The Grand Orbital Space Station Challenge [closed to new entries]

[Coga19000]

Just an idea for the challenge: how about you give extra points for using Dang It?

[Norcalplanner]

Just an idea for the challenge: how about you give extra points for using Dang It?

Coga19000, I've never used Dang It so I don't have an idea of what sort of value to assign to it. If it makes one of your two SRBs crap out during ascent and you somehow manage to make it to orbit anyway, then that would be worth a lot of points. Springing a slow leak in a fuel tank that's part of a space station already in orbit - meh. If you use Dang It for an entry, I'll note it in the description line, and may or may not assign some sort of points bonus based on what happens due it being active. Sorry I can't give you anything more definitive at this point.

[LtWhiskers]

Not sure if this is still going on but I've been working on my station for awhile and finally got around to getting the documentation together. So here's my Orbital Lyceum Xenu:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

. Bit of back and forth during construction, mainly due to two failed attempts at adding mini lander suits. Also, apologize for not taking launch pics of the first two launches but since I captured the other, heavier launches didn't that wouldn't be too big a deal. Anyway, here is the point break down: -7,134 for launch weights, 10,667 for station tonnage, 600 for six dedicated Kerbals, 2,000 for ten comfortable seats, 500 for the lab itself, and 1,000 for escape pods. That equals (at least to my calculations) 7,633. Multiplied by .75 for the Mun I got 5,724.75. A humble station but I had fun building it!

[Norcalplanner]

Not sure if this is still going on but I've been working on my station for awhile and finally got around to getting the documentation together. So here's my Orbital Lyceum Xenu: http://imgur.com/a/4ANS4. Bit of back and forth during construction, mainly due to two failed attempts at adding mini lander suits. Also, apologize for not taking launch pics of the first two launches but since I captured the other, heavier launches didn't that wouldn't be too big a deal. Anyway, here is the point break down: -7,134 for launch weights, 10,667 for station tonnage, 600 for six dedicated Kerbals, 2,000 for ten comfortable seats, 500 for the lab itself, and 1,000 for escape pods. That equals (at least to my calculations) 7,633. Multiplied by .75 for the Mun I got 5,724.75. A humble station but I had fun building it!

Looks like a nice station. RL has been nuts, but I should be able to review this in the next day or two.

[Norcalplanner]

Not sure if this is still going on but I've been working on my station for awhile and finally got around to getting the documentation together. So here's my Orbital Lyceum Xenu: http://imgur.com/a/4ANS4. Bit of back and forth during construction, mainly due to two failed attempts at adding mini lander suits. Also, apologize for not taking launch pics of the first two launches but since I captured the other, heavier launches didn't that wouldn't be too big a deal. Anyway, here is the point break down: -7,134 for launch weights, 10,667 for station tonnage, 600 for six dedicated Kerbals, 2,000 for ten comfortable seats, 500 for the lab itself, and 1,000 for escape pods. That equals (at least to my calculations) 7,633. Multiplied by .75 for the Mun I got 5,724.75. A humble station but I had fun building it!

Congratulations, LtWhiskers! You have completed the Grand Orbital Space Station Challenge with a Stock(-ish) Division entry scoring 5,724.75 points!

I loved the iterative, trial and error nature of your station. It reminds me of some of my earlier station efforts when I "kinda sorta" had a plan, but made sure to put enough docking ports everywhere that I could adapt on the fly. Good job on all that manual rendezvousing and docking, and I appreciated the highly kinetic disposal of superseded station parts. I also enjoyed the cupola IVA shots.

Feel free to add the badge to your sig. If you enjoyed the challenge, rep is always appreciated. Well done!

[LtWhiskers]

Thanks! I did have lots of fun with this one. Rep incoming!

[Glaran K'erman]

Just spent the last week putting something together and realized when I finally got it up that I should probably ask if TweakScale is ok to use? The only other mods I was using for this is SpaceY but the real reason I wanted TS is because I wanted to build the ultimate refueler that was basically a GIANT fuel tank in space, definitely used it for scaling the boosters and engines as well. Just wanted to check before I put everything together, thanks!

