The Great Migration

RoninFrog · September 26, 2020

Last touchups in Duna SOI:

Spoiler

The final relay captures at Duna:

It originally was in an equatorial orbit, but I did a 90° plane change so Ike will be in the way less.

The probe tankers have docked to the R&D B&B after a couple orbits.

Next round of payload designs:

Spoiler

After several hours of designing, I have the next transfer planned out. Here is the first payload I will be launching. The top is essentially a glorified tanker, with two Jumbo-64's and two Wolfhounds. It will be a 2 kerbal extension for the Kronos as well as tripling the TWR of the final Duna-bound craft. The bottom is a big bundle of basic rovers. There are sixteen rovers, each with four seats. That should be enough to get me the "Basic Rover" achievement for up to 128 kerbals on Duna (I don't plan on sending more than that).

The second payload is a stubby little thing, with two stabilizers for the base, a huge LS tank, and a 5 kerbal base segment attatched.

The third payload contains the Narrow Band Scanner and reusable parachute pack I was thinking about bringing, as well as a lab for the "Deep Space Laboratory" achievement and a large tanker probe. I was slightly under the mass limit, so I threw some science equipment into a cargo bay, because what else am I gonna use the lab for?

The fourth (and final) payload is where the real mission value starts to get going. In addition to the Jumbo-64 tank, this overgrown base segment can hold 23 kerbals.

Once the payloads are fully assembled, they'll form a 40 kerbal, 94 meter long, 342 ton behemoth with way more dV than I actually need. I think this is the highest pert count I've ever had on one of my crafts.

Tanker and Basic Rovers launch:

Spoiler

At Year 4, Day 202, it's time to launch a payload. I find it funny that this tiny rocket is able to send this absurdly bulky payload to orbit in a single stage, with nearly 800 m/s left over in a 80km orbit.

Roasting that oblong marshmallow:

Docked with the Kronos. 'Tis time to do yet another Minmus ISRU mission.

Jettisonning the booster:

As there is no rule saying I actually have to land near the KSC, I landed it on another continent since the burn for Minmus will happen over the KSC.

Edited September 27, 2020 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · September 26, 2020

Rover delivery to Minmus and Kronos return to LKO:

Spoiler

The Kronos burns for Minmus:

Captured at Minmus.

Landed and docked to the Curdie. Over a hundred tons of fuel is being extracted. I calculated that more than half of the mass of the craft that will leave for Duna will have been pulled out of Minmus' rocks.

A nice, gentle liftoff half a day later. This craft is a bit chunkier than previous tankers, using four Terriers instead of Sparks.

The bundle of rovers can be seen in the top center as the Kronos burns for LKO.

Braking into LKO. The craft still had over 3300 m/s left over after the burn. I'm pretty sure it's got enough firepower to qualify for "Advanced Deep Space Transit".

Here comes Arfield in the Flappy Bird, as usual.

Transferring Kerbals in LKO:

To make these mining missions more interesting, I'm gonna start landing the Flappy Bird at different places on Kerbin. I don't believe I've ever flown a plane further than the Island Airfield before. All my spaceplanes have landed at the KSC, except for the one that landed at the Desert Launch Site.

Landed safely.

By my count, I have refueled 15 crafts on Minmus so far.

Edited September 27, 2020 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · September 27, 2020

Stabilizers and base segment delivery to Minmus:

Spoiler

180 days later, it's time for the next payload.

Orbit. That thing looks tiny compared to the last payload!

Everything has been docked.

Booster return. It is actually really inconvenient to land at the KSC.

Burning for Minmus. This craft has room for 14 kerbals with habitation rules, and Handon and Lashel have it all to themselves.

Capturing at Minmus. Wow! So many night pictures!

The base segment and LS have been docked to the rovers. This little craft is gonna get a lot bigger later.

Refueling. The Kronos had 1500 m/s left after landing on Minmus, so I don't need to be hauling the extra tanks around.

Away we go!

Docked with the Monstrosity (or the beginnings of it).

Edited September 29, 2020 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · September 27, 2020

Kronos returns to LKO:

Spoiler

Go all the way around Minmus to get to the Curdie? No way! That would take way too long! When it's only 350 m/s to completely reverse the orbit direction, it's totally worth it.

Landed and refueling.

Taking off and burning for LKO were basically the same burn.

Back in LKO, Handon and Lashel await Arfield and the Flappy Bird.

Here they come! Tearing through the atmosphere.

Transferring crew in LKO:

Landed at night at the desert airfield.

Now to wait another 180 days.

