Have you ever been to eeloo in career mode

[mrhexed]

I've been having struggles going to eeloo in career mode. could anyone send pictures of their voyage to eeloo?

[regex]

I went to Eeloo last night. Here are some pictures.

There is no need for an RTG, you'll need, at most, a single unfolding solar panel like those in the picture to power an octo probe core. Three of them and some batteries will get your science back to Kerbin. Upgrade your tracking station to level 3 and make sure you have enough antennas to talk to Kerbin. Comfortable on-pad delta-V is something like 7km/s with a decent launch window. Very doable in the mid-game.

Edited September 11, 2017 by regex

[MR L A]

15 hours ago, regex said:

There is no need for an RTG, you'll need, at most, a single unfolding solar panel like those in the picture to power an octo probe core. Three of them and some batteries will get your science back to Kerbin. Upgrade your tracking station to level 3 and make sure you have enough antennas to talk to Kerbin. Comfortable on-pad delta-V is something like 7km/s with a decent launch window. Very doable in the mid-game.

sort of annoys me that solar panels are still viable here =/

[regex]

26 minutes ago, MR L A said:

sort of annoys me that solar panels are still viable here =/

Welcome to the inverse square law within a toy solar system (E:) and electricity management on easy-mode.

Edited September 11, 2017 by regex

[Human Person]

The problem I have with eeloo (or any body far out) is the large time of travel to get there. I don't like doing huge timewarps, I do other missions in the meantime (Kerbal Alarm Clock is your friend). Therefore I choose very fast transfer windows and do just flyby missions. Fast transfers require more delta v and make an insertion burn even more costly.

[tater]

Eeloo is inside the orbit of Venus as a reality check.

Oh, and "yes" but with probes. I take LS, so my crew flights in career are more limited.

[Cunjo Carl]

(Johnny Cash) ♪ ♫   I've been everywhere, man! I've been everywhere.   ♬

I've gotten a Kerbal to and from Eeloo using all chemical rockets and not too much money (relative to what you make anyways). My best advice is to get lots of deltaV by using the biggest initial booster and tiniest return 'pod' possible. To make a big booster, the cheapest easy approach is to use lots of Kickbacks and Twinboars in a ratio anywhere in the ballpark of 4:1. Though my Eeloo mission was one part of a cluster ship, if you divide it out at launch it had 14 Kickbacks and 3 Twinboars.

This would leave plenty of deltaV to return in a pod, and many people would prefer this for playstyle reasons. I happened to want some extra deltaV for safety and so I could use the craft for other more elaborate missions, and it turns out you can eke a few extra km/s out of a setup where you return in a command chair. The design is simple: 1.25m heat shield with no ablator, .625m battery, .625m reaction wheel, command chair placed so kerbal points 'up'. You can spike that thing into Kerbin's atmosphere at like 5.5km/s and it'll do fine! Again, a pod would do fine too-  just an option.

 

 

Best of luck!

Edit: Pardon I don't have more pictures handy at the moment- if videos would do I could post the one including this mission.

Edited September 12, 2017 by Cunjo Carl

[Superfluous J]

I've been to Eeloo several times. Here's a quick video for my most recent trip.

Spoiler

 

 

Edited September 12, 2017 by 5thHorseman

[NSEP]

Short answer: No

Long answer: Not, yet. Something to do later.

[magnemoe]

16 hours ago, regex said:

Welcome to the inverse square law within a toy solar system (E:) and electricity management on easy-mode.

its not far outside Jool. Juno uses solar panels at Jupiter. You would need three planets outside Jool to get the Pluto effect. 

[regex]

4 hours ago, magnemoe said:

its not far outside Jool.

Inverse square law.

Quote

Juno uses solar panels at Jupiter.

It does. Inverse square law and some decent panels.

Quote

You would need three planets outside Jool to get the Pluto effect. 

You would need a planet at Pluto's effective orbit relative to Kerbol's energy output to get "the Pluto effect". Extra planets have precisely nothing to do with that.

Edited September 12, 2017 by regex

[magnemoe]

2 minutes ago, regex said:

Inverse square law.

It does. Inverse square law.

You would need a planet at Pluto's effective orbit relative to Kerbol's energy output to get "the Pluto effect". Extra planets have precisely nothing to do with that.

