Ekku Zakku

True, and I've often avoided voting for entries that aren't much like the stock craft (mine is similar in some ways, but still quite different), but something just makes me want to vote for his! And thanks for the fuel help, I'll try that out. A lot simpler than what I was thinking lmao, which isn't a good thing considering I'm a programmer, obviously simple solutions are obviously always better XD

Octagon, that is easily my favorite entry so far, will definitely be getting my vote =3 Anywho, I've been refining my plane bit by bit, should get the entry posted tomorrow. I'm just worried about fuel moving from front to back and moving the center of lift in front of the center of mass, since I've got some reasonably long fuel tank chains. Any advice on that?

Ha, I hadn't made the connection from his post to yours, I had just woken up and essentially glanced over those posts when I replied to them, my bad XD it undoubtedly costs quite a bit of dV, but I still think that ~1400 m/s dV is a pretty good attempt, certainly less than a direct dive down to Jool and then back to Kerbin. There's a lot more that Tylo has to offer in a gravity assist than I made use of, so I'd certainly like to see it done better, and I just might have a go at it myself later. It's definitely going to be made more difficult by Bop's crazy inclined orbit though.

I just meant that I didn't get a gravity assist (to escape Jool) from any moon other than Tylo. SunJumper was mentioning chained gravity assists, and I was stating that I didn't do that and still escaped Jool, at the cost of a bit more fuel. Obviously I had to burn down to get a Tylo intercept, and it's explained how I did so in the video I made for you. I recommend you give it a watch =3

I did it with just a Tylo encounter, and it was a relatively high periapsis as well; I was just already in a highly elliptical orbit so it didn't take much to fling me back down to a Kerbin intercept. Exactly what I did, and while it isn't much dV, every little bit counts. I wouldn't have been able to get my science from the Mun without it. exactly! Anywho, I'm gonna see if I can jump in KSP real quick and show exactly what I did to get from Bop to Kerbin (might as well skip Pol to Bop, that's trivial) Pol to Kerbin. Just realized that I didn't have a quicksave in Bop orbit for some reason =P EDIT: video is here: http://youtu.be/Vf2mHVKX7KE Total dV for me getting from Pol to Bop to Tylo gravity assist to Kerbin was 1413 dV according to my calculations, out of 4660 dV from a full ship. It is a lot, but it wasn't that much compared to a direct burn from low Jool orbit to Kerbin (I estimate that's roughly 2000 dV maybe?).

I really like this compared to getting as much science as possible in the second launch (although why can't we have both? ;3), since there is a maximum science that can theoretically be unlocked by doing a complete grand tour (with an added near-Kerbol orbit to get that science too). Of course, it probably wouldn't be possible without certain unlocks like the LV-N, which I didn't get after my tier-0 mission.

Seriously doubt it, but you can always get more science in 2 launches, there are other ways to beat people at stuff XD

Awesome! After mine, I knew over 3000 would be possible, but ~3600 is just awesome. Bop EVA landing would really be pretty easy from a circular orbit, I was dumb and did mine from a highly elliptical orbit and did so many quick loads from running out of fuel... Add a polar Mun orbit with all the biomes and a Minmus EVA landing, and I certainly think that would have been over 4000, just a smidge more fuel and you could have done it XD

After seeing the Mun milked for science, now I kinda just want to put a rover on the Mun, drive to all the biomes and do all the science, and then go back to a mothership and also do my previously planned (non-landing) grand tour just to see how much science I can net from one mission XD

Haha, that's awesome XD I was thinking about something like that, but yeah, it really doesn't seem in the spirit of the challenge lol. Also it'd be pretty hard to get a full unlock even that way, I wonder if it'd even be possible without more experiments.

