Laythe Exploration

[CalMacDa]

This mission will require knowledge of the following: orbital rendevous, spaceplane flight and construction, interplanetary transfers, and just knowing how to play the game itself.

Scenario:

The Kerbal Space Program is tired of exploring local celestial bodies, and wants to go farther. They have colonized the Mun, planted countless flags on Minmus, and have conquered Duna and Eve, but they are not satisfied. With Kerban withering away due to Klobal Warming, the Kerbal Soace Program is ready to take a step to the only truly habitable body in the known universe. Laythe. Laythe has an oxygen atmosphere, lots of water, and lower gravity than Kerbin. This moon of Jool is the only hope for the Kerbal kind, and is going to be the next big step for Kerbal Kind.

What Must be Sent:

*Send 4+ Kerbals

*Send a manned or unmanned space station that will be left there for future missions

*Send a Space Plane that can be brought down to Laythe, landed, and taken back up

*Send a probe

*Send a rover and land that rover on one of the islands on Laythe

*Land at least 1 Kerbal (just man the space plane)

Rules:

*Use allowed parts (stock, Mech Jeb, Kethane)

*Mech Jeb is allowed

*Send all but one Kerbal back

*Leave the spaceplane with space station

*Orbital assembly allowed

Everything Worth 10 points

Bonus:

*Leave a probe for all moons of Jool - 1 point

*Send a manned ship to the station and refuel the spaceplane left there - 1 point

*Complete the mission in 1 launch - 3 points

*Dont use large parts (anything the size of the 4x engine cluster) - 1 point

*Send a colony of 100 Kerbals - 2 points(Bonus Bonus: use the Keythane mod to give the colony the ability to launch and refuel ships) - 3 points

*Don't use Mech Jeb - 1 point

*Don't Aerobrake - 2 points

It might be impossible to get all bonus points due to the Single Launch and Don't use large parts bonus challenges, so the competition to get the most points might be fierce.

If you didn't accept the single launch challenge, please post a pic of your ship ready to do the burn in orbit. If you did accept the single launch challenge, send a pic of your ship on the launch pad. Creds to any single launchers!

Also, Please Please Please post the amount of points you got when you did the mission!

Thank you for accepting the challenge, and I look forward to seeing your ships!

RANKINGS:

Cmdr. Arn1e: 20pts

-CalMacDa

Edited January 9, 2015 by CalMacDa
More Changing.

[CalMacDa]

I'm still working on the challenge. Going for a puny 11 points. I hope you guys do better.

[NeatCrown]

I'm considering to enter this challenge! (I have a terrible PC, so this might take a while...) I have a working 1 - kerbal SSTO, and working on a 2.5m Cargo SSTO. Considering giving any extra points for that?

(Wait, you said "stock parts only" then "Mechjeb" and "Kethane mod")

Edited December 23, 2014 by NeatCrown

[Signo]

This sounds a little bit like a fancy "Jool-5". Did u check that?

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[CalMacDa]

Yes... Sorry about that. Stock parts AND mechjeb and key thane if you accept that part of the challenge. Oh yeah, and sorry, but no extra points for the cargo SSTO...

[CalMacDa]

I have, but this mission is focused on the exploration of Laythe only. The Kerbals are taking their first step to colonizing it. Jool-5 is definentally harder, but as said earlier, this is a mission focused around the Exploration of Laythe

[Signo]

Yes... Sorry about that. Stock parts AND mechjeb and key thane if you accept that part of the challenge. Oh yeah, and sorry, but no extra points for the cargo SSTO...

Nothing to be sorry about I think, as long as you are aware. I hope you will host a succesful challenge.

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

Wow... we see this so much...

Welcome to the Forums! and must say, your challenge is certainly much better than some that are posted as a 1st post... they usually go along the lines of "I thought of a brilliant plan, Take some kerbals and take them to Laythe!" with not much else, so much kudos for probably having read the submission guide

I think there is a little bit of neatening up to do to the OP (and, by the way, it's good form to hit 'edit post' if no-one has replied since your last post - keeps things tidier for the admins!) Biggest one bieng; where did you get that difficulty rating? If you just made it up, may as well remove it, as a lot of players will have thier own idea of how difficult something is... (Some people find the Jool-5 challenge easy, I seem to over-engineer everything so much I'm just about ready to launch when the new update hits!!)

Lastly, just a warning; if your challenge becomes popular (and I think it could, it seems like the stepping stone some playrs might need to ramp up to a full Jool-5 Challenge Mission!) then you might find you have to spend a lot of time judging entries and updating scoreboards...

