The Planet Nine Probe challenge

[Whirligig Girl]

An astounding discovery has been made at the KSC tracking stations: A new planet. This one would be the Ninth if you count Ike, Dres, and Eeloo as planets, (or if you have OPM)

 

The C

Note that Outer Planets Mod is not required for this to work, it is merely compatible.

Challenge: Fly by the planet End.

Hard mode: Orbit the planet End. Alternatively, fly by the planet End within 15 Kerbin years. (4.35 Earth years)

Download mod 

Requires Kopernicus and Module Manager.

This is in fact a very, very hard challenge on hard mode, but all you really need is Delta-V and some mad orbital mechanics skillz. Refer to THIS video for an example of going REALLY fast.

 

Evanitis made these cool badges. (If you've completed either challenge, then you can put them in your signature)

 Easy Mode

Hard Mode

Edited January 23, 2016 by GregroxMun

[Dfthu]

Whats the DeltaV required to get there? I might try it if it's not to high. If so I have just the right craft for this job.

Edited January 21, 2016 by Dfthu

[Jetski]

Is this an OPM planet? Been a while since I played with that set, I don't seem to remember it.  Or do we need a different mod?  I've always wanted to do a bi-elliptic transfer into a Jool slingshot  Sounds interesting but need a little more info.

[Whirligig Girl]

6 minutes ago, Jetski said:

Is this an OPM planet? Been a while since I played with that set, I don't seem to remember it.  Or do we need a different mod?  I've always wanted to do a bi-elliptic transfer into a Jool slingshot  Sounds interesting but need a little more info.

It's not an OPM planet. It's a custom planet built just for this challenge. DL Link in the OP.

10 minutes ago, Dfthu said:

Whats the DeltaV required to get there? I might try it if it's not to high. If so I have just the right craft for this job.

Just from looking at it, it looks like it's not too much more than a transfer to Neidon to get to the Perihelion of End's orbit.

[Spaceception]

Dang, you were fast, how long did it take you to do this?

[Whirligig Girl]

27 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

Dang, you were fast, how long did it take you to do this?

It's a very simple gas giant planet.

 

Steps:

1. Clone Jool (Make a planet with the template{name=jool})
2. Find or make a texture (This one is a simple saturation, brightness, and contrast adjustment of one of THESE textures)
3. Define two of any of the following: Gravitational parameter, Radius, Surface Gravity, and Mass. (Use the Earth(or Kerbin if in the stock system)-unit-based "Planetmaker" equation GeeASL = Mass / (Radius^2) = (Radius)(Density) )
4. Estimate the orbit (Average distance 20 times Neptune's Jool's orbit, Periapsis 7 times Jool's orbit. That means semiMajorAxis will be 20 times that of Jool's. Guess the eccentricity. I put in about 0.77 to yield the ellipse I used. Wikipedia says inclination of Planet Nine is 30 degrees. Who am I to argue with Wikipedia?)
5. Make up an atmosphere given sensible characteristics (minding that lower surface level(or datum-level for gas giants) gravity will result in taller, thinner atmospheres than higher surface level gravity, and Jool's atmo pressure is 12 at datum level.)
6. Steal the atmosphere color rims and atmosphere sky color from Kerbin (Because in the config, waveLength is inverted so you can't just use a blue RGB, you have to tweak it manually. Instead, just steal from Kerbin or Laythe's atmosphere colors using a Kittopia export.)
7. Make a name and description.
8. ...
9. You made a planet! Hooray! It's rather boring without moons though, so if you want to release a serious planet pack mod and not a challenge tie-in, you might want to look at a more complicated planet-making tutorial and make some customized moons. Remember that making anything other than gas giants in Kopernicus is actually quite hard. Don't expect it to be easy.

Edited January 21, 2016 by GregroxMun

[Spaceception]

3 minutes ago, GregroxMun said:

It's a very simple gas giant planet.

