BechMeister

Believe it or not.. I have as of now 1200h in KSP2 - and I have only just left Kerbin SOI for Duna.. I think Ive made 9 launches to Duna, and 2 that came back - If all goes well from now on, its just 2 more launches and I'm done with the Duna Mastery Challenge. I feel like I need a break from the game though - so when those two launches are done... I think ill slip back into Eve Online.. and we will see when Eve will let me go again. Just like in Kerbin, the atmosphere is quite hard to escape But it makes me kind of "sad" - I never got into KSP1.. I actually think the piecemeal launch of KSP2 was what allowed me to get in.. it was not overwhelming in the same way.. I learned a lot building space infrastructure.. and by the time I was ready to leave Kerbin SOI. I think I was armed to do cool stuff around Duna.

Well... I have been trucking on in the game with the challenges + extra steps I put upon myself. But I must admit that a driving factor for me last year was the encouragement from the forum. As of now its actually not the state of the game that kills lust to play.. its the despair of the community. I think its even worse on the official discord.. I feel the KSP2 general chat only talks about substitute games for KSP2.. and when ever I post something I did in game.. no one seems to care. I know that this can come off as very self centered.. or like: If it come across as that - it is not my point... my point is, that when ever the game got tough it was the encouragement, suggestions and feedback from the community that got me going.. And none of my other acquaintances care enough about space travel to understand it when I talk about what I am doing in the game. So what I am really saying is.. I miss the community. I have decided that once Im dont with my current mission report - ill stop playing KSP until further notice.

Challenge 6 - Accomplished: Image of the Duna Sample Pod - safely back on Kerbin. Game Version: 0.2.1.0 This challenge was really "fun" to me - although it almost failed twice! I completed it using 3 vehicles: My Rover from challenge 5 to take samples A Lander with an Ascent Stage that could get the samples into Low Duna Orbit. A Ion Engine driven Sample Return Stage that could bring the sample from Duna to Kerbin. I tried to simulate the Mars Sample Return mission - and just like that is a complicated mission with a lot of failure points, it turned out my own mission would have a few failure points. My Lander was sent together with the rover I sent in challenge 5. Together with that, the first version of the Ion Engine driven vehicle was sent. *spoiler: i had to send an updated version* First Failure Point: Second Failure Point: Walkthrough of the Mission: This is a long one.. apologies - I have tried to organize it to not make it clutter the challenge page. Note: Since the Rover and Sample Ascent vehicle was send at the same time and in identical rockets. I have had to reuse the images of the transfer of the Rover from Challenge 5 entry. But rest assured that the images from the Landing of the Sample Ascent Vehicle section are brand new! (found in the Sample Ascent Vehicles Journey section) The Sample Ascent Vehicles Journey: Duna Sample Return vehicle Journey: Again.. I am sorry if this challenge entry got a bit bloated.. but there were a lot of moving parts to document.. I hope you guys can forgive me I had a lot of fun doing this, but also a lot of frustrations.. Some bug related.. some just me not thinking straight. I think Challenge 7 and 8 will be a walk in the park.

Just went through it. Man I still have a lot to "learn" in regards to aerobraking and transfer burns... I use significantly more Δv getting to Duna than you do - also your remark about the burned off ladder made me smile

this is great to know! I am 2 challenges away from the plane one on this one - But that is also because I am doing the challenge with extra steps x) Nice plane btw. I wish there were an option to cover the hydrogen tanks up... I myself often cover them up with the tubes that can be varied in length. Its only for vehicles not meant to reenter I use keep them "naked" Yeah... I am still slaving on with my own challenge and blog about my progress.. but it does not seem to matter at all.. No one is watching KSP2 content any way. So I think Ill give the game a break once I am done with my Duna Mastery Challenge. I have still a lot to do though. I have only visited Duna as of now, and I have not touched the For Science gameplay. I am still just having fun in Sandbox mode. But the community is killing my fun...

-=ARES I MISSION =- Stage 0: Getting Ares Base 01 settled on Duna I have decided to call my manned mission to Duna Ares 1 - Very original I know... I was contemplating something better.. but The Martian is one of my favorite movies... and I dont know what the Kerbals called their god of war in their antiquity - Kebares? Any way.. Landing all the base pieces was done "succesful" - or at least in one piece.. But more on that bellow. <<<<<<<<<<Mission Tasks>>>>>>>>>>> A. Launch 'The Stack' and dock to the Cruise Stage - Successful B. Transport the stack to Duna and deploy Ares Base 01 to Survey Site D - Successful C. Assemble the base on Survey Side D - Successful <<<<<<<<<<Lessons Learned; Lessons Identified>>>>>>>>>>> A. Launch 'The Stack' into LKO and connect it with the ICV Hermes (CS): The ICV Hermes (CS) in orbit above Kerbin. On the above image you see the Cruise Stage (CS) already in orbit around Kerbin. Most definitely build in space - and not launched in a ridicules fashion that requires the involvement strapping solid rocket boosters to a thin walled spherical hydrogen tank.. then having the flimsy wire structure flip regularly to avoid it melting coming through the atmosphere at high mach values.. etc.. no... definitely build in space like any sane space agency would do... What's that? a secret spoiler section containing photos of the structure being launched exactly in that manner? lies..! *Siiiigh* - it hurts my inner space nerd that I have to launch vehicles build to be light and never see the light of an atmosphere in this fashion.. Well.. It technically was in 3 pieces: Engine module 50t Hydrogen tank Docking Module with RCS So it could have been launched individually under a faring. The only structure that is really an issue is the spherical tank. A part of me do not believe that we would ever launch a tank like that.. that we would either build it to be inflatable or something and then launch it in space. Or construct it in a Low Orbit. Any way - It got to space in one piece and all. That's all that matters. But I really hope there is still a future for the game were space stations with a VAB will be a thing. x) You all read how the stack was launched during the testing phase in the R&D post. So I have put that step into the spoiler section bellow: Now after 'The Stack' had entered a stable LKO - it was the job for the Cruise Stage to rendezvous with it and dock to it. Because 'The Stack' was "behind" the Cruise Stage. The fastest way to ensure docking was to just allow it to catch up with the Cruise Stage. In case you dont know - the lower orbit will eventually catch up with the higher orbit. Once 'The Stack' was directly below the Cruise Stage, I would lower the orbit for a rendezvous (being extra careful that I did not dip into to the atmosphere - I've done that before). I preferer to catch the target, rather than wait for it.. since when catching up you will raise your orbit when bellow the target. Thus minimizing the risk of accidentally planning a path that will deorbit you. See spoiler section bellow for procedure: The ICV Hermes (CS) arriving at 'The Stack' burning to kill relative speed to it. After a short while the Cruise Stage arrived at 'The Stack', and matched velocity. After that it was a simple matter of lining up the two parts and carefully dock them together. The ICV Hermes fully assembled and ready to blast off to Duna. The whole sequence left the ICV Hermes with 46.52/50t hydrogen. And gave the vehicle 6.353Δv to launch the Ares Base 01 to Duna. B. Transfer and Deployment of Ares Base 01 to Duna: The ICV Hermes arriving at Duna. Getting to Duna: Getting the ICV to Duna was an easy task - It only required 1155 Δv and the burn "only" took 3m 24s burn (I tend to fly "underpowered" vehicles, so that's fast to me) - the nuclear engines really shine here. a slight correction burn had to be made to get a good angle on Duna to make the orbit circularize around a polar orbit. Because of a Time Warp error - I accidently placed the time warp point too close to Duna's SOI. I have found that if you time warp through a SOI of another body.. it simply wont stop time warping. Luckily enough I got a auto save going through the Duna SOI.. and because I still had a lot of Δv remaining, I decided to just do a very expensive burn to capture Duna. It meant a few expensive maneuvers, but I still only spend about half the Hydrogen load getting there. The orbit was set and it was time to deploy the base to the target area. Main Lessons on deploying base to target zone: Δv Margins on Capsules: This turned out to be a much harder task than anticipated. a big Lessons Learned is to give the capsules more than 50-100 Δv to do the final course adjustments. Every orbit I came around I had to adjust the ICVs orbit to line up with an overflying of the target area, and I also had to lower the PE to 20-30km before launching the capsules. It meant a lot of maneuvers had to be done, and juggling the ICV in a low duna orbit (~50-60km) while controlling the capsules. On the plus side - I did not have any issues with littering space, since the connecting parts would always be jettisoned in a degrading orbit. Different Aerodynamics: The capsules also had vastly different aerodynamic propperties. The LAB module for instance would keep accelerating until reaching the lower atmosphere - were the conical shape of the Living Quarter Capsule meant it were slowing down already in the upper atmosphere. the constant change in drag propperties - as well as the low Δv margins for each capsules, meant it was very hard to get a feel for where to aim, to hit the target area. Conclusion: In the future I will have to devote at least 300 Δv to each capsule, and add more options to increase and "decrease" drag and burn the capsule - to better shorten or lengthen its suborbital trajectory - Probably by adding aerobreakes and RCS thrusters. Deploying the LAB module: Deploying Living Quarter: Deploying Duna Rover 01 and 02: Deploying Solar Panel Farm: C. Assembling Ares Base 01 The marked circle is the spot were the base was setup after assembly. - The southernmost vehicle is the sample return vehicle and percy. The base elements had landed quite far apart - and Because I had forgotten to put on batteries on the Living Quarters they were out of battery by the time they had landed. The only base element that could generate power was the Solar Panel Farm - and the only base element it could dock to was the LAB module. So the base assembly was done in this order: Solar Panel Farm connecting to the LAB module LAB module + Solar Panel Farm to the Living Quarter The Ares Base 01 driving to suitable spot. Rover01 driving to Ares Base 01 Rover02 driving to Ares Base 01 There is a "bug" were it seems that when you drive across the "tiles" of the terrain, the vehicle would "bump into" the next tile and veer of course and crash (if you didn't pay attention - it would happen about every 1km). It meant that I couldn't just set it to drive on autopilot.. which meant that it took a few evenings after the kids were asleep to get it done. Dont worry I tried to make the tedium more exciting by doing it half attentive while listening to podcasts with my wife (a lot of quick saves and reverts). In the end it a suitable place was found and the base was setup about 3km north of the crater the Duna Sample Retriever had landed. Ares Base 01 setup and ready in the 'Claws of War valley' The Rovers: The rovers got back in good speed - they could drive 25m/s on flat terrain and they had enough RCWs to get back on track when they hit the tiles and veered off course. I drove with frequent quick saves - every bump survived was quick saved... since it was not a given that the vehicle wouldn't tumble. Rover 01 enroute to Ares Base 01 There was a bug, that was almost mission killing, that I also encountered on my Minmus mission. When I got within 2km of the Ares Base 01 it would just blow up. I am not sure what happens, but it would always be preceded by a "Ares Base 01 is on crashing course" promt. I think what happens is that when I drive with 25 m/s and get to the point were the base is loaded in - it loads in but the terrain shifts before its fully loaded in, which means that it will be catapulted off the terrain or just crashes into the terrain with the speed im driving. Because if I reduced the speed to sub 10m/s - I would still get the prompt "Ares Base 01 is on crashing course" - but the base would not blow up.. and most parts can survive a 10m/s fall. So both rovers had to slow down rapidly to close the final 2km - I didn't dare use Time Warp... since on Minmus my base would fall through the ground if I time warped with other structures/vehicles near it. In the end it all panned out and the base was assembled and ready for the kerbals to arrive on the next Duna Transfer Window. Ares Base 01 in the Claws of War Valley <<<<<<<<<<Moving Forward>>>>>>>>>> Next up is the arrival of the Duna Sample Return vehicle and completion of Challenge 6 Stay tuned in!

