Death Engineering

Death Engineering's "Das Dunaprojeckt" Conclusion Mission Hardware: Primary Propulsion Module (PPM-Main) Primary Propulsion Modules (PPM-outboard) Main Mission Assembly Primary Mission Module (PMM) Mars Excursion Module (MEM) Earth Entry Module (EEM) The crew of 6 Kerbals returned to Kerbin after a long, long mission and claim the mission a success! There were some issues with the probes, fuel was very tight on the Kerbin-return leg and missed some science points. No matter! It was a fun mission to fly; even doing the orbital construction went better than I'd expected. After departing Kerbin, the first task was to get the two outboard PPM boosters back into low Kerbin orbit. As soon as the Duna encounter was lined up, I undocked the boosters and began retro burns to get them out of an escape trajectory. Then it was just a matter of docking them together in high orbit and a long burn to pull them back into low orbit. The boosters were in a circular 140km orbit before the Main Mission Assembly made it out of Kerbin orbit, which I was surprised at. Since I don't use any engineering assists and haven't used the NERVA in a long time, I didn't really know what to expect with the fuel requirements. Turns out I brought along way too much fuel in the outboard PPM's, which hurt the final score for the challenge. I probably should have tested it first. A deep space course correction put the mission into a Duna encounter using Ike to assist with getting into Duna orbit. Without Ike, the mission might not have been successful! The final orbit after passing past Ike needed only a small burn at Ap to get the Pe to the 55km target, the altitude needed to allow the crew and sample return crafts to rendezvous. Luckily, things came together in time before Ike came back around and tossed everything into deep space. While at Ap, it was time to shed some mass before burning to low Duna orbit. The landing crew and the two probes were dropped to different altitudes with the crew doing the highest pass through the atmosphere to burn off as much velocity as possible in the thin Duna air. After nearly an entire orbit through Duna's atmosphere, a landing was finally ensured. As planned, the 'chutes were jettisoned at 3km above the surface and a powered descent to the surface went well. The chutes too so long to come down, the surface mission was well underway before they even touched down on the surface! Unfortunately, one of the probes landed on a steep incline and was unrecoverable. The second probe landed successfully and was able to return to the PMM with its Goo samples. The landing crew also brought some goo, so there was some overlap. Rather foolishly missed out on *all* Duna aerodynamic science! However, the crew did return safely to the PMM with dirt and loads of other tasty science. Dropped the required life-support mass and the Duna ascent stage to and immediately left Duna orbit and returned to a near-circular orbit around Kerbol, once again using Ike's gravity to pull the crew out of Duna orbit. The idea behind getting into Kerbol orbit ASAP was to get the craft into an orbit where I could fiddle with the Eve injection burn as I really hadn't planned any transits after the Duna landing. It was about 30 days before the Eve burn, which brought the Pe fairly close to Eve, but not low enough to get any low-orbit science. That also means a very high orbit burn from the probes to get to an Eve landing trajectory, resulting in a very similar Eve landing time (and thus only able to "view" one of the probes as the other was swallowed by Eve at the same time). The Eve probe landed in the water, but that's OK - everything floats! No burn was required by the crew while in Eve's SOI.. just a quick and quiet high pass, using Eve's gravity to pull the Kerbol Ap up to meet up with Kerbin's orbit. And then... the waiting began. The crew orbited around Kerbol 12 times before Kerbin was close enough to get to. Really appreciated KSP's ability to plan nodes multiple orbits in advance! While still outside Kerbin's SOI, the crew separated from the PMM in the EEM and adjusted their trajectory to a Kerbin aerocapture, making sure it would take at least one orbit to slow down enough to land. While the crew watched their home getting bigger in the window, it was time to set the main PPM to return to Kerbin orbit. Luckily the mission requirements did not specify that the PMM had to come back with the PPM, as there was just not enough ÃŽâ€v left in the main PPM to slow it and the lightened PMM into low Kerbin orbit. While the PPM burned to a highly elliptical orbit around Kerbin, the PMM was tossed into deep space.. After just one dip into the atmosphere and back out again, the crew was slow enough to commit to their landing! Unfortunately, it was a night landing and since I couldn't do anything about it, there wasn't much of a photo-op once the crew landed. However, post-mission landing pics from the Space Center show the three amigos and their three buddies grinning madly after their extended mission. Mission Album Final scoring: Costs - Total: 361,979 Main Mission Assembly: 237,170 PPM Main: 54,095 PPM Outboard (total of both): 35,357 Propellant Mass Fraction - 85.6/183.17 = 0.467 Propellant Mass (fuel + oxidizer): Main Mission Assembly: 13.6t PPM Main: 36t PPM Outboard (total of both): 36t Total: 85.6t Vehicle Mass: Main Mission Assembly: 70.19t PPM Main: 60.58t PPM Outboard (total of both): 52.4t Total: 183.17 Mass per crew as calculated by mass of both vessels in LKO before Duna transfer burn: 183.17 / 6 (total crew) = 30.53 Science points scored from Duna and Eve only: 2208.6 Overall, the mission was a success however the score could have been a lot better if I'd spent more time sorting out how much fuel was needed in the two outbound PPMs. Since only one of each probe was a success and all atmospheric science was missed, there's lots more science to be had as well.

