Recover an asteroid after oceanic impact

[Pds314]

Asteroids hit the ocean a lot. In fact, almost precisely 50.0% of Kerbin's surface area is liquid water.

Asteroids often survive oceanic impacts, but then the trouble is that they sink to the bottom and they stand no chance of being recovered... or do they?

Your mission is to recover an asteroid after it lands in the ocean and bring it back to KSC for thorough examination and testing (such as rolling it over cars and playing bowling with rockets for pins).

Rules:

Mods are allowed, but some have penalties associated with them.

Hyper-edit and any other mods may be used to land the asteroid in water, they may not necessarily however be used to aid in retrieving it.

No mods that allow you to have godlike physics-denying powers. Free teleports, indestructibility, rocket engines with TWRs of 500 and Isps of 12000, etc are cheating.

Use of cheats from the Alt-F12 menu during flight is prohibited.

Scoring:

+50 points per tonne of asteroid retrieved. (e.g. a 25-tonne asteroid would be worth 1250 points.)

+1 point for every meter below sea level that the asteroid was at.

-100 KAS penalty (makes it easier to reach things under water)

-50 using any mod parts meant specifically for use in water, e.g. firespitter seaplane floats, aircraft carrier parts.

-40 points per tonne of asteroid for using balloons to move them.

Leaderboard:

1.

2.

3.

Edited April 7, 2014 by Pds314

[Sirine]

Do asteroid float on water?

[Pds314]

Do asteroid float on water?

No. They sink. Unlike spaceship parts which floats quite well.

[Kasuha]

You have obviously not tried if this is possible.

[Noname117]

Can't you use engines to push a craft underwater? Should be possible at shallow depths without submerging if you have a long enough pylon arm and a craft that is stable floating. I'm guessing class A's and maybe class B's can be lifted from the seabed with just stock parts

[Javster]

KAS would obviously make it much easier, along with submarine mods.

[SpaghettiFace]

You have obviously not tried if this is possible.

I'm sure it's possible, this guy got the bottom of the ocean as have a ton of other people

[Starwhip]

Wait. (I don't think I'm going to try, but here's an idea)

If you dock (claw) the asteroid, does it gain the buoyancy of the ship?

[capi3101]

I'm sure it's possible, this guy got the bottom of the ocean as have a ton of other people

That......is pretty damn awesome.

With the Claw, wouldn't it be possible to put a structure down there now and keep it there permanently? That begs a challenge of its own, me thinks...better check to see if its feasible first. Points based on structure mass and depth with some prerequisites (like inhabitability) and bonuses (science instruments or whatever; anyone want to point me to some good base-building challenges, that'd be helpful.)

Edited April 10, 2014 by capi3101

[zarakon]

A Kraken Drive is also capable of getting you to the ocean floor

[xoknight]

That......is pretty damn awesome.

With the Claw, wouldn't it be possible to put a structure down there now and keep it there permanently? That begs a challenge of its own, me thinks...better check to see if its feasible first. Points based on structure mass and depth with some prerequisites (like inhabitability) and bonuses (science instruments or whatever; anyone want to point me to some good base-building challenges, that'd be helpful.)

My guess is that when you load the structure, it will spontaneously explode because of the water glitch.

[Andrew Hansen]

I'm tempted to try this. This challenge has no time limit, right? I can't do it immediately, but it's something I want to try. With the Claw and everything, I think it's possible.

[Pds314]

I'm tempted to try this. This challenge has no time limit, right? I can't do it immediately, but it's something I want to try. With the Claw and everything, I think it's possible.

No, there is no time limit. Sorry I haven't been around. I've had some real-life stuff to deal with.

- - - Updated - - -

A Kraken Drive is also capable of getting you to the ocean floor

It is? I never noticed that. Do upside down Kraken Drives somehow invert their climbing force?

- - - Updated - - -

My guess is that when you load the structure, it will spontaneously explode because of the water glitch.

What water glitch? I don't remember that one.

[zarakon]

It is? I never noticed that. Do upside down Kraken Drives somehow invert their climbing force?

The particular one I tried worked that way

[Zipmafia]

I'm trying this right now!!! In fact, i have been trying it for the last couple of days. I have managed to land one in the ocean on the other side of kerbin, which ended up being WAY too hard to recover. So this time I have a better idea!!!! More on that later.....

[1D-1()T]

I might give this a shot, I do quite like exploring the oceans. To anyone else doing the challenge, you might like to know that full orange tanks sink. Or at least, they did before. I think they still do. I haven't tried with the new parts yet.