Suicidal Tourists

[THobson]

What is it with these tourist that want a sub-orbital flight on the Sun? Is there a sensible way of delivering this?

Edited July 8, 2015 by THobson

[FancyMouse]

Hint: orbit can be suborbital when tourist is still near Kerbin (or anywhere)

And I agree those tourists are insane.

[capi3101]

Wanderfound had one the other day - I believe it went something like "pod, probe core, solar panels, nuke...Mk3 Liquid Fuel tank. Produces a ship with 13k delta-V, which is reasonable for a sun-dive. Alternatively, you can get a ship with about 7-8k of delta-V and use a bi-elliptic transfer; leave Kerbin heading for an apoapsis out towards the orbit of Jool. A year later when you get there, burn retrograde until you're rewarded for the contract. Then get back into a stable orbit and figure out what kind of burn you need in order to get back to Kerbin - a mod like Protractor will help with this last bit.

Doable? Yes. Worth it? Not ruddy likely...

[Edax]

What is it with these tourist that want a sub-orbital flight on the Sun? Is there a sensible way of delivering this?

Some kerbals have watched Sunshine one too many times.

[kzauner]

What is it with these tourist that want a sub-orbital flight on the Sun? Is there a sensible way of delivering this?

Like IRL tourist-businesses: Just deny them. Really, there is absolutely not a single really-bad-idea which would not be missed by at least one tourist a season (goes for every tourist destination in the world, and hencefore tourist wherever from). On earth, space-tourism is still in its earliest stages. As soon as humans are as highly evolved as kerbals when it comes to space travel, we will have human space-tourists asking for sundives. I take any bet on this.

Ask whoever you know who is working in tourism industry. They will approve on this subject. KSP models the reality in a frightening realistic way. But they seem to use some simplified form instead of the correct and more precise n-body-stupidity calculations. It still looking for the signs that larger groups are more stupid than smaller ones in KSP. Probably the later would put to much strain on even high-end PCs.

[Streetwind]

On earth, space-tourism is still in its earliest stages. As soon as humans are as highly evolved as kerbals when it comes to space travel, we will have human space-tourists asking for sundives. I take any bet on this.

They'll have it all figured out, too - they'll ask to fly at night!

[Sharpy]

Heh... I see a group of five. All reasonable requests, Mun orbit, Minmus orbit, I'd pick them. Then there's that one jerk who wants a suborbital Sun flight and spoils the fun for everyone. There really should be an option to negotiate kicking the idiot out of the group.

[Streetwind]

For what it's worth - there's a contract pack addon called Tourism Plus, dedicated to improving these contracts. The first thing it does is make all tourists on one contract share the same travel itinerary, as they should.

[THobson]

Thanks all. I will have a look at the pack. I don't mind the tourists having different itineraries that is just a small complication that can be fun solving, but when one wants to sub-orbit the sun I don't take any of them

[cantab]

A gravity assist from Jool can kick you onto a collision course with the Sun for not much more delta-V than it takes to reach Jool. You'd then need to make a course correction to not impact, and then arrange further gravity assists to get back to Kerbin at a reasonable speed for re-entry.

There's a trick to those gravity assists. You cannot use a gravity assist at apoapsis to lower your periapsis, or at periapsis to raise your apoapsis. So what you need to do is get into an orbit round the Sun with an apoapsis somewhat *beyond* Jool's orbit, and then you can make the gravity assist to lower your periapsis into a Sun impact.

It will be a time-consuming mission but one with not unreasonable delta-V requirements. 3 km/s from LKO should do it. As ever I strongly recommend Precise Node for gravity assist work.

Edited July 8, 2015 by cantab

[Moh1336]

I wouldn't avoid the suborbital sun ones, you'll get the reward simply for changing the trajectory to suborbital and back again instantly. You don't really have to fly suicidally into the sun to do it.

The only time I truly go suborbital for tourists is if one of them also wants to land somewhere. Other wise I just do a quick retrograde burn to change trajectory and then prograde to keep it in the orbit/leave orbit.

The first thing it does is make all tourists on one contract share the same travel itinerary, as they should.

I suppose it depends how your view them. I don't see travel itineraries as something to be done all at once, but things to do over time. So having differing itineraries makes sense, no one said you have to take all the tourists together, so why should they all be forced to go to the same place?

[Streetwind]

It depends on how you see the contract, I suppose.

For me, it represents a group of Kerbals who are interested in going somewhere together. That's why they're on the same contract in the first place - because they signed up together and have the same goal. Like a family who books tickets to fly to Disney World.

On the other hand, consider your neighbor on the left wants to visit Kenya, your neighbor on the right wants to visit Norway, and you want to tour the Polynesian islands. Even if you do happen to meet in the street and talk about this, you're clearly not going to suggest "hey guys, here's an idea, let's all sign up for this trip together!". That makes no sense, because you're going to different places. Instead, each of you will individually hit up a travel agency and get a booking independent from the other two.

This represents having multiple tourist contracts in KSP, each with one or more tourists wanting a different place.

There's nothing wrong with telling a large bunch of tourists "hey, come hang out at the space center, I'll sort out who wants to go where and stage flights accordingly", per se. But it doesn't make much sense as contracts, then. It would work better with a system like the astronaut complex, which generates a constant stream of Kerbals with random stats for you to pull into your space program.

[THobson]

Thank you. I am newish here. What is Precise Node?

Edited July 8, 2015 by THobson

[capi3101]

Thank you. I am newish here. What is Precise Node?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/47863-0-90-0-Precise-Node-1-1-2-Precisely-edit-your-maneuver-nodes

It's a mod that lets you key in exactly how much delta-V you want to devote along the three axes (prograde/retrograde - radial-in/radial out - normal/anti-normal), giving you a tighter level of control over the maneuver nodes than you ordinarily have. It helps lower the amount of fuss involved in pulling one of the maneuver widgets "just right" to get the maneuver you want to make planned out. It's still up to you to make the burn as planned (unless you've got a very precise autopilot - read: Mechjeb - to do the burn for you as well).