 

Steps:

1. Clone Jool (Make a planet with the template{name=jool})
2. Find or make a texture (This one is a simple saturation, brightness, and contrast adjustment of one of THESE textures)
3. Define two of any of the following: Gravitational parameter, Radius, Surface Gravity, and Mass. (Use the Earth(or Kerbin if in the stock system)-unit-based "Planetmaker" equation GeeASL = Mass / (Radius^2) = (Radius)(Density) )
4. Estimate the orbit (Average distance 20 times Neptune's Jool's orbit, Periapsis 7 times Jool's orbit. That means semiMajorAxis will be 20 times that of Jool's. Guess the eccentricity. I put in about 0.77 to yield the ellipse I used. Wikipedia says inclination of Planet Nine is 30 degrees. Who am I to argue with Wikipedia?)
5. Make up an atmosphere given sensible characteristics (minding that lower surface level(or datum-level for gas giants) gravity will result in taller, thinner atmospheres than higher surface level gravity, and Jool's atmo pressure is 12 at datum level.)
6. Steal the atmosphere color rims and atmosphere sky color from Kerbin (Because in the config, waveLength is inverted so you can't just use a blue RGB, you have to tweak it manually. Instead, just steal from Kerbin or Laythe's atmosphere colors using a Kittopia export.)
7. Make a name and description.
8. ...
9. You made a planet! Hooray! It's rather boring without moons though, so if you want to release a serious planet pack mod and not a challenge tie-in, you might want to look at a more complicated planet-making tutorial and make some customized moons. Remember that making anything other than gas giants in Kopernicus is actually quite hard. Don't expect it to be easy.

Cool

I thought it'd be harder.

[NovaSilisko]

20 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

Cool

I thought it'd be harder.

It's not making the planet that's hard, it's making the planet look good.

[Spaceception]

Just now, NovaSilisko said:

It's not making the planet that's hard, it's making the planet look good.

Okay

[batman78781]

This is actually a pretty good planet it terms of the looks. I think I'll be keeping it in my game for now, even if I don't do the challenge. Just saying, I have no experience with this kind of stuff but is it hard to copy gilly, make it a bit darker (I'd imagine being so far the moons would have less light or more soot or something), and put it in orbit around End? You could release an actual planet pack people could use, and it might be interesting to see a moon as well. Just suggestions XD. 

Edited January 21, 2016 by batman78781

[Evanitis]

Thought I make some badges for the Kerbals who make it:

Flat-design vesion for those who prefer such:

EDIT: -dang-... I forgot -again- how to make it into a link that points to this thread. It's -so- complicated in the new forum.

 

Edited January 21, 2016 by Evanitis

[Whirligig Girl]

8 hours ago, NovaSilisko said:

It's not making the planet that's hard, it's making the planet look good.

I think it looks good, but I won't show any pictures on this thread, and encourage players who want to participate to only look at images once they've finally gotten there. The planet looks like an interesting gas giant, but gas giants in Kerbal Space Program are, on their own, boring, no matter what they look like (Well, that's just, like, my opinion man.). If you REALLY want to see a picture or two of the planet, you can find the full album in the Kerbal Stuff mod description.

[Whirligig Girl]

1 hour ago, Evanitis said:

Thought I make some badges for the Kerbals who make it:

Flat-design vesion for those who prefer such:

EDIT: -dang-... I forgot -again- how to make it into a link that points to this thread. It's -so- complicated in the new forum.

 

There's a sort of three-joint leg or arm looking icon in the top right corner of each post. Clicking on it will let you get the link to a specific post. If you want to link a forum post or thread or other link into an image, simply highlight the image and press the chain-link button (in between A and ")

[Evanitis]

I'm aware of that. But if I put the image's url in the lower line it looks like this:

http://i.imgur.com/Eo9N85c.png

 

Or this if I press an enter after it:

Now I -know- there's a workaround. Managed to do it in 'The Rocks' challenge, but I can't remember the solution. I miss the old forum when it was a simple BBcode. Fun-fact: the images in my sig are links, made with BBcode in the old times. They still work, but I can't make new ones the old way.

[NovaSilisko]

6 hours ago, GregroxMun said:

I think it looks good, but I won't show any pictures on this thread, and encourage players who want to participate to only look at images once they've finally gotten there. The planet looks like an interesting gas giant, but gas giants in Kerbal Space Program are, on their own, boring, no matter what they look like (Well, that's just, like, my opinion man.). If you REALLY want to see a picture or two of the planet, you can find the full album in the Kerbal Stuff mod description.

