Kerpollo - A Complete Science Mode Run In 9 Acts

[Jacke]

5 minutes ago, GRS said:

Sweet...!!!

Currently trying to get back from literally the riskiest Mohollo ever done (at least for me).

Good for you!  I've never gone Interplanetary except for few short jaunts outside Kerbin SOI.  And that was back in KSP 0.23 and 0.23.5....  Only landed unkerballed on Mun and Minmus.  So to me, Moho is right out!

 

[zanie420]

2 hours ago, Jacke said:

Kerpollo including the Outer Planets Mod?  Adding one more launch per planet similar to the others? 

or/and perhaps the Galileo Planet pack? @5thHorseman, would you consider that a separate challenge altogether, or a subset of the main challenge? What are your thought on extending the challenge?

[Jacke]

25 minutes ago, zanie420 said:

or/and perhaps the Galileo Planet pack? @5thHorseman, would you consider that a separate challenge altogether, or a subset of the main challenge? What are your thought on extending the challenge?

Galileo's Planet Pack provides a radically different solar system.  Possible.

If just extending the stock system with the Outer Planets Mod isn't enough for you, I suggest trying out the Snarkiverse, which rearranges the stock system.  Snarkiverse can even add in the Outer Planets Mod as well.

 

[Superfluous J]

30 minutes ago, zanie420 said:

or/and perhaps the Galileo Planet pack? @5thHorseman, would you consider that a separate challenge altogether, or a subset of the main challenge? What are your thought on extending the challenge?

I wholeheartedly encourage it but won't make separate categories or anything. Seems to me it's perfectly suited for the rogues' gallery.

[GRS]

*sigh*

Third iteration of Mohollo...

First made 47 experiments, second made 64, Third should make over 70 (Eve and near Kerbol experiments counts)

Science Target : 2200 Science

Edited March 8, 2019 by GRS

[FloppyRocket]

Eelollo Mission completed.

Tech tree at the start of the mission:

 

Ship Eelollo-A on the launch pad. Observe the amusing and random use of nose cones. Also, those with X-ray vision can observe that I forgot to put a temperature sensor on the lander. A lost science opportunity.

Yes, it appears that I only fly at night. I have no idea why.

 

Jeb on the Eeloo surface, Observe those artistically placed fuel tanks. They play a role in the following image.

 

In Eeloo orbit after ascent. Notice the 0.4 m  gap between the lander and orbiter? That's due to an interference problem caused by the tanks which was not evident during construction or un-docking. The tanks prevented full docking, but the magnetic docking force was strong enough to hold the ships in close proximity. Jeb collected his science data and EVA's to the orbiter, and it was Val's idea to take inspiration from Neal Armstrong on Gemini VIII, and separate the two craft by spinning the ships until the lander separated.

 

 

Science return after landing and recovery.

 

Kerbin re-entry went smoother than on Drespollo - only one revert was needed. The 2,600 m/s of dv remaining was burned off retrograde two minutes before re-entry, and a deep dive into the atmosphere racked up some big G-forces, but only used about 200 ablator. By an unplanned circumstance, landing was 80km from the Drespollo landing site in the grasslands.

Next up - bigger rockets, for the more complicated missions.

 

 

[Jacke]

39 minutes ago, FloppyRocket said:

...it was Val's idea to take inspiration from Neal Armstrong on Gemini VIII, and separate the two craft by spinning the ships until the lander separated.

A good solution.  But for Gemini 8, that wasn't Neil Armstrong's intent, nor were the Gemini and Agena docking target separated by spinning.

After docking with the Agena, an RCS jet on Gemini stayed active due to an electrical short and the docked craft started rotating.  Armstrong kept stopping the spin by manual orbital RCS on Gemini but the spin kept coming back.  While they did think the problem was initially on the Agena, Armstrong noted the drop in orbital RCS propellant showing the fault lay with the Gemini.  Concerned about something else going wrong with the still near-fully fueled Agena, he decided to undock.  And by the usual method of unlocking and using the orbital RCS to pull away from the Agena.  Unfortunately, that made things worse as now the leaking RCS had a smaller moment of inertia to spin faster.  Final solution--done by Neil while spinning close to 300°/s--was to kill the orbital RCS and then activating and using the reentry RCS system to despin.  Now they had only 25% of reentry RCS and if it was activated, the flight had to be aborted ASAP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_8#Emergency

[GRS]

@FloppyRocket

Sweet !!! But i think you should bother bringing more Science hardwares to surface, you should be able to pull over 3000 Science if you did so...(Up there, my Eeloollo pulled out like 1804,7 Science or so with Half gains)

Meanwhile...in Tengen Toppa Aerospace...Simone and his friends are staying in an eccentric Moho orbit with Bob in a stable Polar orbit around Moho, The Nuclear Mothership has around 7000 m/s in it, so i believe i should be able to pull it off, with some near Kerbol Science (Delta v improvement : around 2000 m/s), Bob can't set maneuvers because he's not certified as a Pilot, its the first part that uses Science Automation, by using Action Groups. (At least 5 Kerbals are involved each mission)

Again @FloppyRocket, where next ???

