JacobJHC

As @king of nowhere stated, I am officially stepping down as the caretaker of the Ultimate Jool 5 Challenge. As all of you are no doubt aware, my efficiency in reviewing Jool 5 submissions has been waning in recent times. By now, I have been the overseer for the Ultimate Jool 5 Challenge for over six years. When I first began, I was still in high school, now I am graduated from college, and where I commit my time are not what they used to be. The Jool 5 was my favorite KSP Challenge, and completing it for the first time required me to improve my gameplay skills to a degree they wouldn't have reached otherwise. This enthusiasm led me to hold onto the reigns for all these years, but now, after so much time, it is best that another be chosen to lead the Jool 5. @king of nowhere's submissions are, in my opinion, some of the strongest and most expansive in the history of the Ultimate Jool 5 Challenge, so I believe they are the perfect person to take over from here. And with that in mind, I find it fitting that the last submission I review be theirs. @king of nowhere, congratulations on completing the Jool 5 Challenge once again on Jeb's Level! This submission destroyed the previous record of science collected from the Jool System (which you held), and went to extremes uncommon in most Jool 5s. To obtain science from Jool, you deorbited a crewed spacecraft to explore Jool's atmosphere, and then launched them back out of Jool. To obtain surface science from Laythe's ocean biomes, you deployed an aircraft carrier to hold Absolutely Not An Albatross. You circumnavigated each moon, you visited every one of their anomalies, and you collected enough science to unlock the entire tech tree several times over. (Also, your tour of the Flying Christmas Tree 2 has to be one of my favorite video clips ever submitted https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h61wplb0DRw). This submission is perhaps the greatest Jool 5 mission ever flown, and I am proud to hand off the challenge to you. I want to thank everyone for the joy the KSP community has brought me over the last few years. This community is an excellent one to be apart of, and I'm glad I was able to experience it. I wish everyone the best, and thank you for growing this thread to 51 pages, showing that after six years of me being at the helm, there is still a strong enthusiasm for the Ultimate Jool 5 Challenge!

@JeDoesStuff Congratulations on completing the Jool 5 Challenge on Level 1! Your video was very well made and was fun to watch, especially with the little quirks like the barrel roll you threw in. I was impressed the most by the Tylo landing. I had to watch it a few times to fully pick up on how you made it work. I haven't seen many SSTOs that double up on the NERVAs on just 1 1.25 meter tank, and that second one really helped you hold altitude while shaving off so much speed. The loss of control at the very end of your Kerbin return had me on the edge of my seat until you were able to prevent a hard splashdown. Overall, I found your SSTO's design very efficient, very refined, and incredibly thoughtful. I found the extra landing gear being deployed to elevate the craft for launch very clever as well. I do have question though, I am assuming that your air intakes are somewhere inside the central core of the craft? I looked for them but have missed them. I'll add your entry to the leaderboard in the meantime, but until then, well done!

@problemecium Congratulations on completing the Jool 5 on Jeb's Level! This mission just kept amping up my excitement as it become clear just how massive of a craft you'd constructed. The story-like career mode setting was also very enjoyable to follow as well, and I liked the logistical breakdown of much of the mission as well. Visually, this is one of my favorite craft I've seen in a submission. I'll add the Aletheia to the leaderboards now.

A mistake indeed! When I went to check, I missed the small italicized Jeb's Level line, leading me to believe this is how the mishap happened to begin with! I put a few blank lines to separate the categories better! Thanks again for your patience, I eagerly await my wifi to get better since recently it's been rather awful.

Congratulations @Kimera Industries on completing the Jool 5 on Level 3! Your mission thread was very enjoyable to read, I found the craft construction portion to be most interesting, and I couldn't get enough of the Interstellar references I think I am most interested by your lander design, and it is not one I've seen often, and its staging is as bold as it is effective. It's range is very impressive as well! Congratulations, again! I have added your submission to the leaderboard.

Congratulations @king of nowhere on a truly emotional, awe-inspiring Jool 5 submission on Level 2! I apologize for likely the biggest delay in Jool 5 history, but my internet simply would not load the images on your thread and it took me forever to actually get them to load, but when I did, wow! Your thread covered emotional outbursts from the crew, discoveries of insanely low cabin pressures, glitchy ships, run-ins with radiation belts, the whole shabang! Congratulations on completing a complete Grand Tour in Kerbalism, despite the game's bugs (and on occasion your crew and reaction wheels!) working against you! I shall add this mission to its rightful place on the leaderboards now!

Yes! I will look at it very soon, due to WIFI issues I had quite the difficulties viewing the previous submission to yours. Said issues are improving so the previous submission is nearly complete, and yours will follow swiftly after!

