Stupid things you've made to do missions in career mode

[lukerules117]

With .24 adding missions and money you have probably built some pretty crazy things to either save money or make missions easier, so post your screenshots of them here.

[katateochi]

I was thinking of starting a thread of the daft things contracts are resulting in.

This one had to test both LV-909 and LV-T45 as well as a decoupler and radial parachute:

Edited July 18, 2014 by vexx32
fixed that url

[Eric S]

Firing full thrust prograde while diving into the atmosphere. I got a parachute test where the velocity range for the test was about twice what terminal velocity was at the specified altitude range :-)

[Geschosskopf]

I wouldn't call these "stupid" things but perhaps just "Kerbal" things.

That said, my favorite so far is testing jet engines on Mun. I can imagine afterwards that Bill turned to Bob and said, "See, I told you it wouldn't work!"

[katateochi]

I wouldn't call these "stupid" things but perhaps just "Kerbal" things.

That said, my favorite so far is testing jet engines on Mun. I can imagine afterwards that Bill turned to Bob and said, "See, I told you it wouldn't work!"

Did you really get a contract to do that!? That's hilarious!

[lukerules117]

Firing full thrust prograde while diving into the atmosphere. I got a parachute test where the velocity range for the test was about twice what terminal velocity was at the specified altitude range :-)

I've had missions to test landing gear escaping Kerbin and with a sub orbital trajectory.

[StarRanger]

Testing radial parachutes on Duna... between 17,000 to 16,750. My roommates are starting to think I have Tourett's syndrome.

[Bobnova]

Testing the LV-45 at 5400m to 8600m and 390m/s to 600m/s turned out to be remarkably difficult with stage1 tech.

When I finally got it (MOAR BOOSTERS!) I combined it with the getting out of the atmosphere and orbiting missions as I was already halfway there.

Some of the missions are pretty funny.

[Guest]

My craft's had random decoupler's and parachutes just so I can test more parts at once. Most times I just miss the criteria though (testing chutes at speeds above terminal velocity, etc)

[magnemoe]

My best was to ordered to test a 48-7S and a plane landing gear after splash down, 45 liter tank, sputnik, two batteries, I bundled an parachute test with it who required me to get up to 10km and then burn downward to reach target speed. Wonder if not many of the parashute tests are best done with probes once I get the flat ones.

[Amihan]

Unfortunately I discovered the hard way that, duh, activating only one of the side engines causes the whole thing to spin out of control, so I only fulfilled one contract. But hey, I'm learning!

Also methinks I need to learn the ins and outs of the VAB a little better...

[Xacktar]

You get some oddball things for contracts...

[Bobnova]

This is the oddest for me so far. Company wanted the basic jet engine tested splashed down.

They were not, however, willing to give me any intakes.

Middle tank launched empty. Right and left tanks had about 25% fuel/lox, landed in the shallows with only a few units of fuel/lox left, used some to cushion the chutes opening and more to cushion the landing.

Funny mission.

I'm enjoying the contracts.

[FleetAdmiralJ]

what I thought was the dumbest thing was testing landing gear while on escape trajectory from the Mun (specifically that! lol). So I put it together with a Mun science and Mun Flag contract.

As it turned out, my lander flopped on it's side on landing, and I was able to use the landing gear to flip myself up and escape. So who knew landing gear would be so useful on the Mun

[Roastduck]

You guys should have seen some of my preliminary designs for the rescue mission. I wish I had taken screenshots. I ended up just sticking two pods together at their bottoms, and sticking the whole thing on top of a rocket

[vexx32]

I don't have any pictures, sadly, but I had to test an SLS SRB (that massively long SRB) in orbit. So I lugged it up there with a bung of mainsails and Skipper engines as the lifter, oriented retrograde, and used it to deorbit from the specified orbit altitude. xD

[ansaman]

Testing radial parachutes on Duna... between 17,000 to 16,750. My roommates are starting to think I have Tourett's syndrome.

You know, there are some contracts that are better off left alone.

Some are not worth the money. Others are VERY premature at some levels of tech. For example, I

never try Munar missions until I have batteries and preferably solar panels of some type.

[WanderingKid]

I'd have to agree. Just because someone asks you to do something, doesn't mean it's a great idea. Level 1 of dungeon: Dragon in next room. Note to self: Skip room.

Procedural doesn't equate everything being equal in value for choice.

As to the crazy 'landed' designs, they're completely recoverable for cost, so they're pretty easy to do, no matter what strangeness you end up generating.

[Sandworm]

Test a mainsail while LANDED on Mun.

[Torrack]

Why is everybody testing the chutes coming down? Why not test them going UP? I had a few.... odd contracts... I simply put a chute on the top of my craft, set my function keys to 1=deploy chute and 2=cut chute. When I was headed upward at the correct speed/altitude range, I deployed the chute (very little oblique angle drag due to the "nose" placement) and then immediately cut the chute. It counts as testing the chute, you get the rewards, and can continue your flight to do something else (like a multi-contract flight) and then still land/splashdown safely via use of radially mounted chutes.

Just a thought.

[Torrack]

Don't forget, during your vehicle design/construction stage, you can set the thrust limiter on an engine (solid or liquid fueled) by right clicking on it while still inside the hangar. Why not test that single side mounted engine when it's firing at 1% instead of 100%? Hope this helps.

[-ELF-]

I have heard someone complaining about the fact that action groups does not count for contracts purposes...

[insert X-Files theme here]

The truth is out there...

[technicalfool]

Now I know that you could empty that BACC before testing it while landed on Minmus. Or use it to take off and return with.

But landing this, firing it upside down and returning/recovering the whole thing just seemed more... Kerbal.

[HafCoJoe]

This is sooooo Kerbal. Just saying.

[Aragosnat]

But, yeah. Parachutes opening on the way up on a stage you're going to ditch anyways makes the cost of using the lower stage a bit more tolerable. Transmite data around x planet/moon. The stupid part is, that you can spam / transmit data you have already sent in. You would think they would notice they already have that data. Then again.... =^.^= Their loss my gain.

Another dumb one, for me at least, was to test the small gears (plane gears we all love to use) in water/splash down. Added the plane capsule T400 fuel tank Lv-909 4 wheels and 3 basic solar panels then slowly thrust my way to and into the water, tested and returned back to runway for 100% return on all parts and fuel.