Ultimate Steve

I don't know why I did this, but even though I could just use the EVA pack, I made an SRB lander for Gilly. Two separatrons. One fires for the de-orbit burn, and the single landing leg is enough to cushion the 18m/s impact. The second one gets us back into orbit. Yay, progress!

Challenge list: 1. Logistics of an SRB grand tour 2. Docking large SRB segments 3. Eve Ascent Vehicle 4. How to bend the rules so it still counts as a Grand Tour without melting my computer 5. Tylo lander 6. Everything else Tylo proved to be surprisingly easy. The small motor on the bottom is the de-orbit motor. The capsule there is just for testing purposes. The two BACC's are there to do most of the descent work. The RT-10 is fired (after several quickloads) at the right time to ensure it burns out just above the surface. The ten sepatrons are for the actual landing. During the landing the RT-10 will explode leaving the lander low enough to not need a lander. Those two rings of separatrons at the top do all of the ascent work, and you can get to a 30x60 orbit (or better if you're good at piloting) with two separatrons and the EVA pack left over for rendezvous. The official motto of the SRB grand tour: "Yay, Progress!"

I have completed the first successful test of my SRB Eve lander, from Eve orbit back to Eve orbit! Hopefuly, I'll use this model (with an added solar panel/RTG) for my SRB grand tour. The de-orbit burn. I don't have any pictures of entry, however. There are five inflatable heat shields, four in the rear to produce drag, and one in the front for actual heat shielding. Right after the de-orbit burn, the de-orbit motor is detached and the other four shields are inflated. There are also four normal heat shields to protect the "landing gear." After the thing has slowed down to about 500m/s the four rear heat shields (we're traveling prograde) they are decoupled. That is the easy part, as we simply drop them behind and let drag take them away from the craft. Now, the forward heat shield is a different story. The original idea is that without the drag at the back, the forward shield would make the craft flip around so we could jettison it. However, the craft is so back-draggy that it won't flip. I went through a design that tried to burn off the heat shield... no luck. I almost tried to make a missile to shoot it off, but I decided that was too impractical. I tried mounting separatrons on it to blast it away, but that did not work. Then I stuck four Launch Escape Systems to it at an angle. That works about 70% of the time. Collision with the rocket is still a problem, but it *should* work. After that, I use the sets of wings to glide to the mountain I am launching from (It's more of controlled falling than gliding) and right as I am about 200-400 meters above the landing site and 100-200 meters from it horizontally, I deploy eight (I forget, it might be ten) parachutes. The rocket decelerates and flips tail-first. I am still going at around 16 meters per second at this point. About five meters above the surface I fire eight launch escape systems to cushion the landing. And if all goes well... Hooray, we're on Eve now! The capsule on the bottom is there so I don't have to use a super long ladder. After the surface mission is completed, the two sets of wings are jettisoned along with the capsule at the bottom and the parachutes. The rocket lifts off powered be five central kickbacks as well as two hammers and four Launch Escape Systems. The five central boosters do most of the work, but in order to prevent a flip-over shortly after liftoff more TWR and control is needed, hence the Hammers, LES's, and the four jettisonable canards at the top of the rocket. Once enough speed is reached, the canards are jettisoned (around 50m/s), shortly followed by the Hammers and LES's. The five core boosters burn out and jettison. The next stage is made up of three Hammers, staged so that the outer two burn before the center one. This stage gets some horizontal velocity going and puts the apoapsis above 90km. The final two stages are powered by 24 sepatrons each (After four years I still can't spell Separatr-whachamacallit right) and boost the capsule into orbit. Unfortunately, in this test the periapsis ended up at around 20km, nothing the EVA pack couldn't fix. So, SRB only except for the last 50m/s. Although in other (ascent only) tests, I managed to get into a orbits with an apoapsis of above 300km, probably due to an inconsistent flight profile. Yay, progress!

Docking would be for the "refueling" of the mothership, AKA adding more stacks of solid rocket boosters along the way because my computer can't handle the whole ship at one time. As for the hundred hours of testing, I have spent eight so far on the Eve lander alone. Speaking of the Eve lander, I can enter Eve's atmosphere, glide to and pinpoint land at the tallest peak, take off, and enter orbit. However, I'm having a bit of trouble getting rid of one of the pesky forward heat shields...

Not to derail the thread too much, but it's actually an almost entirely SRB powered grand tour that I'm trying to do. The "almost" meaning I can use RCS to dock if I want.

Funny you mention that, as I'm in the process of designing an SRB only Eve Ascent Vehicle. I found that the ISP's are decent enough provided you're on a tall mountain.

*Begin half-serious question* Do minors from Iowa who can't really travel count? *End half-serious question* On a 100%-serious note, I look forward to any progress and advancements that you guys make in the future!

Heh. This doesn't qualify for the challenge, but it reminds me of the time I went to Eeloo with a mothership but forgot the parachutes at the end. Oh, and the crew did survive.

But I usually do these threads! There appears to be some sort of hold. EDIT: For those of you who know me well, I play a different cover of "The Final Countdown" at every launch I watch so thet the music synchronizes to the liftoff. Today's is one of Andrew Huang's covers (he made, like, five of them) which will synch if you start the music at T-1:29. Normally this would be T-1:36, but Ariane 5 takes off at T+7 for some reason.

Fixed that for you! Interlude - A Brief History of Whack-A-Kerbal That was really fun to write! If I ever get to go into space, I'm going to fill my pockets with magnets and paperclips. (It would be SOOOO cool if an astronaut actually did this!)

Wow man, that's 4.99821492324 times faster than my record!

It's.... It's... LIKE KSP IN REAL LIFE!!!!!!!1!!1!!1!@1!1!ONE1!!@!!

