Most Realistic Curiosity Replication

[buzz66boy]

Today marks the first anniversary of the Curiosity Rover touching down on mars. In honor of this event, I think it only befitting that someone try and replicate this to the best of their ability.

Objective:

Replicate the MSL mission as closely as possible (going to Duna). This means staging, looks, the works.

Rules:

1. The craft must land an unmanned rover on Duna via skycrane (winch is optional).

2. Mods Allowed (I recommend KW rocketry and Procedural Fairings)

3. No Cheating - the craft should be capable of reaching and landing the rover on Duna via skycrane (Using Debug menu is cheating!)

What you need to show:

Screenshots of LKO, Duna intercept, reentry and landing, any staging OR

a video (preferred)

Scoring:

Atlas look-alike +50

Rover look-alike +20

Proper staging (for rocket) +30

Proper re-entry (stays pointed with 'heatshield' prograde) +20

Winch +50

Sucessful landing +50

Nothin' broke! +20

Stock +100

Clarification:

Proper staging means the following - There is a small rocket on top of a big rocket which has the rover on top of it.

The Atlas look-alike should have 2-4 boosters and Fairings over the rover (and optionally over the smaller spacecraft).

Helpful links:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/launchvehicle/ (look at screenshot 8)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laboratory

My attempt:

My score:

Atlas look-alike +50

Proper staging (for rocket) +30

Sucessful landing +50

Total: 130

Leaderboard:

1. RocketPilot573 (290 pts.)

2. Cuel (220 pts.)

3. TW1 (210 pts.)

4. buzz66boy (130 pts.)

5.

6.

7.

8.

Edited August 7, 2013 by buzz66boy
Updated Leaderboard, clarified Scoring

[RocketPilot573]

Happy Birthday Curiosity! I'm defiantly doing this.

[Tw1]

I just did one of these. Needed an extra set of boosters though.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

I focused more on looks with the LV, as you see from its staging. But everything else was pretty close to the real thing. More or less.

Edit:

Updated Scoring:

Atlas look-alike +50

Rover look-alike +20

Proper re-entry (stays pointed with 'heatshield' prograde) +20

Winch +50

Sucessful landing +50

Nothin' broke! +20

Score: 210

Edited August 7, 2013 by Tw1

[buzz66boy]

Bravo TW1

and from the looks of it your score is as follows:

Rover look-alike +20

Winch +50

Sucessful landing +50

Proper staging (for rocket) +30

Proper re-entry (stays pointed with 'heatshield' prograde) +20

Nothin' broke! +20

Total: 190

If you disagree with the score lemme know.

[Fett2oo5]

Would it be possible for people to post their craft files so we might be able to do this as well? My son and I would really enjoy being able to do our own tribute mission. But I'm not skilled enough to make the crafts.

Edited August 6, 2013 by Fett2oo5

[buzz66boy]

Would it be possible for people to post their craft files so we might be able to do this as well? My son and I would really enjoy being able to do our own tribute mission. But I'm not skilled enough to make the crafts.

Here is the one I used: DSL.craft

The boosters do fall off randomly though I strutted them though it only does it on the launchpad. Just keep reverting to launch until they don't fall off.

Requires KW rocketry, Mechjeb 2.0.9 and Procedural Fairings

Edited August 6, 2013 by buzz66boy
added urls

[RocketPilot573]

Mission Success!

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Score:

Atlas look-alike +50

Rover look-alike +20

Proper staging (for rocket) +30

Proper re-entry (stays pointed with 'heatshield' prograde) +20

Successful landing +50

Nothin' broke! +20

Stock +100

Total: 290

EDIT: I have just realized a problem: My Space Program already has a Duna Space Station, Duna Base, and a much more advanced Duna Rover. Thus, this mission was a 99% waste of money...

<- Space Agency Officials

Edited August 6, 2013 by RocketPilot573

[Tw1]

I didn't get Atlas look alike? In appearance, I thought it was pretty close, apart from the staging differences, and the extra booster pair.

I was expecting to get that, but not the staging one.

Perhaps you could refine that in your guidelines a little. Is Atlas look alike in appearance, or in principle?

