The Ultimate Jool 5 Challenge - 1.0 to 1.3

[rkarmark]

17 hours ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

I 'm also planning on doing the Jool-5 soon in a Sandbox save. I've played KSP for the past two years, so I HAVE to do this sooner than later. @sdj64 is mining and ore processing allowed in the Jool system?

Mining is allowed but will count as a irsu entry

[sdj64]

Sorry question-askers, I've been traveling this weekend and haven't had time to respond.  Good luck to you all who are preparing your missions!

@TheHacker000 Your mission uses several prohibited mods as eloquentJane said.  It's cool to do it your own way, but it won't be in the leaderboard.

@Galacticvoyager Your rocket looks great.  The mammoth engines are fine for the clipping rule, their 3.75m body isn't clipped and it looks like they could be rotated to not clip at all, but you don't have to mess with it.

@ProtoJeb21 As rkarmark said, mining and processing on any planet or moon is allowed.  You will get the ISRU tag if you mine outside of Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus.

[Planetace]

4 hours ago, sdj64 said:

Sorry question-askers, I've been traveling this weekend and haven't had time to respond.  Good luck to you all who are preparing your missions!

@TheHacker000 Your mission uses several prohibited mods as eloquentJane said.  It's cool to do it your own way, but it won't be in the leaderboard.

@Galacticvoyager Your rocket looks great.  The mammoth engines are fine for the clipping rule, their 3.75m body isn't clipped and it looks like they could be rotated to not clip at all, but you don't have to mess with it.

@ProtoJeb21 As rkarmark said, mining and processing on any planet or moon is allowed.  You will get the ISRU tag if you mine outside of Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus.

Ah thanks! Just needed yo know..

Also, it appears Supreme might actually be light enough to be towed by TITAN, my 500 ton cargo SSTO, you can check TITAN out on my spacecraft blog.

[smotheredrun]

@sdj64 I am working on my final (ish) design of my ship for the Jool 5 attempt.  Now that @Angel-125 has done his rebalance of his DSEV mod, would ships containing parts from that mod now qualify? I am pretty sure the Viper engines may not, but I can get around that.

[sdj64]

On 3/23/2017 at 10:36 PM, smotheredrun said:

@sdj64 I am working on my final (ish) design of my ship for the Jool 5 attempt.  Now that @Angel-125 has done his rebalance of his DSEV mod, would ships containing parts from that mod now qualify? I am pretty sure the Viper engines may not, but I can get around that.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention.  The Viper and the Supernova are both obviously overpowered and comparable to other mods on the banned list.  I'm afraid DSEV will have to go there too.

[smotheredrun]

Rats ok.

[F3ARSTUNTS]

is it ok to use kw rocketry? also what if i did a jupiter 4 in real solar system? im working on a ship for both jool and jupiter, so yeah pls answer ^^ (edit: i'd be using KW rocketry for the launcher if that makes a difference)

Edited March 28, 2017 by F3ARSTUNTS

[-DDD-]

This time I completed the mission (the last save game was corrupted)... And also a Grand Tour was done

- Which game versions did you use?
A:1.2.2
- What mods did you use, if any?
A:Yes, the complete list is in the first post of the report
- How many Kerbals are on the mission?
A: 1
- How many launches were needed to start your mission from Kerbin?
A: 1
- How much did your mission cost?
1,004,669 on the launch pad
- Did you needed a refueling mission?
A: No
- Did you bring additional stuff like satellites, rovers, etc?
A: Nothing tightly necessary
- Share the delta-V information too, if you tracked it! 
A: I used more or less 8000 units of xenon, 10000 m/s for outer planets, 2800 m/s for reaching Eve, plus something to reach Moho. 

 

[McQuacker]

Made it all the way to Vall orbit before I realized I forgot to add a docking port on the bottom end of my mothership. Back to the drawing board!

[helcustom]

Question on the banned mods is it just B9 parts and not B9 procedural wings or is it both?

[MythicalHeFF]

Didn't complete because when I undocked the Tylo/Vall/Bop/Pol lander the front of my ship came off and flew away. I sent a newly designed ship with a new lander up to Tylo and rescued the two stranded Kerbals. Everything else went smoothly, but I never landed a lander on Laythe with the new ship, so I didn't complete the challenge. 

[sdj64]

@-DDD- A very nice looking mission!  It seemed well planned and thought out, and proved the usefulness of KAS in keeping weight down for maximum performance.  I liked the single-Vector Eve lander, that's something I haven't seen before.  Now for the bad news:

On 6/1/2015 at 10:51 AM, sdj64 said:

5. Kerbals must be in a pod or cabin (no seats) for the interplanetary journey. Seats are okay for landing and flying within the Jool system.

Poor Bill must have been really uncomfortable after sitting in a spacesuit all the way to Moho and back.  But other than that a fine mission and definitely deserving of an Ultimate Challenge badge, at least.

 

 

Now for some questions:

On 3/27/2017 at 9:08 PM, F3ARSTUNTS said:

is it ok to use kw rocketry? also what if i did a jupiter 4 in real solar system? im working on a ship for both jool and jupiter, so yeah pls answer ^^ (edit: i'd be using KW rocketry for the launcher if that makes a difference)

Yes, KW rocketry is not on the prohibited list and it's fairly balanced so it's all good.  The Jupiter 4 is a really cool concept but very different than the Jool 5.  If you complete it, you can post it on this thread for recognition if you want, but it won't go on the same leaderboard.

 

22 hours ago, helcustom said:

Question on the banned mods is it just B9 parts and not B9 procedural wings or is it both?

Yes, just the B9 Aerospace Pack is banned.  The wings are fine.