[MacGamer04]

I'm gonna give this challenge a try, but I'm wondering, can I launch the fuel tank empty and refuel it later? Either way I have a craft capable of launching a Jumbo-64 tank into a 300 km orbit (Ok not my rocket but most people can guess what it is now), but empty would be more fun for what I have in mind

[Norcalplanner]

Just spent the last week putting something together and realized when I finally got it up that I should probably ask if TweakScale is ok to use? The only other mods I was using for this is SpaceY but the real reason I wanted TS is because I wanted to build the ultimate refueler that was basically a GIANT fuel tank in space' date=' definitely used it for scaling the boosters and engines as well. Just wanted to check before I put everything together, thanks![/quote']

I haven't used TweakScale a lot, but the challenge is intended to allow for all different playstyles. The only question in my mind is whether it would be considered a modest improvement over stock (in which case it's a Modded Division entry) or if it's OP (in which case it's an Advanced Technology Division entry). Either way, you're good to go in the challenge.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm gonna give this challenge a try, but I'm wondering, can I launch the fuel tank empty and refuel it later? Either way I have a craft capable of launching a Jumbo-64 tank into a 300 km orbit (Ok not my rocket but most people can guess what it is now), but empty would be more fun for what I have in mind

You can certainly launch a tank empty and then refuel it later; just be sure to either a) fill it up using the station's own dedicated mining/refining apparatus and dedicated craft, or count the tonnage of the refueler as part of the total launch weight penalty. If you're doing a spaceplane, then the landed mass of the plane doesn't count towards the launch tonnage penalty.

- - - Updated - - -

This isn't an entry, but I thought this crowd would appreciate the station I just made as part of my 1.04 career game. Regula 3 has 58 comfortable seats, is over 700 tons, and has three science labs, two cyclotrons, and a whole bunch of other goodies. I'm going to send this thing to Minmus (to run a few orbital experiments), then Duna (to run a few orbital experiments), then finally Jool (to run a few orbital experiments and leave it as a permanent outpost). Enjoy.

[Glaran K'erman]

Great! I am trying to enter in the Modded category but wherever you think it should be placed is your call! Should have all the pictures, final scores tallied, and ready to post by tonight.

[Glaran K'erman]

Dodging curveballs all over the place I am FINALLY ready to enter Kess Station, a big ole' refueler in Munar orbit. A place for weary Kerbals on long missions to stop and relax before heading on to wherever they need to go! Features 2 fuel converters with storage capacity for 40,550 ore and appropriate energy requirements are on board for conversion. The main fuel tank features a capacity of nearly 50 orange fuel tanks (47.77 to be precise)!! And as it stands in orbit is just over half full! (And if I had remembered to put it in the right orbit ) It also has a M700 to scan for the best spots to land the ore buggy!

Some stats:

8 Standard docking ports and one Sr.

19 Capacity

13 Comfy seats

Manned Sci Lab

Fuel generating/self-sufficient

Ore Lander

Final Assembly:

3 launches (1426.958t 779.6t 16997.473t)

Final weight in orbit around Mun: 1230.697t

Final Score: 74821.2285

(Mods: MJ, TweakScale, SpaceY)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qvd8j43vc5xniwz/AADTGmPVXtc_srXxJB4ug8rIa?dl=0

Bad with pictures, sorry, here's a link to the folder with all the pics

In all reality this was a PAIN to assemble! You will notice a Bueller module with green lights in the early pictures, yea that was the first attempt before I realized that the Sr. docking port on the bottom was not stable enough to handle an engine module I had envisioned, had to start over with less fuel in payload to fly direct to Munar orbit. Had to ditch the engine module all together but at least it got the science station in orbit, though another more efficient launch would have got me a few extra point. That proved to be the least of my worries when the RCS thrusters ripped themselves off the top of my buggy on my first docking attempt leaving only a set of four undersized RCS thrusters and a sluggish remote guidance unit on the top to SLOWLY and HORRIBLY dock, but most definietly possible as I did it several times.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Glaran K'erman

[Norcalplanner]

Dodging curveballs all over the place I am FINALLY ready to enter Kess Station' date=' a big ole' refueler in Munar orbit. A place for weary Kerbals on long missions to stop and relax before heading on to wherever they need to go! Features 2 fuel converters with storage capacity for 40,550 ore and appropriate energy requirements are on board for conversion. The main fuel tank features a capacity of nearly 50 orange fuel tanks (47.77 to be precise)!! And as it stands in orbit is just over half full! (And if I had remembered to put it in the right orbit ) It also has a M700 to scan for the best spots to land the ore buggy!