Edited March 8, 2019 by GRS

[Superfluous J]

3 hours ago, FloppyRocket said:

In Eeloo orbit after ascent. Notice the 0.4 m  gap between the lander and orbiter? That's due to an interference problem caused by the tanks which was not evident during construction or un-docking. The tanks prevented full docking, but the magnetic docking force was strong enough to hold the ships in close proximity.

Okay I looked at the picture really close (and am a nice guy) and will let it slide. In the physical world those two ships would dock just fine.

And regarding the lack of nosecones, I do that sometimes too on huge asparagus rockets, where I drop the first stage after only a few hundred m/s of Dv. It's not like you're fighting too much drag going 200 m/s 1km up.

[FloppyRocket]

12 hours ago, Jacke said:

A good solution.  But for Gemini 8, that wasn't Neil Armstrong's intent, nor were the Gemini and Agena docking target separated by spinning.

After docking with the Agena, an RCS jet on Gemini stayed active due to an electrical short and the docked craft started rotating.  Armstrong kept stopping the spin by manual orbital RCS on Gemini but the spin kept coming back.  While they did think the problem was initially on the Agena, Armstrong noted the drop in orbital RCS propellant showing the fault lay with the Gemini.  Concerned about something else going wrong with the still near-fully fueled Agena, he decided to undock.  And by the usual method of unlocking and using the orbital RCS to pull away from the Agena.  Unfortunately, that made things worse as now the leaking RCS had a smaller moment of inertia to spin faster.  Final solution--done by Neil while spinning close to 300°/s--was to kill the orbital RCS and then activating and using the reentry RCS system to despin.  Now they had only 25% of reentry RCS and if it was activated, the flight had to be aborted ASAP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_8#Emergency

I'm aware of the Gemini VII situation, that's why I said "take inspiration from", rather than "use Neil's strategy".

• Neil was trying to save his butt and his mission.
• Val was just trying to get rid of some magnetically sticky equipment.

[FloppyRocket]

9 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Okay I looked at the picture really close (and am a nice guy) and will let it slide. In the physical world those two ships would dock just fine.

And regarding the lack of nosecones, I do that sometimes too on huge asparagus rockets, where I drop the first stage after only a few hundred m/s of Dv. It's not like you're fighting too much drag going 200 m/s 1km up.

Thanks. At the time I thought I remembered that EVA between ships was allowed, but upon further review I can't find that in the challenge rules.

I have a quick-save from the docking maneuver, if you like I can go back and see if I can jam the ships together by using a higher approach velocity. Given the tanks are on top of the lander, I was being a little careful about the approach speed - and it took a few minutes before I figured out what was happening.

Once I got them magnetically soft-docked, I wasn't able to force a hard-dock just using the lander engine power. I also used ASDW fiddling to try and wiggle the ships together. I did not try using the orbiter main engine, because I didn't want to touch the delta-v budget.

A couple of observations about that stuck magnetic docking. I used a launch re-vert to test undocking in LKO, but I didn't think to test docking. I noticed that when undocking, the lander shot-off at a brisk pace, rather than just the usual gentle nudge. I thought that was odd  but ignored it. Ultimately I think that was some mild kraken-like behavior due to the tank interference.

Re: the nosecones. Turns out that I hauled most of the asparagus stages all the way to LKO, so probably a couple more cones would have been useful.

So far, on these outer planet missions, I've been consistently over-estimating how much delta-v is needed to get back. And I'm getting a sore mouse-knuckle from messing with the maneuver node adjustments trying to get planetary encounters.

10 hours ago, GRS said:

@FloppyRocket

Sweet !!! But i think you should bother bringing more Science hardwares to surface, you should be able to pull over 3000 Science if you did so...(Up there, my Eeloollo pulled out like 1804,7 Science or so with Half gains)

Meanwhile...in Tengen Toppa Aerospace...Simone and his friends are staying in an eccentric Moho orbit with Bob in a stable Polar orbit around Moho, The Nuclear Mothership has around 7000 m/s in it, so i believe i should be able to pull it off, with some near Kerbol Science (Delta v improvement : around 2000 m/s), Bob can't set maneuvers because he's not certified as a Pilot, its the first part that uses Science Automation, by using Action Groups. (At least 5 Kerbals are involved each mission)

Again @FloppyRocket, where next ???