 

And finally, sorry to hear about the setbacks, @McQuacker and @Jack Joseph Kerman, glad to hear you have plans to fix it and try again!

[-DDD-]

18 hours ago, sdj64 said:

Poor Bill must have been really uncomfortable after sitting in a spacesuit all the way to Moho and back.  But other than that a fine mission and definitely deserving of an Ultimate Challenge badge, at least.

Ooooops Just forgot this rule... I choose to submit my attempt after the end the mission, so the design didn't take account of this

[dozerman]

4 hours ago, -DDD- said:

Ooooops Just forgot this rule... I choose to submit my attempt after the end the mission, so the design didn't take account of this

What's the point in the "no external seats" rule, anyways? Seems a bit arbitrary to me. What am I missing here?

[McQuacker]

Well, there is certainly improvement. Jeb and Bob managed to land on Vall but realized they never actually performed a resource scan. They spent the next 20 years on the surface, waiting for the two mini-drills to refill the tank. After a very brief period of excitement, they are now stuck on Pol, with a fuel production rate roughly 1/3d of what they had on Vall. Pol doesn't offer the same opportunities for sand-castle-making and so they are starting to get a bit frustrated. Luckily they don't need much fuel top hop the rocket around the little moon looking for a better drill site, so they should be all right.

Looks like this mission will be completed before long, and I have about 80 screenshots already so there will be a detailed mission log!

Edited April 14, 2017 by McQuacker

[DerekL1963]

22 hours ago, dozerman said:

What's the point in the "no external seats" rule, anyways? Seems a bit arbitrary to me. What am I missing here?

Mass I suspect - on a per Kerbal basis, a command seat is extraordinarily light.  That (significantly) reduces the challenge of the challenge.

[McQuacker]

Once again, my mission has hit a bit of a bump along the road to success. The entire set-up is based around a reusable ISRU-equipped lander. Last time, I just landed at a random location and was forced to wait over 20 game years on every moon waiting for the tanks to be filled. I decided to try again, adding a pair of resource scanners to my orbital tank station to aid in picking a landing spot. However, when I got this thing in orbit (polar orbit... why must it be a frigging polar orbit?!) I found out that it lacked a proper antenna. Even with the CommNet turned off it won't work (my reasoning being that the built-in antenna of the Hex probe core is powerful enough to connect to the manned lander).

Is there an easy workaround for this? Or should I just add one of those massive antennae to the scanner probe and try again?

[McQuacker]

Still working on it, still failing in new and interesting ways. My newest mission design features a modular ship that so far seems to be fully reusable. Got everything assembled in LKO using the SSTO rocket (five launches) and flew the whole thing to Minmus to gather fuel for the transfer to Jool. Used my brand new antenna-equipped scanner probe to look for the sweetest spot of ore there and still spent six and a half years refueling. Got the whole thing back in Minmus orbit and realized that now I'll have to wait for a new Jool transfer window. Oh, and despite the fact that all parts have antenna's, they still don't link up through CommNet (though they all have a connection to KSC).

[McQuacker]

Now the ISRU unit has landed on Vall, in an area that (according to my broad-band scanner) has 60+ % ore. The fuel production rate is still minimal and it doesn't have enough electrical capacity to last through the night, meaning I have to restart the drills every morning. I'm starting to dislike this whole ISRU thing...

[Human Person]

1 hour ago, McQuacker said:

Now the ISRU unit has landed on Vall, in an area that (according to my broad-band scanner) has 60+ % ore. The fuel production rate is still minimal and it doesn't have enough electrical capacity to last through the night, meaning I have to restart the drills every morning. I'm starting to dislike this whole ISRU thing...

 

 

You should have a high-rank Engineer on board. Also, you should use fuel-cells. They are by far the most sensible source of energy for mining in the jool system.

Edited April 26, 2017 by Physics Student

[something]

The rules state that it isn't allowed to clip engines into each other. I plan to use a craft with several parallel Mk3 fuel tanks which are propelled by KR-2L+ Rhino engines. Thing is, the engines have a slightly larger diameter than the distance of the nodes of the Mk3 fuel tanks, thanks to the planar surfaces of the Mk3 tanks. That again causes minor engine clipping. Forbidden, or allowed?

[DerekL1963]

On 4/26/2017 at 11:05 AM, McQuacker said:

Now the ISRU unit has landed on Vall, in an area that (according to my broad-band scanner) has 60+ % ore. The fuel production rate is still minimal and it doesn't have enough electrical capacity to last through the night, meaning I have to restart the drills every morning. I'm starting to dislike this whole ISRU thing...

There's more to it than just ore%...  The number and size of drills and the size of converter you have installed matters too.  (And there can be 'holes' of low concentration even in high average concentration areas.)

Pics of your craft will help us troubleshoot.

[Planetace]

Is 10000 m/s of Delta V enough for the Jool 5 challenge?

[Planetace]

Is this fine?

[Wadusher0]

10 hours ago, Galacticvoyager said:

Is 10000 m/s of Delta V enough for the Jool 5 challenge?

-snip-

That much deltaV is massively overkill for something like this!  Especially if you've got mining gear. I have a craft with mining gear and less than half of that in orbit, which can barely get to Bop to refuel, and even that potentially has enough to do this mission. Also, is that 10 km/s on the runway or in orbit?

You may have problems getting off of Tylo. The nuclear engines give far too little to be useful in that regard. Also, how are you planning to get that into orbit? I don't see any jet engines, so you're not SSTOing that from Laythe any time soon unless you add loads of rapiers.

Have you tested that in a sandbox save? If you haven't unlocked the rapier - and considering the cupola cockpit I wouldn't be surprised if this is your career save - that's where you'll want to fly that behemoth.