astroheiko

Also from me - Congratulations @all The Leto Mission has arrived today. Here is the link and a photo. Leto Arrival Greetings

Today the Leto Mission arrived at the finish line. The mother ship must do a braking maneuver for 3810m/s to get an orbit. Now I have just 536m/s dV left - not particularly much. Now I release the two relays out. The connection to the KSC is miserable, I often lose it. I just managed to position the two relays, a few days later nothing works anymore. Maybe I'll never get more contact and I've got 2 dead sattelites out there forever. The problems are endless. The mothership now has not enough dV to land itself, so I fill the rest of the fuel into the lander, which now has 796 m/s dV - that should be enough. Biome I could not even mark any, I wanted to actually use the Relays. But without radio connection ... That is why I want to bring fuel to the mother ship, the antennas are stronger. For this I would like to mount the Narrow Band Scanner to the lander, usually I take my claw for this. The lack of radio connection does prevent that and I have to undock it and let him drift. Then I can catch him somehow with the lander. Unfortunately he is not very useful to me, because I have no KerbNet access ... I will probably have to land on good luck and hope on some ore. I have luck and get a point with ore on the first try. I had not much fuel reserves, but now I can fill up. At the same time, I do the first scientific research. Then I dock again on the mothership. Unfortunately, I have to dock in front, since this damn Narrow Band scanner at the other end of the lander occupies the docking port. To land the mothership, however, the lander must be at the rear end of the Mothership. I have to rebuild it somehow but I can not use the claw since I have no damn radio connection. To all misfortune I need also the connecting piece of the claw. In order not to lose the claw forever, I activate it and undock it. At the same time, she catches a part of the mother ship and hangs tightly. Now I can undock the connecting piece and it is in space and is drifting away. So I can catch it with the bottom from the lander, dock the Narrow Band Scanner and hang the lander to the lower end of the mother ship. What an effort - and only because of this missing radio connection. This is how it looks now. Due to the refuel action I have now enough dV to land the mothership and refuel completely. What the hell ... When I approach the landing I actually see a...big rock? So big? I take a closer look and see...an arch. Could someone have so much luck? So - I'm down. And there is also ore. Only the Narrow BAnd scanner is squeezed a little - Bad luck for you - if you would work properly then you would have been spared. Now we have to refuel. Now I need a break after the stress ... Stupid radio connection ...

The test phase of the new Mothership begins by mounting the rover on the lander. Besides, I take one of the additional tanks with Iota. Works everything quite well so far. The new Rover also works as it should. The crew discovers a huge hole in the surface. Perhaps we can solve our garbage problems in the future by using the hole as a garbage chute. The tank was filled and everything comes back to its place at the mothership. The next thing to test is to land the whole ship on Iota. It works more or less well. The place must be very flat otherwise it can easily tilt. The start is again smooth. Afterwards I wanted to see if I could use the mothership to catch asteroids - this is only the second time that I visit an asteroid. For this, I fixed the claw at the bottom of the lander and the lander to the front end of the mothership. Theoretically, I could then use the ISRU of the lander. I could catch the asteroid but unfortunately the drills are too far away from the surface of the asteroid. This means that I have to make small changes to the final design again. When I'm at it, does anyone of you know a way to calculate the range when you use an asteroid as "additional tank"? Can the formula DV = 9.81 * Isp * ln (Mw / Md) be used? How much fuel can be produced from e.g. 2000 tons of ore? A ton of ore - a ton of liquid fuel at 100% ISRU efficiency? That would be great. Questions about questions.

So you know the problem. Thrust Offset Angle can be really difficult if you want to build asymmetrical. Without KER, it would not have been possible to get the ship to fly. I pushed the outer tanks slightly upwards so that the fuel tanks form a kind of counterbalance. The thrust offset angle is initially 0.3 degrees, then rises to 0.9, drops to 0 and then reverses and rises again to 0.9. Here is a picture from the bottom - after landing on Iota.

