bobcook

Day 2, more landings and more fun. Wasn't quite sure how to interpret the rules of "one ship" and "does not have to be the same launch" - sort of assumed it would be ok to use the same design, with multiple copies, on the same rover. Brought along two extra landers, just in case. Or maybe it was that Jeb forgot how many facilities there really were at KSC. Hard to know which.

How much fun will this be! Tiny little probe made a tidy landing on the dish.

Thanks for making this challenge! I knew my score won't rival what other will do, but it was still a lot of fun to put together, a good afternoon's entertainment.

I love doing Apollo-style missions to the Mun! Here is my entry. Its not anything particularly spectacular, but it was a lot of fun to do today. Scoring (if I understand the challenge correctly): 9.472 tons (lander before descent to the Mun) / 298.450 tons (on the launch pad) * 100 = 3.173730943207 2 Kerbals landed (Bob & Jeb) = 2 (0.25 * 4 sensors) + (0.2 * 2 antennas) = 1.4 1 (for planting a flag at the landing site) + 3 (for docking to a module of your craft that was left in lunar orbit) = 4 Total: 3.173730943207 * 2 * 1.4 * 4 = 35.5457865639184 = 35

I hadn't heard of CKAN before but now that I've read up on it, I'm eager to be using it too. Someday it would be nice to have this integrated directly into the game.

Even better:

Completely agree. I love the variety of contracts in Fine Print and have been playing it ever since I discovered it. Creating bases and stations and satellites is much more interesting than grinding through a gazillion parts tests.

Playing this way too, and loving it, the game has new levels of difficulty. I'm also using Fine Print for more interesting contracts. I just managed my first Mun landing and return mission, have done a Minmus flyby for science, and nobody has died yet. There was a close call with Jeb on the first Mun landing attempt, but we both panicked and aborted when the landing site turned out to be on the side of a very steep crater. I haven't had that much heart-racing thrill in the game since my first-ever Mun landing in 0.19!

2 (Kerbin orbit) 4 (Mun return) 4 (Minmus return) 16 (landings: Duna, Ike, Eve, Laythe, Vall, Bop, Pol, Tylo) 10 (successfully docked) 16 (asteriod intercept) 16 (mods in current save: TAC life support, Remote Tech, Deadly Reentry, FAR) 60 (return missions: Duna, Ike, Laythe, Vall, Bop, Pol, Tylo) Total: 128 / 20 = 6.4 I definitely don't consider myself an expert player, or even a very good player. Just having fun doing cool stuff.

This seems very likely to me, its certainly something I could imagine being very entertaining. And if its not the "secret feature" then some mod really needs to add this.

The crew had deployed the Jool Science Probe before entering Laythe orbit, and it continued to safely orbit Jool in anticipation of its mission. Since the probe is utilizing the latest in automation technology it can perform its mission without remote guidance from the crew at Laythe or by the mission controllers back at KSC. A few orbital maneuvers with rocket motors plus aerobraking brought the probe into the atmosphere at Jool in a position where it could be observed. This mission was a success, allowing science experiments from deep within Jool. The transmission of the results back to KSC as quite successful. After the success with the science probe it was time for the crew to deploy a second automated satellite to survey the surface of Laythe for Kethane. This step is crucial in the planning for the landing phase of the mission. Its important to pinpoint a safe landing zone that also has rich resources, as the lander will need to refuel from mined Kethane. Sherman performed a systems diagnostic on the probe and found everything in perfect working order. The docking clamps were released and the survey probe departed on its mission exactly as planned. After many orbits two candidate sites were selected for further review by the KSC mission controllers, and planning for the descent and landing were begun. J-5K Challenge Report Card: Jool impactor probe (+20) mapping/communications satellite at Laythe (+10)

After approval from the mission controllers at KSC the crew begins the next phase of the mission: transfer to the Jool system. After departing Minmus and establishing a parking orbit around 55 million km from Kerbin, the spacecraft is prepared for the long burn required to transfer orbit for a Jool intercept. Bob and Bill replaced Jeb and Sherman at the controls for the interplanetary transfer. After a nearly three year voyage across open space the Royal Alexandria lander and the carrier vehicle Karnak Automaton arrived for intercept at Jool. During the journey many small maneuvers were performed to achieve a very good intercept. The aerobrake in Jool's atmosphere not only reduced velocity enough to achieve a stable orbit, the ship lined up a decent intercept at Laythe that only required a small maneuver burn to bring the spacecraft into a position for a second aerobrake. Before reaching Laythe the crew prepared the Jool Impactor science probe. After checkout it was released. Its automatic controls took over and the probe departed on its one-way mission that will eventually take it deep into the Jool atmosphere. So far the science plan for the mission has netted 1,008 points from the space above Jool. The science probe hasn't yet reached Jool, and the science plan for Laythe hasn't yet been started. Those aspects of the mission are part of the next phase. The KSC accounting department expects that the contracts for science should offset the mission cost.

My mission was named "Go Big and and Get Back Home" - it was definitely big, and I definitely wanted to get everyone home safely. But it looked positively small when compared to the monster created by Gravaar. Wow. Impressively huge.

The training mission at Minmus went very smoothly for the crew of the Royal Alexandria lander and the Karnak Automaton cruise vehicle. Orbital maneuvers, docking, landing, and Kethane mining were all practiced. With Jeb and Sherman at the controls the lander made several landings as well as rendezvous and docking. Kethane mining can be tricky, but with guidance from the KSC controllers as well as the science crew in orbit the operation was successful and the crew felt good about validating their training. Testing of the resource conversion unit also proved successful, and by the end of the mission Werner von Kerman gave his thumbs up for the mission to proceed. The accounting department is glad nothing broke, there just isn't funds for replacements right now. Next phase of the mission will be to depart Minmus SOI and achieve a stable parking orbit around Kerbin just outside the Minmus orbit. The crew will then prepare the vehicles and themselves for the long trip to Jool.

