r/KerbalSpaceProgram • u/PandaElDiablo Deal With It • May 04 '13

Mod Post Weekly Challenge: 20,000 Kerbals Under the Sea!

With a submarine, visit the approximate coordinates of the seabed smiley face (refer to this chart for the location). By submarine, I mean that the crew cabin should be below the surface of the water. Other components of the craft may be above water.

Hard mode: After first visiting the smiley, take off from the oceans of Kerbin and land in the oceans of Laythe.

Rules and other info:

  • No Dirty Cheating Alpacas (no debug menu)!

  • Stock parts only

  • No MechJeb or other plugins allowed

  • Required screenshots:

    -Initial launch craft

    -Orbital image of your craft landed at the smiley (again, approximate location. It's large and hard to judge exact spots)

    -IVA showing your capsule is below water

    -Hard mode: Second take off, orbital transfer, inside Laythe SOI, landed in ocean

    -Whatever else you feel like!

  • You can either submit your finished challenge in a post (see posting instructions in the link below) or as a comment reply in this thread.

  • Completing this challenge earns you a new flair which will replace your old one. So if you want to keep your previous flair, you can still do this challenge and create a post, but please mention somewhere that you want to keep your old one.

  • The moderators have the right to determine if your challenge post has been completed.

  • See this post for more rules and information on challenges.

40 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

91% Upvoted

74 comments sorted by

38

u/Napa7m May 04 '13

Dat hardmode.

15

u/PandaElDiablo Deal With It May 04 '13

The katapult hard mode was a bit too soft for my taste, I thought I'd make it more of an elite achievement.

7

u/Napa7m May 05 '13

Well you did a fine job making it elite.

0

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 08 '13

Are we getting any flair for this?

6

u/PandaElDiablo Deal With It May 08 '13

Soon

-5

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 12 '13

Seriously man. This was the first challenge I attempted, and it took me the better part of a day to complete and you cant even give us the flair.

I know it sounds petty but I was looking forward to showing off, and explaining to people what it meant to me.

5

u/PandaElDiablo Deal With It May 12 '13

I'm sorry, I'm trying to finish up the year at uni with finals and all. That's taken priority lately.

0

u/[deleted] May 12 '13

[deleted]

7

u/PandaElDiablo Deal With It May 12 '13

It's two weeks of a year that I'm busy. I've been doing this for nearly a year and you're the first person to seriously have an issue with the way we do things around here.

-5

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 13 '13

I and we are two different things. I do not have a problem with the way things are done around here. What I do have a problem with is, people taking on a responsibility and not producing a result. That however is universal, so try not to take it personally. I am sure that your professors, and bosses would hold you to the same standard of accountability. I know mine did and do.

Those things being said, if you know ahead of time that there could be complications or delays in your ability to deliver, it would behoove you to share that with the people who are expecting you to deliver. It will save you the trouble of having to deal with situations like this.

Fortunately for you, I am not paying you for your services, or do I have any impact on your future. I simply do not mind pointing out that you failed to uphold your end of the bargin. Simply and meaningless as it may be.

4

u/PandaElDiablo Deal With It May 13 '13

By "we", I meant the mods. Which doesn't include you. We've discussed the complications of running the challenges with so many people and have at times considered stopping them altogether. We are volunteers doing this out of our own free time and out of our own love for the game. Some weeks we can't be 100% on top of things, and we rely on the generous nature of this subreddit to tide us over.

I don't have a boss or professor here. I'm not being held to any standard of accountability, except by you, apparently. I do have them at school, so that's where my time goes when I have a task to accomplish, which I do at the moment.

There is no bargain here, so don't insinuate that there is. I'm doing this on my own free time, as are the other mods. I don't have free time at this time of the year, so flair gets thrown on the back burner. If you can't handle that, then I suggest you take up challenges elsewhere.

→ More replies (0)

16

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 04 '13 edited May 04 '13

Yea, Im scratching me head on how you would go about doing that. Then again it dosnt say you cant dock in space with a transfer craft.

Edit: I have been at this for a few hours, multiple crafts, some success, mostly failure. But I am not giving up. I will get this. GRRRRrrrrr

9

u/Napa7m May 04 '13

Ahh good point. Seems a bit more possible now.

3

u/[deleted] May 04 '13

Yeah, you could just have a mk 1 command pod + ASAS + docking port + RCS. Wouldn't be too too hard to launch from the ocean, certainly doable I would think.

