Grand Tour Race

[SiliconPyro]

My buddy and I are both racing to finish a KSP grand tour. The idea is that since flags came out, we're going to send the same Kerbal to every planet except Eve and Jool to plant one. Eve and Jool get satellites placed by that same Kerbal. It's not a public challenge, just a little sport between friends to see how our designs differ. The rules are, if you lose your Kerbal, you have to plant a flag in memorial, return to Kerbin, then continue the tour with a second Kerbal. If you get stranded, you just have to send help.

Right off the bat I realized I am the Bill to his Jeb. While I'm using as much math as I understand to plan my builds, he's strapping on MOAR BOOSTERS to get out there. Unfortunately I didn't do much math on my Minmus and Mun lander. It's currently stranded in Mun orbit. I'm sending a beefier version though that (with a few modular assists like parachutes for Laythe) should be capable of landing on and returning to orbit from every body in the system except Eve, Jool (of course) and Kerbin.

Here's where I'm logging my progress: http://imgur.com/a/q4YZc

His album: http://imgur.com/a/xZciQ

For you who have completed or attempted a grand tour like this, what advice would you give? I must admit, this will be my first time visiting many of the planets. Despite playing for over a year, I've never been to Moho, Eeloo or any of Jool's moons. I'm most anxious about the DeltaV to reach Moho and the ascent from Laythe.

[Sᴄɪɴᴛɪʟʟᴀᴛᴏʀ]

Its possible to take off from Eve and return to Kerbin so you should add it to the list of targets. Although difficult your 'competition' allows multiple ships so its not as challenging as you'd think, you should go for it.

[SiliconPyro]

That's on our list of things to do, but for the sake of actually possibly completing this before another update comes, we decided to give Eve a pass. I AM looking forward to our differing approaches to the Eve return though. After completing this challenge, I think we will have learned enough to make Eve a bit easier.

[kookoo_gr]

Somewhere in the forum there is a dv map of the system, it's very helpful, for atmospheric planters add moar parachutes and paradrop the lander on the planet so you can save fuel for the ascent. also add more struts at the connections between the various components of the lander so that they won't detach once the parachutes open. For Tylo make a mini lander with lots of fuel (watch Manley's Tylo or bust videos), Tylo is the gravity equivalent of Kerbin second is Vall with no atmosphere and lastly Laythe. For the Jool system i would send refueling ships at each planet so i could land on all the planets in one ship. What are the winning conditions? first one to finish or the one that finishes in less game time?

[SiliconPyro]

Winner is the least game time and I forgot to mention, this is 100% stock.

. . . Tylo is the gravity equivalent of Kerbin second is Vall with no atmosphere and lastly Laythe. . .

Are you sure? According to the wiki, Tylo and Laythe have the same gravity and Vall has much lower gravity, similar to Moho. Is the wiki that far off, because if it is, I have to go back to the drawing board!

[kookoo_gr]

When i landed at Tylo i started from about 23km with a speed of about 2000m/s for Vall the speed was lower and i run out of fuel about 100-200m above surface but landed with a broken whell , at Moho i landed with no problem with fuel to spare using my standard lander back at 0.19, the problem with moho is to reach and establish an orbit, a good tip is when you enter a planet's SOI go for the lowest possible periapsis, i go for 15-20km, that way you'll spend less fuel for the capture. Also when you start landing you'll have less vertical speed to kill and more horizontal

[kookoo_gr]

this is the rover that managed to land on every planet except Tylo so you can have a small guide

[SiliconPyro]

. . . a good tip is when you enter a planet's SOI go for the lowest possible periapsis, i go for 15-20km, that way you'll spend less fuel for the capture. Also when you start landing you'll have less vertical speed to kill and more horizontal

Oh, yeah. That's standard operating procedure. I try to adjust my encounter as early as I can to be as low as is safe.

[Spaceisbeautifulul]

Man that must be fun.

I'd be lucky if my KSP hating brother let me teach him how to dock.

[Mode7]

Player 2, checking in.

[SiliconPyro]

Quick update. After sorting out some technical issues and a near disaster, the Lander Mk5 and Traveler interplanetary drive have reached Gilly orbit. My next step will be to EVA to Gilly's surface to plant the flag, then Jeb will deploy a small atmospheric probe (which hasn't arrived yet) that will descend to Eve's surface. Then I'll send a refueler that will top off the tanks and hold fuel for future missions to Eve's SOI.