Yeah sure why not. Good luck!

It's even more satisfying doing a Jool mission without 'nukes.

Hey panzerknoef, welcome to the challenge! And fitting to be playing this mission just as NASA makes headway with its own spacecraft program. Welcome to the leaderboard! If possible, please list your running total on updates so I don't have to think too hard. Great commentary in the pics, btw.. thanks for making it a good read!

Death Engineering's "Das Dunaprojekt" This is an all-stock parts submission to the challenge, but used a few graphic mods and my trusty friend Kerbal Alarm Clock. Mission hardware details and final scoring/science results to come in a later post. Until then...

Rule clarification regarding Duna descent All chutes on the MEM must be cut/jettisoned at 3km above Duna's surface during descent (hint: use IVA radar altitude) Powered descent only below 3km above Duna's surface

For Kerbin system missions with batteries only, I just use the math to make sure I've got enough EC for the mission (+ wiggle room). For missions around Kerbin with solar panels, I make sure that there is a positive net EC change as the vessel enters the dark side of the body; same rule applies when orbiting any other planet/moon. For interplanetary transfers, beyond Kerbin (basically to Duna as I don't think the risk to Dres is worth it), I will test the design in "simulation" (yeah, Hyperedit) at Duna's distance from Sol to make sure it will provide power with zero loss. Inner planets/moons, I trust the math from the part description and pack enough panels for the job. Note that if you're going to transmit data, that needs to be accounted for also. To calculate those needs, I use the excellent charts from Estel. Cheers!

(Sorry.. I missed this earlier..) Yep - all science points scored from Duna and Eve count.

The mission profile from the original design took two forms: one, as you describe, where the crew returns to LKO before making their descent home in the onboard EEM (module designed only to land back on the home planet). The other, also accepted in this challenge as it's a bit more forgiving, is where the crew return from their mission in a direct landing aboard the EEM while the PPM/PMM return to LKO uncrewed. Regarding the Eve flyby, from the original mission profile: "• 28 February 1983: Venus swingby. This reduces the velocity at the return to earth, and provided an additional science opportunity. Four probes were dropped into the atmosphere of Venus." I hope that helps.. thanks for your interest.

Yeah, the choice of tiers really decides what missions you can launch next. Gotcha. Yah, hmmm.. I flew a few missions with those two tiers unlocked and was able to get some good results but only by using cheaty methods to freeze rotation and apply measured thrust. You could probably get into orbit with those two tiers, but you'd have to set up the orbital trajectory some time below 14km when the fins run out of air.

http://imgur.com/a/E7Gl2Wow what a fantastic mission.. thanks for sharing! Is there a part three as you swing past Eve and back home? If you're interested in joining the leaderboard, feel free to post your stats: There are four leaderboards: Cost of mission in LKO (lifters are "free") including all fuel, payload and crew Propellant mass fraction as calculated by: Mass of Total Propellant Required / Mass of Both Vessels in LKO before Duna transfer burn Mass per crew as calculated by: Mass of Both Vessels in LKO before Duna transfer burn / 6 (total crew) (optional) Science points scored from Duna and Eve only