Jupiter is at around 5AU, Pluto has PE at 30AU or 6 times as far from sun. Eeloo passes inside Jool orbit and AP less than 1.5x Jool. 
So if solar panels has utility at Jool it must have at Eeloo too. 
To generate an Pluto effect Eeloo has to orbit far outside Jool,
you are right that extra planets is irelevant however having Eeloo being twice the distance to Jool would be a bit too much, 6 times would be just stupid without more planets. 



 

[regex]

8 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Jupiter is at around 5AU, Pluto has PE at 30AU or 6 times as far from sun. Eeloo passes inside Jool orbit and AP less than 1.5x Jool. 
So if solar panels has utility at Jool it must have at Eeloo too. 
To generate an Pluto effect Eeloo has to orbit far outside Jool,
you are right that extra planets is irelevant however having Eeloo being twice the distance to Jool would be a bit too much, 6 times would be just stupid without more planets. 

And thus solar panels, through the inverse square law and a toy solar system lacking the planets to make a Pluto analogue "seem to fit", power a probe at the furthest planet from the sun. This could be addressed through more meaningful electricity management (or more planets, I guess).

E: I guess you were just reinforcing my point, sorry for taking that as a rebuttal.

Edited September 12, 2017 by regex

[Shikashi]

I plan on building a nuclear powered mining base on eeloo soon, maybe with antimatter power beamed from jool.
I use Extraplanetary launchpads, kethane and KSP Interstellar by the way.

[mrhexed]

Thank you for this support! I will go and do it now

[Atkara]

I went to Eeloo back in 1.05 but I didn't send one craft, to plant a flag and leave. I sent infrastructure in the form of two survey probes, a miner, a surface outpost/lab and a 8-wheeled car with an assortment of experiments. A station/orbital refinery was also on it's way.

It's pretty much what I had done for Dres, Duna, Ike, Moho and the Eve/Gilly system (the latter was somewhat different, for obvious reasons, I believe)

I'm currently in the process of doing it again -not with the same zeal, but getting there.

[Geschosskopf]

On 9/10/2017 at 5:43 PM, mrhexed said:

I've been having struggles going to eeloo in career mode. could anyone send pictures of their voyage to eeloo?

The last time I went to Eeloo in a career game, I was using OPM.  In that setting, Eeloo is a moon of the Saturn-analog Sarnus, which is about twice as far from the sun as Jool, meaning Eeloo was also about twice as far away as in stock.  But that just meant I needed a bigger transfer stage to hold the necessary dV.  As far as flying there goes, it wasn't any different that going to Duna, except it took 8 years.

Getting from Kerbin to any other planet is all the same no matter where you're going.   You just need 2 things:

1. A ship design with enough dV for the transfer burn
2. Doing the transfer burn at the appropriate transfer window

To get #1, you need to consult the dV map so you know how much dV you need, and then you either need to be good at calculating a KSP rocket's dV on paper OR use a mod like MJ or KER to do the calculations for you.

To get #2, you either need to know how to calculate when transfer windows happen, or use a mod like MJ to tell you and allow you to create burn nodes at the appropriate time in the future, or one of the various mods in between that are a mix of DIY and calculator.

In the stock system, because Eeloo has a noticeable inclination relative to Kerbin, however, and also in an eccentric orbit, not all transfer windows to it are created equal---the dV required varies depending on where Eeloo is in its orbit.  If you leave Kerbin so you arrive when Eeloo is at or near its AN or DN, then you don't have to spend much if anything on changing your plane.  If Eeloo is inside Jool's orbit when you get there, then you don't have to spend as much fuel raising your Ap out to meet it, but then the plane change is usually way more expensive than what you save on raising your Ap.

But understand that this works both ways.  If you design the ship with tight margins, so that it can only get to Eeloo and back when Eeloo is at or near its AN or DN, then you can't stay at Eeloo too long.  Otherwise, it will move too far above or below the ecliptic for you to get home, and you'll have to wait YEARS for it to do 1/2 an orbit and move to it's other node.  There's not much to see at Eeloo, however, so getting stuck there usually isn't a worry---you can see everything and leave before the duration of your stay becomes a problem.

