2G Career

[Pds314]

I might have to try this. Not too interested in the goal of "collect as much science as possible" though. "Go to Duna" or "Go to Laythe" or "Do a Jool 5" might be more interesting goals.

As an aside, doesn't this cause really weird results for planetary motion? I feel like you could do some really strange free energy machines and gravity assists off the same body multiple times and such because of the fact that planets still orbit at their normal speed?

Edited June 17, 2020 by Pds314

[ralanboyle]

15 hours ago, bayesian_acolyte said:

I made a table of interplanetary phase angles for 2G. Standard disclaimer, these assume no inclination or eccentricity and are only partially tested. See here if you aren't sure how to use this info.

Thanks for this. I was just going to guess but this'll speed things up. 

[dvader]

2 hours ago, Pds314 said:

I might have to try this. Not too interested in the goal of "collect as much science as possible" though. "Go to Duna" or "Go to Laythe" or "Do a Jool 5" might be more interesting goals.

I just picked a couple of personal "goals" and collected science along the way. The only annoying thing was a tiny bit of contract mining to get enough cash to do it. I just went for Jool moon flybys which was a bit painful but also fun. It's like being a newbie again when all the rough estimates of how much maneuvers should cost are wrong. I'm currently trying to get a return to Kerbin intercept but I only have 300 m/s left so it has to be very good and slingshots won't do because of the 2g messing up maneuver node planning.

2 hours ago, Pds314 said:

As an aside, doesn't this cause really weird results for planetary motion? I feel like you could do some really strange free energy machines and gravity assists off the same body multiple times and such because of the fact that planets still orbit at their normal speed?

That's an interesting bonus goal. What's the worst/best abuse of 2g you can find? I will give it some thought but it isn't really obvious to me right now. Slingshots are problematic anyway since you can't plan them. It's like playing in caveman mode without maneuver nodes.

 

[dvader]

Here's part two. Mostly going to Minmus and then testing a big Jool rocket.

https://imgur.com/a/jjnTVmh

This rocket took a test run to Minmus. I don't want any surprises when going to Jool. Who needs 5m parts?

 

With a big heat shield and a small return craft, I can survive reentry speeds of about 7 km/s. That should be enough for Jool (I hope).

The Jool trip is coming soon (I just have to get a better Kerbin encounter...)

[dvader]

Jool and flyby of all moons is finished.

I wasn't careful enough when setting up the Jool capture so getting into orbit cost a lot more than expected. I *may*  have benefited from some 1G versus 2G weirdness during Laythe intercept. As can be seen from the at about 08:00, it was rather close to periapsis and I *think* the orbital energy should not have changed as much as it did. A quick and rough calculation suggests it changed the orbit by about 1500 dV which just seems a bit much but I am not sure. There was also another weird event when the orbit suddenly changed when the ship was close to another moon and about to touch the SoI (but no indication that it did).

I had a very small fuel margin for the return to Kerbin and was a bit sloppy with the setup the first time. After redoing it with a lot more care, it worked well.

The trip gave 7000 science which wasn't enough to finish the tech tree so Eve is next.

Here's some pictures:

https://imgur.com/a/sdZVfkA

And a video!

06:28 Jool Atmosphere
08:13 Laythe Flyby
10:30 Vall Flyby
13:20 Tylo Flyby
18:22 Bop Flyby
21:40 Pol Landing
29:00 Return to Kerbin

 

 

[ralanboyle]

Part 2. Mun and Minmus.

 

[dvader]

And I'm done! Final part 4 here:

https://imgur.com/a/16kycmk

There was quite a bit of mission creep during planning. I had a sufficient trip planned to Eves upper atmo and Gilly but then the science department said it was such a shame not to land on Eve and get measurements from the surface. So, I designed a simple Eve drop down lander. But then the marketing department said it would be sooo much better publicity if we could fly around a bit instead. So, I made a small plane. But then engineering said it would be really great if we could use those new electric engines and show that propellers can be used in space... So, in the end I built an electric Eve science plane. I was investigating a VTOL but decided the line had to be drawn somewhere.

Eve was surprisingly easy to fly around, even in 2G. I had to redo the whole landing and about 1h worth of flying when I realised I had not switched on 2G yet but that wasn't Eves fault... Flying on Eve wasn't really necessary but it was fun. When finishing the tech tree, I had about 5000 science left which was about as much as I got from Eve (I think).

There was a rather nasty bug/side effect when returning to Kerbin. I didn't enter the SoI "normally" but the trajectory was pointing straight out and I was way past periapsis, exiting twice and reentering the SoI again. Fortunately I had enough fuel to burn so the next time I hit the SoI I just spent 2000 dV to get into orbit.

Flying on Eve here.

 

[tosha]

NVM, seems to be 13, judging from album. Scoring now

Edited June 23, 2020 by tosha
brain fart

[tosha]

and, @dvader is the first to complete the challenge, with 2,250 points, netting the Osmium Medal!