I've decided to change the challenge to completing the mission with a single vessel to Duna orbit. Running two identical missions in parallel which require multiple deep space rendezvous and docking then returning to orbit around Kerbin is seems grindy and favors those using KAC. The vessel design requirements have not changed; only the requirement to complete the mission twice. Regarding disposable PPMs, this challenge uses the variety which are remotely flown back into orbit where they started. From the source material, "Two lateral PPM's. These were only partially fuelled*, enough for the necessary delta-V to set the spacecraft toward Mars on 12 November 1981. They then separated, and maneuvered back to rendezvous and docking with the earth orbit station. There they were refueled and reused for earth-moon shuttle service or a future Mars expedition." * Reflected in challenge rule stating "The design of the Kerbin LKO departure 'booster' PPM can have a lower ÃŽâ€v than the PPM which travels with the PMM". Looking great! Note the rule change below removing the requirement to fly the same mission twice. Of course, if you want to go ahead.. GOLD * STAR Rule change Removed requirement to fly duplicate missions as building and flying a single mission to Duna, Eve and back to Kerbin still captures the original von Braun mission plan. Having to fly the mission twice may favor those using mods and really doesn't demonstrate any more skill than doing it once. The mission craft requirements have not changed; only the need to fly the mission twice. As noted above, the Kerbin-departure stage PPMs still need to return to LKO after pushing the PMM/MEM/EEM stage to Duna.

Yeah, von Braun was definitely a "special case" in defining the human experience. Highly charismatic with a contagious enthusiasm, modest and respectful, and successful with the ladies, while possessing a finely tuned and largely self taught understanding of rocketry and space travel. Looking forward to seeing your design. Regarding the mission, the intent is to send two identical craft on the mission to 'the red planet' with enough reserve supplies and ÃŽâ€v that neary any failure could be accounted for and still provide a safe recovery for all 12 crew involved. In KSP, we can't "cram" 12 kerbals into a 6 crew landing pod.. yet (engineers are working 'round the clock). However, I did battle with the challenge requirement to fly two parallel, identical missions. Then again.. it's only out to Duna, Eve and back so why not. Each vessel to Duna requires these six modules: PMM with room for 6 crew Two (2) PPMs which separate and return to LKO after Duna injection burn is complete One (1) PPM which remains with the PMM to provide Duna orbit insertion burn and Duna -> Eve -> Kerbin return burn MEM with room for 3 crew to land on Duna and return to the PMM in orbit EEM with room for 6 to land on Kerbin from interplanetary transfer

Very nice Duna mission! +1 for bringing back the entire Kerbin return craft and 'sticking' the landing! Looking forward to your ATLAST mission.

Hope your kerbs make it out to Duna and back. BTW.. what does a really flimsy Duna craft look like? So far, my Duna missions have involved two separate flights out to LDO. I suspect you built a single monolithic mission to get there and back..? Oh yeah, those mods are all fine. AFAIK, PreciseNode doesn't allow you to do anything that can't be done manually with hours and hours of fiddling with nodes. Thanks both for your updates and participation... it's a long, long run to the end of T9. edit: Docking Kerbin-departure stage in LKO.

Hello and welcome to the challenge! The more complex and period-appropriate design, the better! How about this beauty: Some other resources I perused while developing the challenge: Humans to Mars: Fifty Years of Mission Planning, 1950-2000 (NASA SP-2001-4521) NASA’s Mars Design Reference Mission Goes Nuclear (2001) Manned Mars Surface Missions (1966) Origin of the Apollo-shaped Manned Mars Lander (1966) The Last Manned Mars Plan (1971) Shuttle-Era Manned Mars Flyby (1985) Wernher von Braun’s Fantastic Vision: Ferry Rocket

I was able to complete at least up to Tier 6 of the challenge bonus-goals in BTSM with 0.25 KSP: Tier 1 - "Ahh, balance.. I get it now" (1) Tier 2 - "Bird's eye view" (2) Tier 3 - "Taking it slow" (3) Tier 4 - "Spudnik" (3) Tier 5 - "This land is your land, this land is Badland" (4) Tier 6 - "One small step.." (6) Actually, I was even able to get a taste of low space science on Tier 2! My Tier 6 "One small step.." mission was over-engineered and weighed in at just over 180t. I didn't have enough time to finish flying my Pol mission back to the Laythe station to try out the Science Lab. Should be able to get there during tonight's mission time. BTW... FlowerChild has stated that 'Science' mode is balanced and playable if you're not interested in finance/contracts.