Some stats:

8 Standard docking ports and one Sr.

19 Capacity

13 Comfy seats

Manned Sci Lab

Fuel generating/self-sufficient

Ore Lander

Final Assembly:

3 launches (1426.958t 779.6t 16997.473t)

Final weight in orbit around Mun: 1230.697t

Final Score: 74821.2285

(Mods: MJ, TweakScale, SpaceY)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qvd8j43vc5xniwz/AADTGmPVXtc_srXxJB4ug8rIa?dl=0

Bad with pictures, sorry, here's a link to the folder with all the pics

In all reality this was a PAIN to assemble! You will notice a Bueller module with green lights in the early pictures, yea that was the first attempt before I realized that the Sr. docking port on the bottom was not stable enough to handle an engine module I had envisioned, had to start over with less fuel in payload to fly direct to Munar orbit. Had to ditch the engine module all together but at least it got the science station in orbit, though another more efficient launch would have got me a few extra point. That proved to be the least of my worries when the RCS thrusters ripped themselves off the top of my buggy on my first docking attempt leaving only a set of four undersized RCS thrusters and a sluggish remote guidance unit on the top to SLOWLY and HORRIBLY dock, but most definietly possible as I did it several times.

Glaran,

Real life is busy at the moment, but I should be able to look at this and verify the score tomorrow night. First impression - that's the biggest Rockomax-16 I've ever seen!!!

[parzr]

parzr, I'm sorry it's taken so long to get to this. Most of my KSP time lately has been absorbed by the shiny new 1.0 version of KSP and the Apollo Applications Program Challenge thread, so I'm afraid I haven't been checking in here as often as I should.

This was a very unique entry. It seemed much more like a typical Jool-5 mission than an orbital space station, which is sort of the name of the challenge. After reflection, what I'm going to do is pretend like your mission log ends after photo #21 in your album (the first slide that shows you in a captured Joolian orbit) for tonnage and points purposes, and act as if you left the station in orbit around Jool at that point. In that slide, your station/craft is 337 tons. Based on that information and what you've previously posted, that gives you a score of 87,102. Congratulations - that puts you in third place in the stock(-ish) division.

Thanks, Im kinda a fiend for killing 2 birds with one stone and wanted to hit both in the same run so thanks for keeping me in urs.

[Norcalplanner]

Dodging curveballs all over the place I am FINALLY ready to enter Kess Station' date=' a big ole' refueler in Munar orbit. A place for weary Kerbals on long missions to stop and relax before heading on to wherever they need to go! Features 2 fuel converters with storage capacity for 40,550 ore and appropriate energy requirements are on board for conversion. The main fuel tank features a capacity of nearly 50 orange fuel tanks (47.77 to be precise)!! And as it stands in orbit is just over half full! (And if I had remembered to put it in the right orbit ) It also has a M700 to scan for the best spots to land the ore buggy!

Some stats:

8 Standard docking ports and one Sr.

19 Capacity

13 Comfy seats

Manned Sci Lab

Fuel generating/self-sufficient

Ore Lander

Final Assembly:

3 launches (1426.958t 779.6t 16997.473t)

Final weight in orbit around Mun: 1230.697t

Final Score: 74821.2285

(Mods: MJ, TweakScale, SpaceY)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qvd8j43vc5xniwz/AADTGmPVXtc_srXxJB4ug8rIa?dl=0

Bad with pictures, sorry, here's a link to the folder with all the pics

In all reality this was a PAIN to assemble! You will notice a Bueller module with green lights in the early pictures, yea that was the first attempt before I realized that the Sr. docking port on the bottom was not stable enough to handle an engine module I had envisioned, had to start over with less fuel in payload to fly direct to Munar orbit. Had to ditch the engine module all together but at least it got the science station in orbit, though another more efficient launch would have got me a few extra point. That proved to be the least of my worries when the RCS thrusters ripped themselves off the top of my buggy on my first docking attempt leaving only a set of four undersized RCS thrusters and a sluggish remote guidance unit on the top to SLOWLY and HORRIBLY dock, but most definietly possible as I did it several times.

Congratulations, Glaran K'erman! You have completed the Grand Orbital Space Station Challenge with a Modded Division entry scoring 84,662 points!

This is the first entry that used TweakScale extensively. Since the main benefit appears to be lowered part count and slightly better engines (such as the shrunken KR-2Ls) I've decided that it's a modded division entry. That is the biggest Rockomax-16 I've ever seen! Definitely a fuel depot first and foremost - it looked a little odd at first, but it grew on me. That's a heck of a lot of lander for the number of landing legs you have on it - I hope you're always able to put it down where it's flat.

Feel free to add the badge to your sig. If you enjoyed the challenge, rep is always appreciated. Well done!

