My Caveman Mission. (Normal) Land Jeb on Duna and return him save to Kerbin.

[Sirad]

Hello Alltogether.

This is my Attempt in Playing Caveman (on Normal difficulty) to Fly Jeb To duna and bring him back Savely to Kerbin.

To Achieve this a lot of work has flown into it, including mastering the Art of Docking without Monoprop, Building explicitely useful crafts (lift more than 2tons to Orbit 200km of Kerbit) and planning and assembling a Ship in Orbit that is capable to savely Fly jeb to and Back to Duna. It took me 5 Days for Planning and 2 Days for the mission itself. Including a Lithobrake at the and at Kerbin...

I learned alot while this and call myself now a better Pilot, of course

Note that the Science Screenshots were taken prior deorbiting the Duna Ship to prove i have managed The Caveman until start to duna.

I ended up at least with 370+ science in total afterwards...

 

Well the Difficulty is normal.

Well, since im already Caveman i will not mess around to much with screenshots achieving the science until i have everything together for Building the Ship that flies to duna. Just a few heres and theres to sideway my preparings for this attempt.

My First Flyby of the Mun. I was not very advanced there and still building up Science for the Trip.

These are my Typical Flyby/Orbit Crafts that gather the major part of the Science for me.

Flying by in Low Orbit.

And then returning the Science back to Kerbin. This is just the usual Stuff i have to do until i get the needed Science to Build my Duna Craft. Well, i started a new Game and played it thru.

One of my Landing Crafts. Since i managed to Orbit in Space i just passing by the hassle to try to Land on Mun or Minmus in one Craft. Im assembling everything in Space. Whenever i will try to land Jeb on Tylo on Hard Setting this training will be useful.... :-)

Ive got a line of standard Crafts now that lifts everything into Orbit.

Okay, enough of the Preparation. Now the Art starts. I had long thought about the optimal design for an interplanetary Ship on Caveman level. I came out with that. Thats the Part where the Tug gets assembled.

Everything needs to be onboard. Batterys, Solar Power etc.

The Navball shows how to dock. First come to a stop, throttle the engine to 5% and then advance toward the target in navball and overturn the ship ito any fitting differences and advance until target and prograde fits again.

Slowly advance to the target

It fits. Actually im so trained, its like drinking a glass of milk.

The maneuvering Tug has enough fuel even to deorbit, to prevent cluttering space.

This was the hardest thing getting to Orbit, the engines for the Tug. I faled several Times, but the rocket is cheap, so no issue at all.

and here comes the Fuel. I had to do this very often. i just added some snippets of this.

Just some views to calm down and/or enlargen the tension ?

This ship was assembled with the old Fuel tank rocket. Not a full FL-T400.

Getting that thing to Orbit for docking. I just got all the time roughly 5km below the orbit of the Interplanetary transporter, circled until i was near and then attempted docking.

I typically advance to the target and while closing in using anti target/retrograde to break into perfect position.

As you see, retrograde and anti target doesnt mach so i burn into  overrsteered retrograde to align both markers.

corrected now

This has to be done 12 Times until the Ship is ready for departure.

getting near

Scenic view of it

Sideview of it.

Docked.

and so on.

Targeting each other craft so it will be aligned linear.

And doing the same stuff over and over again.

Watch the Ship growing.

Now this is easy for me---

Even a bit misalignment is no issue. it docks.

2nd Fuel tank attached

And the Transporter has enough DV to deorbit.

Wide view of starting pad.

I like that view.

The rockets are quite stable once you manage to put shrouds on.

Up into Space

and Dock.

3rd Fuel Tank.

4th Fuel Tank.

Approaching.

and Docking

This is how close i fly to the Orbit of the Main Ship. roughly between 5-10 Km difference. The rest is using prograde/target and eyeballing. it works. No Monoprop needed

Nearing the Target

Starting to bake down.

and docking the 5th Tank.

Hell, i catches a Mun eclipse here.

:-)

Docking the 6th Fuel Tank

Dont need to comment every docking nor ? Who is already bored of this, spool ahead some pics :-)

7th Tank

Aproaching

and locked

8th tank

and we have a lock.

