Kerbal Skydive challenge

[ExtraPlanetal]

The challenge is simple - skydive from the highest altitude and land as close to the centre of the launchpad as possible.

The prize will go to the brave fool who hits the ground closest to the centre of the launchpad from the highest altitude.

For evidence you need to supply a screenshot showing the kerman getting out of the craft and a 2nd one showing where he landed with the Flight results open.

The lifter rocket may use any parts as long as they do not affect a falling kerman.

The scoring system will work as following. You would gain 1 point for each metre of altitude. You would then lose 10 points for each metre away from the launch pad. This will be determined either by using a marker (other ship on or right next to launchpad) or if there is no marker, the ground distance covered will be used. Markers give a more accurate measurement of the distance away from the launchpad (say you orbit and land on the launchpad - your ground distance covered would be horrible), but lacking a marker I would be forced to use "indeterminate distance" or ground distance covered (which is bad, look at my score ).

I am looking forward to your participation!

Competition host's best - score of -1 258 549 (altitude of 307 781m and indeterminate ground distance of 156 633m)

Leaderboards:

1 - Tommygun - score of 8 413 (max altitude of 13 639m and indeterminate distance of 514)

P.S the death toll resulting from this challenge will go towards the parachutes for kermans initiative, which aims to do just that.

Edited August 31, 2012 by ExtraPlanetal

[Tommygun]

I was trying to do something similar last week, but I wanted to do it by balloon.

Kind of a Green Bull Gives You Wings promo.

I hope you don't mind, I know the balloon isn't stock, but I had the pictures on my hard drive and it was close to what you were talking about.

Here is the sad story of Archibald Kerman:

Preflight

Balloon Boy

On The Ladder!

Jump!!!

Free Fall

RCS thrusters are not a substituent for proper parachutes!

Poof

It says Ground Distance Covered 514 meters and highest altitude 13,639 Meters

Sorry for my spoilers not working.

Edit: thanks Cykyrios for the help.

Edited August 31, 2012 by Tommygun

[Cykyrios]

The proper syntax for spoilers is

[closette]

You killed Kermans! You bastards!

[erkle64]

You killed Kermans! You bastards!

There's more where they came from.

[ExtraPlanetal]

LOL nice one Tommygun.

You guys think I should allow mod parts?

[Tommygun]

LOL nice one Tommygun.

You guys think I should allow mod parts?

I think as long as they only use original or mod parts to reach an altitude, but free fall without any part help, it would be fine.

Although maybe that anti gravity part should be avoided for this challenge.

How would you judge "ground closest to the center of the launchpad from the highest altitude".

If one person jumps from 75,000 meters and lands a 1000 meters off and the next person jumps from 80,000 meters, but land 3000 meters off.

Which is better?

Maybe you should have two categories:

A) The closest landing from 100,000 meters up.

The highest jump that lands with in 5000 meters of the tower.

Have them post a screen shot of the Flight Results pop up screen showing "Highest Altitude Achieved" and "Ground Distance Covered" along with any other pictures.

[ExtraPlanetal]

Edited original topic to include scoring system.

Also - should I retitle this to the Green Bull (epic name Tommygun) Skydive championship?

Edited August 31, 2012 by ExtraPlanetal

[ExtraPlanetal]

Well here's my attempt - a total score of -1 258 549 (altitude of 307 781m and indeterminate ground distance of 156 633m). Indeterminate distance because my landing pad was too cluttered.

Well, here are the screens:

Getting out too soon

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32258[/ATTACH]

Apoapsis ~ 300k

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32259[/ATTACH]

Trajectory

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32260[/ATTACH]

Right before impact

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32261[/ATTACH]

Flight results

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32262[/ATTACH]

[Tommygun]

Edited original topic to include scoring system.

Also - should I retitle this to the Green Bull (epic name Tommygun) Skydive championship?

Sounds good, I'll reattempt another jump with proper flight gear too.

[Tommygun]

This time I tried with a rocket.

Highest Altitude Achieved 2,130,525 Meters and Ground Distance Covered 1,160,184 Meters.

So -9,471,315 points, I was better off with balloons!

[mark_mazz]

I tried this same idea once before this challenge came out. I don't have screenshots, and I don't remember how close I was to the pad, or how high I was, but I found that it helped to go east slightly, as that is the direction that Kerbin rotates, and it is especially helpful when jumping from space, like Tommygun did.

[Nematrec]

Just completed the challenge, these are the results:

That's an altitude of 38,790m so +38k points.

That's about 1.4km away from the pad (as seen according to the distance from the debris on the pad, you might have to zoom in to see it) lets round to 1,500m so -15k points.

For a total of 23k points (23,790 to be precise).

EDIT: Added commas

EDIT 2: Second attempt (actually third but i didn't take screenies that time)

Altitude: 34,046m +34k score

Distance from centre of launchpad: 40.8m -400 score

for a final score of 33646

EDIT: I got the spoiler to work, turns out it doesn't like a lot of letters.

Edited September 2, 2012 by Nematrec

[Tommygun]

I tried this same idea once before this challenge came out. I don't have screenshots, and I don't remember how close I was to the pad, or how high I was, but I found that it helped to go east slightly, as that is the direction that Kerbin rotates, and it is especially helpful when jumping from space, like Tommygun did.

That's basically what I did. Just before reaching <STRIKE> Apoptosis </STRIKE> apoapsis I did executed a circlizing orbit burn in MechJeb and killed it before it got completed.

The issue is knowing when to abort the burn and I stopped too soon.

Edited September 1, 2012 by Tommygun

[ferrin]

"Apoptosis" that sounds like a crippling kerbal disease.

[Tommygun]

"Apoptosis" that sounds like a crippling kerbal disease.

It is, Damn auto spell check!

[halocon720]

"Apoptosis" that sounds like a crippling kerbal disease.

It's actually programmed cell death. But for Kerbals, it may be a disease.

Sorry for off-topic post.

[Tommygun]

Was there a specific rule on how many Kerbals can attempt this at one time?

At least one of those guys had to have it inside the circle!

[Karakatiza]

Here is my brave Mitlan trying to beat world records...

Liftoff!

Approaching...

PUFFFFF

32 meters from launchpad

Altitude is 131,247 m.