Slight correction, CRS-7 exploded. CRS-8 carried BEAM.

WOOOOHOOOOO!

So, you know how I time a different cover of "The Final Countdown" to the liftoff of each launch I watch? Well, I found this song called "Through the Fire and Flames." IT SOUNDS AMAZING. However, I am going to save it for the next Dragon launch. Why? Because it was written by Dragonforce. So, I'm listening to this, with the liftoff happening at about 1:12.

As soon as I typed that the stream went live.

Yeah, stream is not up. Elon did tweet that there is bad weather offshore and they had to reposition the droneship, so the landing will be a tight one.

@StupidAndy yes. Specifically 0:39 (but with a few added notes). Now that I think about it, I can still change it up a little bit more and it won't be the same song.

I sat down at my piano today and said "Today, I'm going to write another song!" and started plunking something out. Soon I have this melody and I'm like "Huh, this sounds really familiar." I can't place it so I continue writing, spending a while finding the right chords. I go over to my synthesizer which has memory tracks. I do the melody, chords, bass part, and drums. I still can't shake the feeling that this sounds extremely familiar. At this point I hoped I wasn't infringing on anyone's copyright. Then it hits me like a ton of bricks. That song I wrote is nearly exactly the exact same song as the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song. I SPENT TWO WHOLE HOURS WRITING THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE THEME SONG! WHAT THE ACTUAL MOHO IS WRONG WITH ME?!?!?!?!?!?!? *Hangs head in shame* *Rips up sheet music for Planet Steve - Banana*

Out of likes so you get a quote. I AM SPARTA GROOT!!!!!!!

@qzgy Correct, I will *try* to land at the top mountain. Also, I started working on re-entry. Three inflatable shields seemed to do the trick, but my landing gear/psuedolaunchpad kept exploding. So I added four static heat shields. However, decoupling them makes the landing gear/psuedolaunchpad explode. I tried mounting them differently, but then the game crashed. I guess I'm being told that seven straight hours of trying to make an Eve lander is a bit too much. I'll be done for now.

Okay, update on the SRB grand tour. The Eve lander is progressing well. Well as in "part of it works," not as in "It didn't take me long." It took me *checks watch* about six hours. So, after I downsized my 400 ton monster down to something more manageable (150t for the actual vehicle, 20t for the landing module) I tried to find a way to land it. At first I tried doing it how Stratzenblitz75 did, IIRC landing like a plane and then using rockets to stand the rocket back up for takeoff. I tried this, and the plane part worked practically first try. The landing on the third try. Now, the standing back up part... *Three hours later* Okay, new plan: glide to the landing site but at the last second deploy parachutes and land vertically. It allows for a precision-ish landing while being simpler than the other method. After that, I spent two more hours trying to fix various little problems, like tipping over on liftoff, not enough Delta-V, not enough TWR, etc. The result is my once-simple ascent vehicle covered in various doodads that probably have their own purpose. My computer is really going to hate the launch vehicle for this... Also I still haven't figured out atmospheric entry, but I can glide to a landing and then get back into orbit just fine (I think. I tested gliding and ascent, but not in the same test). So, yay! Progress!

Correct, that is "refueling." Docking, well, that is the question I aim to answer soon. I will probably have to at least use RCS for the final approach. On disposable landers (well, they will all be disposable probably) I might just use the EVA pack for the last hundred meters. Unfortunately, I will have to dock the aforementioned "refueling SRB's." I may cheat and use some RCS but up until the last few hundred meters I will try and stick with SRB's. Currently in the process of making the Eve lander. I will test out RCS-less Kerbin Orbit Rendezvous right after that. EDIT: Eve Ascent Vehicle is going well. If I manage to land close to the highest peak, I can actually downsize my lander quite a bit. One of my last separatron stages krakened on ascent and I still managed to reach orbit. I am going to see if I can cut it down so I can actually get it to Eve without killing my computer... EDIT2: Landing: Check. Ascent: Check. If I fly it right. Standing up after landing: Almost check. I'm going to add either rear landing legs or huge jettisonable fins. Re-entry: Not checked. I have no idea how I'm going to get this past Eve's atmosphere.

Well, I just got back from scout camp. Right before I left, I uploaded the final video in my "Eeloo Mothership Mission" series, in which I referenced an upcoming Grand Tour Mission which "may or may not ever happen." Now, there are probably several grand tour mission videos already out there, who would want to watch a dozen-episode series about an overbuilt mothership when they could watch an SSTO do a grand tour in five minutes? So, I thought that in order to get noticed as a "major thing," I would have to do something very impressive. So I got to thinking about impressive ways to do a grand tour. Single launch? Been done. SSTO? Been done. EVA pack only? Been done. But then an idea hit my head, and I immediately tried to shoot it down. The low specific impulse and high part count would mean that I would have to use dozens of refueling trips. It would take too long with the dozen other things I have going on (plus getting a job). I couldn't do it because I'd still need to use RCS to dock (although I have decided I will use it and bend the rules). The more I tried to talk myself out of it, the more I convinced myself it was possible. I have landed an entire Mun base using this technique. Someone's even gone to Eve and back like this... So, this is going to be really hard. And someone might actually see this post and finish it before me. But... I am going to attempt a Grand Tour using only Solid Rocket Boosters for propulsion.

The entire planet of Kerbin is covered in doors. When a ship lands, a section of these doors open and the ship drops down onto a giant trampoline, which pivots down onto a conveyor belt. These conveyor belts take the rocket to one of several hyperloops (positioned at every single latitude and longitude line) and then the landed pieces are transported at speeds of up to 1km/s back to the KSC. Either that or they have teleporters. Why don't they use them to get into space? I have no idea.