Werner von Kerman asked for a full review of the J-5K mission plan while the crew made their final preparations in orbit. The first step in the mission plan was orbital assembly (completed) and the second step was a training mission at Minmus prior to departure for the Jool system. Upon review, and checking the math with a fully working calculator (this time with the batteries connected properly) it was decided that the vehicle was lacking sufficient fuel for the second step. Jeb concurred with this new analysis and ordered up more boosters to be sent to orbit. Fortunately the KSC controllers were smarter than Jeb and decided to simply add more fuel to the existing vehicle. After this additional launch and rendezvous the total mission cost has risen to 1,232,672 funds. The accounting department is beside themselves with shock and grief, and has declared the runway lights at KSC should be only turned on at night in order to save enough funds to keep the J-5K mission running. J-5K Challenge Report Card: 8 Kerbals departing in a single ship from LKO (+40) a Mobile Lab is included (+10) nuclear engines are used in the vehicle design (-100) 90 tons on departure from LKO (-90)

After many successful missions to Mun and Minmus, and the recent highly successful orbiter-lander mission to Duna, the mission planners at KSC have designed a new ambitious deep space mission to explore Jool and its five moons. The recent discovery of Kethane will make the mission economical enough to attempt with only a moderate sized ship and crew. Mission parameters: depart from Kerbin low orbit in one single ship conduct significant scientific research of Jool and its moons land on the surface of each moon for additional science opportunities test a variety of new rover and remote probe technologies utilize the successful orbiter-lander ship model mine Kethane to make fuel along the way This mission conforms to the Jool-5 Kethane challenge profile, and utilizes the mods Kethane, MechJeb, Kerbal Alarm Clock, RealChutes, and TAC Fuel Balancer. The lander vehicle is named Royal Alexandria and is capable of multiple science experiments, Kethane mining, crewed by two Kerbals. A small impactor science probe for planetary research at Jool is attached. To carry the lander between various bodies the Karnak Automaton vehicle carries fuel plus nuclear engines for propulsion as well as science facilities and crew quarters for an additional six Kerbals. It also carries six orbital probes and six rovers that will provide additional science opportunities. Three launches and several rendezvous has readied the mission vehicle in low Kerbin orbit, at a height of 250km. The mission cost to date is 1,147,341 funds.

Definitely still receiving them. They tend to disappear for a while then WOOSH I've got lots of offers. Turns out only a few of them are worth doing, at least for me, later in my current career save. But I did lots of these contracts early on, the funds are beneficial and sometimes you can get decent science return too.

I've been playing 0.24 now and really like the new career mode with contracts and funds. Nice addition to the game. This made me start to think about doing another Jool-5 challenge in my new career. There is a lot of incentive for both the Jedediah level and the Kethane variant to use career mode with science, but this mission is going to cost a lot of funds to launch. In the spirit of the new contracts system, treating this challenge as a contract, how much of an advance of funds do you guys (especially Ziv, its his challenge after all) think is fair?

deleted. 10char.

The idea is to assemble your ship in Kerbin orbit. Multiple launches from KSC, dock together in Kerbin orbit, and then a single ship departs Kerbin orbit for travel to Jool. Once at Jool its common to break into multiple ships again e.g. one or more landers and a main ship that keeps your fuel reserves.

It varies. My own Jool-5 mission secured 12,435 science points from five different landers plus the main ship. For Jool-5 type missions, seems like 20,000 isn't too difficult, with some good planning. A "grand tour" of the Kerbol system netted someone 42,000 science. Absolutely amazing. Ziv keeps excellent records in the Jool-5 mission challenge thread.

Thanks for a really detailed writeup and evaluation, this should make for good reading for anyone else planning the Jool-5 Challenge. I understand what you are saying about LV-N engines but honestly nothing in the stock inventory comes close to their efficiency for deep space operations. For interplanetary travel I usually use the LV-N engines from high Kerbin orbit, exiting the Kerbin SOI in advance of the transfer window. Then, when my ship is in the same orbit (more or less) as Kerbin itself I can then plan the final transfer burn many days in the future, as required. This maneuver makes it irrelevant for the time or angle of departure from Kerbin SOI, meaning you don't necessarily need to burn in multiple orbits (just burn until you exit). Yeah this isn't as optimal as it might be, but easier and simpler. Just don't get recaptured by Kerbin's SOI. I've also been thinking of re-doing the challenge but this time following the Kethane Expedition variant. The scoring system heavily penalizes huge ships so I've been prototyping a single lander design and much smaller "main ship" (really its just the interplanetary booster and spare fuel tank). The penalty for using LV-N engines is pretty harsh but I think I'm going to have to use them. There are so many different ways to achieve points, I've been putting way more effort into planning than I did for the original challenge. Should be fun!

I know exactly what you mean. My ship's departure clocked in at more than 2,200 tons. It took a good long time to escape Kerbin's orbit and head out to Jool.

My Lathye landing album (descent, surface operations, ascent) shows what I used. Have a look here. Specific images that will show exactly how my lander was constructed: My Laythe lander during descent, prior to landing On the surface Back to orbit, after dropping the outer four tanks & engines I used the RealChutes mod, but I don't believe it gave me any specific advantage beyond looking cool.

Obviously Ziv has the last word on any rule clarification, but his original statement "There's funding for one main ship only so all the crew, lander(s) and other stuff has to go to Jool as one big ship" seems to clearly state that you get one ship to work with at time of departure. No need to cheat, its certainly doable without sending refuelling ships in advance.