Thank you for the compliment. Once the mothership is in orbit, it can be controlled normally - now. I spent half of the construction time adjusting the thrust angle. The thrusters were sometimes too far down, then too far up. If it is full of fuel, it always wanted to steer "up" when it is almost empty then "down". I then also had to adjust the order as the tanks are emptied and mount some Reaction Wheels. Now it can hold the course. I build such monsters just because I'm too stingy to constantly send rockets up. I also want to be as flexible as possible when I visit a system. And I'm always afraid to have too little dV. What I still lack is a reasonably cargo SSTO aircraft. The only thing I did was terrible. And - I just ran out of likes - every day the same thing. Greetings

An illuminator with white light is mounted on the claw. I forgot to turn it off. It is very close to the docking port.

So you have managed to build an airplane for Laythe which can also startt from the water. Congratulations.

By the way: I like your rockets - especially the upper stage of the project "Iron Sands"

@JadeOfMaar

Today I brought my new mothership into orbit. The old design was not bad but I wanted to have a slimmer design. The launch was a bit difficult but this is always the case with the huge mother ships. At the third attempt it worked and the mothership arrived in orbit. It then waited in a 600 km orbit to the rest of the equipment. Here comes the rest. One lander, a rover, two satellites and a claw. The rendezvous has worked and I dock. And here it is. Complete equipment with all the stuff. Here is a picture from the front. The lander can also dock in front, in addition, the two outer tanks are designed for docking. This allows you to increase the range or mount one of the tanks at the lander to better refuel when the mothership can not land alone. Now begins the test phase. The mothership is to complete extensive test runs at Iota before I send it elsewhere. It is also very useful as an asteroid catcher when the lander is attached at the front and the claw is placed at the bottom of the lander. But I have to try it out.

Lilli - Definitely. It is not able to land at...ahem... It 's best to try it out yourself. I don't want to spoil.

People ... get ready for really epic pictures. Edit: Holy mother...He did not promise too much !!!

@eddiew That looks far from lumpy. I think I mentioned it before but for safety I say it again: Because of YOU I have begun to build more beautiful vehicles. Your pictures are always very beautiful and inspiring - always. @JadeOfMaar Did you mean that Pack with the "Hades" Engine? I just installed it and look at the new parts. There are exactly the parts that I missed. I thank you for the hint. Hopefully my old i7 870 can still work with it. Now I am able to compete . For the many parts I will need some time, but at least a few days. Maybe we can also pull Lovahullus into the boat, his vehicle from the profile picture ... awesome. Again, all this is not a (real) competition - so do not take it too seriously. I personally like it exactly as it is now. A friendly atmosphere and you learn a lot - small jokes are welcome. To remain at least something with the topic: The installation vin 1.2.3 worked as always problem-free. I had only minor difficulties to get the Skybox to run but this is not part of the pack - the ore problem I will probably never get rid of, does not matter.

@JadeOfMaar I knew it. I've already known it before ...That I must build a new mother ship. That is an awesome piece of art you have built there. Since I now really need some good design ideas to keep up with the stock parts. Just give me a few days.

Damn it. And again he has me on the hook. So the next goal is called: Grannus Orbit and back with ISRU - and a new fence. You're driving me crazy

I only play with the stock parts (My PC is too weak for even more mods). I unfortunately had no other option than to try so. Also, I found it interesting to figure out the maneuvers. I have not did the math but I do not believe that it is possible to come to Grannus and burn an orbit with ISRU. But your Lag Generator sounds very interesting - is there a picture somewhere? @ all The Hox Mission has returned to Gael - here is the link: Hox Return

After 23 years and 390 days, Sigmin, Dudkin, Mirise and Desler Kerman are back from their trip to Hox. They initiate the braking maneuver, equal the inclination and wait at an orbit of 500km to be picked. They are picked up by Jeb with the crew shuttle. The crew and 255 records are stowed, then they are undocking and it goes home. This time, the mothership and the lander remains alone. There are currently no upcoming missions scheduled for this ship. Re-entry into the atmosphere. This time I could reduce the speed early enough. For this I come a bit obliquely to the runway. Oddly, however, Jeb was able to land everything in one piece. I could bring 17611,8 science points with me. Everyone in the crew received 68 XP.

