Disasteroid (v0.16)

[Koschei]

Great job! .craft file? I haven't seen that plane before!

[wonderwhale]

That was a great use of the railgun, I didn't even think of that. I was thinking more of stock parts. And also maybe I could balance it out with the SRBs and put them lower down to use them.

[JackAz]

I'll give it a try ! must be fun

[bsalis]

That was a great use of the railgun, I didn't even think of that. I was thinking more of stock parts. And also maybe I could balance it out with the SRBs and put them lower down to use them.

Well, the railgun wasn't my idea. Someone else suggested it in this very thread, and maltesh confirmed that it works.

Anyhows, something I only realised after I did this challenge. Serious déjà vu...

and

... the more things change, the more things stay the same.

If anyone is interest...

As soon as the game started I launched immediately and put the craft into a 100km circular orbit. When MechJeb showed that my longitude was 39 degrees, I did my transfer burn to set the Ap to 21500km. Around the Ap, I did a series of burns to kill off my horizontal velocity so as to try and get the craft in the path of the disasteroid as it passed by. When disasteroid reached my altitude, I did a series or burns downwards to match velocity and get my orbit path looking the same as disasteroid as best I could in map view. I then added another 100 m/s to chase it down. When I was at the same altitude again, I killed off that 100 m/s to have the same velocity again. I then did some small burns pointing directly at the disasteroid, then another one or two to slow me down as it approached. It then appeared in view. Once it was under 2km I started firing for epic win. After that my trajectory was to hit Kerbin with a Pe of about 8km. So I raised that to 35km for aerocapture and landing later on. (note that due to some bug, when I hit atmo, the Pe suddenly dropped to ~20km, so I had to reload my quicksave a few times to get a proper Pe for capture).

Delta-V breakdown up to disasteroid elimination was something like this…

LKO = 4500

Transfer = 865

Kill horizontal velocity at Ap = 150

Match vertical velocity = 900

Chase then brake = 100 + 100

Rendezvous maneuvers = ~35

TOTAL = 6650

So any Mun return capable craft can do this easily. Since Mun return is about 7000 minimum.

(note that it's in a SPOILER, so don't view unless you actually want to)

Edited September 10, 2012 by bsalis

[YURI KAGARIN]

I love this game!