(Former) Spirit Style Landing Challenge.

[Matuchkin]

When the rover Spirit (also known as MER-A or MER-2) arrived to mars, it entered the atmosphere in a container. Some time after deploying parachutes, the container released an airbag- protected capsule that, after falling for a short distance, deflated and released the rover (or at least that is how I remember it, I DEARLY hope that all of that was correct).

Now, the whole challenge is to construct a capsule of any size that can survive (not completely, obviously some things will blow) falling from higher than 50 meters from the surface (not sea-level) without wrecking the rover inside, then releasing the rover. The planet to land on is Duna anything.

edit since 6/9/2016: The landings got much, much crazier. Previously, I wanted chutes in this challenge, but not anymore- speed counts.

I am was new here, and I hope this challenge is not downright idiotic for the game experts.

UPDATE (edited on 12/01/2015):

Please refrain from using any mods, other than KJR, or realism mods.

-1 point for every destroyed part.

+1 point for every m/s in velocity at landing/ crash landing.

+8*10^38 points if an action star of any choice suddenly rides out of the resulting explosion, riding a rainbow-coloured flaming steed.

+20 points if done in RSS

Rover has to remain upright or result is ignored.

+1 if done on Eve

+2 if done on Laythe

+3 if done on Duna

+4 if done on Eeloo

+10 if done on any non-atmo body (with no chutes!)

+(i*(sqrt3i))/0 points if done on Jool. (You will also be accused of witchcraft, tortured and burned, -1 point for that.)

 

1. SpaceplaneAddict- 108 points

2. Killakrust- 18 points

3. Spacebrick3- pending (means I'm lazy, just roll with it)

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Thanks

I need the information about the speed of landing and the number of broken parts from each contestant.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Matuchkin

[TJPrime]

The idea of the challenge is good, but you might want to allow certain mods to help out, such as Kerbal Engineer Redux to keep an eye on the surface height. You also need to give an example to show your challenge is possible (I'm not certain about how possible this challenge is - very few things in the game work as an airbag).

Just some tips.

[PlonioFludrasco]

There is a mod for that. Airbag from that mod are somehow based on the bouncy soccer ball of the world cup mod from Squad.

[Matuchkin]

You see, the thing is that even though MER-A landed in an airbag, that was unfortunately not the goal of the challenge. The point was that you have to drop an capsule onto Duna's surface, keeping the rover inside intact. The capsule can be made of anything- metal struts, structural components, anything that you think would work. As for the possibility of the challenge, the challenge is merely made because I'm interested in what creative contraptions people could come up with to solve the problem.

Thank you.

[PlonioFludrasco]

Maybe I badly explained the thing.

The mod I was talking about adds airbags, that are coded exactly to do that job. If you want people to be creative, you should prohibit mods that makes the challenge too simple to be completed.

Cheers.

[SRV Ron]

There is a mod for that. Airbag from that mod are somehow based on the bouncy soccer ball of the world cup mod from Squad.

The Squid mod does work quite well with the added ability to eject those soccer balls after landing. Not sure how it works on KSP-0.90 Beta.

[Matuchkin]

Alright, thanks PlonioFludrasco. I will edit the challenge at 12/01/2015.

Thank you for your help.

[Foxster]

You say "falling from 50 to 500 meters from the surface"...How does it get there and is it stationary when released? Use chutes and cut them at 50m? Use Hyperedit to change the orbit to 50m and drop the rest of the way?

Just trying to figure out the practicalities of this.

Was also thinking about using some braking engines so that the craft is at a standstill by 50m then cutting the engine and dropping the rest of the way. That what you had in mind?

Edited January 12, 2015 by Foxster

[Matuchkin]

A reply to Foxster: You have to get to Duna with an actual vehicle (no editing). You can use braking engines, parachutes, basically anything that comes into your mind.

MER-A itself landed by parachuting, then dropping from the capsule that had parachutes attached to it, but you do not have to do that.

[jman508]

doesn't vagani use some type of suspension on his cars? like 3 of the 1x1 panels in a zig-zag to act as suspension so can you try to use that same basic principle and use that to soften the landing

[Matuchkin]

Sure, jman, use anything that can break the fall.

