[Scenario Challenge] Starflight One: The Tube Rescue

[ihtoit]

DISASTER! The first stage of our new Space Colony construction has hit on one or two little snags. For a start, some dimwit forgot to attach the Clamptron Senior to the ass of the beast to allow the attachment of major station parts including science, a docking hub with escape pods, and long-term life support systems. The second crew capsule sent up with constructors including Bill and Bob also carried an unwanted passenger. A computer virus invaded the guidance system, and sent the station core on a direct course into the Sun, right before it jettisoned the entire propulsion system! The last communication we had from the crew suggested that the docking port had taken some damage when the propulsion systems were jettisoned as the rockets were still firing. The last bit of that transmission indicated that they had in fact enough air and power to survive until impact, but radio range of only about 3,000km. Suits and EVA systems are all nominal.

THE CHALLENGE:

Using the provided Save package (just unpack into your "saves" folder), create and execute a mission to rescue the seven stranded Kerbals before the station crashes into the Sun, and return them to Kerbin. Your FIRST and ONLY priority is the crew! The station is fully expendable.

PREREQUISITES (all mods available on Spaceport):

KSP 0.23

B9 Aerospace (challenge may work without this)

KWRocketry (challenge may work without this)

Kosmos (challenge may work without this)

Firespitter (challenge may work without this)

KSPInterstellar (needed for radiators used on the station)

The Luvodicus "Pirated Engines" Rocket Mod Pack. This is just a few flags and two highly modded nuke engines - which you might even find useful. (verified in 0.23) (recommended)

MechJeb (you need this to load the .craft files provided in various stages of flight)

RemoteTech 2 (essential for this challenge)

(ALL available texture reduction packages highly recommended! This is my "modded" setup and runs just shy of 1.7GB RAM loaded, it kills 4GB without twitching on full textures)

RULES:

- No exploits.

- ANY parts mod is valid.

- The clock is ticking! Game clock is at about 30 days, after which the station will crash into the sun whether or not you have rescued the Kerbals.

- ASSUME THE CLAMPTRON PORT ON THE STATION IS NONFUNCTIONAL!

- The scenario is set up so that EVAing the Kerbals and suit jetting them into an elliptical orbit for later pickup is not possible.

- Jebediah Kerman is not available. He is sitting in a cupola module on the surface, doing Pon-Farr or something.

- Challenge time officially starts at T-30d0h0m0s before Kerbolar impact.

- Mission is classified a FAILURE if you fail to rescue any Kerbals or if your game clock (MET) passes 291 days 16 hours (7,000 hours) before touchdown on Kerbin.

- You may send a ship to retrieve the Kerbals and place them in a stable orbit then a second ship to bring them home, but your first launch *must* remain in orbit as this is your MET subtractor for your score!

SCORING:

1000 points for each Kerbal rescued, -1 for each hour Challenge Elapsed Time until your mission makes touchdown on Kerbin.

Reporting via link to thread you create here for verbose reporting (to help keep this thread clutter-free; any one answer to this challenge is likely to involve lots of images!), Imgur slideshow or Youtube video.

CHALLENGE RESPONDERS:

LEADERBOARD:

1. ihtoit, 2041 (good touchdown, but Krakened while unloading for parade)

2.

3.

4.

5.

Edited March 1, 2014 by ihtoit

[soranno]

I love this kind of provided challenge, almost all included.

However, I strongly suggest that you re-engineer your challenge to make all mod elements optional, or provide separate versions.

You will find your challenge receiving much greater participation if you do so, I am quite certain.

[ihtoit]

yeah did that already... KSPInterstellar and MechJeb are pretty much mandatory as both mods are used on The Tube model. I don't think there is any way to beat this using stock-only; a direct-burn rescue trajectory for an intercept in T-1d requires over 50km/s delta-V (I'd say 55 low conservative estimate. I just did the intercept/rescue and ran out of fuel just as I got back onto a Kerbin-crossing elliptical Kerbolar orbit! Now I'm gonna need a rescue boat for the rescue boat... ha! Nine Kerbals to rescue, now...)!

Addendum: I'm making a slight adjustment to the scoring.

Edited February 28, 2014 by ihtoit

[ihtoit]

ok, completed (phew!), probably the most difficult challenge I've ever done!

[Taki117]

Question: If I send a rescue ship to grab the Kerbals, and then put that into a stable orbit, can I then send another rescue ship to haul them home?

[ihtoit]

yes, that's what I had to do because my first ship ran out of fuel(!)* but your MET subtractor is on the MET clock on your first launch. Which is around 30 days before the Tube crashes into the Sun. It is still possible to score if this happens (as I did). Rule amended to reflect the fact that the clock starts basically when you launch your first ship (and that's needed as your time reference as the Tube is on a terminal dive!)

*OYG, I just looked at the time, I just spent the last 11 hours 40 minutes on KSP without even so much as a break for coffee!

Edited March 1, 2014 by ihtoit