Very true, and it's good that there are some people who question a person's claims rather than (quietly or blindly) accepting everything people say, people hardly ever step up to say anything unless a person's claims are obviously bogus or their evidence is terrible XD I'm not offended that you've questioned the validity of my mission at all (even though my ego is a bit >w>). I didn't necessarily say that I got a lot of lucky gravity assists, just the one from Tylo that happened to bring my orbit only within 200,000 km of Kerbin without even trying. Wouldn't have been difficult to change the timing of my orbit to get an encounter or even to get the Tylo gravity assist (it's quite easy to get an intercept with any of Jool's moons when you're in a highly elliptical orbit lol). Also the ones from Duna and Eve weren't perfectly timed either, I did go around Kerbol a couple of times before I got the gravity assist from Eve. To help quell your doubts, I've decided that I will record my next mission, since that's going to be the important one anyways =3 I feel like I have something to prove lol, nobody has ever questioned my skills at KSP XD I'd easily rank myself at a higher skill level than Scott Manley, that's my honest opinion (gosh I must sound so full of myself right now lmao). I didn't aerobrake to get to Bop, you're right, that would have been really suboptimal XD about 900 m/s to circularize at Bop was what my maneuver node said =P I actually aerobraked into a highly elliptical orbit and raised my periapsis up to Pol's orbit, kinda like a bi-elliptic transfer I suppose, and once I was done with Pol I did a Hohmann transfer to Bop.

I'm incredibly lazy with taking pictures now, and after the fact that I didn't think to take any until about half way through, I just didn't bother for the rest. I've been around the forums for quite a while, my forums posts are plenty, and my imgur account has some other missions to show my credibility: http://ekkuzakku.imgur.com/ I would feel that the t+ timer in the second picture would be a good indication that I actually went places, but I saved some quicksaves from the trip (only from Jool onwards, but the Duna and Eve flybys were pretty trivial anyways), I uploaded them, if you'd like to see them yourself: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B29zPJqIXumrLXdSNkpOS2F4OUU/edit?usp=sharing Also I once circumnavigated Kerbin by water, took 11 hours, why would I do something less demanding than that without actually putting the time in? Also, I despise mods and haven't played KSP with them since .17. I assure you, I did actually go where I said I went =3

Thanks! I was really hoping for the LV-N, but I know I can accomplish the same, if not more, with regular engines while bringing more experiments. After all, I did just do 9/16ths of a fly-by grand tour with an LV-T30 XD Good to know lol. It'd be nice to have some smooth sailing after such an edge-of-my-seat mission! This is also my first attempt to unlock the tech tree, so I don't even have a feel for what it takes yet lol.

I finally finished my tier-0 mission, took me all day (aside from the 2 hour hair appointment I had). I managed to enter Kerbin's atmosphere with 8 units of fuel left, which I used to slow down before the chute opened (I wish I hadn't forgotten to pack more; the only thing left after landing was the pod!). I couldn't do this mission with this fuel load again if I tried. Gravity assists off the wazoo! It's quite amazing how far you can go with such little fuel, this was the first time I've done this kind of a mission. Mission summary: I left Kerbin orbit straight for Duna, got a close Ike flyby followed by a close Duna flyby and gravity assist (with a small burn) to bring my orbit down to Eve. Did a couple of orbits around Kerbol before getting the Eve encounter, but once I did, it was another wonderful gravity assist with a 680 m/s burn to bring my orbit up to Jool. Two and a half orbits later, about t+4 years, I made my Jool rendezvous and aerocaptured to bring my apoapsis barely inside Jool's SOI. After reaching apoapsis, I then brought my periapsis up to Pol's orbit and captured just inside its SOI. One EVA touch and go later, I leave Pol orbit for Bop, and repeat (the ascent there was very tight on Jeb's jetpack fuel, I got back to the pod with .2 remaining, and one of my previous attempts was similar and I ended up grabbing on to the ladder, but because of the velocity, I flew right back off. Reminded me of Gravity lol). After being done with Bop, I raised my Jool apoapsis again to nearly out of the SOI, then at apoapsis brought it down closer to Jool. Rather than burning at periapsis, I got a perfect gravity assist from Tylo that flung me all the way down to below Eve's orbit (could have even gone to Moho if I had the fuel), and an amazingly lucky Kerbin encounter. After aerocapture at Kerbin, I went to the Mun in a polar orbit and got as many of the biomes as I could find before returning to Kerbin. Total science haul was 2461, plus 10 from poor Kerton Kerman who stayed on the launchpad the entire ~6 years that Jeb was away XD (what?! I needed him for time warping!) My unlocks are in the imgur album below (or click here to see it: http://imgur.com/a/wjnud#0), I unlocked all the science parts, and up to some of the 2m fuel tanks/parts. Just 6 science points left over! I know for sure that over 3000 science with tier-0 would be possible, with more flybys of Jool's moons, possibly a Moho visit (not really hard to do), maybe landing on Gilly and/or Minmus (which I just barely didn't have enough fuel to do), and more transmissions, since I neglected to remember the fact that my engine recharged electricity until I made it to Pol, whoops! Good luck to anybody who attempts to get 3000 in one go XD