[FungusForge]

Gonna use bagel rabbits RCS chain for a lithobraker. Will return in a moment.

Edit1: welp I'm giving up on that and using the offset tool.

Edited September 15, 2015 by FungusForge

[killakrust]

I might give this one a go.

Here is an initial test to see what will survive a drop. I already know that the cubic strut has a nice high impact tolerance, so I've stacked some under a landing can, yeah I know it's not a rover (yet), and dropped it from 65 metres. I reckon that would generate about the same speed or greater that a 100-150m Duna drop.

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Seems to work pretty well on Kerbin, I don't see why something similar could not be added to a rover landing platform of some sort.

[Monsterlunch]

Sounds interesting. I might consider an entry tonight!

Edit: This proves to be more difficult than i thought...

Edited September 16, 2015 by Monsterlunch

[Matuchkin]

I might give this one a go.

Here is an initial test to see what will survive a drop. I already know that the cubic strut has a nice high impact tolerance, so I've stacked some under a landing can, yeah I know it's not a rover (yet), and dropped it from 65 metres. I reckon that would generate about the same speed or greater that a 100-150m Duna drop.

http://imgur.com/a/Fyr3P

Seems to work pretty well on Kerbin, I don't see why something similar could not be added to a rover landing platform of some sort.

That's actually quite good. Nice

[killakrust]

Ok, so I think I did what was asked. I shoved a rover in side a cage thingy with some cubic struts underneath, a jettison-able chute, and put it all on a big rocket like so...

Here is me taking and landing the contraption on Duna.

Edited September 17, 2015 by killakrust
can't spell... :(

[Matuchkin]

Ok, so I think I did what was asked. I shoved a rover in side a cage thingy with some cubic struts underneath, a jettison-able chute, and put it all on a big rocket like so...

http://i.imgur.com/HGcBdOZ.png

Here is me taking and landing the contraption on Duna.

Yep, you did it!

+rep (that's the only thing I know how to do)

[Matuchkin]

Not to be annoying, but there was only one actual reply! Killakrust currently has first place, with no other competitors yet. Of course, I would want to fill up that scoreboard before this thread falls into the forgotten demise of the spacecraft exchange.
Why did this thread go so quickly? What am I missing?
Thank you.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Probs because this challenge is a bit hard. Did you, personally, manage to do this?

[Matuchkin]

On 26/11/2015, 20:46:08, SpaceplaneAddict said:

Probs because this challenge is a bit hard. Did you, personally, manage to do this?

I was preoccupied with some of my crap. Sorry. Also, I saw other people manage to do this. I am certainly trying the challenge out.

[Matuchkin]

Also, parental controls are activated on my computer 5 days per week, so I have very limited time to work on anything.

[Matuchkin]

So, after a long and arduous debate (two random short comments on a challenge thread), me and a vast multitude of forum users (killakrust) strongly and absolutely support ("Hopefully someone will get interested"- killakrust) the upholding of this thread (upholding- egotistically bumping it up to the top of the forums)...

Seriously, though. I feel that this thread is incomplete, and before this thread gets completely forgotten, I would like to add more entries in here.

On 26/11/2015, 20:46:08, SpaceplaneAddict said:

Did you, personally, manage to do this?

I actually plan to add my own entry (sweet Jesus, finally) to this thread. Soon... Someday... Hopefully... I don't even know... Whatever... ?

[killakrust]

You totally should do do the challenge yourself. It doesn't usually bode well if the OP can't or won't do the challenge.

Note: As you saw on the other thread, Duna is very forgiving when it comes to lithobraking. Add a shed ton of cubic struts under your rover and use a few air-brakes (otherwise you probably won't slow down to terminal velocity before hitting the ground - trust me I know). If you use a  parachute it super easy to slow down too.

[Matuchkin]

Killakrust: What do you suggest?

[killakrust]

If I was going to do this challenge over again, I'd probably just use the air brakes, just to be cool.

Do you have a rover designed for the mission? Do you need help designing the lifter or transfer stage?

You'll need roughly 4k DV for Kerbin orbit + 800 DV for Duna transfer, then maybe a few hundred for capture (depending on how much atmo braking your going to do).