Jool, or not

[Warpedone]

Having completed most of the science tree in career mode I launched an epic journey to Jool with a two stage ship equipped with three probes (one atmospheric), an RCS lander and a base to deploy on Laythe. I have learnt a lot and here are some top tips to make your trip easier and more enjoyable

DO use a launch planner - there are lots out there and they'll cut your fuel needs in half and ensure you rendezvous with the target first time

DO take lots of pictures

DO NOT aerobrake around Jool from an angle that inserts you at 90 degrees to the system plane

DO NOT perform a brilliant bit of orbital mechanics using only your thrusters to slingshot around Laythe AND END UP ORBITING THE WRONG WAY AROUND THE SYSTEM

DO NOT build your uber-deep-space-mothership in such a way that the decoupling units remain attached to the engines of your probes meaning that the only way to use them is to set up each orbit with your main craft, detach the probes at the apoapsis and then literally kick them (using your intrepid Kerbal pilot's jet pack) into a decaying orbit and desperately scrape some data as they plummet to their doom

DO NOT forget to reattach the main communications dish to your mothership when you're building it so that when you do finally get down to Laythe, having dropped off all the probe ships and your booster unit and find a nice spot of dry land you can actually phone home.

Tomorrow, I fly the rescue mission!

Edited November 8, 2013 by Warpedone

[miketheveeg]

I laughed because I bet I have done each thing

Don't think I have had an anomaly free long distance mission yet

[Vanamonde]

Warpedone, your picture isn't working for me, but I sometimes have browser-related problems with that, so it could be on my end. Anyway, please continue to update the story as I move this to mission reports, where it is more likely to find appreciative fans.

[Geoff-AU]

hahahaha that's brilliant. I've made several of those mistakes before as well.

haven't used a kerbal jetpack to adjust a probe's orbit but I like your style.

[alacrity]

I take heart from this when I remember the first trip i took to jool.

I got a good orbital capture ( i thought) and went into the Joolian system, ending up orbiting the primary backwards. I thought no problem, orbit a few times until I can get a Joolian moon capture that will let me reverse my spin. Once I got there tho O found a wee problem. Coming out of aerobrake, I was headed straight for Tylo, like a rocket power interplanetary lawn dart. No problem, plenty of fuel, I planned for lots of maneuvering. started looking at nodes. Tylo was leering big, and its SOI even bigger. To adjust to a capture that would orbit me in the correct direction would have used a huge chunk of fuel and resulting intital path sent me poinbing right back to a solar orbit that would take more fual to avoid. Capturing tylo with another backwards orbit would do but that initial path pointed me at a messy impact with Vall, again needing a lot of fuel to avoid, and more to correct, with the firther possibility of just steering back into the center of the system and impacting into Jool itself.

As I am playing through all the nodes, adjusting normal, anti normal, pro and retro, time is marching on and I continued to scream at whatever horrible speed you are at after earobreaking into an ugly elliptical that self terminated on the surface of tylo. As with any Joolian entry I did not have a perfect equitorial entry, being about 7 degrees off from true, which led me to my most inelegant solution. I burned into a polar orbital capture of tylo, and then burned back out into a Joolian orbit going the right way. It was not the best piloting I was to do in Jool system, but playing it out in my head afterwards it had a kind of perverse beauty in the realm of planetary 3d ballet.

OP id right better to spend time with adjustment burn on the Kerbin to Jool approach leg, then end up in the Joolian system, orbiting in the opoosite direction of her moons. Depending on their orbits and your breaking, it can be like graviy well pachinko in there.

Alacrity

[dellcom1800]

Yeah my first trip to Jool with an orbiter/lander probe was a little challenging as well. It was my first time trying aero-capture, which actually worked pretty well but still required some adjustment. I forgot that the scale of this game is really small compared to reality so I had ended up getting in the SOI of one of the moons on approach, thankfully it was not impacting, just adjusted my orbital inclination a bit.

It worked out though and I got in a stable orbit in the correct direction around Jool then transitioned to Lythe and had a successful landing on land. Was a guesstimate on the entry angle so I would miss the ocean.

I was there was a way to "skip" time to a certain launch window in the native game (I do not use mods.. yet).

[Warpedone]

I got a bit distracted and launched a landing party to Eeloo instead of trying to rescue Jeb today. Despite losing two engines from the intermediate stage (one exploded, I jettisoned the opposite number after some rather exciting spinning) rendezvoused first time and landed safely. Bob and his companion are complaining of being rather bored but the 1,500 science points gathered on the trip have allowed me to finish the research tree and now I can crash hypersonic planes to my heart's content.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Warpedone
added photo links