-= R&D_Update =- - Duna Settlement and fixing the Sample Return Vehicle - Duna Base Element being tested on runway 1 - Boots on the Ground - With challenge 6 about to be bagged - it is time to prepare for challenge 7: Now... I know Jeb is more than willing to sit in his suite for 8 odd years - he is made of sturdy stuff indeed. But It has always felt a bit "wrong to me" that you dont need base elements for prolonged stays at an area. Aaand let's face it - after launching a mission to Duna in the ideal Kerbin - Duna Transfer window, you have to wait ca. 2y and 24 days for the next Duna - Kerbin transfer window to happen. (judging from me sitting with a goniometer on the screen and counting days) - I used this for the angle references: Now, of those 2y and 24 days, ~300 days is the travel time - So a settlement "just" need to support the crew for 1y and 98 days? (if my math is correct) - In any case... I think it will be nice to spend that year in a HAB module, rather than a lander. (and please correct me if i'm wrong... about the timings) So it is time to build a temporary science outpost: - Designing the HAB Modules - In my Overengineered Minmus Mission I experimented a little with making HABs - It was a "pretty big base" (or at least a high parts count) consisting of 4 HAB modules, a rover and 2 landers. That could house and service a 10 Kerbal crew. It looked like this: Base Camp One on the surface of Minmus. Building and shipping the base for Minmus taught me a lot of things about "base building" - but most importantly that its very easy to build things that gets a parts counter that kills the frame rate! My framerate around Base Camp One would be something like 5 fps. Now I still dread the 3 fps I had during my Minmus Mission (when the base was still docked to the vehicle flying it to Minmus), so I knew I wanted a smaller base for less Kerbals... and send it piece meal. I really liked the design of the temporary hab modules in the Martian -which had these proportions: Screenshot from The Martian - seeing their base from above As you can see it consist of the big dome, a small hab module on the side, as well as a few entrance modules and a solar panel farm - I really wanted to build a dome myself... but the big MK3-L "wanderer" capsule offered a chance to build it while keeping the parts counter down. I wanted to have the asymmetry, and tried to make the entrances with the small crew tubes - but the only way to get doors is to use the lander modules. Which limited a lot in how I could design it. So to keep the parts counter down, and make sure all worked - the complete base ended up looking like this: Duna HAB module and Rover being tested on the runway. It consist of 3 modules: a LAB module, a Living Quarter module and a Solar Panel Farm. All the modules are equipped with wheels - so I can connect them once landed - as well as legs to give the base a firm placement on the ground. - LL;LI from the Minmus mission was that the landinglegs helped if the ports were not perfectly aligned... Also it is a potential means to correct inclination in the HAB. (1 year and 98 days on an angled floor would drive me nuts ) To support the mission the Crew will also have 2 Duna Rovers. In the spoiler sections below you will see a rundown of each module: Laboratory Module: Living Quarter: Solar Panel Farm: Duna Rover: - Cruise Stage - After designing the base modules it was time to find a way to get them to Duna. On my Minmus mission I had these elaborate dropships for "dropping" the base module and returning back to the "mothership" or ICV (Inter Celestial Vehicle). see spoiler section bellow for images: But I now know that dropships add a lot of complexity the ICV, that has to bring the modules and vehicles to and from the destination. On Duna they also had to be a lot more powerful, than on Minmus, to be able to bring the HAB modules to and from LDO to the surface and back again. The added complexity would also bring up the part count significantly... and I want it to be pretty yes.. but please faster than 3 fps I decided that it would be better to just put the HAB modules in capsules that could survive reentry on Duna and then just stack the capsules in the order I want them dropped and decouple them in order, then land them one at the time. The Stack ended up looking like this, and weights ~55t (rounded up): The Stack - with and without fairings. These stacks would fit well with a much simpler ICV I developed right after being fed up with my Minmus Mission - let me present the Cruise Stage - ICV Hermes: The ICV - Hermes The cruise stage was designed with a crew transfer module in mind, and has been lying in my VAB gathering dust for a while. The Crew Transfer Module consisting of two foldable crew structures that can rotate to create gravity on the tour (the entire craft has to rotate, not ideal I know.. but we gotta work with what we got). As well as two DAVs (Duna Ascent Vehicles). The crew module weighs 45,6t - going to Duna. and 30,8t going back to Kerbin. The Stack weighs 55t - and that gives the cruise stage 6.290 Δv - which should be plenty. especially considering that it will be unloaded on the way home. (which gives me a chance to see if it needs more fuel to make the tour with the crew module) - See spoiler section bellow for a walkthrough of the Crew Transfer Module: - Testing the Stack - Since the stack was quite complicated I decided to test it above Kerbin to make sure I would not get to Duna and only half the base modules would work... but first things first - we need to get the stack into LKO. As of now, my go to solution of getting overly complicated structures into space, is strapping on big solid rocket motors to it until it works... If it was good enough for the shuttle program, it's good enough for me. The solid rocket boosters work as the stacks 1st stage and looks like this: the full stack I added a 2nd stage with a LV-2000 "Trumpet" engine to get the stack into its final orbit. It has just enough Δv to get it done - I had 13 Δv left when I was in a stable orbit. Once the stack had been fully dropped, the 13 Δv turned into a few 100 Δv - more than enough for a deorbit of the engine. (the margin is still a little too tight, so I will be adding fuel for the final launch) Testing the Stack: Getting into Orbit Getting the rocket into orbit was a simple discipline - if not for the tight Δv margins. Once orbit was achieved. It was time to test if the modules reentry capsules worked as intended. Note: In an attempt at keeping the update "short" *cough cough* I have put the individual performances in spoiler sections - Issues found will be discussed after the individual sections. LAB Module: Living Quarters: Duna Rovers: Solar Panel Farm: Engine de-orbit: Final Fixes from LL;LI from the test: In the end everything worked except for 2 main issues that needed further testing after fixing. Namely a change on the LAB modules parachute, and the parachute placement on the 2nd stage - as to make it not land on the engine and denting it... Then there were some minor issues that can be resolved by adding more batteries and making sure the The Stack is on a sub orbital path when decoupling a stage (where after the ICV will bring itself into a stable orbit again) Change of parachute on Lab Module: I thought I could put a big chute on the module and detach it via a decoupler once on the ground.. How ever I forgot that the game does not simulate wind. So I could detach it all I want, it would always land on the top and rest on the roof, like if it had never been detached. Something else had to be done. The solution was solid rocket engines... the solution is always solid rocket engines. Parachute update on 2nd stage: The fix to the parachutes on the engine was just a silly oversight - I had placed the parachutes near the top of the rocket.. meaning that I would keep the heavy engine pointing down. By moving the chutes to the bottom of the vehicle, the issue was resolved. I still did a test however - incase the engine was so heavy it would still land facing down. But nope it worked - the vehicle was certified for launch! - Updating the Duna Sample Return vehicle - Last but not least, an update to the failed Duna Sample Return Vehicle. Since I only had power to run 3 Ion engines at Duna, I decided to reduce the engines from 7 to 3. This meant the vehicle lost about 1t in weight. After that i bumped the xenon reserve up quite a bit, so it now shows a Δv counter of 9.187Δv. I hope the game is not lying to me this time.. but even if it is only half of 9.187Δv - it should be enough to go there and back again. <<<<<<<<<< Moving Forward >>>>>>>>>> Next Duna Transfer Window will be another double launch: The HAB stack and the Sample Return vehicle. it should leave time enough for both vehicles to come back to Kerbin before the next launch to Duna. So the ICV Hermes can be refited for the crewed mission. And the Sample Return Vehicle can land the sample on Kerbin for analasys. Hopefully it will give the Kerbals some weeks to check the samples for anything dangerous - before sending 6 brave souls. Im sure they will make it... Or they can send a "dont touch the stones" memo via datalink once air born. Science must be made! and any kerbal would give their left hand - touching radioactive stones - if it propels the race into a further scientific understanding. Stay Tuned for more! Next update is the launch update!

