Hi there. I thought I\'d share. :-X Completed the challenge with one design I\'ve been working, on on first attempt. I\'ve designed this ship not specifically for this mission, but with hope for future explorations so it uses non stock parts mostly. Purpose of that design was to test abilities of 'realistic' version of ion engine for space maneuvering and fuel efficiency, and to test design formula for a spaceship that will look futuristic and solid yet not impossible. 8) Design is named 'Deep Space2' I\'ve built it on top of another test rocked kindly called 'Overengineering2' it pretty much explains the details. It was a barely controlled disaster. Kerbonaut screams comforted me all the way. The Plan Ship is basicly two parts and three main stages. Boosters and space vehicle. Vehicle starts with wings on the sides Huge orange stage1 should have got me to to the higher atmosphere where with enough accumulated acceleration kicks in the cruise stage2. It\'s inside the first one and has comparatively low thrust. It should\'ve got me to Kerbal orbit and provide jumpstart to the sun after one turn around the planet. Then with a speed around 3000 it should\'ve been ejected and stage 3 used as braking and home return booster. Ion engines then would be used for setting orbits and trajectories. And auxiliary thruster as a way of correcting mistakes and breaking the fall speed. Small engine with a chute should\'ve give me enough power to hoover around Space center and attempt to land somewhere near the launchpad. Stage two exploded. 8) Due to mistake with decouplers stage two that should\'ve got me to the sun detached and exploded in mid air Jeb was happy. I\'ve decided to make my mission anyway. Stage 3 surprisingly intact got me out of the atmosphere where I used half of space vehicle aux engine to get me to stable orbit. Then not being sure about anything at the point I\'ve reassigned some stages in midflight. When orbit got me to designed AP used all remaining fuel from All that was left, even from nosecap solid booster to break orbit to the sun. I was left with ion engines only. Full story with picture logs Me breaking orbits. So then I\'ve used Ion thrust to get me to speed around 900 and happily warped ahead. Without small thruster I was not sure I would even be able to land if I got back. Shooting to the star, and halfway there. At this point i understood that otherwise useless Ion engines are awesome in outer space. I was able to fly few hundred miles near the sun and past it. Then I returned a bit and understood that I can 'dock' with a sun. http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9819/unled8d.jpg But hey. for now it\'s only a single point in void with 2d sprite attached. And you cant even lock coordinates on that. And I really did not have hours to spend.. :-[ So well I\'ve spent around 20 minutes accelerating on ion\'s that got me to speed around 1600. I warped and surfed the web. Then half an hour later I understood that I\'ve missed the freakin planet :sos: But ion engines saved me again. After an hour slowly braking and accumulating speed I warped at 600. Watching closely and correcting course. :probe: So I was approaching Kerbin from dark side with almost no fuel left for ion\'s (except aux.), And having no ability to break planet gravity pull or even decelerate in some real timeframe I was left with two options: Orbit down from outer orbits spending hours, or try to break in stratosphere making one shot. 8)One shot seem\'d much more fun. Surprisingly i was able to ajust my trajectory to somewhere around space center. Thats when I got that i cant make out where exactly it is. And while falling down on planet i tried to google videos where it is seen from space. and carefully correct my course. Arrrg. We NEED global navigation 3d map with ability to select objects and calculate stuff : Also as I roamed through forum today I\'ve seen that wikimap shows KSC location wrong. What the hell. At this point i remembered that trajectory precalculation does not account for drag If only it did or at least map showed some atmospheric boundaries. Damn. I hoped I\'ll splash without a crush. Ion\'s don\'t help at all. Goodbye my perfect ion engines( time for me to die. And I got lucky so I survived. Seems like this design can withstand a lot. Now I can say I\'ve been there. Mission summary: Alt:14081415523 Woah. Thanks for reading. My mind is full of that right now. P.S I used Ps to store printscreens