Edited October 1, 2020 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · September 29, 2020

Lab and LS to Minmus:

Spoiler

Fast forward to Year 5, Day 136. The lab and a whole bunch more LS (also another tanker) are going up in flames:

Docked to the Kronos. The Kronos just happens to have a little over 1400 m/s of dV with a 30 ton payload, just enough to make it to Minmus.

Booster return to the KSC to make it a little easier on the recovery crew:

Burning for Minmus. Since the last Duna transfer, I haven't launched an ounce of fuel from Kerbin's surface. That exhaust there is 100% Minmus dirt.

Let's do some science, 'cause why not.

Coming in for a rendezvous with the Monstrosity in Minmus' SOI:

Docked. The Monstrosity is growing fast.

The Kronos (and tanker) pop down to the Curdie for a quick refueling (and to grab some more science for the lab):

Redocked with the Monstrosity.

Edited October 3, 2020 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · October 2, 2020

Kronos return to LKO:

Spoiler

The Kronos takes off after refueling:

Fast-forward to Kerbin circularization. I believe this makes 19 crafts refueled on Minmus.

Arfield picks up Handon and Lashel in the shuttle.

I hear there's some sort of temple thing out in the desert somewhere. Keep your eyes peeled, kerbals.

Caution: Easter egg bean spilling

Spoiler

Ah! That thing there looks highly suspicious! It must be investigated.

Dive-bomb landings are this craft's specialty!

Welcome to the desert temple, kerbonauts! I hope you enjoy your ten second stay!

New shuttle!

Spoiler

Looking at the next Duna transfer window, I realize there is a slight problem. The final payload (with 33 kerbals aboard) will be launched over sixty days before the next transfer. I can't let that much LS get gobbled while sitting in Low Minmus Orbit. So the plan is to leave the final payload in LKO for a few weeks and then send up the crew on the shuttle. The only problem is that this shuttle only holds six kerbals. Solution!

It even comes with an abort system in case of a fat finger, a need to rage quit, or a chicken crossing the runway (why do they always do that?). In about five centimeters, Arfield and her copilot are going to be very glad they had an eject button.

On second thought, I'll probably remove the abort system to save dV. Those chickens will probably end up getting turned into LS anyway.

Next SLV launch:

Spoiler

Fast forward a bit, and it's time to launch the biggest base segment yet! Who says it is bad to go over 200 m/s while below 10km? Not me!

Docked after nearly an hour of derping around without RCS, trying to dock a massive pool-noodle to a craft with no control. So many times I wish I had put the rage-quit/abort system on the SLV instead of the shuttle.

Booster return just short of the KSC. Oh look, another one of those weird toadstools. I'll have to send an investigation crew some time.

Edited October 6, 2020 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · October 4, 2020

Kerbonauts delivered to LKO:

Spoiler

"Good morning, passengers aboard this flight to where what goes up doesn't come down! This is captain Arfield speaking. Please fasten your seatbelts at all times and refrain from eating snacks until after the craft has reached its destination, as severe turbulence is expected. Over."

Spoiler

Blasted chickens!

"Good afternoon, passengers. This is your captain speaking. The plane is now on fire, moving at over Mach 5, and steering like a drunk chicken. You are now free to move about the cabin. Over."

"Good evening, passengers, we have now reached the place people call space. In case of an emergency, there are sickness bags under the seats, inflatable life vests in the compartments above your heads, and the F9 key is located in the upper right of your keyboard. We will be arriving at our destination shortly. Over."

"Good morning, passengers aboard the one-way flight to your new home for the rest of time. This is your captain speaking. We have now arrived at our destination, and you may now exit the plane. Say your last goodbyes to the green and blue you see below you, for you will never see them again. Live long and prosper. Over."

*ding* "You may now remove your seat belts."

The Kronos burns for Minmus:

Arfield reenters in the Airborne Strongbox (Flying Safe), dive-bombing the KSC under spine-crushing forces.

Instead of landing at the Runway, Arfield decides to go investigate the random toadstools.

Ah! Three of them!

Okay, yep. They're just those Breaking Ground trees. Case closed.

Kronos arrives at Minmus:

Spoiler

...meanwhile, the Kronos arrives at Minmus, and the Monstrosity is now fully assembled.

Fully assembled, other than the fact that the Kronos' tanks are empty. Handon and Lashel are fixing that problem. 20th craft to refuel on Minmmus!

The Kronos and Curdie take off from Minmus. The Curdie's work in Kerbin SOI is finished.

