The Colony Ship Challenge (Redux)

[NGTOne]

With the recent discovery of planets other than Kerbin (and theories that there may even be planets orbiting other stars), the KSP administration has made the decision to construct a robust, re-usable colony ship infrastructure, to make interplanetary (and eventually extra-Kerbolar) colonization routine and efficient.

To this end, they have commissioned YOU, the public at large, to design a large colony ship that meets the following requirements:

1. Capable of deploying the following colonial equipment to the destination body:

a) A large, single-piece (CANNOT be landed as multiple pieces) colony base, with room aboard for at least 32 Kerbals. The colony should be landed manned. A colony is defined as any surface or immobile airborne installation with room for 32 or more Kerbals.

A set of outposts, each with room for at least 4 Kerbals. There should be no fewer than 4 of these outposts. The outposts should be landed manned. An outpost is defined as any surface installation or immobile airborne with room aboard for 4-31 Kerbals inclusive.

c) A set of manned rovers, each with room for at least 4 Kerbals. There should be no fewer than 4 of these rovers. Note that the rovers can be landed unmanned. Aircraft will only be considered as rovers on bodies with an atmosphere (i.e. a "puddle jumper" spacecraft on an airless body does not qualify as a rover). To be considered as a rover, the aircraft must meet the following criteria:

i. Capable of vertical takeoff and landing.

ii. Capable of travelling at least 500 km overland under its own power, unrefuelled, in atmospheric flight on Kerbin.

iii. Does not use suborbital or orbital ballistic trajectories to achieve overland travel.

iv. Uses aerodynamic lift or buoyancy to maintain altitude during horizontal flight.

v. Meets all other criteria for a rover.

vi. Is deployed on one of: Eve, Duna, Jool, or Laythe.

vii. Is not designed for long-term habitation (i.e. the airborne rover cannot also be counted as an outpost).

viii. Uses some means of powered propulsion (i.e. infinigliders do NOT qualify).

d) A set of space stations, at orbital inclinations of 0, 45, 90, and 135. Each station should house no fewer than 8 crew members. Their orbits can be either prograde or retrograde, but they cannot intersect the body's terrain or atmosphere at any point.

e) Any other equipment that is deemed useful (Kethane refining equipment, mapping satellites, farm installations, what have you).

2. Capable of travelling from Kerbin orbit to orbit over any planet or moon in the Kerbol system nonstop and returning to Kerbin orbit after dropping off the colonial equipment, all without refuelling.

3. Capable of long-term operation (i.e. should have as little reliance on consumables as possible - for instance, using gyroscopic steering instead of RCS).

4. All colonists should be kept in a habitation block during transit - i.e. the colony equipment should not be used as habitation space during the journey, and should only be inhabited immediately prior to landing.

5. Capable of unmanned return to Kerbin orbit, to pick up a new load of colonial equipment, and delivering this equipment to a different body.

6. Capable of deploying any piece of colonial equipment at any time - there should not be a requisite order for deploying equipment (e.g. "this piece deploys before this piece").

7. Designed as a single, monolithic mission architecture (i.e. multiple flights to the target body should not be required to deliver all requisite equipment/fuel. Multiple flights to Kerbin orbit to assemble, fuel, and crew are OK, but only one craft should have to leave Kerbin's SoI). In addition, no ship components (other than the colonial equipment) should be lost during the voyage (i.e. drop tanks are not permitted).

You are allowed to use any mods you like, so long as they are balanced. HyperEdit is not permitted (all components should be launched from the ground or built fairly on orbit). You are not restricted by budget or number of launches.

In short, your assignment is to develop a re-usable colony ship that can deploy a whole colonial infrastructure in one go, and then do it again and again.

Win Condition/Points Breakdown:

The win condition/points breakdown is as follows:

All conditions above must be met to earn ANY points.

Planetary Destination:

These points are earned for reaching and deploying the full colony (ALL equipment) at the indicated body.

Kerbin: 0 points, and no bonus points will be awarded to Kerbin colonies.

Mun: 15 points (you're going to all that trouble to colonize the Mun?)

Minmus: 20 points (or Minmus, for that matter?)

Moho: 90 points

Eve: 75 points

Gilly: 85 points

Duna: 75 points

Ike: 80 points

Dres: 90 points

Jool: 150 points (note that ALL equipment must be airborne to qualify for this. Landing on Jool's "surface" does not count. That said, equipment can be "landed" to allow other equipment to be deployed safely, to prevent the engine from crashing your unaccompanied airborne base into the "surface")

Laythe: 110 points

Vall: 120 points

Tylo: 140 points

Bop: 100 points

Pol: 110 points

Eeloo: 160 points

Colony Equipment Bonuses:

These bonuses are granted for every piece of equipment that meets the criteria.