Is the staging one just that your rocket works? That seems a little strange, as it would probably be that you refine the problems, and get it to work before completing the challenge.

A few thoughts, but it is your challenge, and it seems to be going well so far.

I have just realized a problem: My Space Program already has a Duna Space Station, Duna Base, and a much more advanced Duna Rover. Thus, this mission was a 99% waste of money...

This logic prevented me from using stock rovers for quite a while. I had a manned rover that deployed four rover-probes, (cart mod based) in a trip from my landing site near the equator, to the edge of the pole, and back. But with this one, I can justify this launch as those rovers are long since gone, Duna has changed, and my Kerbals are devoting more funds to the Mun base and Eve Boat projects.

Edited August 7, 2013 by Tw1

[Captain Sierra]

I'd like to point out that the winch and stock cannot be achieved on the same craft.

[Cuel]

Did this one ages ago

Javascript is disabled. View full album

(the only reason the tincan is there is to connect the winches, could easily have left that one out)

Edited August 7, 2013 by Cuel

[RocketPilot573]

I'd like to point out that the winch and stock cannot be achieved on the same craft.

Don't worry, I'm sure someone will figure out a way to make a stock winch.

[Tw1]

Maybe the stock points are there as balance, so if you take the challenge of building all stock, and can't to the other things, you still earn points.

Seems a little too much to me, but it's not my call.

[buzz66boy]

Tw1, I was expecting you to grade your own, and since you didn't I tried to judge it to the best of my ability. Go ahead and redo my scoring, just be fair about it.

Captain Sierra - Yeh, I figured that out after I posted, but it is a design risk I guess, plus yeh, maybe someone can come up with a "winch system" maybe a girder or something?

Edited August 7, 2013 by buzz66boy

[Tw1]

Tw1, I was expecting you to grade your own, and since you didn't I tried to judge it to the best of my ability. Go ahead and redo my scoring, just be fair about it.

Fair enough. Done

I still recommend making the correct staging thing more clear in the first post though, to make it clear whether it means your staging matches that of an Atlas V, or just that you didn't trigger engines and drop boosters in the wrong order.

Now hopefully some more entries get posted.

[buzz66boy]

The scoring has been clarified as to what acceptable atlas look-alikes are and what proper staging means.

Cuel, here is my temporary score from what I can see, you are welcome to come up with your own score in case I missed something.

Atlas look-alike +50

Rover look-alike +20

Proper staging (for rocket) +30

Winch +50

Sucessful landing +50

Nothin' broke! +20

Total: 220

Edited August 7, 2013 by buzz66boy

[Cuel]

Sounds good, I didn't design it after the challenge, it was created maybe two months ago

[3_bit]

I won't be playing, but I must suggest having all the sensors being on the "robot arm"

[CalculusWarrior]

Here's my submission; I was going to do all stock, but the lure of Procedural Fairings was too great.

My scoring:

Atlas look-alike +50

Rover look-alike +20

Proper staging (for rocket) +30

Proper re-entry (stays pointed with 'heatshield' prograde) +20

Sucessful landing +50

Nothin' broke! +20

TOTAL: 190 points.

I had a lot of fun doing this challenge; I always love the ones which require you to replicate a historical mission, they are a lot more enjoyable.

[Kerbal01]

CalculusWarrior, can you post your .craft you used in your attempt?

also, can we use this mod to make an even more accurate LV?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/33625-WIP-United-Launch-Alliance-Pack-%2AV1-0RC1-Released%2A/page14

[Mr.Universe]

My video is only the landing on duma because I focused mainly on the sky crane.

[CalculusWarrior]

CalculusWarrior, can you post your .craft you used in your attempt?

also, can we use this mod to make an even more accurate LV?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/33625-WIP-United-Launch-Alliance-Pack-%2AV1-0RC1-Released%2A/page14

Sure thing, the .craft file is here. It does require Procedural Fairings in order to work, but I could provide an alternate download if you'd like.

And I'd be honoured if you want to use my ideas for the ULA

Edited August 13, 2013 by CalculusWarrior
Didn't actually post a .craft file...