Game Version: 0.2.1.0 Challenge 5: Completed. My rover Percy on the surface of Duna. Documentation of Challenge completion: development: Launch of the Vehicles: I launched the Duna Rover on a 3 stage rocket, consisting of a Reusable 1st stage, Reusable 2nd stage and a Duna transfer capsule. Stage 1: Launch and Landing Second Stage: Launch and Landing Duna Transfer Capsule: Launch and Landing: Demonstration of the Rover: I drove the rover 75km around the Duna north pole to check a few possible landing sites. It was quite good at traversing the terrain - having a top speed of 10 m/s on flat terrain. With a run up it was able to climb a hill of around 45° as seen here: The vehicle ended up back with the Duna Sample Retriever vehicle after covering the 75km. Unfortunately for me - the weak link in my attempt at completing both challenge 4 and 5 in one go would be the sample return vehicle. even though it showed that it had Δv enough to make it to Duna and back again - it had lost 4/5th of its almost 5kΔv - but spend 50% of its fuel - just leaving Kerbin. I suspect its a hard case of the Δv being miss calculated bug. But making a better return vehicle is the least of my worries. For a more in-depth rundown you can read my challenge companion blog here:

-=Duna Sample Return Mission=- - Part 2: Survey of Target Area - Map reconnaissance of four possible sites for settlements. <<<<<<<<<< Foreword >>>>>>>>>> The challenge description called for the Rover to "cover some distance" - I decided that I would take the opportunity to survey possible landing sites for the manned mission to come. There were a few sites that were interesting to me - for various reasons. Surveying the 4 sites took a few evenings, listening to podcasts and only playing with half a eye on the screen. It covered 75km and I would say that it qualifies as "covering some distance" More on that bellow: <<<<<<<<<< Mission Tasks >>>>>>>>>> Survey Site A. - Sheltered Canyon - Success Survey Site B. - Sheltered Valley - Success Survey Site C. - Small Canyon through the Ice Caps - Success Survey Site D. - Open flats - Success <<<<<<<<<< Lessons Learned; Lessons Identified>>>>>>>>>> The rover taking a sample on site D. The Mission In General: Since Goal Post A to D has a lot in common - I have decided to write a general section of the Lessons Learned; Lessons Identified (when it comes to the rover) and then a specialized section for each site. (more like flavour posts) The Rover: Percy - the rover - performed the task very well. On flat terrain it could sustain a speed of ~ 10m/s - albeit it is not advisable, for the sole reason that, for unknown reasons it would occasionally act like it hits something invisible and lose control. If it crashes with ~10m/s there is a high risk that pieces will break on it. A battery is bad, since it just have enough power to run the WSRL-01 radiation survey - Some times it would break off a reactor unit... Which definitely would result in the survey site being unsuitable for a manned mission.. but also slow down progression - since the Percy would not have the power generation for continuously driving. Percy thus performed better at 6 m/s - were the periodically loss of control could be corrected via contra steering. Its cross country ability is quite good - better than expected! The roughest terrain feature it had to navigate was a 45° slope - it needed a run up to the obstacle - but successfully crossed it in 3rd go as seen here: Still a lot of Jank: RCW is a must The rover overall still performed a lot better than my Minmus Rover - I have a feeling it's solely because Duna has more gravity, or the rover is significantly lighter - which gives the vehicle more authority when driving, and less mass and inertia to shift around. That being said... the vehicle really could use some RCWs. There were several times were - when the vehicle lost control - I had to hit the break and maneuver hard to balance the vehicle on a single wheel.. or have it tumble around and do my best to make it land back on all 6 wheels. The antenna was actually great help, since it made it less likely to land on the back... Percy driving in the shadow in the Canyon of Site A I know I've said this before in the Minmus blog - I really dont enjoy the wheeled vehicle gameplay.. I think the issue comes from them not having a seperate mechanics for ground based vehicles..? at least it seems to me that it is less based on the positions of the wheels.. and more based the velocity vector made by hitting "direction keys". The vehicle responds to the prograde, and not the position of the wheels.. which means that you end up drifting if you only look at wheels and not the prograde... the key to driving rovers, seems to be this: Gain momentum - do small adjustments and everything goes fine. But most important! Add Reaction Control Wheels - set them to activate via. a action command to roll and pitch the vehicle it goes wrong. The rovemat part does not have RCWs.. which would be fine if it wasn't for the invisible objects that kick the vehicle off course every once and a while. Survey Mission: Estimated path driven on the Survey Mission. - brain fart - ofcourse its only 6 samples. In the end the different places of interest were examined - looking for good spots for a manned base with the following criteria to meet: Leveled ground - we dont want the coffee cups rolling off the tables Access to sunlight Shelter from the environment - storms etc. A cool looking backdrop for a manned mission. The last one being the most important of course - bellow you will see my assessment of the 4 sites in each their spoiler section: Survey Site A: Survey Site B: Survey Site C: Survey Site D: Percy on its way to the Duna Sample Retriever with all the science After the 4 sites had been investigated, I concluded that the best site would probably be Site D. It came as no surprise to me - but I wanted to see the other sides first before ruling them out. Site D wins because it has the best potential of all - since it also provides good flat terrain for landing the space plane of challenge 8 on. Needless to say - shortly after Site D had been successfully surveyed - The Rover arrived at the Duna Sample Retriever. Finishing its 75km tour. <<<<<<<<<< Moving Forward >>>>>>>>>> Next up will be a R&D Post containing the redesign of the Duna Sample Return Vehicle, as well as the base modules for the settlement that need to house the Kerbins in the time for the transfer window back to Kerbin arrives.

