Kerbal Energy Crisis challenge

[Maxwell Comp]

After years of devoting the entire Kerbian economy to our space program, we have discovered that we now face an imminent energy crisis. Our scientists have come up with a solution, and fortunately it is the same solution they always propose: we must launch a spaceship.

The engineers have promised that this plan will allow us to continue the Space Program. If you can launch a craft that generates at least 500 E/s of electricity and has a satellite dish, we can beam the energy back to a receiver at the space center and power the space complex. The station needs to roughly orbit the equator. If the station is in keostationary orbit, the engineers can continue working 24/7; but if not they will work during the half-time that the station is overhead providing power.

Requirements:

At least 500 E/s electrical generation while in sunlight.

At least 1 satellite dish

Reach (roughly) equatorial orbit over Kerbal Space Center.

Submit an image of the craft in orbit while producing power, preferably taken from the angle of the sun (that makes it much easier to count the solar panels). If you can submit an image from launch (or from gravity turn) that is great but not required.

Hard Mode:

Generate an additional 50 E/s with thermoelectric generators.

Points:

Look How High I Am - Double points: reach (roughly) keostationary orbit above the Space Center. The most insightful scientists have suggested an inclined orbit to maintain constant light, but this is not required.

Couldn’t Hit The Broadside Of A Barn - negative 100 points: reach keostationary orbit on the wrong side of the planet.

Taking Care Of Business - 1 point per E/s of energy generated through solar panels.

Is It Supposed To Glow Like That? - 10 points per E/s generated with thermoelectric generators.

Armstrong and Aldrin - 100 points: Include a crew of at least 2 Kerbals, they will be needed to clean the solar panels.

Blinded By The Light - negative 50 points: place every crew capsule above the solar panels, thus blinding your crew with the reflected sunlight.

50 points: Include a docking port so the station can provide assistance for any future missions

Limits:

Stock parts only*.

Basic assistance/informational utilities can be used, but you must launch the craft and reach a stable orbit using only stock parts and your piloting skill.

No docking with pre-existing crafts in orbit.

*Non-stock parts are allowed to be on the craft, but cannot be used to generate power, launch the ship, or hold the ship together. Mechjeb can be used to get from a stable orbit into keostationary orbit.

Advice from Jebediah:

The satellite dish does not need to point directly at the space center. as long as it is included on the ship, the engineers will figure out how to aim it.

Keostationary orbit is 2868.4 KM.

Scoring will be done based on a count of the active solar panels and thermoelectic generators when they are all deployed. If the panels can be placed in a geometric or repeated pattern, it would be greatly appreciated because that makes it easier to count. If a mod can tell the amount of electricity generation, that is wonderfully helpful.

Leaderboard:

1: 9632 points: mhoran (previously 4079.84 points with an earlier entry)

2: 3344 points: BlazeFallow

3: 3196.8 points: Kasuha (in optimized orbit)

4: 748 points: Maxwell

5:

6:

My sample submission: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=189830340

It has 36 Gigantor panels for a total of 648 E/s generation. It also has the two intrepid explorers (safely under the panels). The satellite dish is the barely-visible thing mounted to the launcher tanks. I am working on a larger craft, but have only test-launched a half-done version so far. my crafts were made during .21, but the changes in the update should not have made a difference.

Edited November 6, 2013 by Maxwell Comp
mhoram takes the lead

[BlazeFallow]

Disclaimer: the below is nothing against your challenge, merely an observation on the Keostationary orbit and 24/7 operations.

With a Keo orbit you'll be in an eclipse blackout for about a half hour or so each day (Kerbin days are 6 hours long). So at the heart of night you will still be unable to supply the energy that KSP requires (assuming that the 500E/s generation is thus needed 1:1 by KSP). Assuming true 24/7 operation at full capacity you would thus also need 900,000 E stored on board to supply electricity during the blackout period, or roughly 225 2.5m(4000 unit) battery banks. Suffice it to say that this would be somewhat unreasonable to launch that many batteries into space, a single payload of which would weigh 45 tons(for just the batteries).

That all being said, Challenge accepted, I will have an entry for you soon enough

[vyznev]

You could always go for an inclined KEO, so that the eclipses happen only twice a year. Yes, this makes the satellite wobble north and south as seen from KSC, but surely the engineers handling the dish orientation should be able to deal with that. Even better, launch two of them with ascending nodes 90° apart, so that at least one is always in sunlight.

What's the deal with the thermoelectrics, though? Not that I'm complaining, but it doesn't really seem to fit the spirit of the challenge (since those would work just as efficiently on the surface).

[mhoram]

Here is my submission.

