How Many Kerbals Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?

[rousseau]

The spotlight on the tower next to the launchpad has gone out! Well not really, but the kerbals have decided that in the case of such an emergency they should be prepared for drastic action. Just incase something goes terribly wrong it is probably better if there are as many kerbals present for the operation as possible. An important launch being postponed even a few seconds due to a sudden spotlight failure could be disastrous, so this drill has an emphasis on speed.

Your challenge is to land as many kerbals on top of the tower as quickly as possible.

Rules:

1. Land a craft on top of the tower.

_a. To count as "on top of" no part of the craft may be below the ring platform (this means you cant just build a super tall rover and tip it onto the tower)

2. Multiple launches ARE allowed, but if at any point any craft falls off the tower, is recovered, or otherwise removed from the tower, no further launches (including the current launch) will count toward your score.

_a. For multiple launches your time score is -the time for the first launch- plus -the average time of all subsequent launches-

3. No parachutes (they would get all tangled and in the way y'know?).

4. At least one kerbal must be EVAd to the ring platform in order to replace the bulb

_a. All other kerbals must be able to exit the craft

__i. while in contact with either the tower, or a craft landed on top of the tower

__ii. without falling below the height of the ring platform

5. Stock parts only.

6. No MechJeb.

7. No Cheats (this includes clipping, hack-gravity, and infinite-fuel)

Scoring:

1000 points per kerbal

-400 points per kerbal if RCS thrusters are on your craft (because I found these made landing far easier)

Time Multiplier:

Convert your mission time at time of landing to decimal minutes and divide your score by this number.

Screenshots:

your craft on the launchpad before takeoff. (optional)

your craft landed on top of the tower at 0 m/s. (the mission time in this screenshot is your time score)

At least one kerbal standing on the ring platform. (all other kerbals must be visible and countable).

Leaderboard:

1. donfede - 61538

2. zorque - 22857

3. rousseau - 735

4.

My Entry / proof of concept:

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1 kerbal * (1000-400)

/(49/60)

= 735 (round to nearest whole number)

Notes:

This was very frustrating at first, and is more about pilot skill than craft design, but soon had a lot of fun with this. I have yet to land on the tower without RCS. Just did a multi-kerbal landing (9 kerbals) won't post it until someone beats my proof of concept though (which just happened by a landslide so I guess i'll have to try again anyway c;).

Edit: Had to adjust rules slightly as leaving kerbals on the ring platform and switching back to the craft sometimes made them fall through to the ground (making the challenge very annoying). Added some clarification for multiple launches i left out before.

Edited January 19, 2014 by rousseau

[zorque]

This sounded too fun to pass up, and YES it was very frustrating. On try 1 billion or so, I finally managed to land it (kept bumping and tipping over, very hard without RCS, but I started playing with this before the edit).

Had to practice flying quickly as I only had about 50-55 seconds of fuel to work with.

(16 kerbals * 1000) / (42 / 60) = 22857.

Fun fact: I designed the lander with wide arms, hoping it would prevent me tipping over (kinda hug the rounded part), and by pure luck the arms fit exactly over the top of the tower.

Pros: If you come straight down, the arms perch on the catwalk ring and you can stay there forever.

Cons: If you come down at an angle or even slightly off center, you tip over and your thrust vector sends you careening without enough fuel for recovery.

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Edited January 17, 2014 by zorque

[donfede]

No success to report yet, but wanted to share my attempts at this challenge. Instead of using a standard capsule, I was building a 'bucket of kerbals'. Unfortunately this turned out to be unstable, due to kerbals bouncing around, clipping into the craft, and causing kaos (before takeoff, while loading up). Later attempts struggled with TWR, and last with the combined delayed impact of several dozen kerbals. Setting this approach down for now and thinking about different strategies.

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Mods used: TriggerTech's Kerbal Alarm Clock

Craft are stock; designed and mission on v0.23

kbulbx

kbulbx-KMk2

kbulbx-KMk3

kdonfede

--

"Adding K to every word..."

Edited January 18, 2014 by donfede
added mod info and craft files

[rousseau]

@donfede

Thanks for the laugh that was great. Bucket of kerbals is genius, shame you couldn't get it to work reliably :\ good luck!

@zorque

Some sort of ring to grab the tower is what i envisioned people trying, never thought of depositing kerbals directly onto the ring though, i had only thought of dropping them on top and then walking down (which is easier said than done). Also your speed is setting the bar really high for future attempts ;D

I myself tried a 32 kerbal landing yesterday but sadly had to postpone further efforts before the kinks had been worked out.

Also my intention was to deduct points from RCS in an attempt to balance the speed gained by using RCS. If everyone completely avoids RCS I might consider lowering the penalty.

[donfede]

(40 kerbals * 1000) / (39 / 60) = 61538

Had much more success using EAS external seats, instead of the 'bucket of kerbals' approach.

The craft could probably handle 10 more kerbals.

# time score shot http://imgur.com/a/xPOZu#20

# kerbal standing on the ring http://imgur.com/a/xPOZu#31

# album

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Mods used: TriggerTech's Kerbal Alarm Clock

Craft are stock; designed and mission on v0.23

kbulbx-KMk4

thanks for the fun challenge!

kdonfede

--

"Adding K to every word..."