Kerbolitto

Hey there, This will be the thread linked to my attempt at @Death Engineering challenge, which is a reboot from @sturmstiger The objective is to set an permanent outpost on Duna, complete a dozen of achievements and take into consideration a lot of requirements (minimum weight, habitat confort, shuttles..). It is challenge which, just like Constellation's challenge, asks for a lot of planning and forward thinking with design. Just like @michal.don, I'll post here so the main thread would not be flooded under tons of pictures and various reports. Questions, feedbacks, remarks are well appreciated The first task is to designed a Standard Launch Vehicle (SLV) to carry a Nominal Payload Mass (NPM) into 180*180 orbit maximum. Reusability and NPM will determine how often it is possible to launch a new payload so it is very important to plan everything according to Duna's transfer windows. I settled on a 87.5t. NPM which will allow me to launch 6 times before year 10 with a tiny margin. VEHICLES : SLV S4 15-3 This is the mighty SuperFour 15 nozzles under 3 bottles, which is a reusable SSTO rocket, a modified version of a 150t. lifter which is now able to put 87.5t. into 180*180 and land safely. It's easy to fly, has a huge 5m. fairing, requires only 43 parts and is very stable thanks to Vector's gimball. SLV 01 : Duna's Outpost Vermillion's Seeker SLV 02 : Kerbin Space Station, ISRU 2-g, more nuke pods SLV 03 : DunaSpaceStation, Outpost extension and 5 new ships ! SLV 04 : Habitat extensions, heavy rover, WoldhoundPod, tank and KERHS prototype Space Stations Kerbin Space Station Duna Space Station Habitats Shuttle systems DunaSpaceBus DeepSpaceTransit Evac vehicle Various Pods Dart-tugs Nuke Pods Heavy ISRU Rovers The world famous RoboTug Life Support SCORE : THREAD IN PROGRESS

I did know that mass could have changed anything about that .. I discovered autostrut after 800/900h /played and it was quite a game changer :p By pressure I meant structural forces. Also I learnt the hard way about drag inside those parts, I tried multiple times to fly a large SSTO with 5m. tubes as fuselage .. x_x This is a very good idea, I'll do the same, already got 35+ screenshots and I'm still around Kerbin : /

Yes it happens sometimes .. Really annoying ! Another thing that also really bothers me are structural tubes (not 1.25, the new ones from Making History), they can't whistand a lot of pressure and radial wheels fall appart if you try to jump with a big rover ..

Yes, my mission architecture is based on 87.5t. SLV so I'll do 6 launches, with a lot of parts for modularity and minimum weight. This outpost required a lot of work, and also many hours to reduce weight while still being to fullfill all achievements. I'll post the first batch later, I'm currently refuelling this whole "thing" !

I'm currently flying the first steps of this challenge, here is a little spoiler of what's coming up !

Hey there Here is my attempt to this 7th challenge ! It's only the 2nd time I'm going to Gilly so it was a good surprise Also Eve's return is quite savage xD

Yeah but you'd miss the wobbly-part of a low weight assembly with this mod nop ?

After many hours (days?) spent assembling dozens of parts together to see if it would "weight less" or "look cooler", our team of volunteer qualified engineers declared being ready to show the rest of the world many, many new strange contraptions ! Focused on efficiency, modularity and reliability (safety is a 4 letter-word), these vehicles will hopefully be able to fullfill every requirements proposed by Kelon Erman. A great destiny awaits every brave Kerbonauts who will put a green foot inside those new habitats, before ringing at Duna's place and stepping on its red doormat. First of all : This brand new SLV, capable of carrying 87.5t. at a 179x179 orbit before landing everywhere, provided it is a flat and dry surface. It requires exactly 525 days to be assembled thanks to our professionnal, in-house parts-stackers. SLV S4 15-3 : S4 15-3 is the latest launcher developped by the VAB's people, it is also their only participation because assembling 43 parts is more than enough for the next 10 years, they said. It weights 983.67t. with no payload or fairing, it's name stands obviously for SuperFour 15 Nozzles under 3 Bottles. Here is how it flies : edit : this is all stock, it's also the first time that I use Launch Planner by alexmoon after 1300h of played O_o.

How can you use Puffs as RCS, aren't they regular engines controlled with throttle only ? Btw, nice wing design !

The way I get it, you have your SLV which has a maximum payload rating, and the way you load it is up to you. Say you got a 50t. max reusable SLV, you can load it with 40t. and wait 40*6 days, or load it with 20t. and wait 20*6 days, is up to you. Correct me if I'm wrong ! edit : Is it possible to transfer remaining fuel from SLV to payload, of course adding this fuel weight into actual payload mass put into orbit ? This would reduce the need to add drop tanks on 300+ parts payload. If we can show the SLV re-usability (with maybe like 2% of its fuel remaining for retroburn on landing) , with a lighter payload we'd have maybe 5-10% of SLV fuel wasted when de-orbiting it.