I only have three science instruments unlocked - temperature, barometer, and mystery-goo. And on the Eelollo mission I only remembered to install two of them.

Haven't decided on what mission to tackle next. I need to look at the dv requirements and what booster parts I have unlocked, and get more practice at building big rockets.

 

Edited March 8, 2019 by FloppyRocket

[Superfluous J]

3 hours ago, FloppyRocket said:

I have a quick-save from the docking maneuver, if you like I can go back and see if I can jam the ships together by using a higher approach velocity. Given the tanks are on top of the lander, I was being a little careful about the approach speed - and it took a few minutes before I figured out what was happening.

Naaw. If you want to try it I'd be curious to know if it worked, but imo that ship *should have* docked and you went through all the actions to make it dock, so I'm comfortable okaying it.

[GRS]

@5thHorseman

Mohollo

Mohollo Mk3...

Moho Capture...

Landing, Near MOHOLE !!!

Docking...

Low Kerbol Science.

Re-entry.

Science Gai-

WHAT !!! THAT MANY !!! I DON'T EVEN EXPECT THAT MANY !!!

Now i have the Trump Card to deal with Eve (Vectors)...

-PROGRESS-

Kerpollo (64.7 Science Points)

Munpollo (277 Science Points)

Minpollo (570.2 Science Points)

Dunpollo (1881 Science Points)

Eeloollo (1804.8 Science Points)

Mohollo (2780.6 Science Points)

Edited June 28, 2019 by GRS

[Superfluous J]

12 minutes ago, GRS said:

WHAT !!! THAT MANY !!! I DON'T EVEN EXPECT THAT MANY !!!

Many sciences were gained that day.

[GRS]

On 3/9/2019 at 11:10 AM, 5thHorseman said:

Many sciences were gained that day.

Yes, i guess, Mark 3 pulled overally 75 Science experiments, 30-32 of them relates to Moho, others are from Eve, and Kerbin and also Low Kerbol Science, i dipped slightly to Eve's atmo and Kerbin's.

@VQkr, what are you doing now ??? (You should talk a bit more often here...)

@Johnster_Space_Program, maybe a status report of your Dunpollo...?

@FloppyRocket, if you are to do a Mohollo, i suggest you aim for Moho's inclination intersection that's closer to Kerbol (Sun), you'll need "a bit" more Delta v to counter, but like 1000 m/s or less could be saved for Moho capture. (Yet i suggest Dunpollo)

Edited March 11, 2019 by GRS

[Johnster_Space_Program]

12 hours ago, GRS said:

@Johnster_Space_Program, maybe a status report of your Dunpollo...?

Well as for Dunpollo, its been put on hold for some time since im busy doing a career of RSS/RO. Last month I did complete it off camera but when recording me completing it I messed up the last part and wasn't able to get back to kerbin. By the end of this month I should be able to finish it once and for all. Then I can worry about drespollo.

[FloppyRocket]

@GRS,

Planning the Mohollo mission now.

 

[GRS]

K, @Johnster_Space_Program and @FloppyRocket, good luck, i can't play KSP today because i don't want to, i'll do it after Monday and Tuesday, afterwards, i have a 1 week holiday post Tuesday . (Maybe a bit Science Spamming, because...Gravioli Gravioli, I'm not going without Scanning Gravioli)

Edited March 10, 2019 by GRS

[GRS]

This time, i'll need Jeb to help Bob for Eve Landing, but better Spam some Science before it.

[FloppyRocket]

On 3/9/2019 at 3:17 PM, FloppyRocket said:

@GRS,

Planning the Mohollo mission now.

 

Status update: I'm currently stuck in the VAB because I can't get the fuel flow working correctly on this 3-section asparagus staged rocket.  I posted a "need help" thread in the "Tutorials and Gameplay" forum area.

[GRS]

Evepollo = Purrpollo (Spoiling so you won't get shocked)

Spamming Science turned to be not as easy as i thought (mostly from me being Garbage at Rover controllin)

[GRS]

Purrpollo now...

This thing is really hard to control, maybe the toughest one to deal with of all Kerpollo counterparts i have to face.

[FloppyRocket]

Mohollo mission update:

Cannot figure out how to get a Moho encounter from low Kerbin orbit. Dratted frustrating.

Edited March 14, 2019 by FloppyRocket

[GRS]

2 minutes ago, FloppyRocket said:

Mohollo mission update:

Cannot figure out how to get a Moho encounter from low Kerbin orbit. Dratted frustrating.

TWR ???

[FloppyRocket]

11 hours ago, GRS said:

TWR ???

TWR doesn't matter when you're simply unable to use maneuver nodes to find a Moho encounter.