-=Duna Sample Return Mission=- - Part 1: Destination Duna - The target area for the Duna Sample Return Mission. <<<<<<<<<<Foreword>>>>>>>>>> The amount of information that accumulated during this initial mission step... was starting to get to a point were, if I decided the entire completion of the challenge had to be included, the post would become excessively long (even for my standards). It felt naturally to conclude part 1 with the (to a varying degree) successful arrival of all 3 vehicles to Duna SOI. I hope you'll all find what I learned, doing this, engaging and interesting to read. <<<<<<<<<< Mission Tasks >>>>>>>>>> A. Launch Duna Rover and Duna Sample Retriver into a Duna transfer orbit, and return 1st and 2nd stage - Success B. Launch Duna Sample Returner into a LKO, and return 1st and 2nd stage - Success C. Land Duna Rover within the Target Area on Duna - Success D. Land Duna Sample Retriever within the Target Area on Duna - Success E. Get Duna Sample Returner into LDO ~60km - with enough Δv for the return trip - Failure <<<<<<<<<<< Lessons Learned; Lessons Identified>>>>>>>>>> Goal Post A: Launching the Ground Vehicles Duna Sample Retriever being launched into orbit - 5 days after the Duna Rovers succesful launch The launch of the 2x ground vehicle was succesful. I was not too worried about these launches as I had a very good understanding of the behavior of the launch vehicle. I scheduled the launch to coincide with the "optimal transfer maneuver node position" (I decided to wait for KSC to be in the ideal position to launch the rover.) Normally I always launch the vehicle into LKO first. Then find the optimal place on the vehicles orbit, to do the transfer burn that will take me out of the Kerbin SOI. But I decided that I did not need to take such precaution, and launched the vehicles directly from the pad and into a duna transfer trajectory. KSCs position in relation to Kerbins orbit around Kerbol. I was however still very conservative. (could have launched later) I wanted to perform the transfer burn around Kerbins retrograde around Kerbol - roughly the area K.G.01 is located on the image (the orbiting object) - because that would push my prograde towards the travel direction of Kerbin - placing me on the outside of its orbit, and towards Duna. (i'm sure you all know what I mean) 1st stage has reached the target velocity and is preparing for stage separation and return to KSC The 1st stage had no issues pushing the much lighter vehicle into its target suborbit. Normally it is very slow to gain altitude and needs to cut the engines at ~900m/s - But I had ample Δv left to push it up to a 1100-1200m/s before performing stage separation and the flip maneuver. (as mentioned in a previous post - the 1st stage usually launch a much heavier vehicle) Stage separation and flip maneuver - it would be days before the 2nd stage would make it back to Kerbin. The stage separation was successfully performed and the 1st stage would soon find itself back on the pad - while the 2nd stage would start its climb, to push the Duna Rover Capsule out of the Kerbin SOI - It would then be ~6 days before it would reach AP and start its fall back towards Kerbin. Which coincided with the Duna Rover Capsule escaping Kerbin. With a buffer of 6 days it felt safe to launch the Duna Sample Retriever. I hoped that 6 days would give me ample of time for the capsules to arrive at Duna in a manner where I could land them both in a short succession. I was some what successful - for more details jump to goal post C Both 1st stages was successfully returned to KSC - and even on the first go! - see spoiler section for details: 2nd stage of the Duna Sample performing Duna Transfer Burn. The 2nd stage would then perform an initial burn - aiming to get its AP into the vicinity of Kerbins retrograde vector. Like I said earlier, I was conservative with the launch window - giving me a coasting phase, and ample time to plan the Duna Transfer Maneuver: Left: Duna Sample Retriever Transfer Trajectory - Right Duna Rover Transfer Trajectory. After the 2nd stages had performed a majority of the transfer burn to Duna. The stage would separate and burn retrograde to push its PE back within Kerbins SOI. After that it was just a long coasting phase until PE - at which they would perform a maneuver putting the vehicle into a suborbital trajectory, and end up in the oceans on Kerbin again. The Duna Rover Capsule performing the rest of the Duna Transfer Burn. Upon stage separation the Duna Rover Capsule and Duna Sample Retriever capsule would spend 428Δv and 403Δv of their total 525 Δv getting a intercept trajectory with Duna. Once out of Kerbin SOI it was time to do the fine maneuvering, putting the two capsules into a crashing trajectory with Duna - My theory was that If I aimed at the center of the planet, then I would arrive more "centerly" on the planet, and then when I did the final aiming maneuver for the target landing zone - I would get an suborbital ark that would hug the polar atmosphere more tight than if I came in above the poles. Which would result in a PE on the "back side" of Duna, since dipping into the atmosphere would happen after they passed over the target area and subsequently result in a much more equatorial landing. The theory was some what right.. although I probably have to aim south of the southpole to get the effect I was actually looking for. Future missions will tell. After the succesful transfer burn to Duna there was only one thing left to do. See if the Grid fins on the 2nd stage would be enough to keep the heat shield pointed in the right direction on reentry. Duna Rover second stage successfully landed in the ocean of Kerbin. The Duna Rover 2nd stage reentered the atmosphere with 400 Δv left (remember it's 400Δv after shedding the weight of the capsule) - making it able to keep the heat shield pointed down. However it did splash down with 15 m/s - meaning it only landed unscathed because it landed in the ocean. To see if the 2nd stage would go sub 10 m/s if it was empty the Duna Sample Retriever 2nd stage was spending its last Δv making sure to target ocean. The lost mass from the front, meant that it was no longer able to point prograde - but it survived the angled reentry. How ever it still splashed down at 12 m/s. Meaning that a re-design has to be made for the stage. I have a feeling that I get better performance from aerobreaks when re-entering. So I'll try change the grid fins for aerobreaks and add more parachutes. The chances of hitting land is slim.. but it would be annoying to lose a perfectly good engine because of a hard landing... and It is very hard to gauge where you land from the edge of Kerbins SOI Goal Post B: Launching the Orbitter The Duna Sample Return vehicle being launched into LKO According to the KSP Δv roadmap - the tour- from LKO to LDO is ~1700 Δv. By getting better at finding the optimal launch window for Duna I had cut my Δv consumption on a Duna Transfer from 2000+ Δv to around 1200Δv (observation from the failed duna rover mission.) The Duna Sample Return vehicle had almost 5000 Δv in total- meaning that I should have 1600 Δv to spare, since the return trip would be a collision trajectory with Kerbin. It should be no issue to launch it to a LKO and have the vehicle leave the Kerbin SOI on its own power. I wanted to do this to see how many passes around Kerbin it would take to get it on to a Duna transfer trajectory. Stage separation - the first stage is performing its flip maneuver, engines still glowing hot red. Launching the small ion driven vehicle into orbit was going to be a walk in the park - since the 1st stage, and triple LV-909 "Terrier" engined 2nd stage (as I am sure you know by now) is well understood and tested. - it is the glider without wings after all. The 1st stage was of course returned safely to the pad. This time I made sure to burn enough Δv that I would end up with the around 300 Δv needed to break the fall and land... not taking any chances that it was a weight issue that caused the leg to break off last time. - look at the spoiler section to see succesful launch and landing of the 1st stage. the 2nd stage coasting after releasing the Duna Sample Return vehicle - blinding the camera with its huge solar panels providing the vehicle with 67,76 EC/s The 2nd stage boosted the vehicle into an elliptical orbit, reserving only a 100 Δv to get it back into a suborbital trajectory. The 7 ion engines of the Duna Sample Return vehicle would then be tested for good, checking how many passes around Kerbin it would take to get enough power to leave Kerbin SOI. Duna Sample Return vehicle doing the last corrections before coasting to Duna - waving Kerbin goodbye Amazingly enough it would only take the vehicle 5 orbits to gain enough velocity to escape Kerbins SOI. However.. either the Δv readings for the vehicle is wrong, or I have been super inefficient at doing the transfer burn to Duna. Because once the Duna Transfer Trajectory was set - the fuel reserve was halfed but the Δv readings were ~1/5th. The Duna Sample Retriever vehicles route to Duna - notice that the vehicle has lost 3707/4852 Δv on the transfer maneuver. But have only halfed its Xenon reserve. The Duna Sample Retriever vehicle were also aimed to arrive at Duna at the second intersection point of the orbit - giving the rover more time to pick up relevant samples from the target area - to be send home for analysis. Checking the site for habitability for future missions. 2nd stage re-entering high above Kerbin. Although the 2nd stage was the last to get into orbit around Kerbin, it would still be the first vehicle to touch down on Kerbin again. It had a soft landing in the desert on the continent west of KSC. The 3 aero breaks proved sufficient at keeping the nose pointed forward - albeit the vehicle were still having a bit of fuel to make the nose heavier. But were the vehicle had sufficient drag to keep the engines out of the plasma cone. The heatshield did not ample protect the faring disc right underneath it. Resulting in the piece failing on the final stretch, just before sheading velocity enough to not "be safe". Fortunately Kerbals make their vehicles of sturdy stuff! So even though the heat shield was dumped from the failing farings disk. The loss of the heatshield drastically reduced the speed! the vehicle did not suffer any further failures and landed perfect. The 2nd stage waiting to be retrieved in the deserts to the west of KSC. An easy solution to this issue will be to move the faring disk Infront of the heat shield, and add a decoupler to drop it once re-entering? or swap places and use it as a form of pre-heat shield? Avoiding further vehicle complexity. Goal Post C: Landing the Rover Duna Rover intercept trajectory - running low on fuel. For some reason the Duna Rover's, last adjustment of its trajectory to hit Duna, spend ~100Δv of the ~150Δv (that were left after leaving Kerbin SOI.) Whereas the Duna Sample Retrieve vehicle would successfully do the same maneuver at less than half the same Δv. Even so, I was not worried - 52 Δv was more than enough to do the final corrections once inside the Duna SOI - provided I did them upon entering the edge of the SOI (if you didnt know, the further away from the body you do your maneuver, the cheaper it is). Aming the vehicle - so it would land on the target area - would become much more challenging though. Especially if it would be on the night side since its hard to see the terrain features in the dark (and spoiler alert - the target area would be on the night side). However.. as a stroke of fortune out of missfortune. The Duna Rover were not going to be the first vehicle to arrive at Duna. Even though I had given it a 5 day buffer it had still been overtaken by the Duna Sample Retriever: Vehicle order from left to right: 1: Duna Sample Returner - 2: Duna Rover - 3: Duna Sample Retriever. This meant that the Duna Sample Retriever capsule - which had 115 Δv to play with, could afford to do path corrections all the way down to Duna, and land on the right spot. And then the Duna Rover Capsule could look at the Duna Sample Retrievers relative position to were it were heading and do relative precise maneuver corrections to the target area from a great distance. Duna Rover closing in on Duna - Ike visible in the distance. It all paned out great. To make sure I got the right point, I quick saved upon entering the Duna SOI and then allowed the vehicle fly within 200km of the planet. Then I checked where the Duna Sample Retriever were located in relation to the spot of the Duna Rover impact. Quick loaded and adjusted the course onto roughly the spot the Retriever would be in the 2d and 5h it took to get to Duna. The maneuver costed less than 10Δv. Cruise module separates from the capsule once the final aiming has been done. Once within 100 km of the landing area, I made the last adjustments, decoupled the cruise stage and enjoyed the show. - see section D for capsule performance thoughts See spoiler section for slideshow of the capsule entering Dunas atmosphere. After the Capsule decoupled from the rover, the rover did have some issues though. The lack of RCW meant that it was rolling uncontrollable on the way down, and would not stabilize before hitting the ground. I could somewhat control the rate, with which the vehicle was falling, by firering the landing engines for the durating the engines were pointing downwards, as seen here: But as you can see it was not optimal.. luckily the Rover landed "successfully" and by a stroke of luck.. it rolled over, onto the wheels again. I disengaging the decent stage ASAP the wheels were all level with the ground... I was simply afraid the stage was making the rover top heavy and it would fall again. In the end it all panned out and the Rover landed only 5.7km away from the Duna Sample Retriever. - Mission Success! Kerbol dawning on Sol 1 of the Duna Rover mission. Goal Post D: Hitting the Target Area. Duna Sample Retriever after the final course corrections - all the Δv spend. As mentioned in Goal Post C, the Duna Sample Retriever were the first to reach Duna. Once inside the SOI I saw that it would take it 2d and 5 hours to hit the surface. I looked at the position of the Challenge 2 lander to the target area, and tried to roughly aim were I thought the place would be within 2d. and 5h. - I really wish the game had a tool that allowed us to see future rotation when planning a maneuver. Then periodically on the way down I would fine tune the landing site. Until I was only 200km from the surface. At which point I believed I could do the fine tuning of the landing and ditch the Cruise Stage. After that it was all about figuring out how the capsule would perform on the way down. The Duna Sample Retriever Capsule after ditching the cruise stage. The capsule performed well, although, just like the Challenge 2 Lander, It accelerated for a long time. In the end I had to perform a flip maneuver to break the fall - It seems the heat shield work a lot more like a speeder than a break. One should think that the blunt shape of the heatshield would make it break more.. compared to the pointy farings. But It may just be me thinking too much of Dunas thin atmosphere. See spoiler section for the hot reentry: The faring sustained the final speed drop facing forward and were jettisoned: Duna Sample Retriever dropping the capsule and preparing for landing. I had some issues were the ditching of the faring, within the atmosphere, would severely warp the assent stages. It made me re-do the landing several times as I was sure it was the issue were if you time warp with the vehicle SAS set to point to a direction (like prograde) it can warp the vehicle (same bug mentioned in the CommNet satelite deployment). I tried disable all RCWs on the accent stage, so It could not bend the stage into a wrong shape during time warp. Then made multiple Quick Saves - always dropping the faring afterwards to check if the vehicle had warped - before quick loading and proceeding the landing. I got all the way to re-entry.. were I noticed the warp happened from the decoupling within the atmosphere. To combat it I made the vehicle flip one last time before decoupling, and decoupled as the ascent stage was pointing roughly prograde. It warped a tiny bit.. but not so much that it clipped into the launching ramp (which it did before, and i was sure would result in a catastrophic failure) Lessons Learned; Lessons Identified - use struts. I am sure its a bug.. but since struts break when placed across a decoupler.. I can always strut the pieces in place. After that drama, it was all about deploying the chute and prepare the landing. Duna Sample Retriever performing landing burn. The lander touched down no issues - I turned off the lights and then waited for the sun to come up before deploying the solar panels. I had to put the stage into hibernation as it does not have enough battery power to make it through the Duna Night. I dont see it as an issue - since the challenge does not state that the vehicle needs to be able to last a Duna Day. It can launch the accent stage during the day time once the time for that arrives. Duna Sample Retriever - safe on Dunas Surface, generating power. After a short test that the accend stage could launch without failing, I saved and uttered a sigh of relief - The hard part was done - The Lander had hit the target area without circularising its orbit first and without breaking. Soon the rover would join it.. and then it was just waiting for the Return Vehicle to get into a LDO before concluding Challenge 5 and 6. Goal Post E: So close and yet so far Duna Sample Return vehicle circularising its orbit. The experienced KSP player will have guessed that this is as far as the journey went for the retriever. I know I said I allowed it to get its rendezvous with Duna on its second cross of its path. the II: symbol on the maneuver node. But I waited the time and pretend that I performed the survey of the valley in the mean while. I had to know if the returner would have enough Δv to finish the mission. Or if a sample return had to be postponed another 4 years. Alas the latter was the case. I made 2 important lessons though: Lesson A: Capture Burn I learned i was right about taking a path that brought my PE high into Dunas SOI. I tried to break and stay within Duna on a trajectory that brought me close to the planet ~100km altitude. I did not have enough Δv to circularise the orbit. I could reverse my orbit, but not circularize it. So I remained far out: Duna Sample Returner capture maneuver As you can see it would take a majority of my Δv to capture Duna. If any one has any council on how to perform this part at a Δv discount, I am all ears. - and before you say aerobreak, I dont think Dunas atmosphere is thick enough that it will break the vehicle to not break out of the SOI again. Lesson B: Solar panel effectiveness. Around Kerbin - the two SP-XXL "Colossus" produces a total of 66.76 EC/s. But around Duna the two sails only produce 31,56 EC/s - more than a half in reduction. I did not expect the effect to drop that much - Duna is not that much further from Kerbol than Kerbin. The result was that the vehicle could only use 3½ of its 7 ion engines around Duna. In other words over half the engines were dead weight this far out. Maneuver to LDO: Even though the vehicle had arrived at Duna with no means to complete the mission, I still spend the time to find out what was the optimal way to lower my orbit. I arrived at the conclusion that the cheapest way to lower my orbit was this: A. Lower the PE to the target distance of ~60km: 3 burns at AP - duration: 3 min B. Lower the AP to the target distance of ~60km: 5 burns at PE - duration: 3 min - 1.100km altitude 4 burns at PE - duration: 6 min - 150km altitude 1 burn at PE - duration: 4 min - 91km altitude 1 burn at PE - duration: unknown - ~60km altitude. If any one have any better solutions to get the orbit down cheaper - I am all ears. The Duna Sample Return vehicle in LDO In the end the vehicle successfully lowered its orbit from the edge of the Duna SOI to a ~60km circular LDO. However, as is evident from the screenshot. It completed this leg with far to little Δv to bring the sample back to Kerbin. - After I had learned what there was to learn, I spend the last 173 Δv to de-orbit the lander. <<<<<<<<<< Moving Forward >>>>>>>>>> The Ground Vehicles were succesful in their designs and execution - the retriever needs more work. How ever I have already redesigned the vehicle from the LL;LI in Goal Post E. - Reduced the number of engines and increased the fuel capacity. As the post is already really long, I will be pushing that update into the Part 2 of this mission. Next post will be the challenge completion of Challenge 5. I will take samples in the target valley - to determine if it's ideal for a science outpost to continue further excursions. Stay inquisitive, stay engineous - until next time! Final landing places of the Duna Rover, and the Duna Sample Retriever.