Okay cool ! I could have changed my plans but I already modified a trusty design with a 5m. fairing. Little teaser :

Yeah this is a very well thought challenge, glad to see you on board ! That's what I was thinking too, about posting some screenshots of say, first 3 years of the mission with a little report at the end of the post .. This might just be far too big in just one post. I'm ready to launch when I'm clear with the reusability of the SLV and it still feels like I'm hours away to fullfill the whole challenge ! Love It <3

Oh okay I get it ! Sorry I'm not english so I must have missed a little detail in the way I understood it, but anyway I planned to use a fully reusable SSTO rocket so that's why I felt puzzled.. It weights 170t. empty vs +/-1000t. fully loaded. So, 2 stages design are required ?

Little question : In order to qualify as "reusable", recovered launch stages must have comprised of at least 50% of the vehicles original lift-off mass (including payload). Recovery of spent stages can be passive or active but must be demonstrated successfully at least once. How is it possible to recover 50% of the weight on launchpad when more than half of the weight of a lifter is fuel ? Not even mentionning with the actual payload or fairing weight.

Almost ready for first launch .. That's incredible what you can do with less than 50t. !

also, some typo in the first chapter : fourth year of the campaign (Year 5, Day 1) 9th year of the campaign (Year 10, Day 1) provide new lifters beyond the end of Year 9.

What about something like that ? You could get your 4 Nukes in 2 pods (those near the cargo bay on this pic), bursting above and below the main wing, and 2 Rapiers externally on wingtips (above forward landing gear) this makes things very easy to balance CoM.

Thanks, glad you like my little toys

By the way, achievements has to be fullfilled when year 10 starts right ? No need to rush as many as possible on the first launch ? I'm getting trouble to make the most out of the very first transfer window xD Another question, command seats are forbidden for suborbital exploration too ? edit : sorry if this may seem obvious but I'd like to make sure that my design will be as efficient as possible.

Well it is funny that you posted this challenge the day I've finished Duna's Constellation mission ! Our land bases might be balanced for this challenge but landers inside huge fairings are too heavy.. I did not saw your Duna attempt on the Constellation program loved your video on Munar's mission, (and Toots <3 !)

Of course this is in regard of the NPM and rocket's rotation that I'm planning to use, but this was to be sure that the clock starts ticking at +40days. I'm currently reviewing my Constellation's timeline to see what kind of NPM would allow for the best cycle ! This is for sure a very interresting challenge.

One question, you can launch the first vessel after 40 days no matter what the payload is ?

Hey there, I've just finished the 3rd challenge to Duna, this was a huge achievement to me because I've never done something on this scale in term of mission planification / architecture, and overall design restrictions. I'm sorry for those like me who got a poor connection, because there's a lot of pics even after keeping only the most interrestings. Starring : Jebediah, Valentina, Bill, Bob, and Margaret, with the help of Ares 1, Ares 5, Orion EXT, Vector Red and Blue, Le Jadis-Naguère, multiple com-sat, Omicron Lyrae and Freedom's Reach land-bases, 3 nukes pods as secondary roles and too much French flags xD Part 1 : Unmanned payloads Everything was -very- quickly set-up because the transfer window to Duna was closing, or so I thought. All those ships were launched at night, docked and assembled in orbit, and burning to Duna in less than 3 hours. Com-sat : Vector's DTV : Nuke Pods 1 and 2 Arrival in Duna SOI Both Vectors captured after burning 2 times, the first (330-350m/s) on an eliptical orbit (around 50 days) and the second to circularize (340-350m/s) Part 2 : Le Jadis-Naguère This ship is inspired of Copernicus, which would have been use to transit Kerbals to Mars, on Humans on Duna, can't remember. Part 2 : Orion-EXT This is a modified version of Orion with 2 more seats, 2 baguettes (for les tartines) and an heavier thermal shield Part 3 : Transit to Duna Duna's injection was performed 16 minutes after Orion docked to J-N, no time to unpack ! Part 4 : Setting things up around Duna, crew transfer to Blue Vector, simultaneous landing Part 5 : Unpacking land-bases ! Blue carried Omicron Lyrae, an habitat base with science module, crew cabin, and science stuff Red hold Freedom's Reach, which consisted of a mining base, a Duna Ascent Vehicle and Spiderette, a 3 seats rover. It also has 2 vertical docking ports to re-dock the DAV after it has return the crew on orbit, or that was the plan before someone forgot to install a probe in it ... Part 6 : Going back to Kerbin Crewed Duna Mission objectives : Complete timeline : (sorted by ships) I hope you enjoyed this ---long---post, I certainly did while flying this awesome challenge !

This is a very interresting challenge, mission architecture is by far the most complete thing to design as there's so many various requirements. (Constellation thread)

Glad you like it ! And thank you for maintaining this awesome challenge, the huge diversity of the requirements really helps developping our creativity and learning new ways to get a good design !