Urgent! Need help with Jool return!

[Mycroft]

OMG! Just got Kerbal Alarm clock and found out I have a Jool window in seven days! Gaaah! Can somebody help me come up with a viable lander system that can get back from Jool? I can get there, just not back.

Any and all help tremendously appreciated.

Thanks,

Mycroft 33

Edit: Sorry! Should have said ‘Jool system’. I haven’t picked a moon yet, but it won’t be Laythe.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Mycroft

[Foxster]

Umm, you know a lander is not going to do you much good for Jool? No surface. 

But a return craft depends on the payload you plan to take. If it's big then a nuke or two and lots of drop tanks is one way. Otherwise ions with fuel cells. 

[Streetwind]

You can't land on Jool and get back. ...Well, at least not without absurd effort, followed by tossing a coin and hoping it doesn't land Kraken-side up. If you know what I mean.

If you have other targets than Jool in mind for a lander - such as one or more of its five vastly different moons - then you might want to mention that in your requirements

 

As for being unable to return from Jool: are you aware that there's such a thing as a "return window"? Just like it makes no sense to fly from Kerbin to Jool outside of a certain window, it makes no sense to fly from Jool to Kerbin outside of a certain window as well. And the return window is generally nowhere near your arrival time at Jool. So it's entirely possible that you get there, finish all your science investigations, and then need to timewarp for 200 days before your vessel gets a chance to go home without breaking the dV bank.

 

And everything beyond that is just an application of the rocket equation - stacking enough increasingly larger propulsion stages on top of each other to ensure that there is enough dV to make the trip. dV maps help you plan this out during construction.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Streetwind

[Warzouz]

8 hours ago, Mycroft said:

OMG! Just got Kerbal Alarm clock and found out I have a Jool window in seven days! Gaaah! Can somebody help me come up with a viable lander system that can get back from Jool? I can get there, just not back.

Any and all help tremendously appreciated.

Thanks,

Mycroft 33

You could go for a XP mission. Quite fun to learn about Gravity assist for quite a cheap dV.

You could even plan a landing on Pol and/or Bop.

If you really want to explore Jool subsystem, I recommend a space station mission with fuel tanks (or refuel capacity) + landers and return vehicle. You could target Vall, Pol and Bop which are easy even with reusable landers. For Laythe, SSTO is the best way to do it (you can fly to an island instead of hopping to land on one...). As for Tylo, it's not hard when you have a proper lander. Fully reusable SSTO is possible (I did it in 0.9) but design is very delicate.

Don't forget, you have a window nearly every Kerbal year. Don't panic if you miss one. Jool windows come more often than Duna or Eve.

Also, you could send a batch of 6 polar probes. Quite useful to get cheap science if you have the Gravioli. You can even land probes (that's very easy, even on Tylo)

EDIT : and as for a space station template, you can use my Salamander exploration space station

 

Edited June 10, 2016 by Warzouz