4 Gigantor a 17.98 E/s

76 Gigantor a 18.00 E/s

in sum 1439.92 E/s

80 Thermoelectric Generators

in sum 60E/s

KSO near Kerbal Space Center

Satellite dish included

Using my Tangent 12 as carrier, I performed a manual gravity turn.

After reaching a stable orbit with a 85km periapsis I used MechJeb to get to the KSO over Kerbal Space Center.

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[Maxwell Comp]

mhoram, that is a beautiful ship! I just updated the leaderboard.

Blazefallow and vyznev, you are right about the period of eclipse. Perhaps thermoelectric generators can provide enough power to keep the center on limited operations during the period, though the inclined orbit would work even better - the challenge is now updated to allow an inclined orbit.

A large number of radioisotope thermoelectric generators may concern some kerbals who are unfamiliar with the excellent construction and safety procedures of the Kerbal Space Program, so it may be reassuring to operate them far away in space rather than at the space center itself. I admit that the greatest risk of failure and contamination would occur during launch, and the energy is being delivered to the center by a beam of focused radiation anyway, but those are risks that were not foreseen.

[BlazeFallow]

I'm still working on my entry. Unfortunately it seems that having so many parts slowed down what should have been a 5 minute launch to about an hour and a half (not brave enough to use physics warping to make it go faster with such a big ship). Beyond that, my design encorporates 4 arms that first decouple and then reattach via docking ports to form the solar shield, so each of those was taking a hot second to put in place last night. I'll have pictures and details later on

[BlazeFallow]

80 RTG's (15 on each arm + 20 on the base)

32 OX-4L (under cap of base)

88 OX-STAT panels (22 covering each arm)

44 Gigantor (11 on each arm)

RTG: 80 * .75 E/s = 60 E/s

OX-4L: 32 * 2 E/s = 64 E/s

OX-STAT: 88 * .75 E/s = 66 E/s

Gigantor: 44 * 18 E/s = 792 E/s

Look How High I Am - Double points KSO orbit achieved above KSC

Taking Care Of Business - 1 point per E/s of energy generated through solar panels. 922 E/s from solar

Is It Supposed To Glow Like That? - 10 points per E/s generated with thermoelectric generators. 60 E/s RTG = 600 pts

Armstrong and Aldrin - 100 points: Include a crew of at least 2 Kerbals, they will be needed to clean the solar panels. Had 3 kerbals sitting in a return capsule on the underside.

50 points: Include a docking port so the station can provide assistance for any future missions Capsule was attached via docking port for future service missions.

Total: 1672 x2

Score: 3344

I would also like to note that MJ was only there as an informational tool for me. All nodes and maneuvers were planned and executed manually by yours truly.

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Edited October 31, 2013 by BlazeFallow

[mhoram]

Here is another one (.craft):

The "Giant Gigantor" using my Tangent 18 Lifter

Number of Gigantors: 24 + 2 * 2 * 4 * 15 - 2 = 262

Makes a total of 4716 E/s

+ docking port

+ 2 Kerbals

+ Satellite dish

+ KSO above Kerbal Space Center

without Thermoelectric Generators because the ship has nearly 800 parts.

The complete solarpanel-structure has a mass of 147 ton.

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Edited November 30, 2013 by mhoram
Added download link

[Kasuha]

My entry.

It has 72 PB-NUK Generators and 60 Gigantor XL Solar Arrays. But don't ask me for actual output, no mods to measure it.

Crew of 3 with room for additional 2.

The orbit is slightly inclined to at least partially avoid nighttime dropouts but that cannot of course be avoided all throughout the year. Also it is not perfectly circular but its orbital period is synchronized with KSP to within correction abilities.

Station was lifted dismantled with parts held together by temporary holders. It was then assembled in orbit using remote controlled tug. Holders were collected and deorbited together with the last stage of the lifter.

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Edited October 31, 2013 by Kasuha

[Maxwell Comp]

The Kerbals are lucky to have such amazing spacecraft in their sky. Points are updated, and I wish I could give bonus points for innovation, cleverness, orbital assembly, and the ability to create an eclipse through spectacular size.

Edited November 6, 2013 by Maxwell Comp

[Carl]

Odd question this thread has spawned. Is it actually possible to cause an eclipse ground side with a spacecraft of sufficient size?

[mhoram]

Odd question this thread has spawned. Is it actually possible to cause an eclipse ground side with a spacecraft of sufficient size?

Simple mathematatics states that in order to create a full eclipse of the sun, the diameter of a station in LKO would need to be around 2,9km and for a KSO 110km.

And in KSP Objects are only rendered, if they are near the player.

So the answer is no.