Comet Redirect Mission

[SuperMiiBrother]

When I saw the comets were being added, my first thought was to put one in orbit of Kerbin. 
Unfortunately, They’re massive.

I’m going to try this soon, but I’d like to know if anyone else has done this before.

 

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong place.

[doggonemess]

I know people have redirected the largest asteroids in the game; but the comets are in a weight class of their own. They are 'objects' so they can be moved (I think) but it would require huge amounts of thrust for a long time. 

Now I want to do it. Dang it, I planned on actually getting things done today.

 

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

if you want to do so, get persistentThrust, it allows for thrust in upwards of 100,000 timewarp (not physics warp) lol

[Minmus Taster]

I used the mission builder to put a large comet in a low Jool orbit then i attached a ship with around 1400 MS of deltaV and i only had 20 after connection with the comet.

ButJool looked awsome from there!

Edited July 11, 2020 by Minmus Taster

[doggonemess]

I just made a test ship with an Epstein drive (I cheated). It's REALLY hard to maneuver. If you don't get the positioning exactly right, hitting the throttle just ends up turning the comet. I think the best way to do this would be with lots of little ships, each one 'docked' to the comet, making a single ship as far as controls go. 

If anyone manages to do this, I'll be very impressed!

[SuperMiiBrother]

Is it possible to mine comets? 

[Minmus Taster]

1 hour ago, SuperMiiBrother said:

Is it possible to mine comets? 

I think so.

they probably have much more resources than asteroids to

However they are much harder to get to and i don't think ANYBODY has been able to redirect them(Without cheats of course!).

[SuperMiiBrother]

I just realised...If we manage to redirect one, we might get thread of the month!

[Minmus Taster]

33 minutes ago, SuperMiiBrother said:

I just realised...If we manage to redirect one, we might get thread of the month!

Clever!

Its gonna be hard to put one into orbit by the end of the month how about we just put it into and orbit where it can always be viewed from Kerbin and then think about putting it in orbit!

We could attach a massive orbitaly constructed engine and send missions to refuel it until it's constantly viewable from Kerbin then we can plan the final orbital insertion burn!

I might be able to provide you with concepts

Edited July 11, 2020 by Minmus Taster

[SuperMiiBrother]

When I first saw comets the first thing I said was: 

I’ma put one between Mun and Minmus.

 

and yes please give concepts comets are huge and redirecting one will make us get recognized

[Minmus Taster]

10 minutes ago, SuperMiiBrother said:

When I first saw comets the first thing I said was: 

I’ma put one between Mun and Minmus.

 

and yes please give concepts comets are huge and redirecting one will make us get recognized

I should have some decent designs very soon i will probably have something down by the next day

[SuicidalInsanity]

Had two ideas how this might work, went with the more 'Moar Boosters!' approach first just to see what we're dealing with here with regard to DeltaV needs.
Meet Kengee 1, a 58.3 kiloton Class G Comet. Since this was an exploratory attempt, I used an Orion Drive:

68k dV became 504; the good news is it only needs 3k dV to park this in High Kerbin orbit. I just need to rendezvous 5 more 1500t Orion vessels to Kengee to get the necessary dV.
Alternatively, the Orion vessel does have an ISRU plant to refuel its RCS thrusters, and the comet does have 51 thousand tons of propellant to be mined...
 

[Klapaucius]

I came across this on my KerbalX feed:

 

https://kerbalx.com/RuBisCO/Comet-Mover

[SuperMiiBrother]

Oh.

 

...might as well build my own comet redirect mission and make this into a challenge

[Minmus Taster]

18 minutes ago, SuperMiiBrother said:

Oh.

 

...might as well build my own comet redirect mission and make this into a challenge

Dangit someone bet us to it!

Oh well that's ok congrats to whoever pulled it of!

[SuperMiiBrother]

But why didn’t he get thread of the month?

[Minmus Taster]

2 hours ago, SuperMiiBrother said:

But why didn’t he get thread of the month?

I dunno!

If you want to redirect a comet send massive refineries have the mine the ore then send multiple orbitaly built ships there and then PUSH with time it will move into your desired orbit

[doggonemess]

You know, to be fair, I don't see a mission log - just a craft with a description! 

[Pds314]

Can you mine a comet? Fueling the craft with ISRU should get around the Delta-V problem.

Edited July 14, 2020 by Pds314

[SuperMiiBrother]

I think you can...stupid idea time, what if we did something similar to a collaboration station but instead we built modules to add to a big mothership that would redirect comet NEOWISE?

wait this isn’t real life

ok, redirect just a comet.

[OutInSpace]

19 hours ago, SuperMiiBrother said:

I think you can...stupid idea time, what if we did something similar to a collaboration station but instead we built modules to add to a big mothership that would redirect comet NEOWISE?

wait this isn’t real life

ok, redirect just a comet.

No, no, I think you're on to something with the collaboration idea. One person can design the boosters, another can design the mining module someone else can design the crew quarters, and so on. Each participant would haul it out to the designated comet using their Lifter of Choice™ before passing the save file into the next guy.

[SuperMiiBrother]

How about instead we assemble in orbit, then anyone who pitched in gets to do a part of the mission (example: you get it on an intercept course to the comet, I attach to it and do science, someone else redirects it, someone gets it into an orbit of Kerbin and then the last guy returns the crew home)

[OutInSpace]

2 hours ago, SuperMiiBrother said:

How about instead we assemble in orbit, then anyone who pitched in gets to do a part of the mission (example: you get it on an intercept course to the comet, I attach to it and do science, someone else redirects it, someone gets it into an orbit of Kerbin and then the last guy returns the crew home)

Sounds like a plan! We'd just have to remember to build tall rather than wide, so nothing goes snap when Jeb opens up the throttle.

I'd volunteer to build the engines, although I'm away from my PC till Sunday. If we use NERVs, we can pair two 2.5m refineries with each thruster for just-in-time fuel production. Running eight or (more likely) sixteen refineries simultaneously will be a challenge, but not impossible.

Actually, I wonder... What percentage of the comet is ore mass? Using fuel drain valves, we could theoretically magic away a huge chunk of the comet's mass. Free delta-V!

Edit: Holy crap, in @[SuicidalInsanity] 's post, he says the comet is 58.3 kilotons, of which *51 kilotons* are mineable. With a bit of patience, you could turn that 58,300 ton comet into a ~7,000 ton comet. Obviously you'd want to leave some for use as fuel, but that's still a huge improvement.

 

Edited July 24, 2020 by SomewhereOutInSpace
Epiphany

[SuperMiiBrother]

I should probably make a new thread to invite people. This week family is visiting so I don’t have as much spare time on my hands.

[Laie]

May I inquire about comets? The wiki still lacks information about them, and this here looks like a good place to ask.

a) how do I find them? If I enter the tracking station at game start, it doesn't take very long for a small population of Asteroids to turn up. Will comets work in the same way, only  requiring more patience? Or is some kind of player action required to trigger their appearance.

b) what kind of mass do I have to expect? The screenshot above shows a 50,000t comet -- do we already know whether that is one of the lighter or heavier ones?