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

I've got a probe in a polar orbit there with a RA-100 antenna, both scanner types and every science experiment that can be done repeatedly in orbit without a scientist there to reset it. I've also built a mining outpost, rover and orbital fuel depot that I've verified can reach Eeloo but which I haven't launched yet due to my interplanetary tugs being needed elsewhere (I should be getting a couple of them back soon, though, so maybe next transfer window.) The science ship that's currently making a pitstop at Gilly on its way back from Moho is also capable of reaching Eeloo, so that'll let me make a manned landing.

Eeloo is pretty easy to get to, all things considered. Its dV requirements are less than what you'd need to get to Moho, although travel times are significantly longer. Solar panels also don't work too well out there, but an RTG or two can get around that problem nicely.

[The Aziz]

On 11.09.2017 at 2:47 AM, regex said:

There is no need for an RTG, you'll need, at most, a single unfolding solar panel like those in the picture to power an octo probe core. 

Unless one is stupid enough to use ion propulsion. 

 

3 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

The last time I went to Eeloo in a career game, I was using OPM.  In that setting, Eeloo is a moon of the Saturn-analog Sarnus, which is about twice as far from the sun as Jool, meaning Eeloo was also about twice as far away as in stock.  But that just meant I needed a bigger transfer stage to hold the necessary dV.  As far as flying there goes, it wasn't any different that going to Duna, except it took 8 years.

Or use some gravity assists. Direct shot to Sarnus was supposed to need about 4km/s, according to TWP, but using Jool I dropped it to little less than 3k, increasing travel time only by two years. 

Also, that far, the electricity and fuel is not that big of a problem. It's the comm network. You'll need at least one DSR to work around Sarnus, or just long-range antenna, I don't know.

 

Aaand @topic, I've been to Eeloo, twice. Once in orbit, once on the surface. Nothing to look at, really.

[mrhexed]

1 hour ago, The Aziz said:

Unless one is stupid enough to use ion propulsion. 

 

Or use some gravity assists. Direct shot to Sarnus was supposed to need about 4km/s, according to TWP, but using Jool I dropped it to little less than 3k, increasing travel time only by two years. 

Also, that far, the electricity and fuel is not that big of a problem. It's the comm network. You'll need at least one DSR to work around Sarnus, or just long-range antenna, I don't know.

 

Aaand @topic, I've been to Eeloo, twice. Once in orbit, once on the surface. Nothing to look at, really.

but ion engines are really efficient and I'm quite good at bringing enough electricity, But I also like fuel cells

[The Aziz]

6 minutes ago, mrhexed said:

but ion engines are really efficient and I'm quite good at bringing enough electricity, But I also like fuel cells

Once I went ion to Jool. Two gigantor panels. Had to burn at 23% throttle to keep the electricity from dropping. And I failed like half of the maneuvers because they happened to be on the dark side, so no solar power.

[mrhexed]

Just now, The Aziz said:

Once I went ion to Jool. Two gigantor panels. Had to burn at 23% throttle to keep the electricity from dropping. And I failed like half of the maneuvers because they happened to be on the dark side, so no solar power.

I use them for inner probes

[The Aziz]

13 minutes ago, mrhexed said:

I use them for inner probes

And that's good and wise. One of my rules is: never use ion + solar further than Dres.

Aaaand like two days ago I broke the rule and went again for Jool. Eh.

[mrhexed]

24 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

And that's good and wise. One of my rules is: never use ion + solar further than Dres.

Aaaand like two days ago I broke the rule and went again for Jool. Eh.

I only use ion engines when I need to maneuver to another planet

jool is a fine planet to maneuver to when using ion engines. It's easy to use when using a probe, but not when you're using manned craft

[regex]

6 hours ago, The Aziz said:

Unless one is stupid enough to use ion propulsion. 

Ion propulsion is generally useless in stock KSP because delta-V and mass on orbit are so easy to come by, you don't have to worry about storing your fuels, and it's pretty cheap to move around the system to begin with. It's an interesting toy but I'd put an Ant (or whatever the hell we're naming engines now) with a couple of fuel tanks under my probe pretty much any day of the week.

E: So, yeah, if one is stupid enough.

Edited September 20, 2017 by regex