The Ultimate Jool 5 Challenge - 1.0 to 1.3

[Byronacles]

Thank you, @sdj64. I will wear this badge with pride 

[astrobond]

1 hour ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

Thats the launch phase. I mean anyways to cluster a bunch of nukes to make a large power plant for orbital ops

Use the Rhino, i think it's the best engine for big ships in vacuum

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Just now, astrobond said:

Use the Rhino, i think it's the best engine for big ships in vacuum

Ah, good idea, but I also need a way for nuclear power to increase delta-v for interplanetary. I'll give it a go tho.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

So yeah, it doesn't have landers, and satalites attached yet, but I want to get thrust out of the way. Ideas?

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

3 hours ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

So yeah, it doesn't have landers, and satalites attached yet, but I want to get thrust out of the way. Ideas?

Here's my thoughts:

That ring looks great, but will decrease DV quite a bit. 

Thrust: how patient are you?  If you are willing to wait for a while on burns, use as few nukes as possible.  Otherwise, I think a rhino would work.  But you might need more fuel tanks that way than you have right now.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Just now, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

Here's my thoughts:

That ring looks great, but will decrease DV quite a bit. 

Thrust: how patient are you?  If you are willing to wait for a while on burns, use as few nukes as possible.  Otherwise, I think a rhino would work.  But you might need more fuel tanks that way than you have right now.

I might be planning on making my report @Just Jim style ish, so I need an in story way for m Kerbals to relax. I just got Node Splitter, so I guess the lowest TWR I can go to is about 0.08. And yeah, I should probably add more fuel....

And the new version has a smaller ring.

Stay Determined!

[sdj64]

Finally caught up!

@Claw Congratulations on completing the Jool 5 Challenge on Level 2!  (but wait, viewers might say, there is an ISRU on the boat - I've decided to score this as level 2 because the ISRU was not used to refuel anything that had to do with the Jool 5 Challenge part of the mission)  Even one Elcano shows impressive dedication, 5 on one mission is definitely above and beyond the call of duty.  I also liked the weird angles your mothership's engines stick out at.  Did a double take that that Mk3 fuel tank in the middle... is actually the crew cabin.  They must have had a comfortable ride in space!

@JacobJHC Congratulations on completing the Jool 5 Challenge on Level 1!  Your video was very entertaining!  I liked the unique staging with many many asparagus tanks and Spark engines, you don't see that so often since the 1.0 rebalance.  I was a bit confused about the Ion lander that you ditched around Tylo, was it supposed to be for the small moons?  It looks like it has no electric charge generators, though it has decent battery capacity.

Also officially added Tweakscale and Atomic Age to the banned mods list.

[Claw]

11 minutes ago, sdj64 said:

Finally caught up!

Yay!

 

12 minutes ago, sdj64 said:

@Claw Congratulations on completing the Jool 5 Challenge on Level 2!  (but wait, viewers might say, there is an ISRU on the boat - I've decided to score this as level 2 because the ISRU was not used to refuel anything that had to do with the Jool 5 Challenge part of the mission)  Even one Elcano shows impressive dedication, 5 on one mission is definitely above and beyond the call of duty.  I also liked the weird angles your mothership's engines stick out at.  Did a double take that that Mk3 fuel tank in the middle... is actually the crew cabin.  They must have had a comfortable ride in space!

Thanks! That was my plan for the ISRU, so I'm glad it worked out that way for your challenge as well.

I angled the engines because I was originally planning on doing more aerobraking...so the engines are hidden behind the heat shields and angled for thrust clearance. Turns out that the ship is just too much mass and too little surface area to effectively aerobrake, plus the heat shields really need to be a little bigger (awaiting that new inflatable one!).

And yeah, 19 crew capacity for 3 kerbals. I figured the two Elcano crew earned it after spending so much time in the rovers.

 

Thanks for hosting this challenge!

[Jetski]

Looking forward to the first 1000+ part entries from 1.1

 

[Typrax]

Hello there!

• here is my entry in game version 1.05

some statistics first:

i had 2 mods, Mechjeb and Tweakscale, the latter wasnt used though.

i did the level 3 mission with a team of 5 recruits. Kirdrin was trained for Laythe, Kerger for Vall, Seezor for Tylo, Franchella for Bop and Rorie for Pol. 

only one launch was needed, but i did a second one anyway because i forgot to take screenshots.

the Mothership costs 1.059.026 of whatever currency KSP uses. i also needed a rescue craft at the end to get the crew from low kerbin orbit to the ground, because it turned out that i forgot to test the last landing stage. this rescue craft cost another 136024.

no refueling mission was needed, only the rescue craft at the end.

i also didnt bring anything BUT the Kerbals, no science equipment, rovers, satellites or the like.