9th Tank

and so on. This was quite a lot of work and tedious, but i want to get to Duna so, its neccessary.

10th Tank

It looks nearly finished now.

soone the hassle comes to an end.

already fed of those pics ? I suffered, i let you all suffer too :-)

closing in.

Free view of construction process

Now lets gonna Start. I used a common website to get a planned Solution for the interplanetary transfer. On my calculations i had 1000 excess dv to correct any misses on the way to Duna. The hardest thing is to get a catch from Duna. The way back is not so hard because Kerbin has a bigger soi and you can aerobrake... but later to this...

So the craft is a Tower. Pushing that much docking ports is useless and you will not suceed in burning towards dune (learned the hard way, before)

Its quite Simple. From the Top to the Bottom you have following parts.

- Science collector and deorbiter on Kerbin once we are back

- Main Towing engine

- Main Body

- Fuel Tanks that gets enabled, used and decoupled manually as needed.

- Duna Lander with Jeb Aboard.

I just threw away the Plan to bring the deorbit modul for Kerbin landing of Jeb all the way to Duna. To much Fuel needed and a waste of efficiency.

So the 2 Towing engines worked well. i only needed one Burn to get to escape velocity.

burning.

and Burning

and off from Kerbins soi. now im at the Hands of Fate.

Oh, that looks quite good. Lets see how i enter Donas soi. Just a lottery. Som course correction needed here.

Just right before entering Soi

Hit it. But got a very bad Entry here. I have to burn lots of Fuel to get a Plane and stable orbit.

View with Duna by.

Only 6 Fuel tanks left over now.

I had to invest about 600DV to get a catch, no deorbit included yet.

More Fuel wasted to get good Inclination

Now heading for the Aerobrake at Duna Atmosphere

Just not to deep, thats fiddly

Sideeffect, another science Report.

Bit by Bit Circling Down to Duna.

Only 4 Tanks left. I will need them for the way back....

Circling down more.

and more.

The orbit gets lower.

and lower each Turn.

Scenic view here.

Time for Circling and undock the Lander.

Jeb is on his way down to Duna.

2 Chutes suite well. Only need some small breaking ignition to land.

Hanging in the Chutes.

Now Jeb can laugh again. Landed on Duna. No EVA, no Flag,

Then heading back into space.

Circularizing the Orbit

Main Fuel has been Burned, now the 2nd tank gets activated

And docking to the Main Ship

Science for it!

Using the same tool, i planned Jeb's Planetary Transfer back to Kerbin. Thats more easy because the BIIIIIIG Soi.

Entering Kerbol Soi

Nearing Kerbin Soi

Looks good.

For acceletaring from Duna next 2 Fuel tanks used up.

I had to do many maneouvering to get a good inclination at Kerbin. i will need a good inclination because i need to send up a Deorbiter to get him back to Ground.

Maneouvering and course corrections

This was how i ended up

45 degrees against inclination. could have been worse.

So maneouvering the course and correcting the inclination, setting an aerobrake PE

i have set this amount. Just barely more i would have been burned, you will see later on.

all Main Fuel tanks are used up but it looks good and if everything runs fine Jeb is save.

Aerobraking

Aerobraking

What the (....) im gonna nearly burn the ship. Jeb no longer laughs.

But if you survive the first round, you survive them all.

Decellerating

Next Round. As you see i set the nav point to Radial in, to get the best breaking efficiency.

Cooling Down,

Cooling down.

Next Round.

Nearing a circular orbit.

Each round slows down 80DV. so some time to go.

Now its time to manually circularice, burning up the last Fuel inside the core structure of the ship.

Stable Orbit achieved, time to pick up Jeb from Space.

Just the rescue ship that picks him up.

Burn Bady Burn..

Aproaching for Docking.

Nearing the Main Ship

Closing in

closing in

and docked.

So Time to change Jebs seat to the rescue ship and deorbit.

Hes Home soon.

Oh,  yes  we did.

Reentry and braking down.

landing

Jeb made it to Duna and Back.

Science tree

Science report

Mission summary

Jeb got 18 XP for it.

But then a Problem arrives. I had several Science collected around Duna but wasnt able to undock the science Deorbit module. Dunno what happened.