Hello KevinTMC.. those are great questions! And glad you had fun with "Duna Apollo Style". I'm a little torn on this point myself. On one side, I know that .235 KSP, with appropriate versions of BTSM/DRE, is perfectly playable and stable and all challenges are do-able right up to the end. As you've seen, I'm heavily committed to such a playthrough now. However.. about a month ago on the BTSM thread, someone reported that the Science Lab was not transmitting science like it should. This was fixed, but not in a BTSM compatible with .235 KSP. Since my current game is relying heavily on a laboriously assembled Laythe station with its Science Lab, I've yet to make a decision on how to proceed: send some uncrewed science vessels to retrieve the surface samples, goo and science labs back to Kerbin or just start over in .25. Using .25 has so much going for it with the roll-enabled engine gimbals and improved nav ball and all the improvements to BTSM's balance suggests that starting with 0.25 would make sense. However, the addition of finance/contracts is going add considerable game-time in order to get to tier 8/9 (largely because doing parallel missions is going to be a lot harder without the funds to pay for them). Plus, BTSM is so robust now with payload and missions to explore bodies, a challenge like this with mission goals and targets becomes somewhat redundant - rendering the challenge largely just about getting to tier 8/9. That said, since BTSM has not been "checked out" beyond I think T7 (currently), with some tweaks into T8, it could be some time before the whole tech tree is balanced and there could easily be save-breaking changes during that time, suggesting that the balanced and playable .235 version might be the better choice. In order to help make both of our decisions, I'll load up my game tonight with just the final T9 node left to unlock and see if the mission from Pol is able to transmit science from Laythe or if the materials will need to be flown back to Kerbin (which is not in the plan...). I'll also re-play from T1 to see if any of the early challenge goals are still playable. Pretty certain they are, but I didn't pay close enough attention while playing around with .25. From a philosophical point, the less experience (to a point...) you have in KSP, you'd likely be better off when playing BTSM/DRE. Things like how science collection and retrieval work and getting the 'hang' of re-entry when the effects are more than just sparkly gee-whiz moments are best learned gradually and deviate enough from stock KSP that not having to break too many old habits could be in your favor. Basically, by the time you've completed the crewed Kerbin landings on Mun and Minmus, you should be up to speed on the differences. Any mod that doesn't break KSP balancing is fine. Personally, I use Visual Enhancements, Texture Replacer and Kerbal Alarm Clock. The engineering mods just make it too easy for me. That said, I am not against reverting to VAB as many times as it takes. I hope that helps.. and I'll be back in about 12 hours with my findings on the Science Lab and .25 challenge goals. Besides.. someone with your experience may also find "'Das Dunaprojekt' or Duna von Braun Style" to be a fun little diversion. Welcome to the challenge!

Thanks, Cmdr. Arn1e! Also, brief descriptions and links to each mission module on "Encyclopedia Astronautica" can be found in the OP in the "Mission Hardware" section (using the original 'M'ars abbreviations for consistency).

Lol I'll take that as a good thing.. This challenge is mostly a translation of the original mission parameters into KSP, so I'll pass creds on to herr von Braun.

Less than 4km from the Duna base.. not too bad of a drive. Good call on using the Poodle.. Hehe.. yeah I can understand that. Personally, I prefer the flying over the building. Post up an album if you happen to get the mission done. Looking good! I'm rather fond of the roll-enabled gimballing as well. Thanks for the updates, all!

Nice stats! And.. no dead 'kerbs... impressive. The KSC had to build another building to stack my pile of corpses. Good tip on how to efficiently get Mun science.. I did a similar thing with disposable mini-stations and one reusable lander that stayed out at Mun's orbit. Thanks for the update!

How's this?

Sure, cosmetic mods are OK, and mechjeb too for engineering purposes. I think some of the bigger challenges in this mission are the Kerbin-return PPM and propulsive Duna braking, which I hope gives the mission (and the challenge) some unique points. Auto pilot kinda detracts from that. Looking forward to your progress! Yeah, I totally had stock in mind for my attempt when reading von Braun's proposal. Willkommen bei der Herausforderung!