Main Colony Base:

Extra Personnel Bonus: For every colonist in the main base over the minimum of 32, 2 extra points will be awarded.

Spaceport Bonus: If the colony base is equipped with everything required for Extraplanetary Launchpads to function (including a launchpad, smelter, drills, and storage bins, and power to run all of that), 50 extra points will be awarded.

Refinery Bonus: If the colony base is equipped with everything required for Kethane processing (including drills, refineries, and storage tanks), 50 extra points will be awarded.

Mobility Bonus: If the colony base is capable of ground-based movement on tracks or wheels, 50 extra points will be awarded.

Nice View Bonus: If the colony base is landed in an area of scenic merit, 25 extra points will be awarded.

No Rockets Bonus: If the landed colony has no engines (i.e. is permanent until abandoned), 25 extra points will be awarded. Any landing motors must be jettisoned for the base to be eligible for this bonus.

Airborne Bonus: If the colony base is capable of sustained hovering over a given area of terrain (using airship components or similar), the following bonuses will be awarded:

Eve Airborne Bonus: 25 points

Duna Airborne Bonus: 75 points

Laythe Airborne Bonus: 50 points

NO BONUS POINTS WILL BE AWARDED FOR AIRBORNE BASES ON JOOL, AS THIS IS A PREREQUISITE FOR COLONIZATION OF THAT PLANET.

Secondary Base Bonus: If a secondary base that meets the criteria for a main colony base is landed, 100 extra points will be awarded. For each additional secondary base past that, 50 extra points will be awarded. Each secondary base is eligible for the same bonuses as the main base.

KEEP IN MIND THAT A SECONDARY BASE CANNOT ALSO BE COUNTED AS AN OUTPOST.

Outposts:

These bonuses are awarded PER OUTPOST unless otherwise noted.

Extra Personnel Bonus: For every colonist in the outpost over the minimum of 4, 2 extra points will be awarded.

Additional Outpost Bonus: For every additional outpost over the minimum of 4, 20 extra points will be awarded.

No Rockets Bonus: If the landed outpost has no engines (i.e. is permanent until abandoned), 10 extra points will be awarded. Any landing motors must be jettisoned for the outpost to be eligible for this bonus.

Airborne Bonus: If the outpost is capable of sustained hovering over a given area of terrain (using airship components or similar), the following bonuses will be awarded:

Eve Airborne Bonus: 10 points

Duna Airborne Bonus: 20 points

Laythe Airborne Bonus: 15 points

NO BONUS POINTS WILL BE AWARDED FOR AIRBORNE OUTPOSTS ON JOOL, AS THIS IS A PREREQUISITE FOR COLONIZATION OF THAT PLANET.

Rover Bonus: If the outpost has a personnel rover (SEPARATE FROM THE OUTPOST), 15 extra points will be awarded.

Nice View Bonus: If the outpost is landed in an area of scenic merit, 10 extra points will be awarded.

Rovers:

These bonuses are awarded PER ROVER unless otherwise noted.

Aircraft Bonus: If an aircraft THAT IS DESIGNATED BY THE DESIGNER AS A ROVER meets the specification for an airborne rover (as set out in section 1c of the design task), 25 extra points will be awarded.

Space Stations:

Extra Personnel Bonus: For every colonist aboard the station over the minimum of 8, 2 extra points will be awarded.

Colony Ship:

Extra-Kerbolar Bonus: If the ship is capable of leaving Kerbol's SoI and reaching another star (modelled as possessing 20,000 m/s of dV WITH FULL COLONY LOADOUT), 250 extra points will be awarded. Proof (in the form of screenshots of MechJeb, Kerbal Engineer, or something similar that show the dV) MUST be provided in order to receive this bonus.

Long-Range Bonus: If the colony ship does not carry liquid fuel or RCS monopropellant for its own maneuvering (the payload may carry these things, as long as the main ship does not use them), 50 extra points will be awarded.

Landable Colony Ship Bonus: If the colony ship is capable of landing to drop off part of its payload and returning to orbit, 50 extra points will be awarded.

Cool Name Bonus: If your colony ship has a cool name (a name worthy of a starship), 10 extra points will be awarded.

Miscellaneous:

Additional Infrastructure Bonus: For each communications relay/satellite, either on the ground or in orbit, an additional 10 points will be awarded.

