Kerbin Annihilation Scenario

[RedDwarfIV]

Based on 707\'s 2012 Survival challenge, this has a little more structure to it.

Your task is to construct a rocket or spaceplane capable of keeping the Kerbal race going following the destruction of Kerbin through means unexplained. However, here there are a few rules.

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-Balanced parts

[with the exception of all C7 parts bar the tiny little fuel tank.]

-Solar collectors may only be used with ELP [Extremely-Low-Power] engines.

[This includes any kind of ion engine, lander thruster or small radial liquid thruster.]

+ 8 bonus for asymmetry.

+ 5 bonus for Mun landings.

+ 3 bonus for Munar orbits.

+ 3 bonus for Kerbol orbits.

+ 1 bonus for extra Kerbals.

-There is no cryogenic suspension, so no sending Kerbals into deep space.

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And this is the most important part - the nescesities.

Scientists recently discovered [through dubiously legal means] that you need only ten Kerbals to achieve a genetic pool large enough to rule out inbreeding as a major problem. Therefore, your craft must be able to carry at least ten Kerbals.

Oxygen is, of course, not self-replenishing, and your craft will need to carry [potted?] plants. Each Kerbal requires two plant points.

Though inbreeding will not be a major problem, the ethics people don\'t like it, so bonus points for the more Kerbals your craft can carry.

Your craft must be robust, able to survive the harsh environments it comes across. Your ship must have at least six Survivability Points.

Once you have met all requirements, extra points are converted to bonuses. As there is no requirement for Ethics points, they are basically a bonus already. The person with the most bonus points wins.

At the end of the competition, I will be choosing at random [using this: http://www.matazone.co.uk/animpages/bouncing_cow_luck_test_game.html] whether Kerbin is actually destroyed. If your craft can return to Kerbin if Kerbin has indeed survived, you will recieve fifteen bonus points. Three or more bouncing cows means Kerbin survives.

However, before that, I will be using the bouncing cows to decide whether your primary power source fails [damaged solar panels or a radiation leak, depending on your primary power source.]

[Rocket fuel generators and Physics Module batteries count as secondary power sources, and are not susceptible to damage]

Also, having eight or more Survivability Points will allow you to repair your primary power source quickly. This means you can bypass this problem entirely. Only six survivability points means it will take until your emergency power runs down to fix your engines, so not having an emergency source would disqualify you.

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Different modules have different capabilities.

=Habitation modules=

A 1 meter Hab can carry two Kerbals in comfort, or three squashed together.

-1 ethics point for the second option.

A 2 meter Hab module can carry five Kerbals.

[if they exist.]

Wet Workshops are allowed. They carry the same number of Kerbals as Hab modules.

-1 ethics point for forcing Kerbals to live in a fuel tank.

=Cabin modules=

Cabin modules are your capsules or the equivalent.

A 1 meter Cabin can carry three Kerbals.

A 2 meter Cabin can carry six Kerbals or three Kerbals and a rack of plants.

+3 plant points for the second option.

+1 ethics point for the second option, as the pilots get fresh air.

A remote control/Probe \'Cabin\' carries no Kerbals, as it is piloted from ground. However, they are generally less heavy.

-1 ethics point, as Science has shown KSP pilots are more likely to crash when their own lives are not at stake.

=Science modules=

Science modules are useful. They allow you to do things.

A Science module may carry one Kerbal. However, they do have plus points.

You may chose to make your Science modules one of three types.

Points are doubled for 2 meter modules.

Biology Modules can carry plants.

+4 plant points

Chemistry Modules allow maintainance work on the ship.

+2 ethics points

+3 Survivability points

Physics Modules allow environmental research or they may carry batteries.

+3 ethics points

+2 Survivability points.for the first option.

+ Night-time Power for the second option.

+ Emergency Power for the second option.

=Communications modules=

Communications can be comprised of anything from a satellite to a dish attatched to an SAS device.

These allow your vessel to recieve communcations from other escape ships, any Munar satellites you might want to get information from, and to talk to Ground Control. This will be morall boosting, as it gives your crew and passengers conclusion. It will also tell your vessel whether Kerbin has, in fact, been destroyed or not.

+4 Ethics points.

+ Ability to return.

=Power Modules=

Power modules can be made from disused engines with fuel remaining, to nuclear power from converted NERVA thrusters to solar panels. Bear in mind that for vessels that may enter shade, there must be power during night. Power is required. It is needed for lighting, which feeds your plants, it is needed for your computers, and it is needed to use communications modules.

Solar panels

+ Daytime power

Physics Module

+ Nighttime power

+ Emergency power

NERVA engine

+Long term power

Disused fuel

+ Emergency power

SAS

+Emergency power

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If I have missed anything, please tell me so i can rectify it.

Thanks to Gabyalufix, for SAS as power.