Points breakdown:

1000 - Completed Challenge

750 - Jool 5

500 - 16 Launches to complete

 

Here is your badge:

Edited June 24, 2020 by tosha

[dvader]

Sorry, I forgot about the number of launches. I checked the save file and there were 16 launches. I launched a couple of rockets multiple times without changing the name. The highest launchID is 16 anyway.

[tosha]

ok, will modify score accordingly, still osmium medal.

Congrats!

[ralanboyle]

Alright, I've finished. When I set out I expected this to be tough because of the size of the ships needed to fight gravity. As it turned out, it was tough because of the size ships needed to overcome the inefficiencies in orbital transfers... Those transfers are goofy! 

I've edited the experience into 4 videos.  

I did it in 19 Launches, 17 are documented. I left out a tourist trip to Duna and one to Mun because they were identical to the ones in the videos and nobody has time for that. Also, the last launch isn't needed but I wanted to build and SSTO. I think my total is 2500. 

Part 1: Start Up https://youtu.be/-e2du9u4pxY

Part 2: Mun/ Minmus https://youtu.be/GyyNwHjD0hg

Part 3: Mun/ Minmus/ Duna/ Ike  https://youtu.be/nln0rphaVXY

Part 4: Duna/ Ike/ Eve/ Gilly/ Jool 5/ SSTO https://youtu.be/1pegMQ7plRQ

 

[tosha]

1 hour ago, ralanboyle said:

Alright, I've finished. When I set out I expected this to be tough because of the size of the ships needed to fight gravity. As it turned out, it was tough because of the size ships needed to overcome the inefficiencies in orbital transfers... Those transfers are goofy! 

I've edited the experience into 4 videos.  

I did it in 19 Launches, 17 are documented. I left out a tourist trip to Duna and one to Mun because they were identical to the ones in the videos and nobody has time for that. Also, the last launch isn't needed but I wanted to build and SSTO. I think my total is 2500. 

Part 1: Start Up https://youtu.be/-e2du9u4pxY

Part 2: Mun/ Minmus https://youtu.be/GyyNwHjD0hg

Part 3: Mun/ Minmus/ Duna/ Ike  https://youtu.be/nln0rphaVXY

Part 4: Duna/ Ike/ Eve/ Gilly/ Jool 5/ SSTO https://youtu.be/1pegMQ7plRQ

 

2.5k sounds right! congrats on second win and current highscore!

Badge if you wish is obtainable from the imgur link on the front page.

[ralanboyle]

2 hours ago, tosha said:

2.5k sounds right! congrats on second win and current highscore!

Badge if you wish is obtainable from the imgur link on the front page.

I have to say, I hope more people try this challenge. It is harder than I expected. KSP has taught me a lot about orbital mechanics and this takes it to a whole new level, because the whole "Bodies on Rails" thing really messes with physics! 

[dvader]

On 6/25/2020 at 11:59 AM, ralanboyle said:

I have to say, I hope more people try this challenge. It is harder than I expected. KSP has taught me a lot about orbital mechanics and this takes it to a whole new level, because the whole "Bodies on Rails" thing really messes with physics! 

I agree. It was both more fun and harder than expected. Getting "moar boosters" for those chubby but powerful launches was fun challenge. The buggy SoI things were annoying but you just have to bring some extra fuel to handle all those unforeseen circumstances.

@ralanboyle I noticed you managed to actually use the maneuver node planning thing several times to get intercepts (but not always). Did you notice some pattern to when it works or when it doesn't? I just gave up and ignored them.

[ralanboyle]

2 hours ago, dvader said:

 

@ralanboyle I noticed you managed to actually use the maneuver node planning thing several times to get intercepts (but not always). Did you notice some pattern to when it works or when it doesn't? I just gave up and ignored them.

I think the math is off by some % because it is always wrong but the error increase with distance. So it generally worked better with closer transfers to bodies with bigger gravity wells. So Mun worked okay, but Minmus did not.  Also, gravity wells are bigger so it actually takes less DV than usual to orbit once you do intercept. 

[tosha]

Challenge updated with new sub challenges and badges (soon)

[Random Annoying Guy]

I thought this was about control delay (like slow 2g internet)

[bayesian_acolyte]

I've completed the challenge on the 3rd launch by landing on the Jool 5 plus Eeloo and Dres.

~20 image report:

Spoiler

~100 image report: https://imgur.com/a/nsUdX59

I've thought about doing extra missions for more points but decided to just post what I've got so far. Hopefully it's alright if I extend on this career later.

[tosha]

6 minutes ago, bayesian_acolyte said:

I've completed the challenge on the 3rd launch by landing on the Jool 5 plus Eeloo and Dres.

~20 image report:

  Reveal hidden contents

~100 image report: https://imgur.com/a/nsUdX59

I've thought about doing extra missions for more points but decided to just post what I've got so far. Hopefully it's alright if I extend on this career later.

congrats!

It is perfectly fine to continue after winning to do challenges, and score will be updated accordingly.

3 Launches is only one more than the unbeatable world record on normal gravity, many kudos on that.

Badge may be got at the front page if you wish.

Scoring now

Done scoring, 4.6k points, osmium medal. Good job!