@JadeOfMaar Irradiation, an excellent idea. So I did it then also: Today is an important day. Preparations are under strict secrecy. No one knows why Bill has built this device and is pulling the Grannus ship through the area. He sets it before the astronaut complex and quickly hurried away again. A little later, he arrives with a fence and places it. Then it will be evening. The place is brightly lit and there are even more strange things before the entrance. Slowly you can see a small group of kerbals who have positioned themselves in front of the ship. Reverently JeB, Bill, Bob and Valentina are standing here to honor Lagerlenna and Obfrey. Jeb seizes the word: We are here today to honor these two Gaelnauts. They are both a radiant example for us all. This memorial is to remind us forever of their courage and determination to dare a journey into the unknown. Never before has anyone dared to travel to the borders of the Cirosystem and not to know whether a homecoming would be possible. The only comrades with whom I would ever deny the venture of a space flight were to this day Bill, Bob and Valentina. Today, two more have been added, Lagerlenna and Obfry Kerman. With you both I would land on Ciro if it were possible.

The Grannus Flyby ship has now returned home. Here is the link: Grannus Return and a picture: Conclusion: Originally, I had assumed that the mission would take 90 years. Then I found out that one can reduce the flight time by cleverly planned maneuvers. Thus the entire mission could be carried out in only 37 years. Here is a brief summary of the entire maneuvers: Start towards Grannus: approx. 6000 m/s Correction for lowering PE at Grannus 68 m/s Correction in the middle of the flight by 7.1 m/s Accelerated at Grannus SOI for 5100 m/s Accelerated at Grannus PE for 4844 m/s to get Intecept with Gauss Correction at Gauss SOI for 2.3 m/s to reach low PE at Gauss. Correction at SOI Catullus for 390 m/s to reach PE at Gauss of 430km Braking maneuver after Gauss PE for 11814 m/s to get Gael Intercept. Brake maneuver at Gael for 4919 m/s to reach orbit of 500 km. I have a total of 33000 m/s dV needed. This is however substantially cheaper if one takes the long flight time in the purchase. It is certainly possible to stay below 10000 m/s dV.

The Grannus Flyby ship has now reached the sphere of influence of Gauss. The current flight time is 33 years and 395 days. I easily correct the course so as not to enter the atmosphere of Catullus. The first object that the crew gets to see after such a long journey - it almost feels as if they were at home. After I leave the area of influence of Catullus I brake for 390m/s and reach a Gauss PE of 430km. At 14898 m/s, the ship raced past Gauss. After that, I ignite the main brake maneuver to get an intercept with Gael. I have to brake for 11814 m/s dV - over 2 hours of burning time. Now I need patience because I can only burn a little more than 4 minutes until the batteries are empty. Somehow I have done it and the PE at Gael is just under 100 km. Still two years and 315 days, then the two will be back home. Time jump. Obfry and Lagerlenna have entered a stable orbit around Gael. The last brake maneuver cost 4919 m/s dV and there are only 2919 m/s left. At the beginning of the mission 30141 m/s dV were available for the ion engines. Now they are waiting at a 500km orbit to be picked up. I quickly assemble a probe with parachutes and a claw and start into space. Shortly thereafter, she docked. I want to land and keep the Grannus ship, so I built a kind of lander for it. Everything works well and nothing gets too hot since I've reduced the speed enough. The parachutes open and I will land near the GSC. I undock the lander and the Grannus ship stays on the spot. Maybe I will later build some sort of forklift to move it and make a memorial. And here are the coveted data from Grannus. Obfry and Lagerlenna get 27 XP. Greetings Edit: @Plane Crazy Welcome to the forum

