An intersting contract (a Eve, Gilly, Duna and Mun landing trip)

[Warzouz]

Never been to Eve, I thought this one could be bold !

- Land on Eve

- Land on Gilly

- Land on Duna

- Land on Mun (last)

(click to enlarge)

I'm already working on my Eve lander/return vehicle. I'm testing it with Hyper in sandbox. Doing well, over-fueled, I'm sizing down...

Obviously I'll have to do some modular ship where I plug a return stage to a command pod.

I also have a network of refueling space stations everywhere (except some Jool's moons).

Edited September 4, 2015 by Warzouz

[InterCity]

SSTO could be good, but IMO a multipart vessel could be even better, as long as you don't mind stranding kerbals colonizing other worlds. Just grab multiple landers, launch with half fuel, refuel, then go. Much easier if you don't have to return.

[Warzouz]

SSTO (plane) on Eve ???

[CalculusWarrior]

The good news is that it's asking for Eve first. In that case, you should be able to construct a very large Eve lander, which the cockpit will detach from as the final stage, then dock that to a Gilly landing sort of vessel (i.e. mostly RCS jets, and few liquid fuel engines). Then, the ship can dock to an appropriate Duna SSTO (which is quite easy to make) and with the proper refueling, it should be able to land on the Mun as well! Trivial!

[Warzouz]

The good news is that it's asking for Eve first. In that case, you should be able to construct a very large Eve lander, which the cockpit will detach from as the final stage, then dock that to a Gilly landing sort of vessel (i.e. mostly RCS jets, and few liquid fuel engines). Then, the ship can dock to an appropriate Duna SSTO (which is quite easy to make) and with the proper refueling, it should be able to land on the Mun as well! Trivial!

There is no order, except for Mun (last). Your proposition is exactly what I'm planing. I've a generic lander

[Nich]

Ya but for 2 million kerdits seems like a tight budget to hit.

I would think multi stage Eve lander where last stage is capabale of SSTOing Duna. Then just refuel it as needed.

[Pecan]

I'd imagine an SSTO would be the easiest way to handle this, actually...

So do you have any advice for after getting To Orbit? There's Eve, Gilly, Duna and Mun to get to yet?

[jwenting]

Can't expand the image, but generally the order you visit the targets isn't a requirement.

[Warzouz]

Can't expand the image, but generally the order you visit the targets isn't a requirement.

Only the last one seems to be mandatory.

I already tested a low orbit lander/ascent vehicle. It (finally) works fine but it's overfueled and I have 2900m/s left into Eve orbit. I would better leave partial ship into orbit and return only with the "head" from Eve and plug it to my generic Duna Lander (which I could stip down from its science equipement). I'm not too bothered with this part of the trip. Duna Landing is easy with only chutes and my lander doesnt flip even it's not aerodynamic, have no fins and has a low gravity center...

I've quickly sized down the "Eve ascent", but this last ship isn't stable enough even with fins (not enough mass at the front). I use a simple 4 mainsail design.

Then I have to plug everything and add some transfert stage. Kerbin/Eve/Duna/Kerbin are easy windows.

[dom700]

Just switch between vessels, you don't have to do it with the same vessel

I involuntarily finished this kind of a mission earlier like this

[Warzouz]

I think it's about a control pod or probe core. I don't even have to send a Kerbal there, but I want to.

BTW, I remeber I had some kind of bug.

- I took a "journey" Land on Minus Mun, Duna and finish on Ike. I created a small ship boldly called "Voyager 1" and did it

- The ship and pilot was docked at the Duna orbital station, waiting to the correct window to return home with honors.

- The I got a new Journey mission : land on Gilly, Mun and something else (i don't remember too well).

- I sent Voyager 1 to the Eve station to refuel. As soon as I landed on Gilly, the whole contract validated itself.

So if you manage to get a ship on many bodies, you could validate contracts of that sort even without returning on those bodies. You just have to keep this ship in space.

