How low can you orbit? Hit planets and moons without crashing.

[Galane]

Build a spacecraft with parts sticking out so they can be clipped off on the tallest points on the airless bodies in the Kerbol system, without crashing the ship. I'd suspect that you wouldn't want to use the Kerbal Joint Reinforcement mod for this.

Any mods you want, especially Hyperedit to quickly get the ships to their targets.

The setup. Get to a safe orbit altitude. Reduce altitude until you knock off at least one part then climb back to your original altitude. Cannot use hyperedit to set the almost crashing altitude or to climb back to the safe orbit.

5 points for each part knocked off or destroyed on each run. Only one run per airless body goes to the total score. Make as many runs as you need to score. Quicksave shall be your friend here.

100 point bonus for knocking off parts on every airless body, but not using the same ship for all the runs, even if it's the same design.

"Gone in 60 Seconds" Bonus Award. 300 points for going to a 70+ KM Kerbin orbit and safely landing the entire remains of your ship after smacking it into every airless body in the system.

Named for the original 1974

movie where a single Mustang was used and all the crashes were done with it (including one unplanned accidental crash that knocked down a streetlamp) in the order they appeared in the film, so there'd be no "magic damage" vanishing then re-appearing.

If you do it all with one ship, and without using hyperedit, you win the internet.

Challenge inspired by a "Dude?! Where's my spaceship?" event where somehow my ship orbiting Ike had dropped below 10,000 meters and was a few minutes away from crashing into a mountain. Plenty of time to save it but KSP would "helpfully" preemptively delete the ship upon loading the save. I hit F9, ship was back, so I launched a lander to rendezvous and halfway through it just stopped. "WTH? Where'd it go?" I reloaded again and switched to the vanishing ship, then noticed the altitude at 9,800-some meters! *engage panic mode* Set SASS to aim the firey end downwards then throttled up until the altitude climbed high enough, then circularized. *whew* Dunno how it got down to that altitude when I'd left it safely in a 15KM orbit the night before.

Edited November 27, 2013 by Galane

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

Wouldn't crashing into a planet break the rules? Why? Because, your orbiting till you hit.

[allmhuran]

This may not be possible. I have found that when orbiting at high speed / low altitude the entire craft will sometimes disintegrate without having a visible collision with terrain. I had this problem when I skimmed past Pol... my ship was visibly above any mountains, but it exploded in mid air (mid vacuum) all the same.

[Galane]

Wouldn't crashing into a planet break the rules? Why? Because, your orbiting till you hit.

Nope, because you're just removing "excess" parts, not lithobraking or destroying the entire ship. Essentially what Matt Hall did in 2010 in Canada at the Red Bull air races.

Won't hurt to try it and see if it's possible.

Edited November 27, 2013 by Galane

[Xeldrak]

A few proof of concept pictures would be really nice - like "here is me in ultra low orbit around moho".

Nothing more annoying than trying to fullfill a challenge just to realize that it's impossible.

[StevenRS11]

I have seen videos of Scott Manley trying to orbit a probe through the munar arches, rather unsuccessfully. He was, though, consistently orbiting literally meters above the mun, and smacked parts off his spacecraft without totaling it more than once.

[Markus Reese]

A few proof of concept pictures would be really nice - like "here is me in ultra low orbit around moho".

Nothing more annoying than trying to fullfill a challenge just to realize that it's impossible.

Yup, pretty possible actually, provide you don't have some sort of extreme structural linkages. When I do my slingshots out of system, I skim the moon sub 6km. Still get nervous as my big rockets go around. I also have to constantly be on the stick to keep my nose pointing horizon. I once ripped all my booster sections off when I tail dragged the top of a crater wall...

[Kasuha]

This is definitely that kind of challenge where the OP should show his own take first. Although I don't see any major problems with it if hyperedit is allowed.

Five points per each part can be easily abused by making large arms from cubic struts. I can easily lose 500 parts in one hit that way without getting the ship kicked off its course. Any other bonus is pointless in that context.

[larsmaehlum]

I might try this one. Will post a video here if it works out

[StevenRS11]

I think it might be a better idea to tweak the scoring from "Only one run per body" to "Only one part per distinct impact". So, if I have thousands of struts, I have more or less skim over the surface, slowly tearing parts off my orbiter.

[The Destroyer]

I've done this before- accedently. Landing, low fuel, didn't decouple, hit the main stage, but lander survived and escaped.

[Galane]

I think it might be a better idea to tweak the scoring from "Only one run per body" to "Only one part per distinct impact". So, if I have thousands of struts, I have more or less skim over the surface, slowly tearing parts off my orbiter.

That would work. I hadn't envisioned things like building large constructs of I-beams and girders to knock all off at once. Perhaps amending the rules to the craft must be launchable? Launch to Kerbin orbit *then* use Hyperedit to move it?

Is there a list of minimum safe orbit altitudes?

[Camacha]

A few proof of concept pictures would be really nice - like "here is me in ultra low orbit around moho".

Nothing more annoying than trying to fullfill a challenge just to realize that it's impossible.

That is the point of a challenge, no?