This thread documents the efforts to complete "The Better Than Starting Manned Career Challenge" to complete the tech tree in the Better Than Starting Manned mod. News from the OP submission to the challenge is proud to report a successful tier 6 A-style Mun landing. All Three Amigo crew were returned safely, paving the way for continued Munar exploration. However in sad news, Jebediah Kerman was later lost on a high-speed re-entry test of the Minmus CM. Steep re-entry angle and poor attitude control were blamed. He will be remembered for his contributions to high-altitude test flights, seen here in this photo after an early science achievement. This once revered image now stands in memoriam of brave cries for.. MOAR BOOSTERS! While doing an OP submission to the challenge, a robotic goo-return mission failed on the first Duna window due to lack of probecore on the return vehicle, rendering it inert and unrecoverable. Surface science and atmospheric science captured will simplify the next landing, but fuh-shnizzled about missing the first low D-v window. As a result of the design error which caused the loss of the Duna goo-return mission from Tech Level 7, added Kerbin SOI departure clarifications for Duna Dominance I Prime and Backup: Duna Dominance I - Prime (4): Launch a robotically controlled mission which scores Goo science from Duna's surface. Must leave Kerbin SOI before any Tier 8 nodes are unlocked. Duna Dominance I - Backup (3): Successfully return a kerbal from Duna's surface back to Kerbin. Crewed vehicle must depart Kerbin SOI before any Tier 9 nodes are unlocked. For my OP submission, still really chuffed about botching the robotic goo return from Duna. Going to try again on the next high ÃŽâ€v window - really want to complete Duna Dominance trifecta! Hopefully between that and using a "disposable" orbiting Mun platform to get every science point from there, I can make up some late-game ground... For no particular reason other than I like the shot... Death Engineering Presents.. Unlocking BTSM's Tier 1 - 7: Since the botched Duna sample return mission cost many days, its going to be hard to get back on track by late-game. Currently, I have enough science points to unlock 4 nodes in Tier 8, but holding back on that until I can get another Duna sample return mission underway. By then, Gilly and Eve missions will be complete and should be able to unlock most of Tier 8 in one swoop. Sending a probe down to Kerbol low-space and harvesting Mun and Minmus surface samples have helped a lot with stockpiling science points, as did a rather bold move to launch a single Kerbal on a Minmus flyby (prior to the landing and before life-support recycler was unlocked) which also dipped, albeit briefly, into interplanetary space before turning back and heading home. Tier 3 rocket getting Biome Hunter I This rocket is capable of getting into space, barely, in order to earn enough points to get "Biome Hunter I". Direct-ascent Minmus Landing Didn't need to bring three crew along, but helped make the mission interesting. Reusable Mun Lander and Mini Space-station Lander and mini station are launched ahead of the crew. With a crew of two Kerbals in a CSM on a separate launch, the lander can support at least 5 landing and return missions to the Munar surface before exhausting supplies on the station. Tier 1 - 7 Highlight Album First interplanetary steps Hoping to play this challenge as "the long game", earning as many points as I can with an eye to sustainable missions and spacecraft. Finally got a Duna sample return mission home, but was a little bit anti-climactic since I'd been sitting on so many science points awaiting a second run at the "Duna Dominance I" sub-challenge. Just about cleared out Tier 8 with these missions, but now that the green glowing stuff all around KSC has a use in the NUK-NUK, its time to push towards Jool! Duna Goo Sample Return Mission ready to head home 45-day Duna Lander heads out uncrewed Challenge progress details - 51 points so far Tier 1 - "Ahh, balance.. I get it now" (1) Tier 2 - "Bird's eye view" (2) Tier 3 - "Taking it slow" (3) Biome Hunter I (1): Score Tier 3 SCIENCE! on at least 3 biomes on your first Tier 3 launch. Tier 4 - "Spudnik" (3) Survivor I (1): Unlock all Tier 4 nodes with no kerbal fatalities.. so far. Biome Hunter II (2): Score Tier 3 science on all Kerbin biomes Tier 5 - "This land is your land, this land is Badland" (4) Survivor II (2): Unlock all Tier 5 nodes with no kerbal fatalities.. so far. Goo hunter I (2): Retrieve Goo canisters from Mun's high and near space. Tier 6 - "One small