Space Viking

For the third time I've decided redoing this challenge on Jebediah's level. This time I will try to keep documentations better structured along with information on delta-V used during the mission. - My game version is 0.23 - No mods is going to be used during the mission. I did however use MechJeb as a helping tool during the design phase. - It will be a single launch mission. - No refueling. - There will be a Hitch-hiker's Storage installed on the space ship. - There's an additional orbital Jool satellite along with a kamikaze probe. Each lander module's descent stage is also a scientific probe that will remain on the surface. The MK 1-2 Command Pod itself will now be a modular spacecraft that can be attached to each lander module. So this time each landing will feature three kerbals instead of one. Also – despite the supposed budget cuts it's pretty funny how my version of the mission has afforded over 400 tons worth of initial payload. If that's cheap enough for them, then I can't even barely imagine Vun Braun's "The Jool Project" must have been like. Nevertheless, the asparagus staged booster's simultaneous thrust of 32 Mainsails and 9 Skippers was designed to be atleast reasonably efficient.

Yeah, if the ship weights around 5 tons, then it's possible to save up to 25% of Delta-V by running on an LV-T30/45 instead of a Poodle. However, when a typical spacecraft starts to exceed the weight of 15 tons, then the weight saving advantage even of the LV-T30 is starting to fade out. Although, it might still be more value because that engine still only costs about half the price. Of what I understand is despite the Poodle's weight, it is still actually relatively cheap given its rather decent thrust of 220 kN along with its wide vectoring, and also having a high ISP of 390. I think the main issue is most things has been taken for granted because all the parts has been provided for free in KSP so far. For example, an LV-909 supposedly costs 750 and a Poodle 1600, so a system of multiple LV-909 might not even be viable the day an actual budget is implemented, since a Poodle is basically five LV-909 with 30 kN less thrust (which is practically meaningless in space anyway), but with wider thrust vectoring and the ability of generating electricity. [Edit] Oh, I just saw your post after I posted mine, numerobis. I was actually looking for information like that, so thanks for the enlightenment!

I think the OP could have elaborated the subject more. It's like apple and oranges – the Poodle is never being used as a first stage booster in place of an LV-T30/45. Respectively, you'd be better off with a Poodle in space rather than using an LV-T30/45 as the main engine.

This sure was quite a ride and I won't probably do something on this scale for a while again. Tylo was harassing me with its gravity, which made me remember the overview on the SOI of the Joolian moons Ziv made. I can warmly recommend it for anyone who's navigating inside of the Joolian system. During the Mission one fuel line had gone missing on the VTOL because subassemblies tent to not handle fuel lines and struts so well, so I had to repair it through save editing. I hope it's fair enough. I also noticed the value of that Moon-orbit Module you utilized, Ziv. It's possible to save so much fuel by just leaving the mothership parked in an orbit next to escape velocity while a lighter reusable tug takes the landing craft into a low orbit and then back. Unfortunately, there is no fancy overview of my ship, but here's how my mission went:

I see there's been stuff going here. That's cool. And holy crap Ziv, a suborbital catch of a lander while having an atmosphere dragging! I've refined my mission and redesigned the landers to better match what they are going to face. The spacecraft is now in orbit and ready for interplanetary transfer. This time I'm also using the mod UbioZur Welding Ltd. in order to lower the part count. It's not yet optimized for career mode though, so there are some inconveniences one need to deal with. Anyway, most of the relevant things is in the image descriptions:

Thanks! One thing I forgot to mention was the mission consisted of five kerbinauts, so there was always a different kerbinaut for each moon. The ship with all its modules was also pretty laggy, so the first part of the mission was pretty time consuming and involved me doing other things while the CSM's single nuclear engine was doing all the work. The panels and and some struts are kind of a result of my passion for aesthetics, but I also wanted to make sure there was no wobble and that the landers would hold together incase of a rough landing. The panels themselves are also working slightly like extra shock absorbers for the landing struts. The funny thing is the heavy lander would have worked perfectly for Vall if it wasn't for I had to use it independently to get there from Laythe's orbit (since I was trying to save fuel for the CSM). The light lander modules was actually a modified model of a Mun lander, so they where proven quite overpowered for their respective landing missions on Pol and Bop. I might try this challenge again sometime in the future, but I'm not sure when. With the gained experience things should be much easier on my next try. I will need to design a super-heavy landing system for Tylo. The light landing modules can be modified to be even lighter (especially the one for Pol). The Laythe spaceplane can probably be redesigned to be much lighter and also feature a safer VTOL landing system. It should probably also discard the cockpit when the science module has been delivered, since it's really just dead weight (even though it helps providing torque to the spacecraft). The Interplanetary CSM was also not intended for a mission of this scale, but since it was already in Kerbin orbit at the mission start, I decided to use it anyway. Next time I will design it with twice the fuel capacity (so no refueling will be required) and some sort of magazine for the science modules. I did indeed discard the MkI can, which was actually an overlook on my part. It wasn't until later I thought about the surface samples, but for some reason I still got the science scores involving the surface examinations anyway. I'm not sure how this happened, but maybe the samples automatically get transferred to the currently crewed capsule (I.E. the command capsule) when the Mk1 can was undocked? It would make sense since the historical moon lander was also discarded after it had served its purpose.

As I was yet to do my first Jool mission, I decided to give this challenge a shot on Jebediah's level. Unfortunately, it was a failure (but I hope it's still alright to share) due to the lander for Tylo wasn't powerful enough and had to instead be downgraded into a flyby. It took 2 launches to get all the hardware into orbit (CSM and the landers). I also launched a fuel station to Jool. I'm running vanilla KSP, so no mods here. I'd also want to inform you don't actually need a separate pod for each taken surface sample. As long as the samples wasn't taken from the same biome, there is no limits on how much you can store (just like how EVA reports work). So in order to achieve a scientific return mission on every moon of Jool, it was apparent each lander module would ideally require a detachable science module that could easily be brought to the CSM by some sort of vehicle. The backbone to this solution was a light and highly maneuverable spacecraft that could not only enable a kerbinaut to operate the lander modules, but also ferry their scientific hardware to the CSM. I guess it can be called a Multi-purpose Module? The setup consists of: Command/Service Module (Main propulsion and housing for the kerbinauts) Multi-purpose Module 2 Light Landing Modules 2 Heavy Landing Modules 1 Specialized Spaceplane The lander modules are your typical no-atmosphere divers. The light landers are designed for the smaller moons Bop and Pol, while the heavy ones are intended for landing on the larger moons Vall and Tylo. All of them houses an extractable science module that can be separately brought to the CSM by the Multi-purpose Module. The spaceplane is designed to take advantage of Laythe's oxygenated atmosphere. It's not intended to dock with the Multi-Purpose Module since the craft can be controlled through its cockpit. During ascent it detaches its wings and then operates as a regular spacecraft capable of independently taking its scientific payload to the CSM.