[Caesar15]

Dang...this is almost impossible

[RedDwarfIV]

Dang...this is almost impossible

I\'m sure Gaby will find a way.

[gabyalufix]

Just an FYI.

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

For most vertebrates (including humans, for example), you need a LOT more than 10. Anything less than 1k-5k and you start taking a double digit risk of extinction.

Of course, kerbins might be completely different. For all the heck we know, they might breed via mitosis--just splitting apart like amoeba. Then you\'d just need Jeb.

Sorry. Anal-retentive hopefully-soon-to-be-biostatistician here.

[gabyalufix]

Other notes:

(1) You probably don\'t need to keep the sunlamps on at 'night'. The Munar month is only 1.5 kerbin days long, so they\'d only be in darkness a little longer than they would on kerbin. And their days would be longer too. I\'d bet the plants can survive the nights without light. Maybe you\'d flick them on for a few hours, but that\'s it.

Of course, you\'d still need power at night, to keep your kerbins unfrozen and to make Bill\'s piping-hot espresso (not to mention CO2 scrubbers, etc.).

(2) My idea for power storage: Use a bunch of SAS modules! The same dynamo that you use as a motor to spin up the gyroscopes can also be reversed into use as a power generator (sapping off spin while producing electricity, rather than spending electricity to add spin). It doesn\'t rely on any weird, unstable chemicals like batteries do, and as a bonus you can use them as stabilizers during the ascent!

Fun history fact: In the 1940\'s the swiss actually built busses that ran on gyroscopic energy. When they stopped in a station a motor would spin up the Big Flywheel, and then they\'d drive off, running entirely on the flywheel\'s generator until they got to the next stop. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrobus

[RedDwarfIV]

Other notes:

(1) You probably don\'t need to keep the sunlamps on at 'night'. The Munar month is only 1.5 kerbin days long, so they\'d only be in darkness a little longer than they would on kerbin. And their days would be longer too. I\'d bet the plants can survive the nights without light. Maybe you\'d flick them on for a few hours, but that\'s it.

Of course, you\'d still need power at night, to keep your kerbins unfrozen and to make Bill\'s piping-hot espresso (not to mention CO2 scrubbers, etc.).

(2) My idea for power storage: Use a bunch of SAS modules! The same dynamo that you use as a motor to spin up the gyroscopes can also be reversed into use as a power generator (sapping off spin while producing electricity, rather than spending electricity to add spin). It doesn\'t rely on any weird, unstable chemicals like batteries do, and as a bonus you can use them as stabilizers during the ascent!

Fun history fact: In the 1940\'s the swiss actually built busses that ran on gyroscopic energy. When they stopped in a station a motor would spin up the Big Flywheel, and then they\'d drive off, running entirely on the flywheel\'s generator until they got to the next stop. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrobus

In low light conditions, plants don\'t photosynthesise. They respire. And what you don\'t want on a spacestation is just another life form sapping your oxygen. The plants make the oxygen, the Kerbals make the CO2. That\'s how it works.

[RedDwarfIV]

Well, 7 is what I heard. And what you build will be one of a fleet of escape ships. So i suppose you could get Kerbals going EVA to swap crew members.

And flywheels don\'t last as long as batteries do, though their output is far more variable. I put them as emergency secondary power sources.

[gabyalufix]

I no gardener, but I thought that most earth plants need night time, or they dry out and die. It had something to do with the plant\'s Stoma, or something. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoma

In 5th grade, we were growing peas in the classroom and they all died when someone forgot to unplug the sunlamp at night for a few nights in a row.

Maybe some plant\'s don\'t? Or maybe they just need more water in this case? Or maybe 5th graders are just really bad at growing peas?

[RedDwarfIV]

I no gardener, but I thought that most earth plants need night time, or they dry out and die. It had something to do with the plant\'s Stoma, or something. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoma

In 5th grade, we were growing peas in the classroom and they all died when someone forgot to unplug the sunlamp at night for a few nights in a row.

Maybe some plant\'s don\'t? Or maybe they just need more water in this case? Or maybe 5th graders are just really bad at growing peas?

Biology experiments hardly ever work.

And its \'CAM\' (Crassulacean acid metabolism) plants that have to open their stomata at night.

[cardgame]

Some plants can only take an hour or two of sunlight, other plants don\'t have a limit on how much light they can receive at all. Really, there\'s probably a plant species that can fit almost any criteria you throw at it.

[gabyalufix]

@cardgame: Biological diversity sure is handy around the house! (or module, as the case may be).

So here\'s my most recent attempt. I had a few minutes free while my code was compiling, and I threw together a quick-and-dirty orbiter. I used my design from the previous challenge, but took off the boosters (they were getting in the way of placing new stuff). I\'ll probably snap them back on later, but they\'re a pain to set up, since you can\'t use symettry (because the ship is internally very asymmetric), and you have to place all those rcs thrusters by hand.