Oh, I haven't seen it either. I'm just making a general statement.

[Dfthu]

I hope this entry counts. But this was really easy to do. The hardest thing was a getting a encounter with End.Its not much more Dv than going to Jool. It turns out the that encounter is 233 years away and there's no way I can warp that long. But it will be a flyby though. More info in pics

 

[Whirligig Girl]

19 minutes ago, Dfthu said:

I hope this entry counts. But this was really easy to do. The hardest thing was a getting a encounter with End.Its not much more Dv than going to Jool. It turns out the that encounter is 233 years away and there's no way I can warp that long. But it will be a flyby though. More info in pics

 

I'm probably going to move it out to its proper orbit of 20 times Neidon's orbit instead of Jool's. It was a dumb descision to put it where it currently is anyway. You won't need OPM to use it, but it will be compatible and the challenge will be more accurate. Why would I move it when you already have a 233 year away intercept? Because I'm an evil son of a gun.

 

Just kidding, this counts. But if you want to actually get to the flyby you can use the warp unlocker mod or try the much much much faster 50-year intercept challenge.

 

 

End has been moved way further out. Instead of being 20 times the Semi-Major-Axis of Jool's orbit, it is now 20 times the Semi-Major-Axis of Neidon's orbit. Again, Outer Planets Mod is not required, but it is compatible and the challenge is more accurate.

Edited January 22, 2016 by GregroxMun

[Evanitis]

Yay, it gets harder before I even start!

Though since you already fiddle with the planet I'll ask what subconsciously bugs me from the start. Ever consdiered making The End solid? It's a possibility if Planet Nine is there (well, at least people of this forum debate about it instead of saying 'no'). I'm just a mundane layman, but from a gameplay perspective I'd love if it kept taunting me until I land a Kerbal on it... maybe even consider a return trip... hmm naw.

So... could there be a 'frozen gas' version too?

[Hotaru]

13 minutes ago, Evanitis said:

So... could there be a 'frozen gas' version too?

Or give it a moon. Neptune has what is probably a captured Kuiper-belt object for a moon, it's not that ridiculous that this new planet, if it's really out there, could have at least one such moon as well.

I like the orbit change, I installed the first version along with OPM and noticed that it wasn't actually that much farther out than Neidon. Mind you, my farthest actual mission so far has been an Eeloo flyby so I'm not in any danger of actually getting to this place anytime soon whatever orbit it's in. But at least it's out there now, out beyond the OPM planets, and I'll make a long-term goal in my next career of getting there someday.

[Streetwind]

Aww nuts. I had to head out for a few hours before posting, and now I'm not first   Oh well, here's my Hard Mode entry:

 

 

@GregroxMun - I don't think moving the planet will have any impact on the difficulty, to be honest. As it stands, a Hohmann transfer towards the apoapsis side is already close to solar escape velocity; no matter at which distance you put it, no ship will ever have to spend more dV than that to go an infinite distance. The above ship could easily do it in a "20x Neidon's Orbit" situation, and still have dV leftover after circularizing right above the atmosphere. The only thing that changes is the travel time.

So to make your challenge harder, leave the planet where it is, and instead put more constraints on travel time.

 

And by the way, this felt quite... how should I put it... buggy. The initial trajectory said 68 Earth years, but I timewarped through at least twice that amount before arriving in End's SoI. On the screenshot that I took 30 Earth years in, it still claimed to take 68 Earth years, so that appears to be the upper limit it can show? Also, as you can see in the later screenshots, the mission elapsed timer broke halfway though, probably due to being unable to display more than said 68 Earth years... which unfortunately means I cannot say how long exactly I took. Additionally, the low periapsis orbit at End, prior to circularization, was really wonky. I couldn't place a maneuver node onto it, only next to it - and yes, the spacecraft was in fact pointing the wrong way as a result. I ended up capturing and circularizing without a node. Finally, when I closed down the client at the end of the playthrough, the framerate in the main menu was something like 10 FPS. Very strange.