Thank you very much. Before this Lander I have always put some garbage together - main thing it works. But as I have seen here in the forum the many beautiful things I wanted to have something like that. It does not look like it, but it can land on Tylo and return to orbit. Your wish should be fulfilled. Here you will find a detailed description of the mothership and also some pictures of the launch. Launch of the mothership Back to work: Today there is an update to my Flyby probe. She has refueled and is now on the way to Icarus. During the flyby of Icarus I do not make any maneuvers, I will wait another 5 days to reach Ciroperiapsis. Because I have incredibly good luck and can reach there for about 1740 m/s dV a encounter with Niven. My next goal. After the flyby at Niven I do not know further anymore. Tellumo and Lilli would be the next goal, but I believe the juice goes out. After I set the maneuvernode for Tellumo it becomes clearer, it is not enough. I have to make a stopover "at home" to refuel. So I'm planning a maneuver at the Ciroperiapsis for Gael and then an orbit around Iota. Arrived at Gael, I burn an orbit and have again impertinent luck to meet Iota at the AP without having to make corrections. However, I do not have much more fuel, which could be scarce. At the PE around Iota I set a maneuver to land immediatly without to burn first an orbit. After the maneuver I still have 290 m/s dV, which becomes tight. And I've got shameless luck again - incredible. 10 m before the touchdown, the fuel goes out and the probe lands with 5m/s, in one piece. After refueling, the probe flies to Tellumo. I do not have to go there yet but I can fly a swingby maneuver and come to Gratian for only 17m/s. Some 100 days later, I would like to fly a course correction to get a low Periapsis for Gratian. I want to land at Geminus and refuel, as the trip to Otho is to continue. At the same time I put the focus on Otho in map mode and notice that I am after the course correction already to 5 million km with Otho. That can not be true: first I land with the last drop on Iota and I'm lucky that I do not crash, then I get a flyby at Tellumo for just 17m/s for Gratian and now I have a total of just 4m/s to get to Otho. No joke - has really happened so. The probe has a maximum of 7549 m/s dV and now 6030 dV are still left. Most of it I needed to get from Gael to Tellumo. I still have a picture of the Gratian/Otho trajectory. Greetings

This was really a nice surprise, maybe it comes again. Then I launch an airplane and fly through the sunset. That would be beautiful pictures. Ok - back to the daily business: I had to equip my Leto mother ship and refuel. I wanted to start from a high orbit but the flight time and the dV requirements were too high for me. It was supposed to last 66 years. I then went down to 350km, filled the mother ship up to the top and set a node by hand. Now I can use Oberth and invest more dV. I was able to reduce the flight time by 53 years. Here is the link to the post: Leto Departure and one pic: Greetings

The mothership to Leto needs 2 more relays, so I quickly put a rocket together. My freight SSTO I could have taken too but it does not fly as great as I would like. So we take a rocket, which goes faster. The claw I have attached at the bottom of the mothership so I can catch the supply rocket. The relays I put to the usual place on the mothership. After that, I stow everything back again and dock the lander down to the mothership so I can land. Now I have to go to Iota to refuel the mothership. 3 days later, the mission is in orbit around Iota and I am looking for a landplacement with enough ore. Then I start the engines to lower the orbit ... ... and land on a beautiful spot overlooking Ciro. After refueling I am looking for a parking orbit around Gael. 80000km are reached and I get a heart attack as I open the Transfer Window Planner and let a course to Leto calculate. 66 years and 251 days and 6194 m/s dV? I decide to reduce the orbit to 350km, which lowers the dV requirements to 5574 m/s. Then I take my fuel station and refuel the mothership. Now I have 9307 m/s dV available. This effort I make because I intend to invest more dV to get faster to Leto. I would like to use the Oberth effect of Gael and have as much fuel on board as possible to get the maximum benefit. Now I plan a maneuver by hand. That looks better. For a total of 7894 m/s dV, I can reach an orbit around Leto in just 13 years and 279 days, including 1500m/s reserve. So I will do it - and incredible 53 years of flight time saved.

@JadeOfMaar Do not panic - you will not get rid of me so quickly. For this I have made a picture today that will nobody imitate me so fast. I had already some flooding on Gael but that is something completely new. A funny bug. So: TAKE THAT Greetings

You have my fullest sympathy with your problem but ... I still have to laugh about your report. CEO ... That's good @JadeOfMaar Ok ... I'll give up now. If I see your rover ... I have no chance. You just have to look at my rover as a comparison and there are no questions left open. Greetings