-=R&D_UPDATE=- Duna Sample Return Mission Oooh Do I have a great update for you guys! I am really proud of these vehicles! So I looked more into the Mars Sample Return mission. Even though I was quite familiar with it (I really rute for all the aspects to be completed.. But I understand why the scientific world find there are better ways to spend the funding it needs). Still it's a really awesome mission.. and the more I looked into it in detail, the more I wanted to "replicate" it. Like I said I knew about the role of the Perseverance Rover - as well as the idea of how to return the samples to Low Mars Orbit and then fly it back to Earth. But I never looked into what rocket launched Percy actually. But looking for inspiration I learned it was the Atlas 5 rocket that got the rover to Mars, as well as the transfer stages. I decided to keep the rover from the unlaunched Challenge 6 design, and then start by designing the Lander. From there I would design the Vehicle that would bring the sample from Duna to Low Duna Orbit first, then the vehicle that would bring it from Low Duna Orbit to Kerbin. And from there, the rockets that would bring all 3 vehicles to space and to Duna. So without further ado, lets get through the design process: The Sample Return Lander: It all started with me seeing this concept for the Mars Sample Retrival vehicle: Early Conceptual drawing of a Mars Sample Retrieval Lander. (Image credit: NASA) - I believe they wanna toss the rocket into the air now rather than launch it from a tube. There were 2 key features I noticed that I really really thought was clever: The "warhead" of the rocket can be loaded directly by the rover. The rocket is lying down - meaning a flat, compact design. Since the challenge 6 rover had a xs docking port in the center. I could build a lander with a tiny 2 stage rocket, Lie it down and have the rover "load" it with the Science Data it would pick up by docking to another sx docking port. Since science data is transferred from vehicle to vehicle.. It meant that the stage broad home could be as little as a probe core. And if you remember the challenge description: That's exactly what we are doing. So I build a relative flat design with a rocket ramp and a 2 stage rocket with enough Δv to get into DLO. I used some inspiration ques from the lander from Challenge 4 and made the landing engines the landing legs. I used the bigger Ox-10c solar panels - because that looked more like the ones on the MSRL concept. The final design looked like this: The rover from the challenge 6 vehicle and the new lander inspired by the NASA concept. Now I just had to make sure I could have the rover connect to it. It was possible by setting the two front sets of wheels on max spring setting, and the rear wheels on min - just like when docking to the overengineered challenge 6 rocket I showed last design round. Its not a perfect fit - but good enough if you ask me. Now the next problem to solve was how to launch the rocket. At first I contemplated doing the toss maneuver: have some small rockets throw the rocket into the air and then engage the rocket engine and fly up. How ever If I could angle the rocket up, I could build a holder for the parachute to slow down the lander. At first I tried landing legs with different variation in spring strength and or size. But it was not enough, or was really clunky and ugly. I cursed for a while because we really lack parts that allow us to actuate pieces. but then remembered that Aerobreaks can vary in pitch.. I figured if i put one bellow it and some legs on the end of the ramp I could build a tripod and use the aero break to angle the lander up! And it worked flawless - you just need to manually adjust the angle, because it's moving to fast on its own... This is the feature I am most satisfied with After that It was just a matter of testing if the rocket would break free no issues, and spoiler alert. It did I thought it looked cool on the NASA concept with the 4 fuel tanks - but I did not need that much fuel to stick the landing and send the rocket off - so I decided to load the rocket on without fuel - to save the kilos. The lander has enough fuel to fill the rocket and land at the same time. - It takes a little more than ½ the total fuel reserve to fill the rocket... So there should be more than enough to stick the landing. Sample Accent Stage: 1st Stage - 48-7S "Spark" engine - 748 Δv 2nd Stage - LV-1 "Aant" engine - 685Δv Total: 1433 Δv Weight: The lander total: 1.91t Sample Accent Stage: 0.79t Sample case (probe core): 0.33t Now that the lander was made I felt the next natural step was to design the vehicle that has to bring the probe core home from Duna to Kerbin. If you wanna see the staging of the rocket in detail, see spoiler section bellow: Sample Return Vehicle: The sample return vehicle So - Because the vehicle that will bring back the sample from the real MSR mission uses Ion engines - I decided to make a Ion engine vehicle. Surfice to say... I did not enjoy the slowness of the vehicles with ion engine.. So I decided to pack as many Ion engines I could on a vehicle and still power it. With 2x SP-XXL "Colossus" solar panels I could power 6 Ion engines at 100% thrust, and 1 engine at 75% - giving me as high a thrust to weight ratio as possible.. I will still have to take multiple boosts around Kerbin before I will leave its SOI. The vehicle consist of 2 sails, a z200 battery of 200U a RC-00S1 core 2x PB-x150 fuel tanks - giving the rocket 4852 Δv. Most importantly, the vehicle has the "sample deorbit module" - a heat shield for the return deorbit. Bellow - Sample Return Vehicle - Above: Sample Deorbit Module and Sample Case(probe core). It should give me ample of Δv to get to Duna and back again. I do wonder though If I should go for a very high Duna Capture orbit - where the velocity will be low... Since I will otherwise fear that I wont have time to break the orbit. The rover that skimmed the surface at 4km was getting up to 2500 m/s - I doubt the Ion engine will have time to de-accelerate those speeds? - Not that It would survive going so low any way. We will see. Now I had my rover, I had my lander and I had my sample return vehicle. Time to find out how to get it all into orbit. Launch Vehicles: The Sample Return Vehicle: Since the Sample Return Vehicle only clocked in at 3.24t. - I figured a reworked 2nd stage for the glider rocket would be ideal: 1st, 2nd and the sample return vehicle. The new 2nd stage has enough fuel to get the probe into orbit, and then de-orbit itself. has a heat shield as well as parachutes. Because the engines are very heavy, the vehicle is a bit problematic in case of center of mass being to close to the rear of the vehicle. I hope that adding 3 breaks will help me steer the vehicle.. But experience tells me otherwise. We will see though - I dont mind to be wrong in this regard. This Kerbin to LKO vehicle is not that exciting. So moving on to the next. Rover and Lander: I saw this nice picture of Perseverance rover and its capsule: From bottom: Heat shield - Rover + Decent Stage + Back Shell - Cruise stage. I know I said I had decided not to use heat shields - since they were very heavy for how little protection was needed to go through the atmosphere. But It is just very difficult to designe a nice blunt shape without them. So I decided to add the heat shield any way, but turn the oblateness all the way down to 0%. Then I build the back shell with a faring and because you can't add stuff on top of farings, I added the cruise stage below the heat shield: Left: Vehicle Capsule and Cruise Module separated - Right: Vehicle capsule and Cruise Module assembled. - Notice the launch vehicle in the background. I think the design is very satisfying to look at. The stage has 539Δv - enough to make course correction and solar panels to keep it powered. It's hard to believe - but the two capsules actually have the same total weight - I had to share a screenshot to prove it: I did not intent for this - but its really cool i think. To get the capsules out of Kerbin SOI - I decided to take the 1st stage for my Heavy Fuel Vehicle again and build a 2nd stage that had enough power to get the capsules to the edge of Kerbin SOI - to then fall back down and splash into the ocean. The result was this: The 1st stage has enough Δv to launch the 2nd stage into a sub orbital trajectory of 1000 m/s - The 2nd stage with the SC-TT "Labradoodle" engine has 2049Δv - enough to get the capsule to the edge of Kerbin SOI - and then about 500 Δv to aim the decent. Coming in from the edge it's going to be going very fast. - like the 2nd stage for the Sample Return Vehicle - this also has issues with its center of mass. I hope that the 6 large grid fins will help it fall through the sky with the heat shield front. <<<<<<<<<< Moving Forward >>>>>>>>>> I am really happy with these designs and I am really looking forward to give it ago. Its kind of cool to emulate a real mission.. And I actually really enjoyed "building small" specialized vehicles. I actually dont feel a need to attempt flying the vehicle I originally designed for challenge 6 - If people really want to see me launch it I will do it.. but if it has no interest - I'll just put it in the R&D bin. Stay tuned for more! Next up - a triple launch... and the answer to the question if I have the patience for Ion Engines.