In Minmus orbit, preparing the crafts to leave for Duna:

Transfer to Duna:

Spoiler

Okay, folks! It's time to send everything to Duna! The plan is generally the same as last time, just using the Oberth effect to zip out of the Kerbin system.

The Curdie burns out of Minmus' SOI:

The Monstrosity burns out of Minmus' SOI. It's working! It's working!

Burning for Duna! Say your last goodbyes to Kerbin, little kerbonauts, 'cause you ain't comin' back!

The Curdie burns for Duna:

Okey-doke! Everything is ready to fall around Kerbol for 240 days!

Edited October 6, 2020 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · October 6, 2020

Five more payload designs:

Spoiler

Number one! This is gonna be the Minmus refueler and tanker for this round of payloads. The ISRU is detatchable, so I can leave it on Minmus permanently. It's a pretty powerful little craft; the only problem is I can't launch it with enough fuel to get to Minmus. I'll figure that out later.

The second and third payloads are essentially just a whole bunch of LS (I calculated I'll need at least 4000 units), with a tanker tacked on the back. I'm really proud of that mass.

The fourth payload is a 23-kerbal base segment. Since I had some extra payload mass, I included a very special but totally useless something on the back. :wink:

The final payload is a huge (27 kerbal) base segment, with a little helicopter thing on top for toodling around Duna. With 68 kerbals already at Duna, there will be 2 more in the Minmus tanker, 23 more in the first base segment, and 27 more in the second base segment, meaning 120 kerbals on Duna at the next transfer.

Launch of the Mailman:

Spoiler

Ok, right. About that fuel problem with the new Minmus tanker. I looked at my options and found the best solution would be to have the Duna-bound Monstrosity jettison its smallest probe tanker before it got past the Mun.

Which then burned hard retrograde and recaptured into a highly elliptical orbit:

Circularizing again:

Circular with half a tank left! That should be enough!

Timewarp, timewarp, timewarp, launch! It's tanker time! Gregler and Bardon will be doing ISRU duty this round since Handon and Lashel are now halfway to Duna.

Docked. My dV reading is totally wrong, so I have no clue how much hardware I can actually bring to Minmus on the first transfer. I'll probably go on the safe side and just bring the small tanker and ISRU, and get the big tanker on the second time around.

Edited October 7, 2020 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · October 6, 2020

A brief trip to Minmus:

Spoiler

Booster return to Crater Island:

The Mailman burns for Minmus. I'm gonna try to get there with the large tanker, and then bring the small tanker with the next round of NPM.

Braking at Minmus. I'm using only the Wolfhound to get as much efficiency I can out of the little fuel I have.

Yeah! Landed with 57 LF left!

After refueling, I noticed I made a small design flaw on the ISRU module. Fortunately, I put a powerful reaction wheel on, and Minmus has low gravity. It'll work as long as I have connection.

Blastoff!

Ah! It's good to see some old-fashioned spear-tip exhaust after seeing fancy Restock engine plumes for so long!

Braking at Kerbin:

Docked with the tanker.

Arfield, the veteran shuttle pilot, comes to pick up Gregler and Bardon.

Transferring crew:

Landed at the KSC.

Edited October 11, 2020 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · October 7, 2020

Monstrosity arrival at Duna:

Spoiler

The Monstrosity and Curdie trajectories have been adjusted to enter low equatorial orbit around Duna and Ike.

The Monstrosity brakes into LDO! Welcome to Duna, everybody!

In orbit. Look at the dV and fuel remaining!!! :sticktongue: Oops, I guess I overestimated how much I would need by just a little bit...

Time to disassemble the Monstrosity and send it down to the surface! ...hm? Undock? Undock? Why aren't you- *googles it* -uh oh. Bad news, everybody. The kraken has welded together every docking port on the craft. Not good. I bet it was Lashel's fault. Just look at the way he is smiling at me.

Well, I guess it is time to do some of this:

Spoiler

...which in reality looks more like this.

Spoiler

After I finish this challenge, I'm gonna head over to Bop and stick that kraken full of drills. :mad:

Oh yeah! Take that, kraken! I'll peel your slimy tentacles off my craft one at a time!

Getting there!

The kraken has been defeated! The kerbals can now begin unloading the cargo.

The Kronos descends with 30 kerbals aboard:

The chute pack works! I think I'll call it the Ice Cream Sandwich of Life.

Docked with the base. As of Year 6, day 174, there are 65 kerbals on Duna. There is still one kerbal in LDO and two more coming in the Curdie.

