sdj64

Okay I'm not dead but I've only made it to Laythe so far. At this rate, I'll be done by April! (joking of course, but it will definitely be after Christmas) I had to give the ship some nukes for the Tylo transfers and a redesigned tail for better aero stability, compared to the previous picture I posted. Here are some pictures: https://imgur.com/a/fBd4Wp8

Generally, I have allowed anything in Kerbin SOI before you leave, provided you fly it yourself and don't just cheat-menu it into position. You could capture an asteroid, set up a mining outpost on Minmus, launch a huge fuel depot or tanker, or any other infrastructure of your choosing. I have accepted entries that used each of those things, usually they were done in an existing save with the stuff already there. You can't interact with any ships/stations beyond Kerbin's SOI though. Jacob's decision is his to make though, this is just for perspective of how it was handled before. Update on my own ship: I think I will probably have to add a couple of nukes for the transfer from Pol-Tylo and back. It's just not quite enough to make it as-is. Maybe I can switch some of the LF storage to LFO and eke out more vacuum performance, I did want to avoid having nukes on this ship.

It's going to be tight on delta V but the intent is to land all 125 on every moon! It has a VTOL system to land on its belly, since it's too big to tail-land and flop like Marschig's ships. It also carries a lander in one of the cargo bays, but it's intended for biome hopping for science and can't both land and return to orbit on Tylo.

This will be the 5th time I've attempted the Jool 5 Challenge Today is the 5th anniversary of the Jool 5 challenge And now, in KSP 1.5! So naturally, 125 Kerbals are going to Jool. Actually, 1.5 threw off my plan. I had planned this mission when KSP was in 1.4.5, where the 3rd "5" was, of course, the 5 moons of Jool. But when 1.5 dropped my first thought was "oh now I have to do 625" then "well this part count is spiraling out of control" then "better finish my 125 kerbal ship..."

I was considering replying and you hit the nail on the head, exactly what I was thinking. I would add, I got rid of the "mixed solutions" category only after there were no entries in that category for a whole game version. But there's certainly the case for it returning, if there is demand!

I'm a little late since I was on vacation last week, but it's been just over 6 months that @JacobJHC has been managing the Jool 5 Challenge! Great job so far! And great job everyone who submitted an entry! It's great to see that even after almost 5 YEARS the Jool 5 keeps inspiring people to come back or try it for the first time.

Okay fine... Dockable ore container left in low orbit.

I think what you are imagining is completely impossible. Nobody has even made an Eve SSTO with refueling that can operate entirely independently (i.e. make it to Gilly to refuel after Eve takeoff without using a dockable fuel container left in low Eve orbit). You should probably ping @Kergarin too since he is the expert in Eve SSTOs. This video shows his Eve SSTO which uses a dockable fuel container. It was done in version 1.2.2 but I didn't see any atmosphere changes since then, looking through the version history. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIuSCWxPZm4

The ion stage didn't have enough TWR. I set no minimum for it, thinking it was fine for in-space maneuvers, but Mr. Oberth was not happy with my decision. I did create a new craft that has much lower drag and the proper ratio of LF to Ox, and even raised to 4 ions but I still don't think it will be enough. I got about 75% mass fraction to LKO but didn't really want to try the ion part again. I revisited the spreadsheet and it looks impossible without ions.

Try 4 Rapiers and 2 NERVs, you'll probably find that the weight savings from eliminating two engines are more than worth the slight hit to ISP. If you really need the vacuum ISP for a Tylo landing, you can replace the Swivels with Darts, or a single Skiff, Poodle, or Wolfhound if your design allows it.

I got that question once before with a Thud, and I think I said if half the body is visible it would be good. Though if I was judging your entry and I saw this in the album after you finished the challenge, I'd probably accept it since it's not that major.

I think it auto-formats if you paste the URL into the editor. If you click the hyperlink button, it makes a blue underlined text link instead.

@kerbalstar The Jool 5 Challenge is currently maintained by @JacobJHC. You have the right thread linked though. Thanks for keeping the heritage challenges updated, it's a great list to have.

Awesome! Jeb's level was really lacking participants recently so I'm excited to see people going all out for science. I think you forgot the fact that Jool has a High and Low atmosphere. I've never seen anyone try to recover Jool low atmosphere science. Diving probes have been done, but transmitting science doesn't count for the score. There are a couple of other science cases, maybe read the wiki page on science for more... The only limit on experiments I'm aware of is "no duplicate experiments in one container". The science lab doesn't have this limitation. Yes, you can dump parts anywhere you want. Many people leave the mothership in orbit of one moon, or in Jool orbit, and go from there. You could also land your mothership on a moon if you want, but getting back to it might be a hassle.

I actually stopped trying after getting less than halfway to the Mun in 2 hours (real time) of ion burning. I then went back to my spreadsheet and tried to make it work with nukes, but I don't think the TWR and DeltaV can both work out. Does somebody else with more time and experience with ion ships want to try?

Do you guys have any advice? Or, if this isn't the right place to ask, where do I ask? I've been out of the loop for KSP for over a year; I was in school and had no time for games or forums. All you need is to make a 2-crew plane with one science package including an experiment storage unit. Bring along a pilot and a scientist, who can reset the goo and materials, and store your results in the storage unit until you can bring them all back to the lab at the main ship. Maybe you missed the introduction of this part while you were away from KSP? Your plane probably has too much wing dihedral (upwards angle) and your rudders could be moved to the wingtips, which would put them farther back from the CoM. Also check that each control surface is set to only one of pitch, yaw, or roll.

