Kerbolitto

Chapter 6 is done ! Every required ship is now in orbit. The packaging was even longer than the 1st and 2nd one because I needed to launch so much stuff .. Because of that I had to limit myself at sending 28 Kerbals to get max points before Y5, could have done better without the weight of DeepSpaceTransit or KerbinSpaceStation .. (and a lighter outpost on SLV 01) ! Hopefully Sr. docks are really sturdy and nothing broke. SLV 03 :

CHAPTER 6, SLV 03 and second transfer to Duna Part 1 : Launch, encounter with KSS The time as come to launch again some new parts, after another 525 days rotation to prepare the rocket. SLV 03 weights a tiny bit less than 87.5tons like every other payloads, but this one is quite special. After many hours of forward thinking the engineers were able to pack every remaining modules in this third launch. What that mean is, every achievements should be complete with all the hardware orbiting Kerbin and Duna. Inside this streamlined fairing is combined a lot of cool stuff and a huge rolling habitat to pursue the mission with a crew of 28 (+2 piloting the injection's pod). Part 2 : Maneuvers and dockings to complete DunaSpaceStation After joining KerbinSpaceStation, the crew remote-controlled RoboTug to switch every necessary modules. All 3 NukePods and DunaSpaceStation Habitat-module, which were launched on SLV 02, are now docked to DSS after reconfiguration. DeepSpaceTransit (a taxi capable of flying Duna-Kerbin-Duna without refuelling with a crew of 5) is docked to KSS, waiting for the next transfer window. Docking maneuvers were quite tedious with very limited monopropellant (and lot of lag) so after completing its mission, RoboTug was left drifting until next launch. Part 3 : Mothership complete, injection to Duna After completing every module needed for this transfer, the whole contraption is ready to get to Duna. It's more like a mothership than a simple Station at this point .. The whole thing weights 183t. with its crew capacity and fuel tanks half empty. Since it has more dV than needed the mission control planned a quick injection to put everything in orbit around Y4D92. Part 4 : Bringing back 4 nukes Ship's now on its way to a new world, Hilpont and Monand detached from it to bring back one NukePod in LKO. They burned retrograde to recapture Kerbin's SOI and used a Mun gravity assist to lower them on a parking orbit. Mission control decided that there's no point having dozens of Nukes sitting around Duna until they bring everyone's back home, on the last transfer before Year10. Whole ship complete, now on a transfer path to Duna : Next chapter should be maneuvers around Duna, and return of 2 Kerbals on Kerbin before Y5, using a totally non-hohmann transfer ! List of ships has just been updated. Thanks for reading

Awesome SLV !!!

Awesome idea, I'll try it some day !

Funny thing about this challenge, every step is harder than the last .. Thought the 1st launch was hard to plan with fuel restrictions, non-hohmann transfer and fast aerobraking .. Now I'm scratching my mind with SLV03 to plan the quickest injection (non hohmann if possible), decoupling half of nuke pods to recapture on Kerbin and leaving enough fuel to retroburn the whole stuff around Duna.. I think I'm starting to see a common thread here .. There will be 0 simple aim and inject in this mission edit : Should I put the whole SLV03 to Minmus and refuel tanks to the max (3k9dV - 0.22TWR) or launch from Kerbin just a little time before the transfer window (1k1dV injection / 1kdV capture - 0.27TWR) ? Round trip to Minmus with ISRU and fuel tanks take approx. 25 days, launching from Minmus would reduce that time to 10 11 days before being able to inject with full tanks but if Minmus is on the bad side I'm screwed (got 66 days before optimal transfer). What do you guys think ?

Intercepting a ballistic encounter might be very hard ... I tried it by catching an asteroid passing between Mun and Kerbin, so quite close, it requires 3 corrections from the lander + 3/4 adjustments with RCS at very low thrust... 910m/s to get away from Kerbin, 475m/s to catch the target. Hardest thing / heavier cost would be plane change in my opinion (the asteroid I chose was on a polar encounter with Kerbin so it was easy to launch at 0°) but catching a ballistic between Mun and Minmus for example might be very very precise!

Hello This is a preview of SLV 03 docked to some modules waiting on KerbinSpaceStation since SLV02. The ship is "quite" large at 180t. and almost 400 parts .. I've never done something like this before. It has something like 2k3 dV with Lf tanks half full and a TWR of 0.27 (8 nukes) so it's not too bad this time !

Nice looking Harrier !

Chapter 5 is posted : I took time to explore Duna a bit, test the outpost rolling capabilities, and resolved a problem with life support !

CHAPTER 5, Exploring Duna, more mining ! Part 1 : GTA Stunts After realizing the crew had nothing to do while waiting for some friends to join them on the surface, they decided to use the outpost big wheels to actually go somewhere. They headed north-east through lowlands, midlands, highlands, get down in the Northern Bassin, followed the Northwest Canyon and are now bouncing on the equator in the Midland Sea , under Ike's watch. The outpost is actually very robust, it can speed up to 65m/s but the wheels loose traction above 40-45m/s. RCS thrusters on the 2 seats habitats at the very back of the outpost allows for a good control during high jumps Part 2 : Food problem ! When the outpost was deorbited right into Duna's scarlet face, the crew somehow forgot to share snacks with Bill & Valentina, who would be waiting around the planet for a long period. A rescue mission was set up using DTv2 and the 2seats habitat which would later serve for the early Kerbin's return so everyone could have its fair share of chips and knackis. Jebediah sat in the habitat during 4 days and met up in orbit with Val and Bill in the ISRU 2-d, while the DTv2 was refuelling on the ground. Those maneuvers were not part of the planning and involved some dangerous dockings on the ground but somehow nothing was broken thanks to A LOT of simulations. Just before those multiple dockings (somehow a common theme on this challenge) it was also decided that all the stuff in orbit would be packed together, the ParachutePod and one LNP were still drifting. Part 3 : Consequences Now that Bill and Valentina got all the food they can eat, the DTv2 had to be refuelled at Ike. It is a necessity that all fuel tanks are topped up, to deorbit Kerbals who will later join the crew on Duna's ground. With no pressure and too much fuel, the 2 Kerbonauts set a new encounter with Ike.

