Kerbin is Doomed!

[Valley]

I believe that the human mind can overcome any problems and decided to put out a challenge to see who will take it up. Or even try to make it into a YouTube series. I don't have the skill to try this challenge and I am sure I would score badly - I can just reach the moons. But I thought the idea interesting and there is no harm in tossing it out there.

Background: The Kerbin governments have been alerted by the scientists that their devices that detected a flaw deep within the planet's core. It has been decided that a New Ice Age will be soon be triggered. Kerbalkind will die out unless they move as many of the populace as they can off planet. They have less than a Kerbal year before life on Kerbin slowly dies out. The world governments decide to try to save as many of the elite as they can in secret.

Mods: Mods that need to be used: Kethane Mod and Extraplanetary Launchpad Mod. You can use other mods, such as MechJeb 2 or even mods that give you special engines or equipment. But please do not use God mods, like Hyper Edit.

Goal : Colonize as many planets and moons as you can. Each 'Colony' must be independent - able to build, fuel, and launch their own ships and must have at least one Kerbal as colonist with a living area. Any extra Kerbals would also require living areas. A planet can only have one 'Colony' - put more than one Launchpad or mining center on a planet or moon and they all still only count as one 'Colony'.

Score:

Each 'Colony' is worth 50 points.

Each Extra Kerbal in a 'Colony' is 5 points (after the first that is required).

As survival is the point any Kerbals living in space stations or travelling in space at the end of the challenge also counts as 5 points.

End Game: You have one year to make as many colonies as you can BUT the first signs of the Ice age will come on day 200 and will cause panic as the governments can't hide the truth for long. The spaceport on Kerbin will shut down as mobs attack it with pitchforks and torches - at that point you may no longer design or launch ships, aircraft, or anything else from Kerbin. All the equipment you make from that point on will be produced only by a 'Colony' along with any fuel. This means, of course, also trying to design anything you need before that time - to make sure it is available to you at the Launchpads. Of course new ships will end up getting crew but this just represents the growing populace of the Space colonies.

At the end of the year you count up your points and also pat yourself on the back.

First challenge - hope it makes sense.

Challengers:

Radiokopf - 585 points (Radiokopf was being modest)

Edited August 23, 2013 by Valley
spelling typo.

[Gojira]

Where's your attempt? You need one per the rules of the Challenge section.

[Valley]

Edit: Hmmm...those are guidelines, not rules. As they clearly stated at the start of the posting.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Valley

[Pariah89]

Where's your attempt? You need one per the rules of the Challenge section.

Thats not true at all, you only have to test to see if its possible, and don't need to post proof of your attempts.

[rpayne88]

Except for the "rule" saying he needs to show it's possible, he doesn't need to prove it's possible. It's basically a case of launch as many kerbals to other bodies as possible within a year. This should be easy for all but the newest noobs in the game. Even then, if you can't so much as get to the Mun within on Kerbin year, its not Vally's fault.

Edited August 9, 2013 by rpayne88
Grammer

[Pariah89]

Except for the "rule" saying he needs to show it's possible, he doesn't need to prove it's possible. It's basically a case of launch as many kerbals to other bodies as possible within a year. This should be easy for all but the newest noobs in the game. Even then, if you can't so much as get to the Mun within on Kerbin year, its not Vally's fault.

That rule does not exist...

Is this challenge possible?

Many challenges we see are nearly or literally impossible to achieve, and usually very little thought has gone into them, these challenges just annoy people, waste forum space and show that the submitter hasn't really tried.

So test your challenge yourself first to make sure it is possible, you don't have to be successful but you'll soon know if the challenge has a hope of being completed.

[Rondon]

I'll try this, although I'm thinking about the extraplanetary mod and couldn't you just spawn loads of kerbals to abuse the 5pts per kerbal rule?, dont really like the idea anyway so i'll just get all the colonists I need before day 200.

[TheMightyScrub]

Bookmarked this page for when I get my PC fixed. Can't wait to get started

[Rondon]

Actually no I cant take this challenge, one of the two mods glitched and deleted all my flights in progress

[TheMightyScrub]

Don't give up man. You can do this

[CosmicGamer]

OOOHHH Just the challenge I am looking for I may even incorporate it into a series one day Pics coming soon

[fenderzilla]

Man I would love to see a mod that takes this scenario into play - the whole ice age thing. I like the "after 200 days, no launches from KSC." thing. the number of kerbals you had on the colonies would increase slowly but exponentially, and after about a year, kerbin's orbit would increase until it looked like minmus or eeloo.

I'll give this one a try after I finish my evean prison.

[jwenting]

tiny problem is that no colony can survive without supplies from Kerbin in that short a period of time.

And the only colony with any chance of ever surviving on its own is likely Laythe, though Duna could possibly be made to work in covered domes.

[hjmott]

Using Impossible innovations, I managed to get a craft that can carry 185 kerbals into orbit in 3 minutes 13 seconds. Assuming you could launch from kerbin for 200 days, which is a total of (200x24x60x60) 17,280,000 seconds, divided by the 3 minute 13 second (193 second) orbit achievement time, allowing for 57 seconds to prepare each vehicle for launch, we have a hypothetical maximum of 69,120 launches, each with 185 kerbals on board, each worth 5 points, we have a hypothetical grand total of 63,936,000 points.

Edited August 12, 2013 by hjmott
spelling errors

[fenderzilla]

Can you consider extending the deadline? it's not possible to get to another planet in under a year.

[jwenting]

it is possible, depending on your launch window and the planet you go to.

Of course that means you will have either little choice over the planet you go to and/or have to carefully select the moment you start your implementation to cram everything into a specific launch window.

