Empyrean

I thought I'd share a work-in-progress. I've been cultivating a Jool-5 mission for some time, based around an SSTO spaceplane, where I am trying to have a Kerbal on all five moons at the same time. I'm also not allowed to discard anything that I can't soft-land on a moon (read: one bit at Laythe, and a Tylo descent stage - I'm not mental). There are two identical Laythe and Tylo landers, with some accessories stowed elsewhere on the craft; two identical Bop/Pol ion landers, and an overpowered Vall lander in the cargo bay which should be able to land directly from a flyby. Did I need more dV to escape Kerbin? Yes; and so I employed two huge nuclear boosters for the transfer burn. Because I need to recover everything, I used two ion scavenger tugs to bring them back into LKO while the mothership continued out of the Kerbin SOI. So I'm gravity-braking into an elliptical Jool orbit as we speak, and I'm planning on entering Tylo orbit soon for the hardest part of the journey, which may well test that 'soft landing' I just spoke about. Then I'm going to look for a Vall encounter (shedding the Vall lander enroute) and orbit Laythe (I've got an inflatable heatshield if I decide I need to aerobrake on the way in). Simultaneously, my Bop and Pol landers will be on the long sojourn out to the moons. So... there are about a million things that can go wrong, and I can't wait.

Hi sdj64! Thankyou very much for your curation of this challenge. I've been working on a plan for what might be considered a level above Jebediah's level, whereby I have to have one Kerbal on each moon simultaneously. It requires quite a payload (because the landers can't be reused), and quite a few transfers, but I've had great fun designing it so far. I'd be glad to know if you thought it was an interesting enough constraint to include. E

Is that a stock engine? Looks like a much better twr than I've managed for that much dv.

Dunno what you mean, my craft is elegant and beautiful (and about four times bigger than I expected). But my Tylo lander is a monstrosity.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I've been KSPing for a couple of years now, and thought it was past time to tip my hat to you lot, who are in my opinion geniuses. I'd also love your input, because I think I may have bitten off rather a lot... So I've been all over Eve and Duna, but I've never gone to Jool. So, obviously, as soon as I heard about the Jool-5 challenge, I promptly decided to do it. And then, with a bit of arrogance, I decided the top level of difficulty isn't quite enough, and I want to set myself some additional constraints: 1. Simultaneity. Instead of visiting the moons in sequence, I have to have one Kerbal on each moon at the same time. So that means 5 landers, and an awful lot of transfer windows. 2. No littering. Everything has to be recovered, except that which can be soft-landed on another planet. I need to work out a way of bringing everything home, or leaving it safely on the surface of the moons. 3. SSTO mothership. However I launch anything else, the mothership has to reach orbit as an SSTO spaceplane. No pressure. I've been deep in design and planning for a while, and I think I'm nearly there. I have a mothership, which I managed to get to orbit once or twice without flipping... And the completed ship that will leave LKO is going to look something like this: Clearly, the additional constraints I'm applying mean I have a huge payload to take to Jool, and the tyranny of the rocket equation has already led me to add two huge nuclear boosters, each weighing over 80T. And, because I need to be able to recover them, I've created a little ion tug that can bring them back under escape velocity while the rest of the craft goes interplanetary. At the massive TWR of 0.01... I was a little surprised at how hard it was to design a Tylo lander, but I've settled on this modular design, with an engine plate, four pillars and an upper support section, all of which should fall away undamaged after descent to reveal the ascent stage. Fingers crossed. Anyway, I reckon I should head first to Tylo, which is the heaviest payload, whereupon I can dispatch my two ion landers outwards to Bop and Pol, before going for a Vall intercept - throwing out my Vall lander on the way past - direct to Laythe to orbit and drop my Laythe lander. I'll then definitely need a refuel, for which I'll probably use my big nuclear booster and a million ion engines to get it there, before reversing route. What do you think? Anything that I haven't considered that might trip me up? Thanks for your time, and fly safe.