So it\'s a single-stager. Again, it uses silisko\'s LV-T300 and the failcan\'s super-long fuel tank. (not sure if that qualifies as 'balanced' or not, but w/e. I\'m just having fun.)

My biggest solar array yet!

Contains 41 hab mods, as before.

All recreation must take place within KSP-approved FunSphere modules. Warning. Do not use ladders: They don\'t go anywhere.

6x soyuz-reminiscent modules provide (some) of the life support. There are also 24 science modules, more than enough to provide plants for oxygen, plus a chemistry mod and a physics mod or two, I guess. There\'s also a mk3 and mk4 command module in there somewhere. There\'s no RCS, but I\'m pretty sure there must be an acs somewhere too, but I forget where.

There are 2 emergency escape / shuttle vehicles, mainly to pro vide transport between motherships. There\'s also an exploration probe / comm relay. I actually accidently set off the escape towers before launch. So they\'re just decorative now. Whoops.

Communications dish. there was also supposed to be one on top of the solar array, but I think I accidentally detached it at some point.

Jeb: 'GUN IT!' Bill+Bob: 'NOOOOOOOOO'

We may never know why I accidentally hit spacebar on a 1-stage ship. But I did, and the probe, the shuttle craft, and the top piece of the solar array (which is actually a decoupler--who knew?) drifted off.

All in all, not bad for a single stage ship.

[gabyalufix]

Tried again. Added boosters back. Got to the moon. But then: tragedy!

NOOOOOO! WHY ARE YOU SLOPED? I HATE YOU MUUUUUUN!

Ok. You can still save this. Just . . . THINK . . .

@#$^@#^@#$%!@#&^*$@^$#%$#%@#!!!!!!!

I still count this as a landing. Oh yeah. Totally. We\'re fine. No worries. The kerbin species is totally safe.

[OptimusSubPrime]

how do you have multiple capsules?

[samstarman5]

That is an interesting craft, gaby. At least one of your funspheres remained intact. With all those fuel pods left, you can just syphon the remaining fuel into the minimum pods necessary and convert the rest into habitation. Hope you brought your shovels, as getting all that buried will save your kerbals from being roasted by Kerbol!

how do you have multiple capsules?

You can manually edit the .craft file to change a module to a CM. You just need to know the names of each of the whatsits.

[MC3craze]

This is actually a great challenge. But the Failcan long tank is designed to be used only on the Failcan.

[gabyalufix]

Even if the failcan disqualifies it, I decided to give it another shot. Swapped out 5x of the liquid engines for a more efficient but weaker cousin, and put them on a separate stage. Didn\'t set up the empty engines to jettison when they\'re done, because (1) I\'m too lazy to take my flying village all apart, and (2) the tanks\'re needed anyways to keep the thing structurally together.

5 engines were swapped out.

Not a perfect landing. I lost 1 leg.

Both funspheres survived this time! Paaaaartaaay!

And then . . . tragedy struck our intrepid heroes, as the universe itself crashed around them!

[RedDwarfIV]

KERBIN EVACUATOR PROGRAMME

SIMULATION 1

AUTHOR \'Gabyalufix\'

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HABITATION: 41

CABIN: 13X 1 METRE (12 given to plants)

SCIENCE: 24

Bio: 24 (Leaving Science Kerbal, replacing with plants)

Phys: N/A (Stated \'enough bio for crew\')

Chem: N/A (Ditto)

COMMUNICATIONS:

+4 Ethics.

+Ability to return.

POWER:

Primary:

Solar

Secondary:

Disused Fuel

+Emergency Power

RETURN: YES

SURVIVABILITY: 0/6

TOTAL KERBALS: 85

PLANTS REQUIRED: 170

TOTAL PLANTS: 168

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SCENARIO FAILURE

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CREW DEATH!

-OXYGEN STARVATION

-HULL DAMAGE

PROBABLE CAUSES

IF SIMULATION INNACCURATE, PLEASE SEE ADMINISTRATION

Kerbal Space Program

[gabyalufix]

Ha. Good times.

New plan:

Swap out a 4 bio mods for 2 chemistry and 2 physics mods, and toss the most uppedy dozen kerbals out the airlock on the way up.

Problem solved, and the dozen bachelors get themselves a roomie-free pad.

[RedDwarfIV]

Ha. Good times.

New plan:

Swap out a 4 bio mods for 2 chemistry and 2 physics mods, and toss the most uppedy dozen kerbals out the airlock on the way up.

Problem solved, and the dozen bachelors get themselves a roomie-free pad.

Alternatively you could disregard twelve Kerbals, and aquire many potted plants.

SCENARIO

SURVIVABILITY: 8/6

+2 Bonus

+Ignore Emergency

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SCENARIO SUCCESSFUL

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