The Retro Solar Rescue

[jonny]

1 hour ago, sevenperforce said:

A standard jetpack has 650 m/s of dV, per the wiki.

are you sure?

9 hours ago, jonny said:

 

Quote

The Kerbals can navigate outside their spacecraft by climbing ladders, walking, or using their personal RCS jetpacks, which have a Δv of 600 m/s RCS fuel that is completely restored upon entering a command pod.

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Extra-Vehicular_Activity

 

 

1 hour ago, herbal space program said:

And on that note, to insure fairness how exactly did you go about calculating Burbarry's EVA dV?

On my attempt I used all the EVA propellant, and counted the 600 m/s from the Wiki.
I was digging in the .cfg files, but unfortunately there is no ModuleEnginesFX in GameData/Squad/Parts/Prebuilt/kerbalEVA.cfg

I did some testing and can tell the following: EVA Propellant is very magical. it has no mass but 5 units of it change yout velocity by 600m/s. 2.5 units of it change the velocity by 300 m/s. We don't need the rocket equation. I Guess even Burbarry can calculate the dV.

1 hour ago, herbal space program said:

...Also, to make it less implausible, what I'll probably have Burbarry do is abandon his ship just as I'm swinging by on a tangent orbit and use his EVA pack to match velocities with me, rather than sending him off into space without a ship for months to rendezvous with me at some distant point. While I can see how the latter might smack of cheating to some, I think the former is totally consistent with  the spirit of the challenge, especially since we'll be counting Burbarry's dV.

well, that make things less implausible but I don't agree with such a rule because it diminishes Burbarrys possibility's, and I would like to see someone doing gravity assists with Burbarry.

2 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Might I suggest that you have two dV records, one in which Burberry uses his backpack for a significant part of the dV change, and one which he doesn't?

Two records, is what I think as well. But I would suggest the first record: "do whatever you want" and the second: "Burbarry can only survive one day" allow Command Chair??

PS: Be warned @herbal space program my dV record is without EVA. I was on EVA for the cost and mass record.

[herbal space program]

18 minutes ago, jonny said:

On my attempt I used all the EVA propellant, and counted the 600 m/s from the Wiki.

Sounds fair enough, but since you didn't do that for the dV record I may try to do something more precise ala OP's suggestions above.

18 minutes ago, jonny said:

well, that make things less implausible but I don't agree with such a rule because it diminishes Burbarrys possibility's, and I would like to see someone doing gravity assists with Burbarry.

Don't think that didn't enter my mind!  If his EVA pack is enough to get him to a Kerbin or Eve encounter, who knows how much dV the rescue ship could ultimately save?

18 minutes ago, jonny said:

PS: Be warned @herbal space program my dV record is without EVA. I was on EVA for the cost and mass record.

Consider me forewarned! I think I actually can get pretty close without getting cute with Burbarry's EVA pack, and I plan to try it both ways, or maybe even three ways if Burbarry can get to Eve or Kerbin by himself!

[jonny]

3 minutes ago, herbal space program said:

if Burbarry can get to Eve or Kerbin by himself!

He can! Eve takes about 400 m/s and Kerbin a bit more. once  you made the encounter things become very tedious.

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

Did you guys notice that one of the stars of Marcus House's "Call of the Kraken" video is a Mr. Burberry Kerman? It's spelled with an "e", but still. This guy's getting famous. Could a Bad S designation be around the corner? 

[Aetharan]

In the original save (which I used for my thus-far posted efforts), it is Burberry rather than Burbarry.  Pretty sure that the use of an "a" was an error in the OP.

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

I used the original save, too. I was so intent on getting to him, and then getting him home, I never noticed. I'll have to spell it correctly from now on.

Marcus House did the rescue as well. I wonder if that's why Burberry is now part of his space program? The guy really is getting famous.

[Human Person]

16 minutes ago, Cpt Kerbalkrunch said:

Marcus House did the rescue as well. I wonder if that's why Burberry is now part of his space program? The guy really is getting famous.

If you check the OP, there's even a link to @marcushouses Goliath-Video, wich motivated me to set the challenge. I even contacted him directly and told him about the challenge. I feel honored that he participated twice!

The Burberry - Burbarry error is a fault on my part, but Burberry has been a part of his space program before.

 

He's getting famous? That's great to hear! He clearly hs been a hero for me since I started searching YouTube for KSP stuff.

Edited August 10, 2017 by Physics Student

[linuxgurugamer]

You can look to see how much eva fuel is left before reentering the cabin.

[Aetharan]

As a side-note, I find it highly amusing (looking at the first post again) that, thus far, the only entry in Category I is my own, and even that is an exception to the intent of the listing.  We're all just trying again and again until we have victory, without sharing our failures that would count for Category I or II!

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

6 minutes ago, Aetharan said:

As a side-note, I find it highly amusing (looking at the first post again) that, thus far, the only entry in Category I is my own, and even that is an exception to the intent of the listing.  We're all just trying again and again until we have victory, without sharing our failures that would count for Category I or II!

Actually, I posted my failure on my first attempt. I was low on fuel and attempted a direct return from retro-orbit. The results were...explosive. 