 

Edited January 22, 2016 by Streetwind

[Sanic]

Step 10: Profit!

[Ackoli]

land on it!

[Whirligig Girl]

5 hours ago, Streetwind said:

Aww nuts. I had to head out for a few hours before posting, and now I'm not first   Oh well, here's my Hard Mode entry:

 

 

@GregroxMun - I don't think moving the planet will have any impact on the difficulty, to be honest. As it stands, a Hohmann transfer towards the apoapsis side is already close to solar escape velocity; no matter at which distance you put it, no ship will ever have to spend more dV than that to go an infinite distance. The above ship could easily do it in a "20x Neidon's Orbit" situation, and still have dV leftover after circularizing right above the atmosphere. The only thing that changes is the travel time.

So to make your challenge harder, leave the planet where it is, and instead put more constraints on travel time.

 

And by the way, this felt quite... how should I put it... buggy. The initial trajectory said 68 Earth years, but I timewarped through at least twice that amount before arriving in End's SoI. On the screenshot that I took 30 Earth years in, it still claimed to take 68 Earth years, so that appears to be the upper limit it can show? Also, as you can see in the later screenshots, the mission elapsed timer broke halfway though, probably due to being unable to display more than said 68 Earth years... which unfortunately means I cannot say how long exactly I took. Additionally, the low periapsis orbit at End, prior to circularization, was really wonky. I couldn't place a maneuver node onto it, only next to it - and yes, the spacecraft was in fact pointing the wrong way as a result. I ended up capturing and circularizing without a node. Finally, when I closed down the client at the end of the playthrough, the framerate in the main menu was something like 10 FPS. Very strange.

 

It's not the difficulty really that worries me about the large orbital radius, but rather the correctness. I'll except either Jool-based orbit or Neidon-based orbit. (Jool-based orbit can be found in the changelog section on KerbalStuff) The real planet's orbit would be around 20 times the semi-major-axis of Neptune's orbit, so I really ought to put it in the Neptune analog's orbit.

 

And yeah. It will be buggy. The game has a max time limit because (unless I'm mistaken) it's using 32 bit numbers (max number is ((2^32)-1)). And things do tend to get buggy at those distances of around 10^12 meters. The point of the challenge is ideally that you intercept it somewhere near perihelion by doing an escape velocity flyby instead of a hohmann transfer. At least, that's what I had in mind. Doing it the other way is perfectly reasonable.

8 hours ago, Hotaru said:

Or give it a moon. Neptune has what is probably a captured Kuiper-belt object for a moon, it's not that ridiculous that this new planet, if it's really out there, could have at least one such moon as well.

I like the orbit change, I installed the first version along with OPM and noticed that it wasn't actually that much farther out than Neidon. Mind you, my farthest actual mission so far has been an Eeloo flyby so I'm not in any danger of actually getting to this place anytime soon whatever orbit it's in. But at least it's out there now, out beyond the OPM planets, and I'll make a long-term goal in my next career of getting there someday.

I may add a moon or two to End. I'm just stumped as to what the moons should be like.

[Guest]

Once again, you beat me to a mod...  Could be fun though.  I'll try it some time.

[Streetwind]

7 hours ago, GregroxMun said:

The point of the challenge is ideally that you intercept it somewhere near perihelion by doing an escape velocity flyby instead of a hohmann transfer. At least, that's what I had in mind.

Very well - allow me to repeat the challenge then, with a different approach! I redownloaded the mod too, now with the larger, 'proper' orbit. I hope this one is more along the lines of what you had imagined.

 

 

Based on the simpleness and cheapness of my craft, I would recommend that you set the maximum allowed time for Hard Mode to something like 5 Earth years instead of 50 - if not lower! I didn't even fly the shortest possible route. And to my great surprise, plotting a perihelion intercept was cheaper than I expected. Cheaper, actually, than the Hohmann transfer towards the aphelion side that I did in my first try! Must be due to the extreme eccentricity. Because of this, even the basic Enderman mark 1 that I used for the first attempt would have been able to do reach End (in the larger orbit!) in under 50 Earth years and enter orbit with dV left over. 50 Earth years is way, way too generous for this

Edited January 23, 2016 by Streetwind