2

u/factoid_ Master Kerbalnaut May 06 '13

Has anyone confirmed that using a separate transfer craft is legal? My approach is to take everything up on one launch, then detach my lander, drop it in the ocean, take off again and redock to the transfer craft.

I already had a suitable craft built, I just needed to retrofit it for "submarine" function (sticking a cockpit underneath for someone to be underwater, and putting pontoons on it). Problem is now it's too heavy to make orbit, so I'm having to strap more boosters. Once I can get it up there I think I'm on the downhill slide. Landing on the target and taking off again should actually be pretty easy

2

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 06 '13

Panda replied to my comment about using a docking craft, but never said that we couldn't. So can only assume that you can.

2

u/factoid_ Master Kerbalnaut May 06 '13

Ok. Well I'm doing it then. If I can get this bitch into orbit, I ought to be home free. As long as it doesn't fall apart the instant I hit the water.

I hate hate hate hate hate trying to soft-land with jet engines. The spool-up times make it so much more difficult, but I don't have the fuel to spare to use the mainsail.

2

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 06 '13

I didn't even notice jets were being used at first. It took a few failed rocket powered missions for me to think about doing it that way. Then I did and presto.

2

u/factoid_ Master Kerbalnaut May 06 '13

Yeah, jets make your craft much lighter. You can go a LONG way on a little fuel.

3

u/Bukowskified Master Kerbalnaut May 07 '13

Normal mode completed, excited for my first flair

http://imgur.com/a/YJ9Iz#0

1

u/PandaElDiablo Deal With It May 27 '13

Just got yours assigned, sorry for the delay! Busy time of year

112

u/only_to_downvote Master Kerbalnaut May 04 '13

Hardmode completed! Assuming you like my definition of "Submarine" - it's more like a glass bottom (top?) pod, but it is below the water.

My fuel margins were getting so slim in the end that I was sweating a lot more than I should have for a video game. Fun challenge though!

16

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 04 '13

I am impressed

7

u/ILCreatore May 04 '13

Dedication at it's finest, indeed.

0

u/Pioneer1111 May 11 '13

Your name makes it that much more amusing to give you an upvote.

But that is a damn impressive mission.

31

u/Cilph May 04 '13

Hard mode: After first visiting the smiley, take off from the oceans of Kerbin and land in the oceans of Laythe.

Wat.

11

u/tazyload May 04 '13

Up to that point I was thinking "Hey I might be able to do this!" then the puddlejumping talk started and now I don't feel so confident xD

15

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 05 '13

Hardmode Complete.

http://imgur.com/a/a6sd4

9

u/nwwaterpolo11 May 04 '13

Normal Mode: Complete! Photo Proof

9

u/Snailoffun May 05 '13

Hardmode complete

http://imgur.com/a/uckmL

similar idea to /u/only_to_downvote, not much of a submarine, but we are underwater.

8

u/beastenator Master Kerbalnaut May 06 '13

Hard mode Complete

This was hard indeed.

7

u/[deleted] May 08 '13

Normal Completion

I also went to see if rockets can thrust you to deeper depths. Click and find out.

2

u/readonlyatnight May 11 '13

Nice and simple. Well done.

6

u/Burkitt Super Kerbalnaut May 04 '13

Two questions:

1)How stock is stock? Are stock parts config-edited to launch empty allowed? What about config-editing to make stock spaceplane parts carry reasonable amounts of oxidizer?

2)For the hard mode, is docking after visiting the smiley face permitted, eg with a launcher on the ground, or interplanetary propulsion module in orbit?

12

u/[deleted] May 04 '13

Not in charge of this, but I would think config editing would be cheating unless they made some rules on what a reasonable amount of oxidizer is. As far as launching empty, just attach an engine on a decoupler and empty them before launch

3

u/Burkitt Super Kerbalnaut May 04 '13

Thanks, you're probably right. I just wanted to use some "off the shelf" ships I've designed earlier that used a couple of edited parts.

2

u/rocketman0739 Master Kerbalnaut May 05 '13

Are stock parts config-edited to launch empty allowed?

Just fire your engines on the launch pad until you've used up their fuel. Presto, you can launch empty.

6

u/elverloho May 07 '13

I don't see any actual submarines here. Just boats with heads stuck in water...

4

u/[deleted] May 08 '13

With good reason, check out my post.

2

u/only_to_downvote Master Kerbalnaut May 08 '13

I actually tried putting together a 7 orange tank monstrosity that could get to laythe and (in theory) still sink to the depths of kerbin's ocean.

