The ultimate challenge to life, the universe, and everything!

[GoSlash27]

... Or: the "I broke KSP challenge"

The task is straightforward (if technically "impossible" by conventional thinking):

Using a single vehicle in a single mission, plant a flag on the surface of every landable body with an atmosphere and plant a flag, and return safely to KSC. The targets are Eve, Duna, and Laythe and winner will be the participant who achieves all of the objectives in the lowest elapsed time.

The letter and spirit of the rules are simply this: You may not alter or interfere with the stock physics in any way, but you are free to take advantage of any loopholes that they present in stock form. Likewise, you may use any stock parts you choose, but you may not alter them in any way.

Expanding on the rules... no mods that alter the physics and no non-stock parts allowed. You may not hyperedit, use debug menu cheats, use non-stock parts, alter the properties of stock parts or use mods that alter the stock physics. You may use ladder lifters, kraken drives, infinigliders, SAS copters, and anything else you can dream up... provided that they are composed of stock parts.

Scoring

The objective is to visit Eve, Duna, and Laythe and plant flags on each, then return to the KSC. This needs to be accomplished by a single ship in a single mission, and needs to be completed as quickly as possible. Your score will be calculated by total elapsed mission time with the following modifiers:

Planted a flag on Laythe: Time/2

Planted a flag on Duna: Time/5

Planted a flag on Eve: Time /10

Planted a flag on any or all of the above and returned safely to KSC:Time/10

These multipliers are cumulative, so (as an example) planting flags on all 3 planets and returning safely will divide your total MET by 1000.

Verification:

You should document your journey through video or photos so that they clearly support your claimed time. A copy of your craft needs to be submitted for verification.

Final thoughts: This challenge is laughably impossible on it's face... unless you "cheat" like crazy, and that's the idea. It can be done using known weaknesses in the KSP physics engine and stock parts. The objective is to be creative in exploiting these weaknesses as efficiently as possible.

So go all Morpheus on this challenge and see how badly you can break the game!

Leaderboard:

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Edited October 12, 2014 by GoSlash27

[goduranus]

After the update, I can't get infinigliders to go faster than 650m/s now, back to the drawing board

I recommend that there be bonuses for landing on planets and moon with low gravity or no atmosphere to encourage designs other than the kraken infiniglider

Edited October 8, 2014 by goduranus

[EdFred]

Define "Single Vehicle".

[sdj64]

"laughably impossible" is a huge overstatement, many people have done single-launch grand tours before...

[GoSlash27]

"laughably impossible" is a huge overstatement, many people have done single-launch grand tours before...

Define "Single Vehicle".

SDJ64 & EdFred,

I can answer both of these at once: By "single vehicle", I mean exactly that. One vehicle launches from Kerbin surface. That lone vehicle will journey to the surface of each planet, return to orbit, and continue on to the next planet. There will be no detaching excursion vehicles, executing refueling rendezvous in orbit, or the like. Whatever arrives in orbit must land on the surface.

I will not, however, force you to SSTO if you want to stage your launches, but I personally will SSTO all of them for my entry.

The goal is to build a car George Jetson style. Just hop in it and do a poker run all over the system.

Best,

-Slashy

[GoSlash27]

My first attempt was a failure. I came into the Eve SOI going plaid on the second day and decided to try aerobraking. Bad idea!

Firing up my next attempt tomorrow...

[GoSlash27]

second attempt, day 9:

Flagged Eve. Approaching Duna...

-Slashy

Edited October 16, 2014 by GoSlash27