Edited October 17, 2020 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · October 11, 2020

Basic rover delivery:

Spoiler

As the Kronos takes off, it proves the "Advanced Deep Space Transport's" capability of making trips to Duna's surface.

Disassembling the Monstrosity further:

A cool sunrise as the next chunk of equipment descends:

Please don't explode!

The equipment has been delivered! 16 rovers, a short base segment, 17 tons of LS, and a stabilizer.

Test driving one of the rovers. It seems to be working great.

The rovers have been unloaded, and the rest of the stuff has been docked to the base. I hope you like those rovers, kerbonauts, because they're going to make my life miserable while switching between crafts!

Edited October 18, 2020 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · October 17, 2020

Lab and Ikeway deliveries (all components assembled):

Spoiler

The Kronos takes off again to go get the last pieces of equipment:

Rendezvoused with what is left of the Monstrosity. The only things left are the Lab, LS, and a stabilizer.

Gently drifting down through the peaceful clouds of toxic carbon dioxide:

Docked! It was a complete pain since the entire base likes to spin slowly and unstoppably, but the base is complete for the next two years.

Let's do some science! Wow, apparently, in sandbox mode all experiments only give one data point in a lab. That's lame. I guess I'll be getting a whole half-science-point every day!

Four days later, the Curdie arrives back in the Duna system! This little craft has been to a lot of places.

Landed at that one equatorial spot. The ore here is officially 8.48%, which isn't great, but it'll work.

Okay, skip back to the Ikeway space bus as it refuels to go get Sanberry and Serena from Ike!

While it refuels, Derfel takes one of the rovers out for a joyride.

Spoiler

An unplanned "Rover Durability Test":

Oh! Wow! Look at this! It's a rock!

"Yullyullyullyullyullyullyullyullyull!" The ground sure is bumpy!

Ok, Derfel. Time to put the rover away now; the Ikeway is ready to launch.

Blastoff!

Burning for Ike:

Arrived at Ike. A trip to Ike is waaay shorter than a trip to Minmus.

Landed next to the Curdie. The three drills (instead of the standard two) on the Ikeway means the lower ore percentage doesn't have much of an affect on refueling time.

Nobody cares about an uneventful return trip, so that part will be skipped. Here is the Ikeway coming in right next to the Alkaline:

Landed, and Sanberry and Serena have been transferred to the Alkaline.

So, as of Year 6, Day 184, 68 kerbals are colonizing Duna.

Here are the total achievements scored so far:

Interplanetary Expertise +1
Backup Plan (Peter) +2
Emergency Evac (LS delivery) +3
Duna Space Station (R&D B&B) +1
Duna Space Bus (Ikeway) +2
Deep Space Transit (Kronos) +3
Deep Space Laboratory +1
Early Mission Prestige (Curdie) +2
Biome Diversity (Curdie) +3
Positive Uplink (dumb ion probes) +2
Advanced Deep Space Transit (3800 m/s) +3
Basic Rovers (16 of 'em!) +1
Pressurized Rovers (Alkaline) +2
Mobile Base (Alkaline) +3

So currently I have scored 29 points out of the 30 possible, and I plan to get the last one (Kerbin Space Station) after the last Duna transfer window since nothing needs to be shipped to Duna to achieve it.

Edited June 12, 2021 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · October 18, 2020

A Jumbo-64 and 2100 units of LS take off on Year 6, Day 250:

Docked with the Mailman:

Booster return to the Desert Launch Site:

Since there were no seats aboard the payload, the mining crew had to be delivered to the Mailman via the Flappy Bird.

Arfield landed at the Island Airfield. I only just now noticed that pun.

Bardon and Gregler burn for Minmus:

Capturing 6 days later:

After leaving the LS and probe tanker in orbit, the Mailman landed to grab some fuel.

Jumbo-64 delivered to LMO:

Return trajectory. There will hopefully only be eight more of these Minmus trips.

Braking:

Arfield picks up Bardon and Gregler after another successful mission.

Arfield comes in for a landing at the KSC. Wait a second, didn't I see a "Land on SPH" challenge around somewhere? Why not?

Done!

Death Engineering · November 15, 2020

On 9/20/2020 at 5:11 PM, RoninFrog said:

have I inadvertently broken any rules so far? Have I done anything else like trying to mine for LS ore?

Glad to see you're pressing on with this mission!

TBH, I am not going to have time to do a real hard look at your submission.. things have been very dynamic and time to hit the forums just isn't in the cards.

I'm sure you're doing fine, but there are a few challenge experts on the OP if you have questions.. try there?

Good luck on completing your mission!