 

now for the good stuff, the mission description:

my craft consisted of a nerv driven mothership with one big crew cabin. all the landing modules were only attached with seperators (no docking). no Kerbal got left behind though, they could get back into the cozy cabin via EVA.  to get the big thing up in Kerbin Orbit, i used Mammoth engines boosted by Twin Boars to get it up in the air, and Rhinos to complete orbit. it flies very stable actually, considering how big it is. i even could start the gravity turn from the start without a problem.

the Laythe lander uses one Rapier to get into orbit, and 4 detachable sparks to deorbit, support the parachutes when landing, and help starting vertically. at some point the stabilising wing on the top got torn off (before i even got to laythe, i dont know when exactly) which made the landing rather difficult. the main problem though was that this wing also had the ladder attached to it, i had to improvise to get Kirdrin on the ground and back into the ship. (all captured with screenshots)

the Tylo lander uses 3 asparagus staged Terrier engines. needs a relativly flat surface to land though, the first landing site was too sloped and it fell over. the second try i tried to hard to find a flat surface and used up too much fuel. third time was the charm though.

Vall, Bop and Pol all have basically the same lander, basically a pilot seat attached on a computer, the smallest fuel tank i could find, one radioisotope generator, and one ant. (vall used a bit more fuel and a spark as engine)

Vall and Bop were very easy to land and start from, Pol gave me a lot of trouble. not by design, but it bugged out on me. my lander exploded quite a bit above surface. i finally looked up the coordinates of the supposedly highest mountain and landed there. Mechjeb tracked the true altitude, and showed 0 altitude when in truth i was about 1 km above the ground. below that, mechjeb snapped back to the actual true altitude. the mountain i landed on was also very sloped, and i couldnt come to a halt. so i started up again, and landed on the peak which was flat enough. on the way back to my mothership, KSP crashed on me though. funny coincidence: at that point steam told me that i have played 666 hours of KSP in total. when i reloaded and finally got back to the mothership, i found out that another bug had occured: the bottom half of my ship got torn off somehow, scattered in the orbit of Pol. not all Parts were accounted for, i assume the kraken flinged them away somewhere. not too much fuel was lost though, most of the tanks were empty, but i DID lose all of my reaction wheels. the Cupola cabin had to turn the big lump of a mothership around, which took ages. Pol also decided to not let me go right away. after i escaped Pol, i immediatly had an encounter with pol again. afterwards i was released to freedom though, and returned relatively safe to kerbin.

back at Kerbin i found out, as said before, that my cabin couldnt actually land on Kerbin without being crushed, so i had to send a rescue craft to get my Kerbals back on the ground. luckily i had enough delta-v left to circularize with the mothership (which i originally hadnt planned to do)

 

and here are the screenshots!

 

ps: somehow the forum button for inserting an Imgur album doesnt work. always shows up this picture:

does anybody know what i am doing wrong? this is only the second post in this forum, so help is appreciated.

edit: the picture works now, thanks to sdj64.

 

Edited April 3, 2016 by Typrax

[JacobJHC]

3 hours ago, Typrax said:

Hello there!

• here is my entry in game version 1.05

some statistics first:

i had 2 mods, Mechjeb and Tweakscale, the latter wasnt used though.

i did the level 3 mission with a team of 5 recruits. Kirdrin was trained for Laythe, Kerger for Vall, Seezor for Tylo, Franchella for Bop and Rorie for Pol. 

only one launch was needed, but i did a second one anyway because i forgot to take screenshots.

the Mothership costs 1.059.026 of whatever currency KSP uses. i also needed a rescue craft at the end to get the crew from low kerbin orbit to the ground, because it turned out that i forgot to test the last landing stage. this rescue craft cost another 136024.

no refueling mission was needed, only the rescue craft at the end.

i also didnt bring anything BUT the Kerbals, no science equipment, rovers, satellites or the like.

 

now for the good stuff, the mission description:

my craft consisted of a nerv driven mothership with one big crew cabin. all the landing modules were only attached with seperators (no docking). no Kerbal got left behind though, they could get back into the cozy cabin via EVA.  to get the big thing up in Kerbin Orbit, i used Mammoth engines boosted by Twin Boars to get it up in the air, and Rhinos to complete orbit. it flies very stable actually, considering how big it is. i even could start the gravity turn from the start without a problem.

the Laythe lander uses one Rapier to get into orbit, and 4 detachable sparks to deorbit, support the parachutes when landing, and help starting vertically. at some point the stabilising wing on the top got torn off (before i even got to laythe, i dont know when exactly) which made the landing rather difficult. the main problem though was that this wing also had the ladder attached to it, i had to improvise to get Kirdrin on the ground and back into the ship. (all captured with screenshots)

the Tylo lander uses 3 asparagus staged Terrier engines. needs a relativly flat surface to land though, the first landing site was too sloped and it fell over. the second try i tried to hard to find a flat surface and used up too much fuel. third time was the charm though.

