"A" Research Station - Asteroid Space Lab Challenge

[CalMacDa]

"A" Research Station. Not Just a Pun

The Kerbals have been expanding outwards, going to planets and colonizing further and further, but the resources on Kerbin are drying out. There is one hope. The asteroid. It contains many minerals and due to Kerbin's position near a very thin asteroid belt, the asteroids are frequently entering kerns SOI. Now before the Kerbals begin mining and collecting these treasures, they want to collect a small one and research it in Kerbins orbit. This is the next step in the Kerbal race, and will

help secure the future of the next generation of Kerbals

In this spectacular challenge, you will create a research station that has grabbed onto an A class asteroid

Required Knowledge:

• Advanced Rendezvous Skills
  
• The Capturing and Placement of Asteroids
  
• Basic Rocketry
  

The Challenge:

• Launch a station or add on to a current station that has a Mobile Processing Lab for effect, and a claw to grab onto the asteroid
  
• Rendezvous with a class A asteroid
  
• Bring that asteroid into Kerbin's orbit
  
• Rendezvous with the previously launched station
  
• Somehow, transfer the asteroid from the ship to the previously launched station
  
• Feel the satisfaction of obtaining all of this awesome science
  

Mods Allowed:

>KW rocketry

>Mech Jeb

>Kerbal Engineer

You may only use these mods and stock parts!

BTW: no using the cheat/debug menu

How will you be ranked?

Simple. The total money spent on the entire operation. Every launch, so I hope you saved your ships. Every launch takes a lot of $$$, so try to plan the operation carefully.

Bonus:

Rendezvous with the asteroid when it has an imminent impact to Kerbin. This makes things a bit tougher. It will cut 25% of your score

Dock the science station to a station already in orbit. It is not easy. It will cut off 5% of the final $ spent

If you complete both, cut off 30% of the final $

Last, to prove your work..

Required Screenshots:

All ships you launch

A view showing the asteroid in Kerbin's orbit before you capture it

The science station before the asteroid is attached to it

The science station with the asteroid docked

Extras help, so post as many as you can

Well, that's it!

I hope you enjoy this challenge! Rankings will begin being posted right when someone submits an entry

If you voted in the poll, please tell me why in a post. It helps!

Have fun and check out my other challenge, Laythe Exploration

:P:) ​(the many faces of the Kerbal)

Edited January 2, 2015 by CalMacDa
Forgot to say allowed mods and no cheats

[CalMacDa]

I have almost completed the challenge. I attached the lab to my space station at a 200km orbit

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

Another nice challenge for newer players, and well laid out too

I'm still working on your first challenge though, so may well be skiping this one - hope it goes well! (And by the way, the players who have been playing a while now are probably still playing with all the new things in 0.90.0, and a lot of players who got the game for christmas may not have found the forums yet, so be patient and you'll get more entrants, I'm sure!)

[Kulebron]

How do you distinct between "rendesvous with a station" vs "move station towards the ship+asteroid"? If I have a claw in the station, I dock the ship+asteroid with station (ships back has a port) and then I just unplug the ship's claw, turn the assembly around and capture the asteroid with station's claw. What's challenging about it?

[CalMacDa]

How do you distinct between "rendesvous with a station" vs "move station towards the ship+asteroid"? If I have a claw in the station, I dock the ship+asteroid with station (ships back has a port) and then I just unplug the ship's claw, turn the assembly around and capture the asteroid with station's claw. What's challenging about it?

If it isn't challenging, the. Don't accept the challenge. There are bonus options to increase the difficulty and if it's still to easy, accept a touger challenge

[Agifem]

This challenge is interesting. I was planning to do exactly what you describe, ie catching a 'roid and docking it to my research station. I'm putting this challenge on my list, although probably after the Eve rocks challenge.

[CalMacDa]

Cool, agifem! I'm glad you like it.

[Agifem]

Challenge completed! Getting to the asteroid was very delta-V hungry, but i shaved off a lot of thrusting by doing a gravity assist on Mun and lower my orbit's inclination back to coplanar with my station on the trip back.

I'll post a longer story on my blog explaining everything.

It was an interesting challenge, short but rather intense

Is there a badge ?

[FishInferno]

This loos fun, but a quick question: Are we allowed to launch the station after we capture the asteroid?

[Himynameisjake]

I rated the challenge as "good". There are high points, and low points, which I'll lay out below, but overall, I think this is a challenge that has potential.

First off let me say that I feel this is an excellent opportunity for beginning and intermediate players and yet it has the potential to draw the interest of experienced players as well.

This challenge requires the player to learn/refine the following skills:

• Efficient spaceship design for both atmospheric and vacuum performance.
  
• Orbital Rendevous
  
• Docking
  

It also creates an opportunity for the player to explore the following tasks:

• Create a space station, with some intentional design rather than just a thrown together mess.
  
• Get some experience with the Asteroid Redirect Mission (always a cool thing) and the Advanced Grabbing Unit
  
• (advanced players) Explore various forms of capture and establishing orbit around a celestial body for increased efficiency
  

Well done.

---

That being said, here is my initial constructive criticism of your effort:

1. You did not complete your challenge yourself which is a big taboo on the challenge sub-forum.
   
2. The challenge is a little restrictive in that it does not allow the use of popular mods such as FAR, this will cost you experienced participants
   
3. I would recommend allowing a few more mods (see the Jool 5 challenge for ideas) and create both stock and mod leaderboards
   
4. Allow players to return their launch vehicle (or vehicles) and subtract the return value from the mission cost. This discourages players from simply using the cheapest one way design, and introduces a level of skill to the challenge to build efficient lifters and makes it more interesting for advanced players.
   
5. Define a station, especially important for players electing to launch to a pre-existing station. This is one of the most glaring flaws with your challenge in my oppinion, as someone could pick any old piece of space debris and call it a station. Does it require electricity production and storage, rcs, autonomous control, crew quarters, etc.? Be specific here, perhaps consider something similar to the orbital station contracts: orbit, power, antenna, docking port, facilities supporting x kerbals, stability.
   
6. I recommend explicitly designing the science module and uploading it as a sub assembly, or state specific components that are required be added. It would not hurt to consider aesthetics and realism in this design, rather than simply allowing for someone to create a can with a claw, which looks unsightly and unrealistic, not to mention introduces a variable level of difficulty to the challenge. at the minimum I would suggest a docking port of some kind on one end of the lab with and the AGU on the other, with Rockomax adapters for looks. Other things to consider would be RCS, power, batteries, and autonomous control of the module. For example, my take on the pressurized module of the Kibo module on the ISS:
   
   
7. Finally, to better address the concerns above in an objective manner, you may consider creating a save file that has the station already in orbit (without the lab) and a target asteroid selected, this removes the question of variability, however may be seen as unappealing because the achievement cannot be incorporated into the players own save file.
   

Edited January 23, 2015 by Himynameisjake
Clean-up, expounding, and adding images

[CalMacDa]

This loos fun, but a quick question: Are we allowed to launch the station after we capture the asteroid?

Yes. Thats fine