Challenge 4 completed: Here is a screenshot of my tiny lander on the surface of Duna: Challenge 3 complete Version: 0.2.1.0 It was quite a fun challenge to make a lander that would fit within the small cargo hold of my glider: The vehicle made its way to Duna - I was a little bit challenged by passing through Ike's SOI - but I still managed to get a path with a PE of 4km - I was affraid that a PE hitting the planet would be dangerous as I did not know how well you Aerobreak in Dunas surface - And I didnt want to deploy the farings and chute before the vehicle was slow enough that it didnt have flames traling of it. Here the "capsule" enters the atmosphere and the transfer stage is decoupled. once slowed down the faring was decoupled. I had a drogue chute to help steer the lander down, and 4 tiny engines to break the fall - they also double as landing legs. et vois la!

-=MISSION EXECUTION=- Murphy Strikes The rover being launched into LKO. <<<<<<<<<< FOREWORD >>>>>>>>>> So! That was an odd launch - Everything went wrong - but not so wrong that the next leg of the mission couldn't proceed. Until the lander touched the Duna surface that is. I decided to just roll with it.. but in the end it became kind of comical how this update would only have a single suffesful task - namely getting the probe to Duna Any way, I learned something with every failure. - More on that bellow: <<<<<<<<<< MISSION_TASKS >>>>>>>>>> A. Deploy the probe with the SDG and return the SDG system to KSC. - Failure B. Perform transfer burn of the Rover Probe to Duna - Success C. Land rover on the surface of Duna - Failure. <<<<<<<<<< Lessons Learned; Lessons Identified >>>>>>>> Goal post A: 1st stage collapsed on the landing pad. I dont know if i jinxed myself last mission post - by writing business as usual. Because even if I tried to get the landing to stick twice I failed twice. I decided to just roll with it... Even spaceX still tumbles a rocket every once and a while. I am still not sure why I had such a hard time landing it - I had more Δv than I usually have. Maybe it made me more slobby? or maybe the weight of the rocket was the issue? In any case, on the 1st attempt I had lateral movement over the pad. Which meant that the rocket tumbled on the landing. I always try to come into the pad on an ark. I find that it is easier to kill lateral movement by coming on on an ark and slowly controlling the decent by burning retrograde until the lander is pointing straight up - with no lateral movement - and then controlling the de-acceleration for a soft touch down. I find if I, on the decent phase, fall "straight" down I end up getting lateral movement when doing the fine aiming for the pad. On the second failure a leg broke off on touch down. I had a hard time timing the de-acceleration. I wonder if the extra weight of the excess Δv caused my timing to be off? Any way.. the result was the same. Maybe I should do some testing to see if having too much fuel coming down means the legs can't handle the weight. Any way - back to the glider: The SDG deploying the probe. The glider made it to orbit and deployed the probe. The glider also had an excess of Δv. So I figured deorbiting would be easier than ever. I had overshot the runway the past too launches.. (still making it though) - So I did the decent burn earlier. But too much earlier. - The early burn plus excess Δv meant that It soon became evident that I would not make it to the runway by a longshot. Finding a good landing spot was "alfa omega" - the glide efficiency is not great on the glider... you really need to time the flare maneuver right to bleed off speed and stick the landing. Too soon and you will pankage into the runway, too late and you will not be able to keep the nose pointing upwards, and the vehicle will break in two- and thats on a completely flat surface. Which meant that I could probably not land uphill. I found a nice even looking patch of land and managed to land the vehicle on a small hill, devoid of trees (almost) The glider touching down - notice the sharp angle the trails are taking - it was not a soft landing. Lessons Learned: The glider can make an emergency landing if the landing site is carefully chosen. For detailed walkthrough of the mission leg - see spoiler section: Goal Post B: The probe arriving at Duna. I saw a smart trick on the internet - since the ideal transfer window to Duna is 44,4°. You can take a a piece of paper and fold it so it shows 45° and place that pointing on Kerbol and when Duna and Kerbin is visible from the paper - you have ~45° (which is close to 44,4°): see spoiler section for reference: When I did this I was surprised how much off I had been - gauging the degree's with my mk.1 eyeball. Because the image with ideal transfer windows - in degree's, had been simplified (all the orbits have the same distance to each other) - placing Duna in continuation of the position of Kerbin meant I was several degree's off. Its obvious I know.. Any way, getting a better transfer window meant that I came to Duna spending much less Δv: Screenshot for reference The probe arrived at Duna no problems. Goal Post C: the conclusion of this ill fated mission. A rover in pieces on the surface of Duna. I had two problems coming in to this mission. First problem was that I was going too fast. If I just allowed the heatshield to be pointed forward the probe would just shoot straight through the atmosphere - Even if I spend all my remaining Δv breaking - the capsule would still accelerate to 2000+ m/s before being low enough for the atmosphere to do something. All I could do then was just wave Duna goodbye and have the probe be lost in space until Duna would line up again.. some time in the far far future. Desperate times means desperate measures - I found that if I flew the probe backwards I would break: Duna Lander entering the atmosphere Depending which way I pointed the probe I could even lower or raise the PE. giving some controllability.. The Second Problem was that the lander was too heavy and hit the ground with ~14 m/s and broke into pieces. 1 parachute was not going to cut it - it need breaking engines. But two important lessons were made: Heat shield's are more of a hindrance on Duna - they turn the probe into a bullet and is just weight not spend. I got confirmation that the fairings can take the re-entry heat and will be building re-entry capsules for Duna with farings. Duna's atmosphere is so thin that you cannot rely on parachutes only. Unless you put on a lot of chutes. for detailed walkthrough of the landing - see spoiler section bellow: <<<<<<<<<< Moving Forward >>>>>>>>>> Now - this blunder offers an opportunity to give Challenge 5 and 6 a new go. I have looked into the Mars Sample Return mission - that may be launched... And I actually really think its some nifty small vehicles ESA and NASA has planned for it. So I may design an actual lander that can work with a rover - and make a return vehicle with ION engines? They seem a bit gimmicky to me in KSP2 - I guess they are gimmicky in real life too... but their low thrust makes me think they take quite the patience to use. We'll see - Except a R&D post next - then I can launch all 3 rockets in the next duna transfer window. Stay tuned in for more!