step.." (6) Team Effort I (2): Perform a joint orbital docking in Kerbin orbit (any altitude). This means that two separate launches will put at least two kerbals in space where they will rendezvous and dock for a photo op. Craft must then deorbit separately. All kerbals must survive. Survivor III (3): Unlock all Tier 6 nodes with no kerbal fatalities.. so far. Tier 7 - "Minmus master" (6) Take a Breather I (2): On a single flight, score Atmospheric science on at least 4 biomes. Biome Hunter IV (4): Score crew report science over all Minmus biomes. Duna Dominance I - Prime (4): Launch a robotically controlled mission which scores Goo science from Duna's surface. I'm a Scientist! I (3): Score Science Jr. from Mun and Minmus Highlights to Year 2 Day 138 First steps to Duna colonization and a 'roid capture Both missions in this update were things I'd never attempted before (aerocapturing a 'roid by itself and DOR with spacewalk rendezvous), but amazingly came off without a hitch. The Kerbal who would be first on Duna and would stay on the surface for 45 days, arrived around the red planet first. There was a lucky encounter with Ike for a good science boost and then a clean aerocapture around Duna. The 45 day lander module arrived later and the tricky part was to not only match the orbit and inclination of the mission already orbiting Duna, but to also put it into a reasonably close orbital encounter with the awaiting crew, as life support supplies are critical on this leg of the mission. On the first orbit after aerocapture, the lander and the interplanetary craft were only 300m apart. The plan was for a Duna Orbit Rendezvous but without docking, just a close encounter. I was hoping for closer then 300m, but that's all the fuel we had left so it made for a sketchy spacewalk on the dark side of Duna. The asteroid capture, a class "C", was accomplished with two launches; both with crews of two. The first launch, sent out 10 days before the Kerbin encounter, met the 'roid and pushed it into a Kerbin aerocapture encounter. The crew stayed with the 'roid until nearing Kerbin then detached and landed safely. After the 'roid was captured into a Kerbin orbit, a second crew was launched to intercept the 'roid and park into a stable orbit. Really only had one shot at launching the second mission to meet the "doomed" 'roid, but managed to catch up with it at around 350km. After a short burn to push the Pe into a safe altitude and several orbits to park it at 200km equatorial orbit, the second crew took the sweet 'roid science home. Scored on this update: Rockhound II (4): Score science for a class C asteroid (or higher). Team Effort II (2): Earn "Rockhound II" or "Rockhound III" with a crew of at least two kerbals. First leg of Duna Dominance II - crew still on Duna. Year 2 Day 226 Highlights Wrapping up "Normal Mode" entry - "Happy New Year!" This post concludes my "Normal Mode" entry for this challenge, wrapped up on New Years Eve (year 2 day 364). Its been a real roller-coaster of highs and lows, making more errors this play-round than my warm-up. Oh well! Still playing the "long game" with hopes to bring together a better entry for "Expert Mode". The keen-eyed observer may notice that I'd previously claimed "Rockhunter II" and "Team Effort II". Turns out, the asteroid I captured was a "B" class and not a "C" class! At least that gives me something else to shoot for in the "Expert Mode" entry.. Modifiers Earned: I don't need a slide rule (3): No use of any "engineering" mods (Mechjeb, RCS helper, etc). Tier 1 - "Ahh, balance.. I get it now" (1) Tier 2 - "Bird's eye view" (2) Tier 3 - "Taking it slow" (3) Tier 4 - "Spudnik" (3) Survivor I (1): Unlock all Tier 4 nodes with no kerbal fatalities.. so far. Biome Hunter II (2): Score Tier 3 science on all Kerbin biomes Tier 5 - "This land is your land, this land is Badland" (4) Survivor II (2): Unlock all Tier 5 nodes with no kerbal fatalities.. so far. Goo hunter I (2): Retrieve Goo canisters from Mun's high and near space. Tier 6 - "One small step.." (6) Team Effort I (2): Perform a joint orbital docking in Kerbin orbit (any altitude). This means that two separate launches will put at least two kerbals in space where they will rendezvous and dock for a photo op. Craft must then deorbit separately. All kerbals must survive. Survivor III (3): Unlock all Tier 6 nodes with no kerbal fatalities.. so far. Tier 7 - "Minmus master" (6) Take a Breather I (2): On a single flight, score Atmospheric science on at least 4 biomes. Biome Hunter IV (4): Score crew report science over all Minmus biomes. Duna Dominance