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Bob Likes Ike


Snark

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"Wait... where's Bob?"
"Didn't you check on him?"
"Hey, I thought YOU checked on him!"

BobLikesIke_start.png

The words echoed ominously through the crew cabin of Duna I, the first crewed mission to the red planet.  After an initial stop on Ike, the crew prepared to descend to the surface of Duna itself.  Jeb, Bill, and Val strapped into the command pod, while Bob took a nap in the crew module.

...Or so they thought.  Turns out he was so excited he just had to step out and get just one more rock sample, unbeknownst to his crewmates, who took off and left him behind as they landed on Duna.

Now they're in a pickle.  They don't have enough dV to land on Ike again and then go home.  Somehow... Bob has to get to them, without a ship, using only his EVA thrusters.  He's got limited air in his suit, so there's no time to lose!

Your mission:  Bring Bob to the Duna I, board it, and get them all safely to low Duna orbit in preparation for the trip home.

BobLikesIke_banner.png

 

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Notes

  • Starting conditions
    • The mission begins with Bob on Ike, while the Duna I is parked on Duna's surface.
    • Duna I only has enough fuel to get to orbit-- not to land on Ike again.
    • Bob has enough EVA propellant that he can fly himself from Ike's surface to Duna's.
  • Objectives
    • Bob has to board Duna I within 4 hours of mission start, or he runs out of air and you fail.
    • After boarding, you need to get Duna I to low Duna orbit with at least 140 units of fuel remaining.
  • Strategy
    • It's a kind of "reentry golf":  the challenge is to eject from Ike so that you land on Duna reasonably close to Duna I.
    • Your EVA chute gives you a few kilometers of maneuvering room, once you hit atmosphere.
    • If you end up landing a bit too far to walk... there's a rover parked next to Duna I, which you can use to go retrieve Bob.
  • Scoring
    • None.  The mission's a pass/fail.  Either you make it, or you don't.
    • Would have loved to add bonus scores for various things (e.g. extra points if you land close to Duna I, penalty if you use the rover, etc.), except that the mission builder has virtually no nodes available for tracking an EVA kerbal's actions.  "Board vessel" is basically all they have.  :/

 

Achievements

(These are informal, not actually modeled as a score in-game because the mission builder doesn't have the right nodes for it.  Just my suggestions for things to challenge yourself with.  Sorry, due to lack of artistic talent I don't have any "badges" to offer.)

  • Get It Done, Level 1:  Just complete the mission successfully.
  • Get It Done, Level 2:  Complete the mission without needing to use the rover (i.e. land close enough that you can walk to the ship before time runs out).
  • Get It Done, Level 3:  Land within 100 meters of Duna I.
  • Hole in One:  Glide down and grab on to the Duna I ladder without actually touching the ground.
    • I've never managed this myself yet, so I don't actually know that it's possible.  It might not be; for one thing, stall speed for an EVA parachute at Duna I is around 10 m/s, which I expect will be... problematic.  If you do manage to pull it off, though, please let us know!  Bragging rights to the first person who manages it.  :)
  • Orbital Rendezvous:  Instead of sending Bob down to the surface, send him into low Duna orbit.  Then launch Duna I to rendezvous with him there.
    • I've never done this myself, but I believe it to be possible.  It'll be very tricky, because you have very little propellant left by the time you get to Duna, meaning that you'd need to aerobrake just right.  And you'd better rendezvous on the first pass, because you'll be in danger of passing the four-hour time limit.  If you pull this off, please let us know!  Bragging rights to the first person who manages it.  :)
Edited by Snark
Achievements added
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Sounds like a nice mission :)

1 hour ago, Snark said:

Would have loved to add bonus scores for various things (e.g. extra points if you land close to Duna I, penalty if you use the rover, etc.), except that the mission builder has virtually no nodes available for tracking an EVA kerbal's actions.  "Board vessel" is basically all they have.  :/

The one node I found that can take a kerbal or a vessel as parameter is the test distance node : 

Spoiler


VUj7SES.png

But to really works you'll need a way to test if the kerbal has landed prior to check the distance, otherwise the Test Distance could return true when flying over it.