I think that part count is higher with a light payload because you have to make little modules (more probes, more RCS), add some little fuel tanks here and there, in the end it's more weight-effective (in my opinion) but with larger fuel tanks and 1 or 2 more engines, a large payload would be more user friendly (and require less dockings).

Meanwhile on Duna This thing does fly !

Cool challenge Here is my entry : This was a reason to light-up my Test870, which is a very cool aircraft, only thing is that it doesn't land very well (you may notice a missing winglet !)

Well thank you, I'll bring you some Ore from Minmus !

I think it doesn't have to land : " Advanced deep space transit: If 'Deep space transit' is scored, it must support a minimum of 5 kerbals and refuel only in Duna SOI (travels from Duna -> Kerbin -> Duna without refueling) (+3) " That would request a kerbi-load of dV if the thing had to land and take off from Duna on top of that. Also nice SSTO ! I love them myself but can't use it much on this challenge since it would be a loooot of parts when approaching from the payloads

I've posted Chapter 4 of my adventures on this challenge : SLV 02 happenned, there's a lot of hardware floating around Kerbin (I love this pic, the crew was somehow able to dock Kerbol). Spoiler : its not lightweight

CHAPTER 4, Launching SLV 02, Harvesting Minmus Part 1 : SLV 02 on Launchpad After launching new stuff some days ago, I noticed that a relay antenna was broken when openning the fairing ... So I decided to reload, then change the fairing, which of course turned into changing a ton of things (that was 4 days ago). Not only is the new payload more user-friendly (less stuff to dock) and is lighter, it is also more pretty with added lights and cosmetic stuff (it is a space station after all!). Part 2 : 1st landing on Minmus and coming back to LKO with some much needed Fuel Anwise and Anlorf arrived at Minmus and are warming up the Convert-o. This version is lighter than the 2-d, it is able to easily carry a Mk3 fuselage and it has 2 Terriers facing downward to provide vertical boost during take-off. It is also designed to dock a light mobile habitat with room for 2 on long duration missions. Part 3 : KSS chillin around Minmus, crew took some mint pictures Our brave crew is now orbiting around Minmus with a whole space station and is ready to mine a lot more stuff ! Part 4 : Getting KSS down in LKO, pushing buttons to make it alive Now that KSS is fuelled, the crew lit up all 8 Nukes to come back in LKO. They also took time to watch the Mun because it's beautifull at this season. Part 5 : Last departure to Minmus Now that KSS is back where it belongs, Anwise and Anlorf are preparing for a last mining session. They now have some experience with Minmus departures. Part 6 : Packing up modules, waiting for SLV 03 Now that the crew and 2-g came down on KSS with a lot of fuel, some modules are re-attached onto KSS for later use. The 3 Nukes pods are docked in a usable order, when will come the time to push the second to Duna. Ships list on 1st post is now updated

Ow, not cool..! Some news on my report, I launched the second rocket but I noticed after de-docking everything that a relay antenna blew with the fairing, so I'm back in the VAB ... since 3 days XD I may post some news tonight, SLV 02 and 03 are loaded with a huge pile of stuff. I found a way to send every module required, even the rover (32 slots)

Here is a picture of the upcoming report, a new payload was prepared in the VAB and launched at the first hour of Y2 D139. The mission require a ton of hardware, some modules will become complete assemblies after 3rd launch, 525 days later, just before the second transfer window to Duna. The packaging took a very long time to finish, some modules having 4 or 5 iterations to simplify as much as possible while retaining reliability and ease of use.

Yes @Death Engineering

Not sure that you can go to Minmus, mine, and come back in LKO (with Mun assist to save as much fuel as possible) in less than 10 days. I may suggest that you dock a little space habitat on your ISRU, which you can use for some other purposes once you've finished mining.

Here is a little spoiler on what's coming next. Hopefully I planned everything correctly for the next 2 launches, which should complete every achievement (minus the little rover). I may send it on the 3rd transfer window.

Very nice charts !

Thank you @Death Engineering ! I focused on lowering weight (even if there's still looots of room for improvements ...) which meant re-use everything, like the parachute pod now orbiting Duna, so I only got to launch them once. Dart-Tug will be use to power the DunaSpaceBus, and the little Light Nuke Pods should be assigned behind the Deep Space Transit. There will be more modules on the next launch, to complete the fleet and allow more flexibility. As of the multi dock technique I saw KerbalSpaceCommand use it on one of his (great) video, I may use it later but for now almost every module got a Sr. dock to avoid noodl-o-tron, maybe during the end of the challenge if tiny stuff is missing..

Well I can't try it then, I got a excrementsty i3 with low ram and it's already hard enough