Okay, it's time to start putting actions behind my words. I whipped this plane together in about 15 minutes based on my spreadsheet. It weighs 68 tons at launch. On the first time I reached orbit, it weighed 47.223 tons once in orbit, for a 69.44% mass fraction! I haven't actually played KSP in quite a while and I forgot to use LF tanks or bigS wings instead of LFO. My flying skills could also use a tune-up, so I'm sure I can do better with this plane. I think it might be worth it to switch to turbojets for higher thrust and efficiency and lower dry mass. The wolfhound was enough to take over without any closed cycle on the rapiers, so I think it can make up for slower airbreathing top speed. Anyway here are some pictures.

The difference is that he counted only the mass of the ore tanks detached in orbit, while I count the mass of the SSTO itself upon reaching orbit. His SSTO, by my quick estimate from looking at the video, has at least 42 tons dry weight so it would be a 72% payload fraction, even better than the optimistic number in my spreadsheet.

I think it is possible with the Wolfhound, if Making history is considered stock. I'm using slightly different values than you as well. In my spreadsheet the craft has a 66 ton starting mass and has 2 rapiers and one wolfhound. It would be a bit slow getting off of Kerbin, but possible with some drag tricks? There's even a luxury of 0.14 tons left over - enough to add a Kerbal in a command seat! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sP97xSETIcLN-ntugP5VPyi_Sh-9rwwwE9URabtZRqA/edit?usp=sharing

@IvanBatura Congratulations, you have completed the Jool 5 Challenge on Level 3! Your liberal use of seats allowed you to have a very lightweight Level 3+2 solution - 5 Kerbals with 2 landing on each moon! I think the crew also appreciated the very warm cabins on the journey to Jool. I liked the pancake riding at the end too. I liked the gifs, but I would have enjoyed seeing some landings! Thanks for an excellent entry. This thread is now closed to future entries, but you can find the new thread in the link below!

Thanks @JacobJHC! I haven't had the chance to check out Making History yet but this will be the first mission I have in mind when I look at the new parts and mission builder. But given the bug reports I've seen it's probably best to avoid turning challenges into missions at the moment. I like the low parts idea too!

@McQuacker Congratulations, you have completed the Jool 5 Challenge on Level 1! I was able to find enough pictures with Delta-V and other information to confirm that the different craft could all execute their landings and transfers. I liked the extra effort to bring along another crew member and collect science, and your Laythe lander was a unique hybrid of rocket and plane. @kerolyov Good idea! I would probably do a tag like the ISRU and GRAND TOUR tags, but it's Jacob's decision now how to properly acknowledge the extra effort of using life support. I don't think it should be separate from the levels because life support would be much harder on Jeb's level, with 5 Kerbals, than it would be on Level 1. It has been done a couple of times before and I noted it in the short description for those entries.

You can send your scanner before the mission. It's good planning, and, many people have done the Jool 5 on long-running saves and had already scanned Jool's moons on other missions. IIRC some optimization was done in 1.2 so you might be able to run modern KSP better than your old version. But you are welcome to submit on any version 1.0+.

@JacobJHC has my permission to make the new Jool 5 Challenge thread when this one closes. Thank you for stepping up. I'm glad to have someone with experience with completing the Jool 5 Challenge twice, including one Level 3, and also experience running other challenges. For all of those who have a mission in progress, don't worry - you will probably still be able to submit in the new Jool 5 Challenge. If there is a change with the Making History expansion that makes it difficult or impossible to judge equally, I'll keep this one open for a while upon request. @PhoenixRise86 I'm sorry, I can't see your original file names. I'll take another look, it seems like the second half of the album is roughly in reverse order so I should be able to follow it well enough.

@PhoenixRise86 Congratulations, you have completed the Jool 5 Challenge on Level 1! I like your Falcon Heavy-style launch and your mission was above and beyond the minimum for level 1 with 3 crew and science. It's rare to see a Jool 5 without nuclear engines but yours was efficiently done with just Terriers for your transfer stage. @foobar Congratulations, you have completed the Jool 5 Challenge on Level 1! And you are now the low-mass and low-cost record holder for 1.2-1.3! You had a great low-mass entry with an efficient spaceplane. Controlling that Tylo lander must have been a great feat of piloting! How did you get off the ground with the tipped-over lander, without a reaction wheel? @McQuacker Looks like a great mission, but can you put your pictures in order? It's hard to follow such a large album out of order! Thanks for your patience, everyone. As you can probably tell I've been getting slower to reply over the past couple of months. Since I started a new job and moved to live on my own, I have much less time for KSP and I think that it would be best for someone with more time to take over the Jool 5 Challenge. I'm officially closing for new entries on the release day of the Making History expansion (March 13). With all of the new features I think the Jool 5 will need some significant updates, and could even have a mission from the mission builder! Thanks everyone for the continued support and ongoing entries to the challenge. You all have pushed the boundaries and delivered with creativity and quality. If you are interested in taking over or contributing in the future, please let me know.