The beeping from the water is certainly from the splashing, it's happened to me before testing boats. Just fyi, if your boat splashes constantly, it isn't a proper boat and isn't going to go very far XD

I'm pretty sure the ideal way is to pack light (just one of each experiment), and make up for it with more fuel so as to go more places. Then, when you get somewhere, stay around for a bit and transmit like crazy. It's slower, sure, but it will net more science after several transmissions than taking, say, 4 material bays and filling them up with just one unique experiment each. The only requirement, obviously, is solar panels and batteries to be able to transmit constantly. After all, multiple transmissions vs multiple science returns to Kerbin both net roughly the same amount of science; it takes either more transmissions vs returns to max it out, or more time going to and from somewhere to return it enough times. Of course, transmissions easily wins out there, all you need is to assign the experiment to an action group and mash it until you max out the science.

That's pretty much exactly what I'm attempting now with roughly the same ship as you XD I think a Duna and Eve flyby is probably going to be the best way to get to Jool, since it costs around the same dV (if timed just right, like I was lucky to get), but also nets you more than 300 science from EVA reports. Probably going to be the same route I'll take in my second launch with all the science parts available.

Goodness, when I read that, I nearly had a heart attack... XD good thing that the "crew report" part was a mistake, otherwise I would have killed myself over missing something like that. I did figure out you could only store one per pod beforehand, but I thought I missed something somehow lol. Anyways, now to explain why that nearly gave me a heart attack; I'm working on a tier-0 mission right now that's already done a Duna/Ike flyby and is working on an Eve flyby with a gravity assist to head out to the Jool system (if I had missed some easy science, I'd flip a table). I'm hoping to pull in ~2000 science, with EVA landings on Bop and Pol. Also if I have enough fuel when I get back to Kerbin, hopefully some Mun orbits (to get all the biomes) and an EVA Minmus landing will be possible as well. I'm using a slightly modified version of allmhuran's ship (so much dV for tier-0!), with a couple extra tanks on the final stage. I figured that instead of landing on such a high-gravity moon such as Ike, it would be worth much more to use that dV to go to Jool instead, and do some EVA landings to get the crew reports and surface samples. However, with my math for the fuel I have left over, it looks like I won't have enough to escape Jool and get back to Kerbin. I suppose I'll have to get there and find out. If not, a couple of flybys would still net me quite a bit of science. Of course, I am going for 2-launches to max my tech tree ;3

Ha, love the Doctor Who reference XD I don't notice much difference in .22 myself, aside from when launching the SAS doesn't get within ~2 degrees of where I set it to lock if the craft is kinda top-heavy and wants to tip over. Gets kinda annoying with tier-0 parts, since with no gimballing, it struggles more and more over time to keep the rocket straight (while if I take manual control, I can actually move it myself to where I want it to point). Just needs a little extra +1 to force somewhere in the code lol. I haven't tried huge rockets yet though, haven't finished the tech tree.

Aaand lol'ing in class XDDDDDDD

hell yes! I'd love to do some long-distance science missions by boat =3 Maybe I could do a circumnavigation twice in one go, taking different routes... ohoho, that'd be fun >=3

I think the majority of Kerbin's geography should named after players who have done amazing things in the game XD like the first few people who landed on the moon with no landing legs, the first few who came back from Eve (hell, I think Scott Manley was one of those few, but I think he can be named for other things as well XD), and us, of course, who chose to do something amazing in the deadliest substance known to Kerbals, water!

Awesome! I think more people will be willing to do this once they see that it's very much possible to do, it just takes some time XD if you want to stream your attempt, I'd love to watch!

Cool! That's awesome that you named a body of water after me, since I'm a Pisces XD also coincidental as that was the exact same place I had to do a quickload! Couldn't have picked a better place lol. I was also in the same situation as you questioning carrying the right amount of fuel, but it was just because of lagsbane slowing the game down a bit that made it seem like I was going for longer than I actually was XD

join usssssssss~ JOIN USSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! in all seriousness, boats that are made right essentially go as fast as planes do at sea level lol, circumnavigating by air at a reasonably high altitude really helps the planes though of course XD