Time for Interstellar (Mainly Stock)

[Technical Ben]

With a frightening revelation, the Kerbals have decided to concentrate on a bright hope ahead...

As they had feared, the Kracken has arisen (all my craft bugged out in my previous save). Reports suggest that within a few decades, Kerbol

will barf out a small eruption of highly energised particles from it's Photosphere (so I started a new save). These will

not harm our Kerbals on Kerbin, but will make space travel almost impossible!

They have one mission, and one goal. They need to find a new system to explore! They need to go

interstellar! (Yes, I'm trying interstellar travel... stock!)

So here are my plans for them.

Two ships. They are untested, as is the Kerbal way. We have little resources and few crew. I'm aiming for a mainly stock ship. With Mechjeb for readouts/planning (and emergency maneuver). However, for such a long distance mission, KIS is being used for spares, repairs and redesigns in flight.

The "LongBurn One" is the main Kerbal crew habitat and landing craft ready to explore new planets. With a heat shield and plenty of DV, we hope the Kerbals can survive long cryo sleep to their destination.

To aid them, a ship full of spares, will also be sent, just ahead of them it will also scout out the location of planets and possible landing spots.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Technical Ben
...

[Yukon0009]

Interesting.

Img is borked.

Are u using star systems mod by duracelle?

[Technical Ben]

(Thanks, IMG fixed, forgot FF now hides HTTP prefix... darn "progression")

Yep, should be, especially as they updated it kindly to 0.90. Sadly my old craft built ready for this, and orbiting Jool lost struts and structural integrity in the 0.90 update (must be a tree refactor or something in the save files that breaks them). So these rebuilds are simpler, for a quick re-do. The addition of KIS should make things a little more interesting than I planned though.

So, we have our first decision. Which system to aim for?

[Yukon0009]

Sarnus.

Also thats a lot of nukes.

[Technical Ben]

Not sure how to get Sarnus in... so Dolas is the destination. Our telescopes tell us it has planets... so that's good... right? That's all we know so far!

Travel time is likely to be around 50 years (Kerbal Years in game). Will report on how the first burn goes on the test craft. Oh, I need to name that spares/test craft too, what name should I give it?

I've started the burn, and will see if the save/mod game holds up. If no crashes, will post more pics and videos.

[update] Might be able to get the travel time down to around 19 years depending on how much fuel I'm willing to burn through.

Most efficient burn

Double the DV, but half the time (with aerobreaking I hope!)

That last burn will be over 8k dv in one go... 1 hour 45 mins.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Technical Ben
Test Stream worked, removed link...

[Technical Ben]

Well, I'm launching some Kerbals up to the craft now. We will see if it survives some tests...

Initial tests show pushing with the drive section causes too much wobble. So attempting "pulling" instead. This currently renders two of the engines unusable (slight mistake on their positioning in the design) for now, but if required they can be put to the back of the rocket, and be activated.

It is more stable now. Lesson also learned, turn off all engine gimbol.

Edited March 29, 2015 by Technical Ben

[Nik333]

Looks promising, can't wait for more. Are you planning to use Jool as gravitional assist? That would save some fuel.

[Technical Ben]

Thanks. It was looking more touch and go when I first fired up the engines.

For the burn, if I could setup such a node/burn I could give it a go. Aerobreaking allowed, I would assume I have enough DV to be reckless... but that depends what feels best for the mission.

I guess, at such large distances, it's better to attempt the DV savings now, and do better for later.

Oh, and I just remembered, I MUST put some backup power generators on the engine section, it currently has none, and I might loose power when rejigging things. So best put KIS to use.

Might more than half my DV requirement, so goin gto try for it... if I miss... well, I'll think of something!

Edited March 30, 2015 by Technical Ben

[Technical Ben]

Ok, time to setup and test my interplanetary burn! Will be live at: http://www.twitch.tv/technicalben

Well, I have lots of wobble... so will have to either strut up or try a different docking arrangement. Will do a small burn, and then try again. But good thing is a Jool flyby should save a lot of fuel.

Well, the wobble continues... may have to just burn slowly through it.

Now using KIS struts to try and hold it together.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Technical Ben

[Yukon0009]

I highly recommend sending small probes to the stars first, that's what I'm doing in my own interstellar savegame.

[Technical Ben]

It's more a surprise this way.

There will be a craft of spare parts getting there first.

Just got to try and rescue the save from some reoccurring bugs.

Getting a 5k burn spot on is rather difficult.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Technical Ben

[Technical Ben]

Got the spare parts and scouting craft there! Which was a task as the game bugged out and does not let me rotate craft without crashing in interstellar space, so had to use RCS to nudge it into position and burn the rest without much correction. Now it's around a star, it can be controlled with ease. I will try and nudge it into a safe orbit, as currently it intersects 2 moons... but I've no idea when, so best move it out them.

Had a 10g aerocapture. Though that 10gs was for a good 4 mins or more. So might see if I can swing by any planets to stop the Kerbals craft turning them into green goo on arrival.

[Windspren]

But then you would have some Mystery Goo for science!

[Technical Ben]

Oh... I think I packed one. The craft is coming in to aerobreak with the gas giant.

