staged sequentially.  

Launching from KSC.

Upside down.  The relay satellite portion has a big relay antenna, the rover-body probe core (for detecting anomalies), and a survey scanner.

Found an arrival at Eve which should give me a polar orbit. 

Arriving at Eve, burning to capture.

The survey scanner won't work if my orbit is larger than 1,500km, so I made my orbit small enough to fit into that window.  Evidently, there is lots of ore one Eve in this save.

Lander:

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The lander separating from the transfer stage/relay satellite.  A better way to do this would be to skip having a fuel tank and engine on the lander.  I'd put the transfer stage into an atmospheric trajectory, separate the lander, and then burn with the transfer stage to get a non-atmospheric trajectory.  That would have been simpler.  Next time..

Lander entering Eve's atmosphere.

I haven't figured out an economical way to avoid brief periods of very high G's at Eve.  There's always a roughly 3 second period of hitting 8-9 G's.  That's fine for probes, but I do feel bad on the rare occasions I send Kerbals to the surface.

Looks like it will be a night landing.

The single relay sat doesn't provide 100% coverage, but when it's overhead I do have a good signal path to Kerbin.  Pretty basic lander probe.  There's a small structural panel on which I've mounted some science modules, an antenna, and a goo canister.  A single small parachute is plenty on Eve, overkill really for a probe this small.  Retractible solar panels are needed due to the crazy atmospheric entry at Eve.  The small flat panels would work too, but I tend to have bad luck with coverage with those panels.

Here's a better look at the transfer stage, which also acts as the relay satellite.  I'm using the rover body probe core because the challenge wanted the ability t scan for anomalies.  Other cores also can scan for anomalies, but the rover body is the best one for anomalies.  The rover body does not have any reaction wheels, so there is a small one mounted under the batter, too dark to see in the screenshot.  I think there are two Terrier engines powering the transfer stage.

 

[18Watt]

Kerbin Polar Station

Here's my entry for the Kerbin polar orbit science and relay station.

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A little under $75K to launch- the least expensive Micro Challenge I've done so far.

Launch from KSC, as usual.  Hmm, since this is going into a polar orbit anyway, I could have used one of the alternate launch sites.

Picking up speed in the atmosphere.

Polar orbit achieved, roughly 125X125 km.

Survey scan completed, not a lot of ore on Kerbin.  I also have the narrow-band scanner buried in there too..

The mission requires a com capability of '228G'.  I have no idea what that means, but if three of the giant RA-100 antenna dishes ain't enough, I'll just fly up some more.  Lab has a couple of docking ports and an airlock.  There's room for 4 Kerbals, but I only have 3 in there right now.  If they do one 8-hour shift per day, they should be able to keep an eye on things constantly.  Actually, since Kerbin's days are only 6 hours long, then..  Something involving a different number.  Anyway, here's the completed polar orbit station.

 

[18Watt]

Eve Polar Station

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Almost $120K, but still less expensive than some of the earlier Micro Challenges.

Almost out of Kerbin's atmosphere,

With a 31 m/s burn, I can tweak my Eve arrival to put me close to a polar orbit when I capture.

The booster stage ran out of fuel after capture, but I still need to burn some more to get my orbit within the parameters of the challenge.

Should be close enough, orbit is roughly 150X175K.

This one also has the narrow-band scanner.  Those things are a lot more handy than I thought.

Another shot of the station.  It's very similar to the Kerbin station I just put up.  This one has 3 Docking Ports, and one inflatable airlock, which works as a Docking Port Jr,  I also have several spare docking ports in the storage trunk, which is located between the two Terrier engines.  As before, I'm not sure what a com capacity of '228G' even means, but I'm hoping that 3 of the giant RA100 antennas will be sufficient.  The station also has a resource scanner, narrow band scanner, and some science experiments.

 

[18Watt]

Dres Polar Relay Satellite complete:

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Launch cost a little over $100K.  I probably didn't really need that large of a launch platform, but I have made some incredibly inefficient transfers to Dres in the past.

Launch from KSC.

With a little adjustment, I have an arrival at Dres which should make an easy entry into a polar orbit.

Polar orbit achieved.

In the next screenshot you can see the narrow band scanner and the science parts.  The probe core is the rover body, again because it is very good at detecting anomalies.

Slightly different angle, showing the single Docking Port Jr.

 

[Neptunium_69]

Pioneer II Space station

Europa HLV on the pad, moments from liftoff!

Liftoff!!! The 5 mastodons and the 14 vectors of the Europa Class HLV ignite.

Second stage in space getting the station into orbit.

Orbit achieved!

Kerbal on EVA.

Show of the station near the north pole just a bit over 170 km from the surface.

