SSTO / Rover Grand Tour (hard)

[chochmah]

here is my challenge to the community:

The SSTO/Rover Grand Tour

Objective:

Build three Vehicles, one Rover, one Spaceship, one SSTO (Single Stage to Orbit)

1. Drive the Rover Around the VAB in KSC
   
2. Dock the Rover to the SSTO, go into orbit
   
3. Land the Rover on Laythe using the SSTO, drive the rover for at least 1km
   
4. Dock the Rover to the SSTO, go into orbit
   
5. Repeat 3 and 4 for Duna
   
6. Land the Rover at KSC using the SSTO, drive the Rover around the VAB in KSC.
   

2 Categories, for the first one no third party parts, mods, cheats or exploits allowed except MechJeb. For the second one realistic mods are allowed. Use the Spaceship to refuel the SSTO and transport it to the different planets. One Kerbal must sit on the Rover while driving (but you can use a probe body to dock it to the ship). Neither the SSTO nor the Rover are allowed to shed parts.

So basically the challenge is to build an SSTO that can carry a rover and operate on Kerbin, Laythe and Duna.

It is doable but pretty hard and will take quite a while, good luck.

The Score is calculated by:

L := Number of landings of the rover on different islands on Laythe. (max unknown)

D := Number of landings of the rover on different hemispheres on Duna. (max 2)

K := Landing back on Kerbal and driving around the VAB.

C := Number of Kerbals on the Rover

Final Score := sqrt(L*D)*(L+D+K)*C

Category 1:

1. chochmah 3 Points

Edited July 11, 2013 by chochmah
added point

[Mach56]

Have you done it yourself?

[rpayne88]

If I may give some constructive criticism, I have one issue with this. I know you did not allow mods to prevent people from using absurd 100K fuel+ 100K oxidizer for 1 mass mods and stuff like that, but what about mods that make the game harder, such as FAR and Deadly Reentry. Using FAR on an SSTO makes cargo bays a necessity and Deadly reentry makes heat shields mandatory for atmospheric landings. May I suggest adding a separate category for players who use realistic mods to complete this challenge. Also, I have two questions: how are you scoring this and, what about the space ship portion of the challenge. I assume it is an orbital tug to tug your SSTO+ Rover combination to Laythe, Duna, and back. Does it have to be reusable or any thing else like that.

[chochmah]

If I may give some constructive criticism, I have one issue with this. I know you did not allow mods to prevent people from using absurd 100K fuel+ 100K oxidizer for 1 mass mods and stuff like that, but what about mods that make the game harder, such as FAR and Deadly Reentry. Using FAR on an SSTO makes cargo bays a necessity and Deadly reentry makes heat shields mandatory for atmospheric landings. May I suggest adding a separate category for players who use realistic mods to complete this challenge. Also, I have two questions: how are you scoring this and, what about the space ship portion of the challenge. I assume it is an orbital tug to tug your SSTO+ Rover combination to Laythe, Duna, and back. Does it have to be reusable or any thing else like that.

Yes, you a right. I had not thought of that because I had never been using any mods apart from mechjeb and was therefor unfamiliar with them. I was just assuming using mods, even balanced ones, would make a challenge slanted since the results are not really comparable anymore. I'll add a second category for players with realistic mods.

I have no idea how to score this. I thought you could get a OVER9000 Bonus for including eve in the grand tour. Maybe extra points for landing on different islands on laythe? Maybe the higher the altitude you land on dune the more points you get?... I'll try to think of some scoring metric.

The Orbital Tug does not have to be reusable and does not have to be taken back to kerbin orbit. Maybe bonus points for a reusable one?

Thank you for you suggestions and the constructive criticism.

[chochmah]

Have you done it yourself?

Yes I have. I wasn't sure If I should post the pictures right away since I thought that might squelch creativity.

I'll post them later (as soon as I have figured out how to post galleries without spaming the thread). Till then here's a pretty nice (I think) picture from landing on laythe:

[Mach56]

[noparse]You can use the new imgur album feature. Just use it like this

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[/noparse]

[chochmah]

[noparse]You can use the new imgur album feature. Just use it like this

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[/noparse]

Thanks.

Here's my entry:

http://imgur.com/a/0nRhs

Score:

L := Number of landings of the rover on different islands on Laythe. (max unknown) = 1

D := Number of landings of the rover on different hemispheres on Duna. (max 2) = 1

K := Landing back on Kerbal and driving around the VAB. = 1

C := Number of Kerbals on the Rover = 1

Final Score := sqrt(L*D)*(L+D+K)*C = sqrt(1*1)*(1+1+1)*1 = 3

Edited July 11, 2013 by chochmah