After a correction burn:

This is the craft setup for breaking, with fuel and shield at the front:

A nice 2-3g max breaking as I took the long 30 year route and shallow intercept for the system.

I might be able to bounce off and meet up relatively close to a planet that closely resembles Duna.

My spares are waiting at the gas giant though. So I have to decide on saving DV on intercepting the other planet, or in picking up supplies. I think the best option is to keep an eccentric orbit, deploy a lander/shuttle and use that to get the supplies. I can then use a gravity boost or similar from the eccentric orbit without loosing much DV from the stop off.

Oh, and visit some of the moons at the same time of cause!

[Technical Ben]

Hit the Gas giant, named Kaiser at rather a sharp angle. But managed to find a "kick" off one of the moons, for just 165m/s dv, to bring things into a nice orbit in line with the other moons/planets.

The whole manoeuvre will take a year though... so I hope Kerbals like hibernation/suspended sleep!

The first reports say things look very dark and dim due to the star being a blue dwarf. We got some atmosphere readings at the highest parts of the atmosphere. Heating from the re-entry stopped instruments working and we got no readings of what lies deeper in that big gas giant. It does look strange. Like someone squashed Eve, Duna and Jool together into one big fuzzy ball.

[Technical Ben]

Finally there at Kaiser! I survived interstellar space (with lots of Krackens and bugs!) and figured out how to finely course correct, and thanks to some wonderful forum posts able to gravity assist to just the right place.

Unpacked and ready to explore! The Kerbals are awake from hibernation, and readying the interplanetary shuttle as we speak. It will fly by, or possibly land on, a moon before picking up the spare parts. The left over fuel from the spares craft will stay in Kaiser orbit as a "backup" supply.

[Technical Ben]

Decided to use the spares transport to get some landings on the moons of Kaiser. This will use some fuel, but those Kerbals want Science! With the distances covered already, it would be silly to miss any opportunities to explore.

This is going to use more DV than we expected. Kunar has a surface gravity of 0.7! We will have to check if our lander can cope. If not, it's going to be KIS Engineering time and we will build a new lander!

I have now converted a drive section into a lander!

... the gravity is too strong even for this lander. I'll not make it back if I try to land, so a flyby and orbital observation only.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Technical Ben

[DMSP]

I love following this!

Keep exploring and have some Rep+!

Also, are you going to send more stuff out to Dolas?

Are these Kerbals coming home?

DMSP, waiting for more.

[Technical Ben]

Thanks. Well, Bob has not done the back of the napkin calculations yet. They should be able to use the last section of the transport to return to Kerbin. Hopeing to explore the whole system, but they only have what they have there, as it's 30 years to get anything to them. I nearly panicked when I thought I'd forgotten the command seat. I did only bring one, but thankfully found which box it was in.

[Technical Ben]

Well, Jabin's surface looks STRANGE. Well, from orbit. It has a patchwork look to it across the surface. From orbit our suspicions were that it might have been scoured by a solar eruption or supernova. However, there are obvious dust deposits visible once landing closer. The craft landed on "normal" rock and dust, so we still don't know what the discoloured material is, but the theory is now that it might be volcanic or meteorite in nature. It seems to have been blocked by a crater wall (if volcanic) or perhaps it was an eruption from a passing comet or even Kunar (and hence only covering half a hemisphere).

Hudson had taken photos on the surface, but as it's his first moon landing and recording trip, he was a bit nervous, and held the camera backwards. No photos of the surface, just his big smiling face! (no idea why, I was certain I even got one of him next to a rock but folder shows none).

There is a flag left behind as proof he did not make it all up though!

Edited April 17, 2015 by Technical Ben

[DMSP]

I hate it when I lose screenshots...

Nice job with your first Interstellar landing.

Don't forget the flag, some samples and data!

[Technical Ben]

(Off topic, great they kept a small version of a LFO... the round 8 after all! This craft does not use them, but many of my mini probes do/did)

Well, Hudson decided to ditch the lander. It's for moons only, and early telescopic sensing suggests all the other bodies in the system have atmospheres, so it will not be needed.

When he met back up with Bob, there was a slight problem...

Hudson: I'm back. Let's just refuel up and we can get back to the mothership.

Bob: Okay, just pump over the fuel.

Hudson: Wait, what? You want me to give you some fuel? You mean you don't have any for me?

Bob: No, I gave it all to you for the flyby. How did you use it all up already?

Hudson: Flyby? I though you said make a landing!

Bob: What! You used all our fuel landing on that thing! Now what are we to do?

...

[Elowiny]

Do you plan to land on CZF30 (I think that's the name) later in the mission ? It's an habitable planet like Kerbin.

[Technical Ben]

Still orbiting Kaiser. Might have enough fuel to get the little transport with spare parts back to the main craft. Then they will set out again from there. Planning will be very important so as to not burn through all the fuel.

Managed this using only about 300 to 400 of my 600dv budget I have left. Then the Kerbals should all be meeting up and rebuilding for a transfer. Hopefully the velocity match burn will only be 200dv by the end of it!

Of cause this will take like 3 months, so time to put the Kerbals back into "Suspended animation" (also known as timewarp ).

Edited April 19, 2015 by Technical Ben

[Technical Ben]

Nailed it! With about 50 LFO units left.

Now time to move all the parts to the main vessel.