@king of nowhere I want to let you know I am reviewing your submission of the Bolt / Nail grand tour but my wifi is horrible and not loading any of the images. Apologies for the SLS levels of delay on my part.

If that's alright with you I don't see the issue. Biome information can be found online anyway so it gets difficult to say what would or would not be in spirit about that specifically. I think that it comes down to your save's lore (IE, how much does the KSC know about Laythe prior to the mission departure). I believe in you!

HOW. This mission is so perfect I don't even know where to start. Seriously. There isn't a single aspect of that entire mission that wasn't meticulously thought out, and you even landed standing. My mind is blown. I think this would fit on the low mass leaderboard but if you would prefer it in Level 1 that works too.

Really good point regarding the vessel recovery science, although there is science for recovering vessels that have landed on planets or moons, which would be Jool related. Honestly I think that since it probably has been included in every mission previously that we just keep accepting it, although I do see you point. For deployed science the science counts but do keep track of how much is making its way back to Kerbin.

Congratulations @Robin Patenall on completing the Jool 5 Challenge on Jeb's Level with 61174.6 science! I think your mission thread is one of the better organized I've seen, I really enjoyed the chart to help me keep track of the launches, the costs, and so on. The finished ship itself was very versatile, and I do hope it gets an additional voyage someday. The thoroughness of how you broke apart the ship and used the drive cores as independent vessels at times was genius, and I've definitely learned a few things from your mission I might incorporate into one of my own some day. The Emerald Star did an outstanding job, and I'll gladly add it to the leaderboard now.

It is a science grab after all, go for it! I've begun reviewing your mission and I am really digging the launch assembly chart and the ship's overall design. I'll try to have it finished reviewed soon and get you on the leaderboard!

If it's making parts not otherwise movable movable then I'd say that would could as a modded attempt.

Congratulations @camacju on the lowest mass Jool 5 mission to date! The craft design is so simply its difficult to understand how you made it work, yet at the same time the video is aesthetically pleasing and straight-forward enough that its easy to follow. I applaud the engineering masterpiece you've created, and will happily add it to the leaderboard now.

This is insane. I don't even know where to begin on what I just witnessed. Congratulations on completing the Jool 5 on the low mass challenge, though. Can I ask how you lifted off from the runway? What were those two tiny blue things? Were you using tiny flags as sleds?

Congratulations @Lyra on completing the Jool 5 mission on Level 2! Congrats on managing a single launch mission. I liked the tallness of your Tylo lander, as well as the overall design of your interplanetary vessel. The unique thing to me that I haven't seen done much with an interplanetary vessel was "barnacling" the smaller landers on the outer hull. It was a clever workaround to save weight on the landers by not needing docking ports. Congrats again, and I'll have your submission on the leaderboards momentarily! EDIT: My wifi died immediately after posting that so NOW I'm adding you to the leaderboards.

"And so I completed the Jool 5 in day 383, 1 hour and 9 minutes of a new career" Congratulations on completing the fastest Jool 5 in history! The fact you managed to get all landings done within a 12 day window is incredible, and your trajectories! I've never seen anything like it! I'll add this submission to the leaderboard now, congratulations!

@king of nowhere I'm reviewing your submission today FYI, I've been glancing over the thread in the last week trying to make sure I have a proper understanding of it. I must say that the premise itself sounds very difficult and I'm impressed at the travel times you're achieving. It's a style of KSP I'm not overly familiar with so it's interesting to see in action.

Congratulations on completing the Jool 5 Challenge on level 1! Apologies again for the delay. Your mission's use of Kerbalism (specifically with Jool's radiation belt) added a level of anxiety not present in most Jool 5s. Usually I am just seeing how the landers were designed and what trajectories were used, but for this one I was genuinely concerned any time you had to dip into the danger zone. Your limitations to account for realism added an additional level of intrigue as well. It was very interesting to see what compromises you made and when. Overall, I found your mission very entertaining to review, and it was very thought provoking when considering how a real space agency might have done it. Fantastic job! I'll add this submission to the leaderboard now

Apologies, life got super busy and I forgot to check in. I'll have your submission reviewed tonight.

Sure

Congratulations @kspfreakon going above and beyond for a level 1 submission! Your Tylo lander was a design I haven't seen in a while, your Bop landing paid a visit to the Kraken which is also not super common, and you visited every other moon in the solar system on top of that. Excellent work. Adding you to the leaderboard now.

For the ladders: No that's fine. I've built ships where I clip entire payloads out of a fairing to pretend I have a service bay. For MechJeb: That's fine too. Good luck!

Congratulations on a record breaking Jool 5 mission! You video was very well narrated and broke down your reasoning and potential improvements in an easy to understand way. I think the most interesting thing you did was not use air-breathing engines for Laythe. The method you used saved weight and was not something many of us have considered. Congratulations on this achievement!