Something I Didn't Think Of Bonus: For any facilities/objects, either in orbit or on the ground, that might prove useful to a colonization effort that I didn't think of, 50 extra points will be awarded.

Submission Guidelines:

Due to the large number of criteria for completion and bonuses, PLEASE don't flood this thread with a dozen images of your spacecraft. Instead, start a new thread, post a single image and a brief description here, and link to your thread.

In that thread, please include a brief description of your spacecraft, the construction method, some specifications, and images of the following:

The craft (or some part(s) of it) on the launchpad/runway.

The completed craft in Kerbin orbit.

The craft in orbit of the body of your choice.

An image or images highlighting the components of your colony (bases, outposts, space stations, rovers, and any other infrastructure).

Images of the various components of your colony landed on the surface of your target body.

Images containing proof for any of the various bonuses.

Any other images you want to show - glory shots, prototypes, anything. I always like seeing cool ideas/scenery/events.

As an example, I present my own Grand Voyage-class colony ship (link):

Points breakdown for the Grand Voyage-class:

Dres landing: 90 points

Main base Extra Personnel Bonus: 32 extra Kerbals = 64 points

Main base No Rockets Bonus: 25 points

Outpost Extra Personnel Bonus: 4 extra Kerbals each * 4 outposts = 32 points

Outpost Rover Bonus: 15 points * 4 outposts = 60 points

Outpost No Rockets Bonus: 10 points * 4 outposts = 40 points

Space Station Extra Personnel Bonus: 4 extra Kerbals each * 4 stations = 32 points

Colony Ship Long-Range Bonus: 50 points

Colony Ship Cool Name Bonus: 10 points

Colony Ship Extra-Kerbolar Bonus: While the colony ship does have the requisite dV to meet the requirement (thanks to those SM-FFRs it's carrying), I didn't provide proof in my thread (which was posted before the challenge), so I'll skip this one.

Nice View Bonuses: Due to this being entirely subjective, I've decided to skip it for my own entry.

Total: 403 points

Leaderboards:

1. NGTOne (Grand Voyage-class colony ship, link): 403 points

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Edited July 2, 2013 by NGTOne
Added additional criteria for airborne bases/equipment

[KerputKerbin]

Count me in!

Our best Kerbin scientists and engineers are hard at work on the KMS Leviathan.

Here's the Command Module under development (will change pic as progress is made):

[Arrowhead119]

This looks awesome, I'm gonna have to get started on it.

[KerputKerbin]

Keep us updated, Arrowhead! Some mutual motivation would be awesome.. this is going to be a long journey. Still trying to get my Orbital Assembly station into orbit.

NGTOne: Our Kerbin skyentists tell us that the atmosphere of Jool is prime for colonization with Hooligans airship mod... do you think that's worth any points as a planetary destination? Rovers would have to be flying and the outposts should hover as well.

[NGTOne]

Keep us updated, Arrowhead! Some mutual motivation would be awesome.. this is going to be a long journey. Still trying to get my Orbital Assembly station into orbit.

NGTOne: Our Kerbin skyentists tell us that the atmosphere of Jool is prime for colonization with Hooligans airship mod... do you think that's worth any points as a planetary destination? Rovers would have to be flying and the outposts should hover as well.

I honestly hadn't considered Jool - I know about Hooligan and some of the other aerospace mods, but I'd have to set a whole bunch of new criteria for "rovers" - I'll have to sleep on that one. Maybe add some more bonuses relating to floating/flying bases.

EDIT: I added some criteria for Jool bases, and airborne bases and equipment in general.

Edited July 2, 2013 by NGTOne

[KerputKerbin]

Awesome news! It'll be fun to create airborne rovers.

[NGTOne]

Awesome news! It'll be fun to create airborne rovers.

Just keep in mind that the criteria for airborne rovers are fairly strict (they have to be, to prevent people from counting suborbital "puddle jumpers" and spaceplanes as rovers).

[1096bimu]

what is 'balanced" and what is not "balanced"? I don't think the engines you are using are balanced in any way.

[NGTOne]

what is 'balanced" and what is not "balanced"? I don't think the engines you are using are balanced in any way.

OK, we've been through this.

[1096bimu]

OK, we've been through this.

no we haven't, I don't understand your definition of "balanced", please specify.

and if you remember, I said that your engines are not balanced in any way because they don't have gigantic radiators attached to them, which would be needed if you were to run these things in real life, which makes your argument that they are balanced because there are concept designs for real-life space ships invalid.

Edited July 3, 2013 by 1096bimu

[KerputKerbin]

How about: this is a game... if it feels like cheating to you, then it is?