[Glaran K'erman]

Hooray! You hit the nail on the head with TS by the way, reducing part counts especially for stations can save you in the lag department big time. The engines are definitely a plus too for landers when dV matters and TWR doesn't. While it has it's uses for launching, the weight of engines and fuel gets up there pretty fast and starts to create an upper limit for efficiency and structual integrity. Addressing its visual "appeal", while yes it is by no means the most elegant of craft, it does as you've noted have it's own charm. Had a blast doing this and only have one question...if it beats my current one can I submit another soon? Just installed MKS/OKS for the first time and my mind exploded. Also here is a link to the save file (created a new 'default' save for the challenge) so you can fiddle with that lander yourself!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2p17rgw2lvt9x5o/AAA914HE_3zbztIWrJcJgd3ca?dl=0

[TheXRuler]

Harrr, I finally managed to make myself start, not really looking forward to flying 60+ launches but I guess I don't have much choice ^^

[Norcalplanner]

Harrr, I finally managed to make myself start, not really looking forward to flying 60+ launches but I guess I don't have much choice ^^

Why so many? Is there any way you can reduce it to a more reasonable number? This stuff is supposed to be fun, not a chore. :-)

[icantmakemodels]

Define "includes snacks"

//reserved for my entry later

[TheXRuler]

Weeeeeeeell it all started out as a small fun project, then I realized I have MKS and OKS and Karbonite/Kethane and all the other goodness.

Since I often get "a little" carried away with this kind of project, before I knew what was going on I had a huge station well over a thousand tons. That is without all the peripheral infrastructure.

Also, since I am doing the whole thing in my career savegame, because it's going rather far out and because I want a good score, I am trying to do everything as efficiently as possible, with all but the bulkiest payloads launched in my SSTO.

Which means many many many "small" modules and additionally all the bigger parts. So the only way to reduce the number of launches would be to send it up with a few truly gargantuan rockets, which would utterly ruin my score, and also some of the fun for me, since getting stuff into space is relatively easy, doing so as efficiently as possible is a lot harder.

Before I send the thing on it's way I have a few more questions though.

First off, this is my career savegame, so I have KSP-Interstellar installed, I am however not as of now using any parts from that particular mod. Does this mean my entry automatically goes in the advanced tech?

Also, and if the answer to the first question is yes then ignore this, would I be permitted to use the KSP-I nuclear reactors purely as a source of electrical power without being put in AdvTech? One of my problems while designing this station has been that I have not yet used MKS/OKS and have no idea how much power the different modules need and I have enough practice with KSP-I to know how I can get very large amounts of EC at the cost of the immense weight of the aforementioned nuclear reactors.

If I understood you correctly in your other posts your main goal for modded was to not have people using engine ISP's above 800s, save for the PB-Ion of course. So I was just wondering...

[Norcalplanner]

Define "includes snacks"

//reserved for my entry later

It's an older lightweight life support mod, largely supplanted these days by USI-LS. I would put both of these mods in the same category.

- - - Updated - - -

TheXRuler, I understand where you're coming from. Just please be careful and watch the part count so you don't end up with a slideshow as your station gets bigger.

If you're not using any interstellar parts, then it will still be considered a modded division entry.

Man, this challenge is really starting to show its age. I'll need to go through and update some things.

[Bev7787]

I'm doing this. Because reasons. Around Dres. DRES NEEDS LOVE

[Voyager275]

Her is my Unity Station. Modules: Core, Fuel Resupply Tank, and the CSM. two mystery goo's are on the core. The only mod used is USI LS.

4,320 Liquid Fuel and 5,280 Oxidizer. 70.5 tons. Three kerbals. The batteries are behind the fuel tank solar panels

Edited September 5, 2015 by Voyager275

[Norcalplanner]

Her is my Unity Station. Modules: Core, Fuel Resupply Tank, and the CSM. two mystery goo's are on the core. The only mod used is USI LS.

4,320 Liquid Fuel and 5,280 Oxidizer. 70.5 tons. Three kerbals. The batteries are behind the fuel tank solar panelshttp://i.imgur.com/lPG1Ik6.png

Voyager275,

That's a nice workable station. If you'd like to get added to the leaderboard, I need photos or a video showing its launch and assembly pursuant to the rules in the OP. Otherwise, I'm happy to add it to the honorable mentions. Just let me know your preference.

[Samniss Arandeen]

I have RemoteTech installed, can I count it as part of my space station to send relay comsats out to keep comms operational?

If all my plan works, I'll have at least seven different space ships flying through one launch window.

[Voyager275]

Voyager275,

That's a nice workable station. If you'd like to get added to the leaderboard, I need photos or a video showing its launch and assembly pursuant to the rules in the OP. Otherwise, I'm happy to add it to the honorable mentions. Just let me know your preference.

Just add me to the honorable mentions.