[Nookos]

So if you manage to get a ship on many bodies, you could validate contracts of that sort even without returning on those bodies. You just have to keep this ship in space.

Indeed. But not really a bug. The contracts don t say you have to send a new ship to complete them. In my first career I had one probe core that did fly bys of all bodies and one that landed everywhere. I kept them alive and was able to complete every new grand tour in a heart beat and got filthy rich in a jiffy. Only had to move those from time to time when the contracts said to end up somewhere.

On topic, best of luck with your great journey. Pretty impressive to end up with nearly 3km/s left after Eve ascent. Must be some serious ship you got there. Is that starting from sea level on Eve? Care to show the ship?

[Warzouz]

On topic, best of luck with your great journey. Pretty impressive to end up with nearly 3km/s left after Eve ascent. Must be some serious ship you got there. Is that starting from sea level on Eve? Care to show the ship?

It's not really hard to pack some fuel.

Here is the design I had to return with 2900m/s at 140km. Landing a heavy ship is hard because of renetry heat. I managed to keep it under 98%. But sometimes the ship blows even if the heat of the hotest part is lower. I add more airbrakes. At one try, I landed this ship on a 21° slope... I didn't thought it would survive straight, but it did.

(click to enlarge)

The latest ship is not tested yet. If I do the same ascent, I should be in orbit with 600m/s left.

[Warzouz]

Ok,

- Landing = success

- First stage = success

- Second stage = success

- Third stage = flipping + not enough TWR (oh, I hate non SSTO rockets...)

- Forth stage = not tested

-> Test with basic fins added to third stage = explodes th whole rocket

-> Testing now regular fins...

I'm removing the Terrier (not enough TWR at 25km) to a Swivel + bit more fuel. I dropped the VAC dv to 7000m/s

- - - Updated - - -

Arf, the front fins make the first 2 stages unstable now. The rocket is hard to fly but manage to get to space. I'm 250m/s short for dV

My huge launcher did it with 6500m/s, and my optimizer ascent can't do it with 7000m/s ...

[Windspren]

Does the mission have to be kerbed? A couple cheap probes that detach from a transfer stage might work.

[Warzouz]

I already landed non-returning probes on Eve. I want a Kerbal landing there :

1- I took a plant flag mission too

2- It's cooler, isn't it ?

I was wondering how can a player lands on Eve without testing it with Hyperedit. I'm already around my 15th try. One ship succeeded but it's way overweighted. Scaling it down is harder than I thought... If I don't add fins on upper stage, it flips around 30km. If I add small ones, they blow (and the whole ship with it). If I add regular ones, the rocket is very unstable at take-off. I'll try to add more fine at the bottom. There are already, I could add more.

If I played the game without cheating, I would have ruined my career game (42 millions funds...) and depleat my stock of trained pilots (and ruined myself even faster). Even in sand box, sending ships there would take forever.

Creating your own ship without copying tutorial require using Hyperedit, or already having a working ship. Even though, It takes forever to land and take-off. Landing is secured now, even I don't time warp because I'm not too trustful about the heating stuff.

Experience return so far :

On Eve

- Secure drogue deploy = 400m/s (could be a bit higher)

- Secure chute deploy = 200m/s

Due to atmo pressure, drogues aren't usefull. You can go straight to regular chutes. Airbrakes are only useful to control temperature. Without them and ignoring heating effect, you woun't crash into the ground before deploying chutes. But you will probably explode in atmo around 40 to 50km. Heat shields do nearly nothing (they don't depleat ablator much, and don't prevent overheating and explosions). Tested on from 70 to 180 tons ships.

Lighter ships can even land wirthout chutes. I did it with a 3T lander (dry mass). I only blew the engine hitting ground at 30m/s.

On Duna

Regular chutes can be open arount 700m/s, so drogues and even airbrakes aren't useful as orbital speed is 850m/s iirc. Once chutes are open you'll slow fast enough. Tested with non streamlined 7T lander