Interstellar Colonization

[Thobewill10]

BIG HONKING INTERSTELLAR COLONIZATION CHALLENGE!

The time has come, fellow Kerbonauts, to reach out beyond our humble star, into the wild black yonder. Your mission is to build, by whatever means necessary, a ship capable of escaping kerbol\'s gravity well, being captured by another star\'s, and colonizing another world for kerbalkind.

Your craft must be capable of (in this order):

1. Getting into a solar escape trajectory

2. Braking and getting back into kerbol\'s orbit (simulated 'other star') after going 2 KU\'s out (distance from kerbin to kerbol)

3. Rendezvousing with Kerbin again (The alien planet)

4. Deploying a Munar base (3 landers, 1 comms satellites)

5. Dispatching a comms satellite in Kerbin Orbit

6. And finally, landing 5 modules on Kerbin, preferably near eachother.

Your landers must be more than a pod and a fuel tank. They must have a 'habitat' or 'cargo' module of some sort (the 2-meter centrifuges from this pack OR BACE modules would do nicely ).

Example lander (with pod):

RULES:

1. All parts are allowed, as long as they\'re relatively balanced (No c7 fuel tanks or engines and no cfg-edits).

2. Mechjeb is the only plugin required.

3. Instant orbits are allowed (only for getting off of Kerbin)

4. Post pictures (obviously) and what packs you used.

Recommended packs:

Probodobodyne, Silisko Edition,

Deep Space Mission Pack,

Truss (a bit unbalanced, but cool-looking),

NovaPunch,

DownUnder

Required plugins:

Mechjeb

Bonus points if you land Rovers in addition to the colonies.

I am currently working on mine, but it will take time, as I am pretty awful at this game.

[Caesar15]

This is....really hard..i mean....just....wow

[Kryten]

I\'m not sure if many (or, indeed, any) people here are going to have computers that could run a ship big enough to do all of that.

[Thobewill10]

This is....really hard..i mean....just....wow

Indeed. I might reduce the pod requirements to make it a tad easier. I\'m currently building mine from the bottom up. It\'s already capable of releasing pods to land on kerbin.

[Thobewill10]

I\'m not sure if many (or, indeed, any) people here are going to have computers that could run a ship big enough to do all of that.

I bet Gaby could do it. His mun missions are freaking unbelievable.

[Thobewill10]

Okay, starting from a Munar orbit, I can complete the last three steps of the mission. Ship (the Genesis I) has very small amounts of lag and plenty of fuel to get from the Mun to Kerbin and circularize. Pics below:

The Genesis I

Another view:

Jettisoning Munar cargo

Planetary approach stage

Firing up the engines:

Leaving the Mun behind:

Slowing down

Circularizing...

Done!

Orbiting Kerbin

Return stage jettisoned

Pods and satellite released

Command stage

Into the atmosphere

Nearly there!

SO close. I lost a landing leg at one point accidentally, and i ran out of fuel (poor descent management), so the parachutes put me down a bit hard.

BUT, they\'re alive!

I have also tested the pods on both Kerbin and the Mun, and they are capable of landing. The only difference between the Mun pods and the Kerbin pods is that the Kerbin pods have parachutes. There are four Kerbin pods (2m), one command pod (3m) and two comms satellites (solar panels deployed: 6 m)

Now to get to interstellar space!

[benjaminlawrence27]

Wow, this will be very impressive, if someone can pull it off.

My suggestion:

Just make one of these. That should do it.

*Disclaimer: I despise Avatar*

Seriously, though, I would recommend modeling your design off of this one. The Venture Star was designed by Charles Pellegrino. I\'m just an SF writer who is obsessed with making my writing as realistic as possible, but this man actually designs starships for a living. He knows what he\'s talking about. (http://www.charlespellegrino.com/cp_biography.htm)

[Thobewill10]

Wow, this will be very impressive, if someone can pull it off.

My suggestion:

Just make one of these. That should do it.

*Disclaimer: I despise Avatar*

Seriously, though, I would recommend modeling your design off of this one. The Venture Star was designed by Charles Pellegrino. I\'m just an SF writer who is obsessed with making my writing as realistic as possible, but this man actually designs starships for a living. He knows what he\'s talking about. (http://www.charlespellegrino.com/cp_biography.htm)

Yeah, I love the Venture Star. However, we don\'t have those awesome anti-matter reactors or solar sails. We\'re doing it the kerbal way: with chemical rockets (or cephei\'s plugin).

Too bad no one\'s taking up the challenge yet, but i\'ll continue with my project. Genesis II is in construction. It should at least be able to get to 25000 m/s. Not sure about return, and i\'ve truthfully never tried a kerbin rendezvous before, but i guess there\'s a first time for everything!

[benjaminlawrence27]

My advice would be to launch synchronously with Kerbin\'s orbit. It\'s really the best, logical choice, given the limitations of Kerbal spacecraft technologies. For, if you simply speed up your craft in the same direction that Kerbin orbits Kerbol, all you\'ll have to do to get back is turn your craft around and burn until your going slightly slower than the planet. You\'ed still need a hell of a lot of delta v, but it would be better than having to transition from a small or larger orbit (Or, god forbid, an orbit on another plane. I don\'t think you could make it back from that with the current version of the game).

[benjaminlawrence27]

On second thought, you might be able to shave off some required fuel if you launch opposite from Kerbin\'s orbit. You wouldn\'t need so much fuel to outrun Kerbin, but you would spend a hell of a lot longer in \'interstellar\' space.

[Thobewill10]

Genesis II: Capable of breaking Kerbol\'s gravity well, with no fuel to spare.

[Caesar15]

I look forward to seeing everyone who can actually beat this

[TinnedEpic]

Yup totally accepting this challenge