Apoapsis: 173 km

Periapsis: 169 km

[adsii1970]

It's good to see this thread being the topic of interest again. I'm working on new challenges today. Next week, I need to update the individual challenge leader boards to credit those who have already completed the challenges. I also am looking for members for a feedback team - as I need volunteers to help rate the difficulty of the challenges. I don't rate them myself because I am biased and have been playing the game since 2012. I have four different versions of KSP:

1. My go-to game is a fully modded 1.3.0 game
2.  I have a fully modded 1.12.4 with DLC
3. a stock (with DLC) 1.12.4 game (with DLC)
4. a 1.12.0 with Kopericus and a couple of mods that I am working on.

About the challenges: One of the things I enjoy doing is testing each challenge before I post it. It's neat hearing feedback on how the challenges have introduced new ways of solving problems or doing things in the game. That's one of the reasons I started doing them. I fell into a rut about five years or so ago myself. And although I hate to admit it, I would often go weeks without playing KSP. One of the things that brought me back was deciding to do things in a more Kerbal way. Sure, there are probably easier ways to do each of the micro-challenges. But --

Kerbals are naturally curious but also cautious. They love the thrill of speed and the excitement of doing something new and dangerous (okay, some of them love the thrill of doing death-defying acts of stupidity. Others do not). And this should also translate to anything they do - including their space program. Taking a page from NASA, there's a formula I came up with - probe before Kermanned missions. It's a neat way of doing things. Also, each probe always has a Docking Port Jr. on it - and there will be missions to those later where you will thank me! Kerbals are frugal green folk who will recycle a probe for another mission if the primary mission is complete.

One of the things I enjoy is seeing how you come up with solutions to the challenges. Some of you are building one huge craft and doing it all in one launch. Others see it as an opportunity to use multiple launches to accomplish the challenge. The fun thing is there's no right or wrong way to do it - as long as you're having fun meeting the challenge objectives.

Cheers!

[adsii1970]

Moho polar orbit Survey Probe:

This challenge involves placing a survey probe in a polar orbit around Moho.

Yes, it is another polar orbit. If you haven't figured out by now, polar orbits are a great utility orbit for scanning the surface of planets and other bodies within Kerbal Space Program. Some of you may be wondering why so many of the micro challenges involve these probes - well, I'll give you some insight into my mind:

• Interplanetary transfers are hard to master. It took me a while (about six or seven months) to truly get the hang of it. I cannot tell you how many probes I sent out to Duna to only be able to have them settle in nice orbits around Jool or one of the Joolian moons.
• Each of the probes is a little different. This one has a SC-9001 Science Junior included. Each one of these micro challenges are setting you up for the ability to play a variety of future challenges and missions.
• Some of you are already beginning to see how twisted my self-imposed sandbox missions can be. And if you are playing these in either the career or science modes, they actually can increase the game's complexity.
• Eventually, there will be a small settlement on each planet/moon (where possible) where a probe and an orbital space station is located. It will make more sense later.  

Polar orbiting satellites will most always have a direct line of communication with Kerbin, but not necessarily the KSC. As more of these polar satellites and some of the relay and research stations are added throughout the Kerbol system, there will be an effective (but ugly) communications network established. If you are like me and have that small little setting where communications with probes are essential for control, then you'll thank me later. 

Why does this probe have a SC-9001 Science Junior on it? During the planning phase for this mission, Dr. Wernher von Kerman thought it would be a really good idea to give a reason for force future crewed missions to Moho. So, during the planning stage for this mission, and with the assistance of a sticky pad, he added a note to add a small portable lab to the probe. In an unmistakable scribble understood by the construction team, the note read:

This would be a really neat spot to add an SC-9001 Science Junior!

So, with those instructions, the construction crew did just that - added the component without questioning the wisdom of one of the pioneers of the space program.

Here are the requirements for your probe:

Modded game	Stock game
+ Probe must rely on solar power only (batteries and capacitors ok)	+ Probe must rely on solar power only (batteries ok)
+ Probe must be at an orbit between 100Km and 125Km	+ Probe must be at an orbit between 100Km and 125Km
+ Probe must be able to remain in contact with the KSC (relay ok)	+ Probe must be able to remain in contact with the KSC (relay ok)
+ Probe must have one Docking Port Jr.	+ Probe must have one Docking Port Jr.
+ Probe must have a Mystery Goo Container. + Probe must have a SC-9001Science Jr.	+ Probe must have a Mystery Goo Container.  + Probe must have a SC-9001Science Jr.
+ Probe must have a 2Hot Thermometer and a Magnetometer Boom.	+ Probe must have a 2Hot Thermometer and a Magnetometer Boom.
+ Probe must have a GRAVMAX Negative Gravioli Detector.	+ Probe must have a GRAVMAX Negative Gravioli Detector.
+ Probe must have an M700 Survey Scanner. + Probe must have the ability to take pictures of the surface.	+ Probe must have an M700 Survey Scanner.