-=R&D_UPDATE=- Rovers and Mars Sample Return Mission: So I just went through a lot of convoluted R&D to complete Challenge 6 - just to realize that I read the challenge wrong when I read it. I thought the requirement was to get a rover back and forth from Duna - Not a Lander.. (which does make the mission a lot simpler). I think that I, in my head, focused too much on perseverance as being part of NASA and ESAs real Mars Sample Return mission - without realizing that challenge 5 "is" the perseverance mission - that I build both challenges into 1. Needless to say - Now I've build it - with 12 stages and all... to get it there and back again... So I'm going to do it! The challenges are as follows: Challenge 5 Rover: Updated Lander making a survey test near the Runway 1 Since the rover was going to be mobile. It made sense to replace the solar panels with a "Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator"(MMRTG) (NASA sure like their acronyms). In game it is known as the PB-NUK power plant. Instead of a tiny drogue chute I gave it small MK16-r parachute - The drogue chute was almost enough to land the lander. So I hope that the small parachute will do and I can skip the engines... as I had trouble figuring out how to give it fuel and place rockets on it. Challenge 6 rover and Sample Return Vehicle: Since the challenge 6 required a vehicle that was big enough to get to Duna and back again, I knew it would not be able to launch it from the SDG. It gave an opportunity to develop a new and bigger rover. I wanted to cram as much science out of the vehicle as possible - and one of the most challenging things to get on it would be a WSRL-01 radiation survey. Which seems like a good thing to survey before a manned mission x) Now making the rover was not going to be the hard part... Making a vehicle that could deploy and retract a rover would be. The fact we dont have any crane parts meant that the rover had to somehow be able to drive in and out of the lander vehicle... or the vehicle would have to be able to lower a port that allowed it to dock to it again. It took 2 attempts to develop such a vehicle: Attempt 1: a test of the vehicle on Runway 1 - notice the landing legs is placed to give stability and prevent the vehicle from falling on uneven surfaces. The idea behind prototype 1 was that rover could drive in and out the bottom of the decent and accent stage. It would put a limit on the size of the rover - but the medium size would still be more than enough room for a rover with all the science equipment. The Accent and decent stage looked like this broken up in its parts: From bottom up: Duna Decent Heat Shield - with deorbit engines. Rover Carrier and Kerbin decent stage Service Stage for Duna Kerbin transfer. The landing procedure would be this: The Duna Sample Return Vehicle (DSRV) would decouple from the Kerbin-Duna Tour Retour Stage (KDTRS) and the tiny fuel load on the heat shield would deorbit the lander. Once through the thick of the atmosphere the heat shield would be dropped to save weight. and the stage would land via engines and chutes. Then the rover would drive out and do science, once ready it would redock with the lander and ascent again. Once into the vacuum the farrings would be blown off and the docking port would be ready to dock back with the KDTRS. When back at Kerbin, the DSRV would then decouple from the KDTRS - again - and deorbit. Once de-accelerated (no more flames) it would also drop the heat shield and deploy a second pair of parachutes for a soft touch down.. However - theory and reality did not align. Once I had made sure the vehicle could land itself I was going to test if the Rover could drive back in. The fact that the engine plate is as tall as it is made me worry that it would not be able to drive over the step. I tried to replace the engine plate with other flat medium sized parts - but in the end it would be just as tall because of the engines. Radially deploying the engines were not an option - since having the exhaust next to a surface drastically reduces thrust - and It was not possible to place them Infront of the doors (aesthetically it felt wrong to me.. if movable things clip through things it feel like cheating) My worry was well funded - but not only that I couldn't drive back in - For some reason the rover couldn't even drive off the engine plate. Left: even if the engine plate did not have landing legs or engines the rover could not get in again. Right: It's a bit hard to see - but the wheels are just spinning. Another way to make the vehicle had to be done. I remembered how I made my dropships for Minmus. And I decided to do something similar - see spoiler section for reference If you have not read my Overengineered Minmus Mission: Attempt Two: I decided to make a stage that would lie flat on the ground, and then by adjusting how much the cargo bay doors open, I could adjust the angle of the docking port - and by breaking and accelerating the rover. Or increasing spring strength on the front wheels and reduce on there rear wheels, I could make the rover pitch up and "catch" the docking port. I made a small mock up as a prof of concept: For a more thorough test of the landing of the proof of concept.See spoiler section: Next was finding the way to get it back into space again. I developed a 2 stage system. A 1st stage with 1320Δv, just shy of being capable getting into DLO - and then add a little bit a fuel and 4x LV-1R "Spiders" to the "Proof of concept" 2nd stage giving it 357Δv. Which should be enough, and then some, to give it the last kick into orbit and rendezvousing with the KDTRS. Left Top: 2nd stage - Left Bellow: 1st stage - Right: the Duna Lander Module. Next up was making a way to get it through the Duna Atmosphere. Now - since the Heat shield on challenge 4 did not take any damage - I decided to try do away with it on this build. Instead I build an aerodynamic faring and applied grid fins to help steer it down. The Duna reentry "vehicle" could then have a heat weak medium docking port as its "decoupler" - meaning that there is cohesion with the 2nd stage when it returns to the KDTRS. The reentry vehicle is pretty simple. Its purpose is to just shield the vehicle from being scorched by the plasma, then blow off and allow the sample return vehicle to land. It looks like this: Launch Vehicle and KDTRS: Last thing to do was to develop the vehicle that would bring this monster from LKO to Duna and back again. The easiest thing to do was to look at something I had build before and already flown a lot. I took the 1st stage for my Heavy Refuel Vehicle to K.G.01 (my space fuel station in LKO) as seen here: The 1st stage is designed to push. The Tanker Vehicle of 119.62t to ~900 m/s or 25-30km - before returning and landing at KSC again. So it has not trouble pushing the KDTRS + DSRV at only 79.08t into LKO if the stage is wasted. Final design of 1st stage and KDTRS The KDTRS has a total of ~3.439Δv after giving itself a tiny boost into LKO. That should theoretically be enough... When going to Duna I tend to use shy of ~2000Δv - the DSRV weighs 13.21t going to Duna - and less than 4.76t when it returns (depending on the fuel level upon docking). So I hope that 1.439 Δv will be ~2000 Δv. I could do the rocket equation.. But my gutfeel says it will be enough to go there and back again. If not I guess we will have a rescue mission to launch. <<<<<<<<<< Moving Forward >>>>>>>>>> I expect the launch Challenge 5 tomorrow - and then write the update Sunday? (we'll see how it goes - plans only last until contact with the enemy after all) Stay Tuned - Until next post!