Vall, Bop and Pol all have basically the same lander, basically a pilot seat attached on a computer, the smallest fuel tank i could find, one radioisotope generator, and one ant. (vall used a bit more fuel and a spark as engine)

Vall and Bop were very easy to land and start from, Pol gave me a lot of trouble. not by design, but it bugged out on me. my lander exploded quite a bit above surface. i finally looked up the coordinates of the supposedly highest mountain and landed there. Mechjeb tracked the true altitude, and showed 0 altitude when in truth i was about 1 km above the ground. below that, mechjeb snapped back to the actual true altitude. the mountain i landed on was also very sloped, and i couldnt come to a halt. so i started up again, and landed on the peak which was flat enough. on the way back to my mothership, KSP crashed on me though. funny coincidence: at that point steam told me that i have played 666 hours of KSP in total. when i reloaded and finally got back to the mothership, i found out that another bug had occured: the bottom half of my ship got torn off somehow, scattered in the orbit of Pol. not all Parts were accounted for, i assume the kraken flinged them away somewhere. not too much fuel was lost though, most of the tanks were empty, but i DID lose all of my reaction wheels. the Cupola cabin had to turn the big lump of a mothership around, which took ages. Pol also decided to not let me go right away. after i escaped Pol, i immediatly had an encounter with pol again. afterwards i was released to freedom though, and returned relatively safe to kerbin.

back at Kerbin i found out, as said before, that my cabin couldnt actually land on Kerbin without being crushed, so i had to send a rescue craft to get my Kerbals back on the ground. luckily i had enough delta-v left to circularize with the mothership (which i originally hadnt planned to do)

 

and here are the screenshots!

http://imgur.com/a/i2guX

ps: somehow the forum button for inserting an Imgur album doesnt work. always shows up this picture:

 

 

I have to say, nice ship. Also I wonder if squad will ever fix Pol's invisible terrain issue, considering you are (i think) the third person who has encountered this besides me. I had to redo my Pol ejection burn after a burn at peripol collided me with an invisible mountain that Pol had. 

On 4/2/2016 at 9:24 PM, sdj64 said:

Finally caught up!

@JacobJHC Congratulations on completing the Jool 5 Challenge on Level 1!  Your video was very entertaining!  I liked the unique staging with many many asparagus tanks and Spark engines, you don't see that so often since the 1.0 rebalance.  I was a bit confused about the Ion lander that you ditched around Tylo, was it supposed to be for the small moons?  It looks like it has no electric charge generators, though it has decent battery capacity.

Thanks, I am trying to make better videos. Thanks also for complimenting my staging technique. It took me forever to find a way for 2 nukes to get me to Jool with a 40 ton payload, and that's what I eventually settled with. About the Ion lander, it was for Pol and Bop as you suggested but I didn't put enough docking ports for both landers. Luckily, the lander had enough fuel from Vall left over for Bop, Pol and Minmus. I am also considering doing the level 2 or 3 challenge.

[Typrax]

@JacobJHC thanks! i liked your ship as well, especially the tylo lander looked pretty awesome. plus the fact that you recycled it for Vall, Bop, Pol and Minmus made it even cooler (even if it wasnt intended that way).

[sdj64]

@Typrax Congratulations, you have completed the Jool 5 Challenge on Level 3!  You had some very small landers, good job on the efficiency.  I liked that you recorded your failed attempts, it gives viewers more insight into how many things can go wrong on a complicated mission like the Jool 5.

To embed your album use the imgur button on the right and the "album ID" is everything after the last slash in the URL, for your album it's i2guX.

[Typrax]

just edited it, thanks for the help!

i also just figured out how to wear badges. i shall wear this one with pride! thanks for the awesome challenge!

Edited April 3, 2016 by Typrax

[septemberWaves]

I have a few questions:

1. Are ColorCodedCans and ColorfulFuelLines permitted? Considering the fact that they are both purely visual mods (and I love to keep my rockets looking nice), I don't see a reason why they would not be allowed.
2. Is the challenge updated for use in 1.1 yet, or are you waiting for the full version to be released?

[RA3236]

6 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

I have a few questions:

1. Are ColorCodedCans and ColorfulFuelLines permitted? Considering the fact that they are both purely visual mods (and I love to keep my rockets looking nice), I don't see a reason why they would not be allowed.
2. Is the challenge updated for use in 1.1 yet, or are you waiting for the full version to be released?