Additional information about the challenge:

• This mission has a few purposes that were planned:
  • It is a great way to practice your interplanetary transfers. Since it's a probe, you don't have to worry too much about the time it takes you to complete the voyage.
  • It requires a bit more planning than either the Eve or Duna missions. And as hinted above - there will be additional missions to Moho in the future beyond the creation of an orbital relay and science station. Oh, Moho missions will become challenging.
  • It continues the pattern we've started on this journey - unKerbaled missions that begins with probes. From there, we go to orbiting stations Kerbaled with a brave group of volunteers, eager to expand their knowledge of space!
• The mission has a few purposes that were unplanned:
  • It's been a while since I've done one of these missions myself, so I started off with what I thought would be an easy mission. It's not exactly a cake walk, but it's not that difficult. I had to revert twice. I already put the probe on the launchpad and realized I forgot the Docking Port Jr. Yeah, that's one of the requirements. And the second time was because I missed my interplanetary transfer window and there was no way I had enough fuel to compensate. So... yeah...
  • Again, I do the missions before I post them just to make sure they are doable. And with this one, don't overthink it, but don't forget the basics.
• There is no preferred shape or size for your probe. As long as it meets the above criteria and can send you back all the data you can use, you're good to go. Don't forget to share your images, but for the sanity of the other users, and as asked in a few previous challenges, please share them in "spoilers" to reduce the length of the posts. 

The sandbox micro-challenge badge:

 

[18Watt]

Moho Probe Mission complete:

Construction and launch:

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I wanted to launch this via SSTO.  I struggled a little trying to make the probe fit in the mid-size MK3 cargo bay.  It's ion powered, and has a RA100 (the big one) antenna, survey scanner, narrow band scanner, temperature, gravioli, pressure, materials bay, goo canister, and magnetometer boom.  I'm also using the rover body as a probe core, with a second probe core to provide actual navigation functions.

Another shot in the VAB showing a different angle.

Mounted in the cargo plane.  It fits, but just barely.

Launch from the KSC runway.

This crew module does not have great visibility.

LKO.  I'm using a higher departure orbit than normal, because the TWR of ion engines is quite poor.  I won't be taking advantage of Oberth effects with this probe.

Deployed.  The solar panels are enough to power 3 ion engines at full power- but only when I'm closer to the sun than Eve.  Out near Kerbin's orbit I can only run the engines at about 67% power without depleting my batteries.

Trip to Moho:

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Starting the burn to escape Kerbin.  The low TWR required several periapsis kicks to escape.

Getting lined up for an arrival at Moho which will allow me to enter a polar orbit.

Arrival at Moho.  When I'm this close to the sun I'm able to run the ion engines at full power without depleting my batteries.  However, I need to start the capture burn a long distance from Moho.

Polar orbit achieved, and I was able to run a survey scan of the planet.  Moho does not have very high concentrations of ore in this save.

Next shot shows the narrow band scanner in action.  I'm liking the narrow band scanner a lot now, and wish I had started using it earlier.

Next shot is just a different view of the probe at Moho.  One problem I now see is that although I do indeed have a docking port on the probe, I did not put any RCS on it for maneuvering.  That may make docking a challenge later.  I've done docking with no RCS before, and it's possible but tricky.  Maneuvering to dock will likely involve the other ship needing RCS.

 

[Neptunium_69]

Pioneer III

Oversized Europa HLV on pad.

Liftoff!!!

Vessel in the air

Gravity turn

Orbital insertion burn

Minmus ejection burn

Minmus capture burn

Lander+Core module in orbit (note: I launched the ander here because my Europa HLV was oversized, so I had some extra Delta V, I decided to reduce the amount of launches so I launched the lander too)

Second launch: Crew + ISRU + More solar panels + relay sats module

Liftoff!!!

In the air

Gravity turn

Fairing separation

First stage separation

Docking( I forgot to capture screenshots while doing the maneuvers required to get here=(, so This is all I got)

Docked!

Playing with relays

Note: This is a modded entry, though the space station is stock. The only reason why it is modded is because I have some SCANsat scanners on the relays to scan minmus. I did add a farm on the station. Other than that, it's completely stock

[Neptunium_69]

Moho Polar survey

Launch

Stage separation (Upper stage blew up lower stage)

Moho ejection

Moho capture

Altitude adjustment

Done!

Moho Polar survey

Launch

Stage separation (Upper stage blew up lower stage)

Moho ejection

Moho capture

Altitude adjustment

Done!

[Neptunium_69]

Ice Cream Base

Modded entry, here we go:

Launch 1: Main base

Later....

Final decent

Landing

Closer...

Success!!!

Launch two: Rover named "Ice" (Note: I added some visual mods before this launch)

Ejection

Capture

Decent

Landing

Landed

docked

Launch 3: Rover called "Cream" (Note: rocket is serious oversized)

Liftoff

Ascent

Fairing depoy, You can see the 3 ton river in the huge rocket

Cool shot

Another cool shot

Decent

LandingSkycrane landing

Touchdown!

Driving

Entire colony in one shoot!

Base in the center "Ice" and "Cream" on two sides!

Summary:
Rovers don't do well on minmus, I did a lot of quicksaves. It is recommended to use ion powered hovercrafts on minmus.