As long as the Challenge is, erm, challenging (which his build clearly was) I don't see any issue with it being somewhat vague.

[1096bimu]

How about: this is a game... if it feels like cheating to you, then it is?

As long as the Challenge is, erm, challenging (which his build clearly was) I don't see any issue with it being somewhat vague.

ok, OP's engine feels like cheating to me. Now please remove it, it's unbalanced.

[KerputKerbin]

ok, OP's engine feels like cheating to me. Now please remove it, it's unbalanced.

I meant in relation to your own work. He definitely put a lot of time and effort into that build / launch / mission, so it seems reasonable to use those rockets to get it into orbit. I doubt he would consider it cheating & I certainly don't.

It's enough of a pain to get things into orbit sometimes... no point in making a challenge like this miserable by putting stronger limits on launches. Seems like the challenge is more about the colonization aspect anyway.

Just my two cents.

[1096bimu]

I meant in relation to your own work. He definitely put a lot of time and effort into that build / launch / mission, so it seems reasonable to use those rockets to get it into orbit. I doubt he would consider it cheating & I certainly don't.

It's enough of a pain to get things into orbit sometimes... no point in making a challenge like this miserable by putting stronger limits on launches. Seems like the challenge is more about the colonization aspect anyway.

Just my two cents.

Then how about making a giant cool looking spaceship challenge, which is actually what this is all about?

Instead of making up all these nonsense excuse just to build a giant spaceship?

[KerputKerbin]

Then how about making a giant cool looking spaceship challenge, which is actually what this is all about?

Instead of making up all these nonsense excuse just to build a giant spaceship?

You're welcome to. I appreciate the thought that went into this one (and do like the idea of setting your own difficulty, within limits, with the launch criteria). For example, I'm planning to use orbital construction for the largest parts, but compromising by adding the challenge of building a large orbital station to support it + it takes a ton of materials launches to even get that working. Might be a bit easier than trying to strap an oddly shaped piece onto a set of rockets, but it's all I have the time/commitment to do... so this challenge works.

[1096bimu]

You're welcome to. I appreciate the thought that went into this one (and do like the idea of setting your own difficulty, within limits, with the launch criteria). For example, I'm planning to use orbital construction for the largest parts, but compromising by adding the challenge of building a large orbital station to support it + it takes a ton of materials launches to even get that working. Might be a bit easier than trying to strap an oddly shaped piece onto a set of rockets, but it's all I have the time/commitment to do... so this challenge works.

so, you are allowed to use orbital construction because it's "a little easier". Well how much easier than stock still counts as balanced? Because you know, I don't want to submit a challenge and be considered "unbalanced".

[1096bimu]

Note the Challenge submission guideline. I don't know what I'm supposed to do because I don't know which mods are allowed and which are not.

What are we trying to do?

You can tell a poorly thought out challenge from a mile away, if the first few posts are asking for details, you have done something wrong.

Make sure you explain your challenge properly so players know what they are supposed to be doing.

[sal_vager]

1096bimu, just try to have fun for a change

[KerputKerbin]

Had to see what hitting that 20,000 m/s would require... Bob's in for a one-way trip.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[NGTOne]

Had to see what hitting that 20,000 m/s would require... Bob's in for a one-way trip.

With the kind of ship it takes to satisfy the challenge requirements, it's nearly impossible - the SM-FFRs are the only reasonably balanced engines that can pull it off (as far as I'm aware) without a ludicrous amount of fuel, but you'd be looking at about 24 hours of (in-game) burn time to manage 20 km/s in dV.

You're welcome to try, though - I really do look forward to seeing the Leviathan fly

To be perfectly honest, I was halfway expecting this challenge to die without a single response because of strict rules and technical complexity

[KerputKerbin]

With the kind of ship it takes to satisfy the challenge requirements, it's nearly impossible

Yeah, if anything I might consider an upgraded engine module after the mission is complete... something like asparagus staging adapted for Nuclear engines & spherical tanks ~ would look more like a blackberry and be obscenely massive. Depends on how everything else goes.

To be perfectly honest, I was halfway expecting this challenge to die without a single response because

of strict rules and technical complexity

My orbital construction station is in working order (I still have a few parts to add, but can resume building the Leviathan now). While I wait for the laggy docking, work started on the planetary bits. After flying some of the hooligans parts, I think Laythe is a more reasonable option for the design I have in mind. The main colony is coming along nicely - houses 54 and flies. I'll post up some details later - It's going to carry around a Kethane mining rig and a large crew-transfer lander.

Edited July 5, 2013 by KerputKerbin