1. yes

2. Nothing that says you can't.

[max_creative]

On March 31, 2016 at 9:39 AM, SpaceplaneAddict said:

So yeah, it doesn't have landers, and satalites attached yet, but I want to get thrust out of the way. Ideas?

What. Is. That.

OMG @SpaceplaneAddict! Your bringing a giant ring station with you! Tell me when it explodes it's there!

Edited April 5, 2016 by max_creative

[Luovahulluus]

On 31.3.2016 at 7:39 PM, SpaceplaneAddict said:

So yeah, it doesn't have landers, and satalites attached yet, but I want to get thrust out of the way. Ideas?

I just realized, those windows are on the floors and ceilings of the ring. Wouldn't it make more sense if the windows were on the walls?

[Claw]

On 4/3/2016 at 4:55 PM, JacobJHC said:

Also I wonder if squad will ever fix Pol's invisible terrain issue, considering you are (i think) the third person who has encountered this besides me.

I honestly had no idea that Pol had a terrain issue until I ran into it myself (pun intended)

 

[Derpiderp]

Is it okay if I do the mission in the 1.1 beta?.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Derpiderp

[sdj64]

Missions in the 1.1 beta are (tentatively) open!  However, if you are exploiting an egregious bug I may have to ask you to fly your mission again on the official release.

 

I am also cleaning up the OP and re-wording the rules a bit for 1.1.  Anything that is allowed now will still be allowed in 1.1, so don't worry if you are designing a mission now.  I am thinking about more superlative awards like the low mass challenge, possibly (could be more or fewer) lowest mass, lowest cost, lowest tech level, and grand tour award.  I would be happy to hear feedback about the challenge now and suggestions so that it can be the best possible for 1.1!

[HoloYolo]

4 minutes ago, sdj64 said:

Missions in the 1.1 beta are (tentatively) open!  However, if you are exploiting an egregious bug I may have to ask you to fly your mission again on the official release.

 

I am also cleaning up the OP and re-wording the rules a bit for 1.1.  Anything that is allowed now will still be allowed in 1.1, so don't worry if you are designing a mission now.  I am thinking about more superlative awards like the low mass challenge, possibly (could be more or fewer) lowest mass, lowest cost, lowest tech level, and grand tour award.  I would be happy to hear feedback about the challenge now and suggestions so that it can be the best possible for 1.1!

@sdj64 A lot of low mass challenges and just albums in general lead me back to the first page? Why is that?

[DBowman]

4 hours ago, sdj64 said:

I would be happy to hear feedback about the challenge now and suggestions so that it can be the best possible for 1.1!

I had been working on a Jool 5 Apollo Style for the Apollo Applications Challenge ( recreate milestone Apollo missions, then go on to projected missions, and beyond - more fun that it might sound ). If you are using Apollo launchers the natural way to do it is to throw landers at Jool and then (irl after you know the landers are there...) throw 3 guys in 'a can' to do Moons of Jool Orbit Rendezvous - but that would fall outside the 'one big ship in Kerbin orbit to launch' part of this challenge.

Is it an artificial constraint to impose the 'one launch from Kerbin'? Especially since you can send a second fuel only craft... Actually at what point can the ship drop landers? I mean there is deltaV benefit in not lugging landers around so they are (may be depending on design) better off doing individual moon encounters - so they can undock in Jool SOI? out of Kerbin SOI? The 'one ship Jool transfer burn' thing sounds a bit artificial given you almost always at least throw parts away that are specialised for particular moons. Don't get me wrong it's a great fun classic challenge exactly as it stands - but since you invited comment this is what occurs to me.

Also do you have a separate ranking for life supported attempts?

[parzr]

http://imgur.com/a/DVwPV#1

1480 parts at launch

If you look at pic #14 you see how I managed my nukes for my heavy lander.

[Empyrean]

16 hours ago, sdj64 said:

Missions in the 1.1 beta are (tentatively) open!  However, if you are exploiting an egregious bug I may have to ask you to fly your mission again on the official release.

 

I am also cleaning up the OP and re-wording the rules a bit for 1.1.  Anything that is allowed now will still be allowed in 1.1, so don't worry if you are designing a mission now.  I am thinking about more superlative awards like the low mass challenge, possibly (could be more or fewer) lowest mass, lowest cost, lowest tech level, and grand tour award.  I would be happy to hear feedback about the challenge now and suggestions so that it can be the best possible for 1.1!

Hi sdj64! Thankyou very much for your curation of this challenge. I've been working on a plan for what might be considered a level above Jebediah's level, whereby I have to have one Kerbal on each moon simultaneously. It requires quite a payload (because the landers can't be reused), and quite a few transfers, but I've had great fun designing it so far. I'd be glad to know if you thought it was an interesting enough constraint to include.

E