I - Prime (4): Launch a robotically controlled mission which scores Goo science from Duna's surface. I'm a Scientist! I (3): Score Science Jr. from Mun and Minmus Rockhound I (3): Score science for any asteroid. Duna Dominance II (4) (requires completion of either Duna Dominance I Prime or Backup): Develop a Duna lander that can sustain a kerbal on Duna for at least 45 days. While there, transmit all surface transmittable science, including Biometric. After at least 45 days on the surface, the kerbal can return to orbit in the same lander or aboard a different lander, delivered to the surface robotically. The kerbal must make it back to Kerbin safely. Scoring: 2 years 364 days = 1094 days * ( 1 - (60 modifier points * .001)) = 1028 points Update Year 4 Day 328 With two Tier 9 nodes unlocked, over 2000 science in the bank, and lots of science awaiting return-windows from crewed Dres and Laythe landing missions this play-through is getting close to the penultimate Tier 9 node. This update includes an Eve landing mission with no intent to return the crew. However, to make the effort "worthwhile", the mission included a rover and landed near the beach. With all science instruments on the rover, the crew was able to get both land and water science! "Thank you for your sacrif.. effort!" Steps towards the first permanent orbiting base also occur in this update. Laythe Station will serve as a resupply point for exploring the moons of Jool. The first module, a series of hubs and life support pods for visiting crew entered Laythe orbit. The two following modules, made possible by the second Tier 9 node purchase, add fuel and monopropellant processing. Challenge submission update Year 6 Day 10 Five years into the challenge, we've got all but one Tier 9 node unlocked and 2083 science points in the bank. There is a habitation study around Kerbin underway and a similar mission in enroute to Duna. Laythe Station is nearly complete, with fuel and monopropellant processing modules added and a lander awaiting its crew which will get pockets of dirt from Pol, Bop and Vall. A purpose built Tylo lander may be sent out if the science points are still needed after exploring the "easier" planets. Might be one other update before I finally complete unlocking the BTSM tech tree.. hopefully I'm not necro'ing my own thread too much. As someone else noted, however, the amount of time involved in completing this challenge is not trivial.. hopefully, the thread will keep itself alive without too much necromancy. So I guess we're going to Eeloo...It is currently Year 8, D 208 in my playthrough to complete the BTSM tech tree. In this update, finally starting to see some science points coming in! After about 10 launches without any science, its a relief to see the points coming in.. but at a trickle! Apparently, an Eeloo mission is unavoidable.. so that will be in the next update. Debated on whether to post a challenge update, but decided to share the "mistakes were made" story: As it turns out, the craft that was sent out as the "taxi" to Pol, Bop and Vall was grossely insufficient in the ÃŽâ€v department. This required another craft and another crew (since life support on the station is timed fairly tight) to be sent out. The crew member on Laythe Station happily de-orbited his craft and grinned maniacally until Laythe's atmosphere cooked him. Rather hesitant to even look at how many Kerb's I've lost.. many many.. I'll include the dead-count on the final post. Also had a problem with the Duna orbiting Hab Study design and wound up launching and sending another similar one out there. Basically, I figure I've lost about a year and a half while I send out replacement craft to Jool and Duna. Lastly, made a mistake with the life support on the Kerbin habitation study (left the life support kegs "untapped".. or, disabled). After launching up a surface return craft to leave up for the crew to come back, when approaching the station, got the "Ran out of Life Support" and "Habitation Study Cancelled" messages. After all the failures, botched missions and dead Kerbals, the space program was lucky enough to locate this Mun arch completely by accident. Never even been to this arch, so taking the late-game Mun direct-ascent lander up for the last two Mun biomes and seeing this was a nice find. Basically, I've rather messed up this challenge attempt. However, at almost 9 years of game time, I'm not about to restart it now! Will try to wrap things up in the next post, which will probably be awhile as play time is cut for the next month or so. Thanks for tolerating my necromancy!