 

 

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40 minutes ago, Li0n said:

But to really works you'll need a way to test if the kerbal has landed prior to check the distance

^ Ding ding ding ding ding.  :mad:

Testing anything (distance, or anything else) is only useful in the mission editor if you can tie it to some event, such as "landing" or whatever.  And there are basically no events available for EVA kerbals, other than "board vessel".  At all.

Which means if you're making a mission that's entirely EVA-centered (such as this one)... there's basically nothing you can do, scoring or otherwise, other than "board vessel".  For example, you can check how close a vessel lands to a kerbal... but not the other way around.  Grrrr.

Oh well.  One can only hope they'll add nodes in a future update (or modify existing ones) to make them usable by EVA kerbals, not just "vessels".

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19 minutes ago, Snark said:

Oh well.  One can only hope they'll add nodes in a future update (or modify existing ones) to make them usable by EVA kerbals, not just "vessels".

If by they you mean the modding community I'm sure it comes in no times :)

I completely agree with the lacks of nodes, not just for Kerbal. The function I want most is the ability to test velocity between two vessel (testing a rendez-vous, without docking).

Spoiler

0ZpB9vh.png

This is my, untested, attempt. It don't test the velocity between ships, just their distance. (I wish I could just write all that in C# :D, but that will be less fun)

 

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1 hour ago, HeliosPh0enix said:

Would it be possible to return Duna 1 to Duna orbit and do an orbital rendezvous with Bob, or does he not have enough dv to circularize at Duna?

My guess is "maybe, but it would be pretty tricky".

I've done the mission a few times, but getting Bob to Ike escape takes like 90% of his propellant; he's left with 0.5 units or less, meaning he has very little dV remaining, so there's no way for him to use the thruster to circularize in low Duna orbit.

However... if you could aerobrake him into LDO (one pass dipping into atmosphere, just the right amount to lower his Ap to something low, then do a tiny :prograde: "burn" at Ap to circularize), perhaps you could pull it off.  But you'd really have to nail the aerobraking exactly right, because by the time you hit Duna atmosphere, you've got probably less than 50 m/s of dV left with which to circularize.

I've never actually done it this way myself, so bragging rights to the first person who pulls it off.  :)  My guess would be that you'd first want to circularize Bob, then launch Duna I to intercept.

Just bear in mind that you only have 4 hours from mission start until Bob's air runs out, and it takes nearly 3 hours until he hits atmosphere the first time, so if you're going to do that, you'd better intercept him on the first pass.

1 hour ago, mor128 said:

Really fun mission! Managed to land 800m away.

Well done!  :)

The first several times I tested out the mission, I always seemed to end up falling straight down at about 40-50 km from Duna I.  Setting the EVA chute to open at the highest possible altitude (5000 m), and settling into an efficient glide, I could then glide about 25km or so towards Duna I before landing, meaning that I'd have to schlep the rover all the time.

After a bit of practice, I finally got reasonably adept at inserting on Duna within 25 km of Duna I, which means I could glide right to the ship.  Just for bragging rights, I wanted to see if I could actually glide right to Duna I itself and grab on to the ladder without touching dirt.  I haven't quite managed that yet, but I have managed to land within just a few meters of the ladder.

So, more bragging rights to the first person who manages to glide down and grab on to Duna I's ladder without actually landing on the ground first.  :)

(I don't have any "badges" to offer, sorry-- I've got zero artistic skills.)

 

...Hey, that gives me an idea.  Should codify these "achievements" in the OP.  There, done.  Added them to the OP, gave 'em names.  Sorry that I can't actually model them inside the mission itself (since there aren't the necessary nodes I'd need); they're just an informal thing to challenge yourself with.

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Yay! Man, I really wanted to catch the ladder on my way down, but the craft were floating 200m in the air on approach, and suddenly popped down when I got close so I wound up overshooting. Also, I learned it's a bad idea to launch on Duna with all your solar panels and antenna out :rolleyes:. Well, the more you know, right? Made it in one piece, thanks for the mission! Also, cool looking fuel pods on the craft.

image.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

Good mission, very challenging. After numerous attempts and trial and error, ended up making the landing perfect (landed right next to the rover).

One thing I noticed is that the mission fails if you have less than 150 units of fuel, even though the text says you need 140 units of fuel.

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