Campaign: forum controlled KSP campaign: Space race to the Mun!!

[Awaras]

Okay - how about we make Power sats tech level 4 instead of 5, effective immediately, and if anyone wishes to refly the current turn with this information then go for it. I\'m hoping this might get two or three sats into orbit - who knows. Also - how close are people to doing a manned landing on the Mun? The technology exists - are the cash balances too small?

Should we close this turn in two days time? Saturday morning in the USA?

How can we fly a manned mission without zoxygen solar panels? How many tanks of ZO2 would we need? 10? 20?

[DonLorenzo]

34 I think I back-of-the-envelope calculated once. But it\'s a while ago so don\'t quote me on that. I mocked up a craft like that and it wasn\'t a very pleasurable experience framerate wise.

If powersats become Tech 4 I\'ll definately re-fly the current turn, is that decided?

[togfox]

Yep - powersats tech 4 this turn and solar panels tech 4 NEXT turn.

See if that mixes it up a bit.

[Alchemist]

OK, then this turn I\'m sending my light unmanned satellite to LKO again. And for the next turn I\'m starting to calculate the optimal flight profile of... a craft with the panels...

[DonLorenzo]

Since powersats will be shared let\'s cooperate on this. I was intending to build a craft that launches 3 of them in kerbin orbit, but perhaps we should share the load and/or have someone put them around the moon. I haven\'t made any designs yet but I\'m fairly confident I have the funds to accomplish either mission with several powersats. What say you intrepid powersatters?

[DonLorenzo]

Fucking typical I just flew a gloriously succesfull mission to position three sats in a nice 120 degree geosynchronous position.. tot it all up.. it\'s 600 bucks over budget. Back soon..

edit: 40 bucks overbudget now.. GONNA MAKE IT

edit2: BOOM. did it. 59 bucks left.

[togfox]

I\'ve got 5 or 6 submissions so far so I\'ll process the turn in a few hours time.

[sjwt]

I\'ve got 5 or 6 submissions so far so I\'ll process the turn in a few hours time.

Tog, just a quick few questions..

Can we assume that if we go out of our way to put more than one powersat in an orbit, and someone else dose the same mission but with only one, that they will be treated as two different missions?

[togfox]

Yes - I think that\'s fair. The missions are different and more impressive so they should have different prizes.

That wasn\'t my intention but it\'s only fair to go that way.

[sjwt]

HEADLINE: SKRAM ready to launch three powersats to the Mun before accountant kills mission!

Today, SKRAM fires one of its lead engineers who had come up with a design to take 3 powersats to the Mun, after it was noticed by an accountant as the ship was on the launch pad that it would of put SKRAM $5K into the red.. a very hasty and quick redesign had leed to 2 powersatss being put into orbit around the Mun!

A press relese from John Kerman (Lead Production and Design Coordinator at SKRAM) states as follows

'We would never ever try and launch a ship that would put us into the red, unless of course we though we could get away with it!'

***

True story!

Email has been sent Togfox!

***

In a truly pythonesque event, those responsible for the sackings have been sacked!

[togfox]

Turn 10 is processed with only 3 participants but these are significant events and I think v.0.15 has distracted people. No matter.

We now have FOUR powersats around Kerbin and THREE powersats around the Mun. This means we now have the technology to fly completely unmanned missions to the Mun without fear of radio black out!!!

[pre]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

| Player | Balance | Spent | Income | NewBalance | Turn | Claimed | Profit |

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| Awaras | 14175 | 9325 | 12123 | 16973 | 10 | Insert 1 Powersat in Kerbin orbit | 2798 |

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| DonLorenzo | 18834 | 18775 | 21563 | 21622 | 10 | Insert 3 Powersats in Kerbin orbit | 2788 |

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| Sjwt | 19274 | 14400 | 21563 | 26437 | 10 | Insert 3 Powersats in Mun orbit | 7163 |

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Some truely ambitious projects by Don and Sjwt with Awaras providing some insurance in case it all went badly.

Solar panels are now tech 4 so anyone putting a Manned/unmanned capsule or rover on the Mun has got this in the bag!

Turn 11 is it boys and girls!!

[Awaras]

Next turn submitted. Will we be getting some minmus missions as well?

[togfox]

I think Minmus will be in version 2. The next iteration needs the reward system carefully thought out with fair and equitable missions.

This campaign will be finished shortly - when Kerbalkind first steps foot on the Mun. 8)

[sjwt]

Solar panels are now tech 4 so anyone putting a Manned/unmanned capsule or rover on the Mun has got this in the bag!

Turn 11 is it boys and girls!!

Well unless tech level 6 got droped in cost a lot, no one will be buying rovers, and their is still not a link on the first post to the rover

So manned/unmanned it is!

