Asteroid Deflection Hollywood Style

[cantab]

Good morning Mr Kerman.

Before he left on vacation, Wernher von Kerman passed to us a secret message. He informed us that following the successful collaboration with NASA, his next project would be to seek a tie-in with Hollywood. He charged me with assisting him with some of the pilot filming.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to deflect an asteroid Hollywood Style. That means none of the usual grab onto it and gently burn a nuclear engine. To pass muster on the silver screen the asteroid must be blasted by either a bomb or a missile, placed or fired by Kerbal hands.

As always, should you or any of your crewmembers be killed, the F9 key will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

This Challenge will self-destruct in approximately 5 megaseconds.

Scoring:

Base:

You must select an asteroid spawned by the game's normal random spawning, and it must be on a collision course with Kerbin before you launch your deflection mission. Your deflection is considered complete once the asteroid is no longer on a trajectory shown as hitting Kerbin or having a periapsis in its atmosphere (below 70,000 m). And yes, you can use more than one bomb or missile, or a mixture of the two.

0 points if you deflect the asteroid with something that can't reasonably be called a bomb or a missile, or your bomb is detonated or missile launched without a Kerballed ship within 2.5 km.

10 points for meeting all basic requirements and attempting an A class. 20 for a B class, 50 for a C, 100 for a D, and 500 for an E.

Most mods and part edits are allowed. Part clipping is allowed. Autopilots are banned on the missiles (but allowed on the main ship). Hyperedit, blatantly overpowered mods or part edits, infinite anything in the debug menu, and persistence file reading or editing for advantage (such as finding the asteroid's mass or changing its orbit) are banned.

Please include before and after orbit screenshots of the asteroid in your entry.

Mission Bonuses:

All bonuses are a percentage of your original base score. So deflecting a D class with two 50% bonuses gets you 200 points, not 225. Each bonus can only be obtained once.

Asteroid-shattering kaboom: Actually destroy, rather than deflect, the asteroid. +50%

Don't start a panic: Conceal the purpose of the mission in some way. Just putting a fairing round the payload doesn't count. +10%

Heroic sacrifice: Kill or strand a Kerbal. It must be necessary for the mission or look like an accident, no just randomly bailing out. Deaths on re-entry or landing do not count. +10%

Houston, we have a problem: Overcome some difficulty or failure, whether unexpected or contrived. +20%

Little brother: Deflect the main asteroid, but a smaller companion hits. The companion's orbit may be altered with a conventional asteroid tug but only before launching the deflection mission. +50%

Monumental damage: Cause either the main or the companion asteroid to hit within 2.5 km or so of KSC, the island runway, any anomaly, or any landed craft. +100%

New Kerbin Order: Put the main asteroid on a collision course in the first place. This may be done with a conventional asteroid tug, but a reminder that it must be on its collision course before launching the deflection mission. +50%

Ramming speed: Use your main ship as a missile. +10%

Sequel potential: After the deflection, the asteroid is put back on a collision course by a gravity assist. +10%

Ticker tape parade: Land back at KSC. +10%

Use what you have: Deflect the asteroid with a ship not designed for it, other than adding the bombs or missiles. +20%

Presentation Bonuses:

Given for showing off your mission in a fancy way. Only one presentation bonus will be awarded.

Akademy Award: A video. +100%

Keisner Award: A comic. Not just a screenshot album, there needs to be dialogue. +50%

Kerman Koober Prize: A narrative or script. +50%

Fission Mailed Penalty:

Halve your total score, after the bonuses, if you didn't actually deflect your asteroid! You must however have made a good faith effort, no sticking a single stack separator on an E class and claiming 250 points.

Leaderboard:

Cantab: 60 points. Class C, bomb deflection.

ScriptKitt3h: 14 points. Class B, missile deflection, failure.

Edited May 11, 2014 by cantab
"Good faith" ruling.

[cantab]

My own comparatively modest entry, demonstrating it's possible with stock parts. I used bombs made from a load of stack separators to deflect a 136-ton C class.

Add in the "Houston, we have a problem" bonus - a delta-V shortage, and later a near-squashing of Wehrble while placing the bombs - for a score of 60 points. It may raise once I land the ship which I haven't done yet.

Ship placing the first bomb:

Orbit before:

Detonation:

Orbit after:

Full photo album

[Pds314]

Hmm.. I feel like experimenting with what happens as a Kraken drive hits an E-type asteroid at a significant fraction of C...

Problem is that I'd probably have to mess with the timestep.... not to mention making a new KSP directory. (My current one is filled with realism mods that make putting giant things in orbit really hard to do.)

EDIT: Oh my gosh! I just got the reference at the top!

[cantab]

Kraken drives and other glitch drives are, incidentally, allowed. After all Hollywood never let real physics get in the way of a movie.

And yes, for some reason said reference came to mind when I was drafting the OP.

[robopilot99]

May we use hyperedit or another mod to actually get an asteroid on a collision course with Kerbin?

[jfull]

Hmm.. I feel like experimenting with what happens as a Kraken drive hits an E-type asteroid at a significant fraction of C...

Well, if Asteroids are parts, then surely they must be able to destroyed with a hard enough impact

[cantab]

May we use hyperedit or another mod to actually get an asteroid on a collision course with Kerbin?

In three tests I was able to get an E-class on a collision cause within 10 minutes wall time from starting a new save file, and editing would let you choose an easier-to-intercept orbit, so I'm saying no. The asteroids used must be spawned by the game's normal procedures.

I've also clarified that if you are putting the asteroid on a collision course in normal gameplay, for the New Kerbin Order or Little Brother bonuses, you may do so with a regular engine driven tug but have to finish before launching your deflection mission. So you can't send one ship up to push an asteroid onto a collision course then shove it off with the bomb/missile.

Edited April 29, 2014 by cantab

[ScriptKitt3h]

I tried hard, and failed miserably. Kerbal-style.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Good thing it was only a B-Class.

[Capt. Hunt]

If only the dummy warheads that came with FASA actually exploded like nukes.

[ScriptKitt3h]

If only the dummy warheads that came with FASA actually exploded like nukes.

That's why I go all-stock. (LFO makes plenty o' boom.)

[cantab]

Well, congrats for the effort!

I make that 20 point base for a B class, with the Heroic Sacrifice, Houston, we have a problem

, and ramming speed bonuses (I'll give you that since you tried, even though you missed), then the half points for not actually deflecting the rock.

Total score: 14

And a couple of rule changes for future contenders. I want before and after orbit screenshots of the asteroid, and I'll no longer be awarding the Heroic sacrifice bonus for deaths on landing.

[icantmakemodels]

are we allowed hyperedit for the little brother challenge?

[cantab]

No also, sorry. Hence it being a big 50% bonus.

And another addition for clarity: Deflection attempts must be made in good faith expectation they'll succeed. Ie, you can't just stick a single stack separator on an E-class, set it off, and claim 250 points.

[quasarrgames]

Wants todo something for this soooooobaaad!

[SSSPutnik]

May I suggest an extra score bonus?

Orbital satellite discovers asteroid but is of course impacted by it and destroyed. Screen cuts to black or something.