I think I will be participating in this one, as I said it seems like a good logical stepping-stone on the way back to the full Jool-5, which I intend to do as soon as my career lets me!

[CalMacDa]

Thank you Commander Arnie, I just did the revisions that you advised me to do. That post was very helpful, and I thank you for the third time. Right now on the mission, I just finished the second rendezvous for the space station and am now working on the SSTO. 1 more thing. How can you determine the amount of points someone got, do I just trust whatever they say or is there an easier way? Thanks for the fourth time (if you couldn't tell I like thanking people) and I am interested to see how you do on the challenge

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

No problem, happy to help

I recommend you check out the Jool-5 Challenge by Ziv, if you start at the begining and read as far as you are able to stand then jump to more recent pages, you will get a good idea of how a seemingly simple challenge idea can take off!

I see this as excellent practice for the Jool-5, and might just do it in sandbox to give you some examples

Oh, and you might not know, but specifically banning use of the debug (cheat) menu will help, as well as some sort of scoring - career mode can be scored easily by funds, rep and science earnt, while sandbox can be done on levels similar to Ziv's - taking more than one kerbal to the surface (with a cap on how many count for scoing) would mean a higher 'rank' earned...

And if you talk to Ziv, he might be nice and make a badge for completing your challenge, if you like his badges! (You might see them around the forum... and probably in challengers signatures' when theytake part

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

Right, I have had to completely re-design my Laythe Planes to fit in the new cargo bays, but I'm impressed with the result! I give you, The Armadillo!

Test Version:

Complete Mk.1 in orbit:

With all the details:

The Cruiser to take it to Laythe (with details) on launchpad:

In Orbit:

With the Armadillo attached to the rear, being refuelled before raising Ap and Pe to about 610km:

Finishing Circularizing at around 610km:

using Mechjeb's Advanced Transfer option:

Course Plotted:

Course change complete:

This is as far as I have got for now, I have a couple of little surprises in store, so I'm getting on with this today now the christmas rush is over!

EDIT: Unfortunately, I didn't have enough dV to complete this instance of the mission, but fear not, I have returned to the drawing board to fine-tune my design for another attempt!

Edited January 2, 2015 by Cmdr. Arn1e

[CalMacDa]

Awesome Arnie, but can you tell me the points you received so I can rank you?

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

(EDIT: Didn't double check the rules!)

What Must be Sent:

*Send 4+ Kerbals - Yep - 10pts

*Send a manned or unmanned space station that will be left there for future missions - Yep - 10pts

*Send a Space Plane that can be brought down to Laythe, landed, and taken back up - Did take one, but didn't end up using it! - 0 pts?

*Send a probe - Nope - 0pts

*Send a rover and land that rover on one of the islands on Laythe - Nope - 0 pts

*Land at least 1 Kerbal (just man the space plane) - Nope - 0 pts

Rules:

*Use allowed parts (stock, Mech Jeb, Kethane)

*Mech Jeb is allowed

*Send all but one Kerbal back

*Leave the spaceplane with space station

*Orbital assembly allowed

Everything Worth 10 points - for following the rules, too?

Bonus:

*Leave a probe for all moons of Jool - 1 point - Nope - 0 pts

*Send a manned ship to the station and refuel the spaceplane left there - 1 point - I didn't bother deploying the station - 0 pts

*Complete the mission in 1 launch - 3 points - done in one launch on this one, but did not complete - 0 pts?

*Dont use large parts (anything the size of the 4x engine cluster) - 1 point - Used SLS parts - 0 pts

*Send a colony of 100 Kerbals - 2 points(Bonus Bonus: use the Keythane mod to give the colony the ability to launch and refuel ships) - 3 points - can do now with the huge new passenger parts, but not this time - 0 pts

*Don't use Mech Jeb - 1 point - Nope, used MJ - 0 pts

*Don't Aerobrake - 2 points - Aerobraked - 0 pts

I got 20 points, from what I could work out... Just to show I did take the spacestation to be left in orbit, this is the same station but in my new attempt ship:

Edited January 4, 2015 by Cmdr. Arn1e

[chengong]

When a challenge requires me to use an OP mod to get full points, I just ignore it.

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

When a challenge requires me to use an OP mod to get full points, I just ignore it.

I think it's up to you which mods, if any, you use for this challenge - so if you want to do it entirely stock, do so I think there's room for other mods to be allowed in future, but I think CalMacDa isn't too experienced with mods yet, so I think the right choice has been made for now (limiting the amount of allowed mods rather than an outright ban). I don't think there's a requirement for any of the mods... this could also be cleared up a little when CalMacDa gets round to it