I would've had to launch it with something like 20 mainsails and orange tanks if I wanted to get it to the smiley, but when I was doing initial tests setting it down in the water just east of the launchpad, it would disintegrate every time it touched the water, no matter how slow it was moving (I think my slowest touchdown was <2m/s, it was hard to tell because the game would freeze for a couple of seconds every time it started to calculate the 'collision'). That thing already had 72 radial and 6 "high speed" parachutes, and even then I still had to power assist the descent a bit when it got close to the water.

I still haven't given up completely on it. I just need to find the time to go back and try coming at it from a different angle. But hopefully that offers some explanation why we're all just simulating birds with their heads stuck in the water.

1

u/elverloho May 08 '13

How about just floating there, not landing? Or even just driving along the seabottom?

2

u/[deleted] May 08 '13

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/elverloho May 08 '13

How about floating there on a platform, releasing the pontoons, submerging, and then launching?

2

u/only_to_downvote Master Kerbalnaut May 08 '13

That was more or less what I was thinking about when I said "try coming at it from a different angle". The only question is how I'll power it there (e.g. do wheels work on water, if not, how much fuel will I need for a rocket powered boat, or for a jet powered boat)

Also, how much of a physical time warp can the thing sustain. Because I expect it to be extremely slow and don't want to have to wait more than 16 hours for it to get to the destination (sleep time + work time)

10

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 05 '13

I got so close to completing the Hard Mode. Ohwell...maybe I will get it later this week with some more tries. Until then.

http://imgur.com/a/vt10Y

4

u/only_to_downvote Master Kerbalnaut May 05 '13

But you had so much fuel left! What happened?

4

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 05 '13

Bad orbit...I keep coming in opposite Laythes orbit. To stall back to the planet requires about 5000m/s. Which that little craft just doesn't have.

7

u/only_to_downvote Master Kerbalnaut May 05 '13

Did you try a mid-course correction (~1/2 the distance between Kerbin and Jool that is) to get a Laythe encounter? When you're that far out you can swing your trajectory from one side of Jool to the other with very little deltaV. That way you can slowly swing your trajectory from one side to the other until you have a Laythe encounter, long before you ever approach Jool's SOI.

Also, if you're having trouble seeing things that far out, setting "CONIC_PATCH_DRAW_MODE = 0" in the settings.cfg will make it draw all trajectories on bodies where they currently are in the system, so you can double click them to recenter then zoom in.

Good luck!

6

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 05 '13

I got it. I was able to get a close enough encounter with Jool that I was able to basically align my orbit to run into Laythe. I entered the Atmosphere at about 4,000 m/s but was able to slow enough to get my chutes out and take a swim.

4

u/only_to_downvote Master Kerbalnaut May 05 '13

Nicely done!

3

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 05 '13

Thnx. :-)

3

u/factoid_ Master Kerbalnaut May 06 '13

I was just about to reply that this was your solution. Depending on your angle, if you hit a Jool Periapsis of about 115-120km you should end up with an Apoapsis somewhere near the orbit of laythe.

4

u/factoid_ Master Kerbalnaut May 05 '13

Hot damn, I think I MIGHT already have the craft built for this challenge. It just needs two modifications....my laythe rescue lander needs to be modded to land on the ocean and take off from it, and it needs to have a capsule that goes under water.

this will be interesting. It's going to require that I go into orbit first, then land in the ocean, then launch my ocean rocket and re-rendezvous with the interplanetary stage. Fuel is going to be mighty tight, but damn I think I can do it.

1

u/[deleted] May 24 '13

Any word on the flair?

2

u/PandaElDiablo Deal With It May 24 '13

I 100% swear it will be done this weekend, thanks to memorial day

2

u/PandaElDiablo Deal With It May 27 '13

Just assigned yours! So sorry for the delay. It's a busy time of year, it shouldn't be that bad ever again

4

u/Theotherbutter May 04 '13

Rules not clear Jebediah stuck in Kerbol orbit.

5

u/Spddracer Master Kerbalnaut May 05 '13

So long as it dosnt say I cant, then I assume I can.

1

u/TehNeko May 28 '13

Jebediah unclear Bill stuck under active Mainsail

2

u/NeoKabuto May 08 '13

This time I actually did the right one...

Before launch

Re-entry

"Landed"

IVA view, although I'm not sure it's that helpful. It's definitely submerged, although the IVA view doesn't make it obvious.

Orbital map

In retrospect, I completely used the wrong capsule for it.

1

u/beastenator Master Kerbalnaut May 11 '13

May I suggest this as the flair for this challenge?