[Radiokopf]

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/orbitalcon-redux-2/

Are Orbital Colonies Allowed too ? (We still would need to get Kethane from the Ground)

Edit: Well, im in anyway... destination of choice is Vall. If KSC shuts down at day 200 you just could Launch everything beforehand to Orbit... or just lauch everything on one Window and fly all at once.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Radiokopf

[fenderzilla]

Using Impossible innovations, I managed to get a craft that can carry 185 kerbals into orbit in 3 minutes 13 seconds. Assuming you could launch from kerbin for 200 days, which is a total of (200x24x60x60) 17,280,000 seconds, divided by the 3 minute 13 second (193 second) orbit achievement time, allowing for 57 seconds to prepare each vehicle for launch, we have a hypothetical maximum of 69,120 launches, each with 185 kerbals on board, each worth 5 points, we have a hypothetical grand total of 63,936,000 points.

69,120 space stations in LKO? have you ever heard of something called Kessler syndrome?

[Naten]

Where's your attempt? You need one per the rules of the Challenge section.

I got scolded by a moderator for doing this, it's not the rules. Please, let me tell you, fellow misreader of the challenge guidelines, please, sssssh... because... I think they're...watching us...

[Radiokopf]

I will use Launchpad mod... i dont like the Kethane converter from Orbital and also that you have to put it on the launchpad and then "build" it. Just does not give the feeling.

I still have a few issues, cancel the debug mode, fixing the Launchpad.dll, Fixing the smelter... now not Stock parts still cost silly amounts of Rocket parts. A very small 13 part craft with mods is shown with 31k of Rocketparts

Still here is a first test:

The new version does not give me free Kerbals. Thats what i hoped for

Now the Smelter and Converter are not working properly (FIXED!) when i fix that and the Mod parts building i can go plan the Mission (FIXED by cheating the pad and the Hexcanlarge Max rocket parts to 1000, until Launchpad mod is fixed (The Dev states in the Topic that within the nexed days a fix with better Conversion/Build rates goes online). So this could be considert cheating, if so i will wait for the fix to enter this challenge

Now Planning Phase!

Done

in Progress

Not touched yet

1 or 2 Launches for Cargo:

Building site

Rocket parts (containing enugh parts to get part conversion working)

Probe

Rover to scout landing site (With Landing unit)

1 Crew launch for the construction workers with short time living quarters.

Then build up the base and evaluating if i can start up the same from Vall again (to every non Atmosphere body with less than Tylo gravity)

here some first glimpses at the Rover:

Love that view <3

Lets see if i can get some nice shots of Jools moon's when iam on Vall.

I Build it with a Dockable lander that can make a Tylo decent (or i least i hope so)

Edited August 14, 2013 by Radiokopf

[mellojoe]

Can you consider extending the deadline? it's not possible to get to another planet in under a year.

The way I understand the challenge:

Just the spaceport on Kerbin is shut down. Craft in orbit or previously launched can still operate freely after the 200 day deadline. Just assume your final launch deadline at 200 days. You won't be able to wait on Kerbin for transfer windows, but if you stock your craft with enough supplies you might be able to remain in orbit for transfer windows as long as you are off planet.

At least that's my understanding. And if it is the case, we've all been able to land craft on other planets, so the challenge is 100% feasible. It just becomes a logistics challenge of how to juggle it all. How fast can you get a craft built and launched? How many Kerbals onboard? Did you pack enough fuel to reach your destination? Its the Battlestar Galactica challenge. Once your homeplanet is gone, you just have a fleet of ships to manuever to New Earth.

[Cooly568]

I could redesign some of my ships for this.

As I have ships that can easily take 100 tons any where in the Kerbol system.

I'll have a lot of fun with this.

I don't really like the "you have 1 year to make colonys" rule, since most places past Duna require more than a year to get to.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Cooly568

[Radiokopf]

Well, you could make it anywhere within 1 years for less than 10Km/s Dv... still this restriction does not make any sense but to make a final deadline so we all count our points at the same ingame time. But then i would rather have 3-4 categories 1 , 5 and 10 years as well as open end, maybe with Bonus points for the hard to reach Planets. Makeing Eeloo under a years with this kind of payload deserves some bonus.

[Radiokopf]

As for the planning:

Done

in Progress

Not touched yet

Launch 1:

Building site

2x Probe

2x Rover to scout landing site (With Landing unit)

launch vehicle for 40t

Launch 2:

Rocket parts&Lander (containing enugh parts to get part conversion working)

launch vehicle for 50t

Launch 3:

The construction Crew (Does not need a Tug)

launch vehicle for 70t

Launch 4&5:

Tugs for the Cargo

launch vehicle

Infrastructure:

Ore Truck

Smelter Unit

Kethane Truck

Kethane Converter Unit

Permanent Living Quaters

Rover Orbiter/Deorbiter for Multiuse

Later Plans:

Make every Launcher smaller for restarting from Vall.

Make a Laythe ascent rocket/plane

Make a Space Station from several tiny launches.

Make atmosphere planets possible (brute force chutes on everything)

Make a Duna ascent rocket

So far so good.. well i dislike the desgin everything before you go thing.

Rocket Parts & Lander:

Launch Window:

Day 46

[Valley]

I guess people could adjust the challenge to 2 or 3 years if they wish, while keeping the KSC closure at Day 200, if they plan to use it as a Let's Play/Role Play. Jool can be a problem - even using a ramjet (I tried) or special sci-fi engines* it can take a long time to get to it. Launch windows are launch windows.

* there is a Warp Engine mod** out there but even it requires special units to work and would cause as many headaches as just trying to push tons of resources and Kerbins into space.

** lots of power is needed to run it, requiring anti-matter, which takes a special unit to produce in atmosphere....so on, so on..