So i have to deorbit the complete mothership, throw some small chutes out and try to lithobrake in hope that the Science container survives

 

Watch the Show. This picture can not show the wobbling but i was giggling while watching.

What the Kraken. Down to 1879ms and this thing is just stable.

Donno what happened. Those Docking Ports seem to be glued together. Is this a Bug ?

Now it all hangs in the chutes and falling with 41ms. Too much.

What luck. Science container survived the impact.

Si i can recover all the Science from Duna

Here the tree again

No facilities upgraded

Main Science Archive 1

Main Science archive 2

Main Science archive 3

Main Science Archive 4

Duna Science Part

Kerbin Science Part

Kerbin Science Part 2

Kerbin Science part 3

Mun Science

Minmus Science.

I hope this Qualifies, but if not, it was great fun anyway!

 

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Sirad

[JAFO]

Excellent job, @Sirad!

And quite well documented, too.

Speaking personally, I'd love to have seen a few shots of your various craft in the VAB (I'm always interested in construction details), but the lack of them does not affect things, from a qualification perspective.

(Out of curiosity, if I'm understanding the fuel levels correctly, it seems you had to do a revert at one point, when leaving the surface of Duna? What went wrong? Again, no problem.. reverting is permitted for Normal difficulty attempts.)

And before I forget, again just curiosity, did you max out the tech-tree before the Duna mission, or were there a few things you had to unlock after getting home from Duna? 

 

Well done! I'll see you over on the main Caveman Challenge thread.

Edited May 3, 2021 by JAFO

[Sirad]

3 hours ago, JAFO said:

Excellent job, @Sirad!

And quite well documented, too.

Speaking personally, I'd love to have seen a few shots of your various craft in the VAB (I'm always interested in construction details), but the lack of them does not affect things, from a qualification perspective.

(Out of curiosity, if I'm understanding the fuel levels correctly, it seems you had to do a revert at one point, when leaving the surface of Duna? What went wrong? Again, no problem.. reverting is permitted for Normal difficulty attempts.)

And before I forget, again just curiosity, did you max out the tech-tree before the Duna mission, or were there a few things you had to unlock after getting home from Duna? 

 

Well done! I'll see you over on the main Caveman Challenge thread.

Well, when i post the Report from my Tylo landing i will put screens from all Crafts and the Craft files too into the folder. The Crafts are all the same and meanwhile i've got over 60 of them in that game, some may be worth Posting. Maybe someone could use them. Only a few ones that are very hard to get to orbit (Engine modules and lander modules) all else fly smooth and fine.

Yes i had to revert while my ascent from duna once, because i tilted over a Rockstable flying craft while ascent (), ---> My doorbell was ringing (typical external kraken attack) i was so concentrated and sunken into game i just shrieked/messed up due to being surprised/startled (dont know the right english word for it) . And i too needed 2 tries for the transfer window to duna because the first Time i missed the window. As you say, reverting is ok, that's why i play on normal level. On Hard, i would have failed the mission completely, due to missing the transfer window to Duna. Eyeballing the angles is quite hard...

Maybe if im more experienced in Interplanetary Transfer windows i make a Try on Hard.

For this mission you dont need: Heavy rocketry, Aerodynamics, Space exploration. No Parts needed from those nodes to do the Duna Trip :-)

I admit, i dislike all this biome hopping so i played straightforward until i've got the needed science for the trip.

I now looked into the current Game. You are right i have currently 37 science left and all nodes researched. I have unlocked the last 3 Nodes with the Duna Science, prior taking screenshots.

 

 

 

 

[JAFO]

8 minutes ago, Sirad said:

when i post the Report from my Tylo landing i will put screens from all Crafts and the Craft files too into the folder. The Crafts are all the same and meanwhile i've got over 60 of them in that game, some may be worth Posting. Maybe someone could use them.

I use my account on KerbalX to do something similar. In addition to thus making them available to everyone, by using the KerbalX mod in-game, I can directly import craft from previous attempts into my new Caveman games, without having to build them again from scratch. Comes in very handy.

Edited May 4, 2021 by JAFO