-=MISSION EXECUTION=- The transfer stage bleeding off energy before deploying near the polar cap of Duna. <<<<<<<<<<FOREWORD>>>>>>>>>> I have decided that, even in the event that this is the end of KSP2(we dont know yet). I'll still continue to grind the content I can out of this game. I am at least aware of the most prolific bugs now, and know how to design around them... and I have only just left Kerbin.. There is so much more to get out of this sandbox still... The KSP2 engagement seem to be on the low end though.. and while I do enjoy making these long detailed blog posts about my progress. Not knowing if any one reads them, is killing my motivation to write them. I will be finishing the Duna Mastery Challenge though! But I had planned to do the same rundown on Eve next.. But we'll see if that will be something I'll write about. I think that depends on what level the engagement with the game is like, at that point. Any way.. This challenge went alright.. I must admit though that I was surprised with how thin Duna's atmosphere actually is (even though I knew it was). More on that bellow: <<<<<<<<<<MISSION_TASKS>>>>>>>>>> A. Launch probe into LKO and return 1st stage and SDG to KSC - Success B. Perform Transfer Maneuver to Duna - Success C. Land the Lander near the Polar Regions - Success. <<<<<<<<<<Lessons Learned; Lessons Identified>>>>>>>>>> Goal Post A: The SDG launching the Probe into LKO. This leg was pretty much business as usual - Although I did learn that the SF-125 will be burned up by the exhaust from the 3x Lv-909 "terrier's" - That did not bother me too much. It looks a lot better to see the exhaust plumes to "clip" through an part that is open, rather than clip through a closed cylinder. where as it feel redundant to wish for something to be added to the game in these times... I still wish we could hot stage rings in the game. The launch went without incident and the probe was successfully deployed (being a lot shorter made it very easy, it flew out of the cargo bay on its own RCS power. For detailed walkthrough of the launch See spoler section bellow: Goal Post B: Duna Lander Probe - making transfer burn to Duna. Because I had the CommNet around Duna now, I decided to just put on a small antenna on the vehicle - with a range of 200 Mm. I figured the vehicle would only need trajectory when leaving Kerbin and approaching Duna... How ever I was surprised of how "short" 200Mm was in reality - not extending that far away from the Kerbin SOI. It meant I had to do a little quick load.. you see I had decided to do the approach of burning out of the Kerbin SOI, then make the maneuver for Duna at a optimal point. However - The optimal point was way outside CommNet range. So I decided to do a more expensive burn and then just make sure that the Duna PE would be a few KM above the surface. I would not have Δv enough to circularize around Duna.. but I didn't need to since I could just be Aerobraking. the maneuver that got the Lander Probe to Duna. The most important thing for me would be to bring the probe over the North Pole - Final adjustment would be made once in the Duna SOI. - The probe was allowed to coast all the way to the Duna SOI without any signal - a bit harrowing... For a sec I thought that the CommNet wasn't able to relay signal.. but it was just because the signal was only reaquired after the timewarp stopped. The probe had successfully arrived at Duna SOI Goal Post C: Lander safely on the ground, taking its first sample. Once inside the Duna SOI it showed that my my path would take me directly through Ike's SOI - which made aiming quite difficult actually - since Ike naturally gave me a high ark to Duna. The probe zipping past Ike on its way to Duna. Fortunately there were plenty Δv left to push the PE down once I was through Ike's SOI. For RPG reasons I was interested in testing the soil near the poles of Duna - Seeing the canyons between the poles I figured that would be a cool landing site - so I aimed for this place: After finding a point to aim at I, then raised the PE to 4km above surface - to make sure that the vehicle didn't pancake into the ground, if the atmosphere wouldn't break me as much as I hoped it would... The last Δv was spend aiming the trajectory for the canyon - or general area. The transfer stage being ditched - and the landing stage burning through the atmosphere. once the atmosphere started to heat up, the transfer stage was dropped and the lander stage just flew through the atmosphere like a bullet. It bled of the energy.. albeit much slower than I anticipated - the lander would drift quite far before the speeds were dropped to a level were I felt comfortable the lander would not have been torn apart (at least in our world - In the world of Kerbals they have the alloy Kerbalium . And that is most sturdy) the fairing was dropped, and the scute deployed soon after. lander drops fairing - creating a lot more drag. After that it was just a question of dropping the heat shield - I dont know if its a bug? or if Duna's atmosphere is just so light it does not need heatshields... At least it had not spend any of its ablative propperties . The scute was deployed and the 4 engines put it gentle down to the ground. The lander breaking for a gentle touch down. The lander would touch down a generally flat place, on the other side of the ice sheet I was aiming fore.. but at least in one piece. We are still taking a sample of the Duna Polar Soil, which can lay the foundation to find the ideal place for future manned Duna Missions. The probes final resting place. The battery power is a bit light - the lander goes all the way down to EC 70U before sunrise. If all unnecessary power usage has been eliminated. Of course the lander could go into hibernation mode in the night.. but I dont know if that is considered "cheating" in relation to the goal post stating that the vehicle should "have means to generate electricity" - I guess it has the means in the daylight.. but If we go by the Martian Landers and Rovers of our world.. power is spend in the cold nights, making sure mission critical hardware is not killed by the cold. I guess that is of OJT to judge.. where ever he is now days. For picture slide show - see bellow: <<<<<<<<<< MOVING FORWARD >>>>>>>>>> with that being a - Challenge Success! - it is time to move forward. Since the parameters of the next challenge is pretty much the same - at least if I just put wheels on the lander. I have decided to compile the R&D post for Challenge 5 and 6. Otherwise the R&D post for challenge 5 will be very short. Since I will mostly be able to use the same vehicles. See you in the next one!

Thank you for a nice read - also what a sleek looking plane

-=R&D_UPDATE=- Tiny Lander Good day! Here we are again, soldiering on while pretending everything is fine... I guess it's all one can do at this point... I think I've come to the conclusion that if this was really the end of KSP2. I'll play the content that is there, and then take what I've learned and go my way into the ether. Any way, todays post will be short. After successfully establishing the CommNetwork around Duna. It is now time to go dig in the ground and figure out what the soil has to offer. The challenge is as follows: when I initially started to make builds for this challenge I thought it was going to be a walk in the park. But I was surprised how big even the small parts actually are. Also even though the the challenge does not ask for science parts - it just felt wrong to launch a lander that could not take samples from the ground. I mean, the Viking Probe mentioned as an inspiration has means to dig in the dirt: Painting of the Viking Lander taking samples on the Martian Surface. So science parts had to be there, now that they are here! Designing a Lander: Lander being tested on the Runway of KSC. It is not easy to build this small. I knew my glider would only take vehicles that were - at maximum, somewhere between Small and Medium. medium would already be too big.. since the vehicle would not be able to leave the bay. So I had to build it out of the Extra Small parts: Lander from the "front" and bellow. The lander is basically constructed by taking a M-Beam 650, flanked by XS reaction wheels and strapping on 4 TMP-XS (the tiny 6 way connector) where I could add the 4 LV-1 "Ant's". Giving the vehicle a total of 70 Δv. (the fuel tank is mostly left empty) The engines also doubles as landing legs.. Since even the smallest leg were huge on this thing. The biggest issue were fitting the sample arm, (which is rather big actually) and not having it clip into the drogue chute. I added 2 solar panels and a z-400 battery - together with the tiny probe core it gives the vehicle EC of 405U. Lastly I added a ASCM-B "Little Sniffer" just because it looks like there is a camera on it. Considering how much the cameras on the rovers give them personality.. I think its weird that we don't have a rover part with camera etc. on it. The lander totalled at .79t with fuel and .77t dry. Now we just need to get it to Duna! Duna Lander Transfer Stage: From Bottom up: 1. Duna Transfer Stage 2. Duna reentry stage 3. lander. So.. The lander is a little bit wider than the Small heat shield - I figured I could put in a faring that has a cone shape and put a small heatshield at the end. Hopefully the conical shape of the faring will mean that it takes less heat on the way down? and the heatshield will take the brunt of it. The lander is connected via a decoupler on its side to it. Which is fitting any way since my plan is to get my PE just barely over the surface of the planet - to bleed of as much speed while flying horizontal - so I don't just Pancake into the ground (if the atmosphere is weaker than I expect). So it will be pointing in the correct orientation when deploying. The Transfer stage has 1967 Δv which should be enough to get a "impact" path to Duna - it is going to be quite interesting how much the atmosphere does? because even when sending missions to mars in real life we use heatshields right? The Staging Plan is as follows: Once the lander enters the atmosphere, stage separate the Transfer Stage from the Re-entry stage, and point the heatshield prograde. - The transfer stage will burn up. Once the lander has bleed off enough speed to not rip the lander a part or melt it - drop the faring. Engage the drogue shoot - to ensure the lander separates from the heatshield - and stage separate the heatshield off. gently touch down with the aid of engines. The vehicle comes in at (with the lander attached to it) 4.30t total - meaning almost half as light as the CommNetwork Probe launched previously. So getting it into LKO should be a walk in the park. Speaking of getting into LKO: Hot Staging: To help the SDG separate from the 1st stage - I have tried to use 3x CT-S-1 instead of the 3x SF-125 as it looks closer to something that could enable hot staging - I don't know if the game will register it like that? or if the part will survive the heat - We'll see.. if they burn off I guess it does not matter much anyway. As long as the SDG flies clean off upon stage separation. SDG with the Duna Lander vehicle attached in the cargo bay <<<<<<<<<< Moving Forward >>>>>>>>>> Next up is launch - Which I think I'll get done pretty quick. We'll see if the little thing does well - I guess with a lander like this, making sure you land on a flat surface is also alpha omega. Any way - see you in the next update.

Challenge 2: Probe arriving at Duna. I completed challenge 2 and 3 in one go - If that is considered cheating I'll just lunch 3 new satellites. Done in v.0.2.1.0 Proof of Orbit: See spoiler for detailed walkthrough: Challenge 3: The probe from Challenge 2 functioned as a probe carrier for the CommNetwork mentioned in challenge 3. Proof of CommNet around Duna: 3x long range antenna Molniya Satelites. 6x Short range antenna cube satelites + the drone carrier: See spoiler for detailed walkthrough of this leg: If it is considered cheating to launch Challenge 3 with Challenge 2 - I'll just launch 2 more satelites. For the very detailed walkthrough - See here: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/224623-duna-mastery-challenge-companion-report/?do=findComment&comment=4386751

I see. Probably as weak as a engine plate then - they burn up if they exceed 700 m/s on Kerbin.

Nah it seems that if you deorbit from a DLO - you can do it without any precaution.. since orbit speed is only like what.. 700-800 m/s? I dont remember.. So far Ive only been to Duna twice But I imagine that if you come in directly from Kerbin.. that's when heat shields are needed? - I'll find out more once I get on with the Duna Mastery Challenge.

I always put a Nuclear Reactor on vehicles that uses the atomic engine - It seems weird to me not to do that. A part of me feel it should be a requirement.. just like Ion engines needs power. That being said.. I have only ever left Kerbin SOI succesful twice. But yeah.. Solar panels. It feels like one of the previous post severely nerfed solar panels? - I had vehicles with 2 of the smallest solar panels I had not used for a while that had no problem generating power.. to suddenly not being able to recharge fast enough.

Jeb is a patient man.. but then.. He went into the history books. I wonder what the life span is for a Kerbal at this point. xD

That is one insane rocket - Did you wait for an optimal launch window? or did you just wait between each leg of the mission?

Yay! A mission report that isn't just a video! it just looks great when the boosters separate like that. Did you drop the idea of having heatshields to save the mass? Or was it to aid in landing (its a lot of weight after all) - I myself have started to have drop the heatshield once through the dangerous parts of the atmosphere. nice x)