A definite Category II.

[linuxgurugamer]

While not boasting, I made it on my first attempt. Of course there were a number of Developmental ships which I launched but they weren't intended to do the whole mission when I finally launch for the mission, it went from start to end. I do believe I did make at least one post showing the Launchpad being destroyed by one of my early test vessels which was somewhere in the order of 30 to 40 kilotons on the pad.

I'll put together a ninja album showing a number of my early development craft and post it later this evening.

[Aetharan]

I stand corrected.  Still, next time my failure comes in the form of "firey death" instead of "game crashed when I rolled the ship out onto the launch pad, and corrupted the ship save somehow" I'll have to share.  (I have, so far, lost four different ships to this particular problem.  Each one of which was 2+ hours' design work.)

[linuxgurugamer]

5 minutes ago, Aetharan said:

I stand corrected.  Still, next time my failure comes in the form of "firey death" instead of "game crashed when I rolled the ship out onto the launch pad, and corrupted the ship save somehow" I'll have to share.  (I have, so far, lost four different ships to this particular problem.  Each one of which was 2+ hours' design work.)

Save before rolling out.

I know that there is a mod which will actually save your vessels periodically. You may want to look into getting that to save your two hours of work each time.

[herbal space program]

8 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Save before rolling out.

I think that in addition to the badge, when we complete this challenge we should get a little sticker the says "f9" to put on the key from which all the paint was worn off!

[Aetharan]

8 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Save before rolling out.

Yeah, note the 'somehow corrupted' bit.  Not sure what went wrong with it, but the last time it happened I still had the .craft file, but KSP wouldn't read it any longer, either in the original save or in a clean one I started up to test.  I was... annoyed.

[Laie]

I'm no up to the "Brood Forse CCLIV", 1100 parts. Will Kerbal joint Reinforcement be acceptable?

[Human Person]

28 minutes ago, Laie said:

Will Kerbal joint Reinforcement be acceptable?

Of course.

[linuxgurugamer]

4 hours ago, Laie said:

I'm no up to the "Brood Forse CCLIV", 1100 parts. Will Kerbal joint Reinforcement be acceptable?

Probably required at this time

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

1 hour ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Probably required at this time

The 1,700 part behemoth I used was pure stock, so I don't think it's entirely necessary. However, several hundred of those parts were probably struts and strut connectors. And I forgot to strut an entire section (which didn't help later on), so I'm guessing at the very least it would help to soothe one of the many headaches this challenge provides.

[linuxgurugamer]

57 minutes ago, Cpt Kerbalkrunch said:

The 1,700 part behemoth I used was pure stock, so I don't think it's entirely necessary. However, several hundred of those parts were probably struts and strut connectors. And I forgot to strut an entire section (which didn't help later on), so I'm guessing at the very least it would help to soothe one of the many headaches this challenge provides.

Judicious use of auto-strutting would help, I think

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

37 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

Judicious use of auto-strutting would help, I think

Probably. Everytime I try, though, results in violent, Gumby-like behavior. Followed by fireworks. 

[linuxgurugamer]

1 hour ago, Cpt Kerbalkrunch said:

Probably. Everytime I try, though, results in violent, Gumby-like behavior. Followed by fireworks. 

Make sure you aren't doing an autostrut to heaviest part, where the heaviest part is tank which is getting emptied.  If that happens, lots of fun when the tank is no longer the heaviest part.

[Laie]

WIP: launch mass 46kt, and the first stage is (dare I say it) entirely too powerful. Trying to split it barely helped with performance, but at least provided for a neat picture:

Once in LKO, it has 37km/s left -- which I hope will suffice for a straightforward "as the crow flies" kind of mission.

Hint to all builders of oversized vessels: 3x3 symmetry gives a lot of stability.

On 8/11/2017 at 4:09 PM, Cpt Kerbalkrunch said:

Probably. Everytime I try, though, results in violent, Gumby-like behavior. Followed by fireworks. 

"Autostrut to grandparent" gives these outriggers a lot of coherence. It still takes a some ordinary struts to make them stick to the main vessel, but surprisingly few. And there's zero to hold the cluster together.

 

Edited August 13, 2017 by Laie

[Human Person]

@Laie Nice start of you mission, 37 km/s sonds good. 

What do you mean by too powerful? There is no too powerful here!

Edited August 13, 2017 by Physics Student

[linuxgurugamer]

3 hours ago, Laie said:

WIP: launch mass 46kt, and the first stage is (dare I say it) entirely too powerful. Trying to split it barely helped with performance, but at least provided for a neat picture:

Once in LKO, it has 37km/s left -- which I hope will suffice for a straightforward "as the crow flies" kind of mission.

Hint to all builders of oversized vessels: 3x3 symmetry gives a lot of stability.

"Autostrut to grandparent" gives these outriggers a lot of coherence. It still takes a some ordinary struts to make them stick to the main vessel, but surprisingly few. And there's zero to hold the cluster together.

 

You are cutting it very tight to do it that way.  Good luck

I'm now working on a speed run.  Did it in about 96 days in a test, I think i can shave somewhere between 5 and 10 days off of that.  Running the mission now, with documentation.