[DonLorenzo]

Developing the lander now. By the way, 14K for 3 sats in mun orbit is seriously impressive, I\'d love to see that craft sjwt To keep the exchange fair here\'s my three-sat kerbosynch deployment vehicle

edit: question, are the new side-mountable zox tanks allowed? The weigth/amount ratios are the same, but they plug into the side of the ship instead of being the big old ungainly tanks of old.

[DonLorenzo]

Shellin Kerman and his crew just died, 5000KM from home, due to asphyxiation. Tragically the solar panels that took so long to research proved faulty in their first outing. Apparently the software engineers forgot to update them to the 0.15 revised rocket powergrids.

[togfox]

So ... you\'re saying ... MISSION SUCCESS! =P

[sjwt]

More than happy to share..

I did think 18K for three to KSO seemed amazing!

[DonLorenzo]

That\'s a pretty neat design, do the boosters come off the central satellite or is the last satellite a little bigger?

[DonLorenzo]

The first manned munar mission was a success, however fuel was inadequate to return. Time to censor all press coverage and design a new rocket with a bit more oomph...

That picture? Never happened. Never

[sjwt]

That\'s a pretty neat design, do the boosters come off the central satellite or is the last satellite a little bigger?

They slowly fall away IIRC..

I had another design, but with 3 engines, but I was 5K over budget, then, I could only get two Sats to the mun, then I realised I was costing a few things twice..

My head nearly exploded..

[DonLorenzo]

Nice SJWT

The second first crew to attempt a munar return mission landed and managed to take off again successfully. Too bad their engines weren\'t patriotic enough to keep firing all the way home

[sjwt]

HEADLINE: SKRAM Places Kerbals on Mun! What will they think of next?

Sorry it took so long, my 0.14 has become half corrupted, and 0.15 was giving me bad fuel lines bugs with tones of free fuel!!

[DonLorenzo]

These guys did it too. They were very happy about it, untill their landing computer decided they had touched down safely and shut down engines... about 300 meters above the ground. The lander was sadly lost in the resulting fireball. Fortunately the parachute sufficed to at least save the pod.

[togfox]

So, it\'s been a few days since there has been any activity so I\'ll process this turn now ...

* PLAY DRAMATIC MUSIC *

Turn 11 of the maiden trial of KSP\'s first ever forum controlled KSP campaign - we have KERBALS ON THE MUN!!!

At approximately 9 hours after lift-off, the Kerbal kind stepped foot on the Mun for the first time ever - and returned safely!! With their very flimsly designed lifter stages made by the cheapest bidder, and the \'only just sufficient\' Zoxygene tanks to keep their command capsule livable, 12 (TWELVE) brave Kerbals landed onto the Mun at exactly the same time in an amazingly co-operative effort at syncing the \'first step\' at exactly the same time. The 12 Kerbals, rapted in the historic moment they created at exactly the same time, were so engrossed in the moment that one of the return capsules literally floated away as the park break was not engaged.

Four players - no less - got their Kerbals onto the moon and back. Fittingly, the four veteran corporations, listed in alphabetical order, stuck it out to the final turn of this campaign to share the honour of being three of the first twelve Kerbals onto the Mun. ???

Alchemist

Awaras

DonLorenzo

sjwt

Enshrined into the Kerbal hall of fame for their fearlessness, courage, determination and endless abilty to re-incarnate, the following pilots, passengers and dead-weight will forever be known as the first Kerbals to step on the Mun simultaneously.

Bill Kerbin

Jeb Kerbin

Bob Kerbin

Bilbard Kerbin

Raylock Kerbin

Rodbles Kerbin

Thomplan Kerbin

Geneley Kerbin

Alfel Kerbin

Corald Kerbin

Rodfrey Kerbin

Joefel Kerbin

An image of SJWT on the Mun is provided as this post would not be complete without it.

I have to announce, sadly, or happily, that this is the final turn of the campaign and it is now closed - after 11 turns and four players reaching the end in a dead tie. I could list final balances to determine a winner but I don\'t think that is fair considering how the finance system is at the moment.

If anyone has any notes of observations on the way the campaign was conducted or the rules - and it hasn\'t been said already - please take this chance to post your thoughts in this thread and as you do so, congratulate your fellow corporations who all did fantastic jobs at building lean, mean, flying machines.

I\'ll start by thanking you all for your patient participation, tolerating the hic-ups and respecting the warning in the very first original post, and for tolerating my dry email responses. I\'d personally wish I had more tools to automate the turn processing and I wish I had time to 'write up' the turns and add some flair, story and jazz. I simply didn\'t have the time to add to your campaign.

Thanks for playing, add your comments, congrats to the winner and remember Don has already started another campaign with a different structure in the CHALLENGES forum.