To Duna and back on Solid Fuel only

[xendelaar]

I've been experimenting with Solid fuel boosters and thought it would be nice to perform a return mission to Duna with them..

It turned out to be a very nice challenge. Since you can't throttle or shut down the rockets, you really need to set out your course in great detail. Luckily I found several ways of getting some sort flexibility, which made everything much more doable.

I made a small video if anybody is interested. 

 

 

[jimmymcgoochie]

Very impressive! One question though- didn’t you use the same parachute on top of the pod twice, for descending to the surface of Duna and Kerbin?

[Mikenike]

1 hour ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

Very impressive! One question though- didn’t you use the same parachute on top of the pod twice, for descending to the surface of Duna and Kerbin?

I think he did.... If your wondering how, its because of 1.10 or 1.11 when the engineers got an update, they can repack chutes, and fix solar pannels, as well as build/rearrange crafts.

[jimmymcgoochie]

1 hour ago, Mikenike said:

I think he did.... If your wondering how, its because of 1.10 or 1.11 when the engineers got an update, they can repack chutes, and fix solar pannels, as well as build/rearrange crafts.

But there’s no engineer in the craft? I only see Jeb...

[Mikenike]

@jimmymcgoochie true. He could have clipped 2 or 3 together.

[RealKerbal3x]

19 hours ago, Mikenike said:

I think he did.... If your wondering how, its because of 1.10 or 1.11 when the engineers got an update, they can repack chutes, and fix solar pannels, as well as build/rearrange crafts.

Repacking chutes isn't new, Kerbal engineers have been able to do that for a long time before 1.11.

[Mikenike]

4 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Repacking chutes isn't new, Kerbal engineers have been able to do that for a long time before 1.11.

Oh, yeah, its repairing solar pannels that is...... My fault.

[xendelaar]

hey dudes! 

sorry for not replying ! I didn't get any notifications on this thread.. very odd. 

well.. first off: thanks for watching my video @jimmymcgoochie and @Mikenike and @RealKerbal3x!! I usually don't get that many visitors on my mission report threads hehe. 

anywho.. back to the question! why and how did I reuse the parachute without an engineer?! The answer is pretty easy: I was playing on sandbox mode. Apparently, there it is possible to repack a parachute with a pilot? I just stumbled on this by accident though.. it wasn't planned. Initially I wanted to land with Jeb's personal parachute.. I then found the repacking option and went with that. I figured it's not really cheating if I also could have used jeb's smaller chute.. in hindsight I think it would have been better if I had chosen jeb's parachute.. this would have avoided